“No.” The man said, looking at the three kids before him. “I won't give you a discounted price if you fight.”

Dere and Iso looked at the man completely baffled.

“Why?” Dere asked.

“Because you are just level 20!?” The man screamed the obvious. “We will be travelling through the desert, unless all three of you can reach level 25 in an hour, give up.”

Liz was expecting this result, so she wasn’t exactly surprised. But it was still annoying… I can’t blame him, we almost died on our way here…

Weak

Liz ignored the voice as she observed the rest of the people in the caravan, there were only eight people, but all of them were at least level 30, and one person almost reached level sixty.

“No one has told you that using Identification on someone is rude!?” A woman screamed at her.

Liz’s eyes widened for a moment, this was the first time someone knew she identified them, not even Kancor could.

“If you are so curious about my class and level I’ll tell you, but only if you tell me yours too.” She said.

“Huh?” What do you mean tell me, I’ve already seen it…

“I’m a level 36 mage, and you?” She asked once she was in front of her.

Liz stared at her for a moment, she had orange long wavy hair, and dark brown eyes and her cheeks were filled with freckles. She even activated her mana sense, trying to focus only on her.

Her mana was warm, of the same colour as her hair, and flowed easily through her body. It was free, it was wild, it leaked from every pore in her body and danced in waves around her, only to go back in when it pleased.

Inefficient. Foolish.

For the first time, Liz completely agreed with the voice. But it’s also… Beautiful. She thought as she stared at the dancing mana.

“Mage… level 15…” She finally answered. Her eyebrows formed a slight frown as her typical headache started to build up, so she deactivated her mana sense.

“Hey I might not have an identification skill, but even I can tell you're not a mage.” She said, looking at her dead in the eyes. “You have no mana.”

Liz was confused for a second, but then she understood. She unconsciously controlled her mana and prevented it from leaving her body, it would be natural for any mage to believe she was as untalented as a rock.

When she was about to reply, Dere jumped to her aid. “Hey don’t bully our mage, she has her circumstances…”

The woman just stared at her as she tried to understand the situation.

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“Let's go find another caravan.” Dere said, slightly annoyed.

But as they were about to leave, one man, the highest levelled of the group, stopped them. “Wait please, I would like to apologise on my contractors behalf, would you be willing to join us for two coppers each?”

Everyone turned around to look at him. A tall blond man wearing fine clothes, he had a curved sword sheathed in his belt and Liz managed to see glimpses of metal underneath his long jacket.

Knight, level 58.

“Mr Frol, what are you doing?” The owner of the caravan said, cold sweat falling from his forehead.

The Knight simply whispered something in his ear, and his eyes opened wide as a smile formed in his lips.

“Sorry for my manners, of course I will allow you to travel with us.”

Everyone was stunned by his change of attitude, even Liz found it hard to believe at first. That knight, he must have identification…

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The three of them were sitting on a wagon gliding through the desert, according to the caravan owner, they were supposed to travel for some hours today, and then rest for the night at a rocky formation.

Liz was happy to finally reactivate her mana sense, and now was able to easily monitor a hundred metres around herself. She finally understood why she struggled so much to use it in the Oasis.

Around them, the mana of the desert was quiet, calm, like an undisturbed lake, simply attaching to the world. But once someone got near it, it disturbed it.

Each person created waves around them, and these waves disturbed all the mana around them. Most of them were small and meaningless, but some were rather big, like the ones of that mage she had talked to before. And if many little waves were placed too close together, they could create massive disturbances in the flow of mana.

She let her consciousness sink deeper in her mana sense, slowly losing awareness of her other senses.

The sound of the sand rubbing against the wagon’s hull became numb, her body stopped feeling the harsh heat of the desert, until finally, she was just alone with the mana.

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The world of mana was mostly colourless, the only thing Liz could feel about her surroundings was their shape. It was like staring at a lake full of water, the mana reached everywhere, adapting to the shape of the container.

At first, Liz found it hard to understand this world. It was completely different from how the mana worked back it her’s after all. But after months of training, she finally understood the basics.

She focused her attention in her wagon, ignoring all the mana around them.

Here the mana was tainted red, mainly because of Dere’s influence. Her mana was strong, almost overwhelming, and she didn’t seem to have any kind of training to contain it.

For a rogue to have this much mana… What a waste. Liz thought, with some training, she could have become a fairly decent mage. But she doesn’t have the patience for that…

The only other source of mana in the wagon was Iso. His mana was light green, just like his eyes, and much weaker than Dere’s. It was flowing out of him in slow little waves, just to merge with Dere’s shortly after abandoning his body.

Finally, she focused on herself, the little girl that didn’t emit any mana, almost like a rock.

I wonder…

She tried to pierce her own flesh, to see how the mana moved inside her body. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard either. It was like trying to see through the walls of a castle, you simply couldn't.

But Liz continued staring at her body, slowly trying to see what was happening behind the flesh.

She remained still, her legs crossed and her hands holding each other as they rested on her legs. She ignored the passage of time around her, and didn’t heard Dere asking her to play.

Finally, long after the sky had lost its brightness, she finally saw it.

Her light blue mana was frozen inside of her, forming a beautiful tree-like structure as it spreaded from her heart. It moved just under the surface, forming five main channels, one for each limb.

It was different from how her blood moved, instead of reaching each cell in her body, and soaking it with mana, it simply reached certain organs in her body, or the tip of her fingers.

Notice: Your skill magic sense has levelled up to lvl 5.

Notice: You have received experience for levelling up a skill.

Notice: Your skill magic sense has evolved into Greater magic sense lvl 1.

Notice: You have received experience for evolving a skill.

Notice: You have levelled up to lvl 16.

Notice: Y̶o̵u̸ ̸ h̸̲̅a̶̢̫͒͝ ̴̞̻͐e̵̲͑͋ u̶̪͔͉̰͒̋̏̐ǹ̵̜̙̩͔̓̚ ̷̘̮̼̼́̉̂c̶͖̺͌k̸̛̰̞̝̯̺͌̆̾̀̎ͅè̴͈͈̣̬͎̯̃̊͋͘ ̶̘̳̪͓̝͚̈́ ̶͖̪̠̍̈̊͒̄̈́͌ǹ̷̨̧̢̠̣̬̠̙̋̀̎̈́̏͂͊͠ -̷̨̘͓̯̜̤̳̄.̶̢͈͚̭̙̬̥̰͈̲̈̏-̷̡̮̥̿̍.̷̢͙͍̜̜̹̞̬̪̈̉̐̋̀̕.̵̡̢̭̣͇́̑́.̵̙̥͔̦̖̪̳͈́́̃́͝.̶̙̩͔̩͍̺̻̲̺̥́̈́̒͌̄͋͊̈́̔-̸̛̞͊͗̐͛̆͗͂̕̚-̸̧̛̲̪͔̯̱̝̗́.̵̧̨̖͕͉̝̹͑͑͊̊̊̚͝͠͠.̵̗̲͓̀͗̒

Notice: An unknown entity has blocked the last message.

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Finally, Liz opened her eyes. She had a lot of questions, a lot of different thoughts she had to sort, a great feeling of accomplishment. But all of this paled in comparison to her anger.

“ϱniʜɈon oɈni lυoƨ ɿυoγ ʇo Ɉid γniɈ γɿɘvɘ nɿυɈ oɈ ɘɿυƨ ɘʞɒm ll'I ,nɘʜɈ bnɒ ,υoγ bniʇ ll'I ,γɒb ɘno” She whispered, as her eyes were filled by madness.