Kian Goldmaul POV

  It’s been a few months since the training has started. My 4th birthday is approaching. The swordsmanship training has since long started.

  In the training, Niko uses some kind of doll my size that copies his movement so it would be easier for me to learn on how to use a sword, and it did help a lot.

  Currently I’m in an empty field with my father as he wants to teach me some simple magic.

  I can finally use my Veythar well enough without draining my core with a single spell.

  My 1 point of Veythar is now equal to 0.03 point, while the average adult’s 1 point is 0.001.

  With my Grey Core, which holds 150 points of Veythar, I can use The Fool’s Line at its minimal need for 5,000 seconds or 83 minutes.

  Anyway, returning to the topic, Dad seems to be planning to teach me some of the simplest civilian-grade magic.

  “Alright, Kian, before we start, don’t tell anyone about me teaching you magic,” he says, smiling embarrassed. “Legally, I’m not allowed to teach anyone below the age of 6 magic, so please don’t tell anyone.”

  I nod as I understand the reason behind this as to keep kids from accidentally hurting themselves.

  “Alright, I will be teaching civilian-grade magic. Most of them aren’t strong enough to harm a person and are mostly used for daily life—like low-tier of light magic, water magic, air magic, telekinesis… I will be teaching you a simple flame magic too, but make sure you don’t use it on yourself or pour too much Veythar into it.”

  He taps his feet, making a log appear under me. “Sit down and watch for now as I show them.”

  As I sit down, he points his finger to the east.

  “This is light magic. It’s used to light up dark places. Obviously.” His finger glows like a flashlight toward the direction he’s pointing at. “Of course, there’s light magic that’s used for attacking, like this one.” Before he uses it, a wall made of stone, 3 meters tall, appears 10 meters away from my dad.

  “Alright, watch. This one is considered a low military-grade light magic. I’ll be doing it slowly for you to watch.”

  After saying that, he makes some distance between his index finger and thumb. After doing that, he creates a small light beam connecting his index with his thumb. As the light beam starts to spin, he pinches his thumb and index together. A halo of light swirls in the gap, compressing the light into a bead slightly smaller than a rice grain. Then he points it at the wall and flicks it.

  The light flies out in an instant toward the wall and passes through it, making a hole of 5 mm along its path.

  “This is Photon Pinch. Its flight distance is 30 meters max at Mach 1.3. It’s a downgraded version of B-117 Lumen Lance, a medium military-grade magic. Unlike this one, it has a range of 500 meters and moves at Mach 10. You don’t have to worry about that for now, as it’s mostly used by 2nd-tier soldiers, and you’re not even 5th-tier,” he says, chuckling.

  “Anyway, what I mean by showing you this is that even something as harmless as light can be turned into something deadly as long as you use it correctly.”

  After he finishes talking, I speak. “What is B-117 that you said before Lumen Lance?”

  “B-117? It’s the Protocol Number. Every medium-tier magic and above has its own protocol number. Unlike them, Photon Pinch is too weak to give it a number. On the battlefield, they use protocol numbers instead of names so it’s easier and faster to understand what they mean.”

  “Now that you mentioned it, I should explain this too, but don’t think too much about it as you won’t need it until you enter the military. ‘A’ is swordsmanship branch, ‘B’ is magic branch, ‘C’ is for sword-magic hybrid. There are others like knight magic branches, but they’re too far from you now.”

  “Now I’ll explain the six numbers: ‘0’ is for space-related, ‘1’ is for light, ‘2’ is for fire, ‘3’ is for earth-related, ‘4’ is for air, ‘5’ is for water. Like I said with B-117, the ‘17’ is Lumen Lance’s number. They’re as simple as that.”

  “Anyway, before we start, I have to explain how this would work,” he says, getting slightly more serious.

  “There are two types of magic: atomic magic and Veythar magic. They both give out the same result but differ in how you do it. For atomic magic, you use other elements and reshape their atoms—like oxygen, carbon, etc.—as long as it exists, you can reshape or duplicate it. As for Veythar magic, it works by reshaping pure Veythar energy into the magic you want to use. This is the type of magic only people at knight level or above can use, and it’s more stable and predictable—but at the same time, it’s harder to use.”

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  After saying that, he holds out his arms. After doing that, two water balls appear—one on each hand.

  “On my right hand is a water ball made using atomic magic. I reshaped the air atoms into it, and this is how it ended up. You should notice it seems a bit more natural than the water ball on my left hand, which was made using Veythar energy. First, those are not normal water balls like the one I’m going to teach you. They’re more dense and can be used as attack magic. Of course, by themselves, they’re no different from a handball. Now look.”

  The ball on his right floats a little before he uses air magic—it seems—to make it fling toward the wall, which makes a slight thump sound, cracking the wall slightly before the ball breaks apart.

  After that, the ball on his left hand does the same, but this time the wall breaks down with the ball.

  “There’s a huge difference in strength, as after I used Veythar, I was able to make the Veythar one way more dense than the atomic one. But like I said, it’s harder to use Veythar magic than just reshaping atoms.”

  I nod before I get curious. What is The Fool’s Line considered?

  “Dad, I have a question,” I say, raising my hand for him to see me. “What’s the question?”

  “Which magic is used to use The Fool’s Line?”

  “The Fool’s Line? Well, I can’t really tell, as you’re the first and only one to ever use it. For now, you’re using atomic magic. As for Veythar magic, we’ll be able to tell over time if it works too.”

  “If that’s the case, how do I use Veythar magic outside my body?”

  “You can’t,” he says suddenly.

  “Huh?” I say, confused, tilting my head.

  “You need a special surgery before you can use Veythar magic inside your body, let alone outside it. That’s why I said only knights can use it. All knights have undergone the surgery, and even that alone doesn’t enable them to use Veythar magic outside their body.”

  “Wait, wait,” I say. I suddenly have a realization.

  “If that’s the case, how is atomic magic being used? After all, it’s still Veythar that reshapes it, no?”

  “Well, not exactly. Veythar works as fuel for your core, and it’s your core that reshapes atoms into other things. You can view your core as a quantum 3-D printer. It grabs atoms in front of or around you, melts them as if they’re ink, and reprints them into whatever shape or form you want. Even my horns work on the same principle, but on Veythar instead of normal atoms.”

  “Your core is just a machine, and Veythar is its fuel. The more Veythar you can store and the more efficiently you can use it, the longer you can operate the machine.”

  …

  …

  …

  It has been an hour now. I can now do light magic—just the flashlight my dad showed—and coupled with that, water magic for drinking or washing myself, and air just strong enough to blow a bird off its branch, and telekinesis just strong enough to lift 10 kg. As for earth magic, he didn’t teach it, as they’re mostly specialist-only or military personal, and he wouldn’t teach them to me without certification.

  He has just finished explaining the flame magic he planned on teaching me. It’s just a torch magic—nothing fancy—just enough to light up a leaf or start an oven.

  “Well then, go ahead and try it, little Kian. It should look something like that.” After saying that, he puts his hand on my back just in case to shield me.

  “Keep a slight distance between your hand, face, and body just in case.”

  I do so, and after a few seconds, I start using flame magic, which is called Torch.

  As a few seconds pass, I feel my Veythar draining at the rate of 0.03 points per second, but when I check my hand, there’s nothing.

  “Huh? Did I do it wrong?” I say, looking closely at my hand before looking at my father as he starts frowning slightly.

  He moves his hand toward mine. “No, you did it. It is working, and I can feel it through my sensors. I am feeling some heat.”

  After saying that, he thinks a little more deeply while his hand is still a few centimeters above mine.

  “Increase the amount of Veythar you’re using to 1 point per second.”

  I oblige, doing so until I feel the rate is perfect. After a few seconds, I see him nod. “Alright, you can stop. I understand what’s happening,” he says, sighing a little as his smile grows at the same time.

  “It’s a core mutation. Not sure if it’s flames only or if it includes other elements. And don’t fear—core mutation isn’t a bad thing. At least from all records we have, there’s never been a bad case.”

  “Mutation? How does that work? What does it do to my flame?”

  “Well, first I’ll have to explain a thing about the core,” he says.

  A flat wall appears behind him, as it seems he will use it as a writing board.

  “I told you an hour ago that you can view the core as a machine. Well, that sentence has some truth to it. Cores were machines that humans created and put inside their bodies through surgery. Because that surgery was done countless times over thousands of years, the human body started mutating, and people began getting born with a core, making surgery unnecessary. Now, cores differ a little. The difference is sometimes so small it’s unnoticeable, and sometimes, like in your case, they change how some elements work. In your case, as far as I know, it’s the flames—they produce heat but without the visuals.”

  "Of course, there is more to mutation than just this, but for now, this is enough for you to understand what happened."

  As he spoke, he was drawing on the wall—the core and humans, how they did the surgery—but simplified.

  “Which means, if you use your flame in battle, your opponent wouldn’t be able to know you used it unless he had his sensors open and they were extremely sensitive.”

  “For other elements that you might be able to use differently, we’ll explore them later. For now, it’s getting late, and you’ve already learned the basics I can teach. For now, wait until you’re 12, and you’ll learn other magic in the academy, as they’re all considered military-grade.”

  Chapter End