"How do you mitigate the side effects of the Level Up ritual?" Bob inquired.
"To prevent side effects from developing, I'll slowly remove artificial tissues from your wound and let your own cells take over. As for the nerves... It's very complicated. Nevermind." Nathan explained to Bob in a professional manner, as a physician would. "You must rest for another three months for a complete recovery. I'll give you a prescription later."
"Are there any side effects for being a beastman?" Tiffany asked with concern.
"Based on my research, I don't think there will be any." Nathan continued to answer professionally.
"You said I am now a beastman, but I don’t feel any significant changes." Bob was curious about being a beastman and asked with interest.
"That is good to hear. There should not be any adverse side effects other than faster Natural Mana Absorption, learning some skills from the beasts and the ability to transform into the beastman mode. The transformation is completely safe." Nathan explained. "Dragonoids are beastmen too. They are half human half dragon. In your case, you are a blend of half human, a quarter Behemoth, and a quarter Leviathan. Since Leviathan is a dragon, you are also part dragon."
"By the way, where did the Leviathan come from?" Bob asked Tiffany. He was unconscious when Levi transformed.
"It was Saint Levi. She transformed into the Leviathan before running away." Tiffany answered.
"Oh, really? Well, she was good at water spells, but I felt that the Behemoth was way stronger." Bob commented.
"But you only fought her human form. Her Mana increased significantly after she transformed." Tiffany pointed out.
"Interesting. I am looking forward to transforming too." Bob said, eager to test his increased strength.
"Nathan, will you teach me magic as well?" Tiffany asked, for she was now the only one in her family who still possessed Divine Power.
"Sure. Relax and let me remove the Blessing of the Goddess from you. Give me five." Nathan said.
In only two seconds, Tiffany felt all of her Divine Power were drained from Nathan’s palm. She exhausted most of her Divine Power casting the Kill Zone spell twice, so there wasn’t much left.
"Typical knights who used up their Divine Power are unable to absorb Mana and use magic. What did you do?" Tiffany questioned with curiosity.
"I cast Dispel to remove Liliana's Blessing from you." Nathan explained. "Dispel can neutralize many basic spells, but not the more complex ones."
"Not the complicated ones? The Blessing of the Goddess' glyph doesn't look simple to me. Can it also remove curses and malignant status effects? Also, you didn’t chant." Tiffany asked a series of questions. Apparently, she was enthralled by Nathan's lecture.
During the war, she saw and experienced many status effects and curses that could not be cured immediately. Knights could only wait for them to fade away overtime, because Divine Power naturally rejected foreign Mana. They called this effect the Blessing of the Goddess. Nevertheless, abnormal statuses were still an inconvenience in a fight. The Dispel spell could become a huge advantage in a fight.
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"I've been researching for a way to remove a strong curse in the past few years. The Dispel spell was just a side invention. It didn't work at all." said Nathan. "I created it in a way that doesn’t require chanting just for convenience."
Then, Nathan changed the subject. "Next, let me teach you how to use magic and train with it."
Nathan created a new whiteboard using a spell.
"Basically, the more you use your Mana, the stronger your magical circuits become, which in turn, will make them better at natural Mana Absorption. So, I will teach you how to
1) Absorb Mana more effectively from the natural environment
2) Strengthen your magical circuits, and
3) Train your body."
"Why do you need to teach us? We've already learned how to train in school." Adrian asked.
"Training to use magic is different from training your Divine Power. You won't grow stronger by simply praying in a church anymore." Nathan explained.
After Nathan taught the family how to meditate in order to absorb Mana, he taught the family how to use Magic, or what people commonly referred to as Demonic Spells. While there were some differences between Divine Spells and Magic, the core concepts were the same.
Then, Nathan taught the family how to disguise their Mana as Divine Power. He ingrained a modified version of the Blessing of the Goddess onto their body to make their Aura feel like Divine Power. However, its hypnotizing side effects were no longer functional.
The final lesson was to disguise magic as Divine Spells. In short, they simply needed to add the glyph of the Blessing of the Goddess on top of every spell they cast, because this was how people tell magic apart from Divine Spells. Since Divine Spells can only draw upon Divine Power as their energy source, they needed to disguise Mana as Divine Power in order to activate them.
"Magic and Divine Spells are basically the same thing." Adrian commented. "What is the purpose of adding the Goddess' glyph on top of the spells?"
"It has further applications in warfare." Nathan answered. "Let's save this for next time because it will be another lecture."
In about thirty minutes, switching between lecture and practice, the family got a pretty good grasp on magic.
After the lecture, Tiffany began to worry, "Nathan, should we move away from this place? Just in case someone may come."
"No it's okay." Nathan calmly reassured Tiffany. "I always keep track of most of the Kingdom’s elites and their plans. At the moment, there is no one coming. The reason why I came was because I received information about Levi."
Nathan’s lecture lasted until 7pm, after which the family went back to the stone house. There were a lot of fish in the river so they had fish soup, steamed fish and pan-fried vegetables. By Nathan’s order, Bob stayed in his bed and read books for the entire time except getting up for dinner.
During lunch, everyone was too tired to eat. However, their hunger caught up with them at dinner. The family was famished from the day's events and devoured their dinner in silence. "Eat up everyone. The best way to restore Mana is to eat." said Nathan. Seeing that there wasn’t enough food, Nathan went to the stove to cook more dishes.
"Nathan, let me do it. Sit down and eat." said Tiffany as she stood up. She cooked extra portions already, but it wasn’t enough and she felt bad about it.
"Let me do it, Tiffany. I'm already full. You all depleted your Mana today, so you need to eat more. Keep eating. I will keep the food coming," Nathan answered with enthusiasm as he started pan frying more fish while cooking more spaghetti.
After dinner, Adrian asked Nathan, "Nathan, how did you become so strong?"
"I need strength to protect my family so I train everyday. I am going to train tonight too." Nathan smiled at Adrian.
"Can you really become that strong through regular training alone?" Adrian wondered, as adults often oversimplified their answers.
"Yes, many people slack off from time to time; and most stop training after school. However, if you persevere and continue training, you will eventually become one of the strongest." Nathan replied. "Adrian, how old are you?"
"Twelve." Adrian answered.
"When I was young, I asked the same question too. And my master told me that getting strong will take decades of training and it is not something that you can achieve in your teenage or early adult years. In fact, I am still young and not as strong as you think."
By around 10pm, everyone had drifted off into a deep slumber, having depleted most of their Mana during the day. Nathan planned to watch the entire night by himself. "Enhanced Mana Sense." Nathan sat on the roof of the stone house and cast a spell to detect any Mana in the area.
He recalled Adrian’s earlier question and pondered upon it again.
"Why do I become strong?" Nathan wondered as he gazed at the sky and sighed. "Clearly, I am not strong enough."
He started recalling his past as he sat on the roof.