Lucas woke up, stretching. Immediately, he felt some of the best pain he'd felt ever, which wasn't saying much considering his age, but it still felt amazing.

He felt sore but he couldn't pinpoint the location. It was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.

He got off his bed, taking a deep breath to start the day. He'd fallen into a rhythm that he honestly missed a little. Waking up, going to school, coming back sore, it was all a neat little cycle that comforted him.

He'd been getting tutored by Didier for about two weeks now. His lessons went pretty much the same. She'd teach him stuff about history he didn't really care about, then give him lessons on language arts, and then finally, work on his understanding and use of mana.

If he was being honest,.. she was a terrible teacher, or at least a terrible tutor. She was the type that droned on about a topic, expecting the student to memorize everything or take notes. Then one needed to add on the fact that she was rarely teaching more than five students at a time, that being him, Celine, and his various cousins. Lastly, remember that these are children, meaning they learn much much better from interactive lessons rather than lectures. Lucas often wondered why she took this job instead of becoming a university professor. Surely, those existed in this world.

Once he'd stretched, he washed up before putting on some overalls and getting some breakfast. He, then, sat on his bed and pulled out his cube. Today, Didier had preferred he stay home(heh he was always technically home)and work on what he'd learned, by himself.

Because of this, he'd gotten his cube back from his mother, since really no one would knock on Lucas' door, or investigate his room.

It'd been a while since he bothered trying to figure it out. It'd been far too difficult. Now, though, his mana control was far superior to what it had been, and his mana sensitivity had increased by a great amount. Now, he could faintly sense the world's mana when he used mana sense.

There was a huge ocean of energy everywhere. However, Lucas noticed that he couldn't absorb it. At first, he'd thought it was simply because he wasn't advanced enough but on a whim, he asked Didier. She also said he wasn't advanced enough but she also explained further.

"When you release mana, it is absorbed by Empre and broken down. When you absorb it, it's Empre that releases it now, and you must reconstruct it onto your level. That is incredibly difficult, and requires the finest of touches with your mana. By Empre, even that is beyond me."

Upon learning that, Lucas thought less about it, focusing more on his studies. He had time.

Focusing on the lightcube, he began infusing his mana into it. It was now that he saw the problem. What had first looked like little shadowy fractals, now showed their true form as mana. They were lesser complex forms of mana.

This was why he could never light it up, only getting it to shine for a few moments. If he let his mana dissipate, then it'd be broken down into mana even lesser complex than that in the cube, which would get him nowhere.

He vaguely understood what he was supposed to do. He wasn't supposed to avoid the native mana. It wasn't a puzzle but rather, a roadmap. What he had to do was sustain his mana so that it fused with that of the lightcube.

He understood. The first lightcube was simply conducting his mana, creating light. This one wasn't solely conducting but also amplifying. This was amplification magic!

The lightcube lit up at the same time as the lightbulb in Lucas' mind. And it was far more brilliant than the first one, he'd lit up, had been.

This was the reason he'd put on overalls. Given all that he learned, there was no way he could fail, unless Batain had purposefully made it impossible for someone Lucas' age. Granted, doing all this with mana was impossible for someone Lucas' age but Batain knew Lucas' intelligence surpassed his years.

Lucas, upon lighting it up, immediately stopped, and put the cube in his pocket. Unlike the first lightcube which had stopped after a few moments, this one took much longer, with Lucas having to wait several seconds.

Using his mana sense, he noticed the mana fusion remained active even without his mana, due to that of the cube itself.

He pulled himself up off his bed, and began walking to Batain's room once the cube was no longer lit up. This time, his servant, Aude, didn't follow him. He'd made conversation with her a couple times out of boredom, but he didn't care for her enough to bring her with him. Besides, it was more likely than not that Batain would drive her off anyways.

He barely remembered the route to Batain's room but he managed to make it there. As he approached the room, he heard a gradually loudening sound. It almost sounded like clapping. Very quickly though, he realized it was clapping, just not the type one did with their hands. Judging from the cries and moans, someone was going in.

Lucas froze before a grin appeared on his small face. 'That's my uncle.' He, then, decided to wait around. While he didn't want to disturb or distract Batain during his 'work', Lucas had no intention of leaving, and then coming back too late to talk to him.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

About ten minutes later, Lucas saw a girl leave the room. Her face was red and sweaty as she trudged, scantily clad, out of Batain's room. Lucas looked towards the open door to see Batain staring at the girl's ass. He was, once again, shirtless.

Batain quickly noticed Lucas, who had been sitting at the corner of intersecting hallways, his eyes briefly widening in surprise before he used mana sense on him.

Seeing that Lucas had the cube, Batain briefly frowned before nodding in the direction of his room. Once Lucas got up and went in, Batain took one final glance at his lover's cheeks before walking back into his room and closing the door.

"I guess you figured it out." Batain walked over to his bed, sitting on it.

Lucas had sat on the floor, which for once, was actually clean. That made a little sense, he guessed, considering he'd just had a woman over. Seeing that Batain made no mention of the exertion that had transpired just a minute ago(which was wise because Lucas was four), Lucas just nodded and pulled out the lightcube.

Infusing his mana, he expertly controlled it, fusing it with the mana of the lightcube. Once all of his mana had successfully fused, the lightcube lit up, brilliantly.

Batain nodded, scratching his neck. He also seemed to be sweating quite a lot. "Seems like you got the gist of it. That's an amplified lightcube, a mana amplifier. It's designed to amplify your mana, and shine much brighter because of that. You just fuse your mana with the amplifier mana."

Lucas nodded, and would've asked a question but Batain cut him off. "You've only learned the basics. Fiddle with it until I get back from my bath."

A slight frown appeared on Lucas' face but he got to work, trying to alter the brightness of the cube. While Batain bathed, Lucas, then, chose to look around. He already understood how to mess with the cube. Fusing the lightcube's mana with greater amounts of his mana increased the brilliance while using lesser amounts decreased it.

He wasn't planning to go through Batain's stuff; he just wanted to take a look around and hopefully find that saber laying under the bed or something. He looked under the bed, and sure enough, there was the saber just lying there.

He reached for it and immediately felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Lemme see what you can do with the lightcube."

'The fuck? That was less than three minutes. There's no way he's finished.' Still, when he turned around, there Batain was, wearing a towel.

"What are you reaching under my bed for?" A slight tilt of the head and a deadpan expression told Lucas the question was rhetorical.

Picking the cube back up, Lucas showed Batain what he'd learned in the short amount of time he'd been gone. Contrary to his expectations, Batain didn't look too surprised or happy, shrugging at the end of the demonstration. "Eh, that's good enough. It's good you can at least change the brightness."

Lucas tilted his head in confusion, prompting Batain to expand. "You're just changing the amount of mana you're putting in. There's not a lot to that."

"Then how are you supposed to do it?"

"Think about it. It's less about the size and more about the complexity of your technique."

Lucas' mind strayed a little, thinking about what Batain had been doing a while ago until it hit him. "Could you show me?"

Finally nodding in approval, Batain picked the cube out of Lucas' hands. Immediately, Lucas saw he infused his mana into it. It lit up fairly quickly but that wasn't all.

Lucas watched as Batain's mana slowly got hazier and darker while the cube got brighter. Soon, the light became too bright for him to stand and he was about to turn his eyes away, when rapidly, Batain's mana got brighter while the cube got dimmer. Eventually, even Batain's mana dimmed as the light darkened into a cloudy gray.

"You changed the mana quality." Lucas stared in wonder.

A slight grin of pride appeared on Batain's face. "Pushing a ton of mana in is one way to get the job done. But you're fusing your mana with other mana. Putting in more of your mana is just further combining them while putting in more complex mana is synergizing them much better."

Lucas nodded in understanding until he glanced upon a point. "Why didn't you tell me about this in the beginning? Wouldn't it have worked with the first lightcube?"

"Yeah, tell you about changing mana quality when you couldn't even see what I was doing." Batain rolled his eyes. "It would've worked but it's too complex and not really worth it. When you're amplifying your mana, each little bit of it counts because each little bit is getting amplified so you want to make sure each little bit is at its peak quality. When your mana is getting conducted, that's less important. It's like math."

Batain, then, reached under his bed, pulling out his sword. "Here you go."

Lucas looked at it briefly before looking up in confusion. "That's it?"

Batain scowled. "What do you mean 'that's it'? This shit took me months to learn. Besides, everything else you need to know about this, you'll discover by yourself, and I'll help you with it."

Lucas also scowled. This supposed tutoring Batain was supposed to be giving him was nothing more than just showing up at his room, doing a couple tricks, and then leaving.

Still, he set those thoughts aside, focusing on the saber. He felt as if it was calling to him. Picking it out of Batain's hand, he marveled at it.

Then almost immediately, he noticed all the deficiencies. It was horribly balanced, dirty, and it almost felt like the blacksmith had nearly scrapped the work several times before pulling it together and continuing. Overall, it was a mess.

Still, Lucas smiled a little looking at it and holding it. This was his calling, his purpose. A gold aura surrounded Lucas' body before surging into the sword, turning it a gold color.

The mana in Lucas' body began rushing into the saber just like before. Batain sighed at the sight, reaching his hand over to pull the saber out of Lucas' hands. However, this time, everything changed.

A pillar of light surrounded Lucas destroying the ceiling, and scorching Batain's hand, making his eyes flash in pain before turning serious. The first time this had happened, Batain had simply shielded himself with some mana and walked off spotless.

Now, he felt actual danger. Surrounding himself with mana, he grabbed for the saber once again, while reaching out a hand to push Lucas away from it. This time, the saber itself reacted, firing a blade of light at him.

Immediately, danger bells went off in Batain's mind and he dodged, still receiving a nasty slice across his shoulder, making him mentally curse.

Lucas couldn't see any of what was going on. He was already unconscious. Still, mana rushed into the blade before being added to the golden pillar. Batain's heart sunk once he saw Lucas' mana had been sucked dry. The kid posed a danger to both of them now with that sword.

However, instead of an attack, he noticed the golden pillar fall back from the sky, condensing itself into a little box that surrounded Lucas. It collapsed in on him, forcing itself back into his body, before lighting up each tiny facet of his being.

An instant later, though, it all disappeared, leaving only an unconscious four year old child. Batain cursed once more, this time out loud.

The floor was now covered in stains and debris just like it had always been.