Why don't you smile

Aric learned a lot over time, and the new runic circle he had learned was sharp. This runic circle, when applied, could sharpen a blunt object. For example, a stick could be sharpened. It depended on the mana one used and how many times one could use magic to sharpen one object.

Unlike last time, Aric didn't find it that difficult to draw his second runic circle. He finished on a weekend night itself, and just like last time, the drawing had vanished. Another important thing that surprised him was the fact that he didn't feel his consciousness was full. He felt he would be able to draw another one before he turned 15.

He had a theory about the disappearance act of the drawing. According to Aric, the drawings would transfer to the two shining bulbs that allowed him to teleport. He was pretty sure of the theory since the runic circles didn't have another location to hide or run away. Those were the only two places, and since they were keys to another world, the bulbs could have a huge space where he could store multiple runic circles.

More than someone of his age would be able to keep. Aric didn't add more as there were no good ones to add, and if his theory was wrong and his consciousness became full after one useless runic circle, that would be hitting the hammer on his own foot.

Until he found a suitable one, there was no reason to draw another one. The other reason why he didn't draw another one was that the amount of mana was limited. At the moment, in a single day, he could only use the sharpen runic circle on a lean stick three times. That was the maximum he could. He tried it on a metal stick, and he was only able to do it once.

This made him understand that the amount of mana he had was limited. Before the age of 15, one couldn't grow their quantity of mana. According to Gopher, before the age of 15, one could only grow their amount of mana by a very small quantity, and that was regular practice of magic. So that was what he did.

He used to sharpen the fence every day to practice magic. At first, the use of his sharpen runic circle was blunt and felt he didn't have much control. In these two months, he could sharpen a blunt wooden stick in just two tries. Aric was practicing as much as he could.

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"So, your class teacher called," Avni said after she disconnected the call as Aric was busy eating an apple.

"And?" Aric asked.

"You scored perfectly in all subjects. You got 99%. He said that he had never seen such answer scripts in his whole career in the school," Avni said, her face twinkling with joy as she said that. At the moment, she was way too proud of her son. Aric had just finished the final exams of class 8 and would enter class 9 in the next year.

"Oh! That's good." Aric didn't have any feeling at all as he had scored that by cheating. He had taken his communicator with himself and let the communicator scan all the books. Using the spectacles that he had gotten before, it was just too easy for him to copy and jot down the answers.

It was actually unfair for Aric that he had just received 99%. He deserved 100%. It was probably due to literature subjects where the teachers weren't allowed to give full grades on those.

"You don't seem happy about it?" Avni was a bit disheartened to see her son not happy about the results at all. In the past 4 months, he had noticed that her son had lost the carefree and smiling face.

He loved them all the same, but that love was more of concern and safety, rather than the love that one saw on such young children. He had become more serious, and he hardly talked more than required. It was as if he had become some kind of machine.

This stumped both the mother and even the father. Aric's father actually came forward one day and asked if he was alright or was there something he needed since he had stopped asking for chocolates or chips. Aric just replied that he was fine and he didn't need anything.

But Avni, being the mother that she was, knew for a fact that something had happened. She even contacted Ishan's mother and asked about the behavior of Aric. All she heard was Aric had isolated himself and hardly talked with anyone.

This made her more concerned about Aric as she felt that her son was in some kind of depression, and the reaction to results made her sure that something was wrong with her child. But she didn't know what. She could only pray and hope that Aric was happy.

In order to make her son cheer up, she decided to cook his favorite food and hoped that her son would show up with more smiles and happiness.

"It's just results. If I get into a prestigious college, then I will be happy," Aric said. He could see her concern, so in order to appease her, he had to speak about colleges and universities. Avni was glad that her son had such kind of ambition and hoped her son would be a good doctor or a great engineer someday.

Later when his father came, he beamed with joy hearing the results and promised that he would buy something for Aric. Aric refused at the beginning as he didn't need one, but after insisting on it multiple times, he said that he wanted a new bicycle as that would help him roam around a bit. His father didn't hesitate to say yes.

Aric was just glad that his parents were happy. And was actually looking forward to the deliveries that he would be receiving tonight in Echorysia.

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