Tiny bundles of shine filled the cramped space the group found themselves in. Each one seemed to have its own mind, dancing across the store like a quill on a page. The twenty or so bundles flew around the two children, as they spread their arms, attempting to grasp onto the mysterious beings. Yet no matter how hard they tried, each one slipped from their hands into the sky, as if to say no one can own us.

Giorgos watched indifferently as the two played with the bright beings, and as a burly old woman came out from the end of the shop.

“To think I’d have such special guests today. What brings you all here.”

Worn, gray hair came out of the scalp of the old lady. Although she stood tall, she was visibly slouched over. She used a wooden staff to walk, using it to reinforce her steps. At the top of the staff though, was a dark blue gem, unlike any Ozias had ever seen.

“I’m sure you can already tell, Selana”

Selana smiled slightly, causing the wrinkles on her old face to widen.

“Yes, well, the scent of blood and the presence of garant are certainly hard to miss.”

Giorgos grimaced, knowing just what this would cost him.

“But this is quite interesting.”

Giorgos looked toward Selana before following her gaze.

“I meant to ask, what do you have flying around the children?”

Selane stared at the two children deeply. Nearly twenty of these beings were flying across the two children.

“It isn’t any of my doing, those are from the earth itself. They are the embodiment of Garant.”

Giorgos widened his eyes slightly, staring at the spirits.

“For them to fly around the two… They must have great potential.”

“…”

“Either that or they simply want to play.”

Giorgos sighed before refocusing on his objective.

“Ozias, show her your wound.”

From the other side of the room, Ozias walked over and pulled his shirt off, showing the glaring dent in his chest.

Selana stared at it before blankly asking.

“How are you still alive?”

Ozias looked at the deep wound before lightly touching it.

“I don’t know either.”

Selana looked at Ozias as some of the spirits from before floated over. They danced around Ozias, notably interested in his wound.

“Giorgos, you already know that my magic can not heal wounds, yet you still bring people here.”

Giorgos rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

“Just state the price Selana.”

The folds of her wrinkles widened as she smiled, her eyes narrowing with her smile.

“I’d love a batch of mana crystals sometime soon.”

“A whole batch!?”

“A wound like this, especially with garant, would need lots of mana to treat. And who knows if this boy could even survive until tomorrow.”

Giorgos looked towards Ozias and noticed the dark marks under his eyes, as well as the cold sweat that fell from the pores on his body. Knowing the severity of the wound and the strength of the wounded, it would not be much of a surprise if he were to end up dead tomorrow. But even then, a whole batch was something he could not do.

Garant manifested from Giorgos’s body as he found himself feeling strengthened. White wisps, from his fingers to his chest flew out into the surrounding air. Seconds later, the wisps tore through the surrounding air and bunched towards Giorgos’s hand and eyes. His previously dark brown irises transformed into silver as his eyesight multiplied. Details he missed before became glaring errors. The imperfections of the human-made itself apparent to his eyes of white.

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With his newfound vision, Giorgos could see precisely where the remnant garant lay from the instructor. And with incredible precision and a strengthened hand, Giorgos threw his hand. From the left, perfectly straightened, his hands dashed across the remnant garant and quickly ended at the right.

At that moment, the garant exploded as it quickly evaporated from the wound.

Ozias immediately felt the effects. Previously, his body seemed sluggish in its healing. Actually, rather than sluggish, it felt burdened, as if something was stopping the healing process from taking place. He had never felt it before, so he was unfamiliar with what it could possibly be. Now though, even though the wound was still a disaster, it seemed slightly more manageable.

“The most I can do is ten mana crystals for this job.”

Selana grumbled under her breath for a moment before responding.

“If that’s the most you can do, that’s fine.”

‘Ha! Loser! I only needed five. Ten is plenty!’

Selana walked away from her desk and headed toward the back of the store.

“Follow me, all three of you.”

Ozias and Giorgos followed quickly while Valery lagged, playing with the spirits. She learned that her trying to catch them was the equivalent of playing for them. And so, for the past five minutes while they were speaking, she continuously played with them, seemingly growing a small bond with them.

The back of the store was heavily unorganized. Wooden boxes lay scattered across the small room as dust collected on top of them, while spider webs could be seen at the corners of the room.

Selana quickly walked past them and sat down on a large chair made from the leather of a beast. Across from the chair was another, made from low-quality wood.

“Sit there.”

Ozias quietly followed her orders, sitting on the uncomfortable chair and feeling various pieces of wood sticking out from it. It made no difference to Ozias, though.

“Giorgos knows this, but I feel that I should tell you as well.”

Ozias stared at her, curious as to what she was about to say.

“I have no spell that can truly heal you. To my knowledge, only clerics and higher-ranked mages can use magic that heals wounds.”

“Higher ranked?”

“Yes. I am a mage who is at rank 3. Although I am fortunate to even possess power such as this, I must admit, I am nothing when it comes to those above me in rank.”

Ozias was quite curious about what she was saying. It was the first time he had heard such a thing. His father had never indulged in how his power worked, or at what rank he was. But he could estimate if he knew what rank the instructor was at.

“Can you tell me what rank the instructor was at?”

Selana was about to answer before Giorgos spoke.

“He is at rank 2.”

“Rank 2, huh…”

“Yes. The reason I was able to remove his remnant garant was because he is weaker than me. I am a rank 3 garant user.”

“Is that so.”

Ozias could instinctively tell that Giorgos was stronger than the instructor. The quality in their garant seemed vastly different. But if the instructor was rank 2 when it came to garant, that must mean his father was bottom of the barrel in terms of strength. Ozias’s father was a rank 1 garant user. Ozias loved his father deeply but felt a tad bit saddened knowing he was fodder compared to the people in front of him, and even to the instructor.

“I’m going to begin the spell now Ozias. This may hurt a bit.”

Ozias focused in front of him as he saw Selana use mana.

Similar to garant, the mana seemed to spill from her body to the outside world. However, she quickly maneuvered it to her wooden staff. The room glowed in a bright light as the gem at the tip of her staff quickly shined to a point similar to that of staring into the sun. Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped. Moments passed as the room returned to the color it was before. Ozias stared at his chest yet felt it was the same. Confusion arose in him as he nearly spoke to voice it. Yet at that moment, another bright flash came as above the staff was a flat circle. It was the color of the gem, dark blue. From the gem itself came the mana that arose from inside Selana, while golden-colored mana from the air itself appeared and flew into the staff. Moments later, it came out the gem, a dark blue hue coming from it.

It was similar to a stream of water rushing past trees and mountains. Only that here, the stream was slowed to an abnormal degree.

Sweat fell from the face of Selana as she focused herself to an unhealthy degree. From the circle at the top of the staff, symbols, unknown to Ozias formed in perfectly spaced slots in the magic circle. Rather than them coming from nowhere, the symbols formed as the stream of mana coming from the gem split, arriving at the partitions in the magic circle, allowing the formation of these unknown symbols.

One after the other the symbols came, until most of the circle were filled. At this point, individual streams disconnected from the symbols into the circle and into the other symbols.

For Ozias, it felt like a band was playing. Each symbol was an instrument, and as the instruments played, they increasingly harmonized into a concise unit.

After the harmonization of these units, the circle began to spin as the symbols themselves faded. Moments later, in accordance with the fading, came a bright light at Ozias’s chest, and a weird feeling. This feeling grew to a near unbearable degree. It felt as if the fibers of his being at his chest were being stimulated, and being shaken. Moments later, this feeling extended even deeper into his being, as he felt his bones produce the same feeling he felt in his chest.

“GUAHH!!!!”

It was too much for Ozias to bear as screams coming from the soul sound themselves darting across the room.

His hands tightened as he gripped the armrests on the chair, nearly causing them to break.

Finally, moments after this feeling emerged, it vanished.

A weight lifted from Ozias’s body as sweat dripped from his face. It was finally over.