Think of your mind as a room. This room has thoughts within it. Then think of another room, with mana in it. This room is reality. A wall separates the two rooms. Now imagine mana reaching out, crossing the wall to reach the other room. The thoughts and mana come together, and when mana does return to reality, it changes it.

That is magic. That is the power I want.

Darkness mana had now entered Elena’s mind room. And would be affected by her thoughts. That was how she could cast magic, if she had a spellbook that is. There would be…difficulty in casting magic otherwise. Mana was not easy to control after all.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her as she closed her eyes, apparently not even listening to me. There was something around her. A power I could sense but not quite touch. A power that gathered around her, settling on her shoulders and around her head as it did so. That power was mana of course.

I was surprised I could even sense it. Darkness mana was not one of my elements. Perhaps it was because there was a lot of Darkness mana here. Well, good for me.

Elena opened her eyes to look at me. The air grew heavy. More mana appeared around her, gathering around her body like a coat of fur.

“So, how do you feel?” I asked once more.

“What was that?” Elena asked, her voice sharp. Mana pulsed around her even as she spoke, as if she were about to cast a spell. That was dangerous. Mana gathered like this, while she had little control and knew no spells was likely to go out of control. Perhaps even attack me.

More than that though, I was confused. Why was she suddenly reacting like this? There was something I did not know. There had to be.

“What was what? The rabbit?”

Elena’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “There was no rabbit.”

I looked at her. Elena glared back at me.

“There was a test.” I began. “What did you see?”

Elena’s eyes narrowed. “The Viscount of Burtinder was here.”

“… What?” I asked, no longer able to hide my confusion. “The Viscount of Burtinder? But I only faced a—oh.”

So that was what it was. Elena had seen something different. Now it made a bit more sense. That even explained why she had not tried to help me—she had not even seen me fight. Perhaps the entire thing was an illusion. The question was, who was testing us?

“The mana.” I breathed out, the thought coming to me as it started to make sense.

“What do you mean, the mana?” Elena asked, her tone sharp as she demanded an answer for me. I guess seeing her slaver did not sit well with her. But she had waited for me to come up with an answer. Perhaps she trusted me more than I thought.

“This was a test by Darkness mana. I don’t know what exactly is going on, but I imagine mana tested us differently. I faced a rabbit, while you faced the Viscount of Burtinder.”

Elena looked at me some more, as if assessing if I was speaking the truth. After a few moments, she nodded.

“The Viscount would not have come alone. And he wouldn’t have come himself either. There would be others to do his work for him.” she said. “But you did not tell me there would be a test.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “I did not know there would be one either.”

Elena just looked at me, her expression shifting back to the blank one she usually wore. At least she wasn’t angry at me anymore.

“So, how do you like mana?” I asked.

Elena just looked at me, probably wondering if she should answer. Or even abandon me. I mean, she did have powers now. And we were outside the Eldanveir mansion already. There was little reason to keep me along.

“The feeling was strange.” she said after many seconds had passed. “The two of us should hurry. The test took too long.”

“Wait.” I called out before she could start walking away, taking out the spellbook. “Learn this spell before we move ahead, it will help hide us.”

Elena looked at the book I was holding out. “That is a spellbook.”

“Yes.” I answered, holding it out for her.

A few moments passed as she simply continued looking at it.

“Just open the book, now that you have Darkness mana, it should just transfer the information into your mind.” I informed her. Perhaps she was unsure on how to use it.

Elena took the spellbook carefully, looking at me like she expected me to take it back. The girl had trust issues.

But she did open the spellbook, her eyes clouding over as she did so. The thing had worked for her. That solved one of the main things I had come to this forest for.

The stealth spell.

But it would be better if I could learn it too. Knowing one spell made it much easier to cast magic. Mana had to be willing for you to do it after all. Not knowing any spells made it very difficult to gain mana’s attention.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Mana would only answer your call if it found you interesting. Or if it should do so under the mana system it had put in place. Getting either of those would be difficult as it stood.

I sighed as I looked around. Elena would probably take a while. I should take that time to practice -

“This is very strange.” Elena suddenly said, almost making me jump in surprise.

“Wait, you’re already out?” I asked before I could help it. That was fast, very fast.

“Am I not supposed to be?”

“Well…” How did I answer that? The amount of time it took to learn a spell was dependent on how much mana talent you had. Elena had to be bursting with it to have learned the spell so fast.

“This was just much faster than I expected.” I replied. “That’s a good thing, it means you have a lot of talent.”

Elena just looked at me with a blank expression on her face. So she was suspicious of me again. How nice.

“I suppose we should start walking again.” I said, changing the topic.

“Yes.” And there was that tone. The girl tried very hard to act like she had no emotions.

The two of us started walking again, the silence even more awkward than before. The air grew heavier as we walked, and I could almost sense mana in the air. I was sure Elena was already sensing it.

This place had far more mana than the Eldanveir mansion. I didn't really have anything else to compare it with, but I was pretty sure this mana level was high. Perhaps too high. I hoped that did not mean anything scary awaited us. Not while I still did know any magic, or have ways to defend myself.

“So, how does Darkness mana feel like?” I asked.

Elena looked at me in confusion.

“Mana has emotions.” I continued. “Darkness mana should feel like a particular emotion. That should help in using it.”

Elena’s steps slowed as a thoughtful expression appeared on her face. The light seemed to fade as mana slowly revolved around her, as if having a conversation with her.

“Like stabbing a bad man in the heart.” she said after a few minutes. “Like seeing him bleed out on the ground with no one coming to save him. That is what mana feels like. Darkness mana feels like revenge.”

I stopped walking. The answer was just that unexpected to me. Darkness mana felt like revenge. That was…surprising. And not at the same time. In a way it made sense. The Duke was after revenge. And he was very powerful.

What about Leif then? What did he want revenge for? Or was it just the death? Elena had mentioned it. Was it the killing that actually powered it? Was Darkness mana just mana that wanted to kill people?

Elena tapped me, a disapproving expression on her face. The expression on her face told me that I should keep walking.

“Oh, sorry.” I said, starting to move again. Elena did not reply, but she did start walking even faster. I followed. The speed did not seem much to me, for some reason. This body seemed to have much more strength than my previous one.

Not that it actually helped me. I didn’t know how to fight. Now that I think of it, I should get something to fight with. For some reason I had not expected to fight in this forest. The rabbit had proven me wrong. A fight was coming. I had to prepare for it. The question was how.

A weapon, clearly. Not a knife or sword, since I wouldn’t find one around here. But there had to be something else I could use. I looked down as I walked, keeping an eye out for any stones or sticks that I could use.

There were none. This was a forest. There were so many trees around us that their branches intertwined with each other. There was barely any sunlight coming down, making it seem quite dark even in the morning. The ground should be littered with leaves and stones. There should be grass, insects and even wildflowers.

There were none. The forest floor was flat, flatter than most roads on earth. A silent reminder that I was in a magical forest.

There was magic here, even if it wasn’t currently acting against me. Just one wrong step, and who knew what could happen. Or what the rest of these tests would have in store for me.

I needed a way to defend myself. And sticks and stones would not cut it. Not that I had any of those to use either. Gulping as I realized my situation, I reached out. Mana was around me.

Darkness mana.

Mana that wanted to kill things. If I could really feel the emotion, mana would reach out to me. Or at least notice me, and that could lead to it taking an interest in me. I needed it to happen just about now.

Who was it that I wanted to kill? Leif. Why? Cause otherwise he would kill me. I thought back to when he had killed my maid. When he had left me there, terrified and looking over a pool of blood.

I thought of the things he had done in the book, what he would do if he lived. The guy was a problem. A killer. A monster that I needed to kill before he killed me. I felt the mana around me, reaching out to it with these thoughts in my mind.

A pressure appeared around me. I smiled, despite myself, willing the mana to shoot towards the ground in the form of a bullet. Mana did not move.

The pressure continued increasing.

I tried again, a frown coming to my face. Mana still did not respond to me. The pressure was not because of my mana sensing. The timing was just a coincidence.

This was something else.

“Elena.” I began.

“I know.” she interrupted me. “There is someone—several someones watching us.”

Oh, I did not know that one.

Were we seeing different things?

Why would we be seeing different—oh shit.

I did not have time to react. I didn't even have time to process it. The second I realized we were in an illusion, my surroundings disappeared. Just darkness remained. One tree appeared beside me, emerging from the darkness like a pillar fading into view.

Another appeared in front of me, and then one behind my back. The trees continued appearing until they formed a circle around me.

The trees were clearly visible like they had been in the sunlight, but the darkness around them was black. The kind of black that was seen in deep holes that seemed to have no end. The kind of black that just screamed the fact that monsters were hidden inside it.

The kind of black that scared me.

As if conjured by my words, two red eyes appeared from between the trees. I took a step back. The red eyes moved forward. A white foot moved out of the darkness. And then another.

A head appeared around the eyes, white fur covering what could have been a cute face. The rest of the body appeared soon after. The same white fur I had seen before. The same eyes that looked down on me. A smile that made me want to punch it in the face.

This was the rabbit from test 1. And that meant -

Test 2 has begun.

Please die.