Strengthening magic. What was it exactly? In the world of Exarria, every capable fighter knew how to use strengthening magic, usually subconsciously. The magic relied on feeding your mana as a certain ‘energy’ to your muscles. By circulating your mana around your body and directly focusing them into your muscles, one could display feats of strength that would normally be impossible. It usually took a long time before anyone could start to do the conversion subconsciously, but once you had the feel of it, you could grow exponentially, and your strength would increase significantly.

Unlike normal magic, you didn’t have to necessarily learn the concepts behind the strengthening. Because it was your own body, you would naturally come to understand its properties, so even if you didn’t know it in your head, you still knew it with your senses. Hence, subconscious activation.

The Swordsmanship Training Academies taught anatomy, but even they didn’t know the full extent of the molecules within the human body. Even Saiton the Sage, with all the vast knowledge he brought, hadn’t been able to perfectly explain everything. The properties of the body were just too complex. Currently, it was more efficient to train and learn through experience than by reading books.

Shaden, however, had the full support of all the modern knowledge present in his reality.

“ATP and Ca2+ molecules…sarcomeres…this is so complicated,” said Shaden to himself.

Indeed. Biology was a complicated thing. Even with the knowledge, it was difficult to understand it. The process of muscle-tightening was immeasurably complex for Shaden’s high school brain. He had thought it would be as simple as healing.

Like support-healing spells, support-strengthening spells did not affect the receiver’s muscles directly. It just gave them more fuel to spare and/or removed their fatigue. The same went for support-defensive magic. It did not make someone’s skin tougher, but instead placed a thin layer of crystallized mana that blocked foreign attacks. Making someone’s skin itself tough as steel was nigh impossible. Even the greatest warriors could be killed if they let their guard down. If, that is—the skilled learned to subconsciously have a layer of mana around them, even when they were sleeping.

Magicians could learn to use their mana itself as muscles to compensate for their lack of training their bodies. This was what Shaden often did—use his mana to grab heavy objects, also known as telekinesis. However, this mana-muscle used an incredibly large amount of mana as it could not be cast with an incantation. Only with constant practice could it be used efficiently enough. As a magician, however, it was unnecessary to use it for there were other, much better spells. They weren’t meant to be fighting at the front.

Shaden really didn’t need to strengthen his body at this point. He could use his absurd mana pool to force his way through, and he was more of a magician. But like all men, Shaden had a burning passion to be able to fight majestically. He wanted to lift boulders with his own hands and run at the speed of a horse with his own legs. He wanted to fight. He dreamed of swinging a sword and punching through stone.

So as a baby, he decided to lift his crib. It wasn’t much, but he had to try. Shaden wrapped his tiny hands around the legs of the crib and attempted to raise it. It barely budged.

As expected, he thought. My two-year-old body is too weak.

He then used his mana to lift the crib. It moved upwards easily enough. What he had to do now was use that mana internally. But how would he channel something into him that was already inside of him?

His idea was to use mana to create large amounts of ATP in his muscles. He was on the right track, but the ‘energy’ created from mana required much more than that. Even Saiton the Sage had failed to consciously convert his mana into that ‘energy.’

There was no way Shaden would be able to at his age. He would require expert-level knowledge on not only ATP, but nerves and muscle fiber, bone tissue, and blood cells. It was faster to just train the body.

Shaden imagined that ATP molecules would be produced in his arm muscle. He focused and poured his mana in.

“Owowowow!” cried Shaden as his arm cramped. The excess dose of ATP had caused his muscles to contract randomly and cramp. He immediately stopped his mana and relaxed his muscles. Gosh, that was a bad idea. To be sure, he tried it on his leg—and yelled out in pain. Yep, this would definitely not work.

If only he had a mentor, he thought. If he had someone to teach him, he could become like Garthan. He wished his body would grow faster so he could go to school. But alas, time was time. He thought about using steroids, but it would probably have a disastrous effect on his body. He would put off training strengthening magic for now.

〄 〄 〄

Shaden couldn’t believe his luck. His brother had brought in a miracle.

He had brought in a cat. With a broken leg.

Shaden loved cats. He would always stop to pet a cat if he spotted one on the road. He loved cats more than any other domestic animal. They were sneaky, soft, cute…the list went on and on. The cat also had a broken leg, so it would be the perfect chance to improve his healing magic.

His mother thought differently.

“Rother! You can’t bring that here! The rooms will get dirty!” Melsei cried.

Rother had apparently picked up the cat from the road on the way home from the Academy. It had been lying on the streets, unable to run away as it had broken its leg somewhere. Rother loved animals in general; he had grown up in the countryside surrounded by them. He couldn’t let an injured animal die on the streets.

Melsei, however, disliked cats. They had sometimes stolen her food when she was living on the streets, and she even had a bad memory of one scratching her when she was rummaging through trash. In the dark, when no one was around, their clear eyes would shine ominously in the dark. She had been afraid of cats.

“Mom, please? The poor thing is injured,” Rother pleaded. “Can we let it stay until it recovers?”

Rother looked at his mother with big, puppy eyes. Tears glistened on them, about to sprout. Melsei looked at the cat once more. It was black with yellow eyes. Rother just had to bring the creepiest one. But as he had said, one of its legs was bent in the wrong way as it dangled helplessly in the air. It meowed weakly at Melsei.

Melsei sighed.

“Okay. But only until it recovers, promise?”

“I promise!”

“Bring it over to the front of your bedroom.”

Rother carefully moved through the house with the cat to the hall. Melsei hurried to the storage room and fetched an unused blanket along with a basket. She folded the blanket and placed it inside the basket, making a temporary bed for the cat. She took it over to where Rother was, and the cat was gently placed in it. The cat looked at both of them and meowed.

Shaden was watching from behind, his head poking out behind a wall. He wanted to go over and pet it, but he was waiting for his mother to finish her work. He had plenty of time later.

“Let the blood flow and mend the body – Heal.”

Yes, that was the spell! He had forgotten all about it. Well, now he knew.

The cat meowed at green light from Melsei’s hand seeped into its body. It seemed more relaxed now, but its leg was still bent weirdly.

“This is the best I can do,” said Melsei. “Let’s let it rest for now, okay?”

“Okay.”

“It’s almost time for dinner. Will you help me set up the table? I’ll even prepare some food for the cat.”

“Okay!”

They passed by Shaden as they went into the kitchen. This was his chance! He got up on his legs and started to approach the cat—

—as his mother picked him up and brought him to the kitchen with her.

“Don’t let Shaden near the cat, okay? He’s still a baby.”

“Okay, mom.”

Darn it.

〄 〄 〄

Shaden opened his eyes in the dark. He looked around to see the moonlight shining through the windows of his home and moved his body around. All was quiet except for the occasional howls and noises outside the building. He turned around and got onto his knees. Everyone was sleeping. It was finally time to go see the cat.

Luckily for him, his little bed had been moved to the living room as his parents now engaged in, ahem, various acts. Apparently, there was a kind of sound-proofing magic because there hadn’t been any noise, even murmurs, that came from the bedroom. Well, it was fine by him, though he was slightly curious. But what was important for him currently was to go see the cat.

He quietly levitated himself off the bed. It wasn’t exactly flying; he used his mana-hands to latch on to the ceiling and pull himself off from the bed and onto the floor. He had gotten used to using his mana-hands now, though he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he may be using too much mana. It really didn’t matter since it worked ideally, and he never felt exhausted.

Shaden gently stood up and walked towards the bedrooms. He crossed the entrance to the hall and spotted the dark shape in the middle of the hallway. The cat, suddenly noticing his presence, opened its yellow, glowing eyes. It looked mesmerizing as the moonlight reflected off it. It stayed quiet, alert for any signs of danger or hostility coming from the small figure approaching it.

Shaden slowly tip-toed over to the cat and sat down next to its basket. He inspected it for a few seconds. The leg hadn’t recovered at all, and its foot was still bent in the wrong direction. Shaden wanted with all his heart to heal the poor creature. However, he was becoming nervous that someone would wake up. His heart was beating like he was doing something illegal.

He had to find a way to cover the noise. If he remembered correctly, sound traveled through the air when molecules hit the molecules next to them. Simply, sound occurred when the air moved. In conclusion, if the air didn’t move, he would be able to sound-proof his operation.

Shaden closed his eyes imagined that the air around him and the cat would stay still and poured his mana in. Immediately, the air around Shaden turned freezingly cold and the cat meowed once in surprise at the sudden change. Shaden noticed that he was seeping mist from his mouth and stopped his spell. Any more, and he would freeze over. This wasn’t going to work.

He sat there, thinking again. The cat peered at him with its glowing eyes in worry.

Maybe…a vacuum would work, Shaden thought to himself. If there was no air present, then sound wouldn’t be able to travel through the air. He concentrated on his hand—and gave up soon after. No, this was too risky. Firstly, if he failed to create a vacuum, it could create a lot of noise. Secondly, even if he did manage to, he wasn’t confident that he could maintain both the vacuum spell and healing spell at the same time.

There was one thing he could do.

He lifted the basket with the cat in it with his mana. The cat tensed nervously as invisible hands carefully made it float in the air. Shaden walked out of the hall with the cat and silently opened the window. If the cat made noise, he just had to do the operation outside.

Shaden brought himself to the window with his mana-hands and looked down. It was quite a height for his small body, but he could do it. He inspected the streets. Actually, there could be criminals down in the dark alleys.

What if he did it on the roof?

There were plenty of buildings around, some even being higher than his. It was a genius idea. Shaden checked on the cat to make sure he was holding it firmly and positioned his mana-hands to clench themselves onto the walls. He then slowly lifted himself and the cat out of the window.

He sure was high up. He ignored the fall and looked upwards, creating another mana-hand to attach itself to the roof. Shaden pulled himself up to the roof, gently lifting the cat behind him. The cat watched silently. It had no idea what was going on but was too hurt to freak out and run away. It had no choice but to wait.

Shaden put his feet on the roof. Yuck, it was dirty. He probably should have gotten something to wear. Well, it didn’t matter that much. He walked to the other side of the building to get as much distance as possible between himself and the bedrooms. After determining he was sufficiently far away, he set down the cat and its basket on the roof.

The cat curiously eyed Shaden’s movements. The human didn’t have much hostility, but what he was doing was beyond its comprehension.

Shaden took a deep breath and readied himself. He spread his mana-hands over the cat. It would probably try to lash around as the healing would involve pain. The best Shaden could do was to make the process as fast as possible.

The cat started to worry as something invisible covered his body—like it was trying to strangle it. It felt like a layer of tar. Suddenly, its body was moved involuntarily as the invisible thing forced it to spread its damaged leg out to the boy. The cat hissed nervously.

Shaden tightened his mana-grip over the cat. He would do this as quickly as he could. He created another mana-hand and grabbed the cat’s damaged leg with it. He swiftly positioned it in the correct way as the cat yowled loudly in pain.

“This will be over soon,” reassured Shaden as he undid the dam to the pent-up mana that filled his body.

A wave of green exploded out of Shaden’s hands as it washed over the cat like a tsunami. It illuminated the dark night with its opaque stream of healing. The cat, of course, freaked out, but the mana-constraints prevented it from moving.

Shaden focused all of his attention and power onto the cat’s leg. He envisioned that the bone tissue would bind together, and the veins and arteries would stitch themselves up. Just like the bird, the cat’s leg started to move weirdly as its insides started to heal. The muscles aligned themselves to where they had to be, and the crushed bone and torn ligaments connected back to their rightful places. The cat stopped struggling as it felt the pain in its leg slowly go away. In just under a minute, the cat’s leg was completely cured.

Whew, that was quite the spell, Shaden thought as he wiped some sweat off his head. Now that the deed was done, he had to return to his bed. Without undoing the bindings on the cat, he lifted the basket up and walked to the window. After using his mana-hands to enter the room, he wiped his feet off some dirty clothes to be washed and placed the cat back in the hallway. The cat, thankfully, didn’t try to run away the moment it became loose.

Shaden bent over and looked at the cat. The cat squinted its eyes and meowed weakly. Shaden reached out his hand and let the cat smell it, which it did. He then stroked his hand over the cat’s black fur and sighed in satisfaction. He just adored cats. They were so cute and so soft.

After enjoying the moment for a little more, Shaden returned to his little bed/crib. Now he was sure he could mend broken bone. He just hoped that his mother wouldn’t kick out the cat as soon as she saw that it was recovered. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

〄 〄 〄

The Master of the Union of Magic of Danark opened his eyes as he felt something amiss in the air. He sensed something outside. It was probably the wind.

His throat was dry. His room was also slightly too warm for his taste. He rose from the bed and put his old feet on the wooden floor.

He spotted a jug of water on the table next to the window. How perfect, he thought. He sluggishly walked over to the window and opened it to let the cool, night breeze inside. He looked over the city from the lofty tower and breathed in the fresh air. Ah, that was much better. He poured himself a cup of water and used it to quench his thirst. The night was excellent—

He spat it out and coughed in surprise. What!? He had suddenly felt a giant surge of mana coming from the outside to the northeast. He quickly reached for his glasses on the table and put them on.

A green light pierced the dark of the night like an aurora than had descended from the sky. It was small and came from some distance away, but the immensity of its mana caused the master to feel it clearly from his tower. Judging by the light…a nature spell? Or healing? But why at this time? And what was this absurd amount of mana?

The light soon disappeared like it had never existed. The Master rubbed his eyes and goggled at what he had just seen. He had heard that the Academium was planning on conducting an experiment, but who would have thought they would do it at this time? The Master’s respect for the Academium rose slightly. They were truly an organization of hard-working scholars.

He sipped on his water and enjoyed the air once again. Perhaps he would start researching on another spell sooner than he had planned. After some thinking, he closed the window and returned to his bed.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Academium thought of the same thing as he too returned to his bed.

If they had gone to the scene and had taken a sample of mana from the air, they would have discovered that this was the same mage who had caused a great forest fire near Whitewater Village a year ago.

But no.

They slept, motivated by a misunderstanding.