Chapter 5 - Fireball

“Blake, while you don’t have great stats, the skill you got will make up for it. At a certain point, everyone starts to have trouble getting stronger. No matter how much they train or battle, progress slows down or just halts completely. A bottleneck of sorts if you will, but few can even dream of getting past it. While I’m not sure how this skill works, as I have never seen it before, I can only imagine.” Aaron said.

“Why wasn’t told about this. I guess it’s good that he gave it to me I guess, but I don’t know. Would this count as a cheat skill in one of those isekai stories?” Blake pondered. He thought about it and reached his conclusion. “Probably.”

“If I remember correctly, to get into the Royal Academy you need to be at least level ten by the age of ten. That gives roughly just over three years to get to level ten but why stop there.” Aaron said.

“You know, that sounds like a great plan and all Aaron, but I don’t even know how to level up once.” He interrupted.

“I was just getting there. Don’t rush me. It might get complicated but stay with me.” Blake nodded his head to indicate that he was ready. “Ok. To level up you need to gain experience. There are two ways to get experience in this world, either by fighting and destroying monster or by gaining skills. Fighting to gain experience is pretty self-explanatory, so im going t skip over it. There are certain “quests” you can do that will give you skills and a bit of experience. Like Father told you before about blacksmithing, you don’t need a skill to do anything, but skills can raise the effectiveness of what you are doing. For example, anyone can go take up a sword and attack with it. If you swing a sword 500 times you get the swordsmanship skill which lowers the energy output while raising the power. You can see what these quest are by saying inventionibus.” Another pop up appeared.

Swordsmanship Level 1 - 2% less energy usage & 1% more power

Swing a sword 500 times

0/500

25 experience

Fireball Level 1 – 1% less stamina usage & 3% more power

Use the fireball spell 100 times

0/100

50 experience

Monster Hunter Level 1 – 2% more damage against monsters

Kill 10 monster of any kind

0/10

100 experience

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“Question. Why does it say level one?” Blake asked

“Because there are different levels. After you unlock swordsmanship level one then there’s level two, three and so on. Each level subsequent level will have better stat buffs.” Aaron answered. “Let’s head outside.”

“What for?” He asked.

“I want you to do something. Now go.” Aaron responded. Blake didn’t question him further. With his parents off doing something else it was quite easy for Blake to leave the house.

Now outside Blake looked all around but he didn’t know what Aaron could want him to do outside. “Now what?” he asked.

Aaron once again appearing beside him said, “Go grab a stick and swing it at a tree.” Blake seemed confused. There were no sticks to grab and no trees to hit.

“Did you go senile, look around you, there’s no trees or sticks.” He said.

“What are you talking about, they’re right there. The entire town is in the middle of a forest.” Aaron responded. Aaron seemed confused but the realization came to him. “Oh that’s my fault. I apologize, here let me fix this. Iterum constituetur vision.” Slowly the trees starts to fade in. Blake rubbed his eyes but surely enough there were tress all around.

“Why?” he asked.

Aaron scratched the back of his head. “I was just messing with you, and I forgot about it.” He laughed. “Well anyhow let’s go.” Blake started to walk further from the house and closer to the trees. Soon enough he saw some branches on the ground but they were too big. “Over here.” Aaron yelled. Blake walked over to where Aaron was and there was a small stick that he could pick up. “Well since you have a six year old’s body, I don’t think you can swing a sword so try the stick. After you swing it a couple times, check the quests.”

Blake nodded and started to swing the stick at one of the trees. He managed to swing the stick 10 times before he felt that he couldn’t go on anymore. He dropped the stick and felt aching in his arms. “I guess is the best I can do in this body right now.” He thought. “Inventionibus.”

Swordsmanship Level 1 - 2% less energy usage & 1% more power

Swing a sword 500 times

10/500

25 experience

Fireball Level 1 – 1% less stamina usage & 3% more power

Use the fireball spell 100 times

0/100

50 experience

Monster Hunter Level 1 – 2% more damage against monsters

Kill 10 monster of any kind

0/10

100 experience

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“Yeah it seems like it worked, it says ten out of five hundred now.” He said.

“Ok that’s good. You seem tired so we’ll move on to the next thing for today, magic and spells. There are seven elements that form the foundation to magic: Life, light, dark, water, earth, fire, and wind. All spells are categorized depending on which one they fall under. Everyone has a high affinity with one or two elements. I have high affinity with fire and I would assume that you do too but since your name changed to Blake I can’t be sure of it. Say, quae est potior pars corporis, and it should reveal what element you have the most affinity with.” Aaron said.

“Quae est potior pars corporis.” Blake waited for something to happen but nothing did. Suddenly he started to feel an immense wave of heat, and started to sweat uncontrollably. “What’s up with that heat? It came out of nowhere.” He said. He looked over at Aaron and he smiled.

“Fire affinity after all.” Aaron laughed. Blake thought about it and realized that the heat he felt must have been the indicator. “Okay look at me closely now. I’m going to teach you the spell for fireball.” Aaron lifted his arm and aimed at the sky. “Augue.” Fire started to appear at the palm of Aaron’s hand. It started to pile up and it formed a giant ball before being shot upward. It kept going up for quite a while until it dispersed into nothing.

“If you can do all that you have done then why do you need me?” Blake asked.

“Well even if you can see what I do, I can’t affect the outside world. Don’t you think I haven’t tried? Look at this.” Aaron started to form another fireball in his hand but this time he pointed it at the trees and launched it. Blake was expecting to see the entire forest burning down but there was nothing left of the fireball. It had vanished into thin air. “See. The things I do can only affect you and nothing else. That’s why it’s important that you learn quickly. Go ahead and try it; make sure you don’t hit a tree though. We don’t need an actual fire.” He laughed.

Blake lifted hand and made sure to aim to the sky. “Augue.” A ball of fire appeared at Blake’s hand and then he released it. It was much smaller than Aaron’s and it didn’t reach nearly as high.

“Now again.” Aaron exclaimed. Blake did just as Aaron said. He pointed his hand up, made another fireball and released it. “Once more.” Blake was starting to feel fatigued but again he put his hand up.

“Augue.” He said, but nothing happened. “Augue.” Nothing happened.

“You ran out of stamina. Every spell requires stamina and when you run out, you can’t use magic. Fireball is a basic spell so it only requires five stamina to cast. You have ten stamina so two fireballs is the limit it for now. That’s enough for today, let’s get you back home before Father and Mother notice that you’re gone.” Aaron said as he started to fade.

“Wait, one question. Why was your fireball so much bigger than mine?” Blake asked.

“It’s quite simple, I just used more stamina to make mine. Yours took five stamina but mine took the equivalent of twenty but you can use as much as you want. You can use more stamina on a spell to increase the power, simple as that.” Aaron responded.

Blake went back home. Fatigued as he was, made his way to the bedroom, hopped on the bed, and drifted into a deep sleep.