Combat splitting? Dallion thought as he was being attacked.

It wasn’t exactly an attack. The large boy was just trying to slap him in the face. The attack was well executed. All three instances approached from different directions in an attempt to catch him off guard. There was a time when such an attack would have been troublesome. Not now, though.

Dallion moved to avoid all attacks without even resorting to splitting. He didn’t even stand up, continuing to eat, while his opponent desperately tried to hit him. If a grownup would see, they’d call this outright bullying. As far as Dallion knew his traits were five times higher than those of the child, maybe more. Of course, that didn’t stop Phoil from persisting.

“Get him!” the boy shouted, splitting into five instances.

Someone’s been training, Dallion thought.

The rest of Phoil’s posse joined in, each of them splitting into anywhere between two and four instances. A multitude of instances filled the section of the dining room. All but a few of the other children looked in the direction, observing the fight. Normally, such behavior would be looked down on, but since no magic was involved, there didn’t seem to be any mages running in to break it up.

Remember, no force splitting, Nil reminded. In fact, it might be better if you don’t split at all.

Dallion sighed. He didn’t have to. The only thing the boys’ childish attempts had achieved was preventing him from finishing his dinner. Against half a dozen opponents, Dallion had no choice but to move around. Even so, he continued to only evade attacks, in the hopes that the children would notice the difference in levels and stop. Unfortunately, they only took that as a sign of weakness on his part. Overconfidence was emanating from all of them to the point that there was nothing else.

Two jumped on the table, attempting him to reach him with sweeping kicks. Their instances collided, causing both of them to fade away.

They aren’t even coordinating. Dallion stepped to the side, avoiding a series of punches from Phoil. Dozens of guard sequences were available to him, should he choose to use his skills. Part of him wanted to do so, just to teach the arrogant brats a lesson. A little pain could be just what they needed to get rid of their bad habits. Then again, fear could be just as motivating a factor.

Striking multiple times faster, Dallion removed a few of their valuable trinkets without them even noticing. He was about to do more when the instances suddenly faded away. It was a force splitting, but not one that Dallion had initiated.

“You’re interrupting my dinner,” a black-haired boy said; the same that had raised his hand after Dallion in class.

Everyone instantly stopped, looking at him with fear. The expression was enough to tell Dallion that was the child of an archduke. Only someone of such lineage would impose such an amount of fear and respect.

Related to an archduke and a mage. He’ll definitely go far, Dallion thought.

“Sorry,” Phoil said. “He just…”

“He’s a hunter, which means he can beat you up any way he wants.”

The larger boy’s posse looked at one another. Phoil himself hesitated a few seconds before turning around and quickly leaving the room.

“Thanks,” Dallion said, glancing at what was left of his dinner. Part was kicked off the table during the “fight.” Funnily enough, an apple remained.

“You don’t owe me one,” the black-haired said. “But still, my mother would still like to hire your services at some point.”

Another request? Dallion hadn’t received that many in the year he’d spent as a hunter. For the most part, he’d take small jobs that most others would ignore. Now, in less than a day, he’d received requests from a mage and someone from an archduke’s family.

“With pleasure.” Dallion nodded.

The offer was clear: accept the request and the boy would reduce the amount of trouble he’d get into as a novice. If it wasn’t for his music skills, Dallion would almost think that the whole incident was staged so that the noble’s mother could get what she wanted. Given the emanations of rivalry and faint interest coming from the black-haired boy, that was most likely not the case.

Picking up the apple, Dallion returned to his room, where he kept on trying to fill up the magic cube again. The instructor hadn’t given him any additional cubes, so Dallion took advantage of what he had learned in the library to pull out magic from parts of his room and try to shove them back into the cube.

After a while, he thought back to what Palag had told him: magic could only be pulled, not pushed. The basic idea was clear. It was the execution that presented the problem. In order to pull the thread from the other side, Dallion had to find a way to make a hole in the cube of crystal. Yet, doing so without any devices seemed impossible. For a moment, he considered breaking it in two parts, then pressing them against the thread, similar to creating a sandwich with the magic inside. After one attempt, it turned out that wasn’t the solution.

The following morning, everything started anew. After a calm breakfast, everyone went to the auditorium, where they were given a new magic cube and told to practice in silence. Several more children managed to extract the magic; their friends had shared their discovery out of class, making the solution easier to find. However, no one was to put it back in again.

Dallion was hoping to have a conversation with the fury after class, but no sooner had the chimes begun, than the instructor vanished. His speed was well beneath the threshold Dallion needed to catch up. From the point of view of the children, though, it was the same as if he had resorted to magic.

Following lunch, Dallion went briefly through the library in the hopes of finding something he had missed the previous day.

It’s not like you to take so much time on this, dear boy, Nil commented. Maybe you’re losing your touch?

Very funny, Nil. Dallion finished the book he was skimming, then put it back in place.

As much as he hated to admit it, the echo was right. He was given a task that ten-year-olds could figure out in a week, and he had still to reach any breakthrough. He had tried stretching the thread and pressing it on top of the cube in the hopes it would go through, but that hadn’t worked either.

Damn it, he cursed. If only there was a way to—

A flash of inspiration rushed through his mind, instantly followed by anger that he hadn’t thought about it. In the past, Dallion had complained he wasn’t relying on his experience from Earth, now those same experiences were the things holding him back.

The moment he had learned how to pull out magic from the cube, he had instinctively visualized it as taking something out of a box—or toothpaste from a tube. The truth was that this isn’t a box—it was solid on all sides. Pulling a magic thread from one side was just the same as pulling it from another.

Holding his breath, Dallion held the ball of magic against a side of the cube. It remained there, unwilling to budge any further. At that point, Dallion sent magic to the fingers of his other hand and had it reach through the cube and pull from the other side. The ball of magic budged. It took a few attempts to get it right, but finally a thread made its way into the cube. The moment Dallion let go, all remaining magic flew in, as if a spring had been released. The cube shone brightly once more.

That was it? Dallion asked in disbelief.

Just the first step, dear boy. The execution was sloppy, to say the least. Besides, this is a very small and conveniently shaped item. In real life, things would be a lot more difficult. You better keep on practicing.

The following day, Dallion was quick to boast about his achievement the first chance he got. He was aware that it was a petty attempt to impress ten-year-olds, and yet it felt so good.

“Not bad,” the fury said. “Everyone, I want you to pay attention. Do it again.”

Dallion stood up, turned to the rest of the class, then repeated the process. What was more, he partially split into six instances, having his hands pull the magic out then put it back in again from each of the other five sides of the cube.

Half of the children gasped, some frowned, and one—the black-haired noble—copied him, though without the combat splitting.

“Sir, what’s the point of putting magic back into items?” Phoil asked. “Why not use it on the spot?”

“Because there might not be magic where you are,” the instructor explained. “Extracting magic and storing it into a container ensures you get to use it at a later point. More importantly, though, the same method is used for adding magic to yourself.”

Reaching behind the podium, the fury took out a sturdy wooden box. Opening it, revealed a series of small golden disks. Even from this distance, Dallion could instantly tell two things: the objects were abundant in magic, and they were also artifacts from a past age.

“This,” the instructor took one of the disks, “is a magic enhancer. They were used in the past to increase the magic of a person, similar to awakening items. Needless to say, they are rather valuable. They have one drawback: they cannot increase the magic trait of a person above five.” He took a few steps forward, placing the item in front of Dallion. “As novices, you’ll be given one once you manage to achieve what Dal has. Anything else needs to be earned through excellence.”

Now that the item was closer, it became obvious that the item was in fact made of crystal. The cold was nothing more than an outside ring, wrapped around the glowing purple core.

Carefully, Dallion picked it up. It was cold and pleasantly heavy. Its flat surface made extracting the magic a lot easier than the cube. However, there was no indication of how to ingest the magic once it was out.

“Don’t worry,” the instructor continued. “The artifact has a safeguard. You won’t be able to exhaust the item without consuming its magic. And please don’t try to eat it. It won’t work.”

I suppose I must figure this out on my own as well? Dallion looked at the other side of the disk.

That goes without saying, dear boy. The only thing I can guarantee is that the results will be a lot more satisfying.

Dallion chuckled, then proceeded to grab and pull out the magic thread from the item. The experience was no different from extracting it from the magic cube. Still holding the end with two fingers, Dallion bent them inwards, so the thread touched his palm, then used his other hand to try and pull it through. Apparently, living tissue reacted differently than inorganic matter.

You’re overthinking things again, Nil said. Just do what comes naturally.

Yeah, right, Dallion grumbled. As a seventy-seven level awakened, he didn’t want to start from scratch, even if he had to. If he were to progress smoothly, though, he had to let go of all of his pre-conceptions and start from a blank slate. It was logical to assume that everything needed to consume magic had already been taught. It couldn’t be finding it, since that presented no challenge right now. Pulling out magic was obviously involved, just as was pulling it in.

Dallion let go of the thread. Instantly, it went back into the artifact.

I need to focus my own magic to touch it, he said to himself. And magic to pull it out.

His own magic went up to his fingers, then into the item as he grabbed it. So far, so good. If he were an object, he’d need to find a way to pull it through himself. However, since his own magic prevented it from physically doing so…

“No,” Dallion whispered. Could it be so simple? It seemed absurd, but since this was a child’s task, he decided to give it a go.

SPHERE ITEM AWAKENING