In the nation of Fridus, magicians were not considered geniuses based on how early they obtained their ability to use magic without the starter chant. In many cases, powerful families would spend fortunes raising a child who they thought had good talent, only to witness the child reach a point where no more progress could be made.

Andric Avantus had unlocked his mana in less than a year since his birth, but no noble recruiter would seek him out and smother him with magic-related teachings.

On the northern end of Gallus Town, where several mines entered the mountain upon which the town had been built, a young child ran near the giant ore smelters and swung a stick of iron through the air. No matter how dangerous the smelters were, or whatever temperature they heated the outside air to, the child carelessly dashed around molten metal.

Sweat dripped down his forehead, but he paid little thought to his physical exhaustion. Instead, when he finished his imaginary obstacle course around the forge, he slashed his toy sword at a wooden pole covered in straw. The straw didn’t break, but several loud taps could be heard among the clanking of metal hammers.

His metal sword had no sheath or sharp edge, and it only had a handle made from wrapped leather scraps. Though its length barely exceeded one foot, the curved blade stood out at unique. In a world of magicians, nobody had a use for a sword, and thus the design that could be called exotic in his previous world gained an unprecedented level of rarity in his new world.

“Hey, boy, isn’t it almost time to go home?” one of the forge workers asked, looking at the sky and then to the child with the curved sword.

The child also looked to the sky, then replied, “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for letting me use his place to train, Mr. Boele,” and ran home.

Boele, who had worked at the forge for years, snickered as he watched the child running through the crowded evening street. Almost a year ago, he could tell that the shameless child who appeared at his forge and asked for a curved sword with one blade would be just as shameless a year later.

He had met young masters from rich families who acted as arrogant, but that child didn’t even have a family history - much less riches. If not for the boy’s genuine interest in forging, Boele would a mind to go seek out his parents.

On the other side of Gallus Town, the child entered his home, and his sister immediately greeted him. She shouted, “Andy!” and dropped the wooden blocks in her hands, but she quickly picked them back up and returned to stacking them.

Andric, now eight years old, strolled into the sitting room and sat on a chair on the opposite side of the room from his sister and mother. In the chair behind her five-year-old daughter, Lieve worked on integrating yellow dye into a set of cushions. She extracted the previous, blue, dye into a bottle, and filled in the fabric with yellow dye from another bottle.

Andric placed his bladeless sword behind his chair, then said, “That sure is a nice tower. Would you mind if I made a tower next to it?”

His sister cheerfully replied, “Nope!” and pushed several blocks closer to Andric. He smiled, then slid off his chair and sat on the floor in front of his sister, where he began making an upside-down tower.

He said, “Thanks Hedy, now I can make my reverse tower,” and rapidly stacked blocks. He used one vertical block as the base of his tower, then built upward from there. As his tower became higher, Hedy grew jealous of it, and Andric eventually had to topple his own tower just to avoid her wrath.

“Oh no!” Hedy exclaimed and scooted closer to Andric. “Your town fell. Let me help you build it again,” she said, then began stacking blocks in the same manner of Andric’s original tower.

Suddenly, Lieve stood and announced, “Who wants dinner?”

Andric and Hedy both voiced their approval, and Lieve walked into the kitchen to begin cooking. For dinner, the family usually ate meat and vegetables, and Wolter rarely joined them. In the evening, business greatly picked up, and he couldn’t afford to leave his work for an hour.

Still, even without him, Lieve made a fine steak. Though Wolter made his living as a chef, Lieve’s cooking ability could not be called any less than his. If not for Wolter having a vegetable magic affinity, he might not be working in a food cart.

Andric glanced at a bookcase against the wall, then turned to his sister and said, “I’m going to read a book. Can I leave this to you?”

She replied, “Alright, Andy, leave it to me. I’ll build the best tower ever.”

Satisfied, Andric stood and used magical telekinesis to pull a dictionary from the bookcase. Andric and Hedy had many educational books, but Wolter and Lieve had a surprising amount of reference texts. As of yet, Andric spent most of his time reading dictionaries to expand his knowledge of the language, but he looked forward to perusing the historical, medical and botanical volumes that also stood on the shelves.

Andric’s new world, named Paega, had many similarities with Andric’s previous world, but - at the same time - many differences. Though culinary and agricultural sciences had advanced rapidly for hundreds of years, other sciences were lacking. Water purification existed, but only as a form of magic. Steel could be easily made, but only with the use of magic. Many of the technologies Andric enjoyed in his previous world were emulated with magic in his new world.

Even though the book Andric read wasn’t made with a printing press or related technology, it was still made cheaply because of magic. Better yet, Andric could turn in the old books to a shop and receive updated versions for a small price. The paper and ink from the old books could then be reused.

Though buying new books cost a large amount of money, they lasted a long time and could be exchanged. In a way, the main cost came from the physical paper and ink, not the contents of the book - similar to an ebook reader.

Instead of developing new technology, most people sought to increase their magical power. Andric could easily see how a world that emphasized personal strength would stagnate.