I stayed still. The impact on my mind was too big. Losing my family two times in a row was a big hit for anyone. Even worse, losing a child.

This time, my infancy passed quicker. The more I lived my childhood, the faster it seemed to pass.

I was a quiet kid, not talking much and only enjoying the company of my parents. Every day a million thoughts passed through my head.

What I would do when the killers arrived? Could I change the future? What if there were many people? These questions haunted me.

I knew that the only way to stop them would be my own strength. So I trained and trained. There was not even a day when I forgot to swing my wooden sword.

My memories of being a farmer awakened again, and this time the clarity of them was even higher. Each time I reawakened the genetic memories, I could recall them better.

My eight years arrived, and I went out to make friends with Alana.

From that day on, the only things in my head were the days to come. How would I change the future? Even if I had a child, it would disappear again.

My mind was in chaos. Nothing was a surety. Would this loop repeat again?

The years slowly passed. And the test was approaching again.

My 12 years was surely a special age, it was when I first met Alana.

Although I was 12 years old, my body was much bigger than the average. Because of my training, my hands were strong and my muscles well defined. The weapon I was training in was the scythe. I began to train with a sword, but I realized that buying one would be pretty difficult, so I used the weapon that all my ancestors handled to farm, and the results were pretty good. The genetic memories helped me to wield the scythe better.

I went to the test with Alana. And everything repeats.

I stepped forward to be tested again. The mage told me to put my hand on the crystal.

I raised my arm and placed my hand on the crystal. It emitted a deep and ancient green light, and even the size was bigger than my last one.

The mage eyes shined. He looked at me and said. “You have the talent boy. Your affinity to the element of wood is pretty high, stay by my side.”

 I was frozen in place without knowing what to do… I would leave the village? Why was this happening?

The mage saw that I was frozen in place and probably thought that I was so shocked with happiness by hearing this that I couldn't move.

In part, that was true. But my shock came from not knowing what to do.

The man waved his hand and I was levitated to the side. And the other boy who was selected was beside me.

The test ended, and the mage turned toward us. “Where is your family?”

The boy beside me answered excitedly. “My house is on that side.”

The mage nodded and said. “Let's go to yours first. After that, we will visit the other one.” the boy beside me nodded and we were taken to the boy's house.

The mage had a brief conversation with the parents, and they agreed in the boy going. They wanted the boy to take some things, but the mage said that the college would provide everything that was needed.

The boy gave his goodbyes to his parents and we went toward my house after I pointed toward it.

We were arriving near my house, and my mind was in chaos. What would I do? Becoming a mage was a dream that I always had. But if I left the village, I would be giving up my future with Alana. When I thought about the future, my mind went even more chaotic. What would it matter? If everything repeated again, staying here would be meaningless.

Many thoughts passed through my head, and I finally came to a decision.

If there was someone that could stop this loop, it would be a mage. I was not giving up my future with Alana, I was fighting for a true future!

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When I came to this decision, my mind calmed down. I swore that I would stop this madness, and get revenge for little Bryan and hope.

When we arrived in front of my house, I turned to the mage and said. “My parents are in the fields, I'll call them.” the mage nodded to me, and I quickly fetched them. They had puzzled faces and wanted to know why I was calling them.

When they arrived in front of the house and saw the mage, they were shocked. They quickly arrived in front of the mage and said while bowing. “Welcome to our humble house.”

I could see the fear and respect in their eyes.

“There is no need to be this formal. My name is Liam, and I am here to invite your son to the college of mages.”

My parents were even more shocked after hearing that I would become a mage…

They nodded their heads repeatedly, unconditionally agreeing with me going straight away. They also tried to pack my things but were rejected by the mage.

Just as we left the house, I could see a figure running toward us. The petite silhouette ran toward me and I gave her a tight hug. I looked into her eyes and said.

“I….I'll have to leave.” I said in a low tone of voice.

Tears appeared in her eyes, but instead of making a sad face, a smile as bright as the sun appeared. I was stunned for a moment…. So many years living and knowing someone, and the person can still surprise you.

“You don't need to worry, I'll be fine”

I looked into her eyes, took a deep breath and said. “You are my best friend, you are the person I love the most. We are destined to be together, and one day we will have a family.” Turning around, I left the place toward the mage.

Liam took a carriage from his pack, don't ask me how he did it. And we departed.

***

Alana stood in place, with John's words reverberating in her mind. A Deja Vu of a man saying that to her appeared in her mind, but it suddenly vanished.

“I'll wait for you.”

***

The boy beside me was very excited, making many questions about the academy and how we would proceed.

The mage explained many things to the boy, Ron, but John didn't hear anything, as his mind was elsewhere.

The day quickly passed, and they went through 5 more villages. From all of them, only one child was chosen. It was a girl with an affinity for the concept of water.

The girl, whose name was Imir, had blue eyes and dark hair. Very different from the people in my village.

I had a mental age of 52 years, but I truly looked like a child now. There were many wonders that I saw during the trip around the villages. It seemed that my village was truly backward, it didn't have any of the things that the other villages had.

Those things were magical stones that could clean the body and the clothes without taking a shower. Tools to prepare the fields that plotted the land, and many things like this.

These tools made the life of these people much easier and were surely wonderful.

After taking Imir. There was no more village that the mage would visit. The examiners had at most 7 villages, and in Liam case, 6.

From here on, our destination was the capital!

“Sir.” I turned to Liam while he was reading a book and the other children talked. “Can I have a book about magic to read as well?” I made my best puppy eyes and asked.

I saw that he was reading a book about advanced rune applications. If he had one, why not two books?

He looked at me in surprise and nodded his head after some time. “What a studious boy.” He thought and nodded. Liam took a book from the little bag on his side and gave it to me.

i received the book and looked at his bag with wonder in my eyes. How could that little bag carry so much stuff? It was not a woman purse after all.

He saw that I was looking at his purse and realized why. He patted it and said. “This bag is enchanted with space runes and formations. Because of this, the space inside can carry many things.”

“Runes and formations?” I asked.

“Read the book and you'll know what they are.”

I nodded and looked at the book title. ‘An introduction to magic’, the title was simple, but it surely told the reader what the book was about.

Although we were in a carriage, there was no animals pulling it, and one in the direction. When Ron asked earlier, Liam only said that it was enchanted and that we would understand it better soon.

I eagerly opened the book and began to read. The introduction talked about the author and his achievements. After going through it, I realized that I didn't know the importance of his achievements, after all, I didn't know what that was about.

I opened the next page and read. “Mana is the essence of the world, it is what keeps the order of everything, and keeps the material world from falling apart. But what is mana? To explain this, we must have in mind that everything, living or not, is involved and related to mana in some way….”

The words of the author resonated in my mind. Every word and every phrase amazed me even more. He had such a concise and vast knowledge, that everything was becoming clear to him. He gave a second look at the author name ‘Elias Campbell’. 

He keeps reading the book while the children were chatting.

“How long will it take to arrive at the capital?” Asked Imir.

Liam lowered his book and said. “We will arrive there in two days.” He turned his attention back to the book, giving a clear signal not to be interrupted again.

Imir sighed and adjusted her position to sleep.

Night arrived and the next day passed. John was entranced by the book and its contents. Many things became clear to him. Things like runes, that were totally hidden in a thick fog before, were now like a thin mist.

He at least could comprehend that runes were written representations of the concepts, and mages used the runes in order to enhance the use of their concepts.

Using runes and not was like the difference between trying to break a lock using brute force and simply opening it with the right key.

You could still use concepts like fire, earth, star and many more without runes, but if you used them, they could be used in many more different ways. One of the examples was the concept of motion that was applied to the chariot, in order to make it move.

Even if the mage, Liam, that was using the chariot didn't know shit about the concept of motion. Some mage invented a way to power the runes without knowing the specific concept a long time ago.

I also learned that formations were conglomerates of runes. They wrote a lot of runes in sequence in order to have a specific effect. The runes don't need to be from the same concept.

There was a study camp named runesmithing. They used the runes from varied concepts in order to make more powerful and varied formations.

I was truly like a frog at the bottom of the well, seeing only a small part of the sky above me.

The book also talked about the nine tiers that existed, and that even warriors that cultivated Ki instead of mana also had nine tiers.

It was a wonderful new world that was opened to me by this book. I learned that mages could even be immortal when they reached the ninth tier.

I devoured the book and learned many things, and just like this, time passed. “Hey boy, wake up.” Liam shook me.

I lazily opened my eyes and said. “I'm up.” I straightened my back and looked forward.

“We are arriving.” he said while pointing to the window. I couldn't see what was outside because the others were blocking the view. I squeezed myself between them and looked through the window.

“WOW”

My mouth was wide open and I didn't even have words to describe what was in front of me.