About four months have passed since that time with my father. Just about every day since he's tried to teach me more and more.

But it seems I hit a wall at what I could do.

From what I know, based on my mother's and father's conversations, every single person has a maximum amount of magical energy also known as mana.

As a person expends more mana, both their body and mind will be continually strained, resulting in anything from slight headaches to passing out entirely. In my current body, even with the four months of growth, I can at most use mana twice before either passing out or being extremely fatigued.

I hesitate now to use the term "spells" no matter how much I want to, due to the fact I have no idea how or why anything I am doing activates or how to control it.

On another note, I've learned of two other branches of magic, Illusory magic, and Barrier magic.

Barrier magic is self-explanatory, it can generate a small barrier of pure mana. The more mana you put into a barrier, the stronger it seems to be.

I've seen my father do strange things with barrier magic, that I can assume I'll learn once I can actually cast and learn more about magic.

Illusion magic seems to be extremely difficult. All I've been able to conjure, even with my father's help, is a small image of a red square.

I'm assuming once I understand the concepts behind the magic, I'll be able to get a better grasp of it.

Under both my mother's and my father's guidance, I've been able to cast the absolute bare minimum of each branch I know. Apparently, there are two other branches of magic that they flat out refuse to tell me or teach me about. Known as light and enhancement magic.

Barrier magic seems to be what I'm absolutely best at when it comes to magic, followed by Wind. Outside of the beginner tool taught to me by my father, I've yet to be able to cast anything with any other magic.

With barrier and wind magic, however, I've been able to generate brand new spells!

Although a small achievement, I've been able to slightly round the edges of my barriers with my barrier magic.

The process is very simple, instead of picturing the square barrier, I focus on having the image in my mind of a circular barrier instead, I then cast the "spell" my father taught me.

I draw a box shape with my hand, then thrust my arm through it. I then open my fist and focus on sending the mana within my body out. Then, the barrier with curved corners appears! Not the circular barrier I hoped for, but it was a start.

Afterward, however, I nearly always pass out.

After passing out from using all my mana, I usually wake up in what feels and seems to be about fifteen minutes.

With wind magic, I've made what feels like significantly more progress. Instead of focusing on throwing it out of my palm, I try and force the mana to expel from my back. At first, this caused me to fall flat on my face, as a force was pushed on my back, but soon I was able to spread it out, basically giving me a small shove across my entire backside.

Useless now, but a useful tool once I can actually cast. Oh, and as assumed I pass out from this too.

After waking up from my fourth mana-nap of the day, I was rudely awoken by the sound of my door opening, and my mother grinning down at me.

"Wake up sleepy head! It's time for dinner!" She said as she picked me up and brought me into the kitchen.

Our house had slowly increased in quality over time, as over the months both my mother and father would go off for different quests.

As they went on more and more quests, it was obvious they were slowly improving the house, getting more furniture, getting some of the red crystals to heat the house in these colder months, etc.

It appears the quest system in this world operated as it did in many fantasy settings, with different adventurers being able to take on quests of their respective or lower rank.

My parents individually have never taken a quest rated higher than "B-Rank", which, not knowing the full system, could either mean they are strong, weak, or average.

Well, not that I need to know right away. I mean c'mon!

After spending my whole life learning skills, just to die in some asshole's basement over a magic rock, do you think I'm not gonna become an adventurer and put my skills to the test?

Imagine the contracts and contacts I could get! In a magic world, imagine the shit I could steal, sell, and buy, all the people I could meet, and the money! Oh god the money and luxury I could live in if I used my wonderful skills in the world, whether thief or adventurer!

I mean, I already have my childhood dream of magic fulfilled, now I can travel across the world, killing and stealing and looting? And be allowed and encouraged to do this through a quest system? Where is the downside!

I swear, as soon as I'm old enough to hold a sword or dagger, I'm definitely asking mom to teach me how to wield one.

I mean, a magic swordsman is like, the coolest thing ever! Combine that with all the skills I already know, like erasing my presence, lockpicking, stealth, etc. and I can become something amazing!

All I need is to wait, grow, and expand my powers. I can already tell, every time I drain my mana completely, I can hold just that bit more. From now on, I'm gonna train my magic until I can hold a sword, and from that point forward, no one is gonna be able to beat me!

Well, I hope so at least. I mean, at least I know I can make progress from where I am now.

All I'm lacking now is knowledge, knowledge about how magic works, how to get more mana, how the quest system works, what's most important right now is learning.

Just like that old man used to try and drill into my head, I need to be coachable. No stubborn assumptions, no pride holding me back, just lowering my head and learning.

Imagine I'm back in the hideout, just days after being taken in by Sarguet. In this world, I know nothing, but just like before, I can learn.

Interestingly enough, just like lessons with Sarguet, the lessons are sometimes painful. It doesn't happen every time, but for some reason, I'll get a pain in my chest when I use too much mana at one time.

Hmm, weird. I'll need to do some tests to figure out exactly what causes that.

You know what they say, no pain, no gain.