Not much happens as a baby, everything quickly falls into a cycle. Therefore there isn't much that happened in these months. Yes, my eyesight increased in quality, along with basically everything else. This included my knowledge of magic. I now knew how it worked, to a certain degree; pure mana is drawn in from the surroundings to shape the spell, while mana is drawn from the caster to fuel it. This creates mana to be stuck in the air, and can be repeated to draw shapes. Drawing it in a spell formula, a pentagram surrounded by a circle, followed by what the spell is, then charged with the outer ring, creates the spell. This can be left as it's held together by ambient mana, and to activate, it needs to be charged. That is how spells work.

As to how I know this... I may or may not have stolen a book from the market. I was finally able to move well enough to grab and hold stuff, after a very long time. Magic wasn't something they spoke about a lot, or at all around here, so I had to wait for the traders to arrive once a month, which sold pretty much everything. Me and mother were on our walk, me still in the basket, though a much tighter fit, and we walked past a trader and their caravan, stopping to look at the commotion. People were surrounding the poor woman, shouting something about magic and swinging a book around. They said something else I couldn't remember before throwing the book away. And next to me.

I didn't hesitate.

I leaned over the basket quickly and picked up the book, before hiding it under myself. Mother didn't notice it. The book was quite thick and heavy, requiring all my strength to bring up, but it had the basics of magic inside of it, along with instructions. A true goldmine for me, waiting 8 months for one to show up was truly worth it. Now how to hide it from Mother? I am sure if she finds it, she won't allow me to read it, which I can do now to a basic elementary level. As to how I learnt a new language so fast, I just explain it with baby brain mixed with my brain bullshit.

I waited until Mother put the basket down onto her bed, ready to pick me up, when I began to cry. Mother startled and looked at me weird.

"What' (is) wrong?" she asked, though I had to interpolate some of it. I just cried more and pushed. Perks of being a baby, you can crap yourself, perks of me having self control is I can hold it in and use it whenever needed. Mother wasn't ready to handle me yet because she had no diapers, which are kept in the 3rd room I saw before. She exited to get them, and my chance arose. I turned and picked up the book from under myself, and scratched off the title page, before chewing on it a bit. Then I scooted closer to Mother's stash of books, and knocked them over. They were next to her bed, counting their trips to the traders.

Mother returned with diapers, alerted by the sound. Humans brains are fickle things, they assume stuff quickly and only if you give effort could you see how much bullcrap that assumption was. And in Mother's case, a baby with a crap filled diaper took the effort of thinking about how I managed to obtain a book. She changed me, allowing me to chew on the book, seems like this looked like one she didn't like and therefore didn't care if I chewed on it. Ba da bing ba da boom, I'm in my crib. And the power of knowledge at my fingertips, the knowledge of magic. This was the equivalent of a 5 year old learning how to make a slingshot, you know he was gonna use it. And oh boy would I use it.

That is how I know how magic works. But thats theory, what about practice? I turn the page on to the instructions and gaze upon it. I don't understand some of these words, but that won't stop me. It said I needed to gather the mana by taking some in, as if breathing it, then use my own mana to stick it in the air. But I didn't know how to do that. I turned the pages a lot, looking for anything about it. I found a sentence about a mana core towards the start of the book, but I kind of already guessed that existed. I bet that monsters had them and were sold to make weapons with or something.

Anyway, I couldn't find any instructions on how to draw a circle, just how the spells were drawn. I did find, however, a paragraph on the mana core being injured, and it just so happened to tell me where it hurt, and it happened to be the head and near the centre of the body. So I'm guessing the mana core is in one of them? I read the chapter again, and realised I didn't know an important word/words. But it was related to the head, and I'm guessing the mana core was in the centre of my body, considering its called a core. I didn't know how to absorb mana, so I just thought of the mana entering.

I felt it, a switch has been flicked and unlimited power flooded me, I was connected to the universe. I swiped my hand, and the house was gone. I blinked and I was a 2 meter tall giant. I stood and I was flying. In reality I woke up in the middle of the night, the book open next to me. It seems I fell asleep and dreamt. As to why I woke up...

I almost cried out before remembering to hide the book. I felt sorry for my mother, and for my siblings, for waking them up. But as a baby I can't help it, I didn't want to sit with my diaper full, reincarnation damn it!

...

Everybody was together in the main room, my sister playing with a stick, pretending it was a sword and practising some pretty convincing moves, while my brother was playing with me. We both had a wooden figurine, his was more worn and seemed to have clothes, just pieces of cloth wrapped around it. Mine was in pretty much perfect condition, apart from a few dents on the head where I bit it. Over a year has passed since I was reincarnated, and a few months have passed since I have gotten the book. I was able to slowly decipher it, and work out a few words. Except none where words related to magic, mostly because my main source of language was from my family, and they never said anything magic related. Mother clearly knew magic, knowing the Candle, Blow, Light and Spray spells. Candle and Blow came in the same packet, even being in the same chapter of my book, which usually only taught one spell. Candle set the candle alight, while Blow put it out. Light was used to create a small mote of light, my mother sometimes used it when a candle ran out and she had to change it in the middle of the night. Water Spray, or just Spray was used to clean windows, or wash objects such as vegetables and fruits. I can't believe I was scared of it before, it sounds so harmless!

There were in total 14 chapters of my book. 2 of those were introductory and conclusion chapters which didn't teach any spells. These spells were written in order of difficulty, and were based off of the 4 basic elements. That was to be expected, but these were just the most used elements, not the only ones. The easiest were the fire and wind element spells, as they seemed to be much simpler than water and earth. Fire was just burning energy, while wind was moving air, doesn't take much to do it. Fire required more mana, however. Water was simpler than earth, just because it was more malleable.

The spells, in order, were: Candle, Blow, Set Fire, Heat, Gust, Shield, Clean, Create Water, Water Spray, Stir, Create Earth, Earth Wall and Earth Mould. The uses were obvious for all of them, and all of them were used for house purposes. The only moves that even come close to being able to use in a fight were Wind Shield, Set Fire and Earth Wall. Maybe Gust and Spray as well. I still wasn't sure that there weren't any monsters in this world, and I wasn't taking any chances. Not like I could do the spells anyway. I realised that I cannot absorb mana into myself, not because I can't, just because of lack of knowledge. I could ask someone but then-

Someone knocked at the door.

Me and Otto, my brother's name, stopped playing and looked at it, putting our toys down. Someone knocked again, and Mother got up to open it. When it opened we were greeted with a bearded man wearing leather armour and having a sword at the waist. Finally, a weapon! The first I have seen in this world. They exchanged pleasantries before getting to the point.

"Some ******* have been seen near the western wall, we advise you to stay inside, lock the doors. Do you own any weapons?"

Mother turned her head in a 'No'.

"Go take one now, something to defend yourselves with. We'll come get it back after everything is over. After you get it, sign that list with your name." the man said, pointing to something outside.

Mother turned to us, "I'll be back in a moment, don't worry." before running out the door.

Chance! I crawled closer to the man, putting on a curious expression. He looked down at me and smiled. I got close before sitting on my butt, before pointing at his sword and doing the grabby hands. He smiled a bit more and crouched down.

"Sorry buddy, this is too dangerous for you."

However this was all it took. My sister, Olivia, came closer and her eyes were shining.

"Can I also see it? Please~?"

"Sorry Missy, but this sword is veeery sharp, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Just a bit, please~. We won't tell on you."

Otto seemed disinterested in the sword, but he nodded. The man sighed and stepped back.

"Alright, here." And he pulled out the sword.

My eyes have never greeted a sword, a real one, in both of my lives. I did see some in video games. This seemed to be a one handed sword, about a meter long in total, with most of it being the blade. The hilt was wrapped in leather, it's crossguard had a nice pattern on it, and there was a pommel. It was a nice sword, and I guess it was paired with the shield on the soldier's back, fastened with a strap that held around him like a seat belt. Olivia didn't share my interest though.

"No ****s? Are you not a Captain?"

"Sadly just a Knight."

I have heard these words be spoken about the guards in the village, but I have no idea what they meant, or what a **** was, I haven't even seen a guard till today. There was shouting and the man turned, sheathing his sword. He turned to look at us.

"Something's happening, stay inside and wait for your mother. Do not leave! Do you understand?" He said to Olivia, who nodded before saluting. I was more interested in the fact they salute the same way people do on Earth, with the hand to the forehead and everything.

"Good." the man said, and he closed the door.

Olivia picked up her stick and held it up at the door, as if to attack anyone who entered through it. Otto picked me up and went more towards the back of the room, sitting down, before plopping me next to him and handing me my figurine so we could continue playing.

It was only a minute later Mother opened the door, holding a scabbard with a sword inside, and told us to go into her room. We all went in there, me being carried by Otto, and sat on the bed. Mother promptly took a book from her pile and started to read it aloud. I listened to it for a bit, before realising it was a children's book, with words I have already heard of before and no promise of there being some I haven't.

How do I gather magic? It was the question that has been bothering me the entire month. I know that the core is in my midsection, and I know there is something in my head. But all the spells used mana from outside to draw spells with, while the mana from inside only used to hold it in place and charge it. Maybe I don't even have to take in mana! Was it just that it recharged itself slowly, like in video games? That... that was horrible! That meant that the problem wasn't that I don't know how to get mana but that I can't do spells. Because I was sure, reincarnation damn sure that because I was a baby, I didn't have a lot of mana. That meant I couldn't use any spells, until I had enough mana, and maybe you had to have a special gene that made you a mage, and I didn't have it, or maybe everyone did have it but since I was from a poor family with a bad bloodline, I barely had any mana at all! Thinking of this is making me angry; how am I supposed to slay monsters now?! Of course, if there are such things as monst-

We all heard something brush against the house wall. Silence splashed down onto all of us, and even onto my thoughts. Fear gripped my heart. It happened again and we tucked ourselves under the covers of the bed. Mother began to breathe quicker. It happened again and this time it was sharper, deeper, resonating within the walls. Something was trying to break in. Mother was panicking, but trying not to show it, I could see it in her face. But then she stopped and took a breath. It felt... bizarre. It's like she breathed in a certain way, and not just taking deep breaths. Something seemed to bend around her mouth as she breathed in that way. I breathed. I took in air through my nose. and concentrated on Mother. Her breathing. I copied it. My head split with pain, and I was too dazed to understand why, but I breathed that way again and it seemed to stitch itself back. But then it felt like something within me bounced.

My core fluctuated.

I breathed again, and the pain got patched, my core tumbled again. Time slipped a bit, as my concentration lay inwards more and more. Again, again. This breathing... was it taking in the ambient mana into myself? I breathed and felt my core, I just thought of it and I felt it, like how you feel if you're hungry or not. My core was almost full. I stopped breathing that way and it was immediately harder to sense it. But infinitely better than before because I could. It was full. I breathed that way again, and my core fluctuated a bit, and I did it again. It didn't expand but something happened. I was tired from that, and cosy. I fell asleep.

I awoke and was in my crib, so that meant whatever was near our house didn't eat me. And my core hurt. I immediately looked within myself and was shocked. My core hurt, just like a muscle after exercise. And it wasn't full. Did I lose mana? I answered that by watching my core, and realising it was being filled with mana, at a very slow rate. My core didn't feel bigger, yet I had more mana, in a smaller area. My mana was compressed. I returned my attention outside and pointed a finger. I sensed my core, and the the thing in my head. I don't know what it is, or if it even is a thing like an organ, but I concentrated on it. Mana moved from my core, and my head gave a small tingle of pain, like when you think too hard, before I grasped with my finger at the air, imagined that. Light bent before popping into existence. I moved my finger left and it smudged, but then stopped. As my finger came off of it, the light was disappearing, but my smile wasn't. It was getting wider. This was it.

The beginning. To me being a Mage.