/ Great plains of Faeilan/

" Alke come here, it is time i teach you how to properly wield mana."

After Alke finishes asking questions to his mom, Luka called out to him. Apparently, it is time for his mana lessons.

" Go son, i bid you goodluck. I'm sure you'll be a renowned warrior on the future."

Giving some encouragement to her son, Maja licked her son and gently pushed him to stand up. It is impossible for a week old cub to learn mana but Alke proved it's possible.

Sprinting on the plains, Alke arrived in front of his father who asked whether his body is healthy and if there's no repercussions of using mana for him who's only a week old.

" Alke, are there any pains or peculiarities in your body? How about your senses? It didn't affect your ability to wield mana?"

" I'm as strong as a healthy buffalo father. My senses remain the same and nothing out of the ordinary is happening inside my body, it is all stable regarding my ability to harness mana."

Luka nodded and continued his lecture about the paths with their corresponding strengths and weaknesses.

" Then let's start. Mana cores practitioners and mages all rely on mana, but it differs on how they use it. Mana practitioners or core users as we call it use mana as a sort of fire where they temper their mind and body to achieve a physique that is strong enough to kill any one."

" This path have two choices where they strengthen the mind or the muscle/body. The specific way of doing this is by forcefully soaking their body and organs with mana, the more mana their body can hold, the more their body strengthens. After their body acclimates to mana, it is easy for them to hold mana inside them making their body resistant to hostile manas and at the same time powerful enough to kill anyone."

" Mages in the other hand only holds mana inside their body as a source of fuel for their spells. They doesn't allow the mana to permeate their body but only circulate the mana they store in their body without it affecting their muscles and organs."

" Common lions and humans are instinctively afraid of them because of the mana they radiate, they are like a walking storm. But as i said, everything has downsides."

Luka let his mana out and the surrounding suddenly became heavy, Alke breathes hard and instinctively curls as he felt the mana oppress his little body.

" Now son, i am a great warrior. I have been refining my mana for twenty years and i am twenty five years old. It took this long for me to reach the 5th stage of muscle strengthening."

Stages refer to the proficiency of mages and core users with how they wield mana, their mana capacity and lastly, the power their mana hold. Mana differ in quality and quantity, most mages tend to have large mana capacity but lackluster mana quality, this stems to them not caring about their power because they're already powerful enough so they focus on how many spells they can cast.

Core users differ on their outlook on mana, they believe that the ideal warrior is those who have the mana capable of slicing a mountain. They sharpen their mana to increase it's power even if their mana capacity is not great, it made them really lethal in close combats but lacks the mana to outlast a mage.

" I sharpen my mana everyday by increasing it's density inside my core, I do this by repeatedly compressing my mana everyday and letting it solidify for a more dense mana quality."

Absorbing the mana, Luka explained how he train and how other mages expand their mana capacity.

" But father, you're mana capacity is quite large. Look at the birds from a kilometer away fleeing from your mana."

Luka just laughed and explain how his mana capacity is this large even though he explained that warrior tend to have low mana capacity.

" I am considered a genius my son, i have already achieved my desired mana quality sixteen years ago and now I focus on my mana capacity. I am on the verge of advancing in the 6th stage of muscle strengthening."

" That's why your father is a great warrior, I am one of the few geniuses who can posses this power."

Alke is surprised by how blatant his father called himself as a 'genius'. He guessed that he must be really proud of his achievements specially achieving this early in his life.

Great lions have a life span of sixty to seventy years and Luka who's only twenty five attained the great warrior title at the age of 19, calling him a genius is a given for everyone who knows him.

" Now, your mother is a shaman of 3rd stage and possesses the potential to achieve the 5th stage of shamanism by the age of thirty. Maja is only twenty-two years old and is destined to be a renowned great shaman if she's given enough time."

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Alke is amazed to know that his parents are geniuses, his senses might be the outcome of two geniuses having an offspring. He can't tell them his reincarnation situation so he can't really pinpoint the cause of his extraordinary senses. Either way, he only cares on how he can use this advantages to achieve his desired power in the shortest time.

" I have explained the specifics and you can hear the more profound explanation once you decided on your path."

" I don't know father, everything is viable at this point. I'm confident that I can be a mage due to my senses and I am sure that if I picked the core user path you can teach me well and succeed in being a warrior. But what I want is the power capable of protecting this family from the tribes and prides wanting to harm us."

Luka is surprised to hear his son proclaim his future goal, he might be confused on what path he should pick but he is sure on what he wants to do with his power after achieving it. Luka believes that power is only a tool to achieve his dream and not something he should live for, he is quite glad that his son somewhat believes the same outlook in his journey for power.

" Fret not my son, we can postpone your decision and instead focus on sharpening and expanding your mana. Besides, you still need to learn how to harness mana properly or you might endanger yourself in the future"

" Alright, I want to sharpen my mana father! And if I achieved my ideal mana quality faster I want to expand my mana capacity like you do." Hearing the enthusiasm in his first born, Luka is enjoying teaching his somewhat prodigious son. He might be teaching someone who will be the most powerful individual this plains have ever seen.

" That's the spirit Alke, but we must postpone this and get back to your mother. I will give you the instructions regarding mana after we ate our meal."

The father-son duo sprinted in the plains as Alke remembers his time with his past father. His father back on earth is quite a busy man and only meet them on weekends, but he always remembers their plans and always allocated time for them.

Now that he is a cub, he's still blessed with a great family and he thanked his lucky star for this. He's father back on earth might be sad of his passing, but he still wishes that they are happy and not be burdened by his death.

" Oh your back Alke! Come here and eat. You must be starving from learning mana, you are a growing cub so you must always eat and sleep plenty."

Alke smiled knowing his family here is as good as his family back on earth. They might be different but he's sure he will be happy in this lifetime.

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/ Somewhere in the outskirts/

Jacko met a hooded man accompanied with a lion. He's not quite sure if it's alright to blatantly announce their identity.

" You sure that you want you're identity revealed after you hidden it carefully?" They didn't hide it carefully but he don't want to offend his future employers so he chose to subtly praise them and earn some cookie points.

" That was only a precaution if you chose to reject our offer and it looks like you're interested in our proposal."

The hooded man explained, the lion stayed behind his back and only watched the surroundings. He's baffled why a prideful lion would step back and let a human take lead at the negotiations. He doesn't care much about it but this might give them advantages in future endeavors.

" Then it's time to introduce myself to you. I'm called Urm, a proud member of the Digan tribe. I'm sure sir Jacko is here to hear about our offer."

" Well I can say that you have piqued my interest but I need to know what it is you're willing to offer. The Hena Tribe won't work with someone who don't appreciate our abilities."

" Yes of course, we value your ability to move around the outskirts like it's the back of your house but we also need to know if you're trustworthy enough to be hired by the prestigious tribe of Digan."

It irked Jacko to hear them glorify their warmongering tribe but he composed himself and assured them of their credibility. The Hena tribe can be hired using money and is respected as a powerful tribe, though their credibility is always doubted. A tribe who can be commissioned using money will betray their employers if they are given enough money.

But the Hena tribe vowed to not betray their employers, their past Tribe Chiefs believed that their credibility is more precious than a measly sum of money.

" Have you ever heard of anyone getting betrayed by the Hena tribe? We are powerful enough to kill anyone who dare block our way but I can confidently say that we don't plan on betraying allies."

" Fair enough, we know that your tribe is loyal enough not to betray someone for riches. I also assure you we are planning to compensate you handsomely if ever you accept our offer."

Jacko already planned to accept their requests from the beginning, he's just cautious about their other request and their possible proposal for alliance.

" Yes i can agree about our first deal but the second one is not something i can agree blindly. I need answers as to why would you look for a great warrior with a shaman by his side, they are not someone we should offend specially now that your tribe is currently waging war with an other tribe."

Urm looked beside him and asked for a permission whether he is allowed to say it or not, the lion just nodded stoically.

" Alright then, Luka is a great warrior who's renowned for his might. Back when he was just a warrior, an elder of the Digan tribe saw potential for Luka and offered to treat him favorably if he joins Digan tribe."

" Sadly, he turned down the proposal but now that he's dissatisfied with his past tribe elders, we have the chance to recruit him. What's more is that he also have a mate who holds great potential in shamanism, that's enough reason for us to look for him."

There might be other reasons but Jacko is sure that they don't intend to harm Luka. He can accept this deal and maybe form a connection with a famous great warrior.

" Then i can agree to this proposal, the more intricate details can be handled by my subordinates. I plan to locate the deserters and mobilize my warband after confirming every hideouts."

" When can i expect you to eradicate all of them? Depending on your answer, We might change the deal."

Jacko calculated his options, he can do it all in a week but his warband will be exhausted after the subjugation. He also can't risk encountering Luka with a weakened warband, so he decided to take the safest route.

" I can assure you that we will hunt all of the targets in two weeks or three weeks depending on how the great warrior will respond to us."

" Very well then, i can do with that. Just prioritize the deserters first and after you have the leeway, you can look for Luka. We can't let other tribe find him first and recruit him before our tribe do."

Urm and Jacko shaked hands after they cemented their deal with a binding contract. Binding contract is a magic imbued scroll used by warriors and mages alike whenever they strike a deal with one another.

With this, Jacko accepted his deal with the Digan tribe. How this decision will affect his tribe is up to him and his wits.