After Mr. Auger finished complaining about Kerr being the new Chief, the old geezer showed up and said that he will be assisting during the discussion. I'll tell you what, I've only had two run-ins with Mr. Auger... and not once did he ever look as happy as he does now. It seems he really didn't want to talk with Kerr alone.

Once they left for the carriages to discuss in private, Victor made his way over to me.

'How can one person be so massive? Even his shadow is freakin huge!!'

As Victor stood over me, I started to get intimidated. How could I not though, when a 7'9 human being who is pure muscle stands over you... you're bound to get a little intimidated. Not to mention that he's not wearing a shirt, so it makes his muscles even more visible. I'm guessing they probably just couldn't find a shirt that fit him... luckily they found pants though.

'You know, the more I look at him, the more I think he's not originally from the Empire. Unlike everyone else in the Envoy, he has dark skin and isn't particularly great at speaking the Empire's language… makes me think it's not his original. Guess I'll have to ask Mr. Auger later, don't want to offend the big guys' feelings.'

"Hey Victor, have I ever told you that bandanna you put over your bald head looks super cool?" I said with a sly smirk.

"Ha, I know!" He responded.

'Don't get mad yet Hakkar, if you shower him with compliments he'll teach you the good stuff.'

[Day 1]

After that initial compliment, Victor brought me west of the village, which was just an open field. This is where Mr. Auger showed me his barrier magic last time, even the ground where the collision happened is still destroyed.

"Ok, boss told me to teach you!" He said while looking at me.

"Yeah... I already know that." I responded.

"Good! So then... for the first day, we... will do mana training. Just watch me." He instructed me.

'Alright! Hopefully, he's a good teacher.'

As I was getting excited about training, Victor walked over to a tree and punched it as hard as he could.

The tree wound up breaking and flying through the air. As I watched with my mouth wide open from shock, Victor walked over and showed me his knuckle.

"You see?" He said.

On the middle of his knuckle was a small 'injury' the size of an ant.

'Is that it? After punching a tree clean in half... all you got was a tiny scratch?!!'

As I wallowed in sadness, Victor pointed to the 'injury', and out of nowhere, blue particles started to enter it. After a second, the 'injury' was gone and his hand looked like it was back to 100%.

'What was that? Is it the technique that he wants me to learn?'

"Did you see?" He said while looking at me.

"Yeah I saw, but what exactly happened?" I questioned.

"That's easy... when you injure you're body, just absorb the natural mana around you to heal it." Victor explained.

"First of all... when did you get so... smart? Second of all, how exactly am I supposed to do it?" I said with a confused face.

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"Common sense... now punch that tree." He said smugly.

"Common sense, punch a tree." I mocked Victor as I walked over to the tree.

After standing in front of the tree for a couple of seconds, I ended up punching it with all my force. It hurt, but since I've already been punching trees to up my pain tolerance, it didn't feel all too bad.

'Seems my skin stayed intact because my punches aren't too strong. I guess I'll have to punch it some more.'

After looking at my fist for a while longer, I started to punch the tree repeatedly. Not long after, my knuckles began to bleed, so I stopped to show Victor.

"Hey Victor, now that my knuckles are bleeding, what should I do?" I asked while showing him my hands.

"Feel the natural mana and heal it." He said casually.

'I'm getting sick of this... Can't Mr. Auger come over and teach me already? He actually explains things to me... unlike... this guy.'

Knowing he wouldn't explain any more than he already had, I sat cross-legged on the ground and tried pulling mana into the wound.

I was unsuccessful, in fact, I was unsuccessful for a little over 5 hours. That was until I finally felt a little something floating around me. Since I've never used mana before, I didn't know what to look out for or how to even control it. Although, after I sensed a portion of it, I started to sense all of the particles that were around me.

The only problem was... I didn't know how to pull them in. I tried asking Victor, but he just shrugged me off and said it was common sense. I'm not sure where he gets off saying this is common sense, but I guess that just means he's a natural.

'If Victor can somehow do it, then that means I can do it too!'

When I thought that, I sat back on the ground and tried again. Yet again it took me over 5 hours to finally understand the process behind pulling the mana in. At first, I thought you had to use your mind to pull the mana in, but that wasn't working. Next, I moved on to envisioning the mana entering my body, but that too didn't work.

In the end, I started to get discouraged before I tried the last technique. I've never used the mana I possess in my body, since there isn't much of it, but in the end, I got desperate. I decided to let my mana seep out, to see if I needed to have room for more mana to enter. In the end, it was a failure of an idea, but in doing this action I learned something... I can move mana around like arms and grab other mana particles.

Why I never thought that mana can be the only thing to influence mana, is beyond me, but now that I know, it makes everything easier.

"Hey, I'm hungry." Victor said from behind me.

"Shut up... I think I'm on to something." I responded without even looking at him.

'Ok, so now that I've figured out how to influence the natural mana around me, all I have to do is actually try it.'

Closing my eyes, I felt the natural mana around me and started to pull it toward my hand. It took a long time, but after a while, it entered my wounds and eventually closed them shut.

"Ha, it actually worked!" I yelled out.

"Oh I forgot to men-" Victor tried saying.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Pain. I felt excruciating pain throughout my entire body for over ten minutes. I wish I passed out, but for some reason, I didn't. In the end, I could only roll on the ground clutching my stomach.

After it was done, I just laid on the ground, unmoving from fear of it starting again.

"What... was that?" I huffed out.

"Yeah, I forgot to mention that." Victor said scratching his neck.

"Just tell me what happened already." I said while starting to get impatient.

"It's what the Empire refers to as 'Mana Shock'. It's when an outside mana source enters your body, and clashes with the preexisting mana inside your core. All you have to do is raise your proficiency in mana control, and this little issue fades away like it was never there. With that being said, I'd start working on your ability to control mana, both in... and out. After you feel you've progressed far enough in that... then I'll teach you the 'Mana Strengthing' technique." Mr. Auger said as he stood above me.

"Wow, look who finally decided to show up! Did you even plan on coming for the first day of training?" I said with a scowl on my face.

"Nope, and it's not because I hate you. It's because I wanted to see how well you did with little to no help." He said with a smile.

"Well... how did I do?" I said still lying on the ground.

"Above average, but since it was Victor teaching you... I'd say you did pretty well. Unfortunately, you're not some sort of genius, but I guess you're worth teaching." He said while walking away.

"Above average, huh." I said under my breath.

"Now come on, you guys haven't left this side of the village for hours, it's time to eat. Today we're having food specially prepared by Miss Monica." Mr. Auger said while looking over his shoulder.

"Yay, food!!" Victor screamed out.

"Heh, trying to get on my good side are you?" I said as I got up and started walking toward Mr. Auger.

As we walked, I couldn't stop thinking about Mr. Auger's words. They kept ringing in my head over and over.

'Above average... it seems I'll have to step up my game starting tomorrow.'