Chapter II - A Beginner's Guide in Fucking Up
Two years had gone by in a flash.
Oh for many it wouldn't feel like it was long, but for me? Perhaps it was the fact that physically I was still a four year old, but that's half of my life span (in this life) thus far! It's honestly more a shock than anything just how far I and Rudy have come thus far in our youthful lives. Especially since we had gotten our hands on a book on Magic.
On that night two years ago, we started reading about magic, which in of itself was... grander than one might imagine.
Rudeus- the lout, wanted to jump right on into the jig of things and start blasting away with magic spells and all sorts of mischief right away. Which on one hand made me think he was just a dumb kid, and on another hand it's fucking magic, anyone would want to get started throwing fireballs and summoning torrents of water from their finger tips.
I however, believed caution was more important along the journey to becoming Dumbledore knockoffs.
So I made sure we were able to go further and further out, into one of the dyke's in the Eto's field. The Wheat field was tall enough to hide us from searching eyes, and the Eto's weren't known for being diligent in their fields- Mr. Eto was the heftiest guy in all of Buena Village. the likely hood of him searching the field was negligent.
So we learned magic together there for around an hour or two a day in the dyke near the water's edge. We started off small, at first going around trying to search and feel out our Mana.
Rudy was better at it than me, it took him no time at all to figure out how to find his Core, about a week or so ahead of me on that subject.
Magic in this world was funky, but logical I guess. According to the book you had Mana throughout your body- Mana being the 'fuel' to spells and other forms of Magic. However the bulk of it come's from your core. More aptly, a special organ known as the 'Pyrinas' gland, which sat above the peritoneum and just below the heart.
Often times in most people it's size was negligible, so small it's hard to find in an autopsy. However in mages... it's different. The largest known Pyrinas gland to magical knowledge belonged to the Archmage and first Principle of Ranoa; Frau Claudia. According to the book her Pyrinas gland was about the size of a plum, which ultimately lead to her death in old age, as it applied pressure on her lungs and heart, leading to several heart attacks over her lifetime that ultimately killed her.
to be honest... damn, who'd think getting strong would kill you in such a mundane way?
Anyways, learning that kind've put me off of going full scale Dumbledore, because let's be honest, who wants to be Dumbledore when it means heart attacks 24/7? But there are other things I can learn.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
*Swish~*
There were many things that could be said about Paul Greyrat.
Perverted.
Arrogant.
Asshat.
But nobody, and I do mean nobody can claim he is weak.
Watching him from the window, I watched my father swing his sword towards a jerry-rigged training dummy. It was made of a bundle of straw, a stick planted in the ground, and a bucket, with a smile-y face I had drawn on it.
Although to call the training dummy a 'dummy' was rude, I and Rudeus had agreed already upon the name of Pubert, and wouldn't stand for any insults to Pubert.
Currently, Pubert was being cut in half by Paul, who slashed towards Pubert from below in a perfect arc slash. The slash was from what I believe was the Sword God Style of swordsmanship, one of three sword styles my father constituently bragged about his proficiency in. He always bragged about how he was going to turn I and Rudeus into the strongest swordsmen in all of Fittoa, if not all of Asura.
Honestly, if it were anyone else I would believe them to be bragging, but knowing Paul? It was definitely a possibility, or rather a mix of bragging and possibility.
Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to become a mage, but overall the Pyrinas gland was a major downside of that path. The larger it becomes, the harder more intensive stamina inducive work becomes. It's why most people focused on either or. Either you chose to become a mage and sit in the back of the party, or take a more conservative route and use Battle Aura.
I personally want to explore the path of Battle Aura, as I already had a fairly decent base to start with. At a young age I've long since started exercising. Nothing major of course, no weight lifting or hundred yard sprints. But I've put the stairs to good use, and collect firewood and carry it back to the house. I think I might be ready to start learning, at least partially.
so within the confines of the house, I started to imitate my father's swings, swinging somewhat wildly in imitation of his perfected and trained swings. The only problem? my swings were off. His swing, practiced and poised as it was didn't fail to glide effortlessly through the air. Meanwhile my swing's were slightly wobbly, and I tended to put just the slightest extra pressure into my swing, occasionally almost tripping myself.
Taking a look back outside to my father Paul, I watched him strike Pubert's decapitated corpse and easily. He was flowing effortlessly between swings, with practiced arcs that screamed power as they sailed through the air. But there was definitely more. There in his swings, it was apparent to me above all else, almost as if a shimmer.
Mana?
Could that be the secret to Battle Aura?
Turning back to my own work I steadied the wooden sword Infront of me, closing my eyes as I imagined as if I were Paul himself. The way he moved his sword, the way it glided silently through the air, all the way to how his muscles tensed.
and then I swung the sword.
Instantly I knew I had fucked up, after feeling the slight buzz from using mana, as the wooden sword almost extended itself as I swung, cutting through the wooden back of one of the chairs in our kitchen, cleanly.
I stood there for a moment, marveling at how effortless it was, slightly shocked. Mostly at how easy it was to do something which felt akin to second nature for me. And really, I can understand why Battle Aura itself was so effective and widespread, and Magic itself was under utilized.
Battle Aura was cost effective. When I and Rudeus practiced magic, it took alot out of us to actually cast a elementary rank spell, more so with me than for Rudeus. However with Battle Aura? All I felt was a slight buzz from my chest when I used it.
But of course, i had one little problem. the chair was ruined, and it was fairly obvious as to why it was so. You wouldn't sit on a chair that's back was practically sharpened to stab you, now would you?
Don't get me wrong, I was most certainly happy at the fact I had managed to use Battle Aura- all at the ripe old age of four no less, but uh...
I think...
I'll blame Paul.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
After discovering that I had gotten my hands on experience in doing something monumentally stupid (and smart?) I headed back up to my and Rudeus' upstairs play room. Upstairs mostly because our parents often spent most of the day downstairs working away, Paul outside chopping wood and patrolling the town, and Zenith washing clothes, tending to her small garden (and trees... she really likes trees.)
Mostly it was our reading spot, where we'd practice the written language of this world, and occasionally do more advanced stuff, like mathematics (something Rudeus somehow sucked at, despite being more magically inclined.)
"Ay Rudy! Guess what I just did!~" I said as I opened the door, I knew that there was something to gain in bragging. I knew Rudeus would be jealous, nor would he snitch on me.
But Rudeus was focused on something else... something... dangerous. "Sweep away all things with your hidden inner might: Splash Flow." He said, reading from the book.
It took me less than a moment to realize that he had fucking done the dumbest thing imaginable, as water began to be practically pulled from the air into a large ball of water- hovering in front of him as if preparing to unleash itself... before it did.
Instantly it shot forward. Water, plaster and wood and thatch flying everywhere, dousing me in heated water, which soon turned to vapor in the air, leaving me soaked and slack jawed.
"R-Rudy... what the absolute f-"
"What happened?!" The sound of footsteps behind pelted my ears, as Paul's shirtless figure barreled into the room, shock and awe written on his face as I eyed at him as he walked past me.
"H-hey!? What happened... What's... going on?!" He said, shocked at the destruction before him. Rudeus had monumentally fucked up, as there was now a massive hole in the house, and our playroom. What a fucking cunt Rudeus was, ruining this room... I'll have to beat his ass again, if Paul doesn't do it first.
"Rudy?! Art?!" And there it was, mom came peltering in fast as she could in those medieval heels of hers, wet as I was, she side stepped me, over to perfectly fine Rudeus "Are you hurt Rudy?" to which Rudeus shook his head no. Yeah, fuck you too mom, Ignore me because I got an early bath huh?
"Was it a monster...?" Paul questioned, looking out from the big hole in the wall, before shaking his head. "No, surely not. There aren't any monster's around here..." he said, looking back at Mom and Rudy. I simply glanced at our maid Lilia, who sat back quietly.
As I turned back I saw we were understandably fucked, as mom picked up the book we had been messing with for the past two years. However instead of a bit of anger or disappointment in hiding the fact we had been messing with stuff we for all intents should not have been messing with, Zenith's face lit up like a Christmas tree the way she smiled dangerously.
"Rudy... Did you read this book out loud?" She questioned, smiling widely. Unfortunately, Rudy was very hesitant to answer, so I guess I'll have to come to the rescue? "I'm sorry mom." I said stepping forward, figuring it's best to start off apologizing at the least. "Rudeus and I got ahold of that magic book and were playing with it." I told half of the truth, it was easier to lie to them this way if anything. "We didn't mean to do anything bad, I promise!"
Instead of a bit of anger, or scolding, Zenith let out a high pitched "Kyaaa~" dancing a little as she stood there. "Did you hear that dear?~ I knew our boy was a genius!" she said, all excited like. "But wait, this is Intermediate Ma-" Paul tried to say, but Zenith pulled him up. "Let's hire a magic tutor right now!"
"But wait, we haven't taught them to re-" Paul tried to say, before getting caught in his talking by moms celebrating.
"I'm sure my babies will be amazing mages!" she said, as Paul deadpanned, a little angry.
"But wait- We promised that if we had boys they would be swordsmen, and if we had girls they would be mages." Paul said, a little angered. He had bragged about how he was gonna teach us the sword after all.
"But he can do Intermediate Magic! And Arthur said he's been doing it too! At that age, they could go far in the field of magic!"
And on they went arguing, before as always, the two made up... and got horny. Yeah, you guessed it, I didn't get much sleep that night. All because Rudeus fucked everything up...