Damian awoke to the smell of frying meat, and followed his nose after throwing his warm cloak around his shoulders. The morning was chilly, and his dressy shirt and slacks didn’t quite cut it. Soon he found the guardsmen gathered around another fire, grease snapping and popping from a large skillet over the fire. 

Davis noticed his approach and walked over to him. Another bowl was shoved into his hands filled with hot meat and vegetables, which he accepted gratefully.

“They need help moving grain. Some coins for your help.”

An unexpected job offer came from him. Damian immediately decided to accept, he needed money desperately after all. Still, it was never good to accept the first offer right away.

“How many coins?” Damian asked.

Davis scowled at him, trying to be intimidating, but Damian just smiled politely back at him. Had he been trying to cheat him? Actually, knowing Davis, he probably just didn’t want to talk any more than necessary.

“Three small.” Davis finally grunted out.

Damian paused. He really had no frame of reference for whether it was a good offer or not. Eventually he decided to just take it. The man already seemed to be in a bad mood, and Damian didn’t want to offend him by asking for more.

“Alright. Where should I go?”

Davis wordlessly pointed to a large hut where some men were already hauling bags over to the carts, and Damian felt a little silly for not noticing it earlier. He quickly shoveled his breakfast into his mouth and ran over to help.

He found that the large hut was a granary of sorts, filled with sacks of a yellowish rice-like cereal. He quickly got to work, and between him and the other men they finished in no time. Damian, who had worked up a bit of a sweat, met again with Davis who wordlessly handed him three small bronze coins. They were stamped on both sides with letters Damian couldn’t recognize, and were tarnished and misshapen.

It was only a small amount, but it was the first money he had earned in this world! Damian was a bit happy at that, and he felt like his situation was starting to improve.

Damian looked up and found Davis looking at him appraisingly.

“Can you fight?” he asked him suddenly.

“I’ve never learned the sword or spear, but I know some martial arts.” Damian answered truthfully. For a few years he had taken lessons on the martial art muay thai, a form of kickboxing from Thailand. He had enjoyed it, and continued practicing throughout the years as a form of exercise.

“Show me.” Davis told him simply, and got into a loose stance.

Damian looked around. Were they going to spar here? The villagers seemed to be minding their own business, but he saw Ken and another man shake hands while watching them. He guessed it was a test to see if he could hold his own if they got in a fight on the way back, so decided to give it his all.

Resolute, Damian faced his opponent in a stance.

Suddenly, he shot forward, and threw some rapid jabs towards Davis, who dodged back skillfully. Taking advantage of an opening in between punches, Davis charged forward in a tackle.

Somehow, Damian managed to stay on his feet and stop the taller man’s momentum. Quickly taking advantage of the pause, he wrapped an arm around Davis’ neck and launched a knee into his abdomen.

The man grunted in pain, and Damian felt his body tense under his arms. Before he could send another knee strike, he felt the man’s arms wrap around him in a crushing grip.

And suddenly, he was flying. The world was upside down, and for a moment, he clearly saw Davis in a pose as if he had thrown him.

‘What…?’

Damian barely had time to think before he crashed into the ground on his back, driving the air out of his lungs.

He sat there for a few seconds, trying to get his breath back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a smirking Ken receiving a handful of coins from the scowling guardsman next to him. 

Damian was terribly confused. Davis didn’t seem like a weak guy, but he was wiry. He shouldn’t have had enough strength to toss him like that.

A shadow came over him, which soon resolved itself into Davis’ face wearing a savage grin.

“Good instinct. You got some potential for qi.” He said happily.

Davis offered a hand, which Damian grasped, and was yanked onto his feet.

“Qi?” Damian asked tentatively. “Is that how you sent me flying?”

Davis nodded his affirmative, and Damian was shocked. He had heard of qi, chi or ki before on Earth. He remembered it was supposed to be some kind of inner energy in Chinese superstition, but he figured he would have noticed if martial artists could launch people eight feet in the air with it!

“How does it work?” Damian asked eagerly. Magic was magic, but this was cool too!

Davis scratched his beard thoughtfully.

“Hmm. Look inside. Put energy in muscles, and it makes you strong.”

Damian looked at him flatly. That was it?! Even his half blind elderly high school history teacher had given better lessons than that. He could only think that this guy wasn’t suited to be a teacher at all.

In an attempt to get some actually useful information out of him, Damian asked, “Look inside? Are you talking about meditation?”

Davis said nothing, but gave him a solid thumbs up. Then, he promptly turned and started walking away, calling over his shoulder, “Leaving soon. Take Ken’s spear.”

Damian stared at him forlornly as he walked away. A hand on his shoulder knocked him out of it, and he looked over to see Ken, who seemed to be struggling not to laugh.

“Don’t worry about him. Half the guys in the company have tried to get him to teach qi, but nobody’s figured it out yet. Honestly that was probably one of the better explanations I’ve heard him give.”

Damian sighed heavily.

“Thanks. I’ll try to figure it out on my own later. I think he mentioned something about your spear?”

“‘Take Ken’s spear’, was it? In normal person speak, that probably means something like, ‘Ken will let you borrow his beloved spear for the way back, so make sure not to break it or bad things will happen’, or something like that.”

Ken handed him the spear he had been carrying, though his smile looked sort of threatening as he did.

It was shorter than he had thought at first, with its height being just under his own. A red-brown coloured shaft ended in a wickedly sharp steel leaf shaped tip. It was unadorned, but had a simple elegance that Damian found appealing.

“Right, thanks. I’ll be careful with it.”

“You ever used one before? Well, doesn’t matter. Just remember that the sharp end goes towards the enemy, and you’ll probably be fine.”

Damian looked at him dubiously, but gave a cautious nod.

“You don’t have a horse,” Ken continued, “So you can take your pick of the tax carts to ride in. If we get in a fight, just stay back and defend Sir Remond and the merchants.”

“Do you think we’ll see any action?”

Ken shrugged. “You never know what you’ll find out here in the sticks. Bandits are a possibility, but the real danger is magic beasts.”

“What are those?”

Ken stared at him. “What the hell kinda place did you come from to not have magic beasts? Ehhh, well, just think of them as beefed up animals that really want to kill you. ‘Round here we’ve got mostly bears, wolves, gobs, and mites. If we see a mite, though, we’re just gonna leave the taxes and run. Let us know right away if you see something that looks like a big ass beetle; those things are no joke. They say if you see one mite, there’s twenty more behind it that you don’t.”

Magic and monsters. Damian wondered just how fantasy-like this place could get. Would he meet an elf next?

“Oh right, and there’s these too.” Ken reached into a leather bag he had on his waist and pulled out a waterskin and a small bundle of dried meat wrapped in a large leaf.

“For the road. Looks like the merchants are just about finished packing up, so we had better get ready to leave.”

With that, he gave him one more reassuring clap on the shoulder and walked away. Damian noticed the merchants were rolling up their mats to leave, and rushed to grab his bedroll and find a cart to stay on.

He ended up choosing one near the front, and as he got closer he realized they were a bit peculiar. For one, the horse that was pulling the cart wasn’t so much of a horse after all. It was certainly similar, but it had a much flatter face, and its back legs were extremely muscled, to the point of being almost as wide as its torso. There was also nobody to drive the carts. Instead, each ‘horse’ was connected to the cart in front of it by a lead. At the very front, Sir Remond’s carriage led the way, driven by a short man with a forgettable face, alongside half of the company of guards, with the other half guarding the back.

Damian made himself comfortable among the sacks of grain, laying Ken’s spear next to him, and settled in for the trip. Not long after, a whistle was blown, and the convoy started moving. Soon the view changed from village to fields to forest, as they traced their steps back away from Pond. 

Damian thought he would miss the village a little; it was a relaxing place with friendly, happy people. Still, Damian was an ambitious man. He wouldn’t be satisfied staying in such a tiny village.

As time went by, Damian found himself facing his first enemy: boredom. He was already missing the easy access to entertainment that modern society provided. Here, he could only nibble on jerky and watch the trees go by.

Thinking back to his interaction with Davis earlier, Damian decided to try and see if he could figure out the mysterious qi power. Davis had mentioned he was to meditate, then focus some kind of energy into his muscles that would increase their strength. Fortunately, meditation had been part of his lessons on muay thai, and he had stuck with it, finding it gave him some mental clarity that helped with his studies.

Damian started to focus on his breathing, evening it out and making long and slow movements. Once he was in a more relaxed mindset, he tried to find the energy Davis had mentioned by focusing on the inside of his body.

Surprisingly, he found it quickly.

It was as if he had forgotten to take off his sunglasses indoors, then suddenly became aware of it once somebody pointed it out. It was obvious once he started to look for it. The feeling was like a sort of pressure suffused throughout his body, and as he looked closer, he found it seemed to move following his blood. As his heart beat, the energy cycled through him.

Damian was at a bit of a loss as to how to control the energy. Davis hadn’t said anything other than “put energy in muscles”. Was it just a matter of willpower?

He started with the idea of the energy following his blood. He focused on the image of the energy flowing along with his blood cells through his veins and delivering oxygen and nutrients, and concentrated his willpower on the energy in his hands. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. He kept at it, however, and slowly the energy responded. Accompanied by a tingling feeling in his hands, he watched as the energy seemed to disappear and be absorbed by his muscles. As an experiment, he kept the mental image going and cautiously gripped the side of the cart.

Shockingly, the wood splintered easily! Damian was even a bit scared at how easily he had done it. Such a feat was something that most bodybuilders of Earth couldn’t do easily, yet he felt like he had barely put any strength in.

Still, it couldn’t stop the resounding feeling of satisfaction and success. He had really done it! Although it might not be the magic he was hoping for, it was still a supernatural power that didn’t exist back on Earth.

There was just one problem.

Why was it so easy?

Ken had told him that at least half of the company had tried to learn qi with no progress. While that could be chalked up to Davis’ abysmal teaching ability, Damian couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more to it. Was it easy to notice because he came from Earth, where there was no such energy?

Damian wasn’t so sure. He had noticed a few things that bothered him during his short time here, the first being the feeling of disorientation he had during his arrival. He clearly remembered feeling as if something had changed in him, as if his body had to be rebuilt to fit in this other universe. It was a deeply disturbing thought, the idea that something had been messing around in his head, but what if it had brought some benefits? The ability to use qi seemed to be quite a rare skill, what if there were changes to Damian’s brain chemistry that allowed him to learn it easily?

If the only factor was that feeling of disorientation, then Damian might have just dismissed those ideas as superstition. However, there were two other things he had noticed that didn’t seem to make sense. For one, his memory had clearly improved drastically. The lessons from his parents that he had made use of regarding kidnapping and etiquette had happened during his early childhood. Normally there was no way he should have been able to remember them so clearly.

As a test, Damian tried to recall the names of the teachers he had had throughout the years, and found he was able to remember them easily. Did he suddenly have an eidetic memory now? 

He had a somewhat bittersweet feeling regarding that idea. If he’d had that ability earlier, the countless hours he had spent studying and memorizing wouldn’t have been so painful. On the other hand, those difficult times had given him a wealth of knowledge that he now had full access to, which would certainly help him in the future.

The final thing he had noticed was something he had been avoiding thinking about for some time now, as it freaked him out somewhat. Every person he had met so far had understood him perfectly, and he them. The thing was…

None of them were speaking english.

He had first noticed it while talking to Sir Remond. The movement of his lips didn’t match what Damian was hearing from him. He had some slight skill in reading lips, and was able to notice quickly. At one point, he had tried to figure out what he was actually saying, and found that rather than, “you’re from a noble house, aren’t you?”, the words actually spoken were something like, “yeosu mon, siki yu ni?”.

The thing was, Damian couldn’t figure out how the hell something like that was possible. Sure, modern technology could translate between languages almost instantaneously, but information on both languages had to be given to the translator. For Damian, who had no knowledge of the kingdom’s language whatsoever, how could he possibly understand it? It didn’t seem to coincide with the changes to his body, either. He had no clue what the word ‘yeosu’ could mean, so that ruled out the idea that the knowledge had somehow been planted into his brain.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Damian rubbed his eyes tiredly. Thinking about things that made no sense was giving him a headache. He gave a mental shrug and decided to just leave it to later. It didn’t seem to affect him negatively, so he figured he would wait to make any theories until he had more information.

Instead, he would much rather study qi!

In a land without readily available entertainment, he had to make his own fun. Besides, while Damian was surprised at how easily he was able to take the first step in controlling his qi, he was well aware that it took way too much concentration for him to use it in combat. To fix that, he needed to practice and experiment. There was no better time than a long ride in a horse cart to do that.

Damian quickly got to work practicing manipulating his qi. Without guidance, he was forced to experiment. He attempted things like concentrating energy in different parts of his body, and in different organs, as well as moving it in patterns, and simply training his ability to direct it. When he was too mentally exhausted from controlling the energy directly, he sat and meditated and watched it flow naturally.

For over six hours, he practiced diligently, taking breaks only to nibble on some jerky or drink some water. For someone of his current world, it was practically unimaginable to be able to focus so hard for so long. Even on Earth, the vast majority of people would struggle to study hard for six hours straight.

But that was how Damian had always been. He may have been a talentless person, but he had developed an extremely hard working and competitive personality to counteract that. Damian was someone who always strived to be the best, not just to meet the expectations of his family and peers, but also for his own personal satisfaction. To simply quit and decide that he couldn’t do something was unacceptable for him, so he forced himself to work and focus twice as hard as everyone else. Eventually, it became a habit, and he was able to devote himself to tasks naturally.

At the end of his training session, Damian had learned several things about the mysterious force of qi, as well as improved his ability to manipulate it considerably. He still wasn’t quite at the level where he could easily use it while fighting, but he considered it to only be a matter of time.

Using his basic knowledge of human anatomy, Damian had directed his qi to various parts of his body that he thought it might affect. The first thing he tried was a portion of his skin, and found that it made his skin considerably harder, but also stiff like leather. Damian decided to only affect his skin in emergencies, as the skin was a considerably important organ, and he didn’t know if there were any long term effects to having it changed so much.

Next he attempted to focus energy on his lungs. He didn’t seem to feel too different, but he was definitely able to inhale and exhale more powerfully, and even gave himself a nosebleed from breathing too hard. Damian assumed the infusion of qi might help his ability to absorb oxygen from the air, but figured it would be hard to test unless he ran a marathon or something.

For the most part afterwards, he mostly focused on enhancing his muscles and moving qi around his body. He didn’t want to attempt any experiments on his other organs before consulting Davis, in case he blew up an eyeball or something by mistake. As he used up the qi inside him, he found it would slowly replenish naturally over the course of a few hours.

Throughout his training, he couldn’t stop a giddy feeling from welling up in his chest. The idea that he could now use supernatural powers brought him immense joy, and each small bit of improvement he made to his skill only increased his motivation to do better, and learn more.

All good things must come to an end, however, and the sun dipped slowly into the horizon, prompting the caravan to stop for the night on the side of the road. Damian stepped off the cart feeling refreshed, as if he had just finished a workout. Though, his butt was sore from the bumpy road.

With a light heart, he met with the other guards to prepare supper. Roy lit a new fire - to which Damian watched with no less awe than the first time - and several men got to work. Damian was conscripted to peel a potato-like vegetable while others chopped and peeled with him. He was disappointed to find there would be no meat tonight. They had used the last of their stock in the previous stew, so it would be vegetables and bread only.

A large pot was brought out, and Roy demonstrated a new magic.

“Gather water”

Slowly, a blob of water grew in mid-air above the cooking pot, in front of Roy’s outstretched hand. As it became bigger, Damian felt that the surrounding air was a bit strange. It was becoming… Dryer?

It only took him a moment to realize that Roy wasn’t conjuring water out of nothing like he had first thought, but was actually pulling the moisture in the surrounding air into a single point.

That, Damian decided, was significant. It meant that the magic of this world didn’t create things out of nothing, or work based off of esoteric rules, but was actually based on some of the scientific principles he had learned on Earth. 

In that case, wouldn’t his modern knowledge be extraordinarily valuable? The more Damian thought about it, the more concerned he became. In a political sense, wasn’t he something like a nuke? Actually, couldn’t he create a literal nuke with magic?

A bead of cold sweat ran down his neck. Damian desperately wanted to learn magic. Something about it called to him like nothing else he had done before. However, if he wasn’t careful in showing his knowledge, he could become the enemy of every nation out of fear of him spreading dangerous knowledge.

That was something Damian wanted to avoid at all costs. After all, there was one idea that had been ingrained in him from modern society. No matter what, one man can do nothing in the face of thousands. While this world seemed to allow individuals to hold incredible power, but even if he was able to defeat a thousand enemies at once, it was no use if that individual was hated by everyone. Humans are social creatures, it would be impossible for someone to remain sane if they are completely ostracised.

As the vegetable stew boiled away, Damian considered these ideas. In the end, he decided he had three options. First, he could live a quiet life, either avoiding magic completely, or being extremely careful with how much he used and showed people. He nearly dismissed this one entirely. Living at the bottom like that was something he could fundamentally not accept.

Second, he could work together with a nation. It would involve gaining the trust of the highest levels of government, and doing favours for them in return for their protection. Damian didn’t like to admit it, but he had a bit of a problem with authority and following the orders of others, and for that reason this option didn’t appeal to him.

The third option… Would be to build his own nation. Certainly, it would be the most difficult choice by far, and would pitt him against numerous people that wouldn’t want to see that happen. Damian wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge, though, and if he treated the people in his country fairly, there shouldn’t be any reason for him to be despised, right?

The fourth hidden option would be to just do whatever the hell he wanted, until enough damage racked up that countries would just leave him alone, but he knew that that was a fast track to being despised and feared by the world.

Public image was important.

Damian was a normal person, after all. He wanted to be liked by the people around him, and was anxious at the thought that he might be hated.

Still, all of this was far in the future. Damian had yet to learn magic, although he had some suspicions about the nature of ki.

While Damian had been having deep thoughts about the future of the world, the men of the caravan chatted amicably with each other. Even Sir Remond let his formal language drop somewhat and had a pleasant conversation with those around him.

It was an atmosphere completely at odds with how Damian had been thinking, and it managed to snap him out of his worries. At that moment, he was safe, and among friendly people, with magic to look forward too. Having a long term goal was good, but Damian decided it would be best to take things one step at a time for now.

A bowl of stew and bread was handed to him, and Damian munched on it happily. It wasn’t as bad as he had expected. The merchants had provided some salt for the dish, so it wasn’t too bland.

After his meal, Ken showed him how to maintain the spear he had lent him, applying oil on the surface of the metal, and giving him a rag to wrap around it while he slept or otherwise wasn’t using it.

Afterwards, everyone began to clean up and get ready to sleep. Since he was now part of the company, Damian was assigned to take the first watch along with Roy. His eyes gleamed hearing that. A chance to get Roy to teach him!

First, though, he wanted to figure out the next step for his ki. He approached Davis, who was getting ready to sleep, and asked him about it.

“Davis, I managed to figure out how to use qi on my muscles. I was wondering if there was any other way to use it.”

Davis stared at him for a few seconds.

“... Lying is bad.” he said finally.

“I’m not lying!” Damian shot back, a bit offended.

Davis looked at him suspiciously.

“Show me.” He demanded.

Damian looked around for a target and found a short spindly tree nearby. With a few seconds to concentrate his qi into his hand, he gripped the trunk of the tree strongly, and with a crunching sound, it was crushed under his grip. Slowly, the tree tipped over, and hit the ground softly.

Damian turned to Davis expectantly, and found him looking at him with shining eyes. A hand clapped onto Damian’s shoulder.

“Prodigy.” Davis said proudly.

“Ah… Well, thanks.” Damian responded awkwardly.

Davis put on a thoughtful expression, and turned to look at the other men in the camp.

“Hmm. Can you teach?” he asked Damian.

“The other guys? Well, maybe. I can’t promise anything. You can’t do it yourself?”

“I’m no good.”

So he was aware of it himself!

“I can’t do it for free, though. How about a certain amount for every person that manages to learn the basics, and only for the duration of the trip back?”

Davis nodded. “Basics is fine. Two big per head.”

“Sorry, how many small coins is that?”

“Ten small for a big.”

So twenty small coins for each person he managed to teach in the next few days. Even if he only succeeded once, he would earn almost seven times as much as he did when he helped move the grain!

“Sounds good to me, but when should I teach them?”

During the day, the guardsmen would be split up between the front and back of the caravan, and it would be impossible for them to concentrate on meditating while being aware of their surroundings.

“Some time in the morning and some time at night.”

So he was planning on having the caravan leave a little later and stop a little earlier then. Damian wondered if Sir Remond would be alright with that, but decided to let Davis handle it.

“Okay. Ah, I wanted to ask if there’s any other ways to use qi, like making your vision or hearing better.”

“Hmm.” Davis thought for a moment. “Masters can. In the city.”

So it was an advanced technique, and he’d be able to find somebody capable of it in a larger city. That was good news, it meant Damian might be able to figure it out himself given enough time. The only concern he had was whether or not he could hurt himself experimenting with qi. 

When he asked Davis, he responded that he had heard of people injuring themselves by moving too fast, or jumping too high and falling, but nothing like pieces falling off or anything.

In that case, it was probably just a matter of balancing the energy between your muscles, and avoiding making movements that your body couldn’t handle.

With his questions answered, Damian left to meet with Roy. Davis sent him off with a thumbs up and a “good luck.”

Once everyone was settled in, Roy put out the last of the fire. Supposedly, the light from the fire would interfere with their night vision. Roy directed him to sit beside him and face the opposite direction he was, so they could cover all angles. Damian wrapped himself up tightly in his cloak, and settled into a comfortable position.

After waiting for a few minutes for everyone to go to sleep, he made his move.

“So Roy, I heard you’re a pretty great combat mage.”

Roy snorted at him.

“Save your flattery for the village girls. What do you want?”

There were some people that didn’t respond well to compliments after all. Maybe it would be better to take a direct approach?

“Do you think you could teach me some magic?”

“Hmph. I don’t mind giving you an introduction, but what are you going to give me for my time? I heard you were broke.”

Damian paused. He had the few coins from earlier, but doubted they would be enough. He would be getting some more for his work later, but he wanted to learn magic tonight, damnit!

He sighed. There was one thing he could give him.

Damian dug into the pocket of his slacks and handed Roy an item. The mage looked at the thing in his hands. To him, it was a strange black rectangle made of some odd material.

“What is this?” He asked.

It was Damian’s cellphone. To him, a completely useless item, since there was no connection to the internet, but to others it was a mysterious thing.

“A magic device. Here- “ Damian reached over and pressed the power button, causing the screen to light up.

Roy jerked back in surprise, but managed to avoid dropping it.

“I was lucky to have it on me when I came here.” Damian continued, “Nobody is sure what it does other than light up, but it should fetch a good price from a rich collector or something, right?”

Damian was hoping they wouldn’t figure out how to work it before the battery ran out. He had some pretty embarrassing pictures on there, after all.

Roy stared at the device in his hand for a few seconds, before shoving it into a pouch on his belt.

“Alright. Learning magic, was it?”

Damian sighed in relief. He didn’t have any way to prove the phone’s value so he was glad it caught the man’s interest.

Roy scratched his stubbled chin idly.

“I think… As long as it’s just an introduction it should be fine.”

Damian looked at him in confusion.

“Why not more than that?”

“If I gave you anything more than the basics of manipulation, the mage guilds would be on my ass in no time.”

“Is it illegal to teach magic or something?”

“Sort of. The Highfire guild based here in the Greywall Kingdom has an agreement with the king that they can only teach magic at the Academy. Basically, the Academy teaches noble youngsters the basics, and some general knowledge, and the guild snatches any of the good talent. If the guild found me teaching people how to make fire or something without their permission it wouldn’t be good for me.”

“If it’s like that, are you alright instructing me?”

Roy waved him off. “Eh it’s fine for just the start. You’ll have to figure out the details on your own though. Besides, you already paid me.”

Damian stared at him, unable to tell whether he was a kind person, or just incautious.

“Right.” Roy began, “Have you ever heard of meditation? It’s like this-”

“Ah, I’ve already got that down.” Damian interrupted him.

“Oh. Ah, well, then the first step to sensing mana is to go deep into meditation, then try to extend your senses outside your body. If you get it right, you should be able to feel the world’s energy around your body. Then, by applying your willpower to it, you can make it gather. It’s said that if you can gather enough mana that it becomes visible, then you’ve taken your first step to becoming a mage. Listen well! If you practice diligently every night for-”

Damian tuned him out. Unexpectedly, the guy liked to talk.

Using breathing exercises, Damian fell into a meditative state. Previously when he was trying to sense qi, he had looked inside himself, but to sense mana it was the opposite. He directed his focus onto expanding his senses beyond his skin, and seemed to hit a wall. Instead of getting discouraged, however, he only became more determined.

Since he had hit a wall, he only needed to push through! It would be a different story if there was no resistance, as if trying to push air, but since there was a definite feeling of blockage, he just needed to get through it.

Over the next few minutes, he maintained a high level of focus, pushing against that wall with all his mental willpower. Eventually, he was able to detect a weakening, as if it was flexing back. Encouraged, he gave it a concentrated push, and was through!

Suddenly, he became aware of a swirling energy all around him. Damian felt as though it was only a few inches in any direction, but figured the distance would grow with training. Taking a closer look, he noticed that the feeling of the energy was remarkably similar to the inner energy called qi he had been working with earlier. If there was any difference, Damian thought his qi seemed to be somehow livelier, rushing through his body with purpose, while the mana in the air drifted about calmly. Focusing below him, he noticed that there seemed to be mana in the ground, as well, but it moved sluggishly.

Damian decided that these different flavours of energy were actually all the same thing, just with different aspects depending on what material it was inhabiting. He wondered why he hadn’t heard of such a thing earlier. Were qi practitioners and mages so separate as to not notice, or was the information being restricted somehow?

Moving along, Damian attempted to direct the energy into a point above his palm, using the same method as when he was moving his qi. Slowly, the mana in the air responded to his will, condensing above his palm.

Opening his eyes, he found a softly glowing orb hovering over his hand.

Damian felt overwhelmed with childlike joy. He had just done magic, real magic! He couldn’t help a wild grin from stretching across his face.

“You…” Roy’s voice came from beside him.

“Ah.” Damian had gotten too absorbed in his attempt; he had forgotten the man next to him. He regretted being so hasty, judging from the shock on the man’s face, he had done something he shouldn’t have.

“You must have experience with this, right? There’s no way you could have done that so quickly as a beginner.”

“Well, something like that?” Damian smiled at him innocently.

Roy stared at him for a long moment.

“Well, I’m not in the business of digging up other people’s secrets. If that really was your first time handling mana then you’ve got some frightening talent.”

Talent.

It was a word Damian had never expected to be directed at him. Certainly, he had managed to keep pace with talented peers through hard work alone, but he had never breezed through problems like they seemed to. Everything had been difficult for Damian. If he wasn’t such a dedicated person, he would have surely fallen to the middle of the pack. By the current point, Damian had gotten so used to struggling that he didn’t even consider that he might be different in this subject.

That word uttered so casually made him realize something.

Magic… Was easy for him.

A tear welled up in his eye. Finally, he had found the talent he had been looking so hard for! It had only taken a trip to another universe.

“O-oi kid.” Roy began, flustered at seeing him emotional. “I said I wouldn’t look into it didn’t I? Don’t go soft on me now.”

“Roy… You’re a really good guy.”

“Oh…” Roy seemed confused at the sudden compliment, but shrugged it off.

“Well, now that you’ve gotten that far, there’s nothing else I can teach you without losing my head.”

“Wait, all I need is a hint! How do I use the mana that I collect?”

Roy seemed to agonize over how to answer the question, before leaning in.

“I guess it should be fine to say… Apply your knowledge to it? You didn’t hear that from me though, okay?”

“Right, thank you so much for your help!”

Roy scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“You figured it out so fast I almost feel like I ripped you off.”

“Not at all! Though, if you want to pay me back, could you tell me about the Academy? I heard you went there for a while.”

Roy made an ugly face at the mention of the Academy.

“You don’t want to go there. It’s full of nothing but cutthroat, backstabbing bastards.” he growled out.

Clearly the man had some bitter memories of the place. Still, Damian was determined to at least check the place out. He knew he was severely lacking in common sense and knowledge of the world, and he thought there would be no better place to learn of such things than a school.

“Even so, I’m interested. I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but could you at least tell me how I could get in, and where it is?”

Roy was silent for a long time. Eventually, he began talking in a low voice.

“My full name… Is Royan Kirral. I was the fourth son of Baron Kirral to the south of Viscount Irene’s territory. When it was discovered that I had some talent for magic, I was sent to the Academy, in the Royal Capitol.

That place… It’s not for learning magic, or history or anything else. It’s just a playground for the children of nobles. The few commoners there are treated like garbage, and the lower nobles have to suck up to the higher ones if they don’t want to get stepped on.

When I went there, I was too naive. I thought I’d be able to make friends and have a good time learning things.”

Roy seemed to hunch in on himself.

“I made the mistake of introducing myself to an Earl’s son. Of course, I didn’t know who he was. In high society, the one with the higher rank should be the first to say their name. To them I was telling them I was better than them by introducing myself first. That Earl’s son told me to get down and lick his shoe to apologize, but I was too prideful.

From that moment on… My time there was hell! They constantly did terrible things like dumping water on my head, or pulling all of my notes out of my bag! Eventually, it got so bad I had to stay in my room to avoid them. In the end, I was kicked out of the Academy for missing too many classes. I went back home, and tried to explain to my family, but I was kicked out of there too! My own father said to never show my face to him again!”

Damian listened silently as Roy told his story. It was certainly a traumatic tale, but Damian couldn’t help but think that the guy was dramatic as hell. Basically, he couldn’t take the bullying so he hid in his room and got kicked out. Then his family sent him away for wasting their money and giving them a bad reputation.

Damian did pity him somewhat. He himself had been the victim of bullying a few times, but he had never missed school over it. He had developed his own way of dealing with the bastards that messed with him, and they never bothered him again afterwards.

“That’s why you have no business there. If the son of a Baron like me is treated so terribly, then a nameless guy like you will have no chance to learn anything.”

Damian felt a little annoyed. He didn’t mind attending the guy’s pity party, but he wished he would just give him the info he wanted.

“Sorry, but I still intend to check it out.”

“Hmph. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’re going to have a hard time there no matter what. Well, with your talent, you should get in easily enough though. There’s entrance examinations twice a year, just show them your mana condensation and they’ll let you right in. I think the next one should be in a month or so, so if you rush you might be able to make it in time.”

“I see. Thanks.”

Roy seemed to be a little annoyed with him as well, as he just stared out into the forest in silence afterwards. 

The rest of their watch period passed quietly. Damian would have been a little ashamed to say he spent most of it playing with mana rather than keeping an eye out. Eventually, Roy nudged him, and they woke up the next two men for their watch.

With the excuse that he needed to take a leak, Damian stepped a little ways into the dark forest. There was something he wanted to try before he went to bed.

When he was hidden behind a layer of vegetation, he began by gathering mana above his palm.

‘Apply my knowledge to it, huh?’ Damian thought.

Previously he had used his knowledge of anatomy to move his qi into his muscles along with his blood. Would it be the same principle here?

To begin with, Damian thought of fire. It was something that was well understood in his previous world, so he thought it would be a good start. Someone like Roy could produce it, after all.

Fire was defined as an exothermic oxidation reaction, as oxygen molecules interact with a fuel. When enough energy was given to the system, combustion would start, producing water, CO2, heat, light, and some smaller products. Damian assumed mana to be a type of energy that was affected by will. Could he get it to act as a fuel too?

He began by concentrating all of his thoughts on the nature of fire, all of his experiences with it, and the facts he had learnt on Earth that were backed up by an untold number of experiments and knowledge. Keeping all of these ideas in the forefront of his mind, he focused it on the concentrated mana over his palm, and pushed.

Deep in the north side of the Greywall Kingdom, right on the border to the Highfern forest, somewhere most would consider to be the ass end of nowhere, a pale yellow flame burned brightly.