The gang was ready to train hard, and they were quite excited too. Even if their goal seemed nearly impossible, that only made them so much more fired up, eager to defy the odds.

James and Helios were literally butting heads and giving each other high fives, trying to pump each other up before the training started.

“We’re going to crush those puny, dark idiots, brother!” Helios shouted.

“We’re going to burn them to a crisp, and then slice them in half!” James shouted back, the mana flowing through his veins giving him the ability to rival even Helios in energy and loudness.

As Cadmus promised, three wizards arrived early in the morning to assist them in their training. It was nice for the gang to finally train with some pointers. All three of them preferred winging it and doing things their own way, but this time around there was too much at stake. They were also still quite burned out from all the battles, a little guidance would make their lives a lot easier.

What Cadmus failed to mention was that the wizards were dwarves.

“Wow, they’re dwarves! We’re in luck!” Lunaris smiled.

“Hello all! It’s nice to meet you!” A bespectacled dwarf stepped forward and shook their hands. The other two seemed to be a bit shy and nervous, and they could only bow their heads as they were staring at the gang.

As the dwarf was shaking their hands, his face was in shock. First he shook Lunaris’s hand, and that was enough to make him stare at her eyes as he felt the soothing winds of her healing powers flowing through his hand.

Then he shook Helios’s hand, and his jaw dropped as he felt the veritable inferno that were his powers, raging throughout his body.

But when he shook James’s hand, his knees wobbled and he was about to fall to the ground. The other two dwarves had to rush to support him. But as they got closer to James, their jaws dropped as well.

James was also shocked, but for a different reason. These three dwarves were nothing like the ones he had seen in movies and novels!

They didn’t have a beard, and they didn’t seem like drunken louts.

Looking at their mannerisms and expressions, they just seemed like normal and kind people, if a bit shy and reserved.

While the dwarves were still in quite a shock, James whispered to Lunaris. “What are dwarves?”

“Well, their race possesses many useful qualities. They don’t need to sleep, so that makes them excellent wizards and specialists. While we’re off in dreamworld, they’re studying and training. That makes us quite lucky. Cadmus probably had to pull quite a few strings to get dwarves to train us.”

The three equipped the bracelets Cadmus had given them, so they’d have statistics monitored at all times … or at least they were supposed to. It accurately showed their heartbeat, HP, mana, mana regeneration rate, and many others. But while Helios and Lunaris had their values gauged accurately, some of James’s were unable to be measured.

[Anomaly detected. You have: ???? mana. Your mana regeneration rate is: ????]

“Impossible! These bracelets were procured by the leading archmage himself! Their accuracy is unparalleled!” The dwarf who shook their hands, Eruditus, exclaimed.

“M-m-maybe this one is broken! Switch it with one of the others!” Proposed Ruppus, a dwarf who exuded an aura of kindness, but who also seemed quite flustered.

James switched bracelets with Helios, but the results were the same.

Eruditus and Ruppus were sent into a frenzy. The gang couldn’t tell if they were happy or angry. They seemed to be cursing the bracelets and praising James all in the same breath. One second they were smiling, and the next they were jumping around furiously.

The third dwarf, Bacchus, was silent. Even though his eyes could barely be seen beneath his hood, he was staring at James, not even blinking. His eyes seemed to glow brighter as the runes on his face activated while inspecting James from afar.

After the other two dwarves were done jumping around, they looked at Bacchus.

“You’re right my friend, we need to go to the source!” Eruditus shouted.

The three dwarves all approached James and stared at him intently, probing him all over.

“D-d-do some magic!” Ruppus said.

“Are you sure all three of you should be focusing on me? Shouldn’t you be observing Helios and Lunaris too? We all need to get more powerful.” James asked, nervously.

Helios and Lunaris broke into laughter as they realized where this was going.

“No, no. We got to get to the bottom of this! We need to know the extent of your powers before we start!” Lunaris said while giggling.

“That’s right, brother! How can we train if we don’t know the powers we possess?” Helios roared.

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Helios and Lunaris joined the dwarves in watching him intently. Now five pairs of eyes were fixed on James.

“Argh, fine. I really think you’re all overreacting though. So my mana can’t be measured. Big deal.”

“It is a big deal!” Eruditus shouted. “I’ve seen people who can’t get measured by the system, but I’ve never seen people not measured by the bracelets or other such devices. That’s crazy! It’s new territory. It’s so exciting! And a bit frustrating too, since we’re supposed to train you as soon as possible.”

James could see that there was no point in arguing with them, so he resigned himself to his fate.

“What should I do, exactly?” He asked.

“Try to use up all your mana.” Bacchus, the silent dwarf, finally spoke up.

“Well said, brother Bacchus. We can sense and approximate the amount of mana that is used, and then when he’s all dried up, we’ll estimate the total!” Eruditus exclaimed, while Ruppus nodded.

Luckily, Helios’s dojo had a dummy which was pretty much indestructible, perfect for their tests.

Seeing as he had to consume all his mana, James decided to go with a spell that could use it up quickly.

He went with the Prongs, as he could just pump a whole lot of mana through them.

James conjured a Prong and sent mana through it. Surprisingly though, he didn’t feel his mana levels going down.

“That’s odd. I can clearly see the Prongs delivering the mana into the dummy, and yet I feel like barely any mana is being used up at all.”

The three dwarves gasped. Even the quiet one looked quite surprised. Even Lunaris and Helios were slightly surprised, since they knew what the Prongs were capable of.

“What a curious spell too, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Ruppus said.

“I know, it’s weird. And sense the amount of mana going through it, that’s enough to drain the average mage’s reserves in seconds! Are you certain you’re not feeling the expenditure?” Eruditus asked.

“Yep, as far as I can tell, I’m still at full mana.”

The two dwarves gasped, while Bacchus was silent again, staring at the Prongs.

“Can you increase the amount of mana going through this ‘Prong’?” Bacchus asked.

“Sure thing.”

James doubled the amount of mana going through the Prong, but he still couldn’t feel any expenditure. So he decided to double it again.

But then the Prong blew up.

“Well, did you feel any expenditure then? Did you?” Ruppus asked excitedly.

“Nope.” James shook his head.

The three dwarves gasped yet again.

Lunaris and Helios were smiling from ear to ear. They were so proud of their boy, they had all come so far together. In less than a year, James became a phenomenon that shocked even the mages of Hedonia. And that’s without even relying on his half-demon powers.

Even though they didn’t understand much about what happened to James’s mana after he consumed the Bloodwell, they knew James well enough to guess that the issue would take quite a while to resolve. So they grabbed some food and some chairs, and got ready to watch the proceedings while relaxing.

Even though they were supposed to start training urgently, they still felt the need to rest, and here they had a perfect opportunity to just kick back and watch. They knew better than anyone that testing James might take a while.

“Do you have a costlier spell! Use another spell!” Ruppus said, seemingly unable to control his excitement.

Instead of using another spell, James conjured another Prong.

“He can use more than one of them!” Eruditus roared, little imps popping in and out of existence around him as he watched with his breath drawn.

“Even though so much power is flowing through just one!” Ruppus added, antlers covered in vines growing from his head from the excitement.

Bacchus merely watched, calculating intensely, the runes across his face flashing uncontrollably.

But James didn’t stop at two. With a few waves of his hands, James had summoned twenty Prongs.

Eruditus was almost about to faint from the sight, but Ruppus caught him.

“Amazing!” Bacchus uttered under his breath.

James began pumping as much mana into the Prongs as he could. Twenty Prongs working at full capacity, and he barely felt drained at all.

“You still don’t feel any mana expenditure?!” Bacchus asked.

“No, no. I do feel mana being drained. But it’s like … even though my mana pool is being drained somewhat, it’s being replenished very quickly.”

“My god, his mana regeneration rate must be through the roof!” Eruditus replied.

“It feels weird though. I know what mana regeneration feels like, but this is different. If I had to describe it, it’s as if before, mana was regenerating like a steady drip being dropped into my pool. But now, it’s more like a wave.”

The dwarves fell silent. No one knew what to say.

A few minutes later, Bacchus spoke up. His face lit up, as if he had an epiphany. “This wave, can you describe it some more?”

James had been pouring mana through the twenty Prongs all this time, but he wasn’t drained at all. He even increased the number to forty, but he still wasn’t feeling the drain much. He could effortlessly chat and use the Prongs at the same time.

“You know, now that I’ve been using the Prongs for a while, there is a weird feeling about it. It’s like the wave isn’t coming in from the outside, if that makes any sense. It’s like a wave that’s from within, a sort of continuum from an endless ocean.”

Bacchus nodded. “I knew it!” His runes were glowing at full intensity as he stared gleefully.

“You know what it is, brother Bacchus?” Eruditus asked, dozens of imps dancing around him.

“Yes. And no. Not really.” Bacchus answered. “I understand the concept, I have part of the explanation. But there’s still a lot more to be discovered.”

“Well, w-what is it?” Ruppus asked, the vines from his antlers having covered his whole body.

All eyes were on Bacchus now. Even James was curious, he had no idea what happened to his powers. Even with sixty Prongs on the dummy, his mana felt like it was at full capacity.

“The way he describes the waves makes me think that he is producing the mana internally.” Bacchus stated.

“Aha!” Everybody except James exclaimed. He was the only one that didn’t know what the big deal was.

“As you all know, most of our mana comes from our surroundings.” Bacchus continued. “The higher our level and attributes, the more mana we can absorb, and the faster we do it. But in some cases, a mage can also learn to produce it internally, in addition to absorbing it from his surroundings.”

Everybody was quiet again as the implications dawned on them. The Hedonian dwarves were in awe, looking at James with renewed eyes. Helios and Lunaris were still smiling while snacking on some cookies. Their pride and joy was as endless as James’s mana supply.

“It’s not unheard of.” Bacchus added. “It’s just very rare. The thing is, such a shift would transform your body. Hell, even your mind and soul wouldn’t be untouched. The pain of the transformation would be indescribable. No human could go through such a thing. You’d die from the pain itself, your heart and mind would give up long before your body would be able to go through with the transformation!”

Helios and Lunaris were still smiling, but they involuntarily shook their heads a bit.

The crazy bastard did it again. Through his crazy, reckless ways, he had gained something priceless. As happy as they were for him, a part of them feared that such great success would mean he’d recklessly jump into danger again in the future. But that worry was overshadowed by the pride and happiness they felt.