Joseph only saw darkness. Then a light flashed into his eyes and he saw a black dragon burning down an entire forest. The flames surrounded him, but he felt no warmth. It was relaxing and cold.

Next he saw was Leafa standing before him. She was looking scared at him, then he stroke her down. As she fell down he felt the blood get on his face. He licked it and felt the salty blood in his mouth.

He woke up sweating. He still felt the taste in his mouth when he realized it was his own blood. Catherine was still sleeping so he walked to the lake and looked in it. His face was dark and had bags under his eyes. Dried blood was on the bottom of his nose and on the edge of his mouth.

"This doesn't look good. But strangly... I fell good?"

He washed his face, pulled out some food from his backpack and started eating.

After a while Catherine woke up as well and she washed up and ate as well.

"It has been over 8 hours. We still got time until night. Now I'll work on my curse, meanwhile you should practice handling your mana core better. I'll teach you how to make it work properly. That way you'll have a lot more mana to use."

She told him how to get his core work better. He basically had to pull out mana from the core and direct it back as soon as it left the core.

"This way you'll use the same mana to pull out and redirect it in, while your core will make more that will go through your body. Also if you store more mana up in your core then it can, but just above the limit, it will get used to it and will be capable to store more then usually. It is a slow and tedious method, so you should do the redirection first."

"Alright."

She sat down next to the lake.

"While I'm doing my stuff don't disturbe me. If you do I might die because of it."

He got goosebumps hearing it.

"I see. Don't worry I won't disturbe you."

She did not answer anymore, so he sit down and started to practice. He ned to constantly absorb more and more mana from the surrounding while doing this and continued until he got the warning window about the overusing his mana regeneration. After that he took a few hours to nap and got back to it.

After doing this the second time it was dark already. Catherine was still doing her stuff.

'I'm curious how did my stats change lately. Stats,'

Name: Joseph Smith

Race: Human

Age: 21 Gender: Male

Job: None

Level: 3

Experience: 0/250

Health: 110/110

Mana: 15/297

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 9

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 27

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 10

Stat points: 11

Corruption: 0

State: Upgrading core

Abilities: Imaginative Magic D, Examination D, Survival F, Magic infusion A, Meditation C, Wood chopping F, Manna absorption E, Medicine F

Titles: Friend of the elfs, Beginner magician, Apprentice of the Great Witch Catherine!

'Upgrading core?'

Upgrading core

As your mana core is getting used to higher mana usage, your mana capacity extends. Present extension: +10%

'This is usefull. I should practice more.'

He went back to it and continued until he was to tired, then he went to sleep, while Catherine was still meditating on her own.

When he woke up, it was still early in the morning and she was sleeping in meditating pose.

"Seems like she couldn't finish in one go."

He went back to practice until the clerick came back.

"I see you are still practicing. I've came to check up on you just as I said."

"Yes. We still need time and there was no problem while we were here."

"That is good to hear. Do you want to eat with me?"

"Sure why not? I wanted to take a brake anyway."

They sit down in front of eachother and Father Dan took out some bread and jerky from his dimensional storage.

"That magic is really usefull."

"It is."

They ate the food.

"You know. You peaked my interest Joseph. You have a trace of divine power on you. Have you recived the blessing of our lord?"

He was confused.

"I don't know about it. Most of the things I've done was with my magical power, I don't know anything about god."

"I see. You might recived it without noticing it."

Joseph felt into silence and started to think about it.

'Is it Silvia's power? It might be similar to Esnar's power. I mean she would have divine power under her skills if she is as powerfull as she said.'

"Anyway, if you have connection to our god it is a really good sign. In the old tales those who had the blessings from him were great heros. They fought many corrupted creatures and belivers of false gods."

"I see. But I don't think I'm up to being a hero. I mean I'm really weak. Other than regular folks I can't really beat anyone."

Father Dan laughed.

"That makes you strong. Even if you think you are weak, you are still stronger than most people you can meet with."

"Most, but not any. I've met so many strong people over one month that I know if I stay weak I'll die."

The clerick smiled.

"Yes. That is a good way of thinking. Keep it up and you will definetly survive!"

His eyes lit up for a moment.

"Excuse me I have to leave. I've got something important to do. I'll be back tomorrow."

He stood up and pulled out a small ring from his dimensional storage.

"Take this. If you put it on and try to reach me, I'll hear you talk so that I can come for you if you want to leave."

"Thank you."

He nodded and walked away. Joseph was left there pondering.

'Strange fella!'