One year passed since the broadcast and the world slowly integrated into the new age of technology and development. The whole internet was advanced to encompass even surrounding planets and orbital relay stations were transported to each solar system to facilitate a rapid expansion in resourceful regions. Moreover wormhole devices that resembled huge planet sized rings were installed throughout the Milky Way, they were the backbone of any species since traveling even with the speed of light would take years. The Federation financed all of this only to earn the most out of their investment into this undeveloped space zone, nonetheless humanity profited greatly because of them.

Yet the biggest change of all was the introduction of magic, apparently the loud booming sound at the end of the last millennium was it flooding onto earth. The federation called this energy Universal Force, or just Force in short. There were multiple variants of Force such as fire, water, psychic or even death, but to be able to utilize them and perform magic one had to have the correspondent affinity towards it.

Children below the age of ten had the best luck since they got the most benefits from absorbing Force into their bodies, therefore prolonging their life expectancy and strengthening their whole inner system.

Although kids had the biggest advantages didn't mean magic couldn't be practiced by adults, they just had a harder time mastering it and their bodies were limited by the amount of Force they could absorb. Still the lifespans of everyone was extended to at least 150 years, with newly born babies and young children being able to live up to one thousand.

All over earth schools for Force training were established and younglings from the age of 5 could attend, parents were advised to help their kids absorb before that though. This would improve their base affinity towards Force and beginning at the earliest possible time had the most noticeable effect.

Naturally family Strono also decided to let their newest generation dabble in magic and since little Alex was only three years old at this time, he was at the perfect age to gain the most benefits. After last years broadcast where each of them received an UC they acquired all information available to make a decent living inside of the Intergalactic Federation and made sure the device was safe for a child's use. They learned that the UCs had a parental guided mode where children below the age of twelve had either a guardian or a parent restrict access to mature and inappropriate data and content.

The UCs were also equipped with an education mode where kids were taught instead of school. Information would just be downloaded and installed inside their brains progressively without implicating the natural development of the child. After thorough consideration the Stronos decided to also use this method since Alex could wholly focus on magic or any other profession he wanted to, in this way.

Because of this Alexander could be seen running around and learning to speak already, in Primodean of course. His parents due to their younger age also decided to comprehend as much about Force as possible to help their son when the time came for him to practice more dangerous forms of magic. Kazimierz and his wife wanted to keep up but soon Irena discovered that her affinity for Force was so low she couldn't go past simple cantrips and even those took a lot of time to master. Nonetheless they were still useful in their day to day life, whether it was cleaning the house or just having a fun playtime with their grandson. Kazimierz got even more unlucky though and discovered that he had no Force core at all, which barred him from experiencing magic forever.

The months passed one after the other while the whole of humanity was steadily advancing forward. During that time Alex made a lot of progress while absorbing Force and the family happily detected a strong talent for Force manipulation within him. Soon it would be time to register him at an appropriate magic school. Due to Harald's and Dorothea's status as doctors they had nothing to worry about financially but finding the right environment for their son was of the utmost importance to them.

Since they lived in the capital county of the EU multiple high class school compounds could be found, with the most renowned being Vizbourne, an academy that taught kids from beginning until graduation. The Stronos, after thorough deliberation, decided to send Alex to Vizbourne due to it's high standing, after all earth only experienced one and a half year of development so far and there wasn't enough information to determine the best school.

In the past half year Alex learned to communicate with other humans and could form coherent sentences, if earth still was in the dark about the federation he would be considered a one in ten thousand genius. Nowadays he was just slightly above average though, however, with the introduction of the UC something like learning processes of mundane things like language were made as simple as breathing and became redundant.

"Mommy let's take a break and play I don't wanna keep practicing!" three and a half year old Alexander complained. He and his mother were absorbing force in the garden but the little boy wanted to play with the dogs who kept nudging him with their tennis balls.

"You still have half an hour of practice today, after that we can play but let's finish this first. You only have half a year left to take advantage of your talent, after enrolling in Vizbourne other less talented kids can catch up to you easily with hard work and enthusiasm. You have to profit from your godsend opportunity and make the most of it. When we get old you have to take care of us after all." his mother responded like always and held her son back before he could bolt away with the dogs.

"But I'm tired and it's boring…All we do is sit around and concentrate to absorb Force, I can do that while playing too!" Alex pouted and tried to explain to his mother how playing was essential for every child, with an eloquence no child born in the 80's would be able to replicate, at least while being in his age group.

After some more minutes of nagging Dorothea managed to focus the boy again. Beginners like them had to fully enter a state of mind where nothing around them could distract them, to be able to efficiently take Force into their bodies and refine it into their personal energy.

Each and every life form had a Force core since birth which's development equaled the power one could exhibit with magic. Some few unlucky ones were born without them and were labeled as Inepts, in today's age it wasn't too much of a problem since in the technological sector one could still find a job opportunity with an absent core. This wasn't always the case though as those people were hunted and killed in the early days of the federation.

Kazimierz was one of such cases and therefore he couldn't mentor his grandson at all, so he looked for a different chance to help support his family. With him having lived through World War II he had picked up a lot of fighting skills and he began dabbling in fencing, kendo, aikido and many other fighting styles. The UC provided enough information for him to know that learning weapons was an essential part of a life in the I.F. Whether it was in a forced draft to the federation's army or just surviving in outer space, handling different kinds of weapons was an absolute necessity. And with this knowledge he could also help his grandson when he was ready to pick up arms.

Family Strono spent the rest of the time before Alex's enlistment in Italy, in their beach home, while constantly training with the little prodigy. And before any of them could truly register the passing of time, autumn came and little Alexander had to take his first steps on his path towards power. With a wholesome picture of a loving family sending their son off on his first day of school, Alex walked up the academy's main gate's steps and slipped through the door into a new and exciting part of his life.