I was not someone patient, my need for immediate results sometimes led me to make rookie mistakes despite knowing like an adult.

However, when I hid my greed behind a wall of perseverance and waited in silence while studying the times when the maids changed shifts, I knew that part of my personality was slowly changing.

I studied the maids taking security on the other side of the door, reading with my baby eyes who worked the most diligently, who was the laziest, who was the most crafty, who was the most disciplined, and who was the most nervous.

With the passing of four weeks, I felt confident enough to implement the plan that would change the course of my life in this new world.

At nightfall, when all the nobles in the castle were sleeping, my eyes widened in the dark. I lifted my silk blankets and pulled out a rope I had made from my diapers. It was firm and stretchy, so my baby's body could be secure as long as my hands held on tight. I tossed the rope over the wooden bars of my crib, and then through those same bars I slid my big soft pillows.

Now it was time for the most difficult part, crossing the top of the bars…

I had worked hard during those weeks to try to build strength in my feet, arms, and hands; pretending to fold the sheets, squeezing the bars with my fat hands, and jumping to exhaustion in the crib. They were all attitudes that any hyperactive baby would have, so no one suspected a thing.

Laria had just impersonated the other maiden behind the door. Laria was a young woman in her early twenties, she took her work seriously because the financial support of her family depended on her sending them money. So my opponent tonight wasn't someone I could get past.

I rose like a wounded king and rocked to the edge of the bars like a drunken bum, but when my hands gripped the top, not even a tornado could clear me of them. At this point, I bent my knees and pushed off repeatedly, practicing the movement. When the time came, I simply jumped up and drew my body forward with my hands.

A resounding success.

Now I was on top of it all, sitting on the fine wood of the crib. I lay down on my paunchy baby's stomach and grabbed the diaper line, slowly began to slide down it until I could feel the softness of the pillows under my sensitive feet, and only then did I drop.

The pillows were not to cushion my body but to silence the fall.

When I turned around and looked at the stage in front of me, a surge of emotions washed over me. The animal paintings on the walls looked gigantic, and the colors of the alphabet letters on the posters shone brighter than ever. Everything was so vast. The moonlight entered through the large window, making the marble floor shine, the curtains were open because I had implied that I was afraid of the dark by crying until I was tired.

I still didn't know how to walk, but I did know how to crawl. Like that, I headed towards the center of the room while pushing my wooden toys aside. When I got to the place where the moon evoked its incandescent rays, I positioned myself in such a way that I was in a line with the window. So I crossed my legs and brought my hands up to my navel, closing my eyes.

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It was true that I had decided to start with the recovery spell, but until I had the chant to cast it, I was not going to wait and avoid learning other spells. The recovery spell was just an advantage, not a necessity.

I had decided to try the water ball spell until I was confident enough to go for the fire. However, I needed to be equally careful with both elements, because if I managed to conjure water and I didn't know how to evaporate it, they would realize that something strange was going on.

Therefore, I raised my little hand and relaxed my arm, then said:

—Umh.

Nothing.

I tried again and failed again. And again.

“Magic is a common feature, why can't I summon it?”

Was I missing some connection to the water element? Or was it something else?

I felt as if by taking one step, I would take two back. One good news brought two bad news with it.

I never considered myself a prodigy, I swore I had no magical talent from the day I saw her, and therefore I knew I wouldn't succeed the first time. But even so, I was not able to feel or do anything at all.

I couldn't put out a candle, I couldn't move a flame, I couldn't summon a drop of water, I couldn't manipulate magic in any way and I didn't understand why.

So I did what I was best at doing, thinking. I had to erase everything I knew of magic or any unwritten theory and start over.

“The runes… The day I saw them for the first time, I clearly remember the indistinguishable feeling of familiarity with them. That power had filled my insides, rejoicing my… spirit.”

So, I got it.

The calling "power" that I felt at that moment was nothing more than the energy that was feeding something inside me, my spirit. The spirit represented a core in my body, and that core had felt familiar with runes because it was what fed on mana.

The core was literally that, the source of all magic, the ability to cast spells used the core's energy to bring them to reality. The elements were all that surrounded us, because mana was in everything, in every particle and atom of the air, and that same mana was what a nucleus fed on.

A magical core.

So, if I wanted to cast magic, I had to awaken my core first. The question now was: How?

What technique was used to awaken a magician's core? What methods did I have to submit my body and mind to do it? Was it natural? Or could it also be manipulated from outside?

The questions made me feel like I didn't know anything about magic. It was really like I was starting from scratch again. That is why I began to feel the unpleasant sensation that I was once again drowning in a glass of water that I did not stop filling.

Was I going to have to wait who knows how much longer to figure out how to awaken my core? After planning for so many weeks, studying so many people, and memorizing so many faces, did I have to give up and be subjected to the chains of time again?

I inhaled deeply, my blood beginning to boil with the hatred that the mere thought evoked in my mind. I unconsciously tense my shoulders, affirming my body on the ground. Then, my hands clenched with force and anger, I held my breath for a few seconds, thinking that this way I wouldn't let go of the hatred and anger and I could continue feeding on it.

“I was humble enough not to fill my head with pathetic, miserable ideas that I was someone special. I reduced myself to the status of a random person, erasing my name and believing that I was the same as the rest. I deceived myself into meeting the needs of others, believing that I was weak and should keep my head down before the strong. Not only that, but I submitted to patience, giving up what made me believe that I was achieving something. But in the end, was it all going to be a waste because I didn't have the answers I was looking for? Just because my incompetence in this weak body did not allow me to search for solutions?”

Within seconds, my nails had dug into my skin and blood was dripping from my clenched fists onto the marble as if one were the canvas and the other the brush. I was the means, the way to the result. My eyes remained closed, but somehow I could see this. It was as if I was watching a river of blood flow. Then I realized that I could move the blood, and I drew it to my solar plexus.

The more blood that collected in the plexus, the more I felt the energy in my body. It was as if two sides were fighting each other inside me, one defending and the other attacking. In this skirmish, the sides were not fighting for a balance of harmony and peace, the blood that was now in the form of a snake wanted something more… It wanted the total and absolute submission of the other side.

I wanted nothing more than the recognition of my efforts, I wanted the reward for my sweat. But that light inside me that was so passionately opposed to the snake made it difficult to fulfill my desires.

So I intervene, imagining that the light was simply extinguished, losing its brightness, and the snake surrounded it, obscuring it completely.

This was how I created my cultivation technique.