The last day of school passed quickly, and everyone was soon enjoying their summer break.

Not much changed for Dirk though. He still continued to workout and practice magic. Now, Cecilia didn't even have to plan his workouts. He simply rotated between workouts that targetted different muscle groups. At least, that's what he did in front of her. While on his own, he would train himself into the ground.

However, there was one change that Cecilia decided to make. Dirk didn't only train his muscles but also did cardio. He would run several milesa day, and his running path was a trail around the Marquess neighborhood. While the word neighborhood implied that they were close together, the case was actually the opposite. Each estate was large, larger than mansions on Earth. They were also spaced nicely, so just running around his own house would be a good enough trail that he would simply run a few times. That's actually what he did for the past year. Lapping his house would keep things simple and keep him safe.

But now, Cecilia decided to bring him to a different area to run. The two left the house and jogged to a plot of land outside of the Marquess neighborhood. This land was covered in trees and rough terrain.

"I want you to run here from now on. Running in this area requires you to watch your footwork and move around trees. It'll be more taxing, and you won't always be running on flat ground, so it's good to start getting used to rough terrain now. I'll run with you for the next week or so until you remember the route, and then you can come here by yourself. Okay, follow me."

Saying that, Cecilia started running straight into the forest. Dirk quickly followed while memorizing the path they took.

He took in all the details around him. The trees, the bushes, the dirt, the grass, any branches on the floor, piles of leaves, and even the nests of birds. He was very observant as they ran for several minutes, and it was only when his mother stopped that he realized that they exited the forest.

"This is the end of this forest patch. Over there is another portion of the city. You see that clock tower right there? If you see that, then just go the opposite way to return home."

Dirk nodded as they looked at the city. There were buildings around 200 meters away, and the tallest one was a clock tower. It was indeed a good landmark to remember. As for the rest of the buildings, they seemed to look like shops or hotels or even apartment complexes. This wasn't a high class area of the city, but it wasn't poor either. It was almost like a suburb.

"Alright, let's go back. How about you lead?"

"Understood."

Dirk nodded before turning around. He definitely remembered the way back, and even if he didn't, his AI had charted a map. Everywhere he went was logged, so he would never get lost unless he was transported while unconscious.

Sure enough, Dirk ran on exactly the same path they came on. Cecilia was yet again surprised by his memory.

"I'm not sure if you should be a ranger or a scholar. Anyway, good job. I'll still come with you for a couple of days, but after that you can come run on your own."

"Understood."

"Mm. Oh! I almost forgot. How is your progress with the Spark spell?"

Cecilia asked as they walked back into the house. Dirk put up his hand in response.

Cecilia watched as a circle slowly took shape. Each of the runes were then written around it, and once the 7th rune was completed, a small ball of fire was created. Dirk had decided to cast the spell personally instead of shocking his mother with an instant cast.

"Fantastic! Such a talented boy! I didn't think you would learn the spell in a year. Ethan was taught the spell at 8 years old, and he was only able to cast it himself at 10. You've done a very good job. Now, would you like to learn the other spells too?"

"Yes."

Dirk nodded eagerly. He was close to asking his mother himself so he could learn the runes. The more spells he knew, the better. Plus, he was interested in how he would go about casting the gust and water ball spells, two elements he didn't have the attributes for.

"Alright then. Come here. I will teach you the runes for the earth element sweep spell. After that you can move on to the water ball spell."

Saying that, the two went back to the house where Cecilia brought out a book and taught Dirk the runes. Being able to cast the Spark spell, he was naturally able to easily form an earth element magic circle. Only the runes needed to be memorized and then worked on. He thought, if all went well, then he would be able to cast the Sweep spell in a month.

.............

........

"Come on! Last rune..."

[Alert! completed Magic formation detected.]

"Yes!"

Dirk smiled excitedly as he saw a green magic circle take form above his palm. The earthen mana revolved around the circle continuously, forming a closed loop. Upon his command, the circle would activate and control any light objects within a range of 10 meters, pushing them away. This was the sweep spell, and simple spell usually used to brush away dirt on floors.

Dirk has just completed it, and just like with the Spark spell, the AI detected the magic formation. Dirk gave an affirmative, and it was saved to cast later.

The next moment though, his mood worsened. It was almost two months since the end of his first year in school, meaning it had taken two months to complete this spell. He was disappointed that it took double the time he initially thought.

The reason it took a lot longer was because the function of the runes were very different than the fire spell. The runes meant totally different things, and Dirk had a hard time indicating its parameters. He had to slowly understand the runes and then create them.

Runes, as Dirk had come to know, weren't so simple. They weren't just lines and symbols. Each rune held data, and each rune needed to be imbued with that data by Dirk personally. The runes indicated how the mana would interact with the surrounding matter, as well as all the other indicators such as area of effect, objects that he desired to control, the speed of mana consumption, and more.

Dirk had a hard time getting used to this system of runes. The way that runes were formed was foreign to him. It was like speaking some kind of language. In fact, that was actually how Cecilia explained it to him.

She said that runes were a magical language discovered by interacting with mana and nature, breaking down their inner workings. It could be said that runes were a truly magical language, but that would be understating how profound they were. Runes were the medium by which the people of the world systematically controlled mana and manipulated nature. Normally, people could only play around with mana by pulling it places, like Dirk and Rita would do during their lunches at school. But with runes, they were able to form spells with specific effects. Runes were what created magicians.

And after one learned runes and were able to fluently cast spells, they could go from 'writing' this language in the form of spells to 'speaking' this language in the form of direct casting. Direct casting was achieved through, for lack of a better description, casting the spell internally with your mind. Your mind became the circle, and the runes were written by the soul, forming a spell and using your body as the medium to cast. This eliminated the magic circle, consumed less mana, was silent, and could be faster than normal. However, it took more skill and concentration. Visualization was a significant part of human cognition. Direct casting was like writing a poem blind.

Dirk still hadn't figured out direct casting, but his mother told him not to worry about this. She said that he first needed to establish a magic technique, and then he would need to learn more runes. Through this, his mind would become more powerful, and he would understand the nature of runes more. Even then, she said that direct casting required lots of talent and a high affinity for the element of the spell. It wasn't something so easily done.

Hearing this, Dirk decided not to set the bar too high. Forming these small chore spells that anyone with a modicum of mana could do was already hard enough. He knew there was a lot out there that he had yet to learn about, so he took it one step at a time. These past 7 years of being a child were really good at developing his patience.

And so, Dirk moved on to attempting the water ball spell. This was probably the most useful chore spell in the world as it could create water out of thin air in exchange for the consumption of mana. It couldn't be understated that water was the most essential resource for all life, so naturally it would be the most widely used spell. Dirk couldn't imagine how many lives had relied upon this very spell throughout this magical world.

However, Dirk immediately realized how difficult it would be to perform the spell. Unlike for earth and fire, he didn't have the water attribute. When looking at mana, he could barely sense moisture from the gray fog around him, an indicator of the water mana. Runes required his manipulation of the element, something that was easy for earth and fire. But he could barely see the water mana, let alone control it.

It was because of this that Dirk's first day of attempts was for naught. He literally got nowhere. He couldn't even form a circle, let alone try to write the runes. Ultimately, he had to settle for first trying to even interact with water mana. He couldn't predict how many times he would need to drain his concentration to pass this step, but he knew it would be a lot, and it would take a much longer time to get anywhere. Dirk wasn't sure if he could do it within a year.

That didn't get him down though. If he could get through school, then he could get through this. Nothing was as mind numbing as listening to a teacher drone on for hours about the letters of the alphabet.

............

.........

.....

Time continued to pass quickly. Dirk eventually went back to school, and with his keen memory and trusty AI, he blazed through classes with top marks. He was always at the top of his class and had become a bar that the rest of the competitive children sought to match. Surprisingly, Ava was always right behind him. Dirk guessed it had something to do with her mental powers, whatever they were.

School was the least of his concerns though. His top priority was practicing magic, and working out was a close second. He did these two things every day without fail. Cecilia became more and more proud of her son's determination, and whenever Ryker visited home, he would always congratulate Dirk on surviving his wife's brutal workout regime. This always confused Dirk though. Cecilia always seemed to take it easy on him. His own workouts were the brutal ones.

Besides working out though, Ryker was extremely pleased to see Dirk's ability with magic. While Dirk had countless troubles with casting the water ball spell, that was beyond his attributes and Ryker didn't even consider it. He always enjoyed seeing his son's Spark spell, and Dirk had been getting more proficient with the spell so he could cast it plenty fast.

Though, there was one thing that stumped Dirk. After praising Dirk a bit, Ryker had gone and cast a Spark spell on each of his 10 fingers, creating 10 small fireballs. Dirk was baffled as he watched all 10 spells form at the same time, and he suddenly realized that being able to perform the Spark spell was absolutely nothing special. In his father's hands, it looked like nothing more than a parlor trick.

Not long after his father cast the spells though, he earned a smack from his wife. She scolded him saying how he shouldn't kill Dirk's motivation like that. The two then got in a bit of an argument, and seeing that, Dirk's thoughts drifted elsewhere.

Mom smacked dad? While it was only across the head, he was intrigued. In his life on Earth, he only knew the rough and tough Gray. That man never yielded to anyone, and if someone tried that, he would pummel them. Gray would be just as harsh on females as he would males, and nobody was spared the rod. Dirk remembered a time when a superior female officer had tried to verbally fight Gray. It didn't end well for her, even though she was his superior. He didn't even get punished. The title of supersoldier drill instructor earned him a unique position, one that could disobey superiors and talk directly to the president.

So seeing this kind of submission from a man was interesting to Dirk. Weakness was a crime where he came from. He didn't know why his father would allow himself to be hit, regardless of who it was from and no matter how hard it was. And while it seemed as though Dirk was looking too deep into such a mundane occurrence, it struck a certain chord in him and made his thoughts run. He wondered what he would do. If Rita were to try and hit him, would he let it land? What about Ava? He thought it was an interesting dilemma.

Regardless, life continued to move forward. Since Rita was now 11, she was done with school, so she either stayed home or went out to see friends. Dirk continued his life, and before he knew it, a year passed. In this year, he completed his second year of school and turned 8.

Then, another year passed with him turning 9. By that time, Rita had gone off to the academy, and he was now the last of the children yet to leave the house.

Dirk continued growing all the same, becoming stronger and faster. Surprisingly, he was capable of amazing feats of strength despite only being 9. His workouts were now lasting 3 hours with the difficulty of each session growing. And despite not using any weight, he knew that he had the strength of an adult at minimum. This was not only because of his enhanced body, but also because of that strange energy called Anima.

According to Cecilia, Anima was naturally brought in by the body after working out, using it to recover. So when someone continuously worked out for long periods of time, they would naturally absorb some Anima. However, they had to at least have the attribute, and luckily Dirk did. He would only continue to get stronger as he grew and worked out.

This strength was even reflected by his profile.

|Profile|

Name: Dirk Strider

Species: Human

Tier: I

Rank: I-

Attributes: Fire - 71% (Lightning - 89%), Earth - 88% (Metal - 93%), Dark - 92%

Traits: Cybernetic Enhancement, Adaptable Genes, Pure Soul

Skills: A.I. Interface (Grade 7)

Both his tier and his rank went up by a level. With Dirk being capable of casting two chore spells, he advanced. And the result of a few years of hard workouts was the rank going up from 0 to I-. Honestly, he was a bit disappointed seeing that though. That was three years of hard ass work! While he had no issue doing it, he would've enjoyed seeing a bit more progress!

Nevertheless, he was moving forward. Everyday he would go and run in the woods his mother showed him and then do his own workouts. Cecilia had eventually stopped monitoring his workouts since he never once slacked, so he was basically free to do as he wished. His training was now following a strict schedule where he would wear down certain muscle groups day by day. He did all kinds of unique workouts that never allowed his body to get used to a certain set of movements. Changing things up would prevent stagnation.

........

.....

"Hah!"

*Thud!*

"Hiya!"

*Snap!*

With a loud crack, a branch was blown in half. Dirk brought his leg down with a controlled motion, returning to a grounded state.

Looking at his shin, one could see purple bruises and scabs along the bone. Both shins were like this. But Dirk's face didn't express anything as he simply shook his leg out.

Currently, he was going through the last of his martial arts drills. Today he was focusing on kickboxing. Other days, he would focus on things like boxing. He mainly stuck to anything that revolved around striking. He couldn't exactly practice grappling with no partner.

Initially, Dirk didn't plan to wait so long to practice martial arts. It was one of the things he wanted to do when he turned 6. But he only started when he was 9, and that was because he didn't have a suitable place and wasn't in a suitable situation. In his home, there wasn't anywhere out of sight that he could practice, and his mother was always hovering around. But now that he was in the forest and his mother didn't watch him anymore, he could do what he wanted how he wanted. Plus, there were plenty of trees to practice with.

This led to now. Currently, Dirk was 10 years old, and on his last year of school. In fact, as he finished up his kickboxing practice, he could see the sunrise ending. It was just about time to go to school.

This was how Dirk usually did his workouts. He would do martial arts in the morning, using the pain to wake himself up, and then after school he would do his usual workouts.

Seeing how it was almost time, he jogged back to the house, disregarding his aching legs. As he entered, he slipped past everyone and headed to his room, putting on pants and heading back down for breakfast.

After eating, he dressed himself proper and cleaned up. He then boarded the carriage he always took, bidding the driver good morning as he always did. His mother never took him to school or picked him up anymore. Normally, she was either out doing something somewhere or in the garden. Dirk had become responsible for himself from morning to evening. Though, the maids still prepared his food.

The carriage quickly arrived at the school, and Dirk said goodbye to the driver as he disembarked. While walking to class, he met up with Ava. The two seemed to be on the same clock as they would always meet each other 5 minutes before class. If one didn't show on the minute that they usually did, the other would wait as walking in alone had become weird.

The two took their seats in the back. Ava conversed with the girl next to her as Dirk sat in silence. While they had retained the same seats they chose at the beginning of the year, other seats moved around, and Ava was lucky enough to have one of her friends sat next to her.

*Ding!*

Dirk heard the bell ring, and the class automatically quieted down. Their teacher was already at her desk, but instead of the usual beginning of a lecture, she stood up and looked at everyone for a bit.

"We won't be doing much today, just some fun activities. You all have 4 days before graduation, so instead of filling your minds with more information, I want to talk about what you can expect going into the academy."