Alec panted as he leapt left and right, his blade held unsheathed in his hands in a white-knuckled grip. A thin layer of sweat coated his form and a small bead rolled down his temple as he lurched back to avoid the pillar of stone that arched out of the ground towards his head just when he had begun to get a little too used to dealing with the attacks coming from above.

“Is this all you have, Mr Dius?” Alexandar asked in amusement as he stood off on the side of the road, an eyebrow raised and a grin stretching his lips.

Above him, floating in the air almost lazily, sat fifteen magic circles continually gathering, condensing and firing golf ball sized balls of mana at the teen. At the very worst they would give him some pretty mild burns with the amount of power that Alexandar was packing into them, but with fifteen of them firing and the speed they fired at, Alec would be in for a world of hurt if he allowed them to hit him.

“Why are we even doing this!? Aren’t you just meant to be an assistant!?” Alec yelled, slashing at one of the mana beads on instinct and blinking in surprise as his edge hit true, and the ball fizzled out of existence.

Only to have to immediately hop back a couple times to avoid seven more beads that careened towards his location.

“Indeed, I am! An assistant that’s meant to teach you things so that you’re more likely to survive as a solo adventurer.” Alexandar answered, clearly smug as the teen used his newfound knowledge to slash through the next two beads hurled at him and even manage to pinpoint thrust the third.

Though the brief moment of reflexive competence was over basically as quickly as it began, as the edge of Alec’s next strike was angled just a few degrees too low. Letting the bead roll along the flat of Alec’s blade and nearly strike him right in the face, only singing a few strands of hair instead thanks to a quick jerk of his head.

“Don’t get complacent now, Mr Dius!”

“I know!” Alec shot back, crouching low as two beads flew overhead, his blade swiping out to take out three beads in a line right before one of them struck him in the ribs, just below his armpit.

The searing pain immediately made the teen’s teeth grit and all the muscles in his torso tense up involuntarily at once. But, rather impressively to the elderly adventurer given Alec’s rank, he managed to avoid being struck by the next four beads. Though it was obvious the singular bead and the damage it had inflicted were distracting Alec, with two of the four follow-up attacks getting closer to the teen than they should have, given his previous agility and reflexes.

And while Alexandar thought about ending the ‘training’ here for the day, he stayed his hand and instead decided to keep watching. The man was curious if Alec had anything else to pull out or if he was truly done.

Adjusting the firing speed of a few of his magic circles minutely, he kept up the pressure on the late teen as he continued to dodge and strike the beads as best as he could. His blade was near-constantly in motion as he moved around, shifted his weight and generally just attacked and parried with it.

And finally, the fruits of Alexandar’s firing speed tweak came to fruition, with all fifteen magic circles beginning to coalesce mana at the exact same time. Alec’s eyes widening in shock and surprise as he realised what was happening just a moment before they all fired, the injury on his side flaring up as if in warning of what penalty he would incur if he was struck by any of them.

‘Shit I’m not fast enough to deal with this many in the time they’ll take to hit me. What is Alexandar trying to teach me with this!? How to deal with pain!?’ Alec thought to himself, trying desperately to think of a way out of this situation.

‘Blocking? No way my longsword might break and it's nowhere near large enough. Striking? There’s no way I can hit fifteen targets in a single second!’

The magic circles all ceased their intake of mana, Alec’s eyes widening as a gleam of understanding shone through them. All fifteen beads flying towards Alec and exploding into small motes of mana and dust that lazily clung in a small dome around the teen.

“Heh. It seems like you figured it out, Mr Dius. Though your skills weren’t quite enough to pull a technique that advanced out on your first try, I’m afraid.” Alexandar spoke up with a teasing grin as we waved a hand and dispersed the dust cloud in its entirety to reveal the seventeen-year-old.

The teen stood at what Alexandar knew to be the ending stance of a sword swing, or in the teens case, multiple sword swings. His body frozen in that position, as if his joints were locked and refused to shift even a millimetre, though the old man wasn’t surprised to see that; Alec had taken a solid five of his beads head on after all.

The mage had no doubts that the pain wracking his form right now was quite a mental shutdown, at least based on the burns that he could now see over the teen’s skin, through the holes that they had burnt in his clothing.

To take some mercy on the teen, the man held a hand out and used some magic to repair the holes in his clothes. Of course, said repairs came in the form of a single uniform material that didn’t at all match the material of his clothing, but it covered all the damage and would keep the elements out. As far as Alexandar was concerned, that was a job well done.

‘Besides, aren’t Copper’s all about looking rugged and like they’re down to their last coin?’ Alexandar thought amusedly to himself.

“How are you doing, Mr Dius? You’re looking a little patchy in my own opinion.” Alexandar asked with a small bit of levity mixed in, the smile on his features clearly showing his teasing pride in his joke.

“T-There was slight... variations in the fire. C-Could have hit….m-multiple…a-at once.” Alec croaked, his eyes still staring at the ground as his blade began to tremble.

“There was. Good job on noticing that at the end. Most mages will have a variance in their firing speed, you’ll find.”

“C-Cool….Y-You ruined my clothes…you…asss.” Alec slurred a little as his blade tumbled out of his weak fingertips and he slowly began to sink to the ground, his muscles no longer able to keep him up but also too tense to just let him collapse.

Which was probably for the best, simply collapsing onto the ground was sure to irritate all of his burns rather painfully.

“Alright alright, no need to call me names.” Alexandar chuckled as he walked closer. “Let’s get you patched up, and we can go over teaching you Mend as I do.”

“E-eh?” Alec managed to tilt his head just enough to raise an eyebrow at the man so he could see it.

“You seem confused, Mr Dius. Mind informing this old man why?” He asked with a small grin, a soft green glow beginning to emanate from his hand as he placed it on the teen's shoulder, taking a knee beside him.

“Gods that feels so good…” Alec sighed in relief as he felt the spell beginning to slowly heal the burns over his body, the injuries still there but a mild pain killing effect built into the spell flowing through his body.

“I’m sure it will, would you mind answering my question or should I just go ignored after my generosity?” Alexandar joked, his grin only growing wider at the small glare that the teen shot him in response.

“I can’t use magic, Alexandar…”

“Of course, not yet. That’s why we have to activate it first.” Alexandar replied, as if Alec was dumb for not thinking of it.

And either Alec was dumb because he was missing something, or Alexandar was somehow missing something. Because Alec had never heard of ‘unlocking’ the ability to use magic before, either you were born with the ability to use mana, or you weren’t. There was no inbetween…right?

“Activate? Alexandar being able to use mana-“

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Is something you’re born with, right? What a load of poppycock. Have you never heard the stories of surges of mana when people are on death’s door?”

“Wha- of course I have. But that’s just people with the ability that have never used it before.”

“Not quite.” Alexandar hummed, tilting his head from side to side. “It’s true that some people are born with the natural talent to bring forth and control mana. But everyone has the capability to use it, it's just that by the time you reach the age of ten, your ability to bring it forth becomes ‘locked’ for lack of a better term.”

“I’ve tried using it before, Alexandar. There was nothing.”

“No no, Mr Dius. You just found nothing. Trust me there’s a difference.” He gave the teen a wink as he continued to heal the injuries that he, himself, had given him. “At 17 your mana would have long since become idle in your body. Stagnant might be a better word. So outside of a near death, or truly lethal experience, the chance of you bringing it forth are, practically, zero.”

“Gee, thanks Alexandar. I’m feeling so much better about what you’re about to throw me at.” The teen grouched, giving the man a flat look that got a long, hearty, laugh in response.

“No no. I’m not going to use either of those methods, Mr Dius. Far too dangerous and rather damaging for your mental state too. Gladia found that out the hard way a good few generations back.”

“Well, they are pretty militaristic…” Alec mumbled, remembering some of the stories he had heard of Gladia’s history.

“Oh, incredibly so. But they’ve worked on that a little in recent years. You’ll find a lot more arts and literature and such nowadays.” Alexandar waved his free hand flippantly as he spoke, closing his eyes and giving a small shrug.

“Ok, so…?”

“So, Mr Dius. What we’re going to do is the faster, but more painful method to ‘shock’ your mana out of its stagnation.”

“Could we not do the slower and less painful method?” Alec asked, looking at the elderly man with a thinly veiled gleam of hope in his eyes.

“Nope. We don’t have the time, and I don’t have the patience.” He chirped happily, getting a morose sigh from the teen as he sagged.

For a few moments the two were totally silent as Alexandar just worked on healing the teen, nearly finished with the endeavour by the time Alec spoke up once more.

“So, how painful are we talking here?”

“Hmmm. From what I’ve heard it can range from a blistering sunburn over your entire body to the feeling of ants biting you constantly from head to toe, and everything in between.”

“That sounds like torture.” Alec deadpanned, giving the elderly man a vaguely dark look from under his eyelashes as he just huffed and shrugged in a ‘what can you do?’ type motion.

“Well, it’s not like pain has ever killed anybody before, Mr Dius.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“And I was only trying to make you feel better.” The mage sighed, as if his life’s work had been brought to ruin by the teen.

“You failed.”

“Oh well. But we’re still doing it. Being able to use your mana is a major boon, no matter how painful the initial burst will be.”

“I guess you have a point…” The teen muttered, memories of his friends coming to mind and the spells they could use.

“Of course, I do. And look at that, all healed!” The man cheered, taking his hand off the teen’s shoulder only to bring it down in a solid clap.

“Thank you, I guess. I suppose you’ll want to do this right now?” Alec questioned, standing up and rolling his shoulder a little, looking at the patchwork shirt he now wore and feeling very thankful he had taken his cuirass off for this training.

“The sooner the better, I say.”

“Ugh.” Alec groaned, not looking forward to the pain that was lying in his immediate future. “You have a point but I’m not looking forward to this.”

“I think I’d be more surprised if you were.” Alexandar chuckled as he, too, stood up while dusting himself off.

“So, anything I should know beforehand? Other than, it’s going to hurt like a bitch?” Alec asked, resting his weight on one leg and shooting an unimpressed look at the older man as he cut off the joke that he knew would be coming his way.

“Ruin my fun.” Alexandar mumbled, like a small child that had his toy taken away. “But yes, actually. This particular method, given its quick nature, will flare all your mana at once. Not only that but the attribute of your mana will be on full blast during this. So don’t feel too discouraged when you can’t output as much mana afterwards, and your attribute’s expression isn’t anywhere near as potent as it is during the initial burst.”

“Eh? Wait. Hold on. I get what you’re saying but what is an attribute?”

“Good question! Everyone’s mana has a natural attribute to it. Think something like a person whose mana has the attribute of ‘heat’ or someone like me, who has an attribute of ‘life’. These attributes mostly go unnoticed but can, at times, provide meaningful improvements to certain spells.”

“Oh, ok.” Alec mumbled, having not expected it to be something so simple given the complex topic he knew mana to be.

“Exactly! So, ready to begin?” Alexandar asked animatedly, grinning wider at the small breath the teen let out, seemingly to try and prepare himself.

“Not really but let’s do this I guess.”

“That’s the spirit. Now just try and relax as best you can. What I’m going to do is lay my hand on your chest and pulse my mana into you with my attribute as potent as I can make it. This will cause a reflexive ‘defence’ from your mana which will make it flare around you at full force.”

“Alright, got it. I’ll try not to freak out.”

“Just do your best, Mr Dius.” Alexandar encouraged him, before suddenly Alec’s chest was on fire.

It’s like his very being was fighting against Alexandar’s mana, and based on the old man’s explanation it was. He could feel the pace of his breathing quickening and his muscles tensing involuntarily. A sense of energy, of power, beginning to flow into and fill his body.

‘This…This is it? This is it! My mana! This is what it feels like?’ Alec thought, his panic fading for just a moment at the joy of having some way to catch up to where his friends had been when he had left them.

‘Good. His mana is reacting properly and waking up. A few more seconds should do-‘

Alexandar’s internal thoughts were cut off by the paper cut that formed on the back of his hand, from the thenar webspace between his thumb and index finger, back around to his wrist.

‘That was caused by his mana?’ Alexandar thought, another three paper cuts appeared over his index, middle and pinky finger respectively.

The man knew what would happen if he kept his hand on the teen’s chest for too much longer, an almost prophetic vision playing in his mind as he prepared himself for what was about to happen.

“Hah! You never cease to surprise me, Mr Dius.” Alexandar barked in amusement as the hand, which had previously rested very calmly on the teens chest, began to splay out a little further as a magic circle appeared wrapped around the mage’s elbow.

And with the sound of shattering metal, the newly awakened mana of Alec poured out of his every pore and orifice. A resplendent metallic silver that, in any other situation Alexandar would have been awed at. But instead, the man’s attention was only on one thing, the attribute of the teen’s mana, and the potency that it flared out of him with.

The instant the teen’s mana met the flesh of Alexandar’s hand and arm, cuts began to form all over it. Each cut small and each cut shallow but stacked over each other further and further, the size and depth of each cut growing as the flaring mana grew in size. Blood splattered over both teen and old man equally as the intensity of the cuts and slashes only grew; the warm, metallic, life-essence covering the curve of Alec’s jaw and his lower face with a few splatters reaching as high as his eyebrows.

Cobalt blue eyes widened in horror as the situation dawned on him, the realisation of what was happening and that he was the cause of it. Quicker than he had ever moved in his entire life, the teen’s hand snapped up to grab the shredded remains on the man’s arm and tried to throw it away. The deep brown eyes of Alexandar widening in surprise as his arm, and the rest of him by proxy, were thrown backwards by the teen, blood pouring down his raised arm as he stumbled back a few steps.

“A-Alexandar! Shit! I’m so sorry!” Alec shouted, his breathing starting to grow deeper and more frequent as his hands came up to either side of his head, his gaze locked on the mangled limb of his assistant adventurer.

Around him, his mana continued to flare, as if a beast snapping at anything that even seemed as if it would dare to try and harm its master. Glinting and shining in the sunlight around him as the very air buzzed with power and a danger that Alexandar had seldom seen just from an individual’s attribute.

‘It looks like I managed to awaken all of his mana before he threw me off, that’s good. But colour me surprised, Mr Dius. You have far from the most mana out of all the adventurer’s I’ve done this for but without a shadow of a doubt you’ve done the most damage to me.’ Alexandar thought, a small grin spreading across his lips as the magic circle around his elbow continued to lazily circle it, the cuts and slashes the furthest up his arm beginning to slowly mend themselves and seal shut.

And in one last flare-up, the mana around Alec dissipated entirely, leaving only a worried, immensely remorseful teen in its wake. The young swordsman taking a step forward while opening his mouth, no doubt to spew out some apology that Alexandar didn’t care for, only for his foot to fall right off the edge of the small island he had been standing on.

With a high-pitched yelp, the teen tumbled off the earthen island he stood upon and into the rough, gouged out, crater that surrounded it. A hard ‘thud’ reaching Alec’s own ears as he struck the incline of the crater face first, with his body crumpling into the slump in between rather unceremoniously as a small, unconscious, whine left his lips.

“After that showing of attribute potency, I personally wouldn’t have gone with such a clumsy act. But to each their own, I suppose.” Alexandar commented with a small shrug, laughing a little at the rude hand gesture Alec shot him while crawling to his feet.

“Alexandar are you-“

“Pah! I’ll be fine, I already have a regeneration spell working on it. It’ll just take some time to fix all the damage you did.” Alexandar waved off his worry easily practically able to see the guilt that flowed off the teen.

And already Alec could tell he was telling the truth, with the bleeding slowing right before his eyes and the damage that his own mana had caused slowly beginning to knit itself back together.

“T-That’s good…But what is this crater…?” Alec mumbled, standing up fully and looking around at the somewhat shallow, donut-shaped, crater that he had fallen into.

“It was created by your mana.”

“Eh?” Alec’s gaze snapped from the crater to Alexandar in the blink of an eye, his eyes blown wide, and his eyebrows raised into his bangs.

“Your mana, Mr Dius. Its slashes did not discriminate, it cut into everything in range other than yourself. Honestly such a blatantly offensive attribute is enviable if you can train it back up to this strength, or better.”

“I…did this?” Alec muttered, unsure whether he felt proud, shocked, sick or some combination of the three as he stared at the damage to the ground.

“You did, and don’t ever forget it. You’ll meet plenty of people in your travels that will have far larger mana reserves, heck I’ve awakened quite a few young adventurers with more, but only you have ever done this much damage to me during the process.”

“That’s- I don’t want to be proud of hurting an ally…”

“Well, you should be.” Alexandar scoffed, as if Alec’s worry for his allies was unfounded. “It’s not permanent, I knew it would happen and still went through with it, and it made you stronger. What’s wrong with that situation?”

“I…hurt you.”

“And it’s healing. Now stop worrying and come over here, I need to teach you Mend and then we can work on some mana control.” Alexandar spoke, gesturing for the teen to come over all while healing his other arm.

“Could you maybe not be so rude about my worries?” Alec snipped as he walked over.

“Would you have stopped beating yourself up over something this inconsequential?”

Alec’s silence was telling, and so was the small grimace that crossed his features and his refusal to meet Alexandar’s gaze.

“Heh. I thought not, now let’s head back to our stuff and start!” Alexandar cheered, getting a small exhale from the teen as he followed after the elderly mage.

‘Say what you will about Alexandar, but at least he’s pretty good about curbing mental spirals…’ Alec thought to himself, a small snort leaving him as he thought that.

“Oh? Is something funny, Mr Dius? Why wasn’t I informed? You know I love funny things.”

“Ah, inside joke. You wouldn’t get it. Sorry.” Alec responded, grinning almost smugly at the loud, pained, exclamation the man let out.

‘Hey. A way to mess with Alexandar. It only took me four days of travel to figure one out. But hey, bright side, that’s 27 more days I get to use it on him.’

“How could you be so rude, Mr Dius? After all I’ve done for you?”

“Pick a side, Alexandar. Are you weak and frail or strong and durable?”

“Can’t an old adventurer be both?”

“No.”

“Hah! Your words are as cutting as your mana, Mr Dius. Worry not, by the time we reach Zenik you’ll come to understand.”

“I hope I don’t.” Alec commented flatly, looking away to hide the small upward twitch of his lips.

“Well now that was just rude.”