Chapter 3 Book 1 Level Up of an ability
"The blocks! They're moving! By themselves!" he cried, his voice a frantic whisper.
The other children stirred, woken by his panicked outburst. One by one, they sat up in their beds, rubbing their eyes, confused.
The dormitory suddenly became chaotic as the children showed panic expressions on their faces.
Director Anya, alerted by the noise, rushed in, her long nightgown rustling. "What is it? What's all this commotion?"
Leo was sobbing now, pointing at Xu Mei's bed. "The blocks! They were moving! I think there was a ghost!"
Xu Mei's blood ran cold. She pulled her blanket up to her chin, her face pale. This was it. Her secret was out. Teacher Elara would find out. The other children would be afraid of her. She would be an outcast, just as the Magii were in her teacher's eyes.
Director Anya knelt beside Leo, pulling him into a comforting hug. "What blocks, dear? Show me."
The other children, a wave of curiosity washing over their initial confusion, began to point and chatter. "Look, they're all scattered on the floor!" one girl said.
"Maybe it was really a ghost," a boy suggested, his voice a dramatic whisper.
Director Anya sighed, her gaze sweeping over the scene, then settling on Xu Mei, who was still hiding under her blanket. She looked at the blocks, then at Leo's trembling hand, and a gentle, knowing look crossed her face.
The little girl on the bed seemed to be scared out of her wits, so she dared not look outside of her blanket even after the commotion. She did not want to cause trauma to develop in the children's hearts, so she tried to placate the situation.
"It must have been the rats again," she said, her voice calm and steady.
A collective gasp of surprise and disgust filled the room. "Rats?" a few children repeated.
"Yes," Director Anya said with a firm nod. "We have been having some trouble with them lately. I'll speak to the teachers in the morning about setting some traps. Now, let's all go back to sleep. There's no need to be frightened. It was just a mischievous little rat, not a ghost or… or anything else."
She shot a gentle, reassuring look at Xu Mei, a look that seemed to say, "Don't worry, there were no ghosts around here."
Xu Mei peeked out of her blanket after hearing those words. She did not know what to do, and she was panicking a bit. Seeing that look in Director Anya's eyes, she felt a bit relieved.
The children, their fears replaced by the mundane annoyance of rats, began to settle down. Leo, still a little frightened, but comforted by the director's pragmatic explanation, returned to his bed.
"Now, everyone, goodnight," Director Anya said, her voice a soothing balm. "And you, Xu Mei, don't worry. The rat will not play with your blocks again. Did they frighten you, my dear?"
Xu Mei, still frozen with fear, just shook her head, unable to speak.
"Good," Director Anya said with a warm smile. "Tomorrow we will have to clean all these up for you. For now, just rest."
She left the dormitory, leaving behind a silence that felt heavier than before. Xu Mei lay in the dark, her mind a whirl of confusion. Director Anya did not notice something, right? Or is she covering for her? But why? Did she know? Was she a Magii too? Or was she just a kind woman trying to protect a child from the fear of others?
Xu Mei's heart was in confusion as she did not know if the director had learned of her ability or not.
She couldn't bring herself to practice for days. The fear of being discovered was a palpable thing, a weight on her shoulders. The status window, once a source of wonder, now felt like a dangerous mark, a brand she had to conceal at all costs. She would stare at the progress bar, which had stopped advancing, and feel a pang of sadness. She had to be more careful.
…
The incident with Leo made Xu Mei's nightly practice sessions a much more serious affair. She became a master of discretion. She no longer used the objects under her bed. Instead, she would focus on things she couldn't see, things that were part of her bed itself. She would lift the corner of her mattress, just a few inches, holding it in place for a few seconds before letting it drop silently. The progress bar, which had been stagnant for days, began to advance once more.
Telekinesis progress +3
Telekinesis progress +2
She learned to control not just the movement, but the sound. She would gently lower the mattress so it made no noise. She would practice moving the small pebbles and dust motes that had accumulated on the floor, pushing them around in silent, unseen patterns. She realized that her power was not just about lifting things, but about manipulating the world around her in a subtle, quiet way.
However, what she did not know was that her roommate, Leo, was in constant fear. He was the first one to see the blocks moved and knew that it was no rat. Now he could see the mattress of Xu Mei's bed moving, and the dust in the air floating as if something was in there.
"Ghost… get away from Xu Mei. Get away!" Leo muttered in his heart as he forcibly closed his eyes. When he opens it, everything has turned back to normal.
He heaved a sigh of relief upon knowing that his will had protected Xu Mei from the ghost.
Xu Mei did not know that the boy began to have a feeling of being a protector of everyone from the invisible ghost in the dorm.
Every morning, everything is calm and the students go to classes.
The lessons with Teacher Elara became a constant test of Xu Mei's resolve. The teacher, oblivious to Xu Mei's secret, would often make passing comments about the "recklessness" of Magii, about their "selfish" use of power. Xu Mei would nod along with the other children, her smile a little too bright, a little too forced. She felt a deep sense of guilt and betrayal. She loved Teacher Elara, but she couldn't tell her the truth. She was hiding a part of herself, a core part of her identity, from the person she respected most.
One day, during a lesson about the importance of being a good Heumane citizen, Teacher Elara held up a small, wooden carving of a bird.
"This," she said, her voice soft and nostalgic, "was carved by my late husband. He was a master carpenter. He used his hands, his skill, and his passion to create something beautiful, something tangible. This is what it means to be Heumane. To build, to create, to care for one another."
Xu Mei looked at the carving, then at her own hands, and then at the floating status window in her vision. Telekinesis progress: 45/100. A single tear, born of a conflict she couldn't understand, escaped her eye. Was her ability to move things with her mind not a way of building? Was it just a tool of destruction, as Teacher Elara believed? She didn't have the answer, but the question burned inside her.
…
The months turned into a year. Xu Mei was now seven. Her secret was an integral part of her life, a constant companion she had learned to live with. Her telekinesis had grown stronger, more refined. She could lift things she once couldn't, and her focus was now an iron-like will.
Her progress bar had crept up, inch by agonizing inch, from 45 to 98. She felt a strange tension in her mana, a feeling that she was on the cusp of something new, something greater.
One afternoon, a delivery of supplies arrived at the orphanage. The delivery man, a gruff old man with a perpetually grumpy expression, had left a heavy wooden crate just inside the main entrance. It was full of new blankets and warm clothes for the winter.
"It's too heavy for me to move," Director Anya said with a sigh. "We'll have to wait for the older boys to get back from their chores."
Xu Mei looked at the crate. It was a big, heavy thing, far too heavy for her small arms to lift. She looked at her status window. Telekinesis progress: 99/100. The bar was almost full. Just one more push.
She felt a surge of confidence, a quiet, rebellious spark of pride. She wasn't an aberration. She was a builder. She could use her power for good, just like Teacher Elara's husband had used his hands.
She took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the crate. She pushed her mind out, her mana a torrent of invisible force. She felt it connect with the crate, a solid, unyielding object. She tried to lift it. Nothing. The crate didn't even shudder.
Telekinesis progress +0.
The disappointment was a bitter taste in her mouth. But then, she remembered her secret practices, her subtle movements, her months of patience. She wasn't trying to lift the whole thing at once. She was a master of small, deliberate actions.
She changed her focus. Instead of lifting the whole crate, she focused on one corner, one edge. She pushed, and with a soft, barely audible scraaaape, the corner of the crate lifted a few millimeters off the floor. She held it there for a single, glorious second, her mana singing with the effort.
Telekinesis progress +1.
The progress bar in her window, which had been so close to full, finally clicked into place. A new message flashed across the window, a message that filled her with a sense of triumph and pride.
Ability Unlocked: Telekinesis (Apprentice) Telekinesis [1/500]
She couldn't hold the crate up anymore. With a loud thump, it landed back on the floor, the sound echoing in the quiet entrance hall. Director Anya looked up from her paperwork, a quizzical look on her face.
"Oh dear," she said with a chuckle. "Did you try to move it, Xu Mei? It's too heavy for a little girl like you."
Xu Mei just smiled, a real, genuine smile this time, not a forced one. She looked at her status window, at the word "Apprentice" beside her ability, and she felt a sense of peace. She was a Magii. She was powerful. But she was also a kind little girl who grew up in the Holy Hand Orphanage. And her power, she decided, was going to be used to build, to help, to create, and to care for the world, just like her beloved teacher had taught her. She would just have to do it in her own, special, magical way.
She was no longer afraid. She was ready to be a starling, a brilliant little bird in a world of monsters and domes. She was ready to be herself.