The receptionist was much more agreeable now. Zach retold his story for the second time. This time, though, she wrote everything down.

Whenever she started to complain, Zach would pull out another chunk of Zerean Wolf from his inventory. The wolf’s decapitated head, which was still perched on the tall counter, scrutinized the receptionist’s every move.

Finally, the quest reward was granted to him.

[Quests:]

[Main Quests:]

- {Defender: *Completed* Reward: Hunter’s Dagger. Bonus Reward: 1 Dragon Scale}

He immediately fetched the scale and the dagger from his inventory.

Something akin to a modern military knife landed in one hand, while a smooth disc-like object landed in the other. The receptionist saw the knife and let out a small squeal of terror.

“Pipe down,” Zach scoffed. “Just finish up the reports.”

He felt like he was threatening a bank for money. Thankfully there was no one else in the building and nobody came in so he was uninterrupted.

‘I must be at the tail end of rush hour.’ he mused.

He transferred the quest rewards back into his inventory and returned his attention to the receptionist.

Just in case she ripped up his report later, he made her write up another report with the exact same information as the first. He could keep the copy in his inventory and submit it at another town if needed. The quest was already completed, which was the only thing that really mattered to him, but it didn’t hurt to be thorough. By submitting this report, he was doing the country a favor by warning them about the dungeons.

“Are you sure I’m the first one to encounter a dungeon like this?” he asked.

The red-haired woman glared at him.

“Yes, and I don’t even know why you decided to call it a dungeon in the first place. The dungeon that everyone else knows about is the labyrinth of natural tunnels beneath the surface.”

“What’s that dungeon like?”

The reason Zach had called it a dungeon was because his quest window referred to it as such. But apparently the people of Vera had something else called a dungeon.

“You don’t know what the dungeon is?! You’re the stupidest maniac I’ve met,” she said hotly. Her pride had not been broken even though she was frightened by the sight of strange magic and gore. “The dungeon is infested with monsters and mineral wealth alike. That is something in common with my dungeon and your dungeon, which instantly appears out of nowhere.”

Zach palmed himself in the forehead.

“Oh! It's an instance dungeon!”

The receptionist gave him a strange look.

“Sorry. Please continue,” he said.

“Right... As you delve deeper into the dungeon, the world energy gets thicker and thicker. Some monsters can even float on it. Also, the chakra crystals are more abundant, and the rate of chakra regeneration increases as well.”

Zach held up his hands in the position of a big ‘T’.

“Woah! Time out! World energy? Chakra crystals? Are those the same thing as mana and mana crystals?”

Her expression crumpled even further. “Are you like a newborn child? You don’t know about chakra or the dungeon. I can’t believe it. What’s next? You don’t know what water looks like? How in Vera can you use separate space magic without knowing basic magical theory?”

“Then start talking! Or should I pull out my second wolf?”

It was a bluff, of course. He only had one carcass. However, the receptionist didn’t know that. To make it seem more believable, he pulled out the last limb.

“F-fine!” The receptionist shrunk back at the appearance of another severed limb, thoroughly disgusted.

“T-there are two kinds of magical energy: mana and chakra. Chakra is also known as chi whenever it’s outside the body. It is also called world energy because it seemingly originates from the depths of the world. Mana, on the other hand, is considered the energy from the heavens.

“Naturally, when you descend into the dungeon, the world energy gets thicker and thicker while the mana gets thinner and thinner.

“There! Happy?” She spat.

“I see.” ‘So there are actually two kinds of magic. Mana and Chakra,’ he wondered. ‘I have mana. But how do I unlock chakra?’

Zach wanted to learn more about the magical energies of Vera. Unfortunately, he was on a time limit. He had to get out of the city as soon as he could.

“How do you get chakra?” he asked first.

“I don’t know.” the receptionist answered through clenched teeth. “Practicing chakra is illegal.”

“Why is it illegal?”

“I was a kid at the time, but apparently, during the Undead Wars, they discovered that people with more skill in chakra were tastier and smellier to the undead. So as part of the war effort, everyone stopped practicing chakra. All the previous chi masters gracefully stepped down or became traitors to the country. Until we are sure all the undead have been eradicated, we can’t practice it.

“It’s fine though, since we have mana. We’ve made more progress in mana spells than ever before in the history of the empire.”

Zach’s eyes bulged at the mention of “undead.” Add that on to the fact that the country had recently fought in an “undead war” and he was more baffled.

“I-I see,” Zach coughed.

The receptionist had finished writing the second report. She stamped both documents and handed the copy to Zach with a sneer. The report was consumed by a flurry of light and vanished into his inventory.

He made a concerned face. “Also, what did you call my magic again?”

“Separate-space magic,” she responded. “I thought it was only a myth.

“It looks like some kind of mana-based magic but it doesn’t conform to the elements and doesn’t require a spell circle. Which is impossible in every aspect. Yet here you are, casually flaunting it right in front of my eyes.”

Zach felt that ‘separate-space magic’ would be better than trying to explain how he had a system and an inventory which did all the work for him. He would keep that term in mind for the future.

“It’s not actually that hard,” he sighed.

“Well… I better get going,” he told the receptionist. “I left the rest of those wolf carcasses in the Tusslan Forest where I found that dungeon. I need to go back and get them before they turn all moldy and start to decompose into-”

“Alright! I get it!” she cried, her face turning green.

Actually, there was no way he was going back for his wolf carcasses. A crazy powerful werewolf was still out there. What he was actually doing was leaving a fake trail for the authorities. He had to make a few stops before he could actually leave the city. Hopefully that statement would buy him time.

He made a big show of getting up to leave.

“Hey! Where are you going! What are you going to do about this mess!” the receptionist called.

“That’s your punishment for such rude customer service,” Zach retorked. “You can sell it for money, I think. Anyway, goodbye.”

Then Zach walked out of the building. He almost felt bad… almost.

The receptionist looked at the bloody wolf pieces strewn about the guild hall and felt nauseous.

Zach felt he had stayed too long. He was running out of time, and the receptionist was sure to report him to the authorities after what he had done. Zach could only hope his valuable wolf bits would cause some confusion. That’s why he had left them behind.

He navigated to the other side of the city, putting distance between him and the Hunter’s Guild building.

He bought some food, surprised at the quality of the seasonings and richness of the meat. It slowed him down and dented his wallet, but sated his hunger for the time being.

Eventually, he made it to his next destination.

The peddler had recommended he stop at a certain supplies store in this part of the city. Besides the general supplies, he would also have to waste money on a backpack so he wouldn’t stand out. He didn’t want to be the only traveler without luggage and have to explain where he carried all of his stuff.

The store owner brought out a backpack for him, which he immediately purchased. It was made of rough leather and wasn’t quite up to Earth’s standards, but it was widely used among the travelers of Vera. He strapped the bag over his shoulders and experimented with his inventory.

He bought a small pickaxe, a coil of rope, a hand shovel, and a waterskin, then placed it all into his new backpack. At this point it was moderately heavy, but then he transferred its contents to his inventory. Just like with the tooth and his pocket, he could transfer things between his backpack and inventory even when the backpack was closed. No one saw the objects disappear.

Now that he was done, he could leave the city right away if he wanted.

But first, there was something he wanted to check out.

Also per the peddler’s advice, the supplies store was within an “arrow shot” of the Mage’s Hall. A crowd of people were gathered around a stage. He walked closer to see what the commotion was about.

It appeared to be a public lecture. A man pointed at a poster depiction of a dog-like monster.

“It’s claws are sharp, using them to pin down its prey and striking the killing blow with its jaws. However, when it gets into this position, it is also most vulnerable to attacks from the side.”

Everyone watching the man's lecture was silent and serious. They hung on every word like it meant the difference between life and death. Curious, Zach used [Observation] on the poster.

[Depiction of a Barghest, Rarity D]

“If you ever encounter one while you are out traveling or working with your friends or family in the fields,” the announcer explained, “you must not panic. This kind of barghest is a lone hunter, so it is particularly vulnerable to group attacks. It is also nocturnal, so as long as you make it inside the wall of the city, or inside of some other kind of protection before nightfall, you are safe. However…”

Zach turned to someone nearby, a large man carrying a spear, and ignored the speaker for a moment.

“Excuse me, sir, what is this?”

“The Mage’s Association is teaching us common folk about monsters seen in the area. This particular one is a new type of barghest, or goblin-dog,” the man responded quickly. “Now hush, they are about to teach us several disruption spells.”

‘Barghest? Disruption spells!?’ he wondered but didn’t say anything more.

The speaker continued. “...And finish it off with several well placed stabs to its weak point, the waist area.” The speaker clapped his hands. “Now I will have my associates come up and demonstrate the magic manifestations for disrupting its chi attacks.” Then he gestured for several people to come up onto the stage. They all had similar style clothes to the speaker.

An almost palpable shift ran through the audience as everyone focussed in.

‘Wow.’ Thought Zach. ‘You would expect this kind of attitude in a war meeting, not a public lecture in the middle of the street.’

Little did Zach know that “war meeting” was an accurate description of what was happening.

“This barghest employs typical body strengthening chakra techniques which can be countered with a triple dot manifestation.

“Some more advanced behaviors observed are ‘ground’ based. ‘Ground’ as-in the chakra element for ground. These attacks are generally weak and don’t usually do any direct harm. This kind of barghest likes to soften the ground to create foot traps. It can create shallow pits or raised humps of earth, all of this to mess with the footing of its prey. And when combined with its fangs and claws, make it even more dangerous to fight.”

“Because of this, it's best to use air mana to create a quadra-dot manifestation. Try to target each of its legs. Like most chakra-based monsters, this is where they activate their power.”

One of the assistants stepped forward. She wore a set of dark colored clothing and a navy blue shawl. A white badge was pinned to her wrist. The woman held out her hands as if preparing to do something.

‘Wait,’ he realized. ‘Is this a magical demonstration!?’

The woman pointed her finger and suddenly, a small orb of light appeared at its tip! When she moved her hand away, the little magic bead remained floating in the air. She drew four more “dots” around the first, her hand like a paint brush for the magical energy.

Then she opened her hand and spread her fingers apart. The orbs darted outward toward the drawing of the barghest, hitting each of its legs with astounding precision. The crowd’s eyes glittered, including Zach’s. He suddenly wished he wasn’t at the back of the crowd.

“As is typical of a manifestation, this won’t do any damage, but it will weaken the effect of the beast’s chi attack drastically, to the point that it is as good as useless. If both you and the barghest should use up your magical energy, then the fight will burn down to a battle of brawn, of which you will win because of your numbers and weapons.”

“Let’s continue with the next manifestation technique.”

The woman switched off with the next mage associate, a man with a similar badge also pinned to his wrist.

“A single line manifestation will also work, even if you don’t necessarily aim at the legs. Lennon, if you may, please demonstrate.”

The mage named Lennon, gave a short bow and then “drew” a line of magic in the air, straight as an arrow and glowing like neon. Zach gawked at the spectacle.

Then he spread his fingers. The line shot forward, rushing at the diagram and hitting the paper across the depicted creature’s shoulders.

“The single line manifestation is pretty effective, though it does have its typical drawbacks. For one, it takes a lot of energy for a normal human to draw a line as big as Lennon did. So unless you are close enough to the barghest to score a guaranteed hit, we don’t recommend this tactic. We also don’t recommend this because of the barghest’s speed. Both its running speed and stance speed are very high, so it is almost impossible to hit it unless it's injured. However, if you find yourself in a unique situation, the single line manifestation will pretty much cancel the barghest’s chi attack.”

The speaker called up the rest of his mage associates, all male. The female mage stepped off the stage.

“Air is the best choice of mana to use in this matchup. If you don’t have access to air mana,” the man continued, “then resort to water. Fire won’t have much effect on disrupting its attacks, so it would just be a waste of energy. Do not use ground mana...”

The speaker continued to explain the weaknesses of the barghest. The mages kept coming up and shooting magic at the diagram. After a few minutes, Zach understood the general concepts and how the elements interact. Now, he wanted to try his hand at this new magic!

Zach could carve through solid stone with his fire imbued dagger, but it might not be the most efficient use of his mana. Watching the mages could teach him so much. Channeling mana into the air hadn’t occurred to him yet. How long would he have spent in the wilderness trying to reinvent the wheel? Now that he knew the “proper” way to use his mana, what could he do with it?

“Hey, kid.” The man he had spoken to earlier noticed Zach’s exhilarated expression.

Zach was startled out of his thoughts.

“W-what? Yes?”

The man smiled, remembering a time when he was young too.

“If you are going to try some magic, don’t be too disappointed if you can’t manifest more than twenty dots. That is the most that I can do, for example. Most normal people don’t have much affinity for magic and you haven’t even reached your prime.”

Zach checked his information window. He had twenty-one mana. If one dot was roughly equal to one point of mana, then that meant he could draw about twenty-one dots in the air.

Then the weight of the man’s words hit him.

‘Everyone can use magic on Vera?’

Zach’s eyes widened at the revelation.

Zach thanked the man for his words and hurried away from the lecture. There was only so much he could grasp at one time. Most of the jargon was lost on him anyway. So it was pointless to try and cram his head with too much knowledge.

Unbeknownst to him, Lydia Lagron, the female mage from the first demonstration, watched Zach leave. Bored of the demonstration which she had performed dozens of times, she followed him, curious as to what he was doing.

Zach found a quiet alleyway a moment later and settled down. He replayed the scene over and over in his mind. Then he held out his own hands, examining them excitedly.

‘The mage did something like this with his hands. Then he pushed the magic to the tip of his finger and then…’

Zach concentrated hard, trying to feel the energy. He felt around his own body with his mind, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but he couldn’t feel anything, mana or chakra.

The first time he used magic was to start a fire just a couple nights ago. He had been very cold and couldn’t seem to get a fire started by ordinary means. Instinctually, he had channeled some kind of energy to his fingertip and the wood had ignited. He had ‘desired’ for it to happen.

A bright orange orb appeared at the tip of his finger.

[New Ability: Internal Mana Manipulation (level max)]

Excited, Zach continued.

He drew a line in the air just like the mages he had seen on stage. Then he stopped the flow of magic to his fingers. The “line” remained suspended in the air.

He was confused for a moment, then remembered the last thing the mages did.

He spread his fingers apart.

The magic line lurched outward. It continued straight, not appearing to be affected by gravity, until it collided with the wall of a building and dissipated.

Before he got ahead of himself, he calmed himself down and checked his information window.

[Abilities:]

- {Internal Mana Manipulation (level max): Allows the user to manipulate magical energy inside the body.}

‘Wow! A max level ability!’ he thought. ‘But why did I get so much for casting that tiny spell?’

Zach drew another line in the air, this time, keeping an eye on his mana. When he had drawn a line that was about two feet long, he noticed his mana drop from 19 to 18. He stopped the flow of magic and spread his fingers apart. Just like with the previous line, it instantly gained velocity and didn’t disappear until it hit a solid object.

‘It’s great that I have way more mana than the spear dude, but man, this spell doesn’t do anything whatsoever.’

Zach tried again, this time “drawing” dots in the air, like the first mage.

First he drew one dot and spread his fingers. It had a similar result to the line, only it didn’t cost a whole point of mana to draw.

He drew two more dots, stopping the flow of magic between each dot, and then spread his fingers again. The two dots seemed to have the same speed and the same end result as the first dot, dissipating on contact with a solid object.

He tried again with three dots. Then four. Then five. All tests performed similarly to each other.

Brashly, he started drawing dots and spreading his fingers as fast as he could, hoping they would interfere or interact in some way (they didn’t). And he got sidetracked by his own display.

‘This is so much fun!,’ he mused, ‘It's like I have finger guns!’

‘Pew pew pew.’

Zach was having too much fun. Eventually though, after he had expended over a hundred shots, he was down to 5 out of 21 of his total mana and stopped himself.

‘I wonder why these spells don’t do anything, though.’

Then he had an idea.

What if he drew shapes or words? Could he create some other effect?

Zach reached out in front of him.

‘What shape should I draw?’ he wondered.

Currently his geometry class was in its triangle unit. Since his favorite theorem of all time was the pythagorean theorem, a right triangle was the first thing to come to mind.

He drew one leg of the triangle. Then he started drawing the next leg after measuring a ninety degree angle. It was hard to keep his lines straight, since he was drawing in three dimensions with no reference, so he worked slowly. Just before he could draw the hypotenuse, a hand grabbed his wrist!

“What do you think you’re doing!”

Startled, Zach lost focus on {Internal Mana Manipulation} and accidentally spread his fingers when he went to protect himself. His L-shaped energy shot forward.

‘I’ve been caught!?’ he thought, panicking.

Faster than lightning, the stranger’s hands formed blue dots of magic and released them. The contrasting energies caught up with Zach’s magic and tore it to shreds, dispelling it.

Dumbfounded, Zach looked at the stranger and recognized her. It was the female mage he had seen perform earlier.

He tore his hand from her grip and jumped back to a reasonable distance, on guard.

“Not in the city!” she said, throwing Zach for a loop, “Are you insane!”

“What? What do you mean?”

He had expected a guard or a knight, not her.

“You could have seriously hurt someone just now. Didn’t your parents teach you anything? Don’t draw spell circles without proper instruction!”

“Oh! You mean the magic I was just trying?”

“Yes! Of course that’s what I mean,” the mage put her hands on her hips and Zach calmed down enough to get a good look at her.

She appeared to be in her twenties. She wore a navy blue shawl over her darker clothing. She had brown hair done up in a ponytail. On her wrist was the white badge he had seen earlier, only now, he could make out blue stars and an insignia.

“You’re the mage I saw earlier,” he stated obviously.

“Yes. Now back to you. Someone here has a little too much talent in magic and not enough common sense!” She pointed at Zach.

“What? Why can’t I practice magic?” he asked. “I thought only chakra was illegal!”

“No, idiot. You can practice manifestations all you want because they don’t do any damage. But once you try spellcasting, you need instruction and supervision. In some cities, you even need a permit.”

“Why?”

“Why?” she scoffed. “Because you could potentially hurt a bunch of people.”

Realization dawned on him. If his first magic spell had gone wrong, what could’ve happened? The least he could’ve done was wait until he was outside the city. He was so stupid.

“I see. I’m sorry,” he apologized honestly. “I just saw all of you casting spells and got excited.”

“Pff. You think those are spells?” The female mage scoffed. “Those are just manifestations. They are only good for dispelling and interfering with the real spells.”

“Oh!” he realized aloud. “I was just manifesting my mana? So what does an actual spell look like?”

“It's just as I thought,” she realized in disbelief. “You don’t have a master yet, do you?”

“A master? Uh. No.”

“Do you know basic arithmetic? Are you literate?”

“Um. Yes and yes. Why?”

“My name is Lydia Lagron, Adeptus Minor of the Order of the Luminous Stars. I’d like to say it's nice to meet you, but you are a loose catapult at this point. What’s your name?”

The woman held up her wrist, letting Zach see her badge. A translation by his system helped him read the alien writing. It was displayed slightly to the side.

“Order of the Luminous Stars. Adeptus Minor. Geomancer,” he read aloud.

The mage, Lydia, waited expectantly.

“Oh. My name’s Zach.” he responded. ‘Wait, shouldn’t I be using an alias?’ He realized too late.

“Well Zach, I’ve been looking for an apprentice for a while now. What do you say?” she suddenly said

“What?” he blurted.

He held up his hands, trying to get everything to slow down to a normal pace. It was like a bombshell had been dropped on his head.

“Seriously. You really are clueless,” she shook her head, her shawl swaying. “Manifestations,” she said while drawing two dots in the air. “Most people are only capable of drawing twenty to forty of these. Yet you just drew about a hundred and sixty while messing around here. Then you still had enough mana to attempt a spell.”

Zach blushed inwardly. Someone had been watching him goof around like a little kid that entire time?

“Are you a stalker?” he chided.

“Are you a brat?” she lashed back. “But in all seriousness, you are clearly more talented than the average person. How many dot manifestations can you make with your remaining energy?”

Zach ran a quick calculation in his head. One mana point would let him draw ten dots. He had five mana points left.

“Another fifty… probably,” he said.

“Well... see. There you have it. You have far more mana than the average person. It’s not as much as us professional mages, but you also have no training, which means you are a diamond in the raw. If I didn’t ask you to become my apprentice, I would beat myself for days.”

“So what do you say?” Lydia reiterated. “Will you become my apprentice, or have you already entered another agreement?”

Zach racked his brain. On one hand, he very dearly wanted to know what a real spell looked like, on the other, he really needed to get out of the city. He probably didn’t even have time for that short conversation.

“Um. No. I don’t have any other apprenticeships,” he said carefully. “But I do have to leave soon, so I can’t become your apprentice.”

Lydia looked hopeful. Truthfully, this was the farthest she’d ever gotten to recruiting an apprentice. Plus, an apprentice with as much talent as Zach was a teacher’s dream. It was a miracle he hadn’t been scooped up yet.

“Where are you heading?” she asked curiously. “Perhaps maybe we are going in the same direction? My team and I are heading towards the city of Caeli.”

“Um.” He hoped he sounded more casual than what he felt. “I’m trying to find… my way back to… somewhere.”

“Somewhere?”

“Yeah, it's a place really far away, and I’m afraid I need to leave right away. So I don’t have the time to become your apprentice.”

The mage edged closer.

“That’s rather vague. You do want to learn magic, right?” Lydia said excitedly. “Imagine all the spells you could learn. I may be a geomancer, but I’m also an Adeptus Minor, which means I know about fire, water, and air mana too. If you’re worried about my qualifications, don’t worry. I’m twice as good as any other mage in my rank because of my upbringing.”

Zach’s eyes glittered with intrigue.

Lydia continued. “You say you have to leave the city soon. Can you at least tell me where and when? My team leaves tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning?”

Lydia nodded.

“That’s still a little too late. I was planning on leaving right now.”

“Oh, I see. I guess I mistook you for a kid. Since you are traveling between cities, you must be an adult already. So fifteen?”

‘Is fifteen the age of an adult in this world? That’s insane! I’m fifteen right now but Earth’s laws say adulthood is eighteen.’

“Yep. I’m fifteen. Wow.”

‘Wait. Should I be hiding my age too?’ he thought.

“That’s old for an apprentice, of course you could easily pass as someone younger, given how skinny you are. Still, I’m sure you won't find another offer any time soon.”

“Wait, but you said earlier that because of my magical talent-”

“That was then, and this is now,” Lydia waved a hand. “Look, if you become my apprentice, I’m obligated to provide your housing arrangements. If you stay, I will have to pay for your room tonight.”

“That’s nice and all, and very tempting, but I don’t want to rush into anything. I don’t know the first thing about a magical apprenticeship.”

“That’s fine. It's easier than you think.” she began. “You just have to sign some official paperwork saying you’re my apprentice, then you take several written exams and a demonstration before you can graduate. Since you said you are literate, we’re already past one of the biggest hurdles. I can start teaching you magic even before we sign the official paperwork. With your amount of mana capacity, you can practice much more than the average apprentice. It would be a waste to delay any longer.”

“Will I have to sign a magically binding contract?” he shivered in fear at that last realization.

“Magic contracts are a myth,” she responded, making Zach relax a little. “With your mana capacity, you can practice a lot. In the best case scenario, you would only have to serve for two or three months.”

Zach pondered over the offer.

On one hand, he would have a place to stay the night that wasn’t out in the monster infested wilderness and a magic teacher to guard him, but on the other, he couldn’t afford to stay in the city with all the guards looking for him.

The length of the contract, one or two months, didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would. He was a stranger to Vera. He didn’t have anyone he could trust and he could really use a stable source of information. He also wanted to know about the magic of this world. Who better than a mage to teach him.

“How do you punish apprentices who do bad things?”

Lydia was taken aback. “Why do you ask?”

“Uh. Legal purposes, I guess.”

She scowled.

“The master is responsible for the apprentice to some degree. But if anything happens, you’re as good as banished from the Mage’s Association. We have no tolerance for actions that reflect badly on the community. Petty theft and assault will get you banned, but at least you get to live. Murder and other serious crimes, forget about it. The Association won’t back you at all. So don’t even try it.”

“Okay. Okay. I wasn’t planning anything,” (that I haven’t already done).

Suddenly, his stomach growled. It was already about noon.

Lydia heard it too, and let out a tired sigh.

“I’ll treat you to lunch. Come. It’s better when your mind isn’t thinking about your stomach.”

Zach frowned. Feeding himself was not a priority earlier, but now that he had an opportunity to eat for free, he had no choice but to agree.

Collecting more information about apprenticeships, magic, and the world was definitely not a thought made in hindsight.

[End Chapter 12]