Chapter 4 – New Horizons

Chapter 4

The walk home was uncomfortably silent. His parents were convinced he almost drowned—which he had, just not for the reasons they thought—and were beating themselves up for it.

His sisters didn’t know how to respond to the weird atmosphere. After a few unintelligible mutters among themselves, they ran ahead.

“I’m so sorry, I was too impatient for you to get the Swimming skill. I was a fool, why did I leave you alone? What was I thinking?” his mother said. She repeated that same sentence a dozen times, carrying him in her arms, despite his protests.

Mat didn’t know what to say, the truth carried too many secrets and his castle of lies would come tumbling down. But he couldn’t stay silent either. He couldn’t let them think they were bad parents.

After they got home, he decided a compromise was the best option.

“Mom, I have to tell you something.” His voice little more than a whisper.

Alana’s keen ears perfectly heard him. “Yes, sweetie?”

Now came the part where he asked his mother what the Mana Sense was in vague terms, putting forward his best naive face.

This is surely going to get me more levels in Acting. Dammit!

After a lot of back and forth caused by his confused explanation coupled with her disbelief, Mat repeated the whole speech to his father. His mother kept throwing expectant looks at Rellan, as if waiting for him to come up with a reasonable explanation for their child’s crazy story.

His father remained silent, trying to maintain an impassive expression, something he wasn’t very good at. Judging by how many times his brows moved up and down, he was equally astounded.

It’s just a feeling, but this might not have been the wisest idea…

Mat tried to dry his sweaty palms against his clothes and squeezed his Acting skill for all it was worth. This was supposed to be the smallest of his secrets, he truly learned Mana Sense by chance. He expected his parents to be surprised, not this shocked.

To put any doubt aside, Rellan proposed a simple test. Mat was annoyed they thought he was lying, but—on second thought—he realized he was doing exactly that, just not about Mana Sense.

Rellan got down on one knee to be at his height and put his empty palms in front of him.

“Kai, I need you to focus and use the skill you got, tell me if you see something.”

A spike of panic shot through Mat. After he got the skill, he hadn’t noticed anything different. He hesitated, unsure of what to do, Meditation and Acting worked passively, helping him improve. How did he use a skill actively? What if he wasn’t able to?

Calm down, it must not be that hard if they’re asking their two-year-old son to do it. You’re overthinking this.

Taking a deep breath, Mat focused on the air over his father’s palms with a solemn expression. He tried to recall the feeling when he learned the skill.

As if pressing a button, something clicked in his brain and the world turned alight.

Countless bright particles were swirling around him. He could see them outside of his field of view, which was disorienting. The lights moved in his vision, but he wasn’t seeing with his eyes. The skill was called Mana Sense, not Mana Sight.

Before he got overwhelmed, he closed his eyes. That was more manageable.

He took a few moments to admire the spectacle, then turned his attention to the task at hand. In front of him, two shapes of flowing lights overshadowed everything else: his parents. Focusing where Rellan’s hands should be, he almost burst out laughing. A wonky, smiling face glowed above his father’s right hand.

It was such a weird sight that took him completely off guard. It was so out of place, reminding him of an emoticon back on Earth.

Well, I suppose that works.

“Your right hand, Dad.” Mat giggled, pointing. The three-sixty sense was starting to give him a headache. He deactivated the skill and opened his eyes.

A series of surprised expressions flashed on his parents’ faces before they appeared to accept the undeniable truth.

“Did I do something wrong?” Mat asked, uncertain. He was sure he was going to get at least a couple levels in Acting after this.

“Absolutely not, sweetie. It’s just… very unusual. People don’t usually get that skill without help, let alone without any guidance at all.”

Was it that extraordinary? He got the skill by chance.

“Is it because there is little mana where we live?”

Rellan assumed his familiar teaching voice. “Not exactly, a higher mana density would certainly help, but only if it’s very high. The most important thing is the difference from what you’re used to.

“The Essence of the World is everywhere around us, but our senses are so used to it we don’t notice. It’s only when we move to a place with a different density that we realize something is different. If you were in an area with scarce mana like this island and moved to a place with ten times the concentration, you would certainly notice something amiss. It would also work if you moved to a place with less mana, but with more it’s usually easier.”

Alana threw her husband a look, but he was too lost in his thoughts to notice. Mat took a second to realize no sane person would expect a two-year-old son to understand that explanation.

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His father was usually more knowledgeable, but his mother was way better at explaining.

“Maybe some rich mana current touched the shores while Kai was swimming,” Rellan hypothesized to his wife. “It’s rare, but not impossible that a higher concentration of mana was brought by the sea currents. It’s only weird I didn’t notice, it must have been very small.”

Before his father could rethink his theory, Mat changed the topic. “Dad, are you a wizard? Can you throw fireballs out of your hands? Smiling fireballs?” Mat mimed what he believed a powerful wizard would do with exaggerated gestures throwing his arms around.

Rellan smiled. “I’m sorry, Kai. I learned the basics when I was young, but in the end, I chose to follow a different career.” A hint of bitterness in his tone.

Occupying the silence, Alana added her thoughts. “Even if Kai encountered a temporary higher mana area, it’s still impressive he got the skill. He must have some affinity with mana. Do you think we should find him a teacher, dear?”

It was weird how adults sometimes talked as if you weren’t there. He distinctly remembered his previous parents on Earth arguing about his medical situation right in front of him, or even doctors giving bad news after bad news as if he wasn’t within earshot. He might only have been seven or eight, but he understood enough.

People acted as if children were dumb as rocks and would instantly forget anything they shouldn’t remember. This time he was all too happy they moved on from the strangeness of his situation to care.

Mat listened in silence. He was two years old after all. It would be weird if they treated him any different.