In his situation, Glenn had two choices: either somehow bring Redan back from the realm of the dead, or, risk death by calling for help with the Black Heirs. Evidently, he only had one true option. His hand shot out instinctively, connecting with Redan’s cheek in a masterfully executed slap. The old man’s head snapped to the side, kicked the hell out of his half-trance, half-dead state. Redan blinked, dazed as he rubbed the spot where Glenn just struck him. The young man had slapped him so hard he had knocked the elder from his seat!

'Wow, did you just slap the face of the warmage grandpa?' exclaimed Diamanes, unable to believe what he just witnessed.

"No, I didn't," Glenn said aloud, his relief palpable. The old man wasn't dead. Phew. That was one crisis averted.

Redan, still disoriented, looked around in confusion. "What... You didn’t what?"

Glenn's brain raced as he quickly improvised, attempting to hide the fact that he had just slapped the elder's face. It seemed the old man wasn't aware of what just happened. "Oh, I was just wondering why we didn't continue. Cough," he awkwardly cleared his throat, averting his eyes away from Redan.

The old man rubbed his sore jaw, his right cheek red with the trace of Glenn’s hand. He pushed himself from the ground with his other hand, shaking his head in puzzlement, pondering how he managed to hurt himself. He sat back on the trunk he had fallen from silently, looking at the young man in front of him with a weird gaze.

“Lad, I tell ya somethin’—I think me heart near stopped when I saw what was inside yer Mana Heart...”

Glenn almost scoffed, ‘No shit Sherlock! Is he speaking metaphorically, or does he actually know he was technically dead for a second there?'

"What I glimpsed in there shouldn't exist. You're not meant to be.." A troubled expression settled on Redan's face as he locked eyes with Glenn, "Ya...Who are ya?" The old man’s question hung in the air, his voice tinged with uncertainty and apprehension.

Glenn hesitated for a moment, considering whether to reveal his true identity to the old man. Eventually, he decided against it, not due to a lack of trust but because he doubted Redan would believe him. Who would? Hey, I'm actually from another world, have an evil entity in my left hand, and probably fell from the Moon Rift which makes me a Fallen One.

Yeah, no, he'd rather keep that to himself. He wasn’t nearly strong enough to handle the potential consequences of revealing that. Maybe…maybe later, once he reached the old man’s level.

Glenn shrugged a slight smile appearing on his lips, "I'm Glenn. And I'm pretty sure I'm human. If that ever was in question."

Redan squinted at him, clearly dissatisfied. “Hmph. And yer parents? Ya of some fancy royal blood, perhaps?”

Glenn scoffed, his eyelids twitching, but he eventually shook his head. He dismissed the unpleasant memories that surged up and wondered, ‘Where did that even come from? That’s a really weird question.’

He shook his head, surprised that Redan could even think of such an idea. Royal blood? That seemed particularly strange to ask. Does Redan know something about the Royal family? That would make him much, much more important than he expected…

"Then... Never mind. The Mana Heart is the core of ya're magic. It stores your mana and serves as the source of your spells, and the higher level your Mana Heart is, the stronger you, yourself, are," Redan explained, his demeanor shifting to that of an instructor.

"The shape and color of your Mana Heart define your magical affinities. I, for instance, have a Mana Heart shaped like a spear made of White Ice." He held out his hand, the image of a white, spear made entirely of ice appearing above his palm like an extremely realistic hologram. The weapon seemed to have been naturally formed like this and felt almost as if it was a coincidence that it took the shape of a spear, and four ice rings were hovering around it.

"Due to some unusual circumstances, I can wield both Magic and Aura, a trait shared with the Black Heirs. But that's not feasible for ordinary people." A crimson hue appeared, enveloping his body in a much more menacing way than how Sahro did it. It seemed like the old man was way more skilled than the young Black Heir. But then, Diamanes already said that Redan was a high-level Magi and Aura user, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

What was really startling Glenn was how…real this conversation was. Reading about magical systems in novels back on Earth was one thing, hearing an explanation from an actual practitioner was another. It was simply surreal. Not that he disliked that, on the contrary.

“I suppose there’s a difference between Aura and Mana, then?” He asked as he tried to make himself comfortable sitting in the dirt.

Redan took a sip from a water skin and rubbed the end of his nose, “Well, Aura is destructive energy, while Mana is creative. Of course, that’s an oversimplification, but it should suffice for now.” He leaned forward and began drawing in the dirt, gesturing at Glenn to come take a look.

“A Mage used Mana Circles to gather and store Mana in their Mana Hearts. The more Circles a mage has, the stronger he is. Logical, right?” Redan chuckled while pointing at something vaguely in the shape of a human, before adding a circle on the drawing’s heart.

“But makin’ a new Circle? Well, that’s tricky business. Takes understandin’, skill, and most of all, luck. For some, they just gather' enough mana and rank up, but others, well… like me, I had to stare death in the face more than once to break through.” He chuckled, but there was a somber edge to it.

Glenn nodded slowly, “I’ll have to explore that by myself, then. There’s no sure way of doing this?”

Redan shook his head with a smirk, “There probably are, for nobles’ bastards, but for us, we do it the hard way.” His expression darkened and he pointed back at the drawing with his stick, “But, keep in mind that there is always a risk of dying. If you fail to converge a new Circle…” Redan smashed the twig in the center of the drawing. Glenn gulped.

"But there's no reason for this to happen, so don't worry kiddo. Of course, it goes without saying, but more Mana Circles means more Mana capacity and more powerful spells." He then continued, as if what he just said wasn't terrifying.

“Magic uses Mana as fuel. Ya weave spells by envisioning what ya want and by manipulating Mana accordingly. Of course, depending on your attributes, this might change. I have a tough time using Fire magic, for example. I can do it, but it needs me to use magic words, and that sucks…” Redan trailed off. He shook his head and gestured towards Sahro, who was observing them from a distance, dumbfounded. Glenn suddenly realized that the fake Black Heir had probably seen him slap the hell out of Redan.

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That might be a problem.

…

Oh well.

Redan picked up another stick, drawing yet another humanoid figure, but this time he added arrows inside the body that circulated in every limb by following specific pathways.

"Aura, on the other hand, is fueled by one's life force. At a certain level with Mana, ya have a reserve of it in your Mana Heart, making it so that it doesn't strain you when you use spells. Of course, at the beginning, it does, as all things do when you start learning them. But that's the difference with Aura."

"It also gets measured differently. Instead of being stored in a central organ like the Mana Heart, Aura will be stored in your whole body, transforming it into an Aura Core. Much tougher than a Mana Heart, but a death sentence if it breaks. When your understanding of Aura or its capacity becomes too grand for one's body, well it gets upgraded. I think ya can guess what happens if ya fail to go up a rank."

Glenn gulped. The phrase "Everything had a price" seemed very fitting in this situation. If he wanted great powers, he better needed to get ready to pay a great price. Redan grinned toward Sahro who was still staring at them curiously.

"Ya see, Aura, on the other hand, draws from your life force... Aura requires constant energy but also strengthens your body over time. Black Heirs like Sahro possess bear-like strength in a human form. And that strength can grow massively. I, or Giselle, for example, can crush steel with our bare hands if we wanted."

Glenn also looked at Sahro, having a hard time believing the old man's words. He thought that this guy was just a random dumbass, but he was someone who was strong enough to kill him if he wanted. Well, Glenn still had his abnormal body to rely on, but he doubted that would be enough against Aura.

…He really needed to stop making enemies accidentally, didn’t he?

Redan snorted and threw his twig into the campfire, “This division between Mana and Aura tends to appear quite clearly on the battlefield. Aura users on the frontline, and mages in the backline. Well, I’m not that kind of mage, though, and you won’t be either. Dumb mages never train their bodies and always die from a random knight’s sword swing. And your body also gets reinforced by Mana eventually, just not at the level Aura does it.”

Redan toyed with his water skin and poured a bit of water into the air. This water transformed into ice, which he fashioned into a makeshift compress for his jaw.

"I'm an Aura user too, how did I manage to hurt me self?" He muttered, not understanding how this simple fall could hurt him like that. Glenn cleared his throat, pulling Redan’s attention back to a subject he preferred. No need for the old man to realize he had been slapped by his newfound apprentice, after all.

"So what's wrong with my Mana Heart?" He asked, a little worried.

Redan studied Glenn before answering, ice compress pressed to his jaw. "Ya lack affinities. Or rather, ya don't have a common specialization."

Glenn's face lit up hesitantly. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Redan shrugged, uncertain. "It might have been if your Mana Heart had taken a shape. Unique doesn’t mean good."

"It hasn't?" Glenn recalled the rainbow-hued gas sphere from his Meditation with Redan.

"No, it's formless, well, not in a form that I know of or can recognize," he said, a perplexed gesture accompanying his words.

"Your First Circle settled smoothly, but your Mana Heart remained shapeless. The shape should determine your preferred spells and the color of the element. But yours is of every dam' color, formless, to top it off! And yet, it doesn’t feel like ya can use every dam’ element!"

He grumbled, rubbing his forehead. The elder realized his straw hat had flown away when he fell, so he quickly went to fetch it. He sighed deeply, putting his straw hat back on his head after picking it up. “Just my rotten luck, fallin' in with the only one who don’t fit the rules...”

Glenn moistened his lips, grimacing. Was he supposed to be disappointed, excited, worried? Wasn’t being irregular a sign of great potential? He had no idea.

‘I agree with the irregular part being great,’ Diamanes chimed in, to no surprise to Glenn. Of course, as the weirdest, most uncommon thing he had encountered until now, the evil hand clearly should be something special.

Then, with a wicked grin, Redan clapped his hands. “Enough o’ that. Scrap the standard trainin’—I’ll teach ya the way I learned.”

“Okay, I can live with that,” Glenn smiled. Receiving the same education as Redan meant he could probably become as strong as the old man, right? Which meant a hell lot stronger than he was currently, anyway. The old man clicked his tongue and muttered in a worried tone, “...Ya’ll just have to work on findin’ your Specialty, but that’s a problem for later…”

Redan positioned himself a dozen meters away and conjured an ice ball above his palm. The sunlight was making the spell gleam like a diamond. The ice ball hovered away from the old man and stood above the ground, waiting silently.

"Recall the feeling when I led ya into Meditation? Try to recreate it, and when ya do, envision projecting something at this ice ball."

The ice ball hovered at Glenn's eye level. "A projectile?"

“Yeah, lad, whatever tickles yer fancy. A rock, an arrow, a sword, I don’t really care,” The old man took a sip of his water while watching Glenn.

“...Kay…” Glenn muttered before closing his eyes. He sought the Mana’s presence once more, searching for that particular feeling. He attempted to reconnect with it, but the only thing that did connect was Redan’s finger flick on his forehead. The young man yelped and took a step back as he rubbed his forehead. “What was that for?!?”

Redan chuckled. "Think an enemy would wait while ya close your eyes to cast?"

'He's got a point,' Diamanes added.

Glenn sighed and tried his best to feel Mana once again, his eyes wide open this time. He opened his right hand, palm held out in front of him. He tried to envision a projectile, his mind unable to think of something else but the Smith & Wesson revolver. Finally, after a minute of full focus, a ball of dark blue Mana started shaping itself above his palm.

The intense concentration made him aware of a lot more things than before. The pulse of his heartbeat, the drop of sweat that was falling down his back, the fluttering of his clothes in the wind. His senses felt exacerbated, and that's when he realized. For the first time, he was doing something magical, the thing with the water Share back at the inn appearing like a mere parlor trick in comparison.

Of course, Diamanes didn't count. The entity was more like an evil, demonical contract instead of the pure, innocent magic fueled by Mana.

‘Fuck you, man.’

Glenn ignored him and concentrated, 'Something to pierce this ball... A bullet... That would be perfect...'

The image imprinted in his mind, Glenn began moving the Mana in his body, much like how Redan did it earlier. He felt the Mana shape under his will, taking on a simple, piercing form, small and yet powerful. He suddenly flicked his finger and the bullet flew out, piercing through the air with a whistling sound similar to a pistol shot.

The ball of ice tinged as it emitted a crystalline ringing sound. An impact had appeared on the ice ball, ruining its previously perfect geometry. Redan clapped slowly, whistling exaggeratedly.

“Well done, kid. Ya won’t be a spellblade by tomorrow, but ya do seem like ya have some talent. Was that some kind of invisible arrow? It was shaped weirdly.”

Glenn looked at him, a hand covering half his face. This was the moment he waited for all his life, a fantasy his youngest self had always wanted to fulfill.

"I call it...the Bullet of Death..."

An awkward silence welcomed his declaration until Sahro’s distant snort disrupted it.

'I don't even need to say anything. Big L, Glenn,' mocked Diamanes.

'Damnit, just leave me to have my fun!' The young man despaired, his excitement ruined by how embarrassed he felt. Why did he say that? Redan looked at him with disappointment and shook his head.

“...I have my work cut out for me, don’t I…?” He sighed and restored the ice ball, “That’s great and all, but now you have to do this same thing in a second.”

Glenn froze. What about celebrating the creation of his first spell? Wasn’t there some kind of…ceremonial thing, one where he was appointed as an official mage?

"Until then, ya don't eat, ya don't go nowhere, and ya don't sleep,” Redan ordered with a wicked grin. Glenn gulped.

What?