AN: I fell extremely sick recently. I wasn’t even able to get out of bed for a few days so of course I also wasn’t able to write. The only thing I was barely able to do was answer to the comments, which also took far longer than necessary to lots of concentration slips.

Thankfully I am healthy again so chapters will come out normally again!

“Sooooo, do I get an explanation why I can sense mana so much sooner than I am supposed to?” I asked the teacher as I folded my arms in front of my body.

“Well, to be honest…I don’t know either. Even geniuses of your caliber take far more time to achieve this stage.” He scratched his head. “I mean you and your little group may be rarely seen geniuses but you definitely aren’t on the level of inhuman monsters.” He frankly told me.

I was stunned when I heard his words. If even teacher doesn’t know it means that I will have to uncover this mystery on my own. ‘But first I have to get out of this apartment, the constant brightness is giving me a headache!’

“Ok, can I leave now? If I have to endure this freaking lightshow for even longer I will probably go crazy!” I said and turned into the direction of the exit, dragging Owen and Frank with me.

Our teacher chuckled. “Oh, sorry. I forgot that your mana perception is quite sensible right now.” He waved his hand and the previously closed doors in front of us opened.

I let go of my friends and ran as quickly as I could out of that glowing hellhole. They quickly caught up though so we walked back in a rather brisk pace.

Although the constant brightness annoyed me I was slowly getting used to it. After they were assured that nothing was wrong with me they went back to sleep, their childish bodies probably quite exhausted.

On the other hand, I didn’t feel any sleepiness and even if I did I wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep due to my surroundings constantly glowing.

With my mana still mostly spent and me being unable to sleep I entered my core space to see whether my newly acquired vision was also being transferred to my spiritual self.

When a completely normal sight greeted me I was immensely glad. Thankfully I would be able to see colors the normal way in at least one place.

When my spiritual body relaxed I took a careful look at all the changes I had made after a whole year.

First of all, the whole space was expanded to many times its previous size, being at a size I estimate to be at least hundreds of meters long. Another great change was that I was now on a big rock which was flat on the upper side (as seen from my current position) and oval under that. The lake that surrounded it gave it the impression of an island but to be honest it would be strange to call it that as both the rock and the lake were floating in the middle of my core space.

Sometimes I feel regret that they aren’t far bigger as that would mean more mana for me to use for training but our teacher explained to me that, like so many other things, the amount of mana one can use for meditation is limited by the mana channels. If your mana channels aren’t sturdy enough they won’t be able to handle the strain of meditating for several hours.

“Of what use is a monstrous amount of mana if you kill yourself when trying to use a small part of it?” Were the exact words he used to answer my impatient questions.

I focused my attention on the fire I that I had created when I entered my core space the second time. The flame which was seemingly burning on nothing was, as always, quite an intriguing sight.

I had enlarged it quite a bit though. While it wasn’t much bigger than half a meter when I first ignited it its size was comparable to that of a giant bonfire now.

Next I looked at the dozens of small boulders which formed a big vertical circle that hovered in the air a few meters away from me. Each of them was about two meters in every direction making them quite an awe inspiring sight. Feeling slightly playful I let the circle slowly turn, giving the whole image a mystical feeling.

I enjoyed this spectacle for a few minutes, just relaxing and not thinking about anything.

Soon enough that alone wasn’t enough for me anymore so I stopped the rotation and focused my attention on the icy mist that was situated just a few meters away from the boulders. It covered quite a lot of the flat side of the island and was, just like the rotating boulders, quite a sight just by itself. I willed it to form a densely packed white ring and let it rotate around the now moving boulders.

I gave them the passive instructions to change positions every few seconds and let the fire come into the center of the rotating work of art.

It was a spectacle. Something which I would never even have dreamed of in my past life was now playing out in front of me.

Whenever I beheld this marvelous sight I would begin to think about all kinds of matters like my uncertain future.

My fate is that of a warrior. Someone who slays beasts for a living. Really, I would have preferred to become a farmer like father or a merchant if this world were a peaceful one.

But unfortunately this world is far more dangerous than my last one. If you are weak it is very likely for you to die if you don’t live within the city.

But in order to move someone into the city you have to be rich or an accomplished warrior. A few decades ago it wasn’t like that but in the last few years Frumentum has been suffering from overpopulation.

When I and George, whom I still haven’t found, reunite, we will be easily able to move our father into the city. A man who has two warriors as sons will be able to move into the city even without any fulfilling any of the above stated requirements. To do so however we will have to finish training first, which will take a few years.

Until then father will be in constant danger, something that pains me whenever I think about it.

I had been able to somewhat suppress the sadness from leaving him alone in the first week but now few days’ pass without me worrying about him.

It is really strange how close he is to me. I didn’t have the mental age of a kid when I first arrived in this strange world but I came to love him like a father regardless of that.

Maybe it is because he provided me with a caring home, something which I didn’t have in my past life.

Speaking of home, I still don’t get why he doesn’t patch that hole in the wall up. I mean, sure, it is quite a…unique aspect that I will never forget but there has to be a good reason for that, right?

Is it because of mother? I really wonder who she was. It is one of the most pressing questions I have on my mind. Who was she and how did she die? Was it in the last horde? A stray beast invading our home?

I shook my imaginary head.

Enough of home, if I continue like this I will spend the rest of the time thinking about questions without answers.

I left the core space after moving the various objects into the same location I had found them in.

When I opened my eyes again the light Owen, who had rolled around a bit and was in front of my fucking face, gave off while sleeping was shining right into my fucking eyes.

I suppressed a scream with all my might and averted my gaze as quickly as I could. I decided to just silently meditate for the rest of the night. Hopefully I will get used to this soon, otherwise I’ll just kill myself. A life like this isn’t worth living.

Thankfully the mana I gave off while meditating didn’t hurt my eyes, not only that, it even helped tuning the other lights out due to its intensity.

The meditation lasted far longer than normally as I regulated the mana output to be just slightly above the regeneration rate so I only stopped once I noticed the sunlight shining onto my face.

I quickly noticed that the air was a little brighter than it was yesterday night. Ignoring that I quickly sought cover under my bedsheets before the demon of the boy’s dorms entrance appeared to wake us up.

It wasn’t even a second later that he really did come, the icy water he always conjured only hitting my cover. Owens and Franks weren’t so fortunate though and their screams nearly echoed through the room.

After the unlucky fellows recovered from their shock and clothed themselves we stepped into the hallways, which were of course looked LIKE FIREWORKS WERE EXPLODING INTO MY EYES.

My breathing became more and more ragged as I searched for a spot that wasn’t filled with glowing monstrosities. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find one.

I fell onto the ground in pain, my willpower and pride the only things that kept me from screaming my lungs out. I faintly felt some hot tears run down my contorted face, but the pain blocked most of the other senses out.

It didn’t take long until I couldn’t handle the strain anymore however. I slowly felt my consciousness slip, the lightshow finally darkening at the edges of my vision. I didn’t have a lot of time to appreciate that though as the darkness quickly filled my entire vision.