Drops of sweat streaked down my forehead, flowing down my neck, staining my collar with an awful stench.

  I cycled my mana, pulling it from my core, through the central vessel and outwards. By now, this part happened on its own, but for what I was attempting, my own input was needed.

  From the central vessel, I pushed it outwards, through the branching vessels of my upper body, and then shoved it downwards.

  As soon my mana passed through, however, more and more began to meld into my flesh, until nothing but a thin stream was left by the time it had gone past my hips.

  Why can't… I reach?!

  I felt something warm dripping onto my lips, but pushed through anyway.

  But even that wasn't enough, that faint wisp of mana too dissipated into my thigh.

  Damn it!

  I opened my eyes and flopped onto my back, wiping the blood off my nose.

  This was the third time today I'd tried, and by now, I had become way too tired to continue. As much as I didn't want to admit it, my eyes felt moist with tears.

  I've made such good progress too!

  Over the past six months, I'd finished with my central vessel and my entire upper body.

  All of them were completely under my control.

  But now, I’m stuck. Completely stopped by this damn bottleneck!

  Turns out, my past life’s experience didn't translate nearly as cleanly as I'd thought. The path I thought was identical, was only about halfway so.

  Sure, the method worked, but there was clearly another factor at play here, and it's because of it that I'm not making any progress now.

  … Frustrating as hell.

  Now, sure, this wasn't the end of the world. If I just waited a few years, I’d definitely Awaken sooner or later. Hell, I'm sure it would even be faster, courtesy of all the progress I've already made.

  But I'm not going to do that!

  I was never good at waiting around, even when it was crucial to be. So, sitting around, twiddling my thumbs and just letting something like magic happen naturally?

  No. No way.

  Of course, I had a few plans to remedy this bottleneck. Since, clearly, it was something caused by my lack of knowledge, I could easily narrow it down to two.

  Either I’d take one of Ariane's magic books that Aaron had brought in some few months ago and hope it had something of use in it.

  Or, I could try and get one of the adults to spill something about how they magick’d and use that. It wasn't farfetched at all to think they'd have the know-how.

  I sat up, dusting myself off, and began thinking.

  They both have clear pros and cons.

  With the first one, I had the privilege to keep my actions discreet. Asking Elise and Aaron to talk could lead to them getting suspicious, and I'd rather that not happen.

  Plus, I didn't know if there was any stigma against strangely intelligent children, so I didn't want to risk it.

  Accessing those books won't be easy, though.

  They were stored in a locked chest in the library, which I wouldn't be able to access. Ariane, ever the studious one, always kept a few in her room, and those would be the only ones I'd be able to get my hands on.

  If Ariane was busy with something and out of her room for a while, then I'd get an opportunity.

  Then, if I'm able to sneak in properly, I could get access.

  After that, if they were actually ones I needed, then there was the solution to my problem.

  I just had to wait for the right opportunity, then do every step and have nothing go wrong, and then I'd be home free. That's all it'd take.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Yeah right, fat chance of that.

  Looks like the second one it is.

  The little I knew about my parents didn't paint them as the type to do anything rash, and I don't think there was any major stigmas.

  Besides, if I was to Awaken anytime soon, they'd find out anyway. Better to probe and figure their thoughts out sooner rather than later.

  Still, I'll have to be careful with this. Best I act like an overly curious kid.

  That still left another thing to ponder.

  Who am I going to go to, though? Elise or—

  SLAM!

  “Caelum! Come with me! I have something to show you!”

  Aaron it is then.

  …

  “So, um, dad, where are we going and what did you want to show me?”

  Aaron paused, his stride stalling in place. He turned his head back to me, a grin on his face.

  “You'll see when we get there. Trust me, you'll love it!”

  Well, now I'm even more curious…

  “Okay.”

  We'd left the village behind a long time ago, and now we were on a path leading very far out of it.

  Of course, this time I was actually walking on my own. Seems like he was confident enough in my ability to follow along, which to be fair, I was.

  By now, we were approaching the Near Forest area. I could even see the treeline clearly by now, even with the kilometres of plains still between us.

  The air had cooled significantly by now, and small patches of trees had begun appearing as well.

  Seriously… where are we going? He's even brought his sword along.

  We continued on like that for a while, Aaron grinning cheerily, and me curious as ever.

  I also still had no idea when I'd bring up mana control to him.

  Before I could even think about it, I immediately ducked down, hearing air being punched through. Aaron had done the same as well.

  Not even half a second later, an arrow whistled past over our heads.

  Fast.

  Not smart to reveal position so early.

  No one's come out to make demands, so couldn’t have been a warning shot.

  But, it's too relaxed then. If they weren't going to make demands, they wouldn't have shot only once.

  It's a single guy, most likely.

  He shot from the front, not from the treeline. Open field's bad for an archer, and his cover won't hold easily.

  I stayed like that for a bit, waiting for any more attacks that would happen. Seeing no follow up shots, I looked up at Aaron, attempting to gauge the situation by his reaction.

  Thankfully, he didn't seem worried, or even slightly concerned. He looked more annoyed really, judging by his scowl.

  Right, definitely not an attack. At least nothing like a monster or bandits.

  “Elis! What the hell man! I'm here with my son!”

  Wonder who this Elis is? From the way Aaron’s talking, he's probably an acquaintance of his.

  Aaron quickly looked at me, worry etched onto his face, sharing space with annoyance.

  “You okay Cae?! Don't worry! It wasn't anything! Just my idiot friend's idea… of a greeting…”

  Aaron was still staring at me for some reason, the worried-annoyed look of his face slowly fading to confusion.

  “Huh, I guess that didn't… scare you.”

  Oh damn, I forgot! A three year old would be scared.

  “Umm, d-dad, w-what was that!?”

  I scrunched my face up, squinting my eyes and making my voice wobble.

  Come on, buy it. Please.

  “Well, looks like my son's a brave one, huh? An arrow whistled over his head and not a tear shed!”

  With that, he ruffled my hair a little, and continued on, completely disregarding my abnormal reaction.

  Oh thank goodness.

  “Hey, Elis! Come out already! I know you're there! I already sense you!”

  “Alright, alright! Calm down, Aaron. You're louder than a Howlerbeast.”

  “I'm here.”

  As if that was a magic phrase, a man suddenly appeared in front of us. One moment, there was nothing and the next he was standing there, smiling like he hadn't just shot at us.

  Did he use magic for that?

  As he approached us, I could see that he was wearing a cream-coloured tunic, loose brown pants and had a green cloak around his shoulders.

  Elis's boots extended up to his knees, and he had a wooden bow in his hand, one about as tall as he was and covered in engravings.

  Huh? He doesn't have a quiver? Where'd he shoot that arrow from then?

  Is it hidden? He was hiding in plain sight. Maybe he used the same thing on his quiver? Or does he have a magic bow?

  I looked at him more carefully, more specifically by his waist where a quiver would be, and tried to see if there was something there, hidden from me.

  Yeah, I don't see anything there.

  Elisedd had also started moving towards us, so that made it even harder to see properly.

  “Well, who do we have here? He's your son, is he?” Elis kneeled down to be eye-level with me. “I'm Elisedd, one of your dad's friends.”

  “That's debatable.”

  “I'll choose to ignore that. Anyways, what's your name, little guy?”

  Now that I get a better look at him, his ears are… awfully long, aren't they?

  “Um, it's Caelum, mister Elis. Caelum Bluestone.”

  They definitely are, and there's this strong leaf and pine scent coming off him. Don't tell me…

  Is he an elf?

  “A sky-name! Very good, strong name. Tell me Aaron, it was Elise who named him, wasn't she?” Elisedd gave a look to Aaron, a smug and mocking one.

  “Hey! I'll have you know I came up with that!”

  “Careful Aaron, it's not good to utter falsehoods. Children learn from their parents the most,” came out of Elisedd's mouth, a faux-concerned tone of voice.

  “I can easily be—” Aaron sighed deeply, interrupting himself. He'd probably realised that there wasn't any point in arguing with Elisedd.

  After that, he closed his eyes and began saying something under his breath.

  Wow, I don't even know what to say.

  After a bit, Aaron opened his eyes again and looked at him head on, a surprisingly neutral look on his face.

  “Just… tell me what you want, man. Unlike you, I have things to do, like spending time with my son here.”

  Elisedd then smiled. Smiled widely, with his teeth out. All of a sudden, I understood why Aaron felt the way he did about him.

  “I merely wished to stretch my legs. No particular cause.”

  “Right. Just what I expected. Well, since you are already here, how about you help me out a little?”

  “Why phrase a demand like a request? But, sure, I've nothing better to occupy my time today,” smiled Elisedd. “Though, I would appreciate knowing what exactly it is I would be helping you with.”

  “Oh, it's nothing too difficult. I just need you to help me hunt a Shingder, an Axehead specifically,” Aaron gave him a pointed look, a smirk on his face. “You can do that, can't you?”

  What?

  A hunt!

  Now?!

  Elisedd smirked back.

  “Of course. Why couldn't I?”

  “You wanted to show me a hunt, dad? Why were you so secretive then?” I said, pulling on Aaron's pant leg.

  “Probably because your mother would want to join if she knew, young Caelum, and that would ruin his attempt at being a, what was it?”

  “Argh! You shut up!”

  “Ah, yes, a ‘cool’ father to you.”

  That's a… surprisingly normal reason. But still, I don't think I want to be here for this?

  Though, it was pretty interesting that this world had a similar tradition as Earth. Of course, it wasn't a hunt there, but it was similar enough in purpose I'd bet.

  Wait a minute. I'm getting sidetracked.

  I definitely shouldn't be anywhere near the general vicinity of a hunt right?

  “Um, dad?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Isn't that kind of dangerous? I mean, I don't even know what this Axehead Shin-thing is? What if I get hurt?”

  Aaron looked at me and smiled.

  “It's good to be worried, Cae. But don't worry, it'll be fine. Me and Elis are more than enough to keep you safe. ‘Sides, an Axehead isn’t even that dangerous. It's one of the weakest kinds, not even an actual monster.”

  “Yes, Caelum, don't worry. Your father said something logical for once, so you can trust him,” said Elisedd, a smaller, less mocking smile on his face.

  He looked at Aaron then, his prior smile returning.

  “Otherwise he'll be too hurt emotionally, won't you Aaron?”

  “What the hell man! Do you get a kick out of mocking me or something?”

  Well, fine then. I guess I'll just have to take your word for it.

  It's not all bad, at least. I'll be able to see some magic users in action, get a scope for both how strong a trained fighter was and how magic was used in fights as well.

  And…

  It's not so bad, being able to get to know Aaron some more.

  I looked at him, locked into another argument with this Elisedd guy, about ready to start chasing him around.

  I mean, despite my own feelings, he is technically my father.

  Wouldn't hurt to know him better, would it?