Illyan returned to his bed without any problems afterward. He noticed that Nord was already snoring on his bed with saliva dripping from his mouth.

Without a care, he took off his robe and looked for any blood stains or tears. He quite liked the robe, and it would be a waste if it got destroyed so quickly.

Soon, he sighed in relief. There was nothing, and the robe still looked as new.

‘That’s a relief.’

He took out the pouches and dumped their contents on the table.

Only a few clinks resounded as Illyan saw several silver coins and tens of bronze coins.

‘Not great, but still better than nothing.’

With this mindset, he put the coins into his own pouch and laid down on the bed with a sense of accomplishment.

……

The next day, Illyan woke up as if nothing had happened. To him, drinking wouldn’t make a dent in his physique, while the incident afterward was just a warm-up for him.

Instead, he couldn’t help but be in a very good mood at this moment as he had so much information to digest.

The feeling of happiness was short-lived, however, as he noticed a stench in the room. He glanced at his roommate who was still sleeping and frowned.

Nord slept like a log, but his expression was awful. It was obvious that once he woke up, he would have a difficult time.

The stench was wafting off him, making Illyan feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t anything serious like him retching in the room. In that case, Illyan, whose phobia towards vomit was strong, wouldn’t be able to sleep and would wake up immediately after it happened.

It was just a strong smell of sweat and alcohol. ‘What an unbearable combination,’ Illyan thought. It was not like Nord was unhygienic and smelled. It was just that Illyan’s sense of smell was special.

After this, he sniffed his own armpit and breath. The smell of alcohol was gone, but it was true that he was sweaty. He was ultimately just a human being who was fighting to death yesterday. Even if it wasn’t hard, it still made him sweat a little.

He took a cloth from his belongings and went to wipe off his sweat.

Pure water was quite a scarce commodity in the town, so for someone like Illyan who was a poor bloke, there was no way to bathe himself.

That didn’t stop him from grumbling to himself.

‘If I had an easy way to go outside of the town, I could just jump into the river and let the flow wipe my sweat off naturally.’

Unfortunately, if he was going in and outside of the town every day, it would bring too much attention from guards.

At least unless he had some excuse. He already had something in mind, but it would need to wait until his examination.

He quickly found the room meant to clean the bodies and wiped his sweat.

Then he didn’t waste his time and went towards Mr. Korin’s office.

They agreed to meet this morning to discuss mathematics over tea. Over the course of the month, they hit it off since the old gentleman appreciated diligent students and even more, the ones who were passionate about the subjects he taught.

He was more than delighted to explain all kinds of intricacies in this topic that made many hate it. Even Illyan, who had the motivation and diligence, had the problem of learning it just from self-studying.

This once again validated the choice he made when he came to this town.

However, as he walked through the normally quiet halls of the institute, he heard whispers of other apprentices with hushed voices.

“Did you hear that? A murder happened in the Baralan Alley!”

“Everyone knows that! But did you know that there were several bodies that were completely mutilated? It was as if a monster tore them apart!”

“I heard that it was a werewolf! Someone in the town is playing the citizen while under the veil of darkness, he changes into a beast!”

“There was no visible moon! It is documented that werewolves need the moon to change!”

“I think it was a demon!”

Numerous hushed discussions were overheard by Illyan, who was calmly going with a poker face despite being aware of the discussions. But he didn’t really care as they didn’t have a way to connect the case with him.

However, one discussion took his attention.

“Did you know? At first, the guards didn’t want to disclose the information about the incident as one of the freaks was going to collect them, but since the scene caused a big commotion in the alley, there were several witnesses by the time they were done.”

“Again them?! I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the ones orchestrating this fight at this point.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Shush! If you don’t want to disappear one day, then steer away from the problems! Rather, don’t even talk about them.”

Once they disappeared behind the corner, Illyan frowned inwardly.

‘Freaks? Well, I can guess who they were talking about. It fits them.’

With a shake of his head, he came to Mr. Korin’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” The old yet strong voice reverberated in Illyan’s ears. He didn’t waste his time and entered.

“Good morning, Mr. Korin.”

Inside, a room full of books, parchments, and other documents showed in front of his eyes. Behind the office table sat an old gentleman reading a book.

His hair and groomed mustache were already silver, and his face was covered in wrinkles, but his eyes were as bright as any other youth at the peak of life.

When he heard Illyan’s voice, he lifted his head and smiled.

“Good morning. You are early.”

“I don’t have anything to do anyway.”

“Hohohoh.”

They started having small talk as Illyan sat down. However, it didn’t take long before they started to discuss mathematics. Or rather than discussion, it was Illyan asking questions and Korin answering in a concise and easy-to-understand manner.

In this manner, the first half-hour passed while Illyan was focusing on his parchment where he wrote his notes.

Korin, on the other hand, took the teapot and started to fill two cups. There was steam coming out of both of them as he put one in front of him while the other in front of Illyan.

“This is called Tea of Clarity. It is a renowned tea in the Arkravav Empire. Their scholars and Magisters use it daily to keep a clear mind whenever they feel down. It is quite expensive, just so you know, so unfortunately, I don’t have much left…”

Korin touched his mustache as he laughed quietly.

“Magister? What is that?” Illyan tore his eyes away from the parchment and looked at Korin in confusion.

He knew about ‘scholars.’ Illyan himself could be said to be a scholar in the medical field before he was academic. Academics were mostly scholars tied to some educational institution just like the Academic Institution.

On the other hand, the word Magister was something new to Illyan.

“Oh, you don’t know? I guess it could be said to be classified information in the Vanaras Kingdom. Even though I know it just because I became Chief Academic level and visited the empire…”

Nodding as he kneaded his mustache, he pondered how to explain the concept of magister, something so special that even he still had some regrets in his heart.

“Magisters are scholars of mysteries. They are seekers of the Truth and the manipulators of the universe’s laws. Or at least they are trying to. I personally don’t know much since they have a much higher position in society than someone like us. Not only do they have knowledge, but they also know how to turn that knowledge into power that is far beyond humans…”

Korin surmised with a wistful expression.

Illyan’s eyes almost bulged out of his sockets. There was such a thing?!

“How could they control the laws of the universe? Does that even make sense?”

Korin waved his hands.

“Not in a literal sense, of course. That is the domain of gods. However, it is true that they can control the energies of the world to do their bidding.”

When he heard this, Illyan immediately connected this to spiritualists as they could do that. But was that really all?

“I don’t know much, but I am sure the most common energy source they use is called Mana. It is energy born in this world. It is in the air, in the mana veins, and there are rumors that even trees produce this energy.”

When Illyan heard this, he couldn’t help but frown as he retorted.

“But isn’t the energy in the air Spiritual? Or at least that’s what I heard.” At the last second, he added the second sentence as he feared that he would be exposed for knowing too much.

Korin, who heard this, glanced at Illyan. He noticed that Illyan had quite a high interest in this topic. That made him reach for one of his drawers.

However, he didn’t forget to answer Illyan’s question.

“Hmm. You may be right, but I believe you are aware that Spirit Energy isn’t native to our world… It is said to belong to a mystical Spirit World that cannot be seen. I can’t tell you why it is like this, that the Spirit Energy overflows to our world, but I am pretty sure that magisters wouldn’t be mistaken about something like this.”

After saying that, he took out some kind of rod. At one end, there was a small and sharp needle coming out of its middle part while the rest of the rod was made

out of some kind of tube filled with an unknown liquid. The tube was also covered in some scale markings with weird symbols.

Illyan recognized them as numbers from zero to nine in the Oberuan language, also called the common language on the Oberuan continent, which was the name of the continent Illyan was born on and was still living on.

“This is the Mana Affinity Measurement Tool that I managed to get from one of my friends. I see that you are interested in this stuff so why not try out your affinity? If you have good talent, then it wouldn’t be a problem to go to the Arkravav Empire to become a Magister. I once also had an urge to try to become one, but my talent for magic is insufficient. For you to have some chance to walk on this path is to have talent at the level of three on the scale of this tool. I have only 2.4 level which, together with my old age at that time, sealed my fate.”

After saying all this, Korin sighed. Illyan didn’t need to think too deeply to realize that it seemed to be a big regret for Korin. But he still had to ask.

“Why are you telling me all this, Mr. Korin? Didn’t you say it is classified information?” He didn’t ask only because he was curious but because he started to feel a little cautious as he looked at Korin.

Korin, as if he read Illyan’s thoughts, just chuckled.

“You don’t need to worry. Every once in a while, when I meet some outstanding student, I tend to use it. This was actually the reason why I invited you today into my office. You see, those with good talent are rare, but there are many who covet those talents. If I can refer to such talent, I would get some benefits too. You surely know about those acolytes that occupy this land, right? They are acolytes working under magister organizations. While they do not necessarily all have good talent, there are some that could reach a magister’s level.”

Worry clouded his expression when he started to talk about them.

“Most of those organizations are cruel and don’t think of people as living beings at all. You should be careful not to offend them. They also conduct talent tests on young kids every five years and then take them away forcibly if they are talented.”

When he finished, Illyan’s face turned ugly for a moment. Aren’t you selling me to such an organization then?

As if realizing that what he said sounded wrong, he awkwardly made fake coughs as he clarified himself.

“Of course, the organization I refer to is different. They are mostly centered around machinery construction where mathematics is needed.”

“Oh…” Illyan nodded. While he wouldn’t trust someone just based on their words, he still didn’t have a reason to think that Korin would try something against him.

After all, his talent was…

‘Wait. Isn’t my spiritual talent and magic talent a completely different thing?’

Illyan looked intensively at the tool and pondered if that was the case. Korin noticed the gaze and asked him again.

“Do you want to try?”

“If I do so and will have good talent, will I need to attend that organization?” Illyan asked. While it sounded exciting and all, he wasn’t prepared for something like that. Especially since he would be just a mouse in a cat’s territory at that point. He would rather slowly develop here unless he got some benefit worth the risk.

“No, of course not. But conducting the test with good results can open many doors for you.”

“Haah… Alright then…”

Illyan nodded in the end with a resigned sigh. He couldn’t resist the temptation to find his talent for that new kind of energy that was completely unknown to him…