A young boy looked at his reflection in the mirror. He tugged on his golden hair, which had grown long enough to reach his ears.
Instead of the skinny boy from before, Michael had grown into the makings of a man. Now that he was ten years old, his body had started to develop with a little more meat on his bones. Training nothing but his body for the last five years had allowed him to reach good physical fitness, even better than his previous life.
He put on his clothes and strolled out of his room with a pep in his step. Beretta, the veteran maid, passed by him with a plate full of food on both her hands.
"Young master, please take an umbrella with you when you go out. It's raining outside," she warned.
But Michael continued to walk out the door without a care in the world.
Just as Beretta warned, there was quite a bit of downpour outside even though the skies looked so clear.
It didn't matter though. He stepped foot outside, with the raindrops falling just an inch short of Michael's entire body.
A strange, almost invisible, layer of prismatic coating prevented the water from wetting his hair and clothes.
Michael had practiced his [Absolute Unity Defense] skill to the four-star level, meaning that he was invulnerable to any and all kinds of magic that were below the fourth level. And since rain was a naturally occurring source of water mana, it was equivalent to a 1-star Water Ball spell. If he didn't want to get wet, Michael would never get wet.
As for his mana cores, he was the equivalent of a 4-star mage as well. He would have advanced much further, but the presence of unique elements such as the Lightning and Poison mana were hard to acquire.
He had to ask Seberus for some mana stones that contained those elements.
The Tower Master frequented the Vanderbilt estate with the pretense of overlooking Michael's magic, but in truth, the old man simply wanted to play Reborn chess with him.
Of course, Michael would always win. And the funny thing was that the Tower Master wasn't even the second-best player in the Vanderbilt estate. That honor was retained by Sebastian, who came very close to beating Michael a couple of times throughout the years.
Magic wasn't the only thing that Michael worked on for the last five years.
His Reborn company continued to expand its name throughout the other cities and villages.
Business had been slowly growing, with his income becoming too much to even count.
Michael didn't bother with all of those because most of the money they earned was invested back into the company. Castelle continued to employ craftsmen, blacksmiths, and even mages under the company banner, expanding the products they could produce.
Of course, he continued to 'invent' new things to keep their products fresh in people's minds.
For example, Michael created the very first 'matchstick'. He wasn't going to sell it at first and only intended it to help the maids light fires during the winter, but once Castelle saw how easy it was to create fire without magic, she begged him to let her sell it as a Reborn product.
Just like the first boom of soap and shampoo, matchsticks became a 'hot' product in their business.
But even though the number of matchboxes they sold far outnumbered the number of soap and shampoo they sold, it didn't bring in much money. After all, he only sold the matchboxes at about 20 copper coins.
Despite that, it was still worth it. This ended up becoming the catalyst that helped Reborn become widely known in the small villages and cities outside Kingsbridge.
After all, the citizens of those places didn't have money to hire their own fire mages like the wealthy citizens of Kingsbridge. So, having easy access to fire became a literal life-saver for most people, which was what Michael wanted in the first place.
He created more products that greatly improved people's quality of life. He created the compass, which became a must-buy for people traveling all the time. Another was eyeglasses, which allowed most people to regain their ability to read. All of those contributed to the profit and reputation of the Reborn company.
One big project he worked on during the years was a revolutionary form of transportation: the bicycle.
He still wouldn't forget that moment when everyone in the Vanderbilt estate gathered in the backyard to try out the bicycles on their own. Many fell to the ground, getting cuts and bruises on their elbows. But still, the smiles on their faces were priceless.
His mother and father tried it as well, with Bart quickly getting captivated with the desire to use it for his daily trips to Kingsbridge. Of course, that was quickly shut down once Lylia and the maids expressed their concerns about his safety.
The bike was much faster than walking, with less effort as well. It was especially useful for the maids and butlers, who had to traverse the large and expansive Vanderbilt estate every day, keeping the area well-tended.
With the help of ChatJK2 and the myriad of 2 to 3-star magic spells in his repertoire, he was able to construct these inventions without much trouble at all. As long as it didn't require a source of energy, he could create anything.
That was, until now.
After five years of constant failure, trial and error, spending blood, sweat, and tears, Michael finally created a working prototype of an engine!
This particular type of machine needed a lot of perfect pieces, with even just a little bit of an imperfection turning the entire thing useless.
The problem was that the materials needed to be strong enough to handle the pressure. However, that meant that it would be a lot harder for Michael to bend the materials to his desired specifications.
But after five years of working on it constantly, it was finally done.
Michael walked into his Project Room and assembled the parts into one machine, with the final piece fitting with a satisfying CLINK!
Now, he just needed fuel and he could finally harness electricity!