“I knew it!” Victorina was speaking loudly, as he showed an expression of slight embarrassment. Clearly indicating that his earlier, spoken words were his true belief.

Cassie, who was sitting on the other side of a table full of food, only smiled modestly. In between, the food, that made all of this possible was a magic contract.

Looking at the contract caused Jessica to think of the last time she had seen one. She really wanted to see Leo but hadn’t heard a word from him in over half a year. Even then, all she had seen was Leo for a very brief moment.

His sword body was inside a very large, complicated magic circle that caused her eyes to tear up if she looked at it too long. Unable to meet him, Izic had said that he was forcing himself to stay inside longer than advised. Though, that was the way he would complete what Izic was planning and return faster.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried. Though, his body had always looked a bit frail. Simplistic and like a cheap toy. For the short while she was able to focus on the sword, it had changed greatly.

There was some strength in its image. At least it didn’t look like something that would break by dropping it. She could also feel a dense amount of mana around it, drawing in mana from the surroundings.

“See, this is what you will be facing.” Cassie’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. Focusing back on them, she realized the two were looking at her.

“You don’t have to tell me, I have seen her from her teenage years. She gets like this when she is comfortable. Granted, it is like a badge of honor if she spaces out enough to not react if someone calls to her.” Victorina was using this time to spill things he had seen like a parent speaking honestly, just to make the child bashful.

“Oh, so does that mean she trusts me fully? I will have to do something about that. It is extremely dangerous.” Cassie seemed to be speaking absentmindedly to herself.

A sly smile also appeared on his face, “It looks like we both have our work cut out for us.”

As soon as it began, the two, that seemed to have become very close at some unknown time, separated. Jessica looked a bit bewildered. Cassie was one thing, she could change her attitude at the drop of the hat. It was something she trained herself to do.

Victorina went from a worried wreck to a person back on vacation. Fully taking everything that had been thrown at him. Then again, he was always a bit carefree. Perfectly amalgamating into the dwarven culture and city. Making it hard to believe he was born an antisocial and reclusive elf, and not an expressive and open-minded dwarf.

Once Cassie left, Victorina calmed down a bit. Letting out a big sigh of relief, it appeared he wasn’t as nonchalant as he appeared to be.

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Turning to look at her, “You are just full of surprises.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tilting her head, she couldn’t grasp his meaning.

“Your father is an Ever, let alone an elf. You were put up by Beast who is a dwarf, let alone the next Ever. Now you are the student of a reclusive expert that has hidden herself so deeply that it is just scary. While not an Ever her mother is probably as close as you could get.”

Thinking about it, he was a bit right, though she always just took things as they came. If anything, all of stemmed from her father. She was adopted by him, while meeting Beast was also because he was friends with her father.

Her meeting up with Everblood, was only a thing because he seemed to think she was a good influence on Saleh, while also being connected to her father. It was thus through Saleh she met Cassie, who found her interesting.

Instead of impressive, Jessica found it a little scary. In every single one of these ways, she was passive. Partially, she decided to go with the flow, but she seemed to always interacting with people that were very far outside her reach. Which also meant that if the peaceful days ended, she would find it incredibly difficult to stay alive.

Turning to look, “Then what about you, you clung onto me and somehow glued yourself to Uncle Beast.”

Without pointing out what words she used, he smiled while chuckling, “I am just that amazing, right?”

Seeing her deadpan face, his smile faltered slightly, “Okay, let’s move on to the important point. I should start teaching you what you need to learn.”

Seeing his serious expression, she sat down at the table now clean table.

“The elven training technique is a way of transferring and controlling mana. It was specifically taught to elves for a very specific reason. I am sure you know about the first people, right?”

Thinking back, Jessica remembered hearing about them when she was a child, “The first human was born without anything, therefore they had endless desires. While the first dwarf was born with so much talent, they were short of everything else, to the point they could die before they even get to discover where that talent belonged.”

The more she said, the less she could remember, “Dragon was born with too much strength, thus were lonely, and difficult to find peers. While the first elf was born without a heart, a natural-born psychopath.”

Nodding his head, “That is most of it. It was a common thing taught to children to allow them to understand about the people they might see in the world.”

Jessica paused, “So what about Animal Tribes? I can’t remember there being anything about them.”

Thinking about it, “I don’t know. I only heard it after leaving the forest. Elves were never taught this, outside the first elf being heartless, we were taught nothing about outsiders. I have never heard anything about the first animal tribes.”

Tapping his finger, “The important part is the heartless part of elves. As to the legitimacy of the sayings, we know they’re not really accurate, but there is some truth to it. This technique capitalizes on the uniqueness of the first elves.”

“Does that mean I will become emotionless like the elves? No, that isn’t right, you learned the technique later, and you aren’t any different.”

As mana started to spread out, Jessica found it more difficult to see Victorina. She could clearly see him, but without any response from sound, smell, or being able to feel him with her senses increased by her mana. It felt more difficult to see him.

If not for being able to see him with her naked eye, she was likely to believe he had disappeared. Only his expression seemed to have lost some light, as his eyes felt a bit dead. No longer as lively, “As you can see, to activate it to a higher level, the racial aspect inside causes me to look and feel more normal. As an elf, anyway.”

Releasing the technique he returned to normal, “As you can see, nothing has really changed. As for your question, it is likely you will enter a more tranquil mindset but won’t have any long-lasting side effects.”