As Alex woke up the next morning, having dreamt the same thing again, he started thinking about what to focus on in the dream to actually make it change. He had tried various things last night, mainly names and faces.
As he was thinking, a sudden idea came to his mind.
'Reports.' It was so simple, yet somehow it had gone over his head.
The reports the general was reading before his secretary called for him.
There must be something in those reports that was the key for him to move on to the next dream.
He still hadn't forgotten about the symbol from his first dream; in fact, he had drawn it at the end of the same book where he wrote the Senturion Training Method.
"I need to buy another notebook to start writing down the information that makes the dream change," Alex muttered to himself.
That way, as the dreams changed, he would not forget any information previously provided.
Alex stood up and went to the other side of the room to wake Marc, who was sleeping as if he were hibernating.
Alex kicked Marc lightly on the hip and said:
"Hey! Wake up, you have work to do."
"Hhhm," Marc responded.
Alex, of course, simply went to the window and yanked the curtains aside.
The sudden burst of light hit Marc, who placed his hand in front of his eyes, looking like a vampire exposed to the sun.
"Gaahh," he grunted.
After taking a shower and helping Susan with breakfast, Marc and Alex went to the jungle to clean up.
After that came lunch and rest. Then Alex went to the alchemy shop, where he worked, learned alchemy, and trained — mostly Senturion Control, followed by Windgathering and Water Drop Meditation.
Then he went home, played a bit with Eve — who was getting livelier by the day — and finally went to sleep. There were dozens of reports to go through in the dream, and it would take him two or three times to memorize each and write it down on paper, so he didn't know how many days it would take him to finish.
And just like that, both boys settled down and started to live a somewhat peaceful life.
Six months passed — slow in the day-to-day, but looking back, it felt like a flash.
It was now the last month of autumn, and the cold had started to become the norm.
It was morning, and Alex was alone in the jungle.
Today, Marc had to do some office work, which meant Alex was left alone for a couple of days.
As he walked through the jungle, searching for plants, he heard a jumble of voices — people talking, laughing, and shouting.
'Kids,' he thought. And indeed, as the voices grew clearer, he could distinguish that they belonged to children — well, children around his own age.
He moved out of the way, not intending to be seen, and hid behind a thick tree trunk.
As the group passed by, they suddenly stopped.
"Okay, children, gather around," said an older voice.
'Probably the teacher,' Alex thought.
"Today, we came out to the jungle to practice skills on uneven and complicated terrain. I have to say, you all did pretty well. But before we head back, any questions about what we studied last week? Remember that tomorrow is the test, so this is your last chance," the teacher said.
"Yes, teacher, me!" A girl raised her hand.
"Yes, speak on," said the teacher.
"Why is Mana Control the only training method that bypasses the rules about tiers?" asked the girl.
"Hm, not a bad question at all," the teacher said.
"But to put it simply, it's because Mana Control only does what the name says — it helps the user improve control over the mana they already have, allowing them to use less mana to cast the same skills.
"On the other hand, Tier 2 Mana Gathering Techniques absorb a vaster, more aggressive, and purer form of mana than those of Tier 1. If your core isn't tempered to the standard of Tier 2, the vastness and aggressiveness of the mana will shatter it — which means one either ceases to be a mage and becomes crippled, or, in the worst cases, dies altogether.
"And in the case of Elemental Sense, it's the same principle as Mana Gathering, but instead of crippling the core, you'll cripple your mind with the amount of information a person receives from a more advanced level of Elemental Sense. After all, tiering up improves the body and mind to better handle mana — that's why the system exists. I hope this answers your question."
"Yes, teacher, thank you," said the girl.
"Any more questions?" the teacher asked again.
"Yes, me," said a boy this time.
"Go on," the teacher said.
"Why do we need materials to tier up? Doesn't mana already help our bodies improve? So why the materials?" the boy asked.
"Well, because mana is not gentle at all. You see, the reason the status window says you need the materials is quite simple — during tier-up, mana tempers your body with the level of the tier you are ascending into.
"So if you are ascending to Tier 2, mana will temper you with Tier 2-type mana. The material you use serves to protect your body during the process of tempering. Also, mana converts all remaining material into strength — hence why you need materials aligned with your own elements. That's also why tiering up grants benefits; it's like a reward after a tribulation."
The teacher finished explaining and asked again if anyone else had questions. After solving some more questions, they simply resumed their way back home.
After they left, Alex stepped out from behind the tree. He was sweating.
'I now regret only learning elemental theory in the library,' he thought.
When he heard about the restrictions on skills based on tiers, he felt a chill. He found himself lucky that his dreams had provided a Master Mana Control Technique and not a Mana Gathering Technique.
'Wait… am I lucky, or is this something about the dream?'
He began, yet again, to question the nature of his dreams. He didn't know why he had been taught a mana control technique instead of anything else.
'Are the dreams able to tell what level I'm at, or at least what I can't learn?'
After six months, Alex still hadn't managed to copy even half of the reports in the dream. He didn't know how much time he had left to finish — it could be the next report, or the very last one, that would end the dream. The good thing was that the moment he dreamed something different, he'd know it was the last report — the one that changed everything.
And so, after this interesting shift in his routine, Alex returned to his usual life. Every day, he was one step closer to entering the magic academy, and after what he'd witnessed today, he was more eager than ever to go.