Isaac was not a young man with a spiteful temperament. Granted, everyone had people they didn't like, behaviors they hated, and things they avoided. But in the end, he hadn't really bothered. He accepted their existence, avoided them and took it upon himself when he couldn't.

However, it changed a lot when someone tried to kill you by beheading you without any warning behind their back.

Isaac had seen nothing of what had happened, he was far too busy analyzing Rebecca's vessels when a sudden light enveloped her body. The only one he felt right after the flash was a feeling of danger and threat all around him.

By reflex, his aura had contracted around him, paralyzing his attacker whom he did not know as well as Rebecca, before propelling them both several tens of meters back.

Rebecca managed to stabilize herself by sending a wind spell behind her and slow down but still couldn't help but fall on her butt when her feet hit the ground. As for Artiel, he had kept his eyes open and had no time to close them when his target turned into light.

"Huh? Why can't I move anymore? What's going on? Why is it all dark !? My eyes !! They are burning" he thought, being paralyzed just before being propelled towards Kiril.

He had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that Rebecca was being attacked by an intruder in the village and the next moment he was slitting her throat with his sword. "I slit his throat well, didn't I?" he thought before a powerful blow to his back knocked him out of his thoughts as his vision slowly recovered.

His breath was suddenly cut off as the pain of the impact shook him. Unable to move, he could only suffer silently, unable to cry out from his lack of breath. Nonetheless, he could hear his captain's distinctive voice. "It's okay. Rebecca is out of danger, the captain is here ... But why is his voice weird?"

Between him and Isaac, Kiril stood with his sword drawn and his gaze serious but fearful.

- "Excellency ... please, calm -" the captain began before being cut.

- "This man tried to slit my throat" said Isaac.

- "Of course, I ..."

- "If he's ready to kill, then he's ready to be killed, isn't he? It's the natural order of things to be like this, isn't it?" Isaac continued without paying attention to Kiril.

Isaac didn't really have the idea of killing him. Although he was quite annoyed by this assassination attempt, he still wanted to make his attacker pay and this by abusing him a little.

- "I understand, Excellency. Nevertheless, I would like you to reconsider."

- "Why is that ?" he asked.

- "This man is a poor fool" he declared without really being convinced. He didn't really have much to say to change his mind. Artiel had just tried to kill him afterwards, it was not something that we would forgive without a legitimate reason. And here the reason was nowhere to be found.

Isaac looked at the captain for a moment before activating his flotation aura. He then began to rise, his clothes floating around him without gravity.

- "I'm going to need more" declared Isaac.

He summoned an arcana of wind under his feet when a voice interrupted him.

- "Wait!" cried Rebecca. "Evaluate me in a challenge fight, Artiel doesn't stand a chance. You're here to assess me right? Let's do a fight, if you win it you can do whatever you want. If I win you have to spare his life "she pleaded, walking towards Isaac who looked at her.

He hesitated. She had seen her aura and certainly knew that she had no chance to penetrate it. Yet was she trying to negotiate? Was she playing on Isaac's sense of superior strength to try to find a possible loophole and beat him in a fight?

This was quite commendable and would have convinced any mage who wanted to show off and show off his power. Nevertheless, Isaac was not there for that, he had come to test Rebecca and above all, to learn about her way of doing magic. He still had a lot to learn in spite of himself, and someone who had experienced magic his whole life was surely someone who had additional knowledge.

Isaac then turned completely to Rebecca, his gaze serious, floating a meter above the ground silently.

- "Summon a barrier. Any one. I will attack you, if you manage to resist, you win it. Otherwise, you lose and you will be seriously injured" he imposed.

Besides being able to test the magical power of the young woman, he also wanted to test her willpower and devotion with Artiel. "If he protects her to the point of attacking anyone close to her, and if she is willing to defend him at the risk of an unmanageable fight, there must be something between them," Isaac thought to himself.

Kiril was about to intervene when multiple walls of earth and ice rose between Isaac and Rebecca. The captain turned his gaze to the young woman who had her eyes focused, her hands in front of her, palms open and her eyes glistening with a bluish light.

He understood that she was on the move and he couldn't change her mind and decided to turn back to Artiel now free from the aura and writhing on the ground. He took and carried him to the old one who immediately began to auscultate it.

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- "Nothing serious, a few broken ribs, get him back to his bed and--"

- "No ... Rebecca" Artiel pushed, turning his gaze to the young woman.

"A moron" thought the old woman looking at the young man and the way he was looking at Rebecca. "You could have confessed your feelings to her before rather than hiding them ... Now, it is already too late" she said to herself, looking at Rebecca.

Now five walls, three of dirt and two of ice between and each about two feet thick, separated them before Rebecca placed one knee on the ground, breathless and frantic. Drops of sweat were visible on his forehead and beading down his cheeks. Her hair was also wet and slightly loosened by the effort she had to put in to erect her barriers.

She did not know what a rune or an aura was, the only barriers she had the opportunity to see were the fences of the village and the walls of the houses, which did not surprise Isaac. Once the barriers of ice and earth were erected, the elf came to place his hand in front of him, palm open.

- "Please, make everything go well" prayed the old woman out loud.

A red arcana appeared before Isaac and began to grow until it was about one foot in diameter. Right now he only had one thing on his mind. He wanted to see how strong the barriers erected by the young woman were. He then inhaled one last time before injecting a trickle of mana into the arcane which suddenly glowed and began to spin clockwise.

- "I hope you're ready" he said simply.

After a while, the air around Isaac began to heat up and the grass beneath him began to turn yellow and dry out in the heat as the wind began to pick up from the thermal change.

Around him, the air seemed to distort as if it were surrounded by transparent fire. Without waiting for a response from Rebecca, he then activated the arcane.

- "Heat beam"

Immediately, the center of the arcane emitted a ray of pure heat. The air in its path took on a yellow tint, emitting intense heat around it. The moment the ray touched the surface of the dirt wall, the surface changed color and in a few moments became totally flaming red.

After a few seconds, the earth ignited and charred and turned into ash which began to fall bit by bit more and more quickly. The wall gave way ten seconds later. As for the wall of ice, it only held out for two seconds before giving in completely.

Isaac frowned. "All she did was raise earth and condense ice? Nothing else? Not even empower them with mana?" he says to him. After about twenty seconds, he had already almost pierced the last wall when suddenly the first wall rose up and new earth came out of the ground, again blocking the beam.

A few seconds later, the same happened for the next wall, then the other and again. Puzzled, Isaac began to observe with his mana vision before his eyes widened. "Mana circuits?"

At the base of the walls, Isaac could see mana veins circulating in the ground and appearing to periodically regenerate the walls after a while. Curious as to what she had done and how, he began to trace the origin of the veins before being surprised again.

Each wall had a fairly thick vein rising slowly into the ground with mana pulsing steadily inside and directly joining Rebecca's hand on the ground.

The vein then seemed to cross her hand and pass from the ground, directly joining the circuit of the young woman now pale and her hair wet with sweat.

"Has she extended her mana circuit outside of her body ?!" he wondered surprised.

Isaac had attempted such a thing before to gain control of a magical tree or flower, but had never succeeded in expanding his mana circuit. Forgetting the fact that the latter was extremely complex, the slightest manipulation caused enormous eddies of energy that created either explosions or ignoble headaches. In the end, all attempts ended in failure.

He continued to observe the circuits before finally noticing the amount of mana fluctuating and weakening per second. He then returned his gaze to the walls continuing to rise periodically and then the now pale face of the young woman, but more importantly, her mana almost depleted.

Interesting, very interesting, he thought. So far, he had managed to manipulate the circuits of other plants using runes and had managed to manipulate natural energy into physical form by concentrating it via mana, allowing him to create rocks and the like.

Nevertheless, being able to extend his circuit would presumably allow him to expand his very consciousness. Where he controlled the plants through the rune, with an extension of his circuit, he would then be able to feel, think and act in the place of the plant. He would have direct control over it if he could totally invade her energy.

"Good. You can become my apprentice," he decided.

- "Dispell"

It was a mana-infused keyword on a certain wavelength that he had decided to incorporate into all of his arcana and runes in order to create an emergency deactivation mechanism. He did not want to end up with the same incident called "Golden Ray" and had therefore entered this security just in case.

Immediately, the arcane disappeared and the ray of heat with it, ceasing the attack on the walls. With a small smile, he then came to walk and around the walls before looking at Rebecca with the pale face before bending down.

- "You win. You can stop" he said to her.

Looking tired, she then sighed in satisfaction and lifted her hand off the ground, severing its connection to the veins in the ground which immediately disappeared. Rebecca then put both hands and began to breathe, taking long breaths.

- "Rest, we'll talk later" he said before getting up without delay. He looked in the direction of Kiril who was still motionless and motioned for him to come and take Rebecca.

Immediately he started walking before bringing a worried expression to his face. He looked at Isaac.

- "No worries, she has used a lot of mana, she just needs to rest, eat well and sleep well" he said simply before heading towards the old one currently sitting near Artiel whose armor had been removed. Soldiers were putting on white clothes with weeds on his ribs. The injured man, unable to get up by the pains coming to him at the slightest movement, could only remain motionless.

With a smile, Rita looked at Isaac.

- "You let him win, didn't you?" she says.

The elders' power of deduction is really dangerous. It was something Isaac decided to mentally write down. He had to watch out for the elders, whether they looked innocent or senile. He didn't answer and turned to Artiel on the ground, looking at him venomously.

- "Next time, your lover will not have time to save you" he said simply, sending chills to the other soldiers present around him. Artiel for his part felt embarrassed for a moment before resuming his poisonous gaze.

After that, Isaac returned his gaze to the old one again.

- "You said you read books, right? Can I read them?" he asked.

- "Of course! Follow me" she answered, getting up.

As soon as she stood up, Artiel in turn began to get up before being knocked down to the ground by another soldier with a sorry expression on his face.

Together, Rita and Isaac then left and walked towards the house on the hill while Rebecca was carried by Kiril who watched the two leave before heading to the house of the young woman to drop her there. The other soldiers did the same for Artiel, before all decided to follow their captain towards the house of the ancients, a little reluctantly.

They didn't really want to end up like their comrade.