Maiz breathed out, letting his mana flow out with the air in his chest. It felt like exhaling fog on a chilly night, the mana making him feel like his chest was tightening up with cold. He could faintly sense the magic that had been carried out by his breath, and he latched on to the sensation. Yet even as he did, the chill feel of the mana began to dissipate. Instead of fighting the chaotic swirl of magic slowly spreading out into the air, he allowed it to disperse slowly, instead relaxing and expanding his awareness as the mana spread.

It quickly formed a thin arc around him, perhaps half a meter in radius. Maiz focused desperately, trying to hold on to his sense of the wispy power in the air. Then, when he thought he could hold on no longer, he pushed. He hadn’t quite understood this at first, but now he thought he had it. His awareness extended beyond the faint chill of his own mana, extending into the world around him, and touched something else. A flash of color sparked in his closed eyes--silver and, beyond it, sky-blue.

Then he lost hold of his mana, and there was only darkness. And a flashing purple ‘V’ at the corner of his vision.

“Good.”

Maiz opened his eyes, finding himself easily able to adapt to the light of his surroundings. After all, the sun was low in the sky, almost at the horizon, and the sky was tinged with the faintest hint of red. The sands at his feet also seemed faintly red. Maiz knew that, at sunset, they would look stained with blood.

The light cast shadows on Hakim’s wrinkled face. For a moment, Maiz thought there was a smile on it, but the man was impassive as ever. Maiz himself had trouble smiling, if only because he felt too calm to do so. The process of learning to see mana had involved a very long session of what Hakim called ‘meditation,’ which was apparently the thing that they had been doing in the training hall before mana manipulation exercises. He hadn’t found those exercises particularly useful before, but under Hakim’s personal instruction Maiz found a level of peace and clarity that he’d missed in the training hall. The strange feeling had given him a much finer control and understanding of his mana, and let him follow Hakim’s vague instructions with relative ease. Certainly, it had taken hours of work, but Maiz thought it was well worth the results.

You have learned the ability Mana Sense (rank 1)!

The ability The Mask has triggered.

Opening the spell’s description from his Name Sheet, Maiz saw something surprising enough to jerk him out of his peace and calm.

Mana Sense(Aeromancer): A spell which allows the user to actively sense mana in their surroundings. Distance of perception increased as rank increases.

Rank:1

Cost: .001 mana per second active

Effect: Allows user to sense mana as though from his/her mundane faculties.

Range: 5n meters, where n=rank. (Current Range: 5 meters).

Aeromancer? The word wasn’t foreign to Maiz--air mages and fire mages were the most common combat spellcasters in the desert. However, he hadn’t actively copied this spell from anybody. Hakim had taught it to him assuming that Maiz was a Spellsword, so why wasn’t it a Spellsword skill?

He supposed that Hakim must be an Aeromancer, though the fact was only slightly surprising to Maiz. After all, he’d finally figured out that the man wasn’t actually whispering in his ear every time they met, just using a spell of some kind to give that impression. Also, the way he had beaten the hells out of Maiz seemed consistent with the attacks of an air mage. However, it meant that Maiz was confronted with a dilemma. Should he say something about the new spell? Certainly the man had to know what his own spells looked like, and Maiz couldn’t risk him finding out somehow about what Maiz was. Not that anyone was likely to guess that he of all people was a God-Chosen.

Just as he was about to speak, Hakim continued as though he had never paused, his usually emotionless voice carrying the slightest overtone of satisfaction. “It is lucky that you were able to learn the spell from me. I had assumed, because you are capable of using air mana, that it was possible, even if we have different titles.” His voice, after such a long stretch of silence, startled Maiz. But his words brought an almost tangible sense of relief.

“Sir?” Best to play it off casually. “What do you mean?”

The Instructor looked at Maiz again for a long moment, and he wonder if he was going to get slammed in the stomach by an invisible fist again. But then the old man spoke. “Each magic-based title has different methods of learning that spell, and it has many different forms. For my title, it is called Mana Sense, which is common for elemental mages. Other names are Arcane Eye, Spell Sight, Mana Light, and Third Eye. Often it is difficult, but possible for one mage to teach another of a different title their version of the spell, but only if their mana types are similar enough.”

The Instructor said no more, and Maiz decided not to push. “Thank you sir.”

The man nodded, turning away. Just then, an unusually strong wind picked up, blowing some sand from the ground up. Instinctively, Maiz covered his eyes with an arm, shutting them tightly. When the wind faded, Hakim was nowhere to be seen.

Maiz shook his head. A bit over dramatic for his taste, but he supposed that age and power had its privileges.

***************************************

Maiz retired less than an hour after Hakim left the field, only having enough energy--both physical and mental--for a few rounds of practice with his Flaming Strike. He had also tried using his Mana Sense, and found that he still needed to focus on his initial ‘breath’ of mana, and then extend his awareness outwards. But now the practice felt… stable. He was easily able to hold the spell active, and was surprised to see the magic in the world around him. With the spell active, the world was lit with a faint, white glow, almost imperceptible. Much more easily visible were long strands of blue drifting in the wind around the field, and speckles of silver dotting the area near Maiz. Towards the building at the end of the field the air began to be tinged with all sorts of colors, but it seemed as though they faded to that ghostly white before they came close to Maiz.

When Maiz had tried using his Mana Sense and Flaming Strike together, he had been amazed at what happened. Not only was he able to use both spells at once, though with much more difficulty than when he used them separately, he could see what his mana was doing when he used the Flaming Strike. His mana had exited from his arms directly into the staff, and began to form a loop around the shaft. His magic was the bright silver he had seen speckles of throughout the field, and Maiz thought it looked rather impressive. But when it had completed the loop, the mana formed a more intricate pattern back around in the other direction, then another on top of that. Then the magic had began to move faster and faster, its color shifting slowly from bright silver to the reddish-orange of flame.

Then Maiz had accidentally knocked the staff against the ground near his feet, and the magic had exploded outwards with a corresponding flash of fire, kicking up superheated sand that nearly caught him full in the face. That was when he had decided to call it a day.

Finally reaching the barracks, Maiz bathed quickly with some of the leftover water remaining from after lunch. He felt guilty to waste so much--he had rarely bathed more than once a week in Caelos, even though there were a few public bathhouses filled using the aquifer which the city was built upon. However even though magic was far less labor intensive than the melee training, he still found himself drenched in sweat by the time he made it out to practice his spells, and from there it only got worse. Something about the mana manipulation exercises--this day’s having been aimed at getting mana to spin in circles as fast as possible within his body--made every one of his muscles work.

After changing, Maiz left the empty building, and saw that the sun was almost under the horizon, the sky and sands as red as he had imagined. Perfect. He headed towards what he had learned was called the ‘Mess Hall.’ Hugan had been very proud when he’d said that this morning. Sure enough, there were streams of other young people, Novices and Apprentices all, walking in to eat. The melee and ranged combatants would have just finished up their duties, which ranged from tending horses, to hauling grain, to the less pleasant task of cleaning out the latrines. Maiz was rather grateful that he wasn’t able to join them, though his mage training was not precisely easy.

Entering, Maiz almost automatically moved to the table where Hugan and Ziya normally sat, but they weren’t there. Huh. He supposed Ziya’s Journeyman instructor in healing could have been holding her group for some reason, and Hugan could have easily been choosing to take a quick wash himself. Without thinking too much of it, Maiz pulled a bowl of slow-cooked wheat berries and meat towards him and loaded his plate, beginning to eat. After a few minutes of tucking in to the tasty, if hearty, food, Maiz looked up idly, still chewing as he did a cursory scan of the sea of people now filling the huge hall.

This place was truly impressive. In many ways, it represented the entire might of the surrounding region in a few decades’ time. One day each of the people in this room would be in service to either a noble or the government, and their ability would play a large part in determining the relative power of the major players in the kingdom of Corunti. Of course, the nobles themselves would also represent a huge part of the kingdom’s military strength, but the people here, the house Guardians and vassal-mages, were the pieces that tipped the scales when the titanic powers of the noble houses clashed. Maiz could already think of a few who would be truly great. Hugan, for one. His ability in combat was nothing short of remarkable, his title was almost as rare as Maiz’s own, and he had a matching drive to best every challenge that came before him. Ziya, despite her quiet nature, was also inordinately talented at magic. She apparently spent the time in the meditation hall with the other Novices practicing advanced mana exercises that her Journeyman mentor had taught her.

But surprisingly, he’d already seen others with similar talent. His second match of the day had been against the tall girl he’d practiced with in the Constitution exercise. She’d been wielding a wooden sword, curved like the Slashers used, and it had taken a few contemptuous strokes, along with a deceptively swift pair of cuts that had somehow connected despite his dodging them, for her to put him on the ground once again. But despite that, something about the way she had attacked and moved hadn’t truly compared to the fluid, graceful dance he had seen Lila engage in. Of all the fighters he had seen, even above Hugan, she was the most exceptional. Maiz understood why nobody volunteered to fight her. He thought that any of the other Novices could expect to be hauling a bucket if they faced her, whether she was armed or not.

Then, as if his thought had summoned her from the Ulion’s Abyss, Lila appeared from the milling crowd of combatants and sat with a thunk directly across from Maiz.

“Sweet Hudith, you look sad.” She looked less angry than she had been, a smirk playing across her full lips.

Maiz gaped, then snapped his mouth shut as a piece of food dropped from it back into his bowl. He took a moment to chew and swallow, and--thankfully--didn’t choke.

“Wha-”

“-I mean, there are so many people here, it’s almost impressive that you managed to find a section without anybody else in it. But not in a good way.”

Why did she wait until I started talking to interrupt me? “I don’t--”

“--ha! You should see the look on your face! What, are you afraid of me or something?”

That’s it. Without even trying to get out another word, Maiz stood from his seat, straightening out his tunic, and began walking away.

“Wait!” Lila’s voice rang out behind him.

Maiz didn’t look back, migrating to the other side of the hall and finding another uncrowded section with only a pair of fairly normal looking young men sitting at one end. Sitting down once more, Maiz took some food from the bowl picked up where he left off, wondering why the girl had decided to torment him for no reason.

“Maiz!” At the sound of his name, Maiz turned, and this time a small smile lit his face. Hugan and Ziya walked up and sat on either side of him.

“We couldn’t find you at our usual spot. That girl was there though!” At the word ‘girl’ Hugan shot him another conspiratorial look like he had in the morning, and Maiz winced internally. He didn’t bother to correct Hugan’s misconception though, just saying that he’d happened to come around to this side and thought the food looked better than usual. A weak lie, but Hugan was easily fooled. Ziya just looked at him, giving no hint as to her thoughts.

“How is your stomach?”

Maiz rubbed the body part, then grinned. “Full.”

Hugan laughed, though Ziya simply looked at him without a reaction. Hakim might as well be her grandfather or something. “It’s doing well. A little sore like you said, but it hasn’t gotten worse even through all of morning training.” Belatedly, he added “Thank you again, by the way. It was very kind of you to heal it for me.”

Maiz still wondered exactly how Ziya had reacted when he’d stumbled into the little room where she and a few other Clerics were all sitting in a semicircle before an older man in white robes, blood leaking from his lips. He had lost consciousness before he could see, and when he woke Ziya was as unflappable as ever. She hadn’t even asked about how he’d received the injury, though the other Clerics had been looking at him oddly. The old man, the Journeyman, had simply watched Ziya inform him about the soreness and possible issues, nodding approvingly. He’d told Maiz rather pointedly to ‘get back to training,’ and that had been the end of it.

Hugan looked confusedly between them. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing.” Maiz said quickly. Ziya looked at Maiz, probing eyes making him a little uncomfortable. But Hugan simply shrugged and began recounting--again--his fight that morning against the giant Haddar.

Maiz simply listened and picked a bit at his remaining food, letting his remaining thoughts wash away as the enormous challenges of the day caught up to him. He was adapting surprisingly well to the enormous amount of work he was doing throughout the day, but it felt nice to simply relax for a bit.

After Hugan had devoured enough food that the two young men on the other side of the section were looking at him strangely, he and Maiz finally wished Ziya good night and left the mess hall. Both were too sleepy from the long day and the food to say anything, and they just walked silence under the starry, moonless sky.

That was, until a hand grabbed Maiz’s shoulder and stopped him in his tracks, almost causing him to trip.

“I’m sorry.” Maiz almost didn’t recognize the voice, probably because he had never heard it hold even a bit of contrition before. But when he turned, he was unsurprised to find Lila’s face looking up at him. Standing like this, their height difference was more noticeable, but Maiz was instinctively wary. Every time he’d stood across from her, he’d ended up on the ground requiring the services of a Cleric.

“What?” Maiz kept his voice cool. It wasn’t hard.

“I… apologize for being so rude earlier. I did have a reason for sitting by you, even if I was terrible at getting to the point.”

Maiz just looked at her, trying to keep an inscrutable expression on his face. How did Hakim and Ziya manage it so well? He wanted to scoff at Lila--after all, her behavior had been absolutely unacceptable. But he was also flustered at her apologetic tone and politeness, so at odds with her manner during every other encounter he’d had with her.

After waiting for a moment and seeing no response, she continued. “Would it be possible for you to come with me for a bit?” As she said the words, her gray eyes flicked over to the side, and Maiz turned to see Hugan standing a slightly-less-than-discrete distance away, apparently trying, and failing, to keep a huge grin off his face.

At that sight Maiz did blush, but he hoped that Lila couldn’t see in the darkness. “All right.” He said, wondering what exactly this was about. He waved to Hugan, who shot him a wink--a wink--before turning away.

Lila moved off in a completely different direction, away from any of the barracks Maiz knew of. Frowning, he followed her.

***************

“What if someone sees us?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

He shivered, heart fluttering and breath speeding up as he slowly pulled out his shaft. He followed as a shadowed, but impossibly graceful form led him forward, to a secluded spot far from prying eyes.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

At the response, he drew close and the figure did the same. He took a deep breath.

Then he swung his staff down at the girl before him with as much force as he could muster.

She dodged of course, snapping, “You’re overcommitting. Never expect a strike to connect, always be prepared to switch directions.” She punctuated the instruction with a sharp kick to Maiz’s lower back, which tipped him over completely, sending him to his knees.

“All right.” Maiz said, standing. Her kick hadn’t been particularly hard, just enough to knock him over. Somehow, that seemed more impressive to him. However, Lila raised a shadowy hand, presumably indicating for him to stop.

“You’ve never actually learned how to use a weapon, right?” Her voice didn’t hold the derisive note it had in the mess hall, just thoughtfulness.

“No, I haven’t.”

She nodded, though Maiz could see nothing but the outline of her form. “You’re not bad. Actually, you’re downright exceptional at defense. You said you have a magic title?”

Maiz flushed though thankfully she wouldn’t be able to see it. Why do I do that so much around her? “Uh, yes. But it’s meant to be used in close combat.”

Maiz couldn’t see Lila’s reaction, but when she replied, Maiz could hear the frown in her voice. “So what’s your Talent? Can you show it to me?”

Maiz’s Talent--the spell he'd learned upon gaining his title--was actually The Mask. But, apparently when Viselys had granted him Flaming Strike, he’d done… something to make it function like a talent. Even Maiz knew that spells and skills other than talents were much more difficult to learn and even harder to create. Some people only ever used the talents they received at each milestone in their title’s progression.

Of course, Maiz didn’t tell Lila his real talent. He simply responded in the affirmative and cast Flaming Strike. Once again, he also used Mana Sense, watching the strangely beautiful silver light flow, speed up, and shift to red. He also looked at Lila, and was surprised to see a greenish-blue light suffusing her body. It wasn’t the bright, somehow present light of his own magic, or even like the traces of Instructor Hakim’s power he’d seen earlier in the day, but there was definitely something there. It almost seemed more like the faint white that suffused everything else, though it was a little more distinct. What?

“Huh. That’s nice, I guess. What does it do?” Lila's moderately interested voice cut through his thoughts.

“Oh! Uh…” Maiz looked around, not seeing anything he could hit to demonstrate the Flaming Strike’s effect. Finally he just--carefully--hit it against the ground away from either of them. The fire exploded upwards, briefly illuminating the night and the huge open space of the training field they were currently standing on.

“Wow! How much damage does that do?” Lila sounded impressed, which in turn made Maiz feel rather smug. However, at her question he scrambled for a second, before finally just rapidly opening the spell’s description and checking.

“Fifty,” he blurted out after a seemingly interminable stretch of silence.

“Fifty?” Now she sounded downright shocked, though Maiz still couldn’t see her face in the darkness. “I can see why they won’t let you use that in practice matches, holy hells.”

Maiz remembered that Rin had said most Novice-level abilities did much less damage than that, and for the same mana cost. Speaking of Rin, I need to find a way to talk to him more. The man’s obvious expertise in various titles would be extremely useful for someone in his… unique situation.

Lila continued, “I suppose that we can’t let you use that on me to train, but--well, you’re going to need to figure out how to use it in combat soon.”

Maiz frowned. “Why? I understand that I’ll need to know eventually, but why soon?”

Lila was silent for a moment, then answered in a tone that was part mirth and part incredulity. “You didn’t know? I mean, I thought you understood when I asked if we could practice tonight.” She let out a short laugh, and Maiz flushed. In all honesty, he’d been so flustered by the entire situation that he’d agreed without giving it much thought. Why he’d been less rational in tha situation than when he’d met a literal god, he couldn’t rightly say.

“So what am I missing?”

“The day after tomorrow, we’re going into the Dungeon.”

It was Maiz’s turn to take a moment of stunned silent. “The what?”

She sighed. “Yeah, yeah. There’s a Dungeon here, that’s why we’re in the middle of nowhere!” She said the last in a mocking tone, and Maiz winced, the same thought having gone through his head an instant before. She went on in her normal voice, “It’s very weak, all the training here keeps it that way. But it's still tough enough for Novices, and its the only real way to gain experience--aside from war, that is. Still, they make us go in parties of five and… I might have some trouble finding a team.”

She trailed off at the end, but Maiz had to take a moment to get through everything she’d said. The only way to gain experience? He’d never really considered it, but he hadn’t gained any experience in his skills or spells, despite using them a good deal since learning them. Did he have to use them in a real fight in order to increase their rank? Then, he caught the last thing she’d said.

“What?” He asked, failing to keep a note of apprehension out of his voice. “Did someone die?”

“What?” Now she sounded outraged. “No! The people I went in with before all became Apprentices, and, uh, the other Novices think I’m too strong to put in their team.” She said the last bit with a hint of bashfulness, as if uncomfortable acknowledging her prowess.

Does she enjoy never making sense? “Why would that be a downside?” He could understand nobody wanting to fight Lila in training, but why wouldn’t you want to have the best fighter on your team if you were entering a Dungeon?

“Well, if you’re an idiot…” She huffed, then seemed to deflate, shadowy figure slumping a bit. “No, it makes sense. If you fight with me on your team, I’m just more likely to do more damage than someone less experienced. That means I’ll get more experience and everyone else will get less.”

“Oh.” Maiz thought for a moment. “So why don’t you just agree to kill fewer monsters then?”

Lila let out a slightly bitter laugh. “No one would trust that! Once we’re in the Dungeon, they’d be stuck with me, and risk missing out on all of the experience for the run. That’s a two-week setback.”

Two weeks, huh? I wonder how many of those it takes to get to Apprenti--wait. “How many runs does it take to get to Apprentice?”

“Uh, it depends.” She sounded taken aback at the sudden shift in topic, but Maiz was extremely curious.

“On what? I mean, besides how many monsters you kill, I guess. Assume an average.”

“No, it depends on how much you’ve trained and studied, and--how do you not know this?” She replied irritably.

“Huh? Why, because it makes you better in the Dungeon? That’s why I’m saying, just assu--”

“How ignorant are you?” She cut him off hotly. “The more you’ve practiced a skill or spell, the better you understand how it works and how best to use it, the faster you rank up with it. You literally get more experience in a fight with that ability than you would if you didn’t practice it. And when you train in battle and strategy before you fight, then you also get boosted experience towards a combat title.”

Maiz’s jaw actually dropped open. Holy hells. How did I not realize? Suddenly, he thought about what Instructor Hakim had said about studying the pattern that his Flaming Strike created. “There’s so much I need to do before we go in!”

He said it without thinking, still caught up in frantic plans to improve his understanding before the foray into the Dungeon.

“We?” Lila sounded… odd. Hopeful?

“Oh, right.” Maiz replied distractedly. “Will you be in my party? I think I’m going to ask Hugan and Ziya as well.”

“You don’t think I’ll steal your experience?”

Maiz blinked, fully focusing on her dark figure again. “I mean, if you say you won’t, I’ll believe you.” Heh. You’re the champion of the God of Deception, and here you are blindly trusting someone you barely know with what amounts to your future. Maiz didn’t underestimate importance of this ‘Dungeon run.’ If it only happened every two weeks, a wasted run could not only put him behind for those two weeks, but permanently disadvantage him in future runs where everyone else would be more powerful than him. But Maiz had a strong feeling that Lila was trustworthy. Moreover, she’d been forthright about the potential disadvantage having her on his team could bring. And, of course, he needed her.

“Um, thanks.” she sounded pleased, and faintly uncomfortable, but Maiz brushed it off.

“Don’t worry about it, now can we do some more practice with my Flaming Strike?”

She laughed, then replied, “All right, we’ll think of some ways for you to use it in a fight. But then you’re gonna try them out in a sparring match! We’ll just have to pretend you're casting it, I guess.”

Maiz smiled, though he knew she couldn’t see it. “Sounds great.”