They made it back to the apartment with Owen already complaining about his legs.
"I'm telling you," Owen muttered, rubbing his calves as they stepped inside, "that run took at least two years off my lifespan."
Theo rolled his eyes, shutting the door behind him. As he pulled off his jacket, his mind went back to the spells.
'I need to start,' he thought, letting out a quiet breath.
"Did the both of you run through the entire city?" Daniel's voice came from the kitchen table. "The coffee I set earlier's already grown cold."
"Yes… we ran to the sea," Owen groaned, collapsing onto a couch like he'd returned from war.
"The sea?" Daniel glanced up, surprised. "You boys must be pretty hungry then."
Theo glanced at Owen for a moment. Despite how badly he wanted to start training his first spell, he couldn't bring himself to decline after the effort Owen had put in.
"I'm starving," Owen exaggerated, shooting up while rubbing his stomach. "Please make us some breakfast, Dad."
Daniel got up with a smile right away.
It didn't take long before Theo found himself in front of plates with pancakes and scrambled eggs, together with Owen and both of his parents.
After they ate, Theo went outside immediately, heading for the same playground he was at yesterday.
'Still empty,' he thought, a small smile on his face. 'That's nice.'
Theo sat down on the same bench as yesterday, this time looking at the spell he'd been given on his phone.
'Lightning Bolt.'
It was just a simple spell for beginners. All he needed to do was gather a small bit of his mana in the air and shape it into a single line.
But as Theo stared at the instructions, his throat went dry.
He hadn't learned how to control his mana yet. And outside of a few notes on which mana channel to use, there weren't any further instructions.
'This is going to be tough,' he thought, pushing his phone into his pocket.
Theo let out a deep breath, closing his eyes while he held out his arm in front of him.
His mind went to his core, finding the same swirling mass of yellow mana inside.
Slowly, he drew tiny particles out of his core. Only this time, they didn't enter his core walls to improve them.
They flowed outside his core, speeding up uncontrollably as they raced through his mana channels.
"Argh," Theo let out, eyes snapping open.
A sparkle of yellow lightning left his hand, instantly making it go numb.
'That's way more difficult than expected,' he thought, shaking his hand. 'It's like my mana has a mind of its own.'
He knew it would be much harder to control his affinity's mana since it was of such high quality, but to this extent wasn't something he'd imagined.
Theo steadied his breathing, clenching and unclenching his fingers as the numbness slowly faded from his hand.
'Again,' he told himself.
He closed his eyes again and reached toward his core, this time moving far more carefully.
Instead of pulling the mana out all at once, he tried to guide it bit by bit, forcing himself to slow down and keep it stable.
The yellow particles responded differently immediately, rushing through the mana channel in his arm.
A bright yellow light shone from his hand.
In an instant, a yellow beam of lightning shot out, sparkling through the air towards one of the metal playhouses.
A loud bang echoed through the air.
Nearly a quarter of the playhouse disintegrated, while yellow lightning crackled everywhere else.
"Shit…" Theo let out, mouth wide open.
He glanced down at his hand for a moment, then jumped up.
"There was no one inside, right?" he said, sweat drops appearing on his forehead.
Even though he'd checked it before sitting down, the thought of accidentally killing someone forced him to check again.
He moved carefully to avoid the structure collapsing onto him. After checking everything thoroughly, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
"What was that?" he muttered, glancing at the ashes on the ground. "That's nowhere near the power of a basic spell."
A basic spell like Lightning Bolt could barely burn a hole into a body, let alone disintegrate a playhouse.
'Is this difference because of my affinity?' he thought, glancing back at his hand.
Theo fell silent for a moment, his mind racing.
"What the hell happened here?" Owen's voice rang out behind him.
Theo quickly turned, an awkward smile on his face. "I had an accident while trying a spell."
Owen's mouth fell open, eyes darting to the hole in the playhouse.
"An accident?" he asked, then waved his hands in front of him. "No, hold on. Did you say you managed to form a spell already?"
"…It was more of a misfire," Theo replied.
Owen stared at him in confusion for a moment.
"Let's get out of here first," he said, dragging his fingers through his hair.
Theo glanced at the mess behind him once, then nodded. "Let's go to the forest near Cleveland Elementary."
Owen nodded once and started walking, still staring at Theo strangely.
"It's hard to believe you did that," he said, squinting his eyes. "You're gonna have to show me later."
"I'll try," Theo said, smiling while scratching the back of his head.
It didn't take long before they arrived at a small forest and pushed through the branches to its center.
Once there, Theo sat down, his mind caught on what went wrong, while Owen started trying his own spell.
'I didn't manage to shape it outside my body,' Theo thought, remembering the exact moment it rushed out. 'I need to find a way to control it.'
Minutes passed silently as he analyzed the attempt as closely as possible, trying to find even the tiniest errors.
'Alright,' he thought, raising his arm. 'Let's try again.'
He closed his eyes and calmly started guiding the mana down the same path in his arm, though far less than last time.
The yellow particles reached his palm in an instant. Only this time, Theo focused even deeper on each particle while creating an image of the bolt in his mind.
He felt the particles slow down slightly as they left his body.
His eyes snapped open, finding a tiny yellow bolt in the air.
Theo's concentration slipped for just a moment, the bolt instantly dissipating in the air. Even so, a large smile grew on his face.
'Nice,' he thought. 'That's the right path.'
'If I'm not wrong, all I need to do now is keep repeating it until it becomes muscle memory.'
He closed his eyes without hesitation, immediately attempting it again.
Before he got the chance, a heavy pressure spiked inside his chest, almost like his heart skipped a beat.
Theo froze.
'I've already used so much?' he thought, eyes wide.
The sensation rippled from his core through his entire body, clearly warning him that continuing would be dangerous.
Theo's eyes snapped open, all attempts at controlling his mana stopping instantly.
"As much as I want to continue," he muttered, a chill running down his spine, "this is enough for today."
The last thing he wanted was to crack or even break his core by pushing too much mana through it.
'It's an easy mistake to make,' he thought, stretching. The swirling mass of mana felt like an infinite source, drawing him in with an almost addictive pull.
Owen cursed beside him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"This is impossible," he said, a tiny rock falling on the ground. "Why does my mana just refuse to move?!"
Theo watched Owen rage and couldn't keep a straight face.
"Not so easy as you thought, right?" he said in a mocking tone.
Owen turned to him, squinting his eyes. "Rubbing it in now, are we?"
Theo shook his head as he started to laugh.
Like that, two days passed quietly, during which they spent as much time training as possible.