"Maki, I’m going to show you something you’ve never felt before." As soon as she said those words, my grandmother used her Imra. I can’t fully sense it or understand her plan—I only know it’s there because my own Imra detects it.

  What is this? I can’t move, I can’t make a sound, I can’t even use my magic. How is this possible? What’s going on? After a few seconds of being immobilized, my fear begins to mix with curiosity.

  I’d be completely dead if the person doing this wasn’t my grandmother. How terrifying. Ruby ranks truly exist on a completely different level.My curiosity won’t let go—could I ever learn to use a skill like this?

  My grandmother releases her Imra, looking at me with curiosity and joy. "Impressive, isn’t it?"

  "Yes. I couldn’t move even a single inch. My magic was neutralized too. I tried every trick I could think of, but nothing worked. It’s terrifying—and amazing."

  She strikes a proud pose, hands on her waist, smiling sweetly with those brown eyes, deep and vast like the ocean, filled with knowledge.

  "Little boy, Imra is just as important as magic. You can use it to attack those with less developed Imra, like I just did. You can also use it to defend against attacks. That’s not all—you can enhance certain abilities with it. There are many more uses, but those are the ones you should focus on right now if you want to improve."

  Train my Imra? Looks like I need to add a new item to my mental to-do list… A defensive skill, training my Imra, and increasing my rank.

  "How can I train it, Grandma? No one’s ever explained it properly." I remember having a shallow conversation about this with my siblings. Nothing clear or detailed.

  "There are many ways. One of the most effective is to train against someone else. You need someone with good control to attack you, while you try to counter or stop the attack using your own Imra. Another common method is meditation. Just focus on your Imra, try to move it, expand it, and keep it calm around you like a solid shield."

  I get it. It’s like a protective layer attached to my body, emerging from within. It can be used for defense, attack, and control.

  "You want to level up soon, don’t you? Then focus on improving your Imra control while you’re still Amethyst grade. If you do, you’ll have a huge boost when you reach Emerald. Kids with control like yours are extremely rare. It’s always hard to get a related skill, and you already have one with your sword. If you can add a solid defense, you’ll be unstoppable among your peers."

  That makes me think—how hard is it to get an Imra-related skill? In my case, it wasn’t that hard... just took many hours of practice reinforcing my sword. I still have trouble controlling it, and honestly, it often feels inefficient when I try to sharpen it more. But gaining the skill itself only took hours and hours of training...

  I fell into my own foolishness—it’s not so simple to spend that many hours training at my age.

  "Grandma, what do you recommend? I was thinking of using ice as the base for an armor skill and making that my main defense. Now that I understand how strong and important Imra can be for protection, I’m not so sure."

  If I use Imra for defense, I’ll have much more mana left for offense. That could seriously help, although my mana pool is already considered huge for my rank.

  "That’s a tough question. Most people I’ve met use a defensive skill tied to mana and boost it with Imra. But I’ve also seen people build insanely strong Imra layers and support them with small mana constructions. It depends on the person, little one."

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  So, everyone develops their skills differently, depending on what feels right and their current situation. Before I can reply, she speaks again.

  "Your case is even trickier. You have an enormous amount of mana, almost equal to an advanced Emerald rank. Your Imra control is decent too. I think you should try both and stick with whatever feels more comfortable."

  "Then that’s what I’ll start practicing. It’s all I can do for now." I show her how I can coat my fingers in ice mana. It’s dense enough to take a hit. If I use less concentrated mana, I can cover my whole hand easily—but it would be fragile and completely useless for protection.

  "That’s a ridiculous amount of mana. Are you trying to be a tank in combat?" There it is again—that weird look she gives me. I always feel strange when she looks at me like that.

  "No? I just thought of using dense mana for defense… I don’t want to get injured by a hit I could endure with mana."

  "Little boy, with that amount of mana, it’ll take you months or even years to control it well enough to coat your entire body. Better try this instead." She coats her hand with glowing mana—it’s the first time I see her affinity.

  "What’s your affinity, Grandma?" I’ve never seen her use it—and to be honest, I never asked.

  "Don’t you know? I have a light affinity. It’s pretty rare, but very useful. I’ve coated my hand with an average amount of mana for an Amethyst or Emerald rank. Now hit my palm with everything you’ve got."

  Light affinity... it looks beautiful. A bright yellow glow—very elegant, really. I strike her hand as she asked, and see the light waver after my hit.

  "If you had used your concentrated mana spheres, this defense would’ve been impossible. How many people do you think can do that? Very few in the lower ranks."

  She scolds me while teaching me the most efficient way—like a perfect master.

  "Did you notice how my mana almost broke? It barely withstood your hit. That’s what would happen if a grade-one monster struck that spot. Two hits would be the limit. Now hit me again with full strength."

  This time, I try to channel a bit of my Imra and mana into my hand before striking. Damn, that hurt. It felt like hitting concrete—or something even harder.

  "Little one, this time you didn’t hold back. Your punch felt heavy with your mana and Imra. Not bad at all." She looks at her hand, trying not to laugh.

  "I didn’t do anything special—it felt like punching a wall or something unbreakable. How did you do that?"

  "I added my Imra and a law to the mana construction. That made it extremely resistant, as you just felt." My hand still hurts from that blow. Impressive!

  "If you start practicing, you’ll eventually be able to do something similar. I don’t know how long it’ll take you to coat your entire body—but you can start with the most important parts."

  My grandmother is always there for me. Lately, she’s solved every problem I’ve faced, giving me the best advice at just the right time.

  "Do you want to try practicing both skills?" Both skills? That would be amazing—it might speed up my learning if I can use almost all my abilities.

  "Yes! How should we train this time?" Excitement leaks into my voice. I don’t know when I became someone so committed to training…

  I’m becoming more and more like my old self from my previous life.

  "It’s simple, little one. This time, you won’t use your spheres to try and capture mine." She starts forming a sphere in front of her. "Your task is to block my spheres with your hand coated in mana. Every time it breaks, you’ll have to recoat it as fast as possible to avoid being hit."

  She demonstrates using her own hand and sphere to show me. This will be hard—if my mana breaks too quickly, I’ll need a few seconds to rebuild it. I’ll have to move and rely on my pseudo-domain to avoid getting caught.

  The training started off easy—just one simple sphere, which I could withstand two or three hits from without issue. But after a few minutes, everything escalated.

  Now there were three spheres trying to hit me.

  Once I got used to moving and blocking the closest sphere with my hand, they got stronger and tougher. Each clash between my hand and a sphere almost shattered my construction—I had to reinforce it in a few seconds or get hit.

  Thanks to my calm mind, I gradually built my mana faster and faster while moving. There were lots of mistakes, though. I was using too much mana—or too little. I hope to fix that over time.

  Finally, with four tough spheres, I reached my limit. I got hit several times in places I couldn’t cover. The spheres weren’t strong enough to send me flying, but they knocked me back or made me lose balance.

  "Brilliant as always, Maki. You adapt quickly, and your constructions improve every time." I can hear a bit of pride in her voice. "From now on, this will be our training." With those words, she leaves me in the room, It makes me think about my future.