Cain used SRI to open a portal to Sinclair’s dimension and a portal to the inn lobby. Dresil merged into his clothes as he entered the inn lobby. Cain looked around for a chair then planted himself in one close to the entrance; Athena teleported a few centimeters above his left leg which was now crossed over his right. Cain rested his cheek on his left hand and spent the next few minutes waiting for the party to meet up with him.

Once everyone was gathered, Cain used SRI to open a portal in the banquet hall. Dresil unmerged from Cain’s clothes and appeared in a green dress that caught her eye earlier. Veronica donned a blue dress that converged into a starry purple in the middle. Victoria wore a medieval black dress with black elbow length gloves; although the dress wasn’t as frilly or poofy as a normal medieval dress.

The portal was created next to an empty table filled with food. “Are you sure it’s okay to just skip the entrance like this?” Victoria asked while the party filed out from the portal. She frequently casted glances in Jared’s direction, yet all of them went unnoticed. It was at this moment that Cain knew Victoria had feelings for Jared. “It’s fine, they even put my symbol there.” Cain pointed to a table along the back wall and gestured for everyone to choose their seats.

They took their seats at a long rounded rectangular table that was filled with food. Cain sat at the head, with Dresil on his right. Veronica, Victoria, Jared, and Jacob sat on Dresil’s right in that order, spanning half the length of the table. The table was positioned around the center of the back wall. Everyone but Cain had their backs to this wall and barely left room for another person to walk behind them. Athena was teleported a few centimeters away from Cain’s chair. Due to the length of the table cloth, the bow’s coordinates could not be adjusted above his lap.

Their sudden appearance caused some nobles to gossip, but this immediately died down when they saw Cain sit down. He raised the paper that was on his plate, and contained his symbol, in the air, burning it to smithereens. Everything turned to ash except for his symbol, which persisted as a flame for a short moment then dissipated. This cemented the fact that this was the real Cain, which only a small portion of the nobles present doubted. Most of these nobles were in the meeting with the king earlier today, although a decent chunk fled before the main show happened.

The party leisurely ate while Jared eyed some pretty nobles. Veronica tried her best to hold back scolding him since they were in a very formal setting. Cain gorged on the food in front of him, not caring for the surroundings gasps of astonishments or murmurs of disgust. Veronica observed him with envy since her dress did not allow her to eat that fast without dirtying the sleeves.

A band played music in the background as the party feasted without any disturbance. Although Cain was pretty much the only one eating. Jared and Jacob were almost frozen stiff as this was their first time in such a high profile setting. Veronica was cautious of all her movements as she ate nervously. Victoria swirled her glass of wine as she overlooked the guests and nobles with a slight hint of disdain. Dresil just sat and observed Cain and his surroundings, hoping that nothing would make him snap due to the accumulated stress today.

Although normally there would be no problem if Cain snapped at a person or two, the people in this venue could make things troublesome for Cain and the party. To top it off, Dresil noticed that with the added ease of doing things with mana, Cain became more impulsive and lazier than what was in his memories. Things that were impossible or hard to accomplish without mana could now be done with a single thought. Thus Dresil was worried Cain would do something nonsensical due to a sudden idea for an experiment or out of frustration.

While Dresil was having her own worries, Cain noticed that Victoria was calm and even drank wine. “Victoria, I thought you didn’t drink?” He asked her, making Veronica look at her with a slight look of astonishment. “Don’t you think these types of events need alcohol though?” She mumbled just barely audible enough for Veronica to hear. Cain also picked up on it thanks to his hearing, but acted like he didn’t.

Veronica nodded her head then went back to eating while Cain tried to come up with ways to ease the atmosphere. “So… how did everyone meet?” He asked the group. “I think it was 3 years ago? It was just me and Jared at that time though, back when we were D-rank adventurers. Me and Jared kept bouncing around between parties till we came across Veronica in one.” Jacob gratefully took this chance to take his mind off his nervousness and spoke up.

“Pffft, you should’ve seen how clumsy she was back then.” Jared commented on the side, receiving a stern glare from Veronica. “Anyways, we kept running into Veronica while trying to make ends meet. Believe it or not, despite their frequent quarreling, they actually had pretty good teamwork. So I invited Veronica to join our party.” Jacob continued his story before Jared could provoke Veronica enough to receive a bonk.

“Around this time I met my master. She said I had a good talent for becoming an assassin or a rogue and decided to take me in.” Jared also spoke up, relieving some of the tension. Jacob aimlessly snacked on the pastries on his end for a little bit. “We partied together with other solo adventurers or two-man parties for around 2 years or so. I think Jacob just entered C-rank and Veronica and I were on the verge of a breakthrough.” Jared continued then paused to snack on some of the delicacies.

“It usually only takes half a year to a year to break through from D-rank to C-rank, but Jared had to redo his entire cultivation since his master gave him a mana-gathering technique that was suited for what she would teach him later.” Jacob stopped eating the pastries for a bit to pick up where Jared left off. “Ah, do you know about different types of cultivation techniques Cain?” Jacob remembered that Cain just came down from the mountains and thus realized that he may be clueless on this part.

“Nah. My master only gave me one technique for everything. It was the bare bones of a technique, but could be adapted to anything and everything with enough skill.” Cain responded in a way that kept up with his previous lies but would also prompt Jacob to explain the difference between techniques. Victoria listened in patiently while Veronica kept eating and listening.

“Huh… Must be a good technique. Stuff like that is hard to find even in ruins.” Jared commented while wiping his mouth with a nearby napkin, then continued to eat. Cain merely nodded and waited for Jacob to pick up where he left off. “So mana-gathering techniques are just as the name implies. We absorb mana from our surroundings then circulate around our body according to the technique until it becomes familiar to us and we can control it.

“At this point, we say we have annexed the mana into our system. Depending on the technique, this could take hours or even minutes to do. The muscles along the paths the mana is annexed on are also tempered slightly and become more resilient or stronger than the rest. At that time, me and Jared were using the gathering techniques issued by the Adventurer Guild.

“Their books are for every warrior, ranger, tank, etc. and only begin to specialize around C-rank.” Jacob explained the mana-gathering technique to Cain. “Many people have tried to create their own techniques, but it’s not recommended unless you have very precise mana control and know a lot about the human body.” Victoria added at the end while Veronica picked up her feasting speed, seemingly trying not to bring something up.

Huh… so when the natural mana is being annexed, it’s either consumed or converted into their mana but also tempers the muscles and presumably veins it travels through… Interesting, could this be because they’re taking in more mana than their body could handle and thus forcibly make their muscles adapt to the increase in mana?

I’ll need to observe when they perform their mana-gathering technique… It could lead to some insights to increase how much mana my body can handle. Cain analyzed the contents of what they explained, leading to a possible clue on enhancing how much mana his body could hold. “So a tailored mana-gathering technique makes learning skills along that path easier then?” Cain asked the party after he finished collecting his thoughts.

“Exactly. My master made me redo my cultivation then helped me rebuild it according to her technique. That technique increased the control and power of my shadow element slightly and made performing the techniques she gave me later a lot easier.” Jared answered Cain’s question according to his experience. He shuddered at the end due to an unpleasant memory that surfaced along with his answer.

“So why was Veronica only at the peak of D-rank a year ago?” Cain asked the party. According to what they said, Veronica was assumed to be at the second circle for two years. Veronica winced slightly when the topic she was trying to avoid cropped up. “Ooooh, so about that. We met Veronica when she had no magic circle. She was still able to rival most D-rank adventurers though with her techniques and archery.” Jared commented, actually praising Veronica for once.

“As for why I took two years to go from no circle to the peak of the second circle… My mana sensitivity is very low, even though my mana control is pretty high. I’ve had to rely on the mana from monster meat to increase my own. I can replenish it just fine though.” Veronica shyly added, spurred on by Jared’s praise. Veronica realized Jared did that on purpose to get her to speak about something she usually avoids when he saw his smirk.

Before Veronica could cause a slight commotion, Cain spoke up. “So when did you guys meet Victoria?” “About six months ago? Around 9 or 10 months ago we failed a quest because we had accumulated too many injuries over time, so we began to search for a healer around that time. A few months later, Veronica introduced Victoria to us and that’s when she joined our party.” Jacob spoke up to distract Jared and Veronica from starting another one of their fights.

“She also took over our finances around that time. Thanks to that, we’ve been able to buy or save more when we need to and aren’t as hard–strapped for cash like we used to be.” Jared finished off when he saw Veronica go back to eating. The party continued to reminisce about the past times while Cain observed the nobles dancing and talking. Hah… I should’ve known it would be this fake and boring. He thought as he eyed a normal noble bounce from clique to clique trying to make connections. Dresil sat on the side with her eyes closed as if she were sleeping. She was actually binging anime and paying attention to Cain’s mood so she could stop him in time if something went awry.