The next system message left Eldrian without words. It was so lacking and also so shocking that he even stopped walking for a few seconds.

[Hidden Quest: Discover the Unkown | Find the Answer] [Quest is hidden from all]

[Quest Difficulty: Undetermined]

'Undetermined? What the hell is that supposed to mean!?' Eldrian felt like cursing as he recalled the last hidden quest. His mood instantly dropping even more.

'I don't even know what this is supposed to mean, can't you at least tell me that?' Eldrian asked and naturally he received no answer. He also looked at the spell Creation again and was left wondering what Tier it would be if the mana requirement was so insane.

'Does it need to be my own mana though?' He wondered, and the more he did the more he felt that wasn't really required. He would need to control the mana, but he should be able to use mana crystals to supplement it. This at least raised his mood a bit as he looked at the last message.

[All Tier 0 spells have reached Rank 4]

[Title Rewarded: Master of the basics]

[You have gained a much deeper understanding of how magic works. Now you need to somehow implement this newfound knowledge into practice.]

'So, no new ability?' Eldrian thought, rather bummed. To see if anything had really changed he thought of casting Floga and instantly a ball of flame appeared above his hand.

'Wow, that was super easy.' Eldrian raised his hand and realized something, turning his hand around the ball of flame turned into water. Though it lost about 20% of its size.

'That's cool, but useless.' He mumbled as he shook his hand and let the mana return to the environment. Only realizing at that moment what he had actually done.

"No way!" Holding out his hand again, Eldrian thought for a ball of light to appear, and just a second later one did. Yet, none of his mana had been spent in doing so. With mana sense, he confirmed that the mana of the surroundings had come forward and changed at his will.

'Water...' Eldrian thought and watched as the mana started changing form. However, a small amount of it failed to do so and instead scattered. 'Fire... Air... Dark...'

"Not sure what to make of this," Eldrian mumbled as he tried doing the same with Tier 1 spells, alas, he was still casting these spells by his old ways. 'So, I clearly need to train them more.' He thought as he finally arrived where he and Vivian had been staying. She was currently busy grilling something and Kydone was enjoying the shade of one of the trees.

Joining them, Eldrian asked if they heard the explosion.

"Of course, it nearly made me puke!" Kydone replied passionately while Vivian just nodded.

"Yes, no one missed it," Vivian said after a while and asked Kydone to take over. "Was it your fault?" She asked once the two were alone.

Nodding, Eldrian explained what had happened and left her deep in thought. "Mana is always mana you say. Why?"

"Look," Eldrian extended his hand and repeated what he had just discovered himself. The sight of the spells changing, not being replaced, but changing left Vivian stunned. And after a moment, she tried something herself.

Spells had never been her forte, so she took a stance and executed a skill. The flames of the sword lighting up the early night sky. The sun had just started to set. Suddenly, her flames changed color before jumping back on Vivian, who threw the sword forward and jumped back to avoid the flames.

Eldrian's eyes flew open seeing this, he had naturally been using mana sense and realized what Vivian had tried to do. "Are you insane?!"

"No, I just wanted to check something." She replied with a smile and her bright smile caused Eldrian to falter as he realized how alike they were.

"At least you tried it far more limitedly than I did."

Vivian laughed hearing this and picked up the blade which had finally cooled down. "Of course, unlike you, I only have 1 chance at life. I am not going to risk it just for a curiosity."

Eldrian rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as the two decided to spar. As always, Eldrian used his skills to keep up with Vivian. The added boosts from his armor helping him actually stand his ground even when she didn't hold back her strength. At least for the duration of their buffs.

The two only stopped when Kydone shouted that the food was ready.

...

The next day, Eldrian headed to Phoenix's camp, finding the others all getting ready for their mission. Their match during the day had gone smoothly, it hadn't been against one of the top teams and with Eldrian's current strength their opponents had stood no change.

By using Chelona's ability Shield, Eldrian was enabled to simply annihilate the opponents without a care for the possible damage. The change had shocked the group and increased their hope for actually reaching the top.

After refreshing Elizabeth on the best tactic of clearing an area, the group headed to get the stable for mounts. At the moment only Nikki and Ilmadia had managed to learn Thora, but that was enough for now. They split after leaving the camp.

Rushing off to the right, Eldrian darted from tree to tree. Not needing to wait for a cooldown made his speed even faster than the soldiers'. The day passed quickly with Eldrian becoming more and more acquainted with riding in the forest.

He even took it upon himself to kill lone undead or small groups. Circling the zombies and skeletons with his Agima and casting Thora without rest. Getting used to the spell's feel and how the mana left him, changed, and affected the undead. Trying to come to understand how it worked.

This was his new bottleneck. Tier 0 spells were simple, they simply gathered the said element and formed a ball of it. Tier 1 spells instead had a function and a certain method of working. While the effect was simple, how it worked wasn't as simple.

In that single day, Eldrian managed to clear 48 areas and kill over a hundred undead. Most of whom hadn't even realized what was going on before they turned to dust. Returning to the camp Eldrian immediately took off his sticky armor and cleaned himself with Nidia.

Unlike before, he didn't even need to cast the spell repeatedly. Instead, he pushed more and more mana into it until the ball was as big as he was. He even helped his Agima get clean, drying them both with a mix of Floga (for heat) and Anemos (wind).

Returning to a delicious meal, Eldrian didn't feel up to sparring so instead he just enjoyed a bit of quiet before starting to train. He now knew what he needed to work on and he wasn't going to waste any time on it.

While his control over mana had grown massively, it was still nowhere near enough he realized. The simplest example, when he cleaned himself with Nidia, while the initial cast he could use the surrounding mana. To enlarge it he had needed to push his own mana into it. He wasn't able to draw the mana from the surrounding.