The grimoire nodded and floated still above the rock. Words swiftly appeared on its pages, explaining what it had done after flying away yesternight. It went to a bookstore to read all of the books there, allowing it to grasp the written form of the common language. After that, it visited the crowded tavern and spent the rest of the night listening to their chatter, slowly grasping the spoken form of the common language.

It was only after fully grasping the language that it flew back to meet up with him.

“I see… You are very smart… It took me a lot of effort to learn how to read, and my writing skill is still lacking since I didn’t have many chances to practice it.”

It wasn’t easy, but the boy learned how to read and write by himself. He thought that he had to at least grasp such skills if he ever wanted to stop living like a rat.

He learned by stealing books from the street stands that sold old books. He was lucky to have found a common language book that had been tattered but still readable for him to use. He would learn when he had the time.

Of course, because it was self-taught, sometimes he could only read the word but he didn’t know the meaning. He only knew everyday-words that people usually use.

The grimoire nodded again. It tapped itself at the center of its body with the tip of its page, if it had a face, it would be revealing its smug expression.

“Hahaha, you are funny!” The boy said as he lightly laughed, but then he stopped and smiled sadly. “Thanks, you cheered me up a bit.”

The grimoire stopped tapping its own body and nodded twice. Then it got quiet again, waiting for the boy to share his story.

“Well, you see, this was what happened…” The boy explained with a pained expression, the agony could be seen on his face when he told the story. The grimoire was feeling a bit sad too seeing the boy like this.

“That’s what happened. Now I have to get stronger so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again in the future. I have to be strong to protect those around me.” Determination could be seen in his eyes.

The grimoire was standing firmly on the rock as it lifted itself toward the boy, like an exclamation mark floating above it. The grimoire opened itself and words started to appear at a visible pace. The words there made the boy’s eyes open so wide as he asked in agitation.

“YOU CAN HELP ME TO GET STRONGER?!”

The grimoire nodded vigorously, and flipped its pages to the first page where it was all written in words that he didn’t understand before.

“Ohh you translated them to the common languages?”

The grimoire nodded again and tapped the words with its page, encouraging the boy to read them.

“Hmm… Brea-breathing tech-technique? What’s that? Why is it so hard to pronounce.” It took awhile for him to read them because there were some unfamiliar words for the boy, but eventually, the boy finished reading it.

“Is this true?! It’s a technique where it makes the user able to use magic even though they have no mana at all?! How is that even possible?” The boy was so confused after he read what was written on the grimoire, he found it hard to believe, but considering the origin of the grimoire, how it was very different from the other grimoire he had ever seen before…

There was no way that the grimoire was pranking him, right?

“Is this true?!” The boy asked as he grabbed the grimoire and leaned his face forward, they were so close to each other.

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The grimoire nodded vigorously, and words were appearing one after another on the next page.

“I just have to follow the instructions to learn it?”

The grimoire nodded again.

“Let’s learn it now!” The boy hurriedly took the water that had been boiled for a long time, he clearly forgot about it, so there was less than a half remaining.

“AH! My water!”

…

They went back to the room, the boy had already put the fire off, brought the water that he boiled with him, everything was done. Now it was time for him to learn more about the technique.

“Let’s start now. Ted and his bunch won’t come back early today.”

It was the end of the week. Ted’s gang would do a meeting where every important person for the gang was gathered.

The grimoire nodded and flipped itself so the boy could read what was written on the first page.

The boy saw the words written before the first page, it was written as…

“Breath of Life.”

“What’s the meaning of it? Breath of Life? But the book was clearly blank from the second page until the end…” The boy was pondering about it in his heart, then the grimoire poked him and it made him get out of his thoughts and started reading the sentences written on it.

“First, meditation. I need to use the breathing method provided in the book and try to feel the mana that I gathered from around me to flow through every inch of my body…” The boy was confused but decided to just follow the instructions, so he sat cross legged on the floor and closed his eyes.

“Take a deep breath and try to centerized the flow of energy first, gather it to your heart. The hot feeling I feel right now is the mana from the surroundings, I need to neutralise them first, get rid of the impurities within them, after that I’ll be able to use the purified mana.”

The boy was sweating like crazy, the process of purifying the mana that was written in the book was taking a toll on his lungs. He was barely hanging when he used the breathing method.

“Huff, huff… this is a bit hurting, it feels like I’m drowning, but I have to endure…”

Time flew by, the boy was practicing for over 3 hours already, but he had yet to feel any progress toward the result he desired.

“Huff, huff…, why is there no progress? I feel like I was just walking at the same place...” the boy opened his eyes and asked, “Why is there no progress? I could gather the mana and centralize it, but I just couldn’t purify it.”

The grimoire replied in the same way as usual. “There’s no shortcut here. You have to rely on yourself to progress.”

“... I get it. There’s no shortcut to your goal for people like me.” The boy nodded and continued to meditate, he was really determined to get stronger.

Two hours later, he opened his eyes, Feeling the change in the mana inside his body. “It doesn’t feel hot now, is this what purified mana feels like? It’s kind of a refreshing feeling… Hey, hey! Calm down!”

The grimoire was flying excitedly around him like a mosquito, it definitely felt the changes of mana that occurred within the body of the boy. The boy even felt that the grimoire was more excited than him right now.

“Why are you the one who’s so excited?” The boy asked as he smiled, he was happy too that after trying and enduring it for over 5 hours, now the result had shown itself.

The grimoire suddenly stopped and opened

“It’s faster than I expected. Now try to visualise the mana you purified to make something!”

“Visualise? Imagining it?”

The grimoire nodded vigorously, it encouraged the boy to try it right at this moment, so the boy closed his eyes, although the steps were written in the grimoire, he still had to be fully focused first and try since reading what’s on the book and actually doing it were two different things.

The boy knitted his brows, trying to figure out how to do it, so he recited what was written in the book as he followed the instructions.

“Guide the purified mana to the place where you want it to be, such as your hands or legs, and visualise the form of the things you want to make… I can make anything I want, right?”

When he was ready after figuring it out for quite some time, he suddenly opened his eyes!

“Bbwoosh!”

“WHOA!” The boy was surprised because a fire with the form of a book, resembling the grimoire, suddenly appeared on his right hand and instantly vanished.

“You see that?!” The boy turned to the grimoire excitedly.

The grimoire nodded vigorously.

“You still have to learn how to directly absorb a purified mana from the surroundings. Before, you were absorbing the non neutral mana. Now is the challenging part. After that, you can practice to make what you form from your visualisation longer.”

“Oh, I see… so it was merely the first step. Now I have to learn how to absorb the neutral mana directly since there is no way I have the leeway to purify it in the middle of a real fight.”

The grimoire nodded again. “Yes, now start focusing. Remember the feeling before where you purified the mana.”

“Okay!”