I can hardly believe it’s tomorrow.

"Kai, it's finally time for you to continue your training at the Academy,” Emdos says.

I raise my arms in the air with a big smile on my face. "Yeah! I can't wait!”

"Now listen, Kai, I know you're excited to finally enroll in the Academy, but you can't let anyone see you use your Mana."

I hesitate a moment before asking, "Why?"

"Didn't you want to make friends? If your peers find out you have something they don't, they'll be jealous and won't want to be your friend. But you should continue doing the training regimen you’ve been doing daily."

I frown. I do want friends, so I have to listen to him. “Fine… I just need to practice expelling Mana outta my hands and controlling how much comes out, right?"

"Yes, you've been doing an excellent job and almost have completed the first step. After you've mastered controlling your flow of Mana, you can begin training more advanced forms of Mana Manipulation. This is where you’ll be expelling Mana from different parts of your body or cover any part of your body with Mana at will.”

"Okay. What comes after that?" I ask with a grin.

“Oho, don’t get too ahead of yourself now. But once you’ve mastered that, you can open this book and read it,” Emdos says as he grabs a book from the top of the shelf. He holds the book in front of me and narrows his eyes into mine. “But you have to promise me. Don’t let anyone else read this book, don’t read it until you can manipulate your Mana freely, and don’t lose it. Do you promise?”

The room suddenly drops in temperature as I stare into his eyes. This isn’t the same nice Emdos that I know. I’ve rarely seen him serious about something. My heart races, and I can’t help but quiver my eyes while reaching for the book with my hands.

“I…” I mutter and then gulp. “I promise.”

I don’t dare linger my eyes away from his. My entire body locks in place. It feels like forever before Emdos lets go of the book. He smiles and says, "That's good. Put this in your backpack and keep it safe."

All the built-up tension disappears. It’s like everything goes to normal, and I’m not sure what happened. Emdos walks out of the room.

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I lick my lips and smile while staring at the red, tattered book. The binding is loose, but the writing on the cover catches my interest. I squint my eyes on it briefly, relaxing a moment later. It’s just some symbols I can’t read. I gradually tighten my grip on the book. A quick peek can’t hurt, right?

No, I can’t break my promise already. I set the book aside on my bed. Seeing the book in plain sight will only distract me. I’d better hide it. I fetch my backpack and then store the text inside.

I spend the rest of the day training my Mana capacity. Starting off, I let the Mana flow slowly out of my palms. When I’m comfortable with that, I switch it up by releasing Mana at a faster speed. The more Mana that comes out at once, the harder it is to control. Switching between the two rates every few seconds is even harder. It creates a new level of difficulty, even for the slow mode that I was completely comfortable with on its own.

An hour later, I lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. Five years ago, I felt this exact exhaustion and frustration when I first learned to release my Mana into the air for the first time. I smile. It’s just another hurdle to overcome.

I take slow, deep breaths as I close my eyes. Images and scenery from earlier training days play out in my head, and my consciousness fades into my memories.

The next day, I wake up early morning in bed, not remembering ever climbing in. I turn my head towards the clock. 5:59 AM. Ugh.

I turn the other way, trying to go back to sleep. I keep my eyes closed and lie still for what seems like an eternity. I turn back to the clock. Only a minute has passed.

I try to go back to sleep, but thoughts keep racing in my head. In two hours, I could make friends! How many will I have? What’ll they look like?

I roll around the bed in an attempt to shake this excitement. It would be better if I fall asleep, so it’ll be like an hour later instantly. Relax. I need to relax.

Memories from the past erupt. I never got to play with other kids because I was so busy training. Emdos didn’t let me and often told me training was more important. In a way, I’m glad he was strict. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten to this point, and I have so much more to learn.

Emdos was reluctant about letting me go to the Academy, but I promised I would train twice as hard. When he finally changed his mind and turned in an application, it felt like all my hard work paid off.

An idea suddenly hits me. I hesitate for a moment because it involves breaking a promise I had with Emdos. I’m not supposed to do anything else except try to control the flow of my Mana, but I have to try this.

I get up from the bed and go into my usual training spot to do a different type of training. An hour passes while I'm in a state of complete focus.

I can’t seem to stop my Mana from leaking out before it reaches the tip of my right index finger. Maybe I’m too focused on my finger. What if I made a barrier everywhere else and left an opening where I want it to come out?

First, I’ll make the entire barrier with no opening. I try releasing Mana through my finger. Nothing comes out as expected.

Now, I create a small opening at the tip of my finger and repeat the same thing. Mana comes out only at the spot.

I did it! I grin and clutch my left fist. Mana suddenly starts flowing out too fast from the opening. I force myself to stop smiling and concentrate back on the task at hand, but my lips tremble uncontrollably. I slap my cheek in an attempt to regain focus. I need to slow down the rate Mana flows out of my body.

My attention on my right hand is suddenly broken when Emdos asks from behind me, "Oh Kai, you're awake already? What're you doing?"

I promptly stop releasing my Mana and put my palms on the floor behind me to let them support my weight. There’s no way he saw anything from this angle. I can’t afford to let him know what I was doing. I turn my head around and pretend that I was just taking a breather from my usual training routine. "Yeah, I got up an hour ago and did some training. I'm resting now."

"Oh, is that so? Don't tire yourself too much before your first day." His footsteps start to fade out as I turn my head back. Just when I think I’m safe, he stops walking. "By the way, you were doing some interesting training…"

Oh, no… He noticed. He’s gonna make me eat carrots again for punishment!

"I'll let you off this time since you've done well. You're free to practice whatever you wish, but don't forget about the basics," Emdos warns.

That was it? I thought he was going to be harsher for going against his instructions. I sigh and stretch out my arms over my head while my back falls to the floor. I think I'm done for now. I'm gonna take a nap.