"You want to learn an Advanced-Ranked Spell? "
My mother looked at me with a mixture of surprise and contemplation. She had long stopped questioning my requests, but this one made her pause.
"Yes," I answered simply.
She folded her arms, thinking for a moment.
"I only know one Advanced spell… is that okay with you?"
"That's fine," I said with a nod.
Soon after, we made our way out of the village.
Further this time.
Past the mossy cliffs and whispering turtle-shell outcrops, to a more isolated clearing. My mother didn't want to risk drawing attention from the other villagers.
When we finally arrived, she gave me the incantation. She spoke it slowly, carefully, gauging my reaction.
I memorized it in one try.
She didn't even blink.
Guess she's used to me being weird by now.
The first time I surprised her with my silent casting, she practically dropped her staff. Now? She just gave a tired smile and said,
"Show me what you've got."
__________________
The spell was Frost Nova, a Water Element Advanced-Rank spell.
On my first attempt, I chanted it normally, just to feel the structure.
A cold wave exploded outward in a white ring, freezing the grass around me into a field of brittle ice.
Not bad.
I tried it again. Then again.
My mother had to leave early—her mana pool had taken a serious hit just from casting it once.
But me? I kept going.
Even after casting it multiple times, I barely felt winded.
Is my mana pool… that high?
It reminded me of something something from the anime:
After Advanced Rank, the difference between spells is less about structure and more about scale.
In other words, from Advanced → Saint → King → Emperor → God, the core mechanism stays the same.
What changes is area, intensity, mana volume, and how well you control it.
---
So I decided to push it further.
I began to deconstruct Frost Nova.
Its core principle is simple:
Absorb heat from the moisture in the surrounding air—freeze everything nearby.
But what if I didn't just blast that cold in all directions?
What if I could isolate it—contain it?
Using silent casting, I tried something new. I siphoned heat from a single point in the air, visualizing the energy pulling inward like water down a drain.
At the same time, I formed a mana barrier around that point—a transparent blue sphere suspended in front of me.
Inside the barrier, the air shimmered. Condensation froze mid-fall. The very idea of heat screamed as I drained it away.
It's working…!
But it was harder than I thought. I had to keep sucking out heat and maintain the mana barrier simultaneously.
Two high-load tasks, one spell.
I could feel sweat dripping down my back. My concentration wavered.
Not yet. Just a little more.
I poured more mana in. More residual heat boiled out through the surface of the sphere. The air cracked with stress.
Almost at critical mass—
I couldn't hold it anymore.
"HAAAH—!"
I hurled the spell toward a cluster of distant rocks.
The sphere flew like a comet and—
BOOOOM—SHRRRRRRK!
A titanic ice pillar erupted from the impact site, rising dozens of meters into the sky.
Sharp. Clear. Crystalline.
The ground around it frosted over in a wide ring—but not catastrophically.
Just as I intended.
The containment barrier didn't burst outward—it redirected the cold upward.
Safer. Cleaner. More focused.
My hands trembled—not from exhaustion, but exhilaration.
That worked. That actually worked.
It wasn't just Frost Nova anymore.
It was a spell I had modified.
Reshaped.
My own version.
---
For a brief moment, I stood there beneath that looming ice tower, its surface reflecting the sun like a frozen mirror.
The wind blew gently. The air around me was silent, reverent.
----
After trying the spell, I happily returned home. However, the village was in chaos.
Apparently, releasing such a massive amount of mana had thrown the villagers into unrest.
As soon as I reached the gate, I saw Rowin speaking urgently with someone.
Rowin—Roxy's father from the anime. Roxy hasn't even been born yet. I'm way too early from the canon timeline.
Hmm? I squinted my eyes.
The man had green hair and a red gem on his forehead.
Huh? Isn't that… a Superd?
My mother used to scare me with stories about them.
But she soon realized those tales wouldn't work on me—I wasn't afraid of bedtime monsters.
I knew about Ruijerd from my past life. I knew the tragedy of the Superd race.
So no, I wasn't scared of them. Not really.
I walked closer. They were speaking in Demon God language.
The Migurd tribe barely speak using their mouths—most use telepathy.
Only I use verbal speech to talk with people.
It's not like I can't use telepathy. It's just… a habit from my past life.
"You're saying there's a kid out there, in the direction of that huge mana wave, and you're still wasting time here? I'm going there myself," the Superd said.
"Ruijerd, I don't know how dangerous the situation is out there. That's why I'm waiting for more village forces—"
As I walked toward them, they both turned their heads to look at me.
Wow. It really is Ruijerd.
They rushed toward me.
"Theron, are you alright? The direction you came from—there's something dangerous out there," Rowin asked.
"I'm alright. There's nothing dangerous. It was just me, practicing a spell."
""What?""
Both of them were shocked.
Oops. I probably shouldn't have said that.
The joy of completing the new spell had taken over my mind.
"It seems true. I can feel tremendous mana from this child.
The Demon Kings' mana is like a bucket compared to this child's ocean-like mana—it feels endless," Ruijerd said, eyeing me weirdly.
"Huh?" Rowin looked back and forth between me and Ruijerd.
And that's how I ended up in a village meeting.
All the tribe heads were present, along with my mother, Ruijerd, and me.
My mother looked hesitant and scared. She held my hand tightly.
"Kurmi, the villagers are a little afraid right now," Rowin said gently.
"You should tell us what's going on. You know they're worried about you.
You should trust us a little more."
My mother hesitated a little and reluctantly began telling her story.
"In my adventuring days, my team and I entered a labyrinth. It was a low-rank one.
However, we soon faced an Anglar Beast—an A-rank powerful demon.
My entire party was wiped out. I was badly injured… but someone saved me.
He was missing an arm, but he took care of me for a few days.
When I was about to leave, he suddenly collapsed, coughing.
I was scared, but I took care of him in return.
That's when I learned… he was from the legendary Dragonfolk race.
He said a reincarnation technique had gone wrong, and his organs were damaged.
As I cared for him, we fell in love.
But during the first few months of my pregnancy… he passed away," my mom said, starting to cry.
"Before dying, he told me to hide the fact that I had met a Dragonfolk—and that my child carried Dragonfolk blood.
Because if the world found out, they would try to kill him, just like they tried to kill the others."