Adion looked up at the tall faelin named Lomin, who was walking beside him. Adion’s new team and Villem were all on their way back to Billford at the moment, where they had decided to rent a carriage up to the Silver Wall now that Adion was part of the team. Adion had grown a lot over the past years and was not used to having to look up when speaking to someone.

The faelin are all tall, so I guess it isn’t strange. As long as I grow taller than my brother, I’ll be happy. Hopefully, he hasn’t grown too much during the past few years.

“Is it your first time meeting a faelin?” Lomin asked as he noticed Adion staring at him.

Adion looked into the faelin’s eyes. They were a strange, vibrant green color, with spots of gold circling the pupils. Lomin had long blond hair tied in a ponytail, showing off his pointed ears resembling a mix between a human and an elf. He was the oldest of the group, at 30, while Benji and Sahra were 25 and Rufus 27.

“It is,” Adion answered, “You have cool eyes, is that common?”

Lomin smiled and spoke calmly, “Thank you. We faelin believe the eyes to be the window to the soul. As such, everyone’s eyes are unique. They even change as we experience more and our soul matures.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Adion said, “But I’ve never heard of eyes changing color.”

“They might not for humans, but we are different in many aspects after all,” Lomin said.

“Too bad,” Adion muttered. He thought it would be nice to have evolving eyes like the faelin. But then again, he had inherited his mother’s eyes, and he wouldn’t want to lose that connection with her.

“Haha! Don’t worry, Adion,” Rufus laughed as he laid an arm across his shoulders, “We might not be able to change eye color, but once you see how awful Lomin is in controlling mana and how slow he is advancing because of it, you will be glad to be human.”

“Oh, you’re bad at controlling mana?” Adion asked Lomin.

“In comparison to humans, I admit I’m pretty bad,” Lomin said with an awkward smile, “But no other race can beat humans at manipulating mana. Even so, I’m not envious. I have other advantages that humans could only dream of after all. Every race of sapi and beast has their own strengths and weaknesses.”

“That’s true. We don’t keep Lomin around because he looks pretty after all,” Benji, the leader of the team, said, “The faelin can use magic that is very different from every other race, similar to Gifted in a way.”

“Oh? What kind of magic?” Adion asked.

“Well,” Benji scratched his chin, embarrassed, “I’m not too sure. Lomin can’t really use any of it. But I’ve heard of powerful faelin who can do similar things as the Gifted.”

“I just haven’t traveled far enough yet,” Lomin said, “I feel something brewing in my soul, and the catalyst for it to awaken lies on the road ahead.”

Interesting. I was lucky to find these guys. They seem a lot more knowledgeable than the mages I’ve met so far.

Most of the mages he had met were Bronze mages, and not many came from a family clan. Like Villem, most of them had mage parents who could train them to some degree but were not strong enough to form a family clan. The vast majority of mages were Bronze, and only about one in a hundred managed to advance to Silver. It took talent and hard work, and most people gave up as they grew older or died while trying to temper their Will in the Outskirts. Even if they managed to advance to Silver, you had to become a Gold mage just to form a 4th-tier family clan.

The way things are going, it won’t take very long for me, though. I just turned 15 and have already reached the high Bronze stage, and I don’t feel like my progress is slowing down.

Adion had reached high Bronze a little over a month ago but had been hiding his strength. Reaching middle Bronze caused people to freak out, and he could only imagine how people would react if he continued to advance at his current pace.

The past few months had shown Adion how troublesome things could become by showing off his abilities. As he had thought, most people didn’t ask questions and were polite, afraid of offending him, like the manager of the Outskirts Guild in Trabis. When Adion had killed the man named Jab for speaking ill of his mother, he thought he would have to run away quickly as it was strictly forbidden to kill anyone inside the outpost, especially a fellow Guild member.

But he had been surprised when the manager, a Silver mage, showed himself and apologized to Adion. The manager had made a public statement, twisting the facts somewhat to make it seem like Adion had been attacked and acted in self-defense. No witness dared to disagree, allowing Adion to continue his routine of hunting beasts and clearing missions.

But that was only until the rumors about him spread outside the outpost, and people from family clans and other organizations started showing up and asking about Adion. Luckily, he had met with Villem by then and was warned by him in time to disappear quietly.

He had already managed to reach rank 1 explorer, and the only reason for him to continue his missions would be to get the monetary reward as he wouldn’t be able to reach rank 2 explorer until he could kill peak Silver beast.

So Adion had started hunting beasts with Villem. He trusted him a lot by that point as he had warned Adion instead of giving him up to receive money from whoever was searching for him. Adion would kill the beast, mostly peak Bronze ones and a few low Silver, and Villem would carry the body back to outpost Cilla to get the money for the beast, which they shared between the two. This was a common practice for stronger and wealthier mages as they didn’t want to spend time on those kinds of tasks, so they hired weaker mages to do the job for them.

Adion would quite enjoy his time as he could remove his mask and control his aura to show only the strength of a peak Iron mage while moving around town. He could go out to eat and drink with Villem at the local taverns without worrying.

But as time passed, the rumors didn’t die as he had expected. Instead, they spread further, and more people came to look for him, making him worry that he would be found. He didn’t think he would be killed or anything, but he would definitely get pressured to join whichever family or organization found him first, something he absolutely didn’t want.

He had asked Villem to see if he could find some information about who was searching for him. The answer was that basically everyone was looking for him, most notably the Gratton family. It wasn’t strange as they were a Noble family with a lot of manpower and had a strong presence in Billford and the surrounding area.

He had decided that he needed to move further north. He would need to travel in that direction sooner or later anyway, as he would go to Cyalis eventually. The problem was that Villem couldn’t go with him; he was too weak as the Silver Wall had very few areas with Bronze beasts, and Villem needed to hunt beasts, too. He was here in the Outskirts to fight and temper his Will, after all.

He couldn’t go by himself either. He would have to show his Guild card when he reported on his finished missions, and by this point, even the Outskirts Guild would probably give up his location.

So when Villem told him about Benji and his group, he decided that it would be a nice group to join. This way, he could continue making a living while hiding in their group as a young, talented, low Bronze mage. He didn’t think they would be too enticed by the rewards of giving up information about him, even if they might not be from any peak powerhouse. Benji and Sahra had graduated from Cyalis Academy. They wouldn’t lack money in the future.

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Unfortunately, he had to reveal his ability to hide his strength to the group, as they already knew he was a middle Bronze mage, and Adion couldn’t show himself in public with that kind of strength, even if he didn’t wear his mask. But Villem had known about his ability for a while now, and nothing bad had happened, making it easier for Adion to trust his new team as well.

He would still keep most of his secrets to himself, though.

“So, Adion,” Benji said after a while, as they finally stepped out of the forest and continued on the road leading to Billford, “Mind telling us a bit about your Gift?”

Hmm, what should I tell them?

The fault in Adion’s plan was, of course, that he wasn’t actually a Gifted. But he had no intention of revealing his space core. Maybe he would in the future if he judged that he could trust his new team members. But for the moment, he had to make up some kind of excuse.

I could just lie and make up some story, I guess. What happened to me isn’t much different than the stories I’ve heard of people receiving their Gifts. But I did promise to help, and Benji seems to put a lot of importance on figuring out how Gifted received their Gifts. It would weigh heavy on my conscience if my made-up information somehow led him astray.

Going by how things have gone for me so far, it is also very likely that they will find out the truth eventually. If I have lied to them the entire time, they will definitely feel betrayed.

Adion decided to be somewhat honest in his answer, “I guess I can tell you a little about myself,” Adion said slowly, “But I won’t tell you everything. My so-called Gift is related to a secret I’m not too keen on sharing. Frankly, I don’t trust you enough, at least not yet.”

Benji looked dejected when he heard Adion’s reply.

“Benji, that makes sense,” Sahra comforted, “You will have plenty of time to get to know about Adion once we all know each other better. This secret might give you the push you need to write that book you always wanted.”

Benji smiled at his girlfriend, “You’re right, I won’t push. Adion, take your time; hopefully, you will trust me enough in the future.”

“Thanks for understanding,” Adion said, “I’ll show a little what I can do.”

Adion then froze the space around Benji. He was a middle Silver mage, so he couldn’t hold him for long once he started struggling, but Benji still seemed shocked at Adion’s abilities and stared at him with wide eyes.

“What happened?” Rufus asked, “What did he do, Benji?”

Sahra and Lomin looked at Benji in anticipation as well; the only calm one was Villem, who looked at them with an amused smile.

“Amazing,” Benji muttered, “So it is actually true? I thought for sure that the rumors about what happened in Trabis were exaggerated. I’ve never heard of a Gift so powerful. Can you really stop people from moving, even the entire population of Trabis, like the rumors say?”

“Well,” Adion hesitated. It was an exaggeration that he had frozen the entire town. At most, a few buildings around the Outskirts Guild were affected. And it wasn’t entirely true that he could do even that.

When Adion had heard Jab call his mother a whore, Adion was furious. And it felt like he grasped something that had always been beyond him. When he first took the Celestial Phoenix Wisdom Pill, he had felt all-powerful for a brief moment, like all space was his to command. But that feeling disappeared along with the pill, and Adion had never managed to relive that feeling. He still had complete control over a small part of space that he could use to trap his opponents, but he never found a way to improve his powers.

That was until Jab had insulted his mother. He could finally feel the space around him just like he had that day years earlier. It was like the space around him was afraid to question his Will and did everything it was commanded to do, which at that moment was to not let anything or anyone other than Adion pass through it.

Not only could he affect a larger area, he had a much firmer grasp on it, not even allowing the Silver mages around him to move, even if he froze space for close to half a minute.

Unfortunately, the feeling was fleeting. The moment Adion had killed Jab, it was like he woke up from a dream, and he could no longer grasp the power he had held just a moment earlier. But the experience was anything but a waste. Afterward, Adion had finally managed to increase the amount of space he could freely control. It wasn’t a lot, an increase of about 20%, but it was enough for Adion to feel elated. He also felt that his Will could affect the space under his control more efficiently, even with other mages and beasts contending against him.

But the best news of all was that Adion had finally figured out how to improve his powers. When he had taken the Wisdom Pill, Adion was at a loss on how to improve. He simply accepted his new strange power and focused on his mana core and aura control. But after he experienced some of the feeling again, and this time all by himself, he could see the path forward.

During the past four months, Adion had focused a lot of his attention on improving his unique powers, which he had named ‘Authority’ in his head. It felt like a fitting word for what he was experiencing. It felt like Adion had received some Authority over space; he could command it as he wished, but it was nowhere near complete Authority. He didn’t know if it was Ganta itself or something else that contended against his Authority, but it was impossible to influence more space than he had Authority over. The space would simply not listen to him.

But he had discovered that he could slowly increase this Authority by meditating. Instead of focusing on bending the surrounding space mana to his Will and gathering it in his core, like he usually did, he took the space mana and infused it in the space he had Authority over.

It was harder than meditating like usual because he had to focus on his Authority, take control over as much space as he could, and then push its limits by infusing it with more of his Will-attuned space mana. The process was incredibly slow. Even releasing all the mana Adion had in his core was only enough to conjure space the size of a grain of sand. Even if Adion now finished each day to release all the space mana in his core and infuse it into the space he had Authority over, the result was barely noticeable after four whole months.

But progress was progress, and as Adion advanced, he would have more space mana in his core to use to increase his Authority. He didn’t know why it worked or if there was a better way. He couldn’t voluntarily enter the same state of mind he had when he increased his Authority by 20%. So, even if it was slow, it was the only option Adion had at the moment.

“Adion?” Benji asked again when he noticed Adion hesitating.

“The rumors are exaggerating. I can only freeze enough space to affect one or two beasts at a time.” He explained.

“Still, you even managed to affect me,” Benji said, “If you had attacked me while I couldn’t move, I would be dead for sure.”

Adion let slip a rare smile, “How do you think I managed to become a rank 1 explorer?”

Benji smiled back at him, “That’s true. Truly an incredible Gift. I would very much like to know all about how you got it when you feel like talking about it.”

“Mm.” Adion nodded.

“Can I also try?” Sahra asked, her brown curly hair falling across her face as she tilted her head questioningly.

“Sure,” Adion responded and froze the space around her.

“Amazing!” Sahra said in surprise as she managed to break free.

“Maybe I should do it to you two, too, so you know what I can do when we are facing beasts together,” Adion said as he turned to Lomin and Rufus.

“Give it your best shot!” Rufus said as he took a fighting stance facing Adion.

Adion froze the space around him. He could only hold on for about 3 seconds before he had to let go, a little shorter than Benji and Sahra, as Rufus was ready to fight him from the beginning.

“Lomin?” Adion asked to make sure he wanted to try.

“Go ahead,” Lomin said with a gentle smile.

Adion froze the space around him but soon noticed that Lomin wasn’t fighting him. He couldn’t hold space containing a living being as well as he could empty air, even if Lomin wasn’t fighting him with his Will. But he would be able to hold on for many minutes, so after a while, he simply let go of his mental grip and allowed Lomin to move.

“Why didn’t you fight it?” Adion asked.

“I wanted to experience how it felt. Sure enough, it was a very interesting feeling.” Lomin answered, “Trying to get out of your grip might be good training to temper both yours and our Will.”

“Oh?” Adion hadn’t thought about that, but it made sense since both parties had to fight hard with their Wills contending against each other.

“We should give it a try when we’re traveling to the Silver Wall,” Benji said, “We can’t just slack off even if we’re traveling after all.”

“Sounds good to me,” Adion said as they continued to walk towards Billford.