It has been 22 days since I came to this world. What have I been doing all this time you ask? Well, I wake up in the morning, I eat the breakfast Audric makes, he teaches me the language until noon, we eat lunch, and then we study the language some more until evening, and then we eat and go to bed. That has been my daily schedule for the last three weeks.

Audric has been doing a bit more than that though, for example he used the material from some old cloth clothes he had stored in his ring to make me something to wear. They are not the best clothes, his sewing skill being sub par, but they work better than the giant cloak that drags the ground when I walk in it.

How am I doing in my study of the language? Well I can now name most anything you can point a finger at, and have moved on to learning idea words and how to build simple phrases. I can get now get simple ideas across, and can understand simple sentences. He had also been teaching me reading and writing, but I was still a novice at it.

This morning my routine changed a bit from the usual. After finishing breakfast in our shared ruin room Audric says to me:

"Ambrjrn, I am walking to weigh your mana."

Hmm... Maybe that one word means going instead of walking, and the other one is measure? But that is besides the point, it came! The fated measuring of mana!

Audric waved his hand and brought forth a square transparent crystal that was slightly larger than a dice. He held it with both hands and the clutched it to his chest. After holding it for a few seconds the crystal winked white light twice and he pulled it away from his chest. Floating inside the crystal were several symbols that I recognized as what Audric had pointed out to be numbers, I did not know what the exact number means, but it looked like a large number.

Next he held it out to me and I took it and repeated the motion, holding it to my chest. I felt a faint tingling sensation were I held the crystal, and after a few seconds it flashed twice. Pulling it away I saw it displaying a different number. Audric looked a bit surprised at the sight of it.

"Good, better than some ••••... Err... Middle mages."

He took back the crystal and with a poof it had disappeared back into his ring. Then another yellowish shard shaped crystal appeared. He handed it to me and said:

"This crystal shows your ••••••.... What magic you will be good at."

I nodded in understanding, probably that word means attribute. I hopped I didn't get stuck with some attribute that was shunned, like death or something. I took the crystal and did like I did with the other one. I felt a similar tingling sensation and the shard began to glow. I held it out to see it. It was glowing with white light. What did that mean? Was it light or holy attribute?

"What is white... Attribute?" I said, trying out the new word.

"White is no attribute. All mages can use all magic, but those with a attribute are better in that one kind."

So it was a relief on my part to know I would still be able to use magic, but I was kind of disappointed to not have an attribute. Audric continued his lesson.

"To use magic, a person must feel their mana, move it where they need it, and then make it do what they want. First we need to get you to feel your mana. I will put a small amount of my mana in you so you feel what mana is and then you look for your own, you understand?"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I nodded. Audric grasped my arm, and I soon felt a strange sensation travel up my arm. A bit like a fog inside my body. Soon enough I began to notice that I had my own pool of the 'fog' in my chest. That would be my mana pool.

"I can feel my mana pool."

"That was fast. Now try willing the mana to move around. It takes most people several hours to get their mana to move." He said as he let go of my arm.

I closed my eyes and began. I willed a small portion to move to my hand, and the mana went to my hand. I began moving it to all different parts of my body with ease. It seemed as simple a breathing. For the real test I tryed focusing it above my open palm, surprisingly that to was done with ease. I began to manipulate it into different shapes, even though mana is invisible I could feel it as I made it into spheres, hexagons, and squares.

As I was manipulateing my mana, I began to notice all the free flowing mana around me. It was in everything, the air and the earth, like a constantly flowing river, and unlike Audric's mana which felt foreign in my body, this natural mana felt the same as my own. I began to try and manipulate it as well, seeing if I could draw off the endless torrent of mana all around me, and it obeyed, flowing into my waiting hand. I absorbed some of it and it filled my mana pool as if it had always been there, and at the same time even making it bigger.

I was ecstatic, if I could use this mana normally, than I would have a limitless supply. Could this be my cheat skill? I would have to question Audric. I turned to him who had already laid down on his firs to wait for me to practice.

"Umm... Audric, what is this mana in the air?"

His eyes snapped open at that, and he quickly sat up.

"Hoo... You managed to feel that? Not many can so soon. That is known as •••••. ( ether will be used for lack of an English word) Now I told you that all life makes mana. The stronger the life, the more pure the mana. The world also makes mana, it is the purest form of mana, and it is everywhere. But people can not use it normally, although some use it to power magic circles, but that is a ••••• •••••••••"

So it really was a unique ability. This really does make up for not having an attribute. But I am pretty sure I got the hang of moving my mana, so on to the next question.

"How do I make my mana do what I want?"

Audric looked at me quizzically, clearly thinking that I was asking before I had figured out how to move my mana, yet he answered me anyway.

"You move your mana where you need it, and then you •••••••" he taps his head with his finger "what you want. Then you will it to be."

So I need to imagine what I want right? So let's give it a try. I start by drawing some of the either from the air and from it into a softball sized sphere above my right hand. Then I try to imagine a flame, what makes a flame? It's air, fuel, and heat right? So the either is the fuel, and it also vibrates the molecules to create heat, while sucking in air from the surroundings. Next is willing it to be and presto! A white sphere of raging fire appeared before my hand, spewing heat throughout room in a shockwave, blackening nearby papers on the floor, while also sucking in large quantities of air. Old man Audric nearly jumped out of his skin.

"What in •••••••• •••• is that?"

I was impressed by the fireball I had produced. Apparently when I had imagined it absorbing nearby air, it sucked in large quantities, producing a white flame, which if I remembered correctly was the hottest know flame back on Earth. It seems that I had subconsciously formed a barrier of ether around myself when I felt the heat from the flame, a testimony to how natural the mana manipulation came to me, but as it was hastily put up the heat was still getting to me, so I quickly put it out.

"Such a flame... Like the core of a powerful flame •••••••••...."

Audric was shocked to say the least. He looked at me with wide eyes filled with mixture of emotions.

"I thought for sure I felt the ether coverage to fuel that flame..."

"Well... I kind of can use the ether..."

"WHAT! How is that... Wait... Now that I think about it the summoning circle was powered by either... Perhaps that is the reason? Well one thing is for sure, we have to continue your magic training. We will make you the an archmage in no time!"

And thus began my instruction into magic.