Boy, does time fly by. I’m not sure if this is because of my previous memories or the fact that I was so focused on improving myself that the days went by quickly. Either way, I am ten years old now. Two years have passed since the mana storm. During this time, Elias began teaching Talia magic. It was nice to see him, even if he spent most of his time with my sister.

  Since the mana storm, even Zena let me assist Talia in teaching her magic when Elias wasn’t around. It seemed the mana storm had given me some unexpected respect from not only my parents, but the village.

  It wasn’t uncommon for a kid my age to ask me if it was true that I killed a bunch of goblins, trolls, and cyclops by myself or for a kid to ask me to teach them magic. It was quite amusing, though I declined each request. I had my own things to work on and teaching other kids magic wasn’t part of my mission. For starters, I’m not sure their parents would be too happy to see their child casting fire. Maybe I’m just paranoid.

  The one thing that hadn’t changed was my sparring with Damon. He still forced me to train with a sword, no matter how much I protested. My skills did improve, just not to what Damon would have liked. I was not even close to intermediate level. Renna could beat me in a sparring match of blades with one arm.

  My desire to improve with a sword disappeared after the mana storm. What was the point? At this point I think improving my magic was a better use of my time. That was likely why my lackluster skills as a swordfighter didn’t improve much.

  Now that I was ten, I figured only a few more years needed to pass, and I could join the Arcaneum University. That was my goal, to go there and advance to the next level. My skills as a mage hadn’t improved much, sure, my mana pool had grown, but I felt like I was stagnating. There was so much about magic I didn’t know, and Elias was no help since he had never achieved Mystic rank.

  At least I could say my combat skills had improved. I could also summon two stone bullets at the same time now. It may be slow, but progress is progress, right?

  One thing that has been annoying me lately is my body. I was starting to find Renna attractive, which was wrong on so many levels. It wasn’t like I had control of it, at least how my body felt. I did have control over how I acted, which remained the same. I had zero intentions of making any moves on any woman in this world until I was much older.

  It was odd to think that in total, I had ninety-two years’ worth of memories. Strange how fast time could go. I could’ve sworn I started crawling a few days ago.

  Shaking those thoughts away, it was time to go meet Renna. There will be a birthday celebration tonight. My one and only celebration. That would be fun. From what my parents told me, Renna and Elias would be coming.

  “Thorian, happy birthday!” Renna called out as I got closer to her. She rushed to give me a hug.

  “Thanks,” I returned the embrace. While a tenth birthday was important in this world, I had no excitement about the birthday itself.

  That’s when something felt odd. Renna didn’t seem like her usual, excited self after our hug ended. If I were a betting man, I’d say she wanted to talk to me about something. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “What, you can read minds now?” Renna teased, then sighed. “Yeah, I know it’s your big day, but I’m thinking of leaving Alcion soon.”

  Renna was twelve years old. She was getting closer to becoming the age to leave. Damon told me he left on his first adventure at the age of fourteen. If Renna was going to do the same thing, she still had a couple of years.

  “How soon?”

  “Next year.”

  “Isn’t that a bit young?”

  Renna twirled her hair with a finger and stopped herself from doing it again. “No. I’m ready to leave this village and explore the world. There’s so much to see and experience. My parents have told me a lot about their days as adventurers. I can’t wait anymore.”

  “Well, you have the skills to make it out there,” I said.

  “I kind of expected you to ask me to stay,” Renna said with a chuckle.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’ll miss you,” I began, choosing my words carefully. It was true, she was the only person close to my age that I got along with in this village. “I planned on going to the Arcaneum University when I was thirteen if my parents allowed it. I can’t tell you to put off your dream for me.”

  “How mature of you,” Renna said and lightly punched my shoulder. “It may be a year away, yet I had to tell you now. To be honest, I’ll miss our sparring matches.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “Enough about that,” Renna took out her wooden sword and gave me a slight grin. “Ready to spar?”

  “Of course,” I said.

  We fought five times. I ended up winning three of the five. In our last fight, we went all out, and I accidentally broke Renna’s left arm. I hovered my hand over her broken arm and healed it. I have to say, Renna is tough, not once in our duels did she cry when I broke or hurt her more than intended. If she couldn’t make it as an adventurer, then I didn’t want to know my odds if I decided to do that after school.

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  I didn’t apologize anymore. Renna started getting mad at me when I did. It wasn’t until she lectured me that these sparring sessions were meant to prepare us for combat and in a fight to the death, there was no holding back. Once I’d accepted that, I no longer felt guilty when going too far.

  “That should do it,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Renna spun her left arm around a few times. She plopped down on the ground, face staring at the sky. “This was our best set of matches yet. You’ve gotten really good.”

  I laid down next to her, enjoying the slight breeze. “Yeah,” I said, and there was a bit of silence between us. Until I broke it of course. “Do you think you’ll ever come back?”

  “To this village?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t know,” Renna said. She turned to her side and stared at me with her green eyes, looking a bit uncertain. “If you stay here, then I’ll have no choice but to return and if you are gone, then I’ll have to find you.”

  “That might be hard. To be honest, I’m not sure what I’ll do after I finish school.”

  “I’ll find a way,” Renna insisted, then sat up. “You’ll figure out what you want to do. With your skills as a mage, you can do almost anything.”

  “Maybe. Luckily, I have some time before I have to decide my future,” I said. That was the nice thing about being a kid, not having to have an answer right now. I’m not sure I was cut out to be an adventurer. Sure, my skills were improving, and I was confident I could do it. However, a life of fighting… I’m not sure if that’s what I wanted to do. I hoped to find answers about my future at school.

  “Well, time to get to your party,” Renna grabbed my arm and hefted me up. I often forgot how strong she was with how easily she pulled me up.

  With that, we went home. As usual, I was the last to arrive. I’m sure that was part of the plan, but it was great to see everyone was already there when we arrived.

  “Happy Birthday Thorian!” hey all shouted the moment I opened the door.

  I have to say, the party was already looking impressive. There was a ton of food spread out on three tables. One had a boar, there was chicken and other meats on another table, along with drinks on the third table. Cheese, bread, and fish were also among the offerings. My parents had really gone all out on this party of theirs.

  “Thanks everyone, I’m happy you are all here!” I said.

  With that, we all began to dig in and enjoy ourselves. What was incredible was that even Damon and I were talking and having fun, The tension that usually hung between us was gone. For this one day, I felt nothing but happiness.

  Somehow, we ate most of the food my parents had prepared and then the drinking started. It was weird to drink at this age. This world didn’t have strict laws on drinking. Not that it bothered me, I had no problem drinking some wine and with magic, I could cure any hangover symptoms in seconds.

  We went for hours and then it was time for the gifts. I wasn’t sure what gift anyone could give me that would make me excited. I would still be very grateful, regardless of the gift.

  Elias went first. “Happy birthday Thorian. With your skills as a mage, I had to think long and hard what to get you and decided on this,” he handed me a purple and gray bracelet. “This is a magic bracelet that can restore a portion of your mana instantly. It can only be used twice in a year, so you’ll only want to activate this in a dire situation.”

  “Wow, thanks master!” I took the bracelet and put it on my left wrist. There was a connection made the moment I put it on. To activate this bracelet, all I would need to do is think about mana replenishing. Whoever made it must have been a genius.

  “Hopefully you never need to use it and if I may say, I think it looks great on you,” Elias said.

  That got a laugh from everyone, even myself. The bracelet did look cool; I had to give him that. “I’ll keep it on hand if that situation ever arises,” I said.

  “My son,” Damon said and pulled out two swords in their scabbards. “These are for you.”

  I took both swords, and they nearly slipped through my arms. They were heavy! One of the swords was smaller, meant for how I was now, and the other sword was meant for me as an adult. Renna’s parents had given her the same type of gift with two swords.

  “Thank you, father,” I said and set the blades aside.

  “These swords are a big responsibility. You may not be as gifted with a sword as you are magic, but you should train all the same. You never know when a sword could save your life,” Damon said.

  “I’ll continue to train, I promise,” I wished I hadn’t said that. Then again, he did have a point. Having a sword would be handy if I found myself out of mana. Though if that ever happened, I’d likely be dead anyway.

  “That’s my boy,” Damon said, patting me on the back before stepping aside.

  Next was Zena. She pulled out a set of robes. They were gray and I could tell they were designed for mages. I couldn’t help smiling when I grabbed them, they were slightly too big for me, but I’d quickly grow into them. Though, I would outgrow them eventually.

  “My sweet boy, these robes are more than just clothing. They were crafted to defend against light magic and physical attacks. For example, a knife can’t pierce this robe,” Zena said.

  “Really? That’s amazing! Thanks, mother!” I quickly put the robes on and was shocked at how it felt. The robes felt… normal. If Zena hadn’t told me about its special properties, I would have assumed they were normal clothes. However, when I poked at the robe, could feel the material was strong and durable. I wondered if it was enchanted as it didn’t feel like there was any sort of armor anywhere.

  Talia was the next to come. My little sister had a devilish grin when she handed me a note. I unraveled the note and read it. It was a simple message. “You shall train me, your sister, for as long as I require and we shall have lots of fun. Love, Talia.”

  “Mwhaha, now you are stuck with me forever!” Talia said and started laughing.

  My parents were laughing, which at least let me know they were in on this little joke. Not that I expected my eight-year-old sister to get me something grand. I couldn’t help joining in and laughing. Renna and Elias looked confused. I decided not to relay the message.

  Last but not least was Renna. It was tradition for friends to give gifts. I wasn’t sure what Renna would give me. All I did know was that I would be sure to act excited.

  “Um, I made this for you,” Renna looked embarrassed as she pulled out a pendant.

  I held out my hand and looked at it. The pendant had what looked like a fireball at the end of the chain. I put it on. Something about this pendant was comforting in an odd way. Perhaps it was because I wore something like it back in my old life, when my wife had given me a handcrafted pendant for my thirtieth birthday. I had treasured it until the day I died.

  “I love it, thank you so much,” I gave Renna a hug and could hear her sigh of relief.

  “I’m glad,” she mumbled.

  With the gifts out of the way, it was time to play games. We played simple games like tug-of-war, wrestling, and a game where each player had ten rocks and the player who got the most rocks into separate holes won. I made four unique holes, but Damon surprised us all with a perfect ten. Each rock he threw landed in its own hole.

  For birthday celebrations, I would be lying if I said this wasn’t amazing. The people in this room were important to me and I was grateful to be here. It was a shame days like this couldn’t last forever.