Jacob took Zoeske to an empty space in the forest beside the village. They were surrounded by huge trees, and the rustling of leaves was relaxing. Zoeske explored the surrounding area, struggling to understand the reason for their being there.

  “Do you wonder why we are here?” Jacob asked.

  “Yes,” Zoeske responded.

  “Which simplifies things for me,” Jacob said, adding another layer of confusion to Zoeske’s mind. Then he said, “I just wanted to ascertain where I should start teaching you magic.”

  Zoeske glanced at Jacob’s eyes, trying to find any malicious intent. This isolated area made him more anxious and sensitive.

  “What?” Jacob asked, responding to Zoeske’s strange behavior.

  Zoeske couldn’t control the conflicting feelings inside him. He wanted to learn magic but felt suspicious of Jacob. He said, “Oh, sorry.”

  “Focus,” Jacob said with a sigh. “Shall we start?”

  “Yes, please,” Zoeske responded.

  “Face me and take three steps backward,” Jacob said.

  Zoeske followed his instructions exactly. Then he asked, “Is that a good distance?”

  “Yes,” Jacob said. He raised three fingers and said, “Look, there are three types of magic learners, as I’ve observed in this village: people with poor imagination, people with good imagination, and finally, people with excellent imagination. To determine which type of learner you are, I will give you an exercise. First, you have to imagine a cup three steps away from you. Then you will have to close your eyes while keeping the image of the cup in your mind. Using your imagination, you have to walk to this cup and pick it up.”

  (What kind of exercise is this?) Zoeske thought. Then he said, “Got it.”

  “Before you start,” Jacob said, “point to the location of the cup.”

  As Zoeske pointed, Jacob drew a circle around the spot to assess the precision of Zoeske’s imagination. Zoeske closed his eyes, extended his arms for balance, and walked, his face moving as if he were looking at something while his eyes were closed. After taking the last step, he bent down as if to pick up the imaginary cup.

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  Jacob whistled. He said, “Open your eyes.”

  Zoeske looked at where his hand was. It was on the edge of the circle.

  “That means your imagination is excellent, just like mine,” Jacob said. “Now let’s start the real work.”

  “I am ready,” Zoeske said.

  “Magic is just one of many energies our physical and spiritual forms possess. It simply comes in different quantities depending on the person, and it is strongly reflected in everyone’s personality and environment. It also reflects your mental state, which means people can tell if you are lying or not. But you can manipulate your magic to avoid such leakage of information. Anyway, let's not delve too deeply into these topics. Basically, you can use magic in a way everyone can, which is called spells. Or you can combine these spells to create your own abilities.”

  “What kind of spells do you mean?” Zoeske asked.

  “Magic spells belong to different categories,” Jacob answered. “We have five categories of Positive Magic: Enhancement, Thing, Word, Logic, and Possession. All these categories contain different spells. But people are usually naturally good at two or three of the five positive magic categories. However, spells within a specific category might have different effects, but they are all implemented the same way. We beginners usually learn the simplest: Enhancement. This category has many spells, including healing, boosting power, charging, and more. These spells are implemented by concentrating your magic into one or more specific areas. The same applies to all other positive magic categories.”

  “This is overwhelming,” Zoeske commented. “You mentioned positive magic. Does that mean there is negative magic?”

  “Presumably, yes,” Jacob said. “But I don’t know anything about it yet. Do you want to stop here?”

  “No, we’ve barely done anything,” Zoeske said.

  “Okay,” Jacob said. “Those with excellent imagination will start to feel magic when they practice imagining an aura covering their body.”

  “I’ll try,” Zoeske said. He relaxed his body and extended his arms slightly to the sides. Then he closed his eyes and imagined a layer of thick, intense purple air—which he imagined magic looked like—covering his body. Slowly, Jacob noticed Zoeske’s aura intensify.

  Zoeske opened his eyes and noticed a steam-like aura covering his body. It was transparent, unlike what he had imagined. He said, “Wow, is that magic?”

  “Yes, congratulations,” Jacob said. “That was impressive. You understood everything very quickly.” He thought, (He is as fast as I was when I first learned magic.)

  “What’s next?” Zoeske asked.

  “Hey,” Jacob said. “Don’t be too confident. Now you have to train yourself to control your aura flow. Remember when I said people can tell if you are lying or not? This is because magicians and explorers have poor control over their magic. This will take a long time, but during this time you will learn more things while training every single day.”

  “Thank you, Jacob,” Zoeske said. “Without your excellent instructions, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  Jacob blushed. He said, “Humph, I did it just because my mom asked me to. Let’s go back now. I have a lot to do.”

  “Sure,” Zoeske said.