“You can what?” Angela’s voice was heavy in disbelief, her face doubling this emotion strongly.

“I... I can use all seven elements.” Gilliam replied, looking almost ashamed and questioningly at Angela. Her strong emotional disbelief almost made it sound like it’s a very negative thing.

“No, I mean... I heard you but.. Are you sure?” her tone was still very disbelieving but at the same time she didn’t seem to think him a liar either.

“Well... yes... Look..” Gilliam turned around to face the empty area behind her cottage.

“Fire” he started listing as he made a tiny fireball, sending it into the air. It flew up well above the canopy before setting off a tiny fiery explosion.

“Water” he channeled and sent off a stream of water, splashing onto the ground a mere meter away.

“Earth” making a grabbing motion towards the earth he deformed the earth to a small hill as he pulled it back up, almost as if he grabbed something underground and yanked it almost all the way up.

“Wind:” A palm pushed towards the trees had them gently sway from a wind that emanated from it.

“Aether.” He replicated lifting a rock from before, but this time much less force was put behind tossing it into the jungle.

“Light... is a bit hard to show, but I healed a scrape I got before” he pondered for a few seconds before he grabbed a branch, pulling it along his lower arm. It scraped the skin up, not enough to properly wound him but enough to make some superficial scratches.

He charged his hand with a pale green energy and waved it over the new wound, it faded immediately.

“And Dark.” He grabbed some plants that grew in the treeline around Angela’s clearing and channeled some dark, angry sounding words, the plants instantly wilted as their tiny life force entered his body.

“So yes, it seems that I can use them all..” he stated back to the still in disbelief Angela.

She stood there with her mouth agape for a good solid few seconds, having problems processing what she just saw. The sheer disbelief in her face was almost to the point where she looked angry, which in turn made Gilliam more and more uncertain about if this was a good or bad thing.

“I... I’m having problems with this but.. But that is amazing!” her face finally showed something else, the transition from annoyance into one filled with amazement. She finally looked like this was a good thing.

The much relieved GIlliam lowered his shoulders a bit as he let out a relieved sigh.

“Oh.. good.. For a moment there I thought this was a very bad thing... You... looked almost angry.”

“No. No. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just,.. I haven’t even heard of a mage that can use all seven elements. Mages usually have between one and two, a few times you can find three. But all seven is... unheard of.. I... I think you might be the first. You are definitely hero material!”

Her explanation had GIlliam turn a bit embarrassed, this much praise was odd for him. There wasn't much in the explanation to misunderstand either. He was clearly special but being the only one?

“The only one? Isn’t that a bit... farfetched?” He finally asked, having thought about this for a second.

“No, not really. It actually makes a lot of sense. You learned the spells so fast, you had all that power behind the rock you threw, no headache or other problems after using magic even though it was your first day. And that’s without mentioning the lack of a Foci... I think that might be what the prophecy spoke about, you are a prodigy of magic, that is your great power.”

She was still in a state of shock and amazement, her face now clearly told that this was positive, as well as confirming more of the prophecy at the same time.

“Soo... I’m some sort of Über mage?” Gilliam looked at his hands again, this time not with dread or disbelief, but with his own sense of wonder and satisfaction. If what she said is true than he might become a powerful mage. This was nothing short of amazing.

“.... U... Uber?” She clearly hung up on a strange word she didn't understand.

“Ah... yes... well.. It’s a term, a word, from my world. The best translation based on how it’s used is a step above super. So a Super mage.” he felt a bit dumb not considering this as he used the word, but it just came naturally from him.

“Well, yes. That’s an understatement. Since this is still the first day you are using magic, and you have learned eight spells, showed more power with one of them than certain mages do after a week or training and without the negative side effect that I felt myself even after several days of training... You... you are a wonder!”

The summarizing and praise of his current status fueled his ego a bit, he clearly started to feel amazing. Perhaps it would not be that bad living in this world after all.

“I do wonder-” Angela mused after letting Gilliam settle in on his metaphorical pedestal. “-Just how much power do you have...?”

It was a valid question, given that the book recommended a feather or leaf to train, even then use a Foci as it might be too hard to get the spell done proper without, and though he didn’t know how long it took to regenerate mana, he could potentially have a decent pool to start with. The book also mentioned that the power of the spells are relative to how much you gather during the casting of the spell, so... He could in theory find out relatively easily.

“According to the book, if I just fuel everything into one spell we can find out? I might collapse if I use too much but my body should stop me before it becomes dangerous....”

He didn’t sound entirely convinced, the book had not lied so far but at the same time, this was potentially very dangerous.

“The danger depends on what spell we use. I don’t think we should use fire... A super charged fireball without control, could be... well.. I like living, so.. I think the best could be telekinesis. There is no lack of heavy things to lift and the worst that happens is that you either cannot lift something or that it falls back down.” She nodded sagely at her proper insight and analysis of the situation. She was great indeed.

“That makes a lot of sense.” He agreed with her logic, if something is too light he can just drop it back down and find something else, but if it’s too heavy the only thing is that he strains himself without it going bad. The other elements all had their own weird way it could hurt them. Telekinesis was not really too different but it was easier to measure effect without becoming dangerous.

“Let’s start with the boulder back there” Angela pointed in the direction of the boulder that was the recipient of the rock Gilliam threw earlier.

He nodded in agreement and came with her over to where it was located. It was a decently sized rock, easily both as tall and wide as a grown man.

Angela took some distance and Gilliam mentally prepared for this. Going through the steps he focused, gathered the needed energy to start the spell and stretched out his hand towards the boulder. The spell locked on and he started fueling the spell with more and more energy until either the boulder lifted or he reached his max and could not lift this weight.

He didn't want to overdo it, so he fed the spell with more energy slowly, and in the end the boulder lifted! There was a bit of effort but it was far from problematic. Like lifting a bucket of water on an outstretched arm. It was very heavy, yes, but it was manageable.

He looked very happy at his achievement as this rock would weigh.. What... 30 tons or something?

He did the thrusting motion and it used a considerable amount of mana, however it flew a good 20 meters before crashing into the ground, tearing trees with it and causing a great level of destruction.

This drained him a lot, he had to widen his stance and grab onto a tree for support, he grabbed his head and was blinking hard and often.

“Oh... I think I know what you mean about the overuse of energy thing... I feel weak, headache, tunnel vision and... this sucks...” he sat down as he explained this and ended up landing on his behind with a thud.

Angela walked over to him and sat down on her knees beside him, looking at him with a bit of pity.

“Now, that is the feeling I remember. Just relax and it’ll go away soon-”

Her tone and expression changed to a praising one during her comment. “-But that was still amazing. To do this much on your first day. Most mages use weeks, if not months or years to get to the point where they can lift something as heavy as this.”

Gilliam inhaled deeply and laid down on his back during a long, drawn out, exhale.

“Thank you for the praise, it’s going to feel much better once this fades... How long do you think it’ll take?”

There was a hint of desperation in his voice, his face confirmed that this was far from pleasant.

Angela could only look at him with a knowing expression of understanding his condition.

“That depends on each individual. In my cases it didn’t take too long but I have heard it take between almost no time at all, up towards hours. I think the factors on how much you exerted yourself, how used your body is to exert yourself magically and your Mana regeneration rate. As all of these are individualistic I cannot say in your case.”

Gilliam let out a dissatisfied click with his tongue, he would just have to ride this one out. And he would make sure to not overly exert himself like this if he could avoid it. He was apparently very powerful for a beginner, and apparently also had a high mastery potential. But in this exact moment he was feeling rather shit.

Sure, it might be a first-world problem... all things considered, but it was his problem and he currently had to deal with it. He placed his arm over his face, placing the inside of his elbow over his eyes to shut out the light.

“So... Since I’m recovering like this... Tell me more about this prophecy I’m apparently a part of. I get that it, and your visions, told you where I would arrive and that I’d become a hero and all that nice stuff. But do you have anything specific?”

His voice hinted that he was trying to force himself to relax, his current situation was not incredibly pleasant.

“Well, the short of it is that I saw many details, but they were almost random seeming, and not always in the correct order... I think.. It’s not easy. But the prophecy itself was more a collection of visions, like pages from a book torn out at certain key places. I saw where you would arrive but not when. I saw what you would look like but not your name or anything like that. Like how I saw that you would become a great hero and know deep in my heart that you would have a great power, but didn’t know what ability this was, just something hero-like.”

She looks to the sky with a sense of defeat.

“Given the lack of specifics I cannot say exactly what you are to do. You are to beat something, but not alone. I think it's a world-affecting event but I don’t know if it’s just one thing or a series of things. The image in my mind of you at the end was battle torn but triumphant looking with a staff, sword or long object in one hand and something smaller but also elongated, slightly thicker in one side than the other item in your other hand, standing on the ruins of something with many people cheering your name.”

Her gaze goes back to the resting Gilliam. “I am there besides you, so are two or three others... Hard to tell, to be honest.”

Gilliam chuckled a bit, he was looking at her face through a little opening he had made simply by lifting his arm a bit to the side.

His chuckle had Angela’s brow curl up in mild annoyance.

“No, no. I’m not laughing at you.” he tried to defend himself. “I just can't imagine myself the hero you detail. It almost sounds a bit... stressful. I never really liked that kind of confrontation, never good at fighting. I always preferred to talk things out, or just run if it came to it.”

He didn’t sound too proud of this fact, he didn’t have anything in the sense of scars that showed fights lost but his tone still hinted that he had to use the art of running away in the past.

Angela shook her head, but her face had an oddly approving smile.

“Running away from a fight you are certain to lose is not bad. It's a simple instinct and makes sure that you’ll live another day.”

Gilliam didn’t have much in the sense of a comment to it, so he just remained silent, sparking an awkward quiet between the two.

Feeling this general uncomfortableness Angela decided to break it with a topic swap.

Still sitting next to Gilliam, she didn’t really seem to worry about his situation, perhaps since she had been through it before she knew that it was not dangerous and you only had to wait.

“Anyway. Since you are gifted in magic, I think we should find you a teacher, or at least someone better than me who can explain things for you. I know there is much more to magic than the beginner book I have. Proper spells take more effort to master and have higher versatility, they can also be much more Mana efficient. Since the book is a beginner book that lists a simple and weak spell from each element to test yourself on, it’s lacking in proper explanations.”

Moving his arm away from his face, he was looking generally a bit better as a whole.

“That would explain why they were so easy to learn. And I do have a lot of questions about some of the terminology used.”

Sitting up with some effort, he continued his explanation as he flipped through the pages of the book.

“The book mentions something about Structured and Unstructured magic, but doesn’t explain the difference. Just that the spells listed in it are easy to learn because they are unstructured. And though you explained it to me, the Foci isn’t explained nor is anything about the how’s and why’s of magic.”

Turning towards Angela he had a newfound determination on his face.

“I would love to speak with a... no offense.. But a proper mage, so I can learn just how this works and become a better mage.”

Like he suddenly realized something his face changed from determination to a more embarrassed one.

“Although... before that.. Could I borrow your toilet?” he forced a smile at the end.

Angela looked like she was a bit surprised at the full topic change but this changed to a more neutral tone a second later.

“I don’t have any toilets in my house here, use the jungle”

She said this as it was the most normal thing ever, which had Gilliam think for a second.

“There... are toilets in this world, right?”

Before she got the time to answer he did so himself. “Oh.. yeah... you know what a toilet is so naturally there are.. Makes sense that there wouldn’t be plumbing out in the jungle...”

Scratching the back of his head he felt dumb, not considering his location and only focusing on the minor details.

She laughed as a response to the moment of panic in both his voice and facial expression.

“Don’t worry, there are toilets, the type of plumbing depends on where you are in the world but you don’t have to worry.”

There was a little smirk on her lips still, she was clearly enjoying his reaction.

“Oh.. good... Well.. I mean.. I can always go in the woods, but it’s not the same..” His voice was extremely relieved, making his defense fall rather flat. The attached forced smile didn’t help either.

“Well... I guess I’ll have at it.” there was a grunt at the end as Gilliam properly got to his feet, looking around for a good direction he just started walking into the jungle a bit.

Angela didn’t stop him or say anything so it couldn’t be too wrong. And it’s not like he really needed to get too far into it, he only planned to pee, so he didn’t really have to consider what leaves could be good, bad or even dangerous to wipe with.

Having relieved himself he realized that there isn’t anywhere good to watch his hands, he wondered if he should just ignore it but it just felt a bit... wrong..

A spark of an idea bounced in his mind and he tried casting the water spell, it made a stream of water that he could use to wash his hands in. Though he didn’t have soap handy he still felt both that this was amazing, he used magic for something mundane but he felt like he had the best ideas ever. At the same time it felt very overkill to do something like this to just rinse your hands. He decided to focus on being amazing instead and aimed back to Angela with a huge smile.

“I trust you figured it out?” The snarky tone and smirk was clearly a reference to his moment earlier.

“It was a hard puzzle, but I got it in the end.” though making it sound like a great ordeal it was not more than a dumb joke. And though a chuckle was shared between them he also realized something else, looking at his hands as he opened and closed them a bit as a sort of test of something.

“I also think that the Mana over usage thing is fading. The back of my head is still dull but it’s not bad anymore.”

Angela got to her feet to face Gilliam.

“Power, all the elements, learns easily, lots of Mana and a short recovery time... You truly are a prodigal mage”. Her tone was not exactly happy, not negative in itself but more full of envy.

Gilliam smiled to himself as he continued to look at his hands, being a prodigal mage didn’t sound bad if you first were thrown in a world with magic.

“But-” Gilliam started. “-Now what?”

Though he was stoked that magic is real and that he could command it surprisingly easy, he didn’t really know what the next step was.

“We can spend a few days here if you want, so you can get used to things. But I think we should find you a teacher. The best place to go might be the academy where my father works. If he can’t teach you himself he should at least have some connections” she smiled.

It was the kind of satisfied but hollow smile, she did mention earlier that she didn’t like always being tied to his name but at the same time for Gilliam to get a better foundation was probably a very good place to start.

“That... sounds like a good idea” He didn’t sound overly certain of himself, he was getting used to the base idea that magic was real but this was still a different world, he had been here perhaps a few hours and it was properly dawning on him that he might be here for a while, if not the rest of his life. Learning the basics of its ways is not a bad idea.

“For now, play with magic a bit more, I’ll prepare an area for you in the house.” Angela commanded in her still envious tone on the subject as she was getting up, dusting the jungle debris of her clothing.

There was an odd determination in her eyes. “I won’t lose!” She had clenched her fists and looked upwards, nowhere in particular.

“W.. what?” this both caught Gilliam off guard but also sort of broke him out of his train of thought which was only barely mentally present.

Angela looked at him with a burning passion in her eyes. “If I’m to stand next to you as a hero, I can’t have you leave me behind, I’ll catch up to you my own way!”

Before Gil could properly respond she darted off like she had done so many times already.

Gilliam thought to himself for a moment that though she was oddly adorable she was a weird, weird person. Though this was quickly ignored as soon as he returned to the conclusion that he was to play more with magic!

He opened the book to the Telekinesis spell, which was the most interesting one at the moment. Sitting down he started to read the whole chapter again.