I think i have enough views to start making some basic polls to help me focus the story.

Since this is the 10-th chapter it is as good as time as any. I would recommend reading it first and then vote.

Also for some reason dungeon novels are more popular. Maybe i should post aevery other day too keep the hype up? Answer that one in the comments and for now enjoy.

I fell back to the old routine of training, after i made the crossbow I had plenty of free time to occupy. Not soon after, dad came to speak with me.

Johnathan>"Son how is the training been going?"

Salion>"Well its quite repetitive and boring to tell you the truth, though i just let my body do it and my mind keeps focus on something else."

Johnathan>"As long as you are training it should be fine. How about we begin something more advanced than simple endurance exercise?"

Salion>"Dad you know last time you tried something my mom's favorite ladle broke due to your hard head, if you try something more drastic that tying stones on a three year old I'm afraid i have to go and order a new pan or a new cooking pot, thou Jack always appreciates more work so why not."

My slight exaggeration gave dad a slight shiver, i guess even the strongest warrior is timid in front of his wife. I never even thought on this matter, in most books and movies, even in real life Society may be patriarchal but most families are matriarchal which is weird. Maybe it is due to love? You love your other half in such a way that you want what is best for them regardless of gender, men will go to war to protect those who they love only to have their ears scolded off upon a successful return. Though it rarely is that simple, i think dad loves mom too much so he is too soft on her and she uses that "Gap in his defenses" to manipulate him a bit. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they do it for the family and each other.

Johnathan>"Well worry not, we wont need new utensils any time soon. What i want to teach you is the basics of any martial arts. Have you ever practiced any"

Salion>"I was a mage, of course not, and i have never seen war in my previous life only in books, the last war was before my time. That was mostly due to weapons that my peers have created, and not only mine but of other countries too. Weapons that can destroy an entire city and only leave dust behind. And not only one or two, enough to destroy the world and boil the oceans several times over."

Dad look ate me with worry. I cant blame him, after i made the crossbow and now I'm talking of weapons with enough power to end all life. Why i mentioned it anyway? Maybe I'm feeling chatty about my previous life after they found out that i am reincarnated. It kinda piles up you know, those people that now are my parents know that i am different than most, and yet they still love me. But deep inside i feel it is just a matter of time before it all falls apart... i guess brooding is another trait i kept with me. I really need to think more positively.

Salion>"Don't worry even if i know the basics of those weapons i lack the proper knowledge to make them, just because you've seen a crossbow doesn't mean you know how it works. No?"

Johnathan>"I'm sorry my son it is not that. You are so smart and young, I truly am worried for you. That one day the world will do something to you and your heart will break, leaving only hatred. And i fear that if you let it consume you, you will consume the world in turn. But hatred never recognizes friend from foe, and you even might hurt those you love."

Hah...now I've done it. Made the atmosphere heavy and murky again.

Salion>"Sorry..."

Johnathan>"You don't have to apologize for anything. You should always share your worries with us, thats one of the reasons we are here for. And one of the reason i wanted to begin teaching you the basics. When you made that weapon a few days ago, me and your mom were amazed by your ingenuity. But once i saw your expression when you said you wont let it fall in to wrong hands i only felt weight fall on your shoulders. I saw how much fun you had making it, it was like your birthday all over again."

I thought about his words, true i was fascinated by the work, it was better because i shared it with dad. The carving, planning, building the prototype and seeing that it works. That feels like being a kid in a toy store. Simply amazing. I also felt the responsibility of making such a weapon. It can keep people safe, but it also can hurt many more and be used to kill enslave and pillage with greater ferocity. That line of thought brought both dread and disgust of the future of my creation.

As every boy at one time or another i was fascinated by the army, the weapons the uniform, the feeling of being a hero for someone. Eventually i leaned that a hero during war, is a murderer during peace. Many men have to do the unspeakable during war and fewer come unscathed.

You know how they say "Take a step back, relax and see the big picture." ... Well when you do that don't trip cuz you will start to see the world in its entirety. You will start to see that good never triumphs over evil. The world is what people see it too be. People always talk about morality and whats good, but those that act upon those morals are rare and usually the first to die in a tight spot. So yeah I'm carrying quite the burden. Even if i wanted to just drop it and have fun like a 3 year old i reverse to my gloomy moments at times. After all its hard to forget whats in front of your eyes.

Johnathan>"You cant carry the world on your shoulders, and even if you could you mustn't. So that is why i want to teach you the basics to help you either focus on one thing or empty your ming of all worries allowing you to think clearly."

Salion>"Thank you dad."

And so dad started showing me some moves. Normally i would disagree to train martial arts before I'm 12 or so but what he is showing me seems fine. As to the why, my body is in its first stages of development even if i learn martial arts now i would have to relearn them later when the size of my body changes. Exercise is good but anything that builds too much muscle memory is bad.

THe movements were slow and fluid, it reminded me of ti-chi or something. You have your legs spread out at shoulder length and you move your upper body in deliberate slow motions, making some wavy motions with your hands.

It is hard as hell. The movements themselves are easy, unless you do them at a snails pace which is what dad makes me to do. It helps distract me from the big picture though. Once i got the hand of it i started to more easily focus on certain subject. Instead of my mind being all over the place i can easily keep track of my mind.

Best guess of how it works? The movement keep all of your attention in the beginning but as you become better at it you unlock more brain power for the thoughts.

I started to take some small lessons on magic from mom. She asked what i learned from the book and i said i still haven't read it so she told me to come back to her when i do.

BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME EVER!!! The book goes on and on about mana, 20% of the stuff was legit the other was full crap, and i include the multiple elements there are. In short to me it sounded like a white unicorn with pink polka dots riding a rainbow. The rest of the book is about basic spells. Like the flare mom uses to ignite the fire place. When i tried it i couldn't do it. I guess being too smart means i cant do stuff that idiots can, no offense to mom.

I tried to explain to mom what the problem was but she said i wasn't ready yet. And god was i pissed. Not only did i waste my time but mom didn't want to help me. SO it's self study again. I could make about 3 fibers now so thats something but what can i do with them? They are quite tiny so i can scratch making big ass fireballs.

Why start from something big? I should cover the basics. I have no idea how spells work cuz some one didn't want to share, so i have to use my superior manipulation skills to compensate for my lack of mana. After all it isn't the size of a fireball that matters but the intensity of the flame. If i remember correctly the hotter the flame the more light it produced, more light it produced whiter it became. So in short paler the flame is the stronger it is. I think?

Normal fire is red and orange but fire from a high powered blow torch is blue and a lot hotter. And white flames even more so. So for now i should aim to make heat and real fire will have to wait.

So how do i do that? I have 3 fibers the size of... i never measured them before. Usually my eyes are closed so i cant quite tell. I just feel them. DING!!! I can feel mana so i can use that. I take out my pendant and take a small mana stone, now i have 10 small 1 one big on it so it looks better with equal number on both sides. The idea i have is to break the mana stone in to smaller peaces and see if they retain their properties, and maybe find the smallest possible size for a properly working mana stone. I go inside and take a rag, mom just looks me with a weird expression, did i mention i haven't even opened the book after i got pissed? I also take my journal to write the stuff down when its fresh and use the ruler as well.

I go outside find the wood shopping block that somehow always survives when dad chops wood. And he shops entire logs. Note to self: ask later. I put the stone on it and cover it with the rag. I take moms hatchet, yeah she has one but uses it only when she goes in the forest, never seen her actually using it though. I flip it over and strike the mana stone with the blunt side. With my eyes closed of course, we don't want it to hurt my eyes in case it goes boom.

Thankfully nothing happens. I take the rag off and see the stone has shattered in to pieces with different size, there is even some dust. Gotta buy myself a mortar and pestle for experiments later. I take some of the smaller pieces and arrange them along the ruler scale one every millimeter. Then i close my eyes and focus.

The tiny stones even dust seem to have a charge, proportionally small to the size of course. That makes it easier. I reach deep within myself and drag my mana out and make a fiber with it, surprisingly it has gotten a lot easier since the first time i made them. Soon i think i can do it with a thought.

I move the fiber to the only line of mana dots i can feel and start counting. One...two...three hmmm so one basic fiber is about 3 millimeters. No wonder the core i made was a bit smaller than a marble. At least i got some basis now.

The easiest thing i can think of to make is fire, in theory. What do you do when you have to light a fire and don't have a lighter? Make your finger go aflame? NO. You use a stick and rub it bark or something to create friction heat. So thats a start

I focus and make 2 more fibers, i put all 3 of them in front of my finger and try something new. Usually the fiber moves only on command and stays still otherwise. I think move and it moves is the way i want it to until i actively tell it to stop. I think mana can memories simple commands or something but i haven't tried it yet. Usually each command takes part of mana to complete, you tell it to move left and it uses small package of mana to do so, you tell it to stop and it uses another portion to do so. In other words it takes mana to only initiate the command. I have only used simple ones so far. On day one i had so much mana at my disposal that i didn't even notice it.

So now i want something more complex. I move the fiber on top of my index finger and tell it to stick and then move my finger. It takes a bit of manna to stick and after i start moving the mana stays the same. That is good. Next up i tell it to spin. It loses more mana than anticipated so i feed it some mana from a stone. Then i take another fiber and do the same thing. On my other finger. I am doing this with my eyes closed mind you.

I start to move them closer as the too wanna be drills collide. I open my eyes to see a small distortion of air appear between my fingers. I sure hope it isn't due to warm weather we have today.

I play around with it a few days, getting it right. I can make all my tree fibers connect to my finger as close to each other as possible and spin them in different direction. This way they produce heat. I can clearly see the air distortion above my finger even indoors. One little details is that i don't actually need to feed mana after i spin them, they still spin either way, just a bit slower. If i feed them more mana either from the air, which is slow since i can't make mana arrays freely yet, or from the stones they spin faster and produce more heat. Though no flame yet. I need to test how hot it is. I know that a hotplate can be pretty hot without any flames and it distorts air around....70 degrees? I don't remember but it was bellow water boiling point. I need to test how hot it actually is later.