The black thing grunted as its eyes refocused on Bo. 'Guess naming you was a good idea.'

The hare puffed out its chest and squeaked: 'I'm important now!'

'Yes, you are.' The black thing reached out and gently scratched Bo behind his ear. It felt good. His foot started tapping faster against the furs the longer he was scratched.

Unfortunately, the black thing soon pulled its hand away and cleared its throat. 'The name's Michi and I'm a Greater Black Fox. Been around for ten or so years; I'm old, I know. When did you first Awaken, huh?'

Bo thought for a minute, wondering how much time had passed. Then he shrugged: 'An hour?'

He didn't know what an hour was, but it sounded right, so he said it. Michi let out an approving grunt, so he'd said it right.

'You're awfully small for a leveret, but you know how to speak. Babies start with zero and work their way up from there with each level up. I wonder why you're different...'

'Cuz I'm important?'

Michi chuckled. 'Maybe.'

Bo got another ear scratch before Michi turned serious.

'Listen, Bo. The world is a dangerous place. You're going to need to grow strong to survive out there. I won't always be here to protect you, you understand?'

Bo nodded. He understood. Without Michi's help, he probably would've been killed by the big-brute!

'I don't know much about Hare skills, but I know a lot about Foxes. I'll teach you all that I can for as long as I can. But you have to promise to do your part, too.'

'Okay! What's my part?'

The fox smiled. 'Listen to what I teach ya.'

The first thing Michi taught him was how to use magic.

'I'm not much of a physical fox, you see. I specialize in the arcane arts; healing, elemental, all kinds of stuff,' Michi told him.

Bo stopped nibbling at his stick and looked up at him. 'What're the arcane arts?'

'It's a sophisticated term for magic.'

'What's sophisticated?'

'It means fancy.'

'What's-'

'Moving on,' Michi interrupted. 'Foxes are born with the magic affinity for Mental magic and since you became [Fox Kin], you have it too. We're going to practice that but before we do, you need to learn how to summon your mana.'

'What's mana?'

'It's what powers your magic.'

'That sounds super cool!'

Michi agreed. 'Now, to summon your mana, you need to get a feel for the magical energy inside of you. Try and-'

'Wow!' Bo shouted. 'There's some floating stuff in my stomach! It's so cool! Is this mana, Michi? Is it? Is it?'

The fox struggled to put away his shock and confusion to answer the ecstatic hare's question. 'U-uh, yeah. Yes. What you're seeing-feeling?-is mana.'

'That's super cool!' Bo squeaked. He pranced around the den, chanting just how cool he was for having mana.

Michi sighed and grabbed the boy. Setting him down on the bed of furs, he scolded him: 'Stop playing around and focus.'

'Alriiiight,' Bo conceded, prompting Michi to continue.

'Good. I want you to try and collect the mana into a ball inside of you. You're going to create your mana core this way.'

Bo closed his eyes and started to concentrate. Satisfied, Michi sat back and waited for him to finish.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And-

Snore.

The leveret was asleep! With a frustrated snarl, Michi yanked the boy upward by his ear. Bo jerked awake and started to swat at the fox.

'Ow! Lemme go, lemme go!'

Michi dropped him roughly and, with one more tug, scolded him again: 'Next time, don't fall asleep when I'm teaching you!'

Bo protested as he rubbed his sore ear between his tiny paws. 'Making the core made me tired! I wanna take a nap!'

'That's no excuse,' Michi chided, poking the hare in the chest. 'You wanna learn magic, right?'

'...Yeah.'

'So then pay attention!'

'Can we just take a tiny break?'

'No!'

And so Bo learned how to draw upon his magic that day. Eventually, Michi cut the lesson short when he kept complaining about how tired he was. Unfortunately for Bo, that meant they had to do another kind of learning later...