I woke up clutching my mother. She was singing softly and stroking my hair.

“Morning sleepyhead,” she said.

“Morning, mom,” I murmured.

“Mom? I like it” she chuckled. “But what happened to mama?”

“I think I’m done with mama,” I said quietly. 

She was silent for a while. “I think so too, little gem.”

“We’re alive?”

“Somehow,” she said. “But we are stuck here. The Silverback will not let us go.”

There was something in her voice that had changed. 

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She stroked my hair. “For what, little gem?”

“For almost getting us killed.”

“It was my choice to bring you here. I knew the risks.”

“Yes, but I—”

“What?” mother asked. She looked down and raised an eyebrow. “How clever exactly did you think your manipulations were?”

“Hmph,” I said. “More clever than you’re giving credit for!”

We shared a laugh.

“Little gem, I brought you here because it is a parent’s duty to give their child what they need.”

I sighed theatrically. “Really poor judgement on your part, mom.”

Mother pinched my cheek. “Oh, you’re a funny man now, huh?”

I leaned against her and felt grateful to be alive.

“The Silverback…” I started. “It would be better if it were gone?”

“Much better, little gem,” mother said. “It makes the jungle dangerous and keeps the valuable mana beast population down.”

I looked at the doorway. “I’ll deal with it.”

Mother smiled. “I believe you.”

We got up and took our bearings. 

“Can you move?” I asked.

“I can,” mother said. “But not fight.”

“Are the ruins dangerous?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I don’t think so.”

“Then we should move.”

“Let’s eat breakfast first, little gem.”

We had some food in a comfortable silence. The trail mix and jerky would run out in a few days, which put us on a timer. Fortunately I could provide enough water without an issue.

The cool air of the ruins was rich with mana. I could even feel it when I breathed in. When I activated my Mana Sight, I found the air was so thick with the particles that it was hard to see when using the skill. This would be an amazing opportunity to practice magic, but we couldn’t waste time.

I looked back at the fight with the Silverback. I had done something pretty amazing. The Water Jet spell I had created had been so beautiful. The new Perk was great too and I would love to test it later. The new spell was something I was eager to master once I had a chance.

I knew that fending off the Silverback had been a special circumstance. The mana around the ruins was much thicker than back at home. I wouldn’t be able to cast a spell of that magnitude in the Moon Festival with my current abilities. I was starting to see the appeal of carrying a bag of refined mana with me. Maybe there was jewelry that could store mana in a gemstone or something, to be available in a lower mana environment.

As interesting as these ideas were, they were not relevant now. We needed to go down into the pyramid.

Mother led me down the stairs. I couldn’t see much, but she had a Dark Vision Perk. There was a strange hum in the air and lots of zig-zagging stairs. We walked in silence through an echoing hallway until we reached the first sanctum. To my delight, sconces on the wall suddenly lit up with a blue fire that illuminated the room.

“Ooh!” I said excitedly. “Look mom. Magic. Some kind of enchantment!”

“Amazing…” mother muttered. 

“I wonder if we could take one with us.”

“I think we should respect the ruins,” mother said.

“Hmph,” I muttered. “Fine…”

In the middle of the room was an altar of black stone. In the middle of it floated a large leatherbound tome. It was beautifully crafted with pristine white leather, and golden filigree adorning it.

At the other end of the room, beyond the altar was a large doorway. It was blocked with a massive round slab of stone that was etched with runic markings that glowed with a faint blue hue.

At my insistence, mother picked me up in her arms and brought me to the altar. I tentatively touched the tome, but it was just a book. I tried removing it, but it wouldn’t budge from the air it was floating in. I tried ripping a page, but that didn’t work either. Even mother couldn’t harm or move the book. That was really interesting, but it was the contents that I was eager to explore.

She started leafing through the tome, as we read it together. Well mostly, I read it. Mother couldn’t read.

This was indeed the spellbook Piraka had copied. However, it was surprisingly empty. Every page only had a spell formula and a lot of white space. There was something uncanny about this, so I activated my Mana Sight.

Oh… well that was interesting. I recognized these shapes. On the white space were nodules that looked a lot like the structures floating in the uninfused potions I had charged for Piraka.

Naturally, I used Mana Manipulation to infuse the book with mana.

The book came alive with blue light, and soon writing started to appear on the blank space.

“What did you do, little gem?” mother asked with wonder in her voice.

“Just a little spell,” I said with a smug grin.

We leaned over the book. Now it had detailed and beautifully drawn descriptions of spell formulas and notes in perfect handwriting about the combination of runes and symbols and how they affected the spell.

Mother traced a finger around the text. “It all looks so complicated. How does it work?”

“Well, I guess magic is a little complicated,” I said. “But that’s one of the things that makes it so interesting!”

“Do you need to read to wield magic?” mother asked.

I shrugged. “I was practicing magic before I could read. “I think you need to learn to read to cast structured magic, but to use mana you just need Skills.”

“That… makes sense. I wonder if I could I learn magic?”

I turned to smile at her. “You’re interested?”

“Well, you were extremely powerful, little gem.”

“I do have a lot of advantages.”

“The Mythic Skill?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I think a lot of my Perks are influenced by that.”

“That makes sense,” mother said. “That is usually how it works. Some people talk about a keystone Skill that structures a build. It’s just a theory, though. If it’s true for me the keystone Skill would be Sixth Sense and for your father it’d be Swimming.”

“If you are interested in learning to use mana, maybe I could teach you.”

“We’ll save that for later, little gem. You should focus on yourself now.”

Mother decided to lay against the altar, so I could study the floating spellbook by standing on her shoulders. 

I got completely absorbed in it. The first thing I did was find the Basic Water spell, and study it. I looked at the notes on it which had a legend map about the symbols being used and examples of variations. I was delighted to find the variations detailing the use of kinetic components and how to turn the spell into a continuous spell. I had found both of these variations through my own efforts, and that made me proud.

Even so, there were detailed descriptions on the exact way to add the kinetic components and the ratios of mana input and spell output had nuance I had been oblivious to. I spent some time practicing these new applications while mother took a nap.

After that I started leafing through all of the interesting spells in the tome. There were many basic elemental spells, some utility cantrips for cleaning and repairing, that I had seen Piraka use, and some transmutation spells, like turning sand into mud or glass. 

The most interesting spell after Basic Water was Basic Kinetic and its variations. The basic principles were simple. You could use kinetic force to move something, suspend something, maintain the shape of something and so on. Many of the symbols used in this spell were already familiar to me, because I had needed the kinetic components to accelerate and harden my Water Bullet spell. So it felt very natural to learn this spell next, because it felt like I had a knack for it.

The most interesting application was the suspension. Could I levitate with it? Maybe learn to fly with it?

Not only that, but wouldn’t that basically allow me to create a forcefield? 

Extremely interesting, but for now I focused on what I could learn from the structure and components of kinetic magic and apply it to my water spells. I doubted it was a good idea to start dabbling with a new spell, when I needed to deal with a massive monster gorilla sometime soon.

I leafed through the spellbook more and found there were 48 spells, all of them fairly basic. No Meteor Showers or Mass Teleport.

But the last spell was not basic. It was much more complicated than the other spells, and the spell formula looked weird.

This one was complicated, composed of an intricate pattern of several layers. Two, or three times more complicated than the basic spells. But it was faded, and the text explaining it was slowly receding.

I activated my Mana Sight and wasn’t surprised to see that the infusion I had used on the book had started to fade. I had been so absorbed in studying it that I hadn’t noticed before. 

I infused the book again, and now the last spell was clearly visible.

I immediately understood why no Shaman had been able to get past the door.

This spell was the key. It was explicitly explained in the spell’s description. You would need to have infused the book with mana to even see the spell. And everyone here had been in a hurry because of the Silverback, so they had just copied a few spells and left with their small victory.

I was too greedy to be satisfied with a small victory. I wanted everything these ruins had to offer!

I studied the instructions and found this was far more complex than anything I had cast before. And it was expensive too!

A basic spell could be cast with forty or fifty mana particles. Naturally variations cost more. But this spell required ten times that amount. Considering how valuable Elder Piraka considered the refined mana in his pouches to be, I think the Shamans simply weren’t rich or skilled enough to try. Even a failed spell would consume the mana.

It would be prohibitively expensive to even attempt to cast this spell if you were working with refined mana.

In addition, I wondered if anyone had been able to reveal the hidden text required to even understand the spell. Mana Sight was truly wonderful.

But I had no such limitations. And there were millions of mana particles in this room. All I needed to do was to practice. I kept my eyes on the complicated spell formula and started weaving the mana circle I had needed yet.

I started taking cracks at it. The increased complexity was pushing me to my limit. I took breaks to let my overworked mind rest, and I even took a little nap on the altar. When I woke up, she kissed my head and I continued my work. She watched me silently, but when I took breaks, she asked some things about the formula. I wondered why. 

“It’s already past midnight,” mother said after a long time. 

“How can you tell,” I asked.

She shrugged. “It’s a Perk.”

“I think I will still keep going. I don’t want to sleep yet,” I said.

“How can you keep going?” mother asked. “How can someone of your age focus like this?”

“It’s the Meditation Skill,” I said.

“Is that all it is?”

I shrugged. I wondered if I should tell her more. The tone she used wasn’t suspicious. No, she genuinely loved me and thought I was her son. But she knew I was strange.

I didn’t remember much from my past life anymore. I just remembered the pain of who I had become. All that mattered from my past life was the vow I had made. I decided I would not inflict my mother with the pain of having had another mother.

“I don’t know why I was born like this, mother,” I said. “I just was. I felt like I had woken up from a long dream I could barely remember. Like I had been someone. Like I remembered some things.”

My mother was silent for a while. I hoped she wasn’t sad. I drank some water and waited for her. Then she shook her head and laughed. The brightness of it resonated in the high chamber. Her happiness made the mana vibrate. 

“The gods must think me great to give you as a gift,” she said. 

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I was prepared for motherhood,” she said. “I knew what kind of a mother I should be.”

She laughed again.

“Oh, how little did I know. The truth is, I don’t have a clue on how to raise you. I was supposed to teach you how to use the System, and not stand by in wonder as you unlock Skills I’ve never heard of.”

I was about to speak, but mother stopped me.

She shook her head. “It’s hard. I love you, and I cherish you, but it’s hard. I don’t know what kind of a mother I should be. I don’t know how to best support you.”

“You’re already doing such a great job, mom,” I said. “The way you are always supporting me. The way you sing to me when you want me to feel safe and loved. And the way you bit Vorok’s mother’s head off at the beach. I feel it all. Just because I’m… different doesn’t mean those things don’t matter. The only difference is that I can appreciate them.”

She burst into tears. She cradled me in her arms and cried. It wasn’t happy or unhappy. More like a dam bursting. I just hugged her. 

Finally we untangled, and she sighed and wiped her eyes. “Rapids take me… sorry.”

“No,” I said. “Don’t be.”

“I guess I’m just trying to cope with how mature you are already. A part of me wants you to be my little baby.”

“I am,” I chuckled. “I want to be. Don’t stop being a mother to me.”

“I won’t,” she said. “And don’t you dare stop being yourself, little gem.”

“I won’t,” I promised. And after a silence, I added: “And uhh… speaking of…”

She laughed. “Yeah yeah, get back to your book. I’ll sort my thoughts out.”

I studied late into the morning hours, until I literally collapsed on the book. When I woke up, I was cradled by mother who had snuggled us into a corner. I was refreshed and found the echoes of my bare feet slapping against the cool stone of the sanctum fun. The sconces lit up immediately when I woke up, which was even more fascinating. But this was not the time to figure them out. I sat down in meditation for the first hour of the day or so. No mana work. I just wanted my mind to be as sharp as possible for the upcoming day of studying. I would figure the complicated spell out and open the door to the inner sanctum. I got back to it and threw my relentless baby enthusiasm at the problem, having the time of my life.

It was difficult and I failed countless times. But with each iteration I got closer and closer. 

Finally, in the afternoon, I got the spell to work.

When I cast the formula, the door reacted immediately.

[Spellcrafting level 11!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

The spell I had cast made a loud CLICK, and the massive slab of stone rolled aside without a sound and revealed another doorway leading down into the pyramid.

Mother gasped, and I grinned. We were about to venture into an ancient sanctum left by powerful sorcerers to learn secrets that had been hidden for thousands of years.