“Beer?”

The woman was surprised.

“You sound young. You sure you can drink?”

She tried to see him under the hoodie, but Ian hurriedly hid his face even more.

“Yes!”

She didn’t seem convinced and looked at Jay. Jay nodded.

“It’s fine.”

The woman put two beers in front of them and went to pour drinks for other customers.

“Sure, we only have six months. Take your time.”

Jay said mockingly.

“I-I don’t know what happened.”

Ian took a sip from his beer with shaking hands but immediately spat out.

“-Cough -Cough. How do you even drink that?”

At the same time, someone came from the door behind the counter and saw him struggling with the beer.

“Ey pal, what is it your first time?”

Then he laughed. Ian raised his head to see who it was, and his panic escalated even more.

‘What the hell?! He just looks like Arkhaar! Wait… Arkhaar looks just like me. No! I look like Arkhaar! And he looks like Arkhaar! Ahh! He is my father!’

Ian tried to stay calm.

“Hey, pal. No, it just went down the wrong pipe.”

He tried to make his voice deeper. Jay was finding this situation very amusing.

“I could watch this all day.”

Then he turned towards the man.

“Hey man, how much for a night?”

“One silver for a room.”

“Damn, that’s basically free.”

“Yeah, some of the houses ruined, and people lost their houses. I lowered the price until things become normal again.”

Jay leaned towards Ian.

“Your father is so helpful.”

He whispered to Ian’s ears. Ian quickly got up. He was still trying to make his voice deeper.

“Let’s go to our room.”

They began to follow the man to their rooms. Ian realized Jay’s gaze.

“Don’t give me that look. I’ll talk to them tomorrow.”

“I didn’t say anything. I’m having fun.”

The night for Ian and Jay ended there.

* * *

“Hahaha! Send me some too!”

Liam shouted.

“I thought your weapon was destroyed.”

Even though Idarin said that, three more golems were already forming behind him.

“I still have my fists.”

“Okay.”

Idarin shrugged.

“Without further ado.”

The golems suddenly split into two groups and began to attack them. Elius tried to follow Idarin’s orders and only wanted to use magic. One of the golems reached him and swung his fist. A thin barrier appeared around Elius to block it, but golems were stronger than he thought. His barrier immediately shattered, and the golem’s fist was about to hit him. He instinctively used his chakra to defend himself and deflected the incoming fist.

“Nope, try again.”

“…”

Elius didn’t say anything and waited for golems to attack again. At the same time, Liam was exchanging punches with golems while laughing in joy. The golems weren’t getting destroyed. Any damage was healing instantly. Elius put some distance this time, made himself lighter with air magic, and his left eye began to glow.

‘Good, I can see now.’

Little light blue lights appeared on the golems, constantly changing locations according to their movements. Four fireballs appeared around Elius and flew towards the golem in the middle, but of course, the damage healed instantly.

‘I wish I could use ice.’

Then he realized something.

‘Wait. Elly, back at the forest when we were on a mission, you said you were able to analyze the magic, right?’

“Yes. Why?”

‘Can you analyze the golems?’

“I can try. What do you have in mind?”

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‘You’ll analyze the spell, and I’ll arrange the spell for myself.’

“That is hard, but okay, I’ll start now.”

Idarin felt a weird change in the air, but of course, even he couldn’t wholly sense Elly’s mana for some reason. Usually, controlling the other people’s spells was impossible. The mana was like a fingerprint. It was different for everyone. To do that, you had to do analyzing, but not everyone could do that. It was pretty rare for someone to be able to analyze other people’s spells. After a while of dodging and trying to attack, Elly spoke again.

“I’m done.”

‘This fast?”

“It was just a beginner-level spell.”

‘Okay…’

Suddenly vines grew from the ground and immobilized one of the golems. Elius quickly approached and put his hand on. Then he saw the spell’s structure in his own image—intertwined lines.

‘Woah…’

In seconds he was able to rearrange the structure.

“Time to test.”

He took a step back and released the vines. Golem stood there for a while, and then it suddenly turned towards the other two and began to attack.

“Nice!”

“What?!”

Idarin’s eyes widened in disbelief.

‘He can analyze other people’s spells at this age? That is preposterous. Was it a fluke? I have to be sure.’

After a few seconds of listening to Elius’ commands, the golem stopped, and Elius suddenly felt the connection between him and the golem disappear.

“Again! I told you, there is something wrong with him… I can process so much information in milliseconds, yet he is faster than me.”

‘Can you do it again?’

“Already working on it, but the structure is completely different and more complex.”

‘I can see why…’

The golem they analyzed turned against them again, but it was faster and more vicious this time.

‘Maybe I was too hard on him, or maybe it really was a fluke.’

Idarin expected Elius to analyze the golem in the middle again, but unlike his expectations, the other two suddenly grabbed the one in the middle. A smile appeared on Idarin’s face. It was kind of scary.

‘This kid is freaking gold mine! An unpolished gem!’

‘What? I didn’t do anything.’

“I changed their structure.”

‘Can you do that?’

“…I just did.”

‘How can you do it without touching it?’

“I’m not sure. It was like instinctively I felt like I could do it.”

‘I didn’t know you could feel things.’

“I… don’t. You ask too many unnecessary questions.”

Meanwhile, Idarin was overexcited because, in front of him, there was a seventeen-year-old kid who could understand, analyze and change the spell’s structure. But the thing he didn’t know, it wasn’t Elius.

‘He lacks so much as a wizard, but that was unexpected.’

Then the golems in front of Elius turned into mud and melted away.

“Are we done already?”

The ones in front of Elius’ were gone, but Liam was still fighting.

“No, you are done. You lack as a wizard soo much. You said you mastered two elements, yet you aren’t even using them. Using spells should be like breathing. Even calling you a wizard would be wrong.”

Idarin came next to him.

“But the thing you did…”

He paused for a second.

“…do you know how valuable it is?”

“Oh, turning the golem against you?”

Elius shook his hand like the thing he did was nothing.

“Pff, just a spell, nothing to brag about.”

“It took me almost 30 years to master it, yet I’m still not fast enough.”

Elius was surprised after hearing that.

’30 years? Damn, Elly, how old are you? How can you analyze things?’

“I’m technically not even one year old. I don’t know… Maybe I inherited a few things from Julius?”

‘Yeah, that could be it.’

Elius decided not to say anything and go along with it.

“I mean, maybe I’m a genius?”

He smirked.

“Maybe…”

Idarin squinted his eyes and gave him a suspicious look.

“Alright, maybe before combat, I should teach you some spells. It is going to be a long night, prepared.”

After a while, Liam also came to the shelter that Idarin created. He was covered in sweat.

“Damn, that felt good.”

Idarin raised his head. He was writing some stuff on a book and clogged his nose.

“God… You stink.”

Suddenly a strong water flow rotated around Liam and soaked him. Then his body began to warm up, and the water evaporated.

“Convenient.”

Liam was impressed. Elius was still telling Ruvyn about his plans.

“You are welcome.”

Idarin shook his head and turned back to writing.

“Are you still talking about that?”

“Hey, actually, it doesn’t seem that bad.”

Ruvyn said thoughtfully.

“Don’t tell me you are considering joining him.”

Liam also sat next to them.

“I do… That sounds fun and not much different from what we’ve been thinking.”

Then he paused for a second.

“What the hell, I’m in.”

“Yes!”

Elius clenched his fists in victory.

“Number two.”

“Seriously…”

Liam shook his head. Elius leaned towards him.

“Come on, don’t you want to be number 3.”

And whispered with a weird smile.

“Ew, go away.”

Liam pushed him back.

“Come on. I already have a title. ‘The Strategist of Namean.’ Doesn’t that sound cool?”

“You could call yourself whatever you want, you know.”

“As you call yourself ‘The Unstoppable Force?’”

“What?! Hahahaha.”

Elius began to laugh.

“What are you laughing at?!”

Liam shouted in anger.

“As far as I remember, that force got stopped by me.”

“Hey!”

Liam was about to say something, but Idarin interfered.

“Oh yeah, he pummeled you good.”

“Wha-”

“That was bad…”

Ruvyn also shook his head.

“Just wait till I got my new weapons!”

“Weapons? You mean plural?”

Elius asked in surprise, but before he could get an answer, Idarin called him.

“Elius!”

He gestured for him to come with his index finger.

“Yeah?”

“Time for your education. Sit down.”

Idarin closed his book, and it disappeared.

“What kind of education is that?”

“I’ll begin from the bottom. Like very, very bottom.”

Elius liked to learn new things, as long as he didn’t have to read so many pages of books. So he was excited.

“I’m all ears.”

He was expecting to get a comfortable sleep after listening to Idarin for a while. Trying to limit himself tired him more than usual for some reason.

“As I said, let’s start from zero and ask ourselves this. What is mana?”

“Yes! He really began from­ zero. Oh, this is going to be good.”

“Oh no…”

And thus, the longest night of Elius began.