The young boy who was lying on the ground is Seth Lithiras, the one and only child of the Lithiras family. Since his awakening as a mage, his father started training him here in their backyard every morning. Naturally, he was a fire mage, inherited from his father's high affinity to fire.

It happened two weeks ago, and the awakening process was very painful — or at least, that was what they said. He never experienced how painful it was because it happened while he was deep in his sleep. When he woke up, the back of his right hand was already marked with a rune.

And the rune... actually, it didn't look anything like fire at all. It was like one of those tribal runes, but at the same time, it seemed intelligent.

Speaking of runes, Seth's control over his rune was still messy. Currently, he is practicing how to release converted mana, also known as elemental mana, out of his body — currently fire, of course.

By the way, mana is the term for magical energy.

He spent the last two weeks improving his skills in mana manipulation. Because if he didn't, he knew that he wouldn't be able to make proper use of it, let alone conversion.

"Hmm, try again," he muttered to himself.

As he lazily turned his head to the right, he concentrated mana to his index finger once more until a small flame came out. And then, he began counting through his mind.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, elev—

And it's gone. It seems that he could only hold it for eleven seconds.

How weak, he thought.

Sighing out a bit of his frustration, he gazed at the unclouded sky.

Apparently, as what he had read in books, an average person awakens at the age of 15 so without a doubt, he would be considered talented. But if he really possesses such a title, then giving the same title to Lynstella would sound like lowering her greater potential.

Lynstella, Lyn for short, was his friend. A wind mage that awakened at the age of 10.

5 years earlier than average!

It was understandable that he grew impatient. The fact that they were roughly the same age somehow discouraged him. Making it worse, he was three months older than her.

A little by little, his pride started crumbling.

As Seth suddenly smelled something burning, he sniffed twice. At first, he thought it was just his imagination, but his instincts started telling him to look at his right side so he did.

"Ah—"

Not far away from his right hand, a tiny area of grass was burning.