Noah, Ayden, Mari, and Ness. Those four were sitting next to each other on the couch. Mari seemed quite confused about something, though, “How did you know that Ness and I also have special abilities?”

Almanac raised his brows, “We were watching you for a while, of course. Since that boy over there hurt himself climbing down that rock-wall.”

“Eh?” Noah muttered, “What do you mean?”

Margosa stepped forward and held her hand in front of her. She slowly formed a fist, and soon let go of it. In front of her, another magic circle appeared floating in the air, “Image.”

On the small couch table, a mass suddenly appeared. It was the shape of the mountain, and there were even small cubes at the bottom to show the buildings of the town below.

“This mountain has three barriers in total. The inner one directly around this sanctuary to make sure no force created through our experiments can escape. The middle one to stop intruders from climbing the mountain anymore. And the outer one to let us see anything that is going on on this mountain. Mostly we don’t really watch anyone or anything, but we are notified when people are injured within the area of the outer barrier. So, we watched to make sure you would be fine, and overheard you when you were speaking of your ability.” She explained, and Mari slowly nodded her head. She was pretty nervous being in front of these sages, not to mention that she was still trying to understand the extent of what it meant that Noah and Ayden were ‘Lost Ones’.

Almanac chuckled a bit as he looked at Ness, “Another one of us was interested in you four, especially seeing that magic item you are carrying around, so we quickly learned about your ability to comprehend languages as well.”

“But really, you sure are an interesting group. Two ‘Lost Ones’, one noble child, and a kobold. All of them have seemingly quite unique special abilities.” Margosa said with a slight smirk. Mari was shocked for a moment, but she didn’t even want to ask how they knew that she was from a noble family anymore.

“So, I have some suggestions to make. First, the boy’s hands will be properly healed of course. Two, since all of your guys’ abilities seem magical in nature, how about you-“

“Margosa, are you suggesting what I think you are?” Almanac interrupted Margosa, and she quickly nodded her head in response, “Of course. Getting the chance to potentially teach an otherworlder... Would you ever let that up?”

“We don’t even know if they are compatible with our systems, Margosa. You might not get the chance to teach any of them.” Almanac added, and Ayden looked at the two sages with wide open eyes.

“Are you trying to say you want to teach the four of us magic?” He asked, and both of the sages looked back at him, “Indeed so. I would be lying if I said I were not interested myself. It has been quite boring around here lately, so it would be a nice change of pace. But it is up to you four, of course. And if you are capable in the first place.”

Without hesitation, Noah slightly raised his hand, “Isn’t magic just for smart people? I think Ness and I aren’t really the best choice for that...”

The Kobold leaned forward and glared at Noah, “What?”

Completely ignoring Ness, Almanac shook his head, “It is not just for those with high wisdom or intellect. Certain systems, of course, but many are based on emotion. Feelings. Simply being able to use the magic as if it was an extension of your self. Of course there are those that are not a good fit for magic, but that is not due to lacking intelligence.”

Noah, Ayden, Mari and Ness looked at each other in turn. While they were a larger group made up of two smaller ones, they did get along pretty well already. Being in this weird environment, it is nice to have people like this you get along with. So they chose to get each other’s opinion.

Ayden was clearly interested, so it was obvious for Noah that he was going to stay just for the heck of it as well. If it didn’t work out, that was fine, but if he was able to use magic, that would be pretty cool too. Ness accepted it as well, as if it was a challenge for his greatness. The only one that was unsure now was Mari. She did get some instruction in the field of magic before, but she was never too great at it.

“...Fine.” She finally said, and the others quickly grinned.

“Then I guess we would gladly accept your teachings.” Ayden spoke for everyone, and Margosa swiftly made her way toward the door.

“Perfect! Then let us inform the others!” Margosa exclaimed with obvious excitement. Mari turned toward Almanac without a moment’s hesitation.

“Speaking of, how many sages are here?” She asked, and Almanac answered immediately, “We have 10 sages here, each one having mastered a different system. We have other masters here, and of course apprentices, but only 10 sages.”

“O-Only? Sages are supposed to be the peak of their system, so having ten in one place..! Why are you all here?”

Almanac laughed, “It simply happened. This has been the gathering place for sages for many centuries. But now, stand up. We should really meet with the others now. Luckily, nearly all of them are here. We are now only missing two.”

---

Noah, Ayden, Mari and Ness were brought to another room. It was larger, and there was a circular table set up within it. There was some empty space in the center that one could walk into, and the four were told to step into that area.

And there, they waited for others to come by. The first one beside Margosa and Almanac was a short being with bright red hair. It was about four feet tall, and clearly was just a huge frog walking on two legs. It climbed onto one of the chairs, and looked at the four in the center of the room, “New servants?”

“Why would we call you for new servants?” Margosa asked with a wry smile, “You usually just try your poison out on them anyway.”

“Does that mean I can’t do that with these?” The frog asked, and Almanac laughed in a gentle voice, “Ribbeg, my friend, you should not even do so with the actual servants.”

“...Then why do we even have them?” Ribbeg asked in a confused tone. He was certainly one of the more unique ones in this room, but the others were coming close. And then, Ayden and Noah both felt themselves choke up when the last one finally came into the room.

A short figure, the height of a child, with dark green skin and a somewhat ugly visage. It was a goblin. Moving just like the others, and on top of that, this goblin was a sage. Did that mean that they did kill a person after all, back at that tent?

The two friends went pale, as if they felt sick, before Ness actually saved the day, “Eh? Why’s a goblin one of the sages?” He asked.

With an annoyed glare, he answered. The goblin’s voice was robotic and rough, as if the mechanical mask on the lower half of his face wasn’t just there for aesthetic reasons, “Don’t compare me to a simple goblin. I’m a high goblin. Most other goblins are basically just animals, I would like to think myself to be more sophisticated than that.” The goblin replied in an angry tone, and Ness just looked back curiously, mostly focusing on the goblin’s mask.

And somehow, Noah and Ayden felt weirdly calmed down again. Maybe the situation with such creatures in this world was more complicated than it seemed. They should wait and see what was going to happen.

“Are you alright?” Ayden whispered to his friend, who slowly nodded his head, “I’m good, I think. Thanks.”

The six other sages that just entered the room, as the other two simply weren’t here in this ‘sanctuary’, looked at Almanac and Margosa, who swiftly explained the situation until now. Some of them were already aware that there were visitors, others were surprised that random people came here.

But without exception, all of them were more than just excited at the idea of teaching otherworlders once they found out about this fact.

“Calm down, please.” Almanac told them, taking on some sort of leader-like position, “While I am certain that Mari and Ness know at least the basics, neither Noah nor Ayden seem to truly know how magic works in this world. Does one of you wish to explain?”

And then, the only other human sage beside Margosa stood up, “I would gladly.” He said, with a slight spanish accent. He had a slightly dark aura around him, but Ayden was mostly surprised to see someone that seemed to know spanish here.

“Disculpe, pero ¿habla usted este idioma, por casualidad?” Ayden said, asking if this man really spoke spanish, wondering if he was right or if this was just a coincidence, and all of the sages, as well as Mari, were rather surprised.

The sage quickly nodded his head with a smile on his face as he replied, “Sí, sí. ¡Oh, qué maravilloso es escuchar a alguien hablar en mi lengua materna por una vez! Todos estos tontos siempre esperan que hable su idioma, ¡pero nunca hablarán el mío!” He exclaimed. Ayden laughed a bit as he replied, entering a short conversation with this sage in spanish, while Ness started to translate for Mari.

“So basically, that human said that he was glad our human can speak his language, because all the sages here are too dumb to.” Ness explained. Ayden and the spanish-speaking sage looked at each other with a light smile aftear realizing their conversation was overheard like this, before the man once more spoke in english instead.

“Sorry about that, my friends. I was just slightly excited, you see?” He explained, “Now first, my name is Enrico Algriso. It is a pleasure to meet you all today. All magic works under the same principle. We use mana to manipulate other forces around us in one way or another. Upon expending mana, we regenerate it by absorbing it directly from the weave. Your attributes determine how much mana your body can hold, and how quickly you can absorb mana from the weave.” Enrico explained, while both Noah and Ayden listened curiously.

“Compare magic to speech. Mana would be the ability to produce sounds itself. And a ‘system’ of magic would then be a language. It is something used to... erm... bring order into magic itself. Otherwise, one could not use it effectively. There are many systems of magic, my own being Ritualism. Using mana, I bring meaning into... patrones de... erm, patterns of behavior, into the actions one can take, to cast magic. There are as many ways to use magic as there are magic users, but most fall under some sort of system known to us already.”