The Otaku's Odyssey: Reincarnated with a Grand System

A day had passed since Astrid had learned how to cast magic.

Currently he was running round the field as his mother threw countless spells at him of different elements, Fire, wind, water, you name it, all aimed to destroy him.

He dodged each spell thrown at him with fluidity and grace, his movement sharp, as he waved through the spells trying to bombard him.

"Astrid! I said counter and dodge, not just dodge like a rat that has been caught after stealing food." Lia shouted as she casted a wind blade which sliced through the air with great speed.

Astrid arched his back as the wind blade brushed past him by a few centimeters, "Dammit!!! Am working on that, don't rush me!"

He dodged another wind slash by jumping and spinning in the air, mid spin, Mana began to circulate round him, the heat increased, in his hand was a spear made of flames which he fired off with the strength of the spin.

It bolted towards Lia, but she countered by simply conjuring a barrier. The fiery spear hit the barrier and exploded upon contact.

'Well shit! Not even a fucking scratch!' He screamed mentally, as he began firing off different spheres of fire in his mother's direction, all hit the barrier but it still didn't shift.

'Damn! I need a stronger attack!' he thought as he bent down, a large ball of flames passed him, he could feel the heat as it passed him.

'Am slowly running out of mana too. This can't go on much longer. What if?'

After dodging another spell, he suddenly stopped, his arm outstretched as he began gathering a massive amount of Mana, a large fireball forming on his palm.

But then all of a sudden, it compressed into the size of a marble, the heat coming off the compressed ball of flames was crazy. The air twisted as if it felt the pain of being burned.

'Heh! I got this move from a Novus' He smiled as he fired it of as a laser, it hit the barrier, the barrier began to shake, 'Yes! It's working, but my mana, it's disappearing. At a fast rate at that!'

His attack ended abruptly, as he fell to his knees.

He looked up, a large ball of water slowly lowering to strike him. He smiled sadly, a tear falling from his eye. He could easily dodge, but the problem was if he did, Lia would just keep attacking him and tell him to recover as he dodges hear bombardment.

The worst part was that she always seemed to smile while she was attacking him, like a sadistic demon. Honestly he was scared of her.

Astrid just braced what was coming, 'I needed a shower anyway.'

The large ball of water struck the him, the pressure bringing him down once more as he laid on his belly.

After the attack, he stood up, and looked around. It looked like a mini flood had struck the training field.

"What do I always tell you, Astrid!" Lia said, as she walked up to him while nodding her head. While she was still shining and neat, he was muddy and filthy.

'I feel like she wore white today just to mock me' He thought with a sad smile.

"I told you! Once a mage runs out Mana, they are basically useless. You have to fight with your head, think about different ways you can end a fight, because the longer the fight drags on, the more your mana reserves run low.

Your magic swordsman, so you have something to fall back on even if your mana finishes, but I don't want you thinking like that.

You came to me to teach you magic— not how to fight like a magic swordsman, that is your dad's job. So I want you to learn magic like your in a mages shoes." She paused before continuing.

"Go home and rest. Tommorow we continue."

Astrid nodded, before bolting home with speed. Leaving Lia alone in the field. Though his mana reserves where out, that didn't mean he was physically tired, he was mentally tired.

He needed rest.

"Haaahhhh!" Lia sighed, as she watched her son bolt off, "Astrid! Your truly gifted"

"You where able to learn what usually takes children your age months to learn I a single day. I can't wait to see how powerful you'll become in the future" she smiled, as she slowly floated to the sky, before flying off towards their mansion.

The next day

Astrid came out earlier than normal, today he decided that he needed to arrive early, he was tired of his mother beating in the fact that he needed to come early with surprise attacks.

Reaching the field

He sat on the floor in a lotus position. 'She should be here soon.'

He waited, thirty minutes, she still hadn't come.

An hour

Two hours

'Dammit!' Astrid thought, a vein popping on his fore head, his face squeezed like one who had just taking lime.

"Where the hell are you woman!!!!!" He shouted in frustration as he kicked the floor in anger.

"Who do you think you're calling woman? Me?"

Astrid heard a sharp voice, he looked up just to see his mother descending slowly, a gentle smile on her face.

'That smile! It creeps me out'

"I wasn't talking about you!" He replied laughing nervously, beads of sweat dropping from his face"I was talking about— Sienna — yeah, Sienna. I was wondering when she was going to come back."

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In the Eridoria continent, Sienna sat in her room peacefully, before releasing a sharp sneeze. 'Hmmm! I wonder who is talking about me?'

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"Sienna, huh?", Lia looked at him with a questioning gaze, her eyes squinted, which made him sweat more.

"Anyway! About today's training, we are gonna do something special!" She said as she conjured up a large barrier, with enough space for a hundred people to fight, trapping Astrid within it.

He laughed nervously, "S— special training huh? What sort of special training requires you trapping me in a barrier."

He said as he punched the barrier, the strength of it was no joke, there was no way he was escaping from this.

She smiled widely, "well, just this!"

She opened her spacial ring, and a low growl escaped from it, just enough for Astrid to hear and break off into beads of sweat.

'This is it! She has finally decided to get rid of me! What motivated me to scream, I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, something kept telling me.'

'A beast for fuck's sake! A fucking beast, I'm dead meat!!' He screamed internally.

The beast lumbered out of the shadows on four grotesque, muscular paws—each ending in jagged, bone-like claws that scraped against the stone with an ear-splitting screech.

Its flesh hung in loose, rotting folds, pulsating like something half-dead, half-born.

Matted black fur covered patches of its twisted frame, but the rest was exposed muscle, oozing a dark, tar-like fluid.

Its face—if it could even be called that—was a stretched mockery of a hound's, with three glowing eyes stacked vertically and a maw that split unnaturally sideways, revealing rows of serrated, teeth.

Every breath it took sounded like a chorus of death rattles, and its stench—gods, its stench—was enough to curdle air.

Lia opened the a small hole in the barrier, just enough for the beast to pass through before locking both it and her darling son inside once more.

"This is your training today! I want you to defeat this beast with nothing but your magic!" She declared, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"You have gotten used to fighting with humans, now you need to learn how to fight beast's as well.

You won't remain in this house forever. You will need to be able to defend yourself against all horrors in this world, and that includes— Beasts!"

Astrid stared at his mother's face with disbelief, his jaw would drop to the floor if it could. Honestly, who pits a ten year old child, against a beast.

His parents where the real beasts here not this innocent creatures.

'Scratch that, not— so— innocent' he thought to himself as he watched the beast look at him with hunger in its eyes, it almost looked like it was salivating.

'DISGUSTING!'

'I am really in Dipshit now! And I mean, literally buried in shit!'

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