On the hike to the cabin, I observed some of the wildlife and flora of this world, it was comforting to be close to nature once again.

When we reached the cabin mother and I practiced the Wind Steps spell for a few more hours before heading inside the cabin for dinner. Alman set dinner at the table and brought us our drinks. The old family butler Alman had served my father's family for a long time. Rhea had prepared dinner and would help Alman clean up after our mess. Dinner was a hearty meat stew full of vegetables and broth which was delicious. For dessert, there were sweet rolls and fresh fruits sliced into bite-size pieces. “This is delicious Rhea thank you for the meal!” Capers was the first to thank Rhea for dinner. After which, we started dessert. “You look as though you really enjoy yourself when training, young master,” Linda said with a bright smile.

She was cute. She had short brown hair and small brown eyes. Her lips and eyebrows were petite and sharp while her nose was slightly long. She was an attractive yet serious-looking knight. Caspian was blonde, had blue eyes, and was tall. “Caspers, what's your magic specialty?“ He quickly responded, “Ice and Wind magic. I can multicast Ice magic but I'm not quite there with wind spells yet.” “How about you Linda?” I cut him off before he could monologue more. She responded plainly, “Earth and Fire. I can’t multicast like Caspian but I can combine both of my elements to great effect.” She explained her specialty and her self-made magic.

Mother interjected, "Her magic is slightly similar to mine, she's like a mix between your father and me." I was interested in multicasting spells, it seemed easy enough. I’m not sure what was so difficult about multicasting. “Multicasting should be easy though?” Both of the knights stopped eating and looked at me as though I said the world was made of Heral cream. “Young master very few people can cast multiple spells simultaneously. Most experts just cast the spells so quickly it seems to be multicasting, but actually casting the same spell twice requires enormous concentration.” Linda responded instead of Caspian. “That’s right young master multicasting isn’t easy in some ways it is harder than casting 3rd circle magic.” Maybe multicasting is harder than I thought? I would find out after dinner with practice.

I enjoyed talking with the knights, magic was a topic as interesting as muscle growth. “Magic's fun when I can see improvements, I get bored when things are slow like today.” Caspian and Linda both looked dumbfounded. I was getting used to those expressions, they were the easily surprised type. I wasn’t lying though, that's how I felt, however, I would practice regardless of seeing progress or not. Cultivating and martial arts were the same, I had long periods, sometimes even decades where I couldn’t see any progress whatsoever. Those were frustrating times, a decade on a mountain top with nothing but your own thoughts was its own little slice of hell, but I’d always endure it in the end. If I was forced to learn magic like that, I wouldn't be able to do that now, my patience since arriving in this world was not quite at that level yet, but I was still practicing daily.

I have been cultivating every day outside of magic training. I was still in the Qi gathering faze and would be for at least a few more years. It's a slow and steady process, much slower than the progress I’m making with magic where I can feel myself progressing at a steady rate. This was partly due to the fact I was putting less than an hour a day into cultivating my internal Qi. If I cultivated my Qi for too long at this age it would irreversibly stunt my growth. Most masters didn’t even let their children cultivate until they were 10. After dinner, I spent some time with my mother. I tried multicasting the Flame Wick spell a few times before falling asleep but didn't succeed in the end. She read a magic theory book to me as a bedtime story, and I fell asleep as she read it aloud.

A few more days of practice went by uneventfully. I was able to perform Wind Steps without an incantation, but after seeing my mom running around faster than a horse or heral with a mortal body I was dissatisfied, “Alright let’s move on to another common wind spell.” “No.” I didn’t want to move on to something else yet. I wanted my spell to work at the same level as my mother's version of Wind Steps before moving on. “Son, the more you learn the easier changing the spell in the future will be. You’ll have more tricks you can use.” I understood that but I would have trouble learning anything else if I was mentally stuck on a 1st circle spell for too long.

After a small tantrum, my mother gave me a time limit, “Ok Darius, you have two days if you can’t master the spell in two days we’re moving on, if you don’t listen to me at that time I’ll spank you until you do.” I got the chills looking in her eyes, I had two days to master the spell or give up I knew that for a fact. “Thanks, mom!” I was excited to have a good challenge for once.

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I sat down cross-legged on a rock near the waterfall. My mother walked over and sat down next to the rock and began practicing something on her own. “I won’t help you, you’ll have to do your best on your own.” I was fine with that. I was always up for a challenge. I closed my eyes and focused. I tried to remember something from my past. Something fast and free, a Winged White Tiger came to mind. He was an actual Beast King, my eternal rival. We fought a total of three times all of which ended in a tie. So much force came from his wings that hurricanes erupted tearing apart wide swaths of a thick and heavy forest; his every move caused shockwaves and cutting winds. The winds seemed to gather around him like armor and could tear a mortal apart just from being grazed. He could control the wind, it was different from magic, he had dominion over it. I imagined that, dominion over the wind. Far different from my mother's coercion. I gathered a large amount of wind. The image of the tiger burned in my mind. I could feel my mana quickly draining, I then felt a sudden acceleration before feeling as though there was a pit in my stomach. I was falling. I could see my mother below me so I wasn’t too high up, but I couldn’t generate enough wind to stop my fall. Falling at this height was going to hurt. “Mom!” I screamed. I started covering my body in Qi bracing for my fall before my mother leaped up easily catching me. She caught me when I was ten meters from the ground, “I can’t keep my eyes off you for even a minute, how the hell did you get up here with a 1st circle spell?!” I wasn't sure how to answer that. “I don’t know, it just happened!” Our descent slowed down as a gentle breeze carried us to the ground.

I had to wait a bit for my mana to recover before practicing again. This time my mother seemed a little more cautious and was watching me intently like a predator looking at her prey. I suppose letting a two-year-old practice dangerous magic on their own was the strange thing. I closed my eyes and started the magic with a new image on my mind. I tried many different visuals when practicing Wind Steps but nothing seemed to work. I tried imagining two different magic circles or two different identical visuals at the same time, but nothing would happen. I could cause a better effect with more practice but that wasn’t what I was going for I was trying to multicast or create an effect at the same level of multicasting.

“It’s time to eat something, Darius.” I wonder if I’m being too forceful. Maybe if I try to layer the magic like the layers on a cake. I was suddenly lifted out of my thoughts as my mother sat me on her shoulders. My mother carried me to the cabin as a lioness would take her cub. “Son, we're eating, it's not good to train like that on an empty stomach.” My mother practically force-fed me before we went back to the waterfall. I said goodbye to Rhea and followed the knights to the waterfall. I could see Caspers and Linda begin their training near our proximity.

I went straight to my favorite smooth rock to sit cross-legged as my mother sat right behind me. Mother continuously stresses not forcing the wind to your will. I can’t do that. I was someone called king. I have a very do-as-I-please attitude towards life in general. My mother did as well, but she had a perspective to give to Nature what was Nature's. I disagreed. I have to be in control, but maybe I don’t have to be a tyrant? Maybe I can ask gently, forcefully without reproach, if I tried funneling the wind with a gentle touch? Nothing happened. I couldn’t do magic that way. The magic didn’t work at all for hours when I did that. The softer my approach the weaker the magic became. Having faith in the magic itself over my own skill didn’t fit my personality. I tried letting the wind gather on its own or tried gathering it from two spots at the same time but all I got out of my effort was frustration. Soon whether I liked it or not it would be dinner and then bedtime. I tried out a few more ideas but only ended up disappointed in the end.

My mother gave me some advice during dinner, “Darius, your approaches are too extreme.” She was a noble raised in a noble household yet she talked with food in her mouth. “When you're trying a forceful approach you’re squeezing the mana tightly to get the exact reaction you want like a strict and harsh tyrant, but when you try a gentle approach you try to coerce some effect while doing nothing at all.” She swallowed her food before continuing, “You can’t cast magic like that. You aren't some god with total control of the elements, and you aren't some fae or some priest casting magic on faith alone.” She put her right hand face-up and gathered some wind in the center of her palm. “The wind is spinning and blowing air. It happens as I walk, it happens as I run, it happens as I’m completely still, the concept does not have to be overly complicated Darius, it’s just spinning the air around you and blowing the air in the direction you please.” The wind shot up from her hand and hit the ceiling with a howl. I looked my mother in the eyes for a bit before thinking about what she said. Casket and Linda were both looking at my mother as if she was a wise sect leader teaching new cultivators. I had to think about that statement while we ate. I was casting a 1st circle Wind Steps spell using the image of the Tiger King. I needed the effect of a 1st circle spell, not a monster that had total control of the wind. I needed to think smaller at least for 1st circle spells. I needed to start small and go from there. Thinking too hard in my current body made me very tired, and I soon had trouble keeping my eyes open before falling asleep.