After the massive energy collision tore through space, Victor was unexpectedly sucked into a time-space tunnel following his battle with Acnologia.
Inside the tunnel, the unconscious Victor's body was constantly shrinking, being buffeted by the torrent of temporal energy. It was then that a large truck suddenly drove out from the depths of the tunnel. The person inside saw Victor, who had nearly regressed into an infant, and angrily shouted:
"Which numbskull was so careless?! Even if you're in a hurry to make a quota, you can't just leave a person stranded in a time-space tunnel!"
"Fine, we're all colleagues at the agency. I'll give him a hand!"
With that, the person casually opened a gap in the tunnel and tossed Victor through.
————
In the year 1980, London, UK.
As a bolt of lightning tore through the air, an infant, completely naked, descended from the sky and gently landed on a park bench.
Soon, a few figures slowly walked over...
A little girl with light golden hair suddenly cried out, "Hey, Rick! Come look! There's a baby here."
The girl looked to be about six or seven years old, wearing a white dress and white boots, with a hairpin that sparkled under the light of the evening streetlamps.
Hearing the girl's cry, a woman hurried over, pulling a little boy along. She looked at Victor on the bench, immediately took off her coat to wrap him up, and said with a touch of anger, "My God, who could be so cruel as to leave a child so small out here?!"
Meanwhile, Victor heard some murmurs in the darkness. He slowly regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
"Oh, Mum, look! He's awake!" the little girl exclaimed excitedly.
Victor, however, was utterly bewildered, with several question marks floating in his mind.
English? Was he back on Earth?
No, why were these people so big? Was he in the land of giants?
And why couldn't he seem to move?
All these questions swirled in the "young" Victor's mind.
————
August 1, 1991, 67 Colton Street, London, UK, in front of a white two-story villa.
A plump woman, wearing a pink apron and holding a spatula, stormed out of the house, looked up, and put her hands on her hips.
"Victor Dreyar, you've climbed up there again! Get down from that blasted tree right now!!!"
"I know!" Victor shouted back from the top of the six-meter-tall tree. One hand was still tucked inside his clothes, as if he were hiding something.
Victor twisted his waist and bent his knees slightly, leaning his entire body forward.
"Don't jump! Climb down slowly..." The woman knew exactly what Victor was about to do. This mischievous boy had done countless dangerous things like this before.
But it was clear that Victor was not a very obedient person.
I'm jumping! (•̀ω•́)✧
Victor leaped, gracefully using a slender branch to slow his descent to the ground.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! I swear to God, if I could go back in time, I would have left you in that park to fend for yourself." Julie Swinton said, patting her chest in horror as she saw Victor leap from the tree.
"I've heard that a lot, but a beautiful and kind Auntie Julie would never leave a child alone in a park, would she?" Victor said with a wide, cheeky smile, showing off his white teeth. "Besides, you don't have to worry, I'm very nimble." He even flexed his bicep.
"That's no reason to climb up and jump down. You could break a leg, or worse, get yourself killed!" Mrs. Julie said, tugging on his ear.
"...You love me, but not that much, do you?" Victor said, speechless. "Besides, I climbed up there to save this adorable little guy."
He then pulled a small white kitten from his clothes. It had glistening blue eyes and was absolutely precious.
"See? Isn't it cute?" Victor held the kitten up to Julie.
"Meow~" The tiny kitten's voice was heart-melting.
"Oh, you poor little thing..." Julie took the kitten from Victor and cradled it in her arms. "I'll take care of this one. Your task now is to go inside and eat immediately."
"Got it!" Victor replied, running quickly into the house.
By now, Victor had been in this new world for 11 years.
Because his body had suddenly reverted to that of a baby, his senses were a bit overwhelmed. So he used magic to seal his consciousness, and the seal was only broken when he turned ten due to a lack of magic power. So, to Victor, it felt like he had only been here for one year.
After the seal was broken, Victor gained a decade's worth of unfamiliar memories. In this new world, an English family named Swinton had taken the "young" him in. The little girl who found him was the Swintons' eldest daughter, Aliya, and she had a strong but simple-minded twin brother named Rick.
With his memories restored, Victor quickly assimilated those ten years of a stranger's life and then checked the magic power within his body.
Even though his body had become that of a child, his Origin magic was still active. Its passive ability to absorb magic and grow had never stopped. That's right, magic existed in this new world. And compared to the magic of the world of Earth Land, it was purer and gentler.
Why?
In Earth Land, the magical components in the air were very complex and contained many different elemental types. If a wizard were to use this magic directly, the different magical elements would collide and react violently, which would easily lead to a loss of control.
For example, if Natsu were to use his roar directly with this kind of magic, it would likely explode in his mouth before he could even cast it.
So, a long time ago, in order to use magic more safely, the wizards of Earth Land worked hard to invent the magic circle. By using their own magic to draw a magic circle, they could absorb and filter the complex magical elements in the air, stabilizing them to achieve the desired casting effect. This way, a wizard only needed to use a small amount of their own magic to create the circle, which would then absorb and utilize the magic in the air to cast a spell safely.
In this new world, the magic was very pure. The air was filled with pure magic, with no complex elements like fire, earth, or lightning mixed in. This meant that Victor could cast spells safely without a magic circle, but the cost in terms of his own magic would be significantly higher.
Although the spell effect was the same, using a magic circle would be faster and would consume less magic. This is because direct casting uses a wizard's own magic, while a magic circle uses the magic in the air. Victor would only need a small amount of magic to draw the circle and cast the spell.
It's like wanting to convert a physical document into a digital one on a computer. One way is to type it out by hand—it's time-consuming, laborious, and you're bound to make typos. The other way is to scan it directly—it's fast, convenient, and the result is better. While both methods can get the document onto the computer, the process is completely different.