Character Information - Who is who?
Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)
Alexander K. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Transmigrated from the Earth and the MC
* The fourth child of the current Leonandra household
* Golden eyes
* Snow-white fur and hair color
Maurice Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Personal protector of the MC
* Specialized in two-handed mace arts
* Blue eyes
* Brown fur and hair color
Green (III) from the Forest of Fallen Wishes (Fairy)
* Messenger of the temple
* Head of a temple branch in the east of Moorgrel
* Teaches the MC magic
* Specialized in healing, herbalism, agriculture, and administration
* Light-green eyes
* Greenish hair
* Autumn-colored wings
Marisia S. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Lady of the Leonandra household
* A user of the wild-demon energy
* Mother of the MC
* Golden eyes
* Crimson red fur and hair color
Cross Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Personal protector of the lady of the Leonandra household
* Commander of the Leonandra military
* Specialized in sword/shield style
* Greenish-brown eyes
* Chestnut brown fur and hair color
Ocilia Leonandra (Spider-kin)
* Disciple of the MC
* Specialized in magic/alchemy-oriented threads
* Purple eyes
* Purplish-black hair color
...
As Alexander wanted to meet Lorient for the daily dose of trying not to break his neck training, a very unusual person came in. In front of the puppy stood his personal guard, Maurice.
Alexander was a little ashamed since he considered him like a stray cat who sometimes came to visit him and beg for food. Well, Maurice begged for pointers on how to get stronger, and he looked like he was successful, 'He got pretty jacked, huh.'
He looked like he grew an inch or two, and not only in height. His muscles bulged out of his linen clothes, and the buttons looked like they would explode any moment and headshot him, 'Note to me, need to tell Melina to get him some clothes which are not 20 sizes too little.'
It was nothing surprising, though, since all he did was train with Larry or Cross and do all the physical training Alexander developed for him while eating, probably a pig a day, 'Well, is he here for something?'
As Maurice came in, Green and Ocilia also looked his way. He came close to Alexander and kneeled, "Mr. Alexander, I need to ask for a favor."
Ocilia was the one to answer, "If you need money, I can lend you some."
Green decided to not leave and watch what would happen, 'It is always interesting to see how socially inept mages are. Are you the same, Alex? Hehe.'
Alexander shrugged, "I mean, why kneeling because of such a simple matter? Need the coin for a new sword or something?"
Maurice wanted to mention that he was actually a mace user but stopped himself as he wanted something different. His face flushed, and he cleared his throat, "Ahem, no... I actually want to learn [Mana Sense]."
Alexander raised his eyebrow, "Do you want to kill yourself? Do you know what happened..." he pointed his thumb toward his disciple, "...with Lia?"
Green now sat down on a nearby table and watched it with interest. She knew obviously how her other student acquired her mana skills, 'If Alexander can actually reproduce it, I mean to be the teacher of one of the most significant people in all history... hehe, this will push my reputation to something akin to Madilgar, the teacher of Merlin or Karalop, who taught Count Moorgrel in military arts.'
She heard that a reliable method existed to give someone [Mana Sense] and wasn't as hard as dragon-kin allegedly made it out to be. Still, the process was presumably very destructive and could easily kill someone, but everything could also be false rumors, as Green only heard about it from third parties.
Dragon-kin mages were tight-lipped about everything involving magic, especially how to acquire the mana skills. So, if her little student actually agreed to it, and she knew that he would, and succeeded again, a new era of magic would come to be, 'The teacher of the one who discovered how to awaken [Mana Sense], hehe.'
Alexander didn't notice when her teacher was in her power fantasy world, as he was too baffled by his guard but not against it, "Hm, sure!"
Maurice startled a little, surprised by how easy it was to ask for something like this. He actually prepared a long speech about loyalty, power, etc.
The dense guard didn't see the giant smile on his master's face, but Ocilia did. When she saw her master smiling like a third-rate villain, she sighed and thought of the worst. In her mind, he had a slight madness that always came out when something new and revolutionary could be discovered, never mind the risks.
Alexander also didn't notice when Ocilia took a couple of steps away from him. He was already in his own world and recounted what he wanted to do differently than with his disciple. He absolutely liked to try it again, but he didn't know how fast he would get a lab rat again. In Maurice's case, he was strong and had a robust body, so it should be safer than the frail body of his disciple.
Alexander rubbed his chin and thought about when to do it, "How about later, around evening, after dinner?"
Maurice's tail swirled wildly, "Yes, Mr. Alexander!"
Alexander's tail swung too from side to side, "Neat. Now go and take a nap and prepare yourself and..." He looked at Green, who answered him, "...I am ok. I will get Pierre, and we will be ready, don't worry."
With a nod, he was ready to go.
...
Later evening, in Alexander's office
Alexander and Maurice were surrounded by three healers. But this was not all since more came: The lady, Marisia, was also here, watching like a hawk, together with Salyna, Aro, and Cross.
Marisia's mind raced as she sat and tried to calm down, 'Why always Alexander. Can't he be a little more like Sarah?'
At this moment, Sarah was somewhere in the garden, sleeping under a tree, digesting her dinner. On the other hand, Alexander was too curious and ambitious about everything.
This drove her crazy for the last few years, and even though she couldn't hold him back or control him when he became ten, Marisia thought it would be nice to know that her son lived a healthy life without blowing himself up before his twentieth birthday.
She saw a book peek out of Green's spatial pouch and immediately identified it by the excentric color. It was the biography of Merlin, a crazy archmage, and she remembered the fairy tales and stories about him, who embodied pure chaos in his childhood. Still, she also remembered her other family members, who were unpredictable, but not to such an extent. With this in mind, she didn't blame magic or her blood but found another scapegoat for Alexander's behavior.
'It is Kairo's fault, 100%.'
When the experiment started, Marisia came out of her thoughts and looked at Alexander, who clapped his hands and stood beside his personal guard with a big smile, "Thanks for coming! Today we will let the fat wolf disappear!"
Nobody laughed, and only Maurice looked nervous about what it actually meant, but before he could say anything, Alexander frowned, "Nobody gets good humor... however!" He looked at Maurice, "...I need to know first your [Mystic Skills] and [Divinity Line]."
Without further explanation, Maurice started explaining, knowing that it wouldn't leak with the lady here and that he really didn't care telling it, "My [Divinity Line] is [Warriors Birthright] and is also known under other names like [Blood and Iron] or [Fighter]. It concentrates heavily on my fighting abilities, and through this, I can also increase my fighting arts much faster."
Alexander squinted his eyes and thought of the worst, 'I remember seeing a skill named charge and stomp. Where the hell will I find there the entrance point?!'
He could trigger the [Mana Sense] of Ocilia by having a clear entry point for his mana to insert, which she could feel, but now it became very abstract if he couldn't insert his mana to any certain point.
'Worst case, I will need longer than a week for this whole ordeal...' he shrugged inwardly, '...well, not like I am the lab rat.'
Maurice continued, "My [Mystic Skills] are [Charge] with which I... well, home at others, even if I can't see them, I am able to follow 'em through the skill."
This one was out of the window. No way Alexander could actually find the entrance point on this one.
Maurice started to explain more of his [Mystic Skills], "[Stomp] is a skill where I stomp on the ground with destructive force, [Hardening] is where my skin and weapons become incredibly hard, and last, [Through Hell, I live] is a skill which, the more I am injured, the stronger I become."
Alexander stood in one place and rubbed his chin, thinking about what to do. [Stomp] and [Hardening], like the one mentioned before, were impossible, but the last could be possible. What if he could...
Maurice became nervous and interrupted Alexander's thoughts, "Mr. Alexander, is something wrong?"
Alexander looked at him. A small and vicious smile emerged on his face, "I hope you are ready to suffer."
...
10 Minutes later.
"My lady, is this Saruso's fault?"
She shook her head, "I hope not. Otherwise, this time, Kairoso will discipline him..."
In front of everyone was Alexander, who, in intervals, burned Maurice's back. First, he used the ignite spell and afterward used alchemy to cool the wound down while simultaneously trying to inject mana, which didn't work for the last minutes.
"Are you ok?"
Maurice nodded.
"Hey, did you die? I need an answer!"
He clenched his teeth as the pain was unbearable, "Yes, keep going!"
"This is what I like to hear! Here comes the next one!"
Alexander's ignite spell was much more condensed this time, and only Ocilia and Green saw how dense the mana was.
Green sat close to her student and didn't know what to think, 'This family is fucking crazy. First, the mother almost killed her child, and now this puppy wants to kill his guardian.'
She understood what her student was trying to do. He had no idea how to inject mana directly but needed to do it through a point where mana could be felt much easier, like in Ocilia's case, her fingertips.
She learned it from Alexander's explanations before they started. She had to admit that it was a clever idea. He would literally force the mana toward the [Mystic Skills] or natural skills which one could feel naturally. If mana invaded them, they would feel the difference and thus acquire the skill.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Her student now tried to inject it through Maurice's pain receptors while his skill activated passively, which should be much more challenging than what he did with his disciple.
Green got ready as what Alexander did now was going for the extreme. Her student's ignite spell looked like a hot iron, and he slowly injected it into his guardian's back while the skin started to burn and sizzle.
"ARRGRHHH!"
"Stay strong!"
He touched it with his other hand and closed his eyes while trying to slowly feel the area with his other hand and [Mana Sense].
After a moment, he got annoyed and wanted to try something reckless. He directly stuck his finger into the burned wound and rooted around like a maniac.
"FUCK!"
The groans and screams worsened, 'Well, hopefully, his shit-ass skill works now!'
Alexander was also sweating as he was heavily concentrating on not killing his personal guard while trying to inject mana, and his reserves were slowly running low.
Maurice's pain and wound had become worse, so much so that he started to do something a personal guard shouldn't do, "Fuck you, Alex! Get it done! It feels like I get fucking roasted!"
"Fuck you too! Stop talking and try to feel it and keep concentrating!"
"Damn it!"
Alexander smiled viciously and injected more mana into his ignition spell when he saw Maurice become still. His personal guard was back to concentrating on catching the feeling of mana.
The wound started to become slightly black, and he felt his guardian's skill increase to a massive degree as the muscles bulged heavily. He instantly injected his mana over the black-burned wound and muscles while he started to experience the same feeling as with Ocilia.
Like with Ocilia, he felt strange, but now he understood why. His mana was sucked out! He only held for a moment longer and put his hands out, and only then did Maurice shake and fall to the floor.
"Go! Heal him!"
Two healers rushed towards Maurice, who had a seizure, and instantly started healing him.
Green rushed toward Alexander and analyzed him, then became confused, "You are fine. Do you feel somewhere pain or discomfort?"
Alexander was sweating heavily and had a headache as he used ~85% of his mana to awaken Maurice's [Mana Sense]. Usually, the lack of mana would feel like someone was ramming nails into his ears, but now, because of various skills, he could push through.
"I am fine, just a headache, as I have barely 10% of my mana left."
Green frowned, "You are too young for mana potions... you need normal rest."
Yes, mana potions existed, and as Alexander learned about them, he wanted to order a truckload of them but was told they were very toxic for someone without energy.
Mana potions did not have 100% purity and would destroy the body without the internal energy cleaning the contaminations up. The cheaper a potion was, the less purity it had and the less effect it had on refilling one's mana. But there were also expensive potions with high purity. Such potions would cost too much, and the estate didn't have them since mana wasn't something anyone was concerned with.
Alexander looked at Maurice, who slowly stabilized, 'I hope it worked.'
Maurice, despite what his master thought, was barely holding on. He heard what he called the deity's call but couldn't check the system as he needed all of his willpower to not fall unconscious. The pain his master caused was immense, and then something happened. His body started to feel tremendous hunger, not for food but for something else, he couldn't recognize, and his head felt like it would split in two.
He stayed awake only through his resilience, which he developed through years of abusive training. Sometimes his thoughts drifted to the past where he had a passion for baking and cooking but had no talent as neither the right [Divinity Line], 'How easy would my life be if my hardest challenge wouldn't be staying alive as I get roasted but redoing a lemon cake because I mistook salt for sugar.'
After ten minutes and the intervention of Green, he stabilized fully and heard his master, who wasn't concerned at all, "So? Show it! Did you get it?"
It was a little sad, but he understood the feeling since he was as or even more curious and hoped it worked. He (almost) never waved while being burned to a crisp and concentrated everything he had on feeling something different: Mana.
He looked around the room and wondered if he should show his system and did the only pragmatic thing, 'Who cares? Not like I have a hero skill like in those fairy tales.'
'System, open up!'
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/main/new_Chapter_38_Maurice.svg]
"I got it..."
Alexander came over and nodded, "Hm, now you only need to find out how to conjure magic, combined with your skills... this will be fun, hehe."
Maurice was confused, "What does it mean? Can't I use magic?"
His master shook his head and signaled Ocilia to come over, "Show your ignite spell."
Then Ocilia stood before everyone. She proudly puffed her chest up and used her strings to quickly form the construction while chanting. It was flawless as the strings lit up between her hands.
Alexander commented, "Ocilia can only use her spells by building the spell construction with her ingrained skills. In short, we need to find out how..." He pointed at Maurice, "...you will construct spells."
Everyone was confused except Marisia, who thought about it and laughed inwardly that her son's protector probably needed to cut the construction into his skin to activate it.
Alexander explained, "For a spell, you need a construct..." He used water to mimic the ignite spell, "...and the spell words, which are called chants. Why is not important for now, but what is important is that I forced you to sense mana through your mystic skill, and this means that you can only manipulate mana with your [Mystic Skills], race-specific skills, or whatever I used as an entry point to inject my mana into you. This is at least the case with Ocilia and will probably be with you too."
Maurice was shocked that he went through this torture session, only to be denied in the end, "This... was useless?"
The whole room was silent till, a second later, a giant wolf-kin in plate armor walked over to Maurice. Cross came over, and before anyone could determine what had happened, he planted his fist into Maurice's face.
As he fell down, he didn't know why he was hit but became an answer rather quickly, "Shut up, you moron! Do you not understand what happened, or do I need to beat more sense into you?!"
Maurice looked around the room and saw Salyna, Aro, and Noriken in thought and smiling. The lady was as cold as always but had a slight smirk that showed how incredible this was, but he couldn't understand why.
"But I can't use magic..."
Cross became much angrier and wanted to keep beating him until Green stopped him, "Stop this barbarism. I don't think we have enough mana in the universe to patch him up if you want to beat intelligence into him."
Cross grunted, and Green looked from above to Maurice while hovering in the air, "You have really worms for brain, huh? Your master gave you a present for which others would murder their whole family with glee, and you can't understand it?"
Maurice couldn't. He wasn't the smartest and too young to have any reasonable experience to conclude anything from it, so he just stared at the little fairy.
Green sighed, "Listen, pea brain, mana is an energy like [Aura], [Defense], and [Essence] but can be used in combination with them while, if you use [Aura] and [Defense], for example, together, your body will get heavily damaged."
It was openly known that if using multiple energies, they would become volatile and attack each other and everything around them, which would be the body, and destroy it.
But there was the exception: Mana, which mages could use together with their energy, as mana would strengthen other energies. While it sounded like mages would be very strong through this, they were not. [Aura], [Defense], and [Essence] needed a ton of stamina, while mana was in itself a resource that increased the higher the intelligence attribute was.
By this, it meant that they were in contrast to each other on how to increase them. Even though mages could use both, their stamina, which could be used as fuel for different energies than mana, was non-existent. They weren't the most physically fit caste and didn't invest much in stats that boosted their physical fitness.
Maurice slowly understood it and nodded toward her.
"Oh? You got it, huh? Even if you can't use spells, which we will find out soon enough, you will learn mana skills, use them with your energy, and amplify it to a ridiculous degree. Magic knights do it and are insanely versatile and strong..." She looked at her other student, "...Ocilia, can you?"
Ocilia frowned, "I feel like a street artist... give me a second."
With one hand, she used [Essence], while with her other hand, she wrapped strings around it and used it in combination with her mana and energy. It became denser and more potent.
"See? How beautiful!" Green looked back to Maurice, "...with you, we need to find out how you could use it but... hm..." She smiled maliciously at the lady, "...I guess you will not be the last one, hehe."
Marisia was indeed intrigued. Very much so, and since Alexander came out unharmed, they could at least test it once more to verify it. If this could be repeated without any problems for her son, as she didn't care about others besides her family and close retainers, she would soon probably have an army stronger than Count Moorgrel. Her husband and all her other children would experience an insane power boost, too. She could not imagine what it looked like if she powered her demonic energy up with mana.
She nodded, "That is true..." she looked at Alexander, "...are you truly all right?"
Alexander sat down and nodded, "Sure thing, I can do it only every two days at most... maybe every three days since I need to use almost all of my mana, but yeah, I need to fine-tune it, and it will be all right."
Marisia nodded and looked at Cross, who nodded back grimly, smilingly, "It will be an honor, my lady."
She shook her head, "Thank Alexander, as he is the one who will catapult you to new heights. Without him, we wouldn't even be getting this chance."
Cross came over and bowed before Alexander, who was surprised but started to enjoy it somehow. Not really the bowing because of the bowing sakes but more the recognition he received, 'Ok, don't become an arrogant prick, but enjoying it a little bit is fine, right?'
His skills like [Noble's Pride] didn't help as it passively activated every time he acted with anyone, and he needed to suppress it actively. On the other hand, it enabled him to act and endure certain things.
Cross spoke, "Mr. Alexander, may I be the next one to receive [Mana Sense]?"
Alexander jumped down and needed to tiptoe to clap on his shoulder, "Of course! Give me a list with your [Mystic Skills] and what they do, so I can think of a way to get you the skill, ok?"
Cross straightened up and, with a weird smile, nodded toward Alexander, "Of course, Mr. Alexander! You will have it tomorrow morning!"
It was weird for Alexander that this world, or his household, had such a hunger for power but also not. It was different, and an analogy he could think was a new weapon. The first time guns appeared, some countries and generals were against the introduction of guns, but as the first wins came rolling, they became a necessity. Mana was, in this case, like changing from a crossbow to a handgun. The power increase was real.
The lady's loud throat clearing brought everyone's attention to her, "Ahem, I hope that I don't need to say it, but I don't want anybody here to talk to anyone about this..."
She looked at Alexander, "Alex, I will decide at this point who will receive your... let's call it a blessing till you are strong enough to defend yourself."
The lady didn't apologize and stated it as a matter of fact. Alexander was fine with it and shrugged, "A'righty, less work for me."
...
Later, as everyone left
"I am so sorry, Mr. Alexander!"
"For fucks sake, calm down!"
"No! You gave me such a present for nothing more than that I am your personal guardian, and I spat in your face!"
Maurice lifted his head and hit it against the floor with all he had.
"Jesu..." Alexander corrected himself, "...by the circle! Stop bashing your head against the floor!"
"No! I need to repent! I trained to serve you with my life, and you gave me casually such a blessing, and I couldn't appreciate it because of my ignorance!"
This was going on for the last five minutes, and Alexander wanted to stop him. He knew from conversations that his personal guard wasn't the sharpest tool, even more sometimes than Larry, but Alexander sincerely didn't care as long as he did his job.
After the confrontation with Cross, Maurice understood what he had done. He cried and wanted to repent. He wasn't ungrateful. The opposite was true as he trained intensely, more than everyone else, to catch up to his master's heels.
Not that he was weaker, but Maurice knew the moment would come when he would be nothing more than a useless meat shield when his master turned ten and became an absolute monster.
Maurice dreamed about serving the Leonandra household, like his father, even though he wanted to do it first through his baking. They gave him an education, training, food, and a place to live. First, he tried many different things, which he always failed until he turned ten and became a mediocre warrior. Only through his mentality and loyalty could he be one of the few selected who could become a personal guard for the children.
"I am sorry!"
"Shut the fuck up, or I will burn you again!"
"Do it!"
"No!... I mean, yes! Damn it!"
Alexander's mother left him alone with Maurice, knowing what would happen, so he could learn how to deal with all kinds of people. She didn't fear he could be hurt, as loyalty was ingrained into Maurice through hard training and education.
Alexander exhaled, "Ok, listen for a second and stop destroying the last of your brain cells, ok?"
Maurice looked up, confused, "Brain cells?"
Alexander shook his head and tried a different approach to get rid of him tonight since he was fatigued and exhausted after such an eventful day. Even his physical fatigue from the demonic baptism wasn't gone, and now he had a giant child to take care of.
"Nevermind. I need you fully healthy since we will develop your mana skills in the next few days..." Alexander stepped forward, concentrating on his [Acting] and [Noble's Pride] skill, "...I need strong warriors and not whiny wenches. Do you understand me?"
For some reason, his new skill [Absolute Mental Control] also activated and gave him a much more convincing boost to his other skills.
Maurice felt like he was looked down upon by the lady. A noble aura protruded from Alexander. In the warrior's mind, he wasn't a puppy anymore.
Alexander laid his hand on Maurice's wound on his head, and his tone changed into one of a lord, full of dignity and confidence, "I don't need a moron who just injures himself but one who learns from their mistakes..."
The young noble looked down on his personal guard, "Did you understand what you did wrong and what I want?"
Maurice nodded.
Alexander used the bit of mana he had left and conjured the new spell he had learned: First Aid.
The construct was slowly built on and around the wound on Maurice's head. It slowly started to glow in a greenish light which popped into flashy bubbles. A barely visible transparent mana film was on the wound, supporting the body's natural healing abilities.
'Well, I used barely any mana. I wonder how fast it would close if I used much more? I need to test it at some point later.'
Maurice felt how the wound slowly closed while it felt like a warm blanket over his injury, dulling the pain.
Alexander turned around and said, "Good," as he left his office.
Maurice didn't know what to think but was thoroughly mesmerized by the regality and that he needed to heed the words of his master, 'I need to learn mana skills and become a much better warrior!'
His loyalty increased to another level.
...
Inside Alexander's bedroom
After using his new cleaning spell, he plopped onto his bed and murmured, "I was never good with leading others... time to learn this too, I guess... fuck."
As he remembered, he never really led anyone, but if he wanted to change the world, he would need to take a leadership position at some point, 'Well, I need to begin somewhere.'
His retainers were three in number, Ocilia, Maurice, and Melina. He didn't know if the other maids, Francesca and Cloelle, would follow him through hell if the need arose.
However, he could start training his leadership skills first, 'Shit, what do I actually need to do to train it?'
After thinking through everything, the easiest thing was to ask his teacher, Anastasia, who could probably teach him some things or give him some clues.
There was something else on his mind that he had forgotten, and it wasn't the homework since he had done it before he started the whole ordeal with Maurice. He couldn't put his finger on it. His thoughts were foggy as the tiredness invaded him, and he fell asleep with confusing thoughts about his day.