Flames flickered vigorously, sending off sparkles around. Colorful to Trino and shades of yellow and orange to the others sitting around it.

Xahi was sitting beside her mother on a stone, like everyone else. Although the deadly charm she throws passively had dimmed out due to the shabby clothes, her constant gaze of curiosity and warmth took that place for Trino. She was looking at him.

Last night, in that wicked place, Phill’s presence was like a ray of hope for her from the moment he started struggling for her. She knew neither she nor Phill had been the one to kill Hugo. But the fact did not change that he had tried to save her and was still doing the same.

Unbeknownst to her, she was giving a hard time to Phill by showing her affection. He had to try his all to focus, for the porcelain doll with a damn cute oval face and big adorable eyes staring at him.

It was a natural thing for any boy, given Xahi's looks. Merino understood the boy’s misery and said, “Xahi, what would you like to do once we reach Ashgara?”

“I am gonna be a warrior. Unlike before, I don’t want to restrain myself because of my weakness so that I can explore different places. Painting is good, and what good place is better than nature to paint.” Merino indulged her daughter in small talks and tried to let Trino focus. But, now it was Trino. He seemed utterly curious about the little things she had been doing and wanted to change.

She shared her part of the past and the future full of expectations. Trino listened to her every word carefully. More like he didn't have any other choice. 200+ stat in concentration wasn’t enough to tear focus away from Xahi, the girl he was developing feelings of affection for.

These two, are they…? Merino was left wondering about their behavior. Just to confirm her thoughts, she glanced at Trino, who she found sneakily looking at Xahi. He too caught her looking at him and dispersed his attention away from them.

Sigh…I didn’t mean to scare him. But it was for the good. Knowing very well, they had to get out of there, Merino didn't think much of it.

Trino also closed his eyes and took a few breaths to calm himself. Finally, he started observing ambient mana around the fire, trying to think of solutions applicable. It only took that much to enter analyzing mode.

Different from a fire in the real world, the one in front of him was going to burn for a long time. He got this much from staring at it and observing the size of the lock remaining yet to burn. The mana present in the environment helped the fire to be stable. At last, Trino noticed the solution in front of him he was ignoring all along. Mana…

He jumped up in surprise and checked his skill tree in anticipation. Hoping to find the skill he used last night and might’ve missed its notification along with all the others.

[Manaball]

Conjure Manaballs from hands to shoot out.

Mana consumption: Depends on size.

There was no damage listed and nothing about what the effects were.

“Maybe we can leave this place now, but let me try something first.” He said, exhilaration flashing in his eyes for the things he was about to try.

Last time it was the size of a baseball, and it drained all my Mana. Trino concentrated and forced his Mana to emerge and accumulate around his palm.

Merino stood up, taking Xahi along, and stared at the marble-sized distortion above Trino’s palm with fearful eyes. She could not perceive the wavelengths of mana, but that wasn’t her reason for concern. She saw mana for how it usually appeared in its solid-state, like a glass ball with crystal-clear(colorless) water convulsing around it. Carefully stepping back, she said, “Are you planning to blow up the cave using up all your mana at once?”

Xahi and Phill looked confused at her reactions on the small Manaball, “No, I am just trying to gauge how much control I have over mana. So that I can use it to distract monsters.”

“How exactly, by luring them upon yourself.”

“I might be rich with mana, but I can only be eaten once. It won’t work twice,” Phill said jokingly, and yet his words turned the atmosphere utterly dark. The reason was Xahi, who turned sad at the thought of his demise. He would resurrect, but for the Chronos, for whom this was their actual world, and was unaware that Trino was an immortal, it was a bad thing to say.

“I am sorry,” He was obliged by Xahi's sad look to apologize and continued, “I am going to lump mana with objects and throw them away. That would distract the monsters. But firstly, I need to do some experiments.”

“What experiments?” Merino hurriedly asked, looking at the marble-sized ball in his hand and the way he looked towards the fire.

“I will try to amplify the fire using mana and see how much control I can exert.”

“No! No! No! You can’t. If you put that much mana into the fire, it will blow up the cave.” She reminded him again and took three steps back, putting Xahi behind her back. It wasn't a good sight, Xahi was of the same height as her mother. She was not in the category of petite girls, so Merino treating her like a baby girl didn't look good.

“But it’s not much!” Phill couldn’t understand her reactions.

“That’s way too much.” She fought back with reason.

He turned towards the pale-blue ball in his hand. It was emitting a yellow mist. The marble was solid, giving off a distortion in the same manner as heat does. Is it that much? He recalled last night’s size. Didn't I throw a baseball compared to this one yesterday? It didn’t do anything.

Nobody knew what the cap for the levels was. He just conjured 1000unit from his 29000+ pool, thinking it would be small enough to start with. He than realized.

It is small, but I forgot that this would be like a basic spell from a 500 level magician. If one distributes their stats perfectly balanced in all attributes until level 500, they would have 1000 intelligence giving a little less mana then Trino.

Merino waited for Trino to throw the mana ball out of the cave or disperse it somewhere, anywhere. Although it would waste his mana. Still, it was much better than to be burned by it. But Trino did something absurd. He retracted back enough mana to turn the ball into the size of a grain.

“Would this be enough,” He asked Merino, who was staring at him, wide-eyed.

She nodded, unable to muster up words, and Trino directed the manaball in the fire with a flick.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. It went through the fire.

“Nothing happened…” Merino said, but to Trino, it was as clear as crystal.

It went through the fire because flames reacted to the Manaball as if the water to an oil drop. Those flares were covered in a thin membrane of their own mana-signature and had dodged the manaball away.

Merino approached Phill standing by the fire, “Stay away! I am not done yet,” He backed them away.

At that moment, she and even Xahi felt overwhelmed by Trino’s aura for the very first time. He had let out his Manafield, which he was withholding this whole time, not to be noticed by monsters roaming around. In that aspect, he was a monster in his own ways.

He conjured another granule of mana in his palm and flicked it again in the fire while forcing the flames to be in place. The ball, this time, faced resistance and was stuck in it, yet nothing major was happening.

The manaball didn’t hinder flow of the fire even after being submerged in it, nor did it amplify its burning rate.

He could perceive the fire in front as an illusive 3d image, showing different aspects upon concentrating. When he focused enough, the mana structure within it unfolded in his understanding. Like metal rods holding a building’s structure, mana lines were connecting to nodes in it to form a base frame. The frame was twisting and turning along the flames, all the while stabilizing the fire's integrity from dwindling.

The fire was in physical form, while the mana which it burned through was ethereal. The manaball was ethereal too, but it did not enter the mana system keeping the fire stable. Conversely, it derailed the balance of the mana system within the fire, slowly erasing the flames. Unfolding his Manafield all it took Trino to discern the nature of common fire in Ulteria.

Nevertheless, he let the flames die down due to the collapsing mana system, just to be thorough.

“Why is it extinguished?” Merion asked, puzzled, wasn’t mana something which was supposed to work like oil in the fire, yet it was working as though the water. Unlike her, Xahi didn't exactly perceive things like Trino did. But somehow she knew what happened.

“The manaball did it,” He said to confused Merino and asked, “Merino.G can you light it up again? Once I am done, we will be leaving soon from here.”

And the mature Chrono obliged, not knowing anything better to help.