Singer Sailor Merchant Mage

Chapter 24: Playing with fire

“The one advantage of playing with fire . . . is that no one ever gets singed. It is the people who don’t know how to play with it who get burned up.”

Oscar Wilde

My Ninja baby practice has continued and now I am playing with fire or at least trying to. Many a night building and burning bonfires in my former life leave me cautious even if I am trying to do it magically.

I have left Mana Sense on all the time in the hopes of leveling it up and it is moving up but slowly. I might need to focus on my meditation if that is the start of my skill tree. Stronger skill tree roots might support quicker growth in the higher branches of the skill tree.

At night when I break out from the box as well as the physical and sense training I also sit in front of the fireplace and the dying embers of our hearth expelling my mana in the hopes of making a fire or rekindling ours. They let the fire die down naturally overnight banking it but never put it out. If I did manage to make a flame it wouldn't be noticed here.

I haven’t succeeded yet and the one time I thought I might be getting close I think I passed out from using too much mana and was woken up by my mother finding me there the next morning. They didn’t say anything about finding me there simply assuming I had got up earlier than them although I doubt they suspected quite how much earlier. Since then they double-check the latch on the door outside every night just to check I don’t go wandering out but they don’t seem too concerned about any possible sleepwalking or getting out of bed early and exploring the house.

Different era different concerns at least when it comes to baby safety.

They might think differently if they knew exactly what I get up to when they are asleep or exactly quite how early I was getting up. Nighttime is the best time to practice anything that would otherwise look beyond odd for a baby to be doing. With the high vitality and the ability to take naps whenever I want during the day I’m not particularly worn down by it.

Now, I practiced Expel Mana for half my mana and then try Absorb Mana. Absorb Mana has always been very slow in comparison to the Expel Mana and rarely regains all of it back in again. The next step in my Wizard training routine is trying Mana Drain on the logs in the fireplace. I managed to drain more Mana quicker than when I try to use my skill Absorb Mana but I am never quite able to remove all the Mana in the stick. Furthermore once finished the Mana in the surrounding starts to leak back into it. Changed slightly but seemingly porous to an extent the Mana reaches equilibrium through some form of osmosis almost.

Rinse and repeat. I have been able to level up the three skills and it has helped to add more stats to my Magic stat with each level I gain in the skills.

But it wasn’t going to be enough in the 3 months I have left.

So . . . I have started experimenting

Experiment 1: I started holding a little of the kindling.

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This time when I tried to expel the mana I tried to force it into the little stick that I was holding rather than letting it dissipate into my surroundings.

I managed to get it to hold more and more of the mana until it felt like it couldn’t hold anymore and started leaking itself.

So far so good but I wouldn’t be able to get to throw any fireballs at this rate.

The next step was I tried to force more than it would take but it felt like I was pushing against a brick wall with my mind.

Seeing as I couldn’t get any more to go into it I tried to take control of my Mana that was in the stick to see if I could get it to do anything. I tried to make it freeze to stop its flow within and out of the stick but again I was unable to get it to do anything.

Thinking about old physics lessons and how atoms move when heating up I then tried to do the opposite of freezing them. Not adding any more mana to the stick but trying to get my mana that was already there to move a little bit faster, imagining being able to get the atoms to vibrate a little more.

It felt as hard as trying to get the stick to hold more mana than it was able to but eventually I felt like I could see more movement. So I kept pushing in a little mana, trying to get a little bit more control, trying to get it to move a little bit faster.

Slowly, ever so slowly, it moved a little faster and a little faster. Until finally, with a sudden whoosh, the piece of kindling burst into flames and I threw it onto the fading embers of the fire.

Ding! Mana Manipulation (Lv 1)

Ding! Ignite (Lv 1)

Yes! I had my first spell, Ignite!

It wasn’t a fireball yet but I’m on my way. Roll up, roll up to see Kai the Miraculous Baby Wizard!

Even better when I checked my Stats I can see I have helped my Magic stats to grow another 2 points. It doesn’t always work out like that but I have found the more I am able to push up skill levels with related stats the quicker those stats have grown. Which I feel is the main reason I was able to get my mind up so high is the ability to regain through this system the skills I already had from my previous life. It takes time and effort but the skills were already there. I just have to prove I have them to the system that seems to govern this world.

This time I tidied up my experiments, heading back to bed early, and climbed back into my box. My family was none the wiser about my efforts.

It might be nice to tell someone. To talk about who I am and how I remember more than just the 12 months I have been alive here as well as my time in the womb. But how would I say it? Would they believe me? And if they did what would happen next?

Keep it simple stupid! Telling them now when I am entirely dependent on them for everything seems like a risky proposition. Maybe when I’m older, when I feel more secure, when I know what the consequences might be, I will risk it but for now, I will be a baby.

A brilliant baby if I may say so but a baby nonetheless. I will grow up soon enough. They know I’m quick and a little . . . well maybe a lot . . . unusual. But hopefully no more than a baby Mozart, Cruz, Pascal or Picasso perhaps all rolled into one. Which reminds me I should set up an art studio in my mind fortress somewhere. I might not have been very good artistically in my past life. But I have a new one now with time to spend. Who knows I might finally be able to get that perfect circle drawn properly like Brunel.

Being a baby is like being on holiday. I have no responsibilities, no job, nothing I have to do. I may be keen to level up quickly and gain any and every hidden trait possible. But as for growing up quickly, I'm going to take as long as possible. My childhood will be over all too quickly, best to make the most of it.

Tired from my training I fell asleep, dreaming of drawings and paintings I might try to repeat as well as the tricks I could play and the havoc I could create while protected by my childlike innocence.

Long may it last.

True Status

Level: 10 Name: Kai

Experience: 24,600/ 204,800

Age: 12 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours

Health: 1080/1080 Stamina: 493/493 Mana: 670/670Psi: 1050

Trait: Long lived, Fast Learner,

Vitality: 108

Endurance: 20

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Senses: 94

Mind: 105

Clarity: 36

Magic: 67

Free Points: 20

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (LV 20) Listening (LV 20) Meditation (LV 20) Swimming (LV 20)

Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 15) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20)

Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15),

German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 5)

Scent (Lv 5) Detect (Lv 5) Taste (Lv 5) Bulosa (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 25) Eavesdrop (LV 20) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20)

Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 5) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20),

Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 5)

Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 20) Expel Mana (Lv 25) Absorb Mana (Lv 25)

Mana Manipulation (Lv 1) Ignite (Lv 1)

Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 11) Multiple Minds (Lv 10)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 15)

Skill experience: 800

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 0