Father Doristen was momentarily dumbfounded by the serious tone, which was hard to believe had come from a young child.
Despite all his explanations about the dangers of dark mana, Terlo had boldly declared that he would learn black magic.
‘What in the world….’
Black magic was not something a mere ten-year-old child could handle.
An immature mind would only end up being consumed by dark mana.
Doristen felt the need to be firmer with him.
Speaking gently had only made Terlo continue to insist.
“Terlo. What cannot be done cannot be done. As I have told you, you are still far too young to handle dark mana, and more than anything….”
Before Doristen could finish, Terlo chanted a spell.
<Vitalize.>
HSSSS—
Black smoke began to rise from the floor of the training ground.
And then,
CLATTER. CLATTER.
A skeleton rose within the smoke.
It was a small skeleton, the same height as Terlo.
Undead summoned directly by a caster usually resembled their summoner.
“…! H-How can this be….”
“…!”
Doristen and the servant Bail stared with eyes so wide they looked ready to pop out of their sockets.
They stammered and opened and closed their mouths wordlessly.
It was only natural. Terlo had never been taught how to control dark mana.
Yet not only had he controlled dark mana, he had even used black magic to summon a skeleton.
And that was not all.
At Terlo’s next incantation, a black curtain spread out before him.
Then he even created and fired Black Ball—a black sphere.
Doristen froze with his mouth hanging open.
“…….”
Dark mana demanded mental strength. It was not something a person could control simply by trying.
‘He did all this so suddenly. And on his first try?’
Until now, Doristen had only demonstrated black magic and skeleton summoning in front of Terlo.
Terlo would watch him and insist that he wanted to do it too.
‘Did he somehow teach himself simply because he wanted to use it?’
Doristen’s shock did not easily subside.
Even so, he forced himself to regain his composure and asked,
“S-Since when have you been able to control dark mana?”
Terlo smiled as though he were just as surprised.
“That is a good question. I did not know I could use black magic as well.”
“…?”
At that innocent answer, Doristen clutched the back of his neck.
But Terlo was being sincere.
On this day in his previous life, he had only been able to circulate dark mana and summon a skeleton.
It had taken him more time after that to learn black magic.
But now, he could use every black magic spell he had known before his death.
‘Though they’re all just basic black magic spells.’
That could not be helped, since he had learned them on his own while hiding it from everyone.
Still, thanks to that, he would be able to save time in this life.
‘Ten is already young enough as it is.’
And he did not even need to spend time learning black magic.
A victor’s smile appeared on Terlo’s face.
Watching him, Doristen and Bail felt chills run through their entire bodies.
“…….”
“…….”
Even under their incredulous stares, Terlo continued moving his dark mana around.
As though he genuinely found it fascinating.
For a while, silence and a strange tension filled the training ground.
***
A great commotion broke out after Terlo displayed his talent.
Just as in his previous life, he was forbidden from using black magic.
The ability Terlo had shown the previous day was undeniably the work of a genius, but….
‘Terlo. This cannot be allowed. Do you not know what our family is like? Even if you display genius now, you will soon reach your limit. Then you will be sent on missions with only mediocre ability, and after that… I do not even wish to imagine it.’
In a way, it was only natural for Doristen to worry.
As he had said, the Krauber Family had barely maintained the bare minimum needed to call themselves necromancers for generations.
Compared to the necromancers of other nations, the average level in the Doiten Kingdom was close to the very bottom.
Even there, the Krauber Family occupied the lowest rung.
How easily could an unprecedented exception possibly arise?
‘He had no choice but to worry.’
Because Terlo understood that worry, he had remained beside his parents, even though he knew their peaceful life was destined to be lost in the end.
He had obeyed their strict orders and never received proper instruction.
As a result, the talent he had shown so early had eventually amounted to nothing much after he was forced to teach himself.
‘Still, I was happy.’
Even so, a yearning for black magic had always simmered deep within his heart.
He could do nothing about that yearning.
No matter how hard he tried to bury it, it reared its head from time to time.
But now that he had returned to the age of ten, he no longer needed to make that effort.
At last, the time had come to unleash the yearning he had kept buried.
Terlo was determined to awaken his ability in this life, no matter what.
That was why he poured all his effort into persuading his parents.
And in the end, he succeeded.
‘Still, I need to make sure no one discovers my ability for a while.’
There was no shortage of mad mages like the one who had killed him.
If his ability became known, his life might end before he even had the chance to grow.
Terlo shuddered as he recalled the moment the mage had defeated him so helplessly.
‘Even thinking about that moment again is horrifying.’
Just then, Doristen approached Terlo, who had been lost in thought.
“Terlo. Are you ready?”
“Yes, Father.”
At Terlo’s answer, Doristen cleared his throat and sat down.
The two sat facing each other on chairs in a corner of the training ground.
Today was the day Terlo’s black magic lessons were to begin.
Doristen spoke with a stern expression.
“I will say this once more. Dark mana is mental strength. As easy as it is to control, it can fall into disarray in an instant. When controlling dark mana, take care not to become distracted. You must concentrate and devote every faculty to it. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Good. Then gather dark mana above your hand.”
Terlo nodded and began gathering dark mana.
HSSSS—
Black energy gathered over Terlo’s small hand.
The gathered energy moved with remarkable liveliness.
Seeing the energy reflect Terlo’s eager anticipation, Doristen smiled inwardly.
“Well done. Come to think of it, you used Black Ball and Black Shield yesterday… Did you learn those by watching me?”
“Yes. I copied you a few times, and they worked.”
“……A few times, you say.”
Doristen echoed the phrase “a few times.”
Of course, Terlo had practiced Black Ball and Black Shield countless times in his previous life.
But when it came to how he had first learned them, it was true that he had done so by watching Doristen.
He had become capable of using them after copying the black magic his father used.
“Should I try them again?”
Doristen shook his head at Terlo’s eager question.
“Black magic has stages. Even if you are already capable of using those spells, approach this with the determination to learn from the beginning. If you learn incorrectly, it is difficult to undo the damage. First, let us begin by condensing dark mana into various shapes.”
As he spoke, Doristen gathered dark mana over his hand.
He then demonstrated how to condense it into several forms: a circle, a triangle, a square, a star, and an arrow.
Afterward, he looked at Terlo as though telling him to try.
Terlo nodded at his father’s permission and began changing the shape of his dark mana.
“…….”
But the shape was strange.
Even though it was clearly changing, it remained close to a sphere.
It wriggled and shifted, but all of its angles were blunt.
‘This isn’t working well.’
There was a reason for that. In his previous life, Black Ball had been the only offensive black magic spell Terlo used.
Because of that, he had devoted his efforts to increasing its compression rather than trying to change its shape.
That way, even a single attack would inflict more damage.
As a result of that training, he had eventually managed to leave a mark on a huge tree on the mountain behind the estate, one he had previously been unable to scratch at all.
‘The way I felt back then….’
He had been so happy that words could not possibly express it.
However….
It seemed that all those years of training had made it difficult for him to form other shapes.
There was no way he could easily shape his dark mana while keeping it so highly compressed.
He could do nothing about a habit that had already become ingrained.
Doristen, who had been watching him, spoke.
“Terlo. Try forming the shape first, before you condense the dark mana.”
“Yes. That is what I am doing, but….”
The result remained the same even after repeated attempts.
Changing the shape of dark mana was the most fundamental of fundamentals when using black magic.
Most beginners could form the desired shape, but their weak compression meant the form was incomplete.
Terlo was the opposite.
His compression was so powerful that the shape could not take form.
People who had trained incorrectly for a long time occasionally displayed this problem, but….
A child who had used black magic for the first time only yesterday could not possibly be one of them.
“Hmm… Terlo. Then can you move the dark mana and create an arrow without condensing it?”
“Like this?”
A faintly defined, sharp arrow formed over Terlo’s hand.
“Yes! That is it! Now, while keeping it in that state, slowly begin to condense it……?”
The moment he began compressing it, the arrow rapidly became blunt.
The excitement on Doristen’s face gave way to bewilderment.
How could a perfectly formed shape change like that the instant it was compressed?
The only possible explanation was that Terlo had been born with compression so powerful that he could scarcely form a shape at all.
But that was not a good thing.
Black magic cast with an incomplete form could not produce any significant power.
“…….”
Doristen wondered how he should explain the situation to Terlo.
It was a cruel reality for a child who had only just begun learning black magic.
The disappointment would be as great as the expectations he had held.
Doristen decided it would be better for Terlo to realize it firsthand than to hear it from him.
Was it not best to discover one’s own limits firsthand?
“Terlo. Can you attack the armored training dummy ahead of you? Use the arrow you just made.”
Terlo was slightly surprised by the unexpected instruction.
‘What’s gotten into him? I thought he’d forbid me from using black magic until I could hold the shape.’
But it was exactly what Terlo wanted, so he had no reason to refuse.
As though he had been waiting for the chance, Terlo said he would try and chanted the spell.
The blunt arrow left Terlo’s hand and shot forward.
WHOOSH—
It was the moment Doristen’s prediction—that the arrow would travel slowly, lose its strength halfway, and fall—was proven wrong.
The arrow flew powerfully through the air.
THWACK!
RUSSSSH!
It pierced the training dummy’s armor and made it spew sand.
Doristen’s mouth fell open at the sight.
“……!”
An arrow with such an incomplete form had produced that much power.
The armor Terlo had pierced was the same kind actual knights wore and offered considerable protection.
Even when Doristen trained against one, the dummy usually lasted several weeks.
‘And he destroyed it in one strike….’
Its power was astounding, but its speed made just as little sense.
It should have been impossible for such a flawed arrow to fly so quickly.
Strangely enough, it surpassed even a perfectly formed Black Arrow in every respect.
‘How is this possible?’
Did he possess enough compression to compensate for the incomplete shape?
Or was he capable of performing calculations beyond the limits of what he should have been capable of?
Whatever the reason, it was clear that Terlo possessed genius-level talent.
It was one surprise after another, beginning with the previous day.
Doristen’s chest suddenly tightened with emotion.
‘Has a genius truly been born into our family?’
There were stories of an exceptional black mage among their ancestors.
But that belonged to the distant past. For all this time, the Krauber Family had been unable to shake off the label of the lowest-ranked family.
‘But if it’s Terlo….’
He was a child already displaying genius at the young age of ten.
If a child like him continued to grow well, would they not soon be able to cast off the label of the lowest-ranked family?
It was something that filled Doristen with pride and emotion, both as the head of the family and as Terlo’s father.
Just as Doristen’s eyes began to moisten with swelling emotion,
THWACK!
RUSSSSH!
Terlo pierced the torso of the last remaining training dummy.
Broken dummies and heaps of sand covered the ground as though a storm had swept through the training ground.
The sight made Doristen feel as though the tears pooling in his eyes had been sucked right back in.
Terlo, however, looked disappointed despite being the one who had wrecked the training ground.
“Father. Even if they’re only dummies, aren’t training dummies a little too weak?”
“…….”