Chapter 16 - Training

Cecil woke up early in the morning the next day. He quickly finished up his 2-3 hour routine, and then waited for Mrs. Anna to instruct him about magic.

"You really are eager."

"Of course, I take this seriously!"

"All right, now let's begin then. Lucia you too, come over."

"Okay~"

Lucia walks over and stands next to Cecil. Cecil also sees Silver sitting on the ground nearby, it seems he wants to learn too. With everyone ready, Mrs. Anna begins the lessons.

"Now, pay attention okay~"

""Yes!""

"Woof!"

Using magic was pretty simple Cecil thought. He had read many fantasy novels containing magic and the explanations were somewhat similar.

In order to cultivate magic, you have to first be able to sense the mana in the surrounding air. This proved to be somewhat difficult for Cecil since he once lived in a mana-void world.

Lucia already had the basics drilled into her from since she was much younger, so she could already feel the mana in the atmosphere.

On another note, it seems that Silver had a good grasp of how to sense mana too. Cecil wasn't really sure how to tell, but Mrs. Anna had exclaimed when Silver started to "gather" the mana in the surroundings into his body. It made Cecil envious since Silver could do it right away while he was still groping around in the dark.

'Mrs. Anna said that it's all about feeling it, but I'm not even sure what to feel. I mean, how would mana even feel like? It might as well be just like the air! How the hell would you feel that?'

Cecil had trained his body to be able to feel the air pressure or the changes in the surrounding air by feeling it with his skin, but that took him almost his entire lifetime to do so. Not to mention he wasn't even all that masterful about it!

"Fuuuhh… Mrs. Anna, how would mana even feel like? I mean, I can't see it. I don't even know what it is either, so where do I even start?"

"Hmmm… Well, you did once live in a world without the presence of mana, so it might really be hard for you…"

"Ugh… Well, I'll figure out something."

"I'm sorry, teaching a rare case like you really stumps me too."

"It's okay Mrs. Anna. It's not your fault anyways."

Cecil sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes. He started to meditate just like how he would back on earth before and after every training session.

'Feel the mana, how the heck am I supposed to feel it? I wish I could just see it. Maybe it works like how the nonsense my dad and grandpa used to keep saying about internal and external energy. Qi or chi or whatever.'

Back on earth, Cecil's father and grandfather would always keep babbling on and on about internal and external energy.

They said that every human has it, but most couldn't tap into it because of bodily limitations. It was also listed in the Silvaria family's ancestral training manual about something like that, but to Cecil at the time, he felt that it was mostly bullshit.

Of course back when he was younger, he did believe in it. His father said that he could use internal energy to crush rocks with his bare fists, heal bruises, cuts, and other injuries by just placing his palm and channeling the 'energy' into the injury.

His father even showed him once. So there was evidence from how his father had treated his bruises and other injuries he got from training, but as Cecil grew up, he started to doubt whether this 'energy' really exists or not because his father hasn't healed any of his injuries from training ever since he hit 10.

His father kept saying to him that it was better for men to have some "war trophies" carved on his body. It was basically just an excuse.

'Well, I mean this could be a start to something right? It's better than to just grope around blindly in the dark.'

Cecil continued his meditation and concentrated his focus onto his whole body.

'Since I could light up the mana-testing sphere, that means I must have the mana somewhere inside my body. Mrs. Anna said that the mana-point was located in the navel area of the human body. Dad also said that internal energy also originates from the navel area and spreads throughout all our bodies. So it's best I focus around that area.'

Cecil kept meditating like that for almost an hour or so. He opened his eyes and looked around.

Everyone was already doing their own things nearby. He even saw Silver shooting out pressurized wind from his claws towards a tree nearby.

Mrs. Anna and Lucia are at the other end of the yard. Mrs. Anna was probably teaching Lucia about her innate magic and the general magic system, since Lucia was concentrating so hard just to produce a small ping-pong ball sized water ball in front of her.

Seeing as everyone was working so hard, Cecil reaffirmed his goal.

'I'll do it in within 3 days!

He then closed his eyes again and started meditating.

Before long it was already noon and Mrs. Anna had called for them to go and eat lunch. Cecil had to stop his meditation and training to go eat. No matter how serious he was with HIS training, he would never neglect food. In a healthy body therein lies a healthy mind as his grandfather would always say.

After eating lunch with the family and Silver, Cecil rushed back outside and began his meditation and training once again. This continued on for a week…