Three years after the start of my training with mother, I was already able to use the three lifesaving skills. I was trying to increase my proficiency in mastering them and the three buffs. For the moment, I could only maintain the buff for 10 minutes with a 10% increase in performance.

"Okay, we will stop here for today, Arthur," said mother, starting to clean her clinic.

Frustrated, I didn't feel like talking.

"Sigh… honey, I know that it's already three years since you started to learn these skills, but don't feel down just because you cannot use them at their full potential. Your control over mana is still not that good, and it was to be expected that you can't reach a 20% increase. You are still using that black strap; you are not able to gather the necessary amount of mana to reach that height," she said, crouching a little to look into my eyes.

"Yeah, it was true. Sometimes I forgot about this," looking at my strap on my wrist. "Mom, how long will I keep this strap?" I asked, still looking at my wrist.

"I think that you will be able to stop using it when you turn 12," she said, her hand holding her chin and looking at the sky.

So, less than two years. Remembering all I had done these years, I realized that mother had a different method of visualizing magic. I cannot really explain how I feel it.

"Mom, can I ask you something?" I said, taking a mop to clean all the sweat stains I left on the floor.

"I am listening, honey."

"So during these years, I have received yours and Mr. Jorn’s training, and I have found that you don’t really have the same method to visualize a phenomenon. Sir Jorn, for example, will only tell me to infuse my body with my fire mana to increase the resistance, but you have some kind of medical view? You will ask me to imagine how the mana will interact with my muscle, how it will infuse cells and tissues, how the muscle will increase in bulk by creating new connections between fibers with an increase in the flow of blood."

Smiling, she started, "We don’t have the same perspective on magic; that’s all. As I told you, everybody is able to use magic, but the efficiency will change depending on how much you have a good grasp on what you want to do. Sometimes some people have an almost instinctive feeling of what they should do; others will not imagine a cause of a phenomenon but how it manifests itself. All that method works but not for everyone and with a huge disparity in the result. You should understand with what method you are the most comfortable but also what method has the best result for you and is the fastest because, in your case, you want to use it in a fight."

"Should I understand that a skill launched with different methods will have different results?" I was sure that I understood it well, but I wanted to be sure.

"Yes, in some cases, you could launch the skill; in another, you could use less mana to obtain the same result, and in another, you could even harm yourself."

And at that moment, something just clicked in my mind. Since I started to train with mother, I realized that although her method required a huge amount of knowledge beforehand, I was able to grasp what she wanted to convey. Maybe it was because since I came from a world where almost everybody had some knowledge concerning the body in general. It was true that there were simulations for almost every phenomenon back on Earth with scientific explanations, and I didn’t even talk about chemistry.

Maybe this approach was the best for me. I was already expecting it, but I wasn’t really able to make it work because I wasn’t even able to understand mana. But now, with mother’s help, it became more clear with all my knowledge about biology and mother's theory on magic. I could finally see what I was doing wrong all these years.

"I can see that you figured something out," said mother, caressing my cheeks.

I didn’t realize when I started smiling, but yeah, I felt like something that clouded my mind somehow just disappeared.

"Yes, thank you, mother. Can I leave? I think that I figured something out."

"Okay, good for you, honey."

Kissing her cheek, I finished cleaning the room and headed straight for home to test my theory.

Arriving at home, I climbed the stairs and entered my bedroom, closing the door not wanting to be disturbed. I sat on my bed, trying to remember exactly what Jorn said when he presented mana eyes.

He said that he created the skill to be able to recognize at a glance the characteristics of ore and flaws in items. He asked to activate a circuit connecting my eyes with my core and to gather mana in my eyes. Now that I thought about it, it is quite simplistic. I don’t even know how I was about to activate the skill that time.

Wait, was I even able to activate the skill that time? It is true that I saw some orb in front of my eye, but it was the first time I gathered specifically mana in my eyes. With the training I had with mother, I realized that when we gather a huge amount of mana in a specific part of our body, if that organ or muscle cannot support it, there can be unexpected results. Maybe it can explain the headache and the burning I felt afterward. I didn’t really have a problem when I first infused mana into my body when mother taught me; I was just feeling exhausted. I should have realized that I did wrong, but I think that the pleasure to use my first real spell clouded my mind. But now I know what to correct.

I could then realize that Jorn was surely an instinctive one. I was sure that he doesn’t know what happened when he launched the skill but just imagined seeing mana contained in ore and items, and he instinctively knew what to do. As he had said, maybe he was really a genius. Being able to create this kind of skill, being one of the lone magic blacksmiths in the region, and reach this level by himself… yeah, he was definitely a genius. I should have been an idiot to not even realize it at that time. But I shouldn’t focus on it right now.

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With Jorn's help, I knew what circuit to use, I know what amount of mana to use, and above all, the intent to infuse. I would add to the image I would create with the help of mom’s teaching what I can intent or goal. With mom’s teaching, I knew that I should focus on cause because I had the knowledge, but I would add the intent of Jorn, which was the goal to reach.

So starting to circulate my mana, I started to recall my lesson of optics where we talked about the constitution of an eye. If my memory didn’t play a trick on me, the retina was the part of the eye that grasped colour and where the image of what we see was 'printed'. I remembered that there were some receptors in the retina which were supposed to grasp colour and other types of rays. X-rays, for example, were invisible to eyes, so should I focus on improving the capability of my retina to grasp that ray? No, it was not possible right at the time; mana was only used in increasing the potential of something which was already possible.

My eyes hadn’t receptors able to grasp other wavelengths, so I should do something else. If I remember correctly, our body evolves to adapt to our environment if I combine it with what Jorn said, I can conclude that our body adapts with mana, so our senses also evolve in some ways. So why are we unable to do it naturally? HEY, it is not my job to think about evolution, FOCUS!

Somehow, our eyes had 'mana receptors,' so I should activate or increase their sensitivity. Now knowing what I need, I focus on imagining some receptors in my eyes awakening and slowly raising their sensitivity. I combine it by imagining optical nerves reinforcing to sustain the increase in information and reinforce my brain; I know that some parts are responsible for vision, but I don’t remember where. Not knowing exactly, all this can decrease the result, but I think that it can at least permit me to use this skill. Not with an image in mind, I infuse the intent to see mana through items and adjust the amount of mana depending on what I have decided over the years.

At first, I didn’t really feel much change, but I quickly realized that although my control of my mana on my eyes was good, the amount of my brain and nerves was too low. Unconsciously, I protected my organs by only using a little amount of mana to overwhelm them, but next, I started to feel a burden on my brain and somewhere behind my eyes. I felt that I was losing focus, so little by little, I increased the amount of mana in my brain and nerves, realizing that they were not able to cope with the influx of information. It took me some time to be able to reduce that pain; I don’t know if it was some minute or an hour, but the only thing I know is at some point, I felt a huge tiredness hitting me and losing consciousness.

"Ar… Art… Arthur…ARTHUR!"

Opening my eyes, I saw my mother in front of me. It took me a moment to remember what happened or where I was.

"Mom? You are already back?" I said, rubbing my eyes.

"Already? It is dinner time, Arthur. How long did you sleep?" she said, furrowing her brow and crossing her arms.

"What?" I turned around, watched through the window, and I realized that the sky was already dark.

What happened? I remember alleviating the pain in my brain and nerves by reaching a balance with the amount of mana I should use, and next, I suddenly fell asleep.

"Can you tell me what happened? It seems that you are a little bit disoriented, so it is clear that something happened."

I didn’t really think much, not wanting to lie to my mother, and I explained everything that happened to my mother. To the discovery I made from the conclusion of the little test I had made and the decision I took when I felt my mind burdened. I realized that what I had done was reckless when, between my record, I saw mother clenching her fist. I really thought that she would hit me at that time. Finishing, I waited for the sanction of mother, knowing that it would not end like that. But contrary to what I expected, she put her hand on my head, and I felt my mind clear a little bit and some of my fatigue disappear; I was feeling really refreshed.

But something strange happened when mom was healing me; I felt something tingling my eyes. Trusting my instinct, I launched mana eyes just as before, but this time changing the amount of mana I use to not feel a burden, and this time it happens. Seeing mother, I was able to see her hand covered with mana just as always; she was manifesting her skill, so I was able to see that effect, but what was unexpected was I could see a line of mana coming from a ball of mana near her heart and going through her arm and increasing at her hand.

"Arthur, what happened? Why are you looking at me like that?" mother asked worried.

"I… I can see it."

"See what?"

"Your mana! In your core, in your arm and your hand, I CAN SEE IT."

Realizing what happened, mother ran out of my room only letting these words.

"Wait here."

Feeling exalted, I didn’t really register what she said; I was just trying if I could see through other things but it seems that there is nothing in my room containing mana. I was a little surprised; I thought that mana was present in the air; why am I not seeing it? But focusing on something else, I try to see through my body, reinforcing my body with my body. I watch as mana 'leaks' from my core and just disperses across my body.

Now I understand why I had to create circuits to use skills; mana doesn’t use circuits when I just reinforce my body with it; it just disperses, and I could not focus on a specific part. But why am I not able to see my mana when it was completely absorbed by my body? The reinforcement is present, so there is still mana in use, but I can just see my core gradually lose its brilliance. Maybe… the sensibility? I know that dogs are able to see in low luminosity; maybe it is what I should do now; increase the sensibility of my sensor. Sigh… I will do that later; for now, I just want to rest a little bit.

BAM!

Opening the door, mother enters with two ores in her eyes and shows them to me.

"So what are you seeing?"

Activating the skill, I saw in the first nothing, but next, mother infuses her mana in them, and I saw that some mana was reaching her hand. I supposed that she was infusing mana in the ore, but I wasn’t seeing much change. Realizing the problem, I try to increase a little bit the amount of mana on my captor; little by little, I start to see mana in the ore but not only that but also the body of mother infusing with a little amount of mana. Watching myself, I realized that it is the same.

Yeah, I could see the mana I infused in my body. Looking back to mother, I saw some orbs appearing and disappearing behind her. Increasing again my sensibility, I saw that it was what I was searching; what we called 'ambient mana.' Smiling, I focused on the ores, the iron ore that mother had in her left hand accepted a low amount of mana which didn’t even reach the core, but the other ore, which was black steel, was glowing literally with mana which was infused in every part except a little part at the bottom.

I explained to mother what I saw; this time she took me in her hand and said,

"Good, good Arthur. With this, you can become a good magic blacksmith. I know that adventurer is your focus; I will support you, but I still want an emergency solution if something happened in the future."

"Thank you, mom," I said.

"Come, let’s eat the dinner, but I am not sure if it is still warm."

Following mother, we ate while talking about how I should talk to her before trying something like that. She gave me some advice on what I could do to reduce the amount of mana it costed and what sensibility I should use most of the time.

Next, I headed to my bed and fell asleep, imagining what Jorn would say the following day.