"Breath in...and out. With every breath also feel the mana entering your body," Sarah instructed.

It had been a few days since the ogre attack and was the first day of Sarah teaching Sam magic. He had gone over his training routine with her and John, and showed them where he would go. They were impressed by how much progress he had achieved on his own, but decided it would be best not to go to those same places to train anymore.

Instead John brought a few logs home for targets when needed. As for Sarah, she believed a more secluded training location would be best, and they were now training at a secluded location by the river. And as an added level of security, she cast an anti-perception spell on the area. It didn't make them invisible, but it prevented most from being able to notice them. Only mages and magic beasts two tiers higher, or aura users with advanced sensory perception skills would be able to see them as long as they didn't try to draw attention to themselves.

Sam still didn't know the details as to why they were worried, but he understood their words from their walk home. If the wrong people learned that he was already a mage, he would be in danger.

"Haaaaa," Sam exhaled.

"Good. Now I want you to try casting a basic water spell. Not only are we by the river, but I have a natural affinity to water magic, so as my son this should be very easy for you," Sarah explained.

Sam nodded and took a deep breath as he began his spell. He began by sending a small amount of mana from his circle to his right hand, then collecting ambient water mana around him to mix with his own mana.

"Good," Sarah praised calmly. "The small amount of mana from your circle carries the instructions for your spell and forms it. Everything from size to strength is determined by the instructions from that mana and allows you to control it."

In seconds a sphere of water was formed in his hand.

"That's great Sam! With more practice and advancing your circles a bit more, you'll be able to cast multiple spells of different elements at once, and much more complicated and powerful spells at that."

Sam tilted his head and smiled as he formed wind, fire, and earth spheres as well.

Sarah laughed at herself. "That's right, you can already do that. I forgot my son is a genius mage already. Alright then, let's try something harder. I want you to turn that water sphere into ice."

The earth sphere crumbled to the ground as the fire and wind spheres dissipated.

"How do I do that?"

Sarah smiled triumphantly as she finally found something he didn't know how to do yet. "Ice magic is a higher form of water magic, much like how sound magic is a higher form of wind magic. The biggest thing you need to achieve higher forms of magic is understanding it as it appears in nature."

"So, ice is just water without heat?"

"That's pretty much the simplest way to look at it," she replied, looking at her son proudly. "So to turn that water to ice you need to remove the heat, but heat moves from hot to cold most easily. Meaning on warm days like today you'll be fighting against nature."

"But that's where magic comes in. With mana it allows a mage to bend the laws of nature."

"Exactly, but the more you fight nature the more mana you consume, that's why even simple fire magic costs more mana than its counterparts of the other elements. Because fire just doesn't exist in nature."

"But if lightning strikes a tree and it catches fire, doesn't that mean it's in nature?" Sam replied. He understood what she meant, but he didn't want to seem too smart.

"Slow down there Sam," she said holding a hand up. "Fire magic is a little more complicated to explain, so why don't we save it for another day. For now, while using mana, imagine the heat leaving the water."

Sam put both hands on either side of the sphere and focused his mana. "Heat transfer is fastest when there is a medium that can readily absorb it. So if I use wind as a medium across its surface while using my mana to push the heat out..."

Wind rushed around the sphere pulling the heat away just as fast as his mana pushed it out. He imagined the water molecules slowing to a halt as the heat was rejected, and slowly the sphere began to turn to ice. In roughly thirty seconds the water had become solid.

Feeling dizzy, Sam dropped the ice and hunched over.

"Sam are you ok?!" Sarah asked urgently.

"Yeah," Sam was taking some deep breaths. "Just felt a little dizzy."

"You should also feel proud of yourself too," She replied, lifting the ice. "Not even I could do this on my first try."

Sam looked up at his work and smiled as sweat dripped from his head.

His mother placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at him proudly. "I know this was hard this time, but it will only get easier with time and practice." She chuckled lightly. "Probably more so time though. Mages tend to not be able to perform elemental magic till they reach the third circle."

"So I'm ahead of everyone then," he commented.

"That's right," she replied, then reached for her satchel. "And speaking of making things easier," she pulled out an old blue leather book with a blue crystal embedded in the cover with a gold detailing spreading from it. "Can you open this book?"

Sam took the book from her hand and tried to open it, but the cover wouldn't move. He examined the book, looking at the sides and back, but it just looked like an ordinary book that just wouldn't open.

"Is this a trick book or something?" Sam asked as he continued to look it over.

"No, it's a real book. Do you feel anything from it?"

Sam stopped and stared down at it, then his eyes opened slightly more. "Mana! I feel mana coming from it."

"That's right. What you are holding right now is my grimoire. For a mage this is our greatest weapon, but also a weakness. Do you know why?"

"Because it contains all of a mage's spells?"

"Yes. With a grimoire a mage doesn't have to keep all the details of a spell memorized. All they need to do is put all the information in here and only remember the spell name. After that a mage just needs to bind the grimoire to them with magic and they can access every spell they've ever written in it easily. The downside is though that if anyone were to gain access to your grimoire they learn all of your spells and will be able to easily counter them."

"But yours is sealed? How can someone get into it?"

"It would take a little time, but a grimoire seal can be broken."

"Then why not just memorize all the spells?"

Sarah laughed lightly. "Sam, my grimoire contains roughly thirty spells. Some of which are very complicated. I've even known mages to have over a hundred different spells, to a point that they needed multiple grimoires. It's just impossible for a mage to remember the details of every spell they ever learned or developed. But another advantage to the grimoire, is that your casting speed is practically cut in half, which is a big help for battle mages like myself."

"I see," Sam mused as he pondered the possibilities.

"And now...," Sarah reached back into her bag and pulled out another grimoire that matched her, but looked brand new. "It's time for you to have your own."

Sam took the grimoire in both hands, this was his first magic tool. "Ummm, how do I open it?"

Sarah smirked as she took the cover and opened it with one finger. Sam looked back at her confused.

"This grimoire hasn't been bound to anyone yet, so it opens just like a regular book. But once it's bound to you, only you will ever be able to open it as long as you live."

"And how do I bind it to me?"

Sarah pulled out a knife, and Sam went pale. "Bound with blood?" It wasn't that he was afraid of the blade or pain, it was that in his previous life the sight of his own blood made him queasy.

"Blood and mana." She looked at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but it's the only way. It's been centuries since the spell was formed, but no one has ever been able to create a more secure spell."

Sam took a deep breath. "What do I need to do?"

"We just need to prick your finger, and then you need to press it onto the mana crystal while channeling mana into it. The crystal already has the spell embedded in it, this just activates it."

"Ok," Sam held out his hand. "I can do this."

Sarah handed him the blade with a worried look on his face, but kept quiet. Sam held the blade in his left hand, and using his index finger pushed up on the meaty part of his finger towards the tip.

"Ones pain threshold is just how much pain the mind can endure. I've been shot, stabbed, broke bones, and even had to keep fighting with all three. This is nothing. This. is. nothing," Sam told himself as he steeled his resolve.

He then took the tip of the blade and gently pressed it in before making a quick swipe of the blade away from him. He winced as he made the cut, and only gave it a glance to make sure the job was done. It was deeper than he intended, so there was plenty of blood.

"Oh no! Sam are you ok?" His mother asked in a panic as she pulled a role of cloth from her bag, no doubt intending it to be used as a bandage.

"I'm fine," he said with a shaky voice that made it obvious to her he was keeping the pain in.

He then pressed his finger onto the mana crystal while channeling mana. The crystal glowed bright as a blue ring with runes expanded out from it and settled around the crystal for a few seconds before fading away.

"Sooo, is that it?" Sam questioned uncertain.

"That's it," Sarah replied as she pulled his thumb from the crystal and started to wrap it.

"But it looks the same?" He then lifted the cover. "How am I supposed to know it even worked?"

Without a word Sarah closed the book, then tried to open it. She held the grimoire by just the corner of the cover, making it look like all of the pages were glued together.

"Ah, yeah I guess the spell worked." He then looked at his bandaged thumb. "I don't suppose you know a healing spell?"

Sarah looks at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but only holy magic and potions can heal wounds. But at least you have aura too."

"Why does that matter now?"

"Did your father never explain things to you yet? Because of their aura, aura users heal much faster than mages."

Sam gave a deadpan expression. "All father ever teaches me is how to fight. He didn't even teach me how to use aura, I learned from watching him use it before the ogre attack."

Sarah looked up and put her hands over her face as she mumbled something Sam couldn't make out, but he was confident she wasn't happy.

"Ok!" She said looking back at him. "Let's just move on. Why don't you open your grimoire."

Sam did as he was told and saw there was already a spell in it. He started turning pages and saw in fact there were several spells already written in his mothers handwriting.

"I took the liberty of putting in a few first and second circle spells. Nothing hard, just some spells I thought you'd find helpful for starting out," she explained with a bit of pride.

Sam looked through the spells. There were two barrier spells, some daily use spells, and she also added some basic combat spells, like magic missile, ice arrow, ice shards, and frozen wind. Sam didn't pay much attention to magic missile since he already was familiar with it, and didn't hold it in high regard at this point due to its mana consumption. Overall Sam was pleased with these spells, as like his mother said, they were good for starting out.

"Cleanse?" He questioned, reading the name of another spell.

"Oh yes. I learned that one after I became an adventurer. It's only a first circle spell, but I didn't put much value into learning it when I was learning magic."

"What changed your mind?"

Her expression turned dark. "On our way back to the guild lodge I tripped and fell into a puddle of mud. We were close to town and there weren't any sources of water along the way. I used our drinking water we brought to wash my face off, but the rest of me was still covered. I saw so many young girls snickering at me as we walked...it was embarrassing." Her face brightened a bit. "Thankfully the guild master saw us as we were reporting our success, and used cleanse on me. The mudd practically evaporated away. She later told me about the guild library and how they had spell books with simple spells like that that adventurer mages were welcome to learn from.

"That does sound useful." Sam commented.

"Oh it is. After I learned it I started using it in place of bathing on long term quests where fresh water wasn't always available. It's not as good as a bath, but it's better than nothing."

In his previous life he had developed some sanitation issues, particularly because he would often have to go days without a shower. He learned early on that there was nothing he could do about those situations, but instead thoroughly enjoyed it when he could shower. In this world where bathing daily was near impossible, this spell was possibly one of the most important in his grimoire.

He lunged over and hugged his mother. "Thank you," he said gratefully.

"Aww," his mother hugged him back. "You're welcome sweety. If you can show me your notes on that spell you used on the ogres, I can show you an easy way to add it to your grimoire."

"Notes?" He questioned as he broke the hug. "I don't have any."

"Well then how did you develop that spell?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I kind of just made it up on the spot and made adjustments as I went," he replied matter of factly.

Sarah's mouth hung open agape. "On the spot? You never even tried parts of it before."

Sam shook his head. "Not even once."

She started breathing heavily, and looked like would start hyperventilating soon.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" She asked as her body shook.

"Yeah. I read in your book that untested spells can potentially explode or cause a mage to pass out from mana deprivation if they aren't planned out properly."

"Then why would you do that?" She asked in frustrated confusion.

"Well...you and father were in danger. And I did plan it out in my head for a few minutes before I ran after you."

"A few minutes? Mages can spend years fine tuning spells, but you did all that in just minutes?!"

"Well, it's still not perfect. I was adjusting my mana flow, and monitoring my usage with every shot. I wanted it to be stronger, but I realize now that I was depending too much on my own mana and not enough on the ambient mana in the forest. So I think I can do it better now."

Sarah looked at Sam dumbfounded after hearing his explanation.

"Fuck. Was that too smart for a six year old? I just started talking and wasn't even thinking."

Sarah grabbed Sam and pulled him into an even tighter hug. He was confused, but everything seemed ok, at least in the surface.

"My son is a genius. A genius, and I can't let anyone else know," she thought to herself as fear started to flood her mind.

"Mom?" Sam asked after a minute of being held.

Being snapped from her thoughts she released him, then cleared her throat.

"Ok, so then that means we need to work on the of fine tuning of your very first spell," she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Let's start with drawing up a basic magic circle for casting, and write down your incantation."

"Incantation? There isn't one."

"What?"

"I just thought up in my head exactly what I wanted my spell to do and did it."

"My son can perform chantless casting now too?" She said to herself as she placed a hand on her forehead, as her stress rose.

Unbeknown to Sam, he had achieved things a normal mage should not have been able to at his level. Normally, a mage wouldn't be able to use elemental magic till as soon as their third circle, and cantless casting would normally be something mages at the fifth circle are usually capable of for the most basic of spells. Both of these limits are due to understanding and mental discipline, two things a reincarnated soul like Sam possessed from his previous life.

"I think I'm too good for my own good." Sam thought to himself with both amusement and worry.