The weather in Hage Village was pleasant. A cool breeze drifted through the air, giving everything a lazy, unhurried feel. Life here moved slowly—people walking at their own pace, days blending gently into one another.
Overlooking the village stood a massive demon skull.
These days, many villagers didn't even believe it had once existed in its full glory. Yet there it was, looming silently over Hage and the rest of the kingdom. Atop the skull stood a statue of the First Wizard King, the man said to have slain the demon beneath his feet.
Beside that statue lay a fourtreen-year-old boy, sleeping peacefully.
He looked as if the world had nothing to do with him. The wind gently stirred his clothes, careful not to disturb his rest. Everything about the village looked like a painting—
Until a certain pipsqueak ruined it.
"THEO! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO START TRAINING?! I'M COMING TOOOO!"
And just like that, the picture-perfect scenery shattered.
The black-haired peasant boy, Adam, jolted awake with a scowl.
"Seriously… why can't he wake me up like a normal person?"
I sat up just in time to see a short silver-haired blur racing toward the demon skull at a speed that would put professional athletes from my previous life to shame. He was screaming something about five hundred push-ups.
Then he stopped and yelled again.
"THEO, LET'S GO! YOU PROMISED TO TRAIN WITH ME!"
Looking at the silver-haired pipsqueak, I couldn't help but remember that dreadful day—the day I thought it was a good idea to train with this manaless monster.
Asta was not normal.
I had tried following his full exercise routine and diet. The result? Two months later, I was bedridden. According to the healer, I was training far beyond what a normal body could handle. If I kept it up, my body would eventually break—possibly permanently.
Everyone at the church was worried. But when I told them Asta had been doing this kind of training for four years…
They were horrified.
That day, I witnessed one of the funniest scenes of my new life: Asta tied to his bed, a cloth stuffed in his mouth to keep him from screaming. After all, who could forget that loudmouth?
"Asta," I said, sighing, "you can talk like a normal person. And you should know by now that your training regime isn't meant for me. It's only meant for you."
Honestly, who wouldn't be envious? Asta's body was every gym bro's dream. No matter how brutal the training, one night's sleep and—boom—fatigue gone, injuries healed.
"THEO, THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Asta replied, using what passed for a calm voice by his standards. "YOU HAVE MAGIC POWER! YOU'RE DEFINITELY STRONGER THAN ME!"
Hearing that, I couldn't help but think this world had given Asta something like Toji's Heavenly Restriction—complete lack of mana in exchange for an absurdly powerful body. The only downside was that he had to work hard.
But if you see results every single day, you eventually become addicted to training.
"Fine. I'm coming," I sighed.
There was no way he'd leave otherwise.
"YEAH! LET'S GO!"
Asta screamed and took off running toward the forest.
I watched him go, dumbfounded.
"He just ran from the church to here… and now he's running to the jungle. How much stamina does this idiot even have?"
It's not like I'm jealous of Asta or anything.
If I had to be jealous of someone, it would be Yuno.
Seriously—how much mana does that kid have?
No one in Hage Village had more mana than Yuno, and this was before he even received a grimoire. Talk about being loved by mana. The bias was unreal.
If I wanted to absorb mana from nature, I had to act like Naruto chasing Sakura.
For Yuno? It was more like Sakura chasing Sasuke—doing everything for him without him even trying.
He didn't need to consciously absorb mana. It came to him as naturally as breathing. Magic Knights trained for years to reach that level, yet Yuno did it effortlessly.
I started running toward the jungle too, coating my body with a thin layer of mana.
Yeah. I'd picked up a few cheap tricks after living in this world for fourteen years.
This wasn't Mana Skin—just a discounted version, a basic mana enhancement technique I created to keep up with two freaks:
A stamina freak
And a mana freak