Well now that I know what I know about magic, if the truth that mom is talking about is science then I have a heads-up over others which probably means that I will have better stamina than them and I can probably use it with more versatility than them. But I still had a doubt one that I asked out loud, “Mom, if magic as it is currently is so useless, why are we even studying it?”

This wasn’t my inner thought but I wanted to know why other people think it is still necessary to train magic. She immediately bonked me again,

“Do not say that! Magic is our only hope against the wilderness. It is only through constant exploration that we can finally regain the knowledge that has been lost and survive against the wilderness.”

Such a noble goal, I didn’t cry outwardly but a single tear rolled down from my eyes in my head.

“But mom, since magic is so costly, what do you even use mana for? I know you do reinforcement training regularly, and that's why you are in such a good shape, but what else do you use magic for?”

Suddenly her face lit up in happiness as she plopped down the biggest of the three books in front of me. The title said The Human Anatomy and common disease of Unia and she started explaining.

“Remember when I said that the cost of magic goes down when you know what you want your magic to do? Well, this book is one of the few books that survived the apocalypse which also saved our village from extinction. With the knowledge that this book provides us with about healing it is possible due to the lesser mana cost. This is also the only reason that the only magical profession in this village is being a healer.

Since you wanted to learn theory, this is one of the books you will be memorising completely along with the book of monsters.”

Oh shit! Now I have to study to be a doctor as well?

“Well, you can start tomorrow since it is already late today and you haven’t done any reinforcement training. You will have to bring your body to its peak condition if you want to maximise your mana capacity!”

Ah, so it was training my body that led to the increase in my mana capacity. Well, I will still test if regular use of mana increased anything but it was nice to have information. But if mana increases with the body, then, “That means that a person has an upper limit, that is at the peak of his body?”

Mom sighed despondently, “Yes, unfortunately, there is a limit to the amount of mana a person can store. I am already at my limit, and most adults who have practised mana reinforcement have reached the upper limit as well. We will never be able to have a higher capacity.”

Damn that's a bit sad, however, mom quickly diverted the topic.

“Well, now you know enough about magic, so now we will start your training in anatomy.”, she said as she opened the book which immediately made me notice something, the book unlike the book of monsters was made of paper. This was probably because the book was made before the apocalypse. However, something made before the apocalypse should be super important in the village so how did she get her hands on these three books? I wanted to know so I decided to play a fool and ask her about it.

“Wait mom, what is this book made of? The papyrus is so thin!”

“Ah, this is your first time seeing this right? This is called paper, this was what people used to write about before the apocalypse. It was apparently cheap enough that even the poor could buy it with the money required for two meals.”

Now it is time for acting, come on Angelo’s 5th-grade acting class don’t fail him now.

“Wow! That is so cool! But mom, isn’t this super expensive? How do we have not one but three books?”

Immediately her face turned sad, “Have you ever wondered why unlike everyone you never had grandparents?”

“Well, I know they aren’t alive, but I don’t know what happened.”

She seemed to be struggling with something, however after she took a look at me, her face hardened in resolve and she said, “Okay, I will tell you what happened, but do not go talking about it anywhere else. Only the adults know about this, Okay?”

I wonder what is so secret, but I nodded anyway, seeing my confirmation she continued, “Good! You do know about the beast wave that happened recently, right?”

“Yes, I heard a lot of people were killed in the beast wave.” I didn’t want to remind her that Cylix’s parents too died in the beast wave or she might stop telling in her worry for Cylix.

“Well, it wasn’t a natural beast wave. It was caused by a group of raiders who wanted to loot the village.”

*boom* A mental explosion happened in my brain as I figured out where this was going, and to prove it to me mom continued as she said, “The raiders caused simultaneous explosions directing the beasts towards our village, and they too came in with the beasts into the village.

Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the village, the hunting team was in the village at the time and due to the dharma law, a lot of people were there to help them. Unfortunately, despite driving away the beast wave and killing the raiders there were still a lot of casualties because the attack was so sudden.

One of them was your grandparents. Your grandfather from your dad’s side was a member of the hunting team and your grandmother was a healer, not just any healer, but my mentor who taught me everything I learnt. It was also how I fell in love with your father.

My mother and father were both potioneers and were friends with your dad’s parents as well. Unfortunately, all four of them died in the attack. My parents and your grandmother were killed by beasts, your grandfather however died at the hands of a raider.”

When I was talking to Nana about the Dharma law, I always had a hope that humans won’t be dumb enough to start killing each other when we are already at the brink of extinction but this proved that I was thinking too naive. But now that I've got the secret out of her, it should be safe to ask.

“So how did Cylix’s parents die?”

Mom's face immediately morphed into a grimace as she said, “Well, his dad was a blacksmith that was helping repair the walls so that we could limit the number of beasts that get in, however they were killed because of being unaware of the raiders in the beast wave. His mom however was one of the fishermen that was helping by carrying the wounded out of the battle and was captured by the raiders, by the time we found her she was already dead.”

I instinctively gripped by fist in anger. Even though we were close together for only a few months, I already consider him my brother, in everything that counts. To hear that both of his parents were killed so brutally and even worse I noticed the terminology that mom used when she described the fate of his mother. She was captured, not killed, which meant that they possibly raped her before killing. This made me sick and made my blood boil.

“You can never tell this to Cylix!”

“WHAT! HOW COULD I NOT TELL MY BRO-”

I was stopped when mom slapped me. She looked angry as she retorted,

“What do you think will happen if he knows?”

Immediately my head was cold as if it was dunked in ice. I know what will happen if he knows, he will become twisted by hatred. By didn’t seem to have noticed my realisation or maybe she wanted to reinforce it as she continued, “He will be consumed by his anger and he will never be the same person again.”

I know she is right, but if I like I am betraying his expectations by not telling him. Noticing my struggling mom consoled me by saying, “Don’t worry, it’s not like we are going to hide it from him forever, I will tell him the day you guys join the hunting team.”

Sigh, that is all we can do, delay it till he is more mature enough that he can process those emotions. But still, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

“Well, we have wasted enough time already, now do your reinforcement practice over here, after you finish your practice, we will start studying the book.”

I know she is making me do reinforcement training as a way of calming my emotions down and I am not ashamed to say that it worked. In reinforcement, you focus on the mana flowing inside of you, so it was similar to meditation which helped me. After 4 minutes as I came out of reinforcement training, I had cooled down enough.

“Okay, now that you have cooled down enough, I will start teaching you. Come sit here," Mom said as she made me sit in her lap, put the book in front of us and started teaching. She was a bit surprised at how quickly I understood the basics of the organs and the systems of the human body but that was all due to my past life.

While she was teaching the basic stuff, however, my mind wasn’t on the content of the book but rather the material it was made of. It was surprisingly easy to make paper. All one had to do was to chop up the wood, then cook it while it softens. Then you had to pound it into pulp before boiling it once again with lime. Then all you had to do was to shape the fibres into a thin layer in the shape of paper before putting it between two layers of felt and squeezing the remaining water using compressive strength, and finally finishing it off by sun drying or heat drying and voila you have paper!

While the process was easy to describe, there were too many failure points. You could cook it too long, you can add too much lime, you may shape the paper too thin causing it to be weak. But this process was a surprisingly forgiving one. I didn’t have to perfect it now, all I had to do was make a proof of concept and sell it to someone along with my ideas for improvement and they will do the rest themselves.

However, imagining this process also gives me the idea of a water wheel and all the things we can accomplish with water power. But I have to be patient and do one task at a time, I am already strapped for time as it is. Just like that the day passed away, with mom recounting a lot of knowledge I already know and me daydreaming of the stuff I want to invent.

It was finally when we were eating dinner that mom mentioned something that I honestly kicked myself for not thinking. She said, “You know Cylix, you should take some anatomy classes with Cyclos, it will be useful in the future.”

I was a bit confused so I questioned her, “But mom, why would Cylix benefit from anatomy knowledge? He doesn’t want to be a healer. He wants to be a part of the hunting team and also learn blacksmithing.”

It was mom who was confused as she looked at me as if I was talking crazy and said,” Why wouldn’t he not benefit? I already said learning what your magic is doing, even if you partially understand it, it will help reduce the mana cost of the magic.”

This was not computing to me as I have always categorised magic as something external, and reinforcement that was completely internal to my body was never registered as magic. But now that she mentions it, this is probably why I had a longer time for reinforcement than most newbies or people with similar mana capacities as mine.

“Well, I thought reinforcement didn’t count as magic, because you know, we don’t use mandalas for it.”

“Well, that doesn’t disqualify it from being magic. Remember the definition of magic, it is only changing the nature of mana, it doesn’t matter if it is internal or external.”

Well, now that she mentions it, reinforcement does fall under the definition of magic she gave earlier. Maybe it was me subconsciously not recognising reinforcement as magic due to it not being flashy enough and not what I had come to expect regarding magic. This is probably because of my memories as Angelo and magic being portrayed as being the ultra-flashy stuff in movies and shows.

While we were both discussing how I could reduce mana costs during reinforcement with anatomical knowledge, poor Cylix was confused about all the terms being thrown around like mandala, ambient mana and whatnot.