This past year had been kind of boring, if Marik were to be honest. That wasn't to say that absolutely nothing had happened of that he hadn't improved. It was just that almost everything had seemed kind of dull. He had tried to make things more exciting in small ways that wouldn't bother his master too much. Making a few extra quips and jokes here and there, coming up with ideas for a few joke spells, making up games he could play by himself, and so forth. Only two months ago did he finally come across an answer that he could accept as the most likely reason. Well, reasons, since it came in two parts. The first thing he could come up with was that he was lonely. His master was okay and all but he was also the only social interaction Marik had other than the once per year visit and meeting the twins had sparked some kind of subconscious desire to interact with more people. The other thing he thought about that probably added to the feeling of boredom was when he allowed some of the crazy to take over.

All these years he had tried to remain sane. In order to deal with Sai he had allowed that little piece in the back of his mind to come free. Free was definitely the right word because just letting himself go like that definitely made him feel free. He had just barely caught himself a few times since then when he was about to let himself run a little too wild. He was kind of worried he might have opened a door that should have remained closed and he was almost certain that when he went there tomorrow he would open that door again.

The surprising thing was that a year full of boredom resulted in actually getting a lot done. His studies were an exception to that but he was open with his trusted master and told him how he was feeling bored and how it was hard to study so they came up with a few ways to help him focus more. His master also finally admitted that he was already at the point in several studies that surpassed about half of the adults around the world and that it would be okay to start backing off just a little. Marik was okay with that at first but soon decided that even if he was having a hard time focusing on his studies he still enjoyed the time he spent with his master and asked for a new subject of study: etiquette. Marik would probably never be able to fully master etiquette with there being so many variations depending on region and all but he figured it would be better to know it to some extent so that he wouldn't offend the wrong people in the weirdest of ways.

In his own personal training, he had upped his physical practices and used the time during some of the more repetitive things to ruminate on the mystical. He had pushed himself pretty hard for a few months early on in his boredom which had ended up helping with his physical strength and stamina. Walking around without making noise and leaving few if any tracks had finally become almost natural to the point where he recently noticed that he might even be able to apply it somewhat to when he was running. He had started using a nearby dead tree as his second sparring partner in addition to his imaginary enemy. He figured that if he didn't have any kind of solid feedback it could make for a very bad day in the future if he had to fight someone very large and heavily armored. His craftsmanship, however, was still utter crap. There was some improvements, for sure, but unless he ever came across some kind of emergency situation where he needed it then it would be better to only ever do enough to keep up his skills and otherwise just drop it. If he really needed something made that badly it would be better to find someone else he could trust to do the job.

Thanks to his notes and in repentance for the year before, this year he actually made some decent progress with his darkness sorcery. Actually, focusing on his darkness sorcery had helped improve all of his sorcery over all. He had been trying to figure out all the ways he could work on it when some of his past life came to haunt him once more, in a good way. The question was posed: what is darkness? In his past life it was just the absence of light. In that case, if darkness was the absence of light, then darkness sorcery should be sorcery that makes light shift or move away, right? What about the color black, though? If that was considered darkness as well, and since the color black absorbed light, then couldn't darkness sorcery do that as well? This almost made it seem like darkness sorcery was actually light sorcery, though. He had eventually felt so lost that he had to ask his master what light sorcery was. Light sorcery, as he understood it, created and, to some extent, controlled light including things like sunlight with all it's warmth. That had been the kind of revelation that pieced things together for Marik, to the point where he even felt like he might be on the cusp of some great new discovery. It turns out that all the sorceries were connected to each other and borrowed a little bit from each other.

Using some of this knowledge he had managed to create a kind of second skin over his body, including his clothes and hair and such, using darkness sorcery to sort of warp and hide the light. In other words he managed to make himself look faded, blurry, and darker. He also managed to use that to push himself and now he could finally use two other sorceries at the same time while also keeping up his mind shell. Once he had finished designing his blur effect and could make it work like he wanted, he had dropped it down to only his hands and tried to coat his claws in lightning. The original intent was that he wanted to coat the actual lightning itself in darkness to make dark lightning. The main reason being that it just sounded awesome having dark lightning. He was only turning 9 years old tomorrow and you can't expect a bored 8 year old boy to do everything solely for usefulness. It didn't really work, of course, but after a lot of trying to make dark lightning he did manage to make lightning arc across his fingers while having his hands blurred and the mind shell up. He was so focused on trying to make dark lightning that it took two days before he even realized what he had achieved.

From there he shifted his focus and started working on keeping lightning on his hands, blur on his whole body, shell over his mind, and tried using a little more lightning to lightly pump into his muscles for the small boosts as he moved. After several months of that he started adding wind sorcery as well. He figured if he could cover himself with darkness then why not do the same with wind and create something similar to the wind cushion on a smaller scale. That didn't work as well he had hoped for a few reasons such as not being able to breathe or having the air be too still around him all the time making his body overheat and so on. Trying to solve each of those issues bit by bit eventually resulted in just readjusting the air flowing around him instead of making a weird air shield skin thing. That ended up being more incredible than he planned. It reduced his wind drag in front while adding propulsion behind for all actions from running to punching, while also keeping his body at a reasonable temperature, and providing at least a little bit of cushioning still which he could enhance a little bit right when and where he needed it. Need to punch this tree? The punch goes super fast like a jet engine is attached, then right before the hit lands a small cushion is in front of the fist making it hurt less to hit something hard while adding even more kaboom to the punch. Mostly. Obviously it didn't always work out perfectly like that and it would require a lot more practice and perfecting before he could make it all flow together so well but he had tested each individual part and could make it flow together to some extent when he moved slow enough.

All that said, it was still pretty fun using both wind and lightning sorcery to enhance his running speed at the same time and since he had somehow jumped straight up to being able to use a fourth as well now then keeping up his mind shell and adding the blur effect made him feel like he was doing something pretty awesome.

He had worked on his magic quite a bit as well. Magic Wave and Create Water still had nothing more for him to really bother with other than to keep up the practice of being able to use them. The memory fuzz spell he could weave pretty quickly and was likely his most practiced spell. His derivative creation, which he called Fuzz Flash even though he knew it was a terrible name, had been slightly improved in the way that he could weave it more smoothly and quickly as well as adjust the wave speed and distance proportionally to how restricted he directed it. If he fired it in as narrow of a cone as he could then it would fly out as fast as an arrow and at least as far as the eye could see. He had finally revealed the spell fully to his master and explained what it was and did before finally asking something that had been on his mind. Why could he see the waves of Magic Wave and Fuzz Flash? Turns out you can see your own spells most of the time, even when it's not something others can see. In other words a mage who turns someone else invisible is the only one who can still see that person without special senses. That was a good thing to know. As a side note, Fuzz Flash would be placed in the mystic archives soon with him listed as the creator.

Quick Transfer was a fun little spell that he realized would take years to master fully. He could use it quickly, accurately, or with a decent distance, but he had to choose which one. Eventually he would get good enough at it to do fun things with it like quickly sneak something into someone's pocket. For now it was just something he had to steadily work on and improve.

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He had another two new spells in his repertoire this year as well. The slightly less exciting one, Move Water, he had actually half figured out after remembering some of the work his master had done while making the new water shield spell. It was a relatively simple spell, in comparison to some of his others, that merely allowed him to take control of, direct, and move some water. It was also a spellform spell and one of the first continuous usage spells he had learned. It kind of made him feel like he was a water-controlling martial artist like he had seen somewhere in his past life. The other new spell he had learned was the last spell he requested from the deal with his master. It was actually a very handy spell for many situations and one that he wondered why he had never thought to ask about before. It was a spellweave spell called Rapid Thinking that just enhanced the speed of his thoughts. It didn't last very long but it did have the side effect that he was hoping for: it made it feel like time slowed down slightly.

Realizing that he had missed lunch again, he wove Rapid Thinking, then applied his wind shift sorcery, muscle lightning sorcery, made sure his mind shell was still in place as an afterthought, and started running back home. He got to the door before his Rapid Thinking spell completely faded so he let all his sorcery fade off except the mind shell and relaxed a bit. Once his spell had finally faded away he opened the door and went inside to see his master had just sat down to eat. He felt a little better knowing that he wasn't the only one that forgot about lunch until now.

"Hi, Master."

"Hello, boy. I see you also got so caught up doing your stuff that you forgot lunch."

"Ya. But I think it was worth it. I managed to actually pull off all four sorceries at the same time for a full run! With the Rapid Thinking spell going at the same time it makes running through the trees really fun."

A look of shock was plastered all over his master's face and the fork that was in his hand dropped, hit the table, bounced to the floor, and finally settled after bouncing once more. His master's hands started shaking slightly and his mouth practically became nothing more than a straight line above his chin. Finally managing to draw in a deep breath, his master slowly started standing while talking slowly and calmly as if the fate of the world hinged on the conversation.

"Boy. For hundreds, possibly thousands, of years people have tried to use multiple sorceries at once. There were legends that said dragons could achieve such a feat, yes. In all the history of the world, however, there has never been a recorded instance of anything except, and only maybe, a dragon doing so. It was finally deemed an impossibility that only fools would ever dare to waste their time on. The closest anyone has ever gotten was a weird man once managed to use two of the exact same sorceries at the same time which weakened their effectiveness to the point where it became known as nothing more than a party trick for showing off. Now, are you honestly telling me that you can use not just two but four sorceries that are not the same but different and at the same time?"

"Umm. Yes? I can show you three of them outside right now if you want. The fourth is that mind sorcery which I always have going these days, so it's kind of hard to show it. That's why I wanted to wait to until I could do three instead of two so that I could actually show two at once. Then I just kind of forgot about it for the past month or two since I was having fun and then, uh, well it kinda just turned into being able to use all four. Wait. If we count using the same type, but in different ways and places then maybe it's actually six?"

"SIX?!"

His master stood so fast that Marik could have sworn he would flew through the ceiling.

"Let's go, boy. You said you could show me even now. I wish to see what may be one of the greatest discoveries in thousands of years with my own eyes."

Marik turned around and went back outside. He had felt that achieving that would be a pretty big accomplishment but maybe the accomplishment was a little too big? He wanted to originally do all of that to try and protect himself from now on, not make people want to chase after him. He sighed heavily as that thought started circulating. He might be able to convince his master to keep quiet about it somehow after the demonstration.

"Okay. So I already have my mind shell going because I never take it down. Next is my blur, like this. Umm, I don't know if you can see it really though, since it's designed to mess with people's vision of me. Next is my wind shift, like this. Then my sense enhancements. It's the other wind sorcery near my ears and nose. Then here's my lightning claws. And I don't want to stay still while using the next one, but I'll try and move as slowly as I can while using it. I pour a little lightning into my muscles, and..."

Marik ran around as slowly as he could while still using all of his sorcery before letting it all fade again as he ran back up to his master.

"I will say this now, boy. This is far above and beyond any discovery made since the founding of the Mystics at least. Is it possible for me to learn this, or...wait, not that. Boy, you are still too young. Well, your body definitely is, at least. I will keep this secret for now but you must be careful to never reveal that you can even use two much less six sorceries at once. There are some masters of the arts who can use multiple sorceries in such rapid succession that might as well be the same but...how amazing. Out of curiosity when did you first start working towards such a thing?"

"Umm. I think I started trying to figure it all out around the same time I hit that first block that you had to help me through. I kind of felt like this was parallel to thought so I wanted to figure it out myself and surprise you. And actually, Master, I think I can teach you how to do it. After all, you're the one who gave me the key to figuring it out."

"Wait. You say I'm the one who helped you figure it out? I don't remember saying anything so grand as to lead to doing this, though."

"You probably just didn't realize how great what you said was. Remember when you told me what light sorcery was and what it did? That was the key that made me realize how to use as many sorceries as I want. Kind of. It takes a little more than just that but that was the key part to understand how."

"Huh? Please explain. I'm actually quite anxious to learn whatever understanding you gleaned from my words."

"It's actually a simpler thing than you might realize, though. Some of it might take, or be because of, my past life's knowledge."

"Hmm. Yes. I could see how knowledge from another world might be able to provide insights unknown."

"Okay, well. Light sorcery can create and control sunlight."

"..."

"..."

"That's it?"

"That's what brought the revelation, yes. After all, sunlight is hot, right? Hot means fire, right? Fire lights up places as well, doesn't it? In that case light sorcery steps into the domain of fire sorcery and vice versa. There's no way only two sorceries touch the domains of each other. So if you start looking at all the ways the sorceries are or even could be connected then you start seeing how none of them need to have a true separation from the others. Instead of using a sorcery and deciding that you must push for that sorcery only, you could instead let your soul, umm, soften? We'll go with that word. Let your soul soften up and bleed into the other sorcery domains as well. Of course you also have to practice a lot at stretching your soul around in weird ways and all that, too."

"Wait. So, if I understand correctly, just assume all sorcery is the same and try to use it that way?"

"Not quite. Each sorcery is connected to others. The way to think of using a sorcery is to ask what is it that the particular sorcery itself is? Like my thoughts for darkness sorcery. What is darkness? The absence of light. What about the color black, is it considered darkness? Sure. The color black absorbs light, though. So what is darkness sorcery, then? A sorcery that deals with the absence and absorption of light. Creating and manipulating the absence of something is dealing with space. So just from this we can say that darkness sorcery is linked with both space and light sorceries. If you go through all the others, and get the appropriate knowledge, you'll find all sorts of links between them. Some are probably more obvious than others. Like light and fire are pretty obvious with just a little thinking about it. Lightning and mind sorceries are little more difficult, though."

"Hold on, boy. I'm trying to wrap my head around all this. You say lightning and mind are connected?"

"That one probably requires knowledge from my past life. The mind is connected to the brain and generally operated using very very tiny amounts of lightning."

"As I thought. Knowledge from the other world is incredible."

"So it really has been decided that my past life was in another world..."

"Of course. All evidence says so and no evidence says no. Hmm. Tomorrow we will still go as planned. I am banning you from using any sorcery while we are there, however. You say you keep up you mind sorcery at all times? It may be detected while there, so using any other sorcery would result in this being exposed. Try to refrain from magic as well, if possible. Although not nearly as big of a deal, it's still considered a mark of the gifted to be able to use a spell while also using sorcery at the same time."

"Thank you, Master!"

"Hmm? Why are you thanking me?"

"After I saw your reaction inside I got worried about a future where a bunch of scary and powerful people were chasing me around."

"Hahaha. To be honest I was slightly worried of the same thing. If we are careful, though, we might be able to slowly slip this new and great discovery in somewhere without too many people noticing us. We will be busy after tomorrow, though. For at least a short time it seems that you will be the master and I the student."

"I'll still call you Master, though."

"Hahaha. Fair enough, boy."