Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: 02. Learning Along the Way
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Kindergarten life flowed by quite leisurely. At least it wasn't as boring as I'd imagined. There was fun in watching the kids, and reliving the actions from when I was very young wasn't half bad either.
Above all, the kindergarten was filled with all sorts of toys infused with fascinating mana. Sensing and distinguishing those flows of mana was one of the most enjoyable things for me. On top of that, I'd even made a pretty decent friend.
My desk mate, Lee Yumi.
The reason Yumi and I became friends was simple. I liked books, and so did Yumi. We were the two who headed straight for the bookshelf the moment we arrived at kindergarten, without anyone prompting us.
Before we knew it, there was another kid next to us, reading just like we were. That sparked a sense of kinship and familiarity. And that was what led us to start talking.
We weren't super close or anything, but we were definitely at the level where we could call each other friends.
Thanks to that, the teachers could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I was so shy, lost in my own little world, so at first I tended to hang on the outskirts by myself. I hardly spoke to the other kids. Plus, my personality that hated standing out naturally contributed to my quiet, well-behaved kindergarten days.
For a while, the teachers fretted over me endlessly. They worried because I wouldn't talk, worried because I was alone, just nonstop fussing. But lately, seeing me with Yumi seemed to put their minds at ease. For me, that was a relief.
As I blended into kindergarten life like that, I was able to take a good, hard look at my current situation. In other words, I could gauge the average skill level of kids my age. And where I stood among them.
Surprisingly, I had awakened my talent for mana quite early. In this kindergarten, aside from me, there were only a few kids who could sense mana, and most of them were the seven-year-olds starting elementary school next year.
For reference, my detailed observations revealed that those seven-year-olds' mana sensing was actually inferior to Yumi's. In short, Yumi was quite the standout talent in this kindergarten.
Ah, how did I know that?
Because my detection ability, honed by constantly observing and sensing mana, kept growing.
Now I could roughly measure a person's mana proficiency by the amount and density of mana enveloping their body. Yumi's mana was just barely visible as a faint haze, and all the seven-year-olds were still at that hazy sensing level.
Just from that, I could really feel how far ahead I was. Kids two years older than me were barely at that point.
And my detection growth didn't stop there. After seeing the colors of mana, I learned each color had its own unique feel. Lately, I could even faintly sense the attributes of magic embedded in objects. At that point, distinguishing between non-mages and mages was a piece of cake.
I could make even finer distinctions. Among kids just starting magic, I could tell if they sensed mana vaguely, if they could move it, or even if they'd started accumulating it in their bodies. Mana, even without attributes, had slightly different feels depending on the place and color.
Going through that, I found it fascinating. They said people sensitive to mana felt it best. Hmm, judging by how this sensation was sharpening, I must have been a pretty delicate woman.
....
Whatever I think inside is my business!
Of course, I kept that fact hidden from others. But even while hiding it, I was thrilled by every bit of growth in my mana. So I experimented with all sorts of things in secret from Mom.
Honestly, they were experiments straight out of a comic book addict's playbook. For example, concentrating mana in my fist made punches hit harder. Focusing it in my legs let me jump higher depending on how I concentrated. When mana gathered enough, it exerted physical force. Even attaching it to my shoulders like wings made floating a bit possible, though flying was tough. And when I focused on my eyes...
Mana became much clearer.
Playing around with mana like that, the amount accumulating inside me grew day by day. I could feel it throughout my body.
But apparently, I wasn't the only one noticing my growth. One day amid those routine days, Mom was the one who brought it up first. She sat me down face-to-face and said we should properly learn magic.
I widened my eyes and cheered.
"Really? Really really?!"
Mom gave a soft smile at my uncharacteristically bouncy reaction. Of course it was real.
And so, Mom led me to sit on the living room floor. She said she had something to get and popped into the master bedroom for a moment. Sitting in the middle of the living room waiting for her, I fidgeted restlessly. I was just so excited and anxious.
Mom came back from the room shortly after. In her hands was something.
It was a fairly large square board.
Mom carefully set the board down on the floor.
It was an intriguing shape. On the board, a pentagon and square overlapped, and embedded in their vertices and interiors were a total of eleven gem-like ores. Below the ores, Korean letters were inscribed. At the square's ends: water, fire, wind, earth. At the pentagon's: wood (plant), lightning, spirit, special, metal. And right in the center: light and darkness.
I knew what this was. I'd seen it plenty on TV. A common magic tool for testing mana aptitudes.
"This is the gem board?"
Mom nodded at my words.
"Yeah. I figured we'd check your aptitudes first."
I blinked at that, then nodded. Makes sense. To learn magic, you naturally start by seeing which affinities you have. Of course.
"You know how to use it?"
"Yeah. Put your hand on it and infuse mana, right? Then the matching gems light up."
"Right."
Mom nodded with a smile.
"If there's no affinity at all, nothing lights up. The degree of compatibility shows in the brightness. But since that's hard to judge precisely, there are levels from 1 to 10 engraved below. The higher the number, the better the affinity for that magic type."
With that, Mom placed her palm on the gem board.
"Want a demonstration first?"
As she spoke, Mom invoked her mana. Red light shimmered not just from her palm—the channel for mana—but from her whole body. That vivid red mana seeped into the gem board. The color was so intense, it almost seemed to dye the surroundings red, impossible as that was. Soon, lights flickered on sporadically in the gems.
"Mom's special is level 10."
The magic attributes lit by Mom's mana were light, fire, earth, special, lightning, metal. Light was level 6.
"Fire's 7."
"I'm not sure why, but no affinity for water. By the way, they usually do this once in early elementary school classes. Middle school uses a more detailed version."
Earth was 4. Lightning 6. Metal 3.
"Amazing."
"Want to try it, Eunha?"
"Yeah!"
I grinned wide and placed my hand on the gem board. The rippling indigo mana now flowed naturally into it. After a moment, I lifted my hand and checked the results.
"Oh?"
Mom looked puzzled. I glanced down.
"All the fires... lit up."
"Oh my. That's truly rare."
I rolled my eyes to check the levels engraved below each attribute's gem. I saw numbers below the central light and darkness ores. Both gems shone brilliantly in black and white light. Darkness level 10, light level 9.
"And light and darkness both at such high levels simultaneously?"
For reference, special and spirit were also 10.
"Spirit? Me...?"
I mumbled, then suddenly remembered.
My main magic was illusions. And that could be considered 'spirit-type' magic.
'I see... so that's why.'
That made it perfect for creating space-time magic too. From what I'd gleaned from comics and novels—though I didn't know the details—it felt like special + light + darkness. Somehow, this gem board result seemed to tell me I'd excel at illusion magic, barriers, and rune magic. It made me feel great.
Beaming, I checked the next attributes. After that, water was about 9. Fire was 6. Lightning 8 despite that? Earth 5. Wood (plant) 4. Hmm...
And that was the lowest. The most surprising was metal at 9. Metal magic—what could that be?
Finally, wind 8. Staring at the gem board, I tilted my head.
'Hmm, everything except wood is above average... right?'
As I thought that, Mom's flustered voice came.
"This is... really... Whew... Makes me think of Seona all of a sudden."
"Huh...?"
Auntie Seona? I perked up my ears. Mom nodded.
"Yeah. She got level 10 in water, wind, and special. Having affinities across all magic is rare enough, but all at high levels is even rarer. Especially since normal people struggle to have more than two attributes at level 10. And if you do, the rest drop low... but Seona had spirit and darkness at 8. You..."
Mom trailed off with a sigh. As I gave her a puzzled look, she shook her head and muttered.
"Truly... a rare talent..."
"..."
Mom's face darkened briefly, but she soon smiled and patted my shoulder.
"Alright, then. Darkness, special, spirit, light, metal, water... a lot, but let's start with those affinities. After, lightning and wind have high compat too, so I'll teach the basics. Ah, of course, only what Mom knows. Even without affinity, basic spells work to some degree."
"Yeah!"
I'd been a bit down seeing Mom's dark expression, but her words lit me up, and I grinned. Mom stroked my head and asked.
"Having fun?"
"Yeah. So much fun!"
It really was. Riding that momentum, I asked what I'd been curious about.
"Oh, right, Mom. How do you make your own magic? I'm curious."
"Hm? Makes sense you'd wonder. You just imagine it. Infuse mana, add your will... and picture the magic you want appearing before you. Raising mana and fueling it with imagination and will—that's the start."
"Oh... surprisingly simple?"
"In words. Imagining's the hard part. Takes practice to get used to it. Especially the first creation."
"..."
I looked up at Mom silently. She wore a wistful expression.
"It's tough, but Seona did it in early elementary. Two of them even."
Yet that wistfulness carried an indescribable bitterness. I recalled what Mom said a few months ago and shut my mouth. Mom, gazing far off, soon smiled and said.
"Alright, let's learn. Darkness and spirit have lots of dangers, so light attribute first."
"Aw~! I want special first! Is clairvoyance hard?"
"No, most people can use it, not too tough. Why? Wanna learn that?"
"Yeah. I'll write down all the magic I want to learn."
"Sure, go ahead."
Remembering my notebook from before, I started listing magics on the paper in front of me. Skipping attack spells, starting with teleport, then levitation, healing, clairvoyance, telepathy, tracking, light, telekinesis, shadow magic, basic illusions. Barriers and formations. As I filled the paper, Mom's face turned queasy.
"All this?"
"Yeah. Can't I?"
"Well... not something you learn in a year... Ugh, looking close, nothing mismatches your affinities. All lit up, after all... Shaping magic? Might not suit you."
"Ah, figured."
"And memory magic... okay, okay, fine. But Mom can't do all these—what now? Still, I'll teach what I can."
"Waaah!!"
I was so thrilled I clapped and squealed. Mom laughed watching me.
That night, I tried creating unique magic for the first time. I sat at my desk in a comfy position. Unlike usual, the tidy desk held only an open notebook and pen. I placed both hands palms-up on the notebook.
Calming my rising tension, I took deep breaths. One, two—counting inwardly, I breathed in mana.
Mom said: infuse mana with will and imagination.
Eyes closed, I sensitively felt the surrounding mana. Recalled how I'd sensed it with eyes and skin so far.
Not many mages around me.
No Auntie Seona next door, so recent magic memories were just Mom and Teacher.
I pictured them using unique magic. The mana flows then.
'Like this... moving...?'
I spread mana over my hands. And 'imagined'. Above my open palms, the form of a faint, weak illusion floating...
Something small was fine. At first, a shimmering illusion that vanished on touch was perfect. More realistic that way, right?
A weak light, or since it's an illusion, something mystical like sparkling dust falling would be nice too.
Eyes closed, I imagined that scene. Then cautiously opened them.
But unlike my imagination, the world before me was as still as before I closed them. I let out a disappointed sigh.
"Ah—yeah, didn't work."
But disappointment was fleeting. I knew it wouldn't work first try. Was it silly to try magic this way? Hard to expect success right away.
I imagined unfolding dreams before my eyes, but the sensation was pretty vague. Still, with image practice, I'd succeed in a few years, so I wasn't too hung up.
More importantly, the next one. Something I thought would succeed faster.
I grabbed the pen beside the notebook and brought it to the edge. Infused mana into the pen and wrote a letter. As I wrote, I recalled a scene from long ago.
A nostalgia surging from memory. Like sounds reviving in my ears.
In my past life, I'd written tons. Mostly keyboard, but jotting novel settings in notebooks was common too. So I had this odd conviction. And that belief turned imagination to reality.
Believing, I wrote one word. 『Light』. And it became reality right away.
"...Huh."
Eyes wide, I covered my mouth. It really, really worked. First unique magic success—though I believed, the reality sank in slow. The word 'light' I'd written sparkled on the notebook. I 'imagined' it rising to the sky, and the light really floated up. Slowly, and tiny, of course—
I caught the light in my hand, imagined it fading to dispel the magic, and it vanished for real. All that remained was the dark trace of the word I'd written, as imagined.
"Uh... ah..."
I blanked out briefly, then trembled with joy, grinning wide.
"I did it!!"
I cheered and bounced around, then grabbed the pen again. It worked. Success! Success!!
Great! Gotta try everything I can!
Swallowing my emotion, instead of savoring it, I vented by spamming the new magic. Scribbled words wildly. Dark orb, fire, water drop—short words nonstop. Not all formed, but some small shapes appeared midway. Controlling them freely thrilled me so much, I grabbed the pen again.
This time, a sentence. Yeah, make an illusion. Might speed up illusion magic learning. Seeing illusions directly, unfolding dream worlds—
In short, I was an idiot. Wildly using a newborn magic predictably backfired. That night, hyped up, I cast until mana depleted, passing out half-dead, waking only next morning. And got scolded by Mom for sleeping on the floor.
But I didn't tire of it, repeating the same. Addicted to my first self-made magic, I cast night after night, moderating to avoid depletion.
A few days later, I succeeded in illusion magic too. The first was just a small, weak phantasm, but that was plenty smooth.
Two down—next should be easier? No, harder. Compared to rune and illusion, space-time based barrier took forever. Trying with space-time intent, even mana movement failed. Focusing on barrier motifs and shapes, it took nearly a month to finally create.
But the barrier magic I barely made was pathetically weak. At best, a shield covering my palm. Trying proper barrier form worsened it. Even the supposedly easiest 'body-enveloping barrier' barely covered my fingertip nail.
Honestly, shocking. After, I doubled down on magic training. Young body and all: meditate on waking, breathe mana sequentially to build it, hole up in my room casting nonstop. Tough, but progress came bit by bit. Even the hardest barrier.
But, well, skimping sleep daily, obsessed with magic, I started dozing at kindergarten sometimes...
And got caught. That I could sense mana, that is.
....
Just that, really.
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