Just as soon as the light went on, it went out. Batain, still with a smile on his stubbled face, nodded. "You need to have a constant flow of mana in order to make it light up. Of course, if I gave you something that could conserve mana, you wouldn't need to do that."

Lucas looked up at the ceiling. This world didn't seem to have electricity, at least in the way Earth used it, so he'd been mildly confused on how they managed to have lightbulbs and lamps. Focusing on the small spheres that served as this world's lightbulbs or rather lightballs , he didn't notice much different from what he'd already seen before. When using his mana sense, he just saw a little ball of mana where the light was.

Noting Lucas' confusion, Batain further explained. "When you use mana sense, you spread a tiny sheet of mana throughout whatever you're looking at. That thin mana will help you sense other sources of mana. Normal objects don't have any mana so you don't see anything. Mana conduits like the one you're holding, don't have any mana at least at first but interact with and conduct mana, which is why you'll probably see some sort of hazy thing when looking at them like you're looking at something through water."

He pointed at the lightball. "The reason you probably don't see anything is because of a couple reasons.. damn I already hate explaining this", he stopped, sighing and recollecting his memories of a simpler time where he was forced to learn all of this.

Lucas could empathize with him but it only lasted a second before annoyance overcame it. 'You're the one who decided to teach me this. You could've just not done it. No one would've faulted you for it.'

"Still, I'm the one who decided to teach you this. I could've just not done it but there's no point backing out now when you showed up on time." Lucas' heart rate sped up again at the words that mirrored his thoughts but Batain either didn't notice or paid no attention.

"Basically, it boils down to the purpose of the light. When you lit up your mana conduit lightcube, you pushed mana out of it. That's how the thing works. It's the same with the mana conserver lightball. It just doesn't require a constant input of mana. In both cases, mana is coming out of it and blocking off your flimsy sheet of mana from touching it."

Lucas was still a bit confused. "So what makes the two different?"

"Use your ears, kid. One's a mana conduit. The other is a mana conserver. Meaning one conserves a set amount of mana, releasing it at a controlled amount, and the other simply serves as a conductor for your mana."

To be fair, Lucas was listening intently but he simply hadn't known what conduit meant. Had he known, he wouldn't have asked the question.

Lucas opened his mouth to ask a follow up but Batain seemed to predict it, scratching his chin subconsciously while talking. "As for what really makes them different, mana conservers function through imbuement magic, while mana conduits function through conduit magic. Their names are exactly how they work."

Lucas' curiosity was sparked even further. "Are they branches of magic just like fire and water magic?"

Batain had frowned at the continued questions but his eyes lit up in recollection. "Oh right, try to use elemental magic. Any kind works."

Lucas also frowned but he obliged, putting the lightcube he was holding, down, before trying his best to perform magic. Pushing out his mana while imagining its form, he managed to create.. absolutely nothing.

His freckled face contorted into a grimace. He'd thought something would've changed since what he did with the sword, but he felt the exact same sensation as when he did it before. It'd always annoyed him but now it was just infuriating. The universe had chosen him to give the ability to reincarnate and it'd chosen this world for him to do it so why deny him the power to utilize his knowledge?

Batain remained ignorant to Lucas' internal issues, his eyes having finally gained a tiny note of serious thinking. "Ah, that's interesting", he thought out loud, scratching his stubbled chin. After thinking for a while, he shook his head. Lucas could only frown, seeing his question not be answered.

Seeing Lucas' downturned expression, he stood up, walking over to pat him on the back. "Get back to powering that lightcube."

Lucas nodded before going to back to infusing tiny bits of mana into the cube. Before he could get too focused though, Batain put a shirt on, while also talking to Lucas. "You want anything to eat?"

Lucas had noticed that this continent, Ilute, or at least this portion of it, had relatively okay food. Of course, this was only relative to Earth. In one of his lives, he remembered eating a literal boot, or rather, he remembered being served a literal boot. Coincidentally, that night, he'd heard spooky noises while in his bed, and woken up to see several abominations that had once been chamber pots. To be fair, it had been during a famine but the boot was actually somewhat representative of that world's culinary talent.

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Lucas asked for an omelet with some bacon and bread on the side. It was the closest thing he'd get to a bacon egg and cheese sandwich, at least so far. For a drink, milk was fine.

Batain walked off to the dining hall, whistling all the while. In reality, the mansion was not as large as Lucas made it seem. It was just that he was a child so the trip was painfully long, and confusing. Still, it was large enough that walking to the dining room was a several minute long trip.

Upon getting there, Batain ignored the supposed relatives of his that were there, and immediately got a servant, telling her what he wanted, before sitting down.

He could sense 3 different groups focusing in on him. Funnily enough, they were all of his sisters. The Cazenarch Household was not really a peaceful place, everyone competing to appear the most competent of their siblings and gain land. This wasn't out of a misguided ambition, or rather, not totally out of their misguided ambition.

It was a sort of test given by their father to see their power, intrigue skill and control.. that Batain didn't bother doing. It was entirely stupid. Not only was it a waste of time considering they had to administrate the land too but it was also irrelevant. Magic was what truly mattered. Just with magic, people had been able to subjugate large swaths of land and do what the most skilled master of intrigue couldn't do.

Of course, those people had been geniuses but either way, Batain didn't care. Wasting time doing this instead of growing as a mage was a fool's errand, which was why he and a couple other of his siblings hadn't bothered.

Still, they were outnumbered and Batain often faced attacks that'd try to besmirch his already stained reputation. He wasn't even a competitor for the throne of Guilm which made him further annoyed by the constant political attack. The entire purpose of trying to gain land and throw dirt on their siblings was to gain their father, Regis', favor so that he may promise them the throne which would grant them the respect to keep it. Apparently, he'd be choosing in 2-3 years. Magic made most prejudice pointless so daughters had a chance too. Given that Batain didn't own any land and didn't try to intervene, they should've left him alone. They left Sebastian alone so why not him?

To be fair, he hadn't looked at it deeply, or rather, at all. In order for Sebastian to marry Emelie, Regis had made him relinquish his claim to the throne of the County of Guilm. This seems harsh but to Sebastian who wasn't necessarily talented or well-connected, it didn't require too much thought. It was honestly a bit of a blessing because it meant he was out of the running. Sure, maybe his kid could stage a weak claim to the throne but by that point, if the victor hadn't incapacitated their enemies and consolidated their power, they weren't fit to rule anyways.

In comparison, Batain was the 3rd son of Regis making him easier to accept as a ruler. Seniority still played some role in society. In addition, there was a reason that Sebastian didn't actually try to attack Batain. Lucas knew pretty well that no one weak gets the amount of scarring that Batain had, and lives to tell about it.

Perhaps, Batain was disinterested now but the last thing they needed was the slob interrupting or intervening at a critical moment in the future. Batain didn't care about any of that though, simply dismissing them as idiots who couldn't respect neutrality.

Among the sisters staring at him, one lost interest after seeing he was mainly here to get food, while another with dark streaks in her blonde hair, was interested in the food he was getting. Batain usually just got whatever the chefs felt like cooking as long as it had meat in it. Very rarely would he ask for some food of his own.

The last sister stared, contempt and wrath in her eyes. Her silvery blonde hair reached her shoulders, cupping her young face.

Batain shook his head. Of course, it was Daphne. If anyone was arrogant and stupid enough to have someone try to rape him, it would be his 17 year old sister, Daphne. He didn't even bother trying to understand her logic in doing so. It was ridiculousness.

He considered going over there right now and beating her ass, but decided against it. Sure, he could do it but unless he killed her which was expressly forbidden while Regis was king, she'd just go after him again, with more desperation, while he would probably face some sort of sanction from his famiily. That would be annoying to deal with, with Sebastian's kid under his wing as well.

Speaking of Sebastian, he walked into the hall a couple minutes after Batain arrived, dragging behind him a visibly furious Emelie. Batain hadn't considered that Lucas would run away to get taught by him, assuming that the kid had managed to convince his parents which made the dark haired woman glaring at him quite the surprise.

He didn't mind it though, assuming she was still angry about something he said. Collecting the food, he walked back to his room, whistling again. The thing was he was a terrible whistler, but that didn't stop him from continuing. He'd used fire magic to keep the food hot while he walked back to the room.

He'd walked past a servant who tried to ruin the food. He, then, proceeded to ruin the servant's face. While he wouldn't hurt Daphne directly, destroying the little tricks she tried using against him, might dissuade her.

Upon getting back to his room, he opened the door to see Lucas still fiddling around. To his shock though, the kid had fully mastered the little tool he'd given him. He'd started controlling his flow, learning how much was inefficient or how little was pointless. He could experiment with the brightness of it too, having the cube change from a dim glow to a full on flashbang. It was all about mana control.

Batain stopped whistling his horrific rendition of a particular childhood song of his and whistled in appreciation. "Good, this entire thing will be pretty quick, then. You're a natural at conduit magic which I could tell from before and you already know the basics of how to use it. Now, time for something a little more advanced."