Standing in my backyard at my usual spot, I… was crying.

Crying while laughing.

They were tears of joy.

My father, hugging me tightly, was laughing triumphantly.

In the distance away from us was a wooden target.

Or, more precisely, there used to be one.

Now… only a wooden ring, with almost all of its inner parts obliterated… was barely hanging out by the wooden log.

Behind the now wooden ring, an arrow… or three arrows stick as one, had created a small crater with only mud remaining around it.

This was a success.

The power displayed by the arrows was as good as any (tier-2) spell.

It was amazing.

‘My month-long suffering… finally paid off.’

Just focusing on this one type of combination arrow was… tiring, challenging, and most importantly, it was fun!

Dad and I worked on this arrow combination together.

After the first failure and accident, dad started overreacting to every small thing.

When I repeatedly demanded an explanation, he told me how he was almost… punished? Well, mom was the reason, ultimately.

So we experimented together, again and again, day and almost late at night.

We were locked in my room most of the time the day.

This experience… was delightful.

We had fun… very fun.

Calculating and finding the Mana output for each text, putting together different materials to stabilize the outcome, and lastly, hearing mom’s lectures together.

It was very, very exciting.

At one point, we started waiting for mom’s punishments.

It was fun for us to see her embarrassed because she knew full well that we were doing it on purpose.

Now… we had a chance to tease her. And we used it full well.

I learned many things from dad these past few weeks.

How to efficiently calculate and achieve the desired results.

He, on the other, had sometimes got… petrified, by how fast I learned those higher-level things.

And he also actually learned some things from me.

We shared opinions, shared suggestions, and played around with different things.

None of us were some researcher or anything like that but… it was fun.

And, our month-long efforts paid off today.

A few minutes ago, when I launched the last prototype, it really came together and joined, increasing the efficiency and output of the overall spell.

As the enchantment on the arrows was (Gather wind), (Vacuum) and the last one to attract them together, the result we achieved was perfect.

But, the downsides of this whole process were… loss of three fine arrows, decrease in a rare material like [Sanctrin] and, a possibly long, REAL lecture from mom.

But, well, enjoying the current joy was everything I could think of right now.

Our little celebrating lasted until…

“What was that noise just now- !” ．𝗻𝐞𝘁

Mom stood cold, looking silently at the arrow that caused a small crater, a perfectly pierced target, and her happily enjoying son and husband.

“Brian! Eon!” she shouted.

The anger in her voice was the perfect thing to drag us back to reality.

We looked at her in unison… Frozen.

Everyone would know what was going to happen from that point on.

***

Looking down upon the two idiots, I signed in defeat.

They had done many atrocities all around the house this past few weeks but, I never thought that they were making something like THIS!?

Holding the three almost destroyed arrows tightly, I looked at them again.

Brian was trying to hide his face while looking at me while my dear little son was looking quietly at me as though he had known something like this was inevitable.

I sighed again, deeply, trying to calm myself down.

Now, words won’t work on this two, who strangely grew accustomed to my harsh words and now… they took pleasure when I scolded them?!

What was I? Some kind of mommy cat scolding her little kittens?

J-just thinking about t-this is…

“Uammm!”

I screamed with my mouth closed.

They looked at me in confusion but didn’t say anything.

After a moment of thinking, I made a tough decision.

“No outside training for a week.”

A shocked expression replaced their calm and nervous expressions.

This was the first time I said anything like this and… it was good this way.

They will get a good rest as well as be away from something practically crazy like this for a while.

And… I won’t have to worry about them for the time being.

Though they had worked tirelessly for the last few weeks, they enjoyed their selves very much.

They were happy and… bold with me if I say.

Brian seemed like he had made a true friend after a long while.

‘A friend.’

That was something very difficult for him but, he was able to be free from being a parent and be friends.

And most importantly, they looked VERY cute, when they accidentally fall asleep while doing their work.

‘I could stare at those cute baby faces for eternity…ahem!’

I controlled myself from almost drooling.

So, ultimately, I was less angry about this one.

And, if any new, safe idea popped up in their mind and they started their work again, it will be… win-win.

Well, that was what I thought about the very least.

“Mom? Dad and I were already thinking of dropping the outside training for the week and focusing on my… (tier-1) breakthrough.”

Eon hesitantly said something with a quiet tone but, I couldn’t possibly have heard the right thing.

“Hm? Sorry, I don’t think I caught that last thing.

I think, I misheard something like, (tier-1)?”

I thought I heard wrong but… it was true.

He shook his head at me and repeated with an awkward smile.

“M-mom, you heard right. I will reach (tier-1), soon.”

He was smiling, on the other hand, Brian had a satisfied look.

I glanced and him, and said with my eyes.

‘I will see you later…’

His satisfied smile vanished and a grim expression coated his face.

Ignoring him, I looked at my happy son again.

Now, he had given another shock to this already shocked mom.

Now, however, I had accepted that he is a real genius and I can’t stop him even if I want to.

Sighing, I sat down and hugged him.

He wasn’t even six years old properly and, he was going to reach (tier-1).

“Don’t overdo it.

Just, take everything slowly.

Dad will be there so don’t do difficult stuff by yourself.”

I kissed his forehead and went out after talking with Brian for a while.

Now, this pitiful mom will worry about her sweet family while sitting alone for a while.

Today was… full of surprises.

And of course, worrying was a part of my everyday life.

***

-Next day.

I was in my room with dad. I was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, with closed eyes and a white hue surrounding me.

The process of increasing the (tier) of a [Mana Nucleus] is somewhat simple and difficult at the same time.

If you consider normal means, the special [Mana breathing] technique or something similar helps to increase the natural Mana capacity and helps in the recovery of used mana.

In my case, I had a natural skill for Mana recovery so replenishing the used Mana was easy.

So the only thing I had to think about was the [Mana Refining].

Increasing the purity of Mana and pushing the natural capacity of Mana in the [Mana nucleus] to a certain level, permanently increases the (tier) at one point.

There are (Special) weapons and artifacts which help temporarily but, permanently increasing it with them may not be possible.

Well, this magic and Mana is just one of the many types of [Energies] of this world.

But, well, it’s the most used in this continent.

Currently, dad was helping me in purifying Mana.

He had his hand on my back, his Mana slowly flowing through my core to help my Mana remember the higher purity.

This technique was, according to some books, one of the many techniques that higher-level mages like dad used to help the new magicians.

Without this, I probably would have taken a much longer time to safely reach (tier-1).

Though dad was helping me like this almost every day, he was surprised to see the speed of my improvement.

It was fast… very fast.

And, I only have one thing to thank for this.

‘My only auxiliary skill with diverse uses, the [Energy Circulation].

Now I think, without this skill, I would be just 1/4 of myself.’

It was that much of an important part of me.

Like, hell dude! Even if I don’t get any other skills in the future, this one skill would do a pretty good job.

I thanked the skill and focused all my attention on the training.

After almost three hours, dad removed his hand from my back.

With sweat falling from all over my body, as well as my rough breathing was a bit excessive today.

“Eon, it looks like it won’t even take a week.”

Dad said from behind me.

He, too, was exhausted. But, not as much as me.

Hearing his usual surprised voice, I slowly released a long breath.

“Dad, it looks like we will have to make some ice cream today.”

Not only because of the hot day but also to calm mom and help me recover from today’s training.

“Hm? If you want, then sure…”

He said absent-mindedly, still somewhat shocked.

Shaking my head, I went towards the bathroom.

The magic technology in this world was quite similar to my previous world, so the hot and cold water showers were one of my favorite things here.