The second time the four and I met, things were… very lackluster. They only came for one lecture about mana and aura, ate my food, and dipped. Of course, they’re still scared of me.

And now… I don’t know. I had a whole lesson plan prepared, but I screwed it all up once I made myself look like a psycho just because I wanted to be “mysterious.” Well, I’ll just have to work with it.

It’s been 30 minutes, and… nothing yet. They’re an hour late now. Where the hell are they?

What can I do to pass the time…?

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

It turns out I don’t have to waste time anymore.

I have my table set up with the food in the courtyard… front yard? I have no idea what’s this part called., I get up from my chair and turn to the entrance in front of the house.

There is Atlas, knocking for the four of them.

“We’re here,” Lance says. “Sorry, we’re late.”

“Yes, you are. But no matter. We have all the time in the world. I thought you weren’t gonna show up.” I say, using my magic to move chairs back. “[Heat]” I cast, with my hand facing the table, as I begin heating the food that I prepared.

“We’re late because the hunt ended late as well, and we had to set up tents, and we already ate,” Lance explains.

“Sorry? You already ate?” I ask, raising my eyebrow. Man… If it weren’t for the agreement that I don’t spy on Mike’s camp and he doesn’t spy on mine, I’d have known that they have eaten.

“Y-yes, sorry a-about that…” Lance replies, looking down, to avoid my eyes.

“You have nothing to apologize for. Shall we begin?” I ask. As I open a portal next to the table, leading to the dining room, then move the table with magic into the room, leaving only the chairs behind. “Last meeting, I gave you a choice for today’s agenda. T or T? Training or Teaching? What’s your choice?”

The four looked at each other, Lance steps in forward. “We made a vote, and we wanted to train. Thanks to the teaching you gave us three months ago, Sara can cast fireballs. I can’t say the same for us. We still don’t know how to use them.”

“Then, why ask for training? Learning the basics is very crucial to… basically anything.” I gesture to them to sit on the four adjacent chairs, as I sit on the only chair in front of the four chairs. “You might tap into your Innate Aura, and use your lifespan, and there are places where Mana concentration is very thin. You need the basics to adapt to all kinds of situations, and prevent worst-case scenarios.” I watch the four of them sit on their chairs. The boys on the end chairs and the girls in are on the middle chairs, and of course.

“We know the importance of the basics, Aleph,” Sara says, sharply. “But we need more than the basics right now. You said Aura and Mana allow us to do very great feats. I was hoping to do more, learning about what feats can we can do, and how to do them. ”

“You’re asking for something that will take years to explain, dear mage. Aura has many applications, and Magic has many branches– Let me ask you something, what do you want to accomplish? What are your motives to learn magic?” I ask.

“Well…” She stops to think. “I guess… I have two things that I want to do.”

“Yeah? What is it? Maybe we can figure out what branch of magic to learn in order to achieve it. Same as you three.” I say with enthusiasm, smiling widely.

“I want to reverse Mike’s age. And I want to make Demonic Fruits.” She says, with conviction, while at the same time, looking at me with hostile eyes. I guess she sees me as a necessary enemy. Wait… Like…

“Fruits that give you powers? That’s… kind of… counterproductive, don’t you think?” I scratch my head.

“What do you mean?” Ana asks, moving her seat close to Atlas. “These fruits can give people powers, with only one weakness, why not?”

“That’s because Magic can do more than what the fruit can deliver, without having any downsides,” I respond.

“Creating these fruits… will take Botanical Magic to create fruits, Alchemy Magic to apply these powers to the fruits, it needs to be rare so, Willpower Magic or Animation Magic is needed to bring these fruits to life, and essentially, you need to learn and master everything, If you want to recreate every single fruit,” I say sternly.

As much as I want to let her do it, there are other things that she can put her mind to. She might die of old age before even completing it… “Reversing the time on your friend’s age. Both Magic and Aura can do that. Healing Magic or Abjuration Magic might just work, but you can learn Alchemy Magic if you want to make potions or an elixir to rejuvenate your friend.”

Sara nods at what I’ve said. “I see. I’m not giving up on my dreams just yet just because of what you’ve said.” She pulls out a handmade notebook from her robe and writes on it.

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t tell you that it’s hard, but good luck.” I smile at her, before looking at the others. “Well? What about you three? What are the things you want to do with magic or Aura?”

The three began to avoid my gaze, rubbing the back of their heads, their arms, their sides…

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You don’t have aspirations for the future, like Sara? For shame…” I chuckle. Obviously, I’m joking, but I don’t think they see it the same way I do. “Sorry. Survival is also a good reason to learn, but it is not enough. You can survive already without using Mana or Aura. Surely you want to do something great. Like, uh…. Grow a house! Or pierce 7 Fox Bears or Stone Wolves with one arrow! Be able to fly! Talk to animals! Become an animal! The possibilities are endless. I’m here to incite your curiosity, and explore more!” I say with enthusiasm, their expressions glow up. “Don’t you think it’s weird that the animals you hunt are… “normal”? I bet you don’t know what a Fox Bear is, do you?”

“A-Are you spying on us?” Ana asks with a surprised tone.

“Only when you hunt. Not when you and atlas are smooching– I’m not helping my case aren’t I?” An awkward silence ensues as Atlas blushes while Ana glares at me, which is rightfully valid. “Let’s just begin training. Sara, please stand up. The others, please move to the side.” I clap my hands when Sara stands up. I move the chairs to the side of the front yard while they are still sitting on them.

“Okay! Sara, please fire a fireball at me! Let me take a look at how you managed to do it. For the others, please try to learn to sense either Mana or Aura. If you have the affinity, you can sense both, if not just try one of them.”

Sara nods, as she moves a couple of steps back, as she grips her staff, and raises it upward.

“Flame, burn bright, lend me your power, so I can fight, fix the errors, make it right, Flame, burn bright. [Fireball]!”

As she chanted, a red magic circle appears at the top of her staff, with the interlac alphabet forming words on the magic circle. A bright orange fireball flies at me with incredible speed.

“Wind, cool the fire in front of me down, [Gust]” A weak gust of wind flies out of my hand, intercepting the fireball. The fireball that is flying at me, starts to become smaller, and smaller until it disappears into nothing before it even hits me.

“Wait! Why is your chanting time short?” Sara runs to close the distance in front of me.

“Understanding magic is understanding the laws of nature. Magic and Aura are powered by the mind. Whatever idea of what a fireball is in your mind, Magic tries to understand it and translates it into an understandable language, applies it in a magic circle, then creates whatever fireball of your mind thinks. Many factors decide the strength, speed, and size of our fireball, many factors also decide the casting speed, the amount of mana it takes, and the effect of your fireball. Let me break your chant down.” I move back the free chair behind Sara and use my mana to create a solid mana wall, to use as my board.

I start writing her chant down.

“Okay! Let’s start the dissection.” I make a pointer out of wood to point at her chant. “Chanting is the method of using mana to turn words or sentences into a magic circle. There are two parts to the chant. Words of Creation, and Words of Execution. Words of Creation is the chant itself, while Words of Execution is the name of the spell, the product of your chant.” I point at the first part of the chant. “Oh, uh, using the Words of Execution only is also a method to chant, but it will be the weakest version of that spell.”

“’Fire, Burn Bright.’ This makes your fireball have a bright orange fire, this does not mean that the fireball, is very hot. Why did you repeat the phrase? Is it because you wanted it to burn brighter than it is? Or do you just want it to rhyme?” I ask, turning my head towards Sara.

“It’s the former. I thought that multiplying a part twice will strengthen it too.” She replies, I nod before looking at the board again.

“’Lend me your power, so I can fight’ is… how do I say this, redundant? You’re already using shaping mana to create a fireball, the power is already yours, and you’re already fighting. You can use, ‘Engulf my enemies’ or ‘set my enemies ablaze’ to intensify the fireball, and to add the effect, that it will burn longer once it hits the enemy.” I explain, she nods as she writes down in her notebook.

“’Fix the errors, Make it right’ Hmm… I don’t know whether this is good because you’re telling your fireball to become a useable spell, or bad because it’s very vague. What errors? What would the mana do to make it right? Try to experiment with this, and I can assure you, your fireball will be stronger.” Sara jots down in her notebook as I continue.

“In conclusion, your chant should be something to a command or a description of what your spell is, or both, to create a better or an improved version of a spell.”

“I see, I understand. Can I try again?” She closes her notebook, putting it back in her robe, as she steps back a couple of times.

“If I say no, are you gonna comply?” I ask.

“No.” She says with a smile. “Fire, become a ball, and burn my enemy. [Fireball]!” She chants, and a red magic circle forms on her staff as she points it toward me. Then a fireball blitzes through the air, flying at me with immense speed.

“Water, Protect me, and engulf all fire, [Water Wall]!” I chant quickly, while I open my hand, then water sprays out of my hands with immense force, forming a large wall. Once the fireball impacts the wall, it boils the water as the wall engulfs the ball before losing its form and falling to the ground, making a huge, hot puddle.

“Amazing. Your ability to learn is tremendous.” I say, clapping. “Here. Take this. The Words of Executions, or names of common chants of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth Magic. Your task is to create chants of it, and you might get inspiration and create your own spells.” I open a portal on my desk in my bedroom. I stick my hand in, getting 4 different books. I hand one to Sara, and I walk to the three. “You three aren’t having any progress yes? Maybe this could motivate you.” I show them the covers of the leftover books.

“Arrow Aura, and Archery Magic”

“Lance Aura, Lightning Magic, And Lightning Spear Arts”

“Shield Aura, Barrier Magic, and Steel Mountain Arts”

“Something caught your eyes, Lady and Gentlemen?” I ask, with a smile on my face.

“Heh, more like rubbed on our faces,” Ana says.

“Well, you’ll be able to get them, once you learn the basics of either one, maybe both.” I put them back in the portal, back on my desk. “Thank you all for tonight. I could’ve assisted you, in attaining the basics, but you were late, and it’s getting late. Sara, you’re still learning the basics too, so you better not slack off.” I say as I gesture for everyone to leave.

“I hope for you all to learn more, see you in three months,” I say.

“W-wait.” Lance stands up from the chair. “Where did you get those books?”

I did not expect that question.

“U-uh… Well… I got them in the Tower.” I answer honestly. King, the one in charge of managing how mana and aura act, made them for me.

“The Tower? Like… the same tower that caged the 6 of the Primordial 7?” Ana asks.

“Yes, uh… How did you know about that story?” I nod, before asking them

“Mike told it to us. In the final battle between Humans and Monsters, The Queen eliminates all humans above the surface and severely injures the First Human. The First Human had done the same to the Monsters, eradicating them all. The First Human uses all of his powers to bring out A Human outside this world. An Outer Human, Mike says. Before The First Human succumbs to his injuries, he tells the Outer Human to imprison the others, and he does so.” Lance answers.

“So that’s how he told it.” I nod to myself.

“What do you mean?” Lance asks, trying to probe a response from me.

“It’s nothing. Get home safely, and get some sleep.” I reach to pat Lance’s back as they start leaving one by one.

I need to tell Mike that the seeds of doubt have been sown, and it’s time for phase 3.