Raze had the fire magic book with him all day, yet he didn't learn it. He kept it on the table as he worked desperately, ink on paper, drafting several hand-drawn blueprints.
Only when it was late in the night did he finally finish. He looked at all the papers, let out a deep breath, and stacked them up together.
Only then did his eyes move over to the fire book. He stretched out his hands, grabbed the book, and pulled it closer. He flipped the first page and immediately began reading.
Flame magic was a branch of what was known as elemental magic, and it was believed that one needed a good affinity to it to be capable of learning it, as learning without a good affinity would be extremely difficult and sometimes dangerous.
But the book said otherwise. It stated that much like how mana is a frequency, it was the same logic applied to flames. All one needed to do was be capable of finding the flow of heat and attaching their mana to it. When that was done, it would cause the ignition needed for flames.
It looked simple on paper, but Raze could already see the abnormal difficulty tied to this. Not only would one have to control mana, they also had to intermingle it with the heat flow.
[Skill seed detected,]
[Flame magic, unawakened]
He saw the notification, and he figured it was fine if he practiced a bit before he continued reading, so he closed his eyes, shut the world away, and started a process similar to that of mana.
But unlike when he searched for mana, this didn't seem to take that long. Only three hours in, a warm glow emanated from his palm, then it ignited.
His eyes shot open. He looked at the flames, pretty, orange, dancing on his palm. He brought it close to his face, a smile forming.
All his life he had read for the sake of acquiring knowledge, never did he think that the knowledge would become something that could take form like this.
He started thinking of all the possibilities that could be gained from the dimensional library, and his heart beat heavy.
With only a thought, the flame on his hands went out, but his smile stayed strong. He walked to the window, opened it, and immediately the cold breeze of the night rushed in, quenching his lamp, but he didn't care.
If he had to guess, there were a few more hours until it was day. He hadn't had a wink of sleep or anything to eat; he was running on excitement and eagerness.
He thought about ending for now and catching some rest. He looked at the book on the table, its pull was almost magnetic, but he shook his head. He didn't want to harm his fragile body too much.
He closed the window, used his flame magic to ignite the lamp, and walked to bed. He lay down, his mind racing through multiple things at the same time, thinking about the fire magic and all the plans he had set for the next day.
He slowly drifted off to sleep, and then he woke up almost immediately, and the sun was already up.
"Arghhhhhhh!" He groaned as he forced himself up, eyes red and head banging with a headache. Still, he rushed up to get washed, because today, he made his first move.
After getting clean, he got ready and waited for Elaine, and she showed up not too long after at his room.
"Alright, let's go," he said.
"Young Master, you haven't eaten anything all yesterday and even today," she said as she walked behind him, her voice filled with genuine worry.
"I'll just grab one of the bread while I'm out. I really don't want to run into my family members today," he said.
They left the house and immediately headed for the bakery. It was a small building that sold their bread upfront. When Raze got there, he saw a lady — brown hair, brown eyes, freckles, and an oval face.
She immediately bowed to him. "Young Master," she greeted.
"Good morning. I asked Elaine to get some bread ready yesterday. Are they?" he asked.
"Yes, Young Master. We worked on them all night, but we have every batch ready," she responded quickly.
"Hmmm, sorry for making you work all night," he said and pulled out two copper coins, handing them over to her, but she immediately stepped back and refused.
"Young Master, how could I take more after all you spent yesterday?" she said, shaking her head.
"Tch, take it. In business, you need to understand that your time is worth money, and you deserve all the benefits that you can get when you do a good job.
You stayed up all night, burnt your oil, risked getting beaten by some insects, and also deprived yourself of sleep. You deserve a little more for that," he said.
She looked at the coins in his hands and stretched out her hands. He placed them inside, and she immediately bowed her head.
"Alright, please, if you have some sort of carriage, help me deliver the bread to the edge of town nearer to the forest," he said, and then walked away.
'Isn't that the son of the Baron who is said to be talentless and, to some extent, useless? If this is what a useless noble looks like, I think I prefer him more,' she thought as he walked.
"Young Master, what's the full plan for today?" Elaine asked.
"Nothing much. I just want to build incentive to work. You see, the people of the town will either work for me because I am the son of the Baron, or work for me because there is gain and enjoyment in the work.
I prefer the second, so I'm going to build what little incentive I can and promise them something even bigger as time goes by," Raze said with a grin.
'The human mind rushes toward better incentive. Before you know it, I'll be able to control them entirely without question, and I'll get all the jobs done easily.'