“So that’s it?”, asked Roberion to the old couple.

“Shining Crown, you need to direct the spell to hit something, remember all spells have to consume something to exist, the mana you used will be consumed soon.”

As Fujin said that, the Fireball exploded as if corroborating to the statement. Before the explosion could hurt Roberion, a yellow dome showed up protecting from the blast.

“Sweet Fujin, you need to let the kids get hurt, otherwise they will never learn.” said Rajin disapprovingly.

What surprised Roberion was that the old couple didn’t see hurt by the blast, contrary to him, they weren’t protected by the dome. This old couple seemed stronger than they looked, or they had some kind of secret.

“If we did things like you wanted dear, we wouldn’t have any more kids to teach.”, after admnoshing Raijin she looked at Roberion, “Shining Crown do it again. This time without the spell blueprint.”, Fujin said, prompting Roberion.

The process was repeated many times until Roberion didn’t have any more mana to give. Creating the fireball without the help of the blueprint was a nightmare. Most of the time he would lose all the mana, failing the process altogether.

His successful attempts too were met with critical failure. In his best trial, he completed the spell, but the size of the fireball was small. He tried to guide this smaller fireball, but the fireball went in the wrong direction, hitting near the floor around him.

Again he was saved by Fujin. Learning spells without the help of the light green fiznaults would probably be his end.

In his penultimate attempt, he finally replicated the fireball like the spell blueprint did. Guiding it, the fireball didn’t go in the direction he wished, going sideways.

The fireball almost hit Shining Crown the roothorn, but the rhino was faster, evading the fireball, the fire spell, without obstacle, hit the wall. For a second he thought the roothorn would leave the place, but he came back to his previous position. Fujin lifted her staff before the fireball hit the roothorn. As if in an attempt to summon a dome, she backed down seeing the roothorn safe and looked at Roberion.

“Shining Crown, do it one more time”

Roberion tried to, but as he finished the spell, he got sick. He felt drained, not having the concentration to maintain the spell. The spell broke.

“Kid that is what we call having the mana depleted. Everyone has a limit that as we improve both power and technique, it grows. If I had to guess, you can cast six fireballs like your previous attempt with all the mana you carry, that’s already discounting the mana used by the gloves. Without counting the gloves’ spenses, it would probably be nine.”

“After having your mana depleted, you can replenish faster by resting our using other means, some use potions, special foods or even drugs.”

“Shining Crown don’t do drugs. They are bad for your health. Just because it’s a pill, it doesn’t mean it’s a medicine!” Fujin said urgently.

“I agree. Better to eat foods or drinks that improve your regeneration rate or do a small recover instantly. Even potions can become addictive. I bet that Tara had given you some in the supplies, but only use it in emergencies”, Raijin said seriously.

“Alright kid, let’s train how to use that horrendous club of yours first”, as he said that six water beings were created from nothing, they looked like fizznaults.

Not waiting an instant, Roberion activated his dice, but it didn’t summon who we wanted.

Percival was the weapon summoned. Even he had some changes. Now he truly was well equipped. The rapier still had the sheen of the wildcat’s claw, but now it was mostly made of metal. Finally, it had a little scabbard.

His armor was metallic, looking similar to the generic ones used in medieval times long past. His shield was the same, looking more robust, but still small. Now he had additional greaves and boots custom made for his capybara legs. They seemed somewhat flimsy, but any protection was better than nothing.

“Oho so this is the curious creature the kids were talking about!”, saying that Fujin gets near the creature and pokes his belly. The poke was more dangerous than Roberion’s thought, leaving a dent in the armor.

“Be careful dear, don’t hurt this creature.”, Raijin looks at the capybara. “They said that you can talk. Is that true?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yeee-es, hello fellow fiznaults, my gracious name is Percival. My duty as a knight is to protect my esteemed patron Roberion.”

“What a cute creature. Would you like a fruit?”, saying that Raijin takes out a blue fruit.

Percival looks at Roberion, which just nods. Their conversation took 30 minutes to finish, which, by what Roberion felt, didn’t replenish much of his mana, having only enough to cast one fireball.

Their talk was about various random subjects, about where Percival comes from, what he likes to eat, what weapons he uses, most of them Percival failed to answer. They even talked about Roberion’s future training, which Roberion understood almost nothing, but the knight seemed enthusiastic.

After saying goodbye to Percival, he tried two more times before being able to summon the grotesque club. The two failed attempts gave a weird feeling as Percival showed up, understood the situation, and gave a small salute, prompting Roberion to dismiss him.

With the large club in hand, his training began. The water dummies moved slower than Roberion, but that didn’t make it any easier hitting them.

The club was hard to handle. Swinging it made Roberion follow the movement, losing balance most of the time. With the guidance of Fujin and Raijin, he stopped trying to control it, and just flowing with it. As they said, only when he became strong enough he would have total control of the weapons flow and movement.

Even with their instruction, the results weren’t that impressive, just flowing with it without any thought where he’ll be, resulted in him bumping into the water dummies, sometimes even falling to the floor. For Raijin, falling to the floor was a synonym for wanting a saltwater ball to the face. He lost the counting of the punishment a while ago.

Five hours later, the couple thought it was good enough for now. Saying that they would take a quick nap. Raijin said that even the most energetic of the previous kids he trained would be sleeping on the floor after training that many hours without rest.

Enjoying the pause, Roberion took a look at the “sky”; That was when the weirdness of living in the subterrene hit Roberion. Looking up, he noticed that he didn’t see any change at the top of the enormous underground location. It must be weird and difficult to feel the time here. He didn’t even notice he trained so much. If he was being honest, he was trying to take his mind off on how short he was on time for his quest.

They returned a short while later. During that time, Roberion trained what he learned in using the Jubilant Choir.

Now the training was again the use of spells. It was time to dismiss the grotesque club.

Finally, his second and third attempts were met with success. But hitting the moving dummies in the next step of the training was harder than he thought.

Only by the last attempt, one of the dummies was hit. Roberion tried to move with the dummy, at the same time focusing on the spell.

Controlling the spell and moving around was disorienting. It was like trying to move to two places at the same time. One with his mind, the other with his body.

Roberion approached the dummy, feeling that was the best way to hit the water fiznault, trading range for accuracy. Instead of focusing on the being head, he guided the flame fireball to hit the legs of the creature. Even if it jumped, part of its body would get hit by the explosion.

His strategy was a success the creature was hit head on its thigh. The explosion got the lower part of the creature, only stopping near the thorax. Transforming part of the water fiznault body in vapor.

Unfortunately, part of the flames hit him. The armor protected most of the grazing damage, but he felt some or his body was burned. Fujin, it seems, didn’t see that it was dangerous enough to warrant a dome.

“Alright kiddo, that’s it for the training. Time to see the Shade.”

“You did a great job Shining Crow.”

“I can’t say how grateful I’m for you two, Instructor Raijin and Instructor Fujin.”

“That is what I like to hear, a kid that knows how much work and time we waste on this! We need a—”

Before Raijin could speak more, he receives a light shove from Fujin. Roberion continues the conversation.

“I’m really grateful. It was a pleasure to meet you too. If we don’t see each again, I wish you to know that you two made a great difference in my short life. I think that with I learned today, I can have a chance of finishing this quest, and maybe even started my path to become powerful.”

That heartfelt speech received a saltwater ball to the face as retribution.

“What a dumb kid. You just learned to crawl and already want to ride a roothorn upside down. There is much for you to know, talking about that, let me see…. Yes, there it is”, saying that Raijin takes out a bunch of books inside a torn bag.

“I won these things in a mahjong match. That dumb Fanatic lost all his money. What a loser. He only had these old manuals to give.”

“I read it, trying to train my imperial, most of the contents are good enough. Among them you will learn more about material transmutation. Harvesting is only a twisted version of it.”, says Raijin, becoming serious.

“Shining crown, I warn you, learn transmutation but don’t do it, at least for a year. Harvesting is like overeating, like an overdose. You will improve your body, but your vitality will lessen exponentially. You need to transmute slowly, so these materials will truly become part of you”, said Fujin seriously.

“I don’t know how, but you are healthy, but if a Null did the same as you, they would probably only have ten years left to live. If, by a miracle, they reached the end of the Touched incarnation, they only would have a week to pass the verge state, before their body failed.”

Raijin speaks, agreeing with Fujin, “That’s not the end kid. Even if he became blessed, from the expected 1000 years of life he would gain, he will only win barely 50 years. And his body would be a mess. It would be 50 years of pain. That’s if he doesn’t die sooner.”

“ I have a great idea! Before meeting Shade, let’s make a visit to our granddaughter.”

“Incredible idea, my sweet Fujin. Nothing beats a learning excursion. Seeing our daughter play with the undead will blow this kid’s mind.”, as he says that he makes a fast clicking with his mouth, that Fujin joins later. They are enjoying themselves.

Something is not right, was all Roberion could think of this whole affair.