I had a lot of questions regarding how magic worked. But since I was forbidden from entering the school building, I decided to just do some brain storming with Shia who happened to be somewhat of a prodigy. She couldn’t use magic though.

My knowledge on the subject was solely based on the book I’d read. But I did have a decent understanding… I think.

“So what am I supposed to be doing?” Shia said.

Our house had a small backyard area where our thug- I mean, employees trained and hung around. And yes, Barack Senior ran a rather complicated company which I deliberately avoided learning more about. It was always better to act with caution regarding these. Who knew when they’d claim I learned too much and dispose of me.

Right now, there were about five burly clothed guys hanging in the corner, chatting. One of them was the girl I encountered twice already. I actually didn’t see any other girls among the employees.

“So you can’t use magic at all, right?” I said.

“Nope.”

It’d be evening soon. Our chores for the day was over. Finally, some free time!

“How about your mana reserves?”

“About average. But I have no affinity, so that’s why can’t.”

“Hold your hand, and imagine a fire.”

She followed my instructions. “Nothing’s happening.” As expected.

“How about you try to burn the air-” I stopped. “No, no. Only imagine air burning just above your fingers and in a very, very small area.” She had way more mana than me. I didn’t want to accidentally screw up the whole place.

“Just so you know, I’ve done this before.” She again concentrated, this time with her eyes closed. Nothing happened. “See, nothing.”

“Hmm… I didn’t want to try this but,” But I gave her a normal Fishbone. “Only keep this in your mouth. Don’t chew, don’t swallow.”

“Who would swallow a fishbone?” She stared at me with rather dubious curiosity. “Fine.” We waited for about a minute before Shia felt something… “Tickles,” she giggled.

We’d also caught the attention of our burly friends who were now coming this way. Time was limited. “Now, burn a fire. But think of it like you have a candle on top of your finger and that’s burning.”

“Right!”

Whoosh!

Some sparks, and then smoke… but no fire. “WOAH!” Shia jumped around, spat the fishbone on the ground which turned to dust. “AGAIN!” She tried, this time the same, a spark and then a smoke. Surprisingly she could keep doing it without the bone. A natural.

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I tried the same and yeah, nothing happened. It only worked for me about once a day. Not even a spark. Useless without the expensive ass fishbone, huh?

“Wow, how’d you do that little miss, I didn’t know you could use magic.”

“Sol taught me!” She seemed eccentric enough.

Now that she said it though, their attention fell on me. “OH yeah, I heard you awakened some mysterious flame powers young master. Mind showing us a bit?”

Young master? I wasn’t like I was in a manhua or something.

“If you don’t mind me accidentally burning this whole place down, sure.” I smiled.

They smiled too, albeit awkwardly. But yeah, I wanted to try magic myself. Part of why I had some ordinary fishbone. Apparently, even typical fish had some mana. Scratch that, everything had little amounts of mana. So, with a bone in my mouth, I imagined just a small flame on my fingertip… it lit up and didn’t burn my finger; phew. A slowly swirling flame. Can it change color though? What made red or yellow fire blue? More oxygen? I steadily imagined burning more oxygen, or more like sucking it into the fire. So a combination of wind and flame? I was using two methods to control the flow. One, small amount of mana from the fishbone and two… my intense concentration. It got brighter and the color almost resembled a blue stove fire but… not quite. How do I turn it off though?

I spat the fishbone. The fire continued burning but gradually shrank and disappeared after about a minute. Tired? And sweating no less. I guess I couldn’t do this for extended periods of time.

“Phew, you had us scared there for a second,” one of the burly men said. All of them were sweating. Guess they were really scared. “Congratulations!” They proceeded to clap.

“That was awesome!” I hadn’t seen Shia this excited… ever.

This is definitely going to be useful. But doesn’t this mean, everyone can use magic? No, that wasn’t quite true. People could use magic if they had my knowledge of how burning worked. I could probably expand and try other elements too… Even if they didn’t know the actual science, they could still understand as long as I explained in a proper way. Even without me, many probably could. But that wasn’t the problem. The real problem was mana. You needed active mana circulating within your body. And fishbone was a good way achieve that. But most people already had mana in them and in some cases the mana from the Fishbone could clash with mana within people, especially if they had a lot of it. This was also why many people got sick from fishbones. Particularly why Manafish wasn’t a popular cuisine among magicians. No one wanted to accidentally dampen their immune system and screw with their mana reserves just to have some good food. Sharmon probably would though. I mean, Shia already did.

Anyway, even if there were people like me who could understand and use this method, it was still a really expensive method. Normal fishbones weren’t anything special but they weren’t sold on the market. You had to buy the fish first. And they barely had enough to light a fire like a large candle. Meanwhile, Manafish bones were way expensive and that point just buying a Manafish seemed more reasonable. Meanwhile, fish scales were also mana rich but they always smelled shit to me so I didn’t bother. Maybe I should stock up just in case.

“What are you two doing?” Mrs. Alayla said. Apparently, she was back.

The burly men quickly dispersed.

“Umm… nothing,” Shia said. “Just trying out some new magic. Oh yeah, I can now use magic!” She showed her spark and smoke.

Her mother smiled. She smiled at me…oh boy…. I knew that smile. I knew that smile way too well. “Come here,” she said.

.

..

…

Suffice to say, I got quite the earful for the next half an hour. Just me though, why not SHIA!?