Magic Level: Fourth Circle

Affinities: Life, Wild

Level of Augmentation: None

Brain reservoir: Normal

Heart reservoir: Normal

Bladder reservoir: Normal

Mana: 5,067

Mana density: 1.6

“I expected your results to be weird, but seeing it for myself is quite a different experience,” Mother Betha said.

“What do you mean, ‘weird’? What do these details even mean?” I asked Mother Betha, gesturing to my results. I had no idea as to what some of the words meant. The only thing I could understand from the results was my mana, which was quantified as more than five thousand, and the mana density. I had no idea if five thousand was a lot, but it sounded impressive to me.

“The ‘Magic Level’ refers to the highest Circle of Magic that you could cast with the amount of mana that you have,” Mother Betha explained. “For example, if you have ten mana, then you could cast at least one Second-circle magic spell, making you a Second-circle mage.”

“How is mana measured in numbers, anyway?” I asked.

“That system of measuring mana was established long ago to easily provide a point of comparison between spells,” Mother Betha said. “The amount of mana required to cast the weakest first-circle spell is one mana. That means if you have ten mana, you could cast ten of the weakest first-circle spells.”

Oh, so that was what the numbers meant. The way they measured mana was just like how they measured energy back on Earth in joules, or how force was calculated in newtons. In this case, mana was measured based on the amount required to cast one first-circle spell, just like how one newton is the force required to give a one-kilogram object an acceleration of one meter per second squared. Who knew my physics lessons in college would pay off like this?

“In order to further understand how the Magic Level works, you will need to know the amount of mana required to cast each Circle of Magic,” Mother Betha continued. “First-circle magic costs one mana, Second-circle costs ten, Third-circle costs one hundred, and so on. Each successive Circle of Magic requires at least ten times the amount of mana than the previous Circle. The highest Circle of Magic ever recorded in history was an Eighth-circle spell that required at least ten million mana.”

How can anybody even have that much mana?! Looking at my mana of five thousand made me realize that what I thought was a pretty big mana pool was actually small. Well, I just started in my path to become a mage, so my mana pool would definitely grow bigger, especially if I start my training again.

“Why do they call the ranks of spells as ‘Circles,’ anyway? Why not call First-circle spells as ‘Rank 1 spells’ or ‘Tier 1 spells?’” I asked curiously.

“That's because you need a magic circle to cast magic, Brogen,” Liz answered beside me. Like me, she was attentively listening to Mother Betha's explanations, although her eyes held more fervor than mine.

“Liz is correct,” Mother Betha said. “For example, first-circle spells utilize one magic circle, while second-circle spells use two. You will learn about those at the right time. As for your affinities, it refers to what type of mana you are attuned to, but before we discuss it further, let me ask both of you a question first. Is it okay for the two of you to reveal the details of your magic aptitude test with each other?”

I looked at Liz beside me, who was also staring at me. I didn't really have any qualms about telling Liz the results of my magic aptitude test since she was my friend, but I assessed the possible consequences first before deciding. I already had enough of doing things carelessly.

If I told Liz about my results, there was an absolute chance that it would shock her. Even if I turned into the most humble person in Thera, I was still confident that my mana values would shock her, what with all my Authority training over the past few years. If she decided to ask about the reason why my mana pool was so large, I would have to feign ignorance or reject her directly. I had no idea if it would result in some distrust growing between the two of us, but it was possible. Sharing my results would also reveal my weaknesses like my affinities, although there were also advantages in sharing my results.

If I shared my results with Liz and she also shared hers, we would be able to help and guide each other in the magic lessons since we would know the parts where each of us excelled at and where we were weak at. Sharing our results with each other would also have a higher chance of building trust between the two of us compared to the chance of resulting in distrust. Plus, there was a high chance that Liz would become a famous mage in the future, so building a connection with her now would pay off tremendously, especially with how my status as an Ascendant meant I was a pariah in society.

“It's fine with me, Mother,” Liz said without hesitation.

“I'm fine with sharing my results with Liz,” I said after a short pause. I felt a bit guilty for making my decision based on calculations like this one when Liz didn't even hesitate, but I had to be very careful since my life and Mom's were the stakes if I wasn't careful.

“Alright, then go ahead if it's alright with the both of you,” Mother Betha said.

Liz and I exchanged our results with each other. I looked over Liz's quickly.

Magic Level: Second circle

Affinities: Water, Air

Level of Augmentation: None

Brain reservoir: Normal

Heart reservoir: Normal

Bladder reservoir: Normal

Mana: 91

Mana density: 1.0

I knew it. I'm a weirdo compared to other people. My mana pool was dozens of times larger than Liz, who probably had a lot of potential compared to other mages. The fact that her starting mana was almost at the Third-circle meant she had way more potential than me when I first got my magic aptitude test.

Liz gasped at my results and looked at me with incredulous eyes. Yeah, I definitely understand her reaction.

“W-What, how?!” Liz exclaimed. “How is this possible?! Your mana is so large despite not having any experience with magic yet! And affinity with wild mana?! How is that even possible?!”

“Wait, what's wrong with my wild-affinity?” I asked with a stupid face. I expected her shock at my mana, but not with my affinity. I didn't have a good grasp of magical stuff, so I didn't know what was standard and what was unusual.

“There's no such thing as an affinity with wild mana, Brogen. Well, I guess not anymore,” Mother Betha said as she chuckled. “Wild mana is also known as ‘neutral’ mana since it doesn't have any attributes. If wild mana gets enough exposure to the elements, then it gains an attribute, like fire mana or water mana. Everybody has an affinity to a certain attribute, even if that someone is not a mage, but this is the first time I saw someone have an affinity with wild mana.”

“If there's no such thing as a wild-affinity before, then how did the Mana Analyzer know that I have an affinity with wild mana in the first place?” I asked. From my understanding, the Mana Analyzer had its own database so that it knew what kind of affinity a person has based on their mana. If wild-affinity didn't exist, then it also shouldn't exist in its database, and yet it showed ‘Wild’ in my results.

“The Mana Analyzer only prints out the type of mana it detects in your body,” Mother Betha explained. “It doesn't actually ‘know’ your affinity, it just tells you the dominant type of mana inside you, and it turns out it detected large amounts of life and wild mana inside you.”

So that was how it worked. Then I guess I really must be a weirdo— I mean, an individual with unique capabilities. Yeah, that's what I am.

“Brogen, how did you even get this kind of result?” Liz asked me with a dumbfounded face.

Well, it looks like the moment has arrived. Instead of feigning ignorance, I decided to deny Liz directly from an answer. Trying to deceive her would probably just increase the chances of distrust growing between us.

“Sorry Liz, but I really can't tell you.”

“Oh,” Liz said, her face lighting up in realization. Wait, why do you look like you've just realized something?

“So this is what they mean when mages don't share their secrets so freely with each other,” she said while nodding. “I understand, Brogen. Showing me your results was already a big gesture of trust, so rest assured that I won't pry into your secrets.”

Um, I did not expect her to react this way, but hey, it was the best possible outcome I could hope for. “Thank you for showing me your results too, Liz. I also promise not to pry into your secrets.”

“Well, if both of you are alright with that, then I'm going to explain the rest of your results,” Mother Betha said. “The Mana Analyzer can detect if your reservoirs have any issues, but in your cases, it returned as normal. Since you're not augmenters, you don't have a Level of Augmentation, so don't mind that part. Lastly, your mana density is like a multiplier for your mana. For Brogen, having a mana density of 1.6 means your mana is multiplied by that number. Your mana pool of five thousand is the calculated result.”

“Is there even any significance in denser mana?” I asked. “Even if I had more than five thousand mana because of my mana density, other mages could also get a mana pool of five thousand through training, even if their density was one.”

“Humans have a limit to the amount of mana they can contain in their bodies,” the pastor explained. “Think of your bodies as a bucket and the water inside it as your mana. You can only fill it with so much water before it spills over the edge, right? But let's say you filled another bucket to the brim with honey. If you compare the two buckets filled with liquid, then you'll find that the one containing honey is heavier.”

“What's the limit for the mana pools of humans?” Liz asked.

“At a density of one, mages with the least potential have the mana limit of about ten thousand while the most talented ones can reach a hundred thousand.”

I wondered what my limit was. When I took my first magic aptitude test, I had almost no potential to become a mage, so I probably had a low limit. I wouldn't be shocked if my limit was actually five thousand and I already reached it when I experienced my second Awakening. No, don't think like that. Think positive thoughts!

“With all that out of the way, let's start the lessons, shall we?” Mother Betha said.

Liz and I nodded excitedly and followed the pastor out of the room.

●●●

“Hi, Mom.”

“Good morning, Aunt Helen,” Liz said.

“Hello!” Mom replied cheerfully. She looked quite excited to see us have our first magic lesson and stopped working on the garden entirely. Since it was winter, Mom's work only consisted of cleaning the tools and the surrounding area of dead plants to prepare for planting in spring.

“The tools aren't going to clean themselves, Helen,” Mother Betha chided.

“Yes, Mother,” Mom said sheepishly as she returned to her job in the toolshed, although I could see her head peek out the door from time to time.

Mother Betha relocated us to the gardens for our first magic lesson. Liz and I stood side by side in front of the pastor as she explained to us what we will be doing for the first lesson.

“In order to cast magic, there are three vital steps to follow if you don't want a backlash to happen,” Mother Betha began. “The first step is to release mana from your body and shape that mana into a mana circle. For today, I will be teaching you how to feel your mana.”

“What are the second and third steps?” I asked.

“You'll learn it when the time comes,” Mother Betha replied. “I can't have you trying it out for yourself at home again.”

I gave her a sheepish smile as I remembered that time I got myself burned for trying to release mana without even knowing the proper way to do it.

“Is it fine to practice here, Mother?” Liz asked as she eyed the walls around the garden suspiciously.

“Don't worry, I will know if there's anybody else apart from Helen trying to peek at us.”

I saw a peeking head by the toolshed's doorway immediately retreat at the pastor's words.

“Alright, I want you both to listen carefully to my instructions if you don't want to get hurt. Try to shift your focus inside your body and see if you feel anything, particularly something hot. For beginners like you, it helps if you close your eyes and sit down on the ground for this process.”

We followed Mother Betha's instructions and sat down while closing our eyes, shifting our focus inside our bodies. Mother Betha probably referred to the mana inside our bodies when she meant something ‘hot.’ Since I was already familiar with my mana with all the training I've been doing with my Authority, I was able to easily feel the heat inside, although this was the first time I was able to feel it without using my Authority at all. What I felt was… a weird feeling, as if something was moving, no, flowing inside me in a set pattern, like a river. This must be my mana.

As my focus further deepened, the pattern of flow I felt turned clearer, until I finally realized that the pattern that my mana followed was my mana channels. Like a series of pipes inside my body, mana flowed through these channels quickly. From what I remembered, Mother Betha referred to this system of channels as the mana circuit. An imaginary image of my mana circuit formed inside my mind based on where I felt the heat, and I noticed that most of my mana was concentrated in my head, heart, and bladder. These must be my mana reservoirs.

Compared to the amount of mana flowing through my channels, the amount contained within my reservoirs was massive. Based on the amount of heat I felt, about ninety percent of my mana was stored inside my reservoirs while only ten percent was flowing through my channels in my current relaxed state.

“Looks like Brogen is successful in feeling his mana,” Mother Betha suddenly said from the front, breaking my focus. The image of my mana circuit slowly vanished in my mind, but I could still feel the flow of mana inside my body even though I wasn't trying to focus my senses inwards.

“How did you know I did it?” I asked. As far as I knew, there were no physical signs that would indicate that I was successful while my focus was turned inwards.

“You were smiling like an idiot.”

Oh, makes sense.

Liz let out an annoyed noise beside me. Her eyes were still closed, but her face was scrunched up in frustration. She was having a hard time feeling her mana.

“You need a calm and steady mind if you want to feel your mana, Liz,” Mother Betha said. “You don't need to rush this. Feeling your mana is not a simple task, and it usually takes several days of meditation until you get a good grasp of it.”

“But Brogen already felt his mana in less than ten minutes!” Liz exclaimed.

“Don't mind Brogen, girl. He's an outlier, so don't lump yourself with him.”

“Hey, you're talking about me as if I'm a weirdo!”

“No, I just think of you as an ‘unusual individual,’” Mother Betha said with a cheeky smile.

Liz took deep breaths to calm herself and closed her eyes once more. Mother Betha beckoned me over as she started walking towards the other side of the garden, so I stood up and followed her. Once we were a fair distance away from Liz, Mother Betha stopped and instructed me to sit once more.

“Since you are now able to feel your mana, I'm going to start teaching you how to keep it from escaping your body,” Mother Betha said.

“Shouldn't we wait for Liz first before starting?”

“Liz has quite a high potential as a mage compared to others, but that doesn't mean she's going to acquire her mana sense within a day. Unlike you, she does not know what mana is supposed to feel like.”

“‘Mana sense?’ Is that what I just experienced just a while ago?”

“Mana sense is the ability to feel mana, Brogen, and it is the most basic requirement to manipulate it. Augmenters and mages alike need it to use their abilities, and this is what gives us the capability to sense how much mana we have in our bodies,” the pastor explained.

So that was what it was called! I didn't know it was called like that, so I named it ‘mana level instinct,’ but now that Mother Betha mentioned it, ‘mana sense’ sounded way more appropriate. Who even thinks of a name like ‘mana level instinct anyway…

“So how do I keep my mana from exiting my body?” I asked excitedly.

“You have to feel your mana circuit again and be constantly aware of the mana flowing inside it. Once you're done, I want you to focus on the walls of your mana channels.”

I did as Mother Betha instructed and focused inwards. An image of the mana circuit formed inside my mind again, but this time, I shifted my focus to the walls of my mana channels. I didn't really see anything special at all, but right when I was about to consult Mother Betha, I spotted it.

Every now and then, a very tiny hole would open up on my mana channel's wall for a split second, and in that split second, a little bit of my mana would escape. Once I became aware of the phenomenon, I looked over the other areas of my mana channel and found that it was happening constantly all over my mana circuit. Every second, hundreds of thousands of these tiny holes would appear for a split second, releasing an insignificant amount of my mana.

“I see little holes appearing on my mana channels and letting out some of my mana,” I announced to Mother Betha.

“Good. Now here comes the hardest part of the lesson,” Mother Betha said. “I want you to stop your mana from escaping these tiny holes.”

“Um, how do I do that?”

“The mana inside your body is a part of you, Brogen. You just have to exert your will over it and it will heed your instructions.”

Remembering how I used my Authority by ‘willing’ it, I exerted my will over my entire mana circuit. I willed my mana to keep flowing within the mana channels' boundaries and ignore the holes. It was successful for a short while, but I quickly realized that my mind was starting to pound along with a strong feeling of nausea. I quickly released my control over my mana and the aching in my head subsided, although there was still a lingering pain.

“You did good, Brogen. You managed to acquire your mana sense and begin your training on mana manipulation on the same day,” Mother Betha said as she congratulated me.

“Thanks,” I said as I slumped on the ground, exhausted. “I didn't expect it to be so hard.”

“Mana manipulation is the hardest discipline in magic. Most mages tend to skip learning this skill in favor of knowing how to cast spells as soon as possible.”

“Didn't you say that one needed to learn mana manipulation first before you could cast spells?”

“Yes I did, although for most mages, they only learn just the minimum amount of skill in mana manipulation required to start casting spells, but this always results in being inflexible.”

“What do you mean ‘inflexible?’” I asked curiously.

“I told you earlier that spells require magic circles, right? Those magic circles are responsible for the spells themselves. Once a magic circle is formed successfully, the only thing left to do is to pour mana into it and the spell will manifest.”

“So the only thing you really need to do to cast magic is to form this magic circle thingy and pour juice into it?”

“…Your choice of words is peculiar, but yes, that is what mages do to cast magic, and most of them only learn the minimum skill in mana manipulation to form the magic circles.”

“So how does it make mages ‘inflexible’?”

“When mages practice new spells, they study its magic circle and how to form it. Then they practice doing it over and over until they ‘master’ it and tell themselves that they've learned a new spell,” Mother Betha said with scorn. “In reality, a magic circle can turn into any kind of spell you need as long as it has the same affinity. A magic circle for a fireball spell can easily turn into a firelance by simply tweaking a part of its configuration. A water cannon spell could easily transform into a mist spell with a single addition to its magic circle. All you need is the proper skill in mana manipulation.”

“Woah,” I whispered in awe. From the way I understood it, being bad at manipulation was like copying the answers for a math homework from your friend. Your answers may be right, but you don't have any idea how you got it at all. But if one was skilled in mana manipulation, he or she could technically solve any kind of math problem, or even use other methods in solving it other than the one discussed by a teacher.

“Do you now understand why I'm making you train your mana manipulation skill to a high level?” Mother Betha asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Good. Then try to prevent your mana from escaping your body one more time, then that will be all for today.”

“Alright. Here goes…”

Once again, I focused on my mana circuit and exerted my will over it. Tiny holes kept opening on the walls of my mana channels, but my mana continued flowing inside the channels' boundaries without escaping. After only a few seconds, my mind started to ache. Why the hell is this so hard?!

At this rate, I would be straining myself after only a few seconds of manipulating my mana every time I did this. Why the hell are there holes opening up on my mana channels anyway?! Just stop, goddamn it!

With an annoyed thought, I unconsciously willed my mana channels to stop opening the small holes, and in an instant, the hundreds of thousands of tiny holes that periodically materialized all over my mana circuit suddenly disappeared. What?!

No matter how long I waited, the holes didn't appear. My mind was already aching so much, so I stopped exerting my will over my mana, which didn't escape my body anymore since there were no more holes. Holy shit, did I just cheat the system?!

“Oi, you can stop now. Don't overexert yourself,” Mother Betha said when she realized I haven't stopped focusing on my mana circuit.

“Hey, I think I found a loophole!” I said excitedly. “I made all the holes disappear!”

“You what?”

When I opened my eyes, Mother Betha was looking at me with her eyes opened so wide I thought they were going to pop out. She immediately rushed over to me and held my face in her hands, her grey eyes gazing directly into mine.

“What do you mean you made the holes themselves disappear?”

“I-I don't know, they just disappeared when I wanted them to!”

After a few more seconds of assessing me, Mother Betha let go of my face. “Are you sure you are not using magic right now?”

“Y-Yeah, I'm sure.”

“Then that must be related to your abilities as an Ascendant,” Mother Betha said while nodding to herself. “Nobody knows much about the forces that govern the powers of Ascendants, but I'm sure it is related to it.”

“I think so too,” I said. I looked around me to make sure that there was nobody else around, then spoke in a low voice. “The only thing I need to do to use my Authority is simply my will, so maybe it's got something to do with that?”

“You also use your will to manipulate your mana, Brogen, and yet you still get a headache after only a few seconds, so I don't think the will is solely responsible for your ability to close down the holes appearing on your mana channels,” Mother Betha replied. “I think it has something to do with the walls of the mana channels themselves. Nobody knows what the walls of your mana channels and reservoirs are made of, so maybe that is what your Authority manipulates.”

“The walls of my mana channels? Isn't it made up of mana too?”

“No, it is not. Haven't you noticed that the mana in your mana circuit follows the path as if there was an invisible force preventing them from dissipating outside your body?”

Now that she mentioned it, I realized that my mana looked like it was flowing through a transparent pipe. “Yeah, you're right.”

“I have insufficient knowledge when it comes to Authorities, so I'm afraid I won't be able to help you in this regard,” Mother Betha said. “Although there is one famous theory that just like how our mind is capable of controlling the mana inside our bodies, an Authority could control the soul itself in order to exert its power.”

“Is there any evidence to that theory?”

“No,” the pastor admitted. “But it is a theory proposed by a researcher studying Ascendants, so his theory may hold some truth to it. I hope this information is able to help you in some way.”

“Thank you for sharing it, Mother.”

“Alright, let's get back inside, I'm too old to keep staying outside in the cold,” Mother Betha grumbled. “Oh, and by the way, stop doing whatever you're doing with the walls of your mana channels. We may be in Erfeld, but you never know when a wandering mage might stumble into this place. If they see you not emitting mana, they would immediately know that you're concealing it.”

I immediately returned my mana channels to their natural state, once again emitting a negligible amount of mana outside my body. I had no idea that preventing my mana from escaping my body was the same as concealing my magical presence.

“Good. But don't forget that you still have to train by concealing your mana through mana manipulation,” Mother Betha said as we walked over to Liz.

The girl in question was still deep in meditation, so Mother Betha interrupted her and told her to continue tomorrow. Liz looked reluctant to leave, but when she realized it was almost midday, she immediately bid goodbye, saying something about being late to work.

I helped Mom with her work after that and told her about everything I learned today. She just congratulated me profusely and told me to keep up the good work. After everything was done for the day, Mom and I went to buy another crate of hemp from the fabric supplier using the allowance Mother Betha gave her and went home with a plan to open our clothing store come spring.

●●●

Two months after my first magic lesson, the snow across Erfeld started melting slowly. Spring was coming and the farmers of the town were busy once more. They prepared their fields for planting, plowing the soil and chasing away the occasional fox eyeing their chickens. Garin always complained about this time of the year when they had to work all day to prepare for this year's planting.

During the past two months, I mostly trained my mana manipulation by constricting my mana to my body, doing it repeatedly until my mind felt like it was split by an axe. I coincided my mana manipulation training with that of my Authority training, so my mana pool was also increasing steadily, although it made my mana harder to manipulate. I realized that as my mana increased, more of it leaked out of my body, so I had to exert even more effort to keep them in.

As for Liz, she managed to acquire her mana sense a week after I got mine. She started her mana manipulation training right away and because of her smaller mana pool, she was able to constrict her mana for longer periods than me. With my mana pool, I could prevent my mana from escaping my body for ten minutes, while Liz could do it for more than thirty minutes. But where Liz beat me in duration, I beat her in my rate of recovery.

Constricting mana to our bodies took a lot of mental effort, and Liz would take several hours to recover her mind after training for thirty minutes. On the other hand, it only took me an hour to recover before I could do my training again. Because of this, my rate of improvement was quite fast and Mother Betha told me she would soon teach me the next part of the lesson.

As for our clothing shop, I already made our first batch of products, which mainly consisted of durable shirts made of hemp that was strengthened with my Authority, and pants also made of hemp but with triple layers of fabric. These two garments were my main products which targeted the farmers and workers in Erfeld whose jobs led them to harsh environments.

With the small crate of hemp that Mom bought last time with the last of our money, I was able to create five shirts and five pants. I even wanted to make clothing for women, but unfortunately, we didn't have enough fabric to make them and I also didn't have the knowledge to make dresses and skirts. Moreover, women's clothing used more fabric, so it would take a lot more capital than making men's clothing.

Another important event that happened last month was my birthday. Mom held a small party for me at the house and all my friends and the women at the chapel came over. It was pretty fun until Garin revealed that he brought alcoholic drinks. The boys except for me accepted his offer, and Sister Lina, who was supposed to reprimand Garin for bringing alcoholic beverages to a kid's party, ended up joining them. Mother Betha and Sister Tillie ended up dragging a very drunk nun back to the chapel when it was completely dark so people wouldn't see a young maiden working for the Holy Mother Church turn out to be a drunkard.

All in all, the past two months were very productive and with the arrival of spring, it was time to open our clothing shop.

“Do you think we'll be able to sell these?” I asked Mom nervously as we made our way to the town square. Gripped in my arms were the five shirts that I made along with some metal hangers to hang them with.

“Don't worry, sweetie. Even if they don't sell, we could just gift it to people in need back at the chapel,” Mom said with a relaxed smile. In her arms were the heavy-duty trousers and a small box containing the things we needed for today.

“Good thing Mr. Hayes allowed us to set up shop in their stall,” I muttered. We negotiated with Hayes and her daughter a few days ago to allow us to sell our products in his stall at the town square. After a few exchanges, he allowed us to sell in his stall in exchange for ten percent of the total sales that we make. I had no idea if it was a high price or not, but it also meant that even if none of our products were sold today, we wouldn't have to pay for anything.

Mom and I arrived at Hayes' stall early in the morning. The sun had just risen and I could see that there was already a throng of people walking in the town square, buying the stuff they need for the day. Merchants and vendors were hawking their wares to people while customers were haggling over the prices. The part of the town square with the most people was the market area where the meat and produce were sold.

Hayes' stall was located in one corner of the town square with fewer people, so we were able to set up our products with some semblance of peace. Well, maybe except for the fact that Maly was here.

“You're finally here! Are you excited, Brogen?! We can be considered partners now, right?!” Maly exclaimed excitedly as she helped us hang the clothes on hooks embedded in the stall's walls.

“Well, I guess we can be considered partners, I think? We did do some negotiations and stuff.”

“Yeah, what do you think of my negotiation skills?” Maly asked me expectantly.

When we negotiated with Hayes a few days ago, he was actually just there to act as a witness, while the main negotiator for their side was Maly. My friend acted all bubbly and excited when we first greeted each other for the meeting, but once the true negotiations started, I'll admit, Maly was pretty good at her job. She still had her cheerful persona, but I could feel the cunning and crafty merchant hiding beneath the facade. Honestly, it felt like Maly was scamming me or something even though the conditions we agreed on were pretty lenient for us.

“I'll admit, Maly. You looked pretty cool back then,” I said sincerely.

“Really?! Ehehehehe, of course I was!” Maly said with a slight blush.

We finished setting up our products in less than five minutes since we only had ten products for sale. Each of our products was embroidered with a trademark that I thought of, which consisted of a circle with two figures inside: one was a child and the other was a grown woman, both figures holding each other's hand. It was basically a depiction of me and Mom holding hands. Not the most creative, I know, but the most important thing is the trademark itself.

Last week, Mom and I gave the gifts we made for my friends, and according to them, it was ‘absolutely amazing,’ although they didn't clarify it too much. All they said was that it was extremely comfortable and had a perfect fit, and even though it was made of cheap hemp, it felt really soft. Not as soft as cotton, but soft enough that you wouldn't think it was made of hemp at all.

The free clothes we gave to my friends was an act of goodwill, but it also acted as an advertising tactic for our products. When I gave the gifts to my friends, I told them to wear the clothes whenever they went outside to expose the trademark as much as possible. I placed the embroidered trademark on the left side of the chest area of the clothes, so I was confident that it was extremely visible to people who saw the garment. The fact that the trademark had a different color to the plain brown color of the hemp fabric also made it stand out.

“So, do you just sit here doing nothing until a customer takes an interest?” I asked Maly as we waited for our first customer. Since there were fewer people on this side of the town square, Maly's stall had very small exposure, and so there was almost no customer passing by.

“A merchant needs to be extremely patient, Brogen,” Maly said as she wagged her little finger at me. “For businesses like ours that sell non-essential items, customers are like fish in a drying river. You will rarely see a fish in a drying river, but when you do see them, you do everything in your power to catch it!”

“I think it would be better to fish in a massive river than a drying one, don't you think?” I asked.

“There are indeed a lot of fishes in a massive river, but that just means it's already crowded with fishermen,” Maly replied. “The ones who were first to fish in the massive river would be higher up the river where most of the fish are located, but there would be no more left down the river, so I might as well fish in a drying one. Who knows, maybe the drying river will fill up again someday and I'll be the first at the highest point where all the fishes are! Then I'll have a monopoly!”

I contemplated over Maly's comparison and nodded my head. She had a good point with her explanation. As an example, there was a lot of demand for food, so selling food products was theoretically the best choice when it comes to business, but there were already a lot of other vendors selling the same thing. The large market of customers who wants to purchase food would end up getting divided, so unless the product you're selling is unique and affordable for the market of customers, you'll end up with so few customers that shifting to a different kind of business would be better.

“That's very smart, Maly,” Mom said as she patted Maly's head. “I see that Mr. Hayes has been teaching you properly.”

“Daddy is a great teacher!”

We chatted with each other as we waited for our first customer. Maly told us that Liz also worked here in their stall, but her shift would be later in the afternoon. Wow, Liz still has the time to work so many jobs while training her mana manipulation? Talk about being inhuman.

During a lull in one of our conversations, I finally detected a set of rough clothing approaching the stall. A middle-aged man with a gruff face appeared at the front, looking at the clothes on display. I assessed his outfit and assumed that he was a farmer. His work clothes consisted of a brown tunic and pants that were rolled up just below his knees. His shirt was clean, but his pants were stained with dry mud and dirt, which meant he probably worked in a field.

“Good morning! Welcome to the Matson Toy and Clothing store!” Maly called cheerfully from behind the counter.

I gave Maly a weird look. I don't remember her saying anything about changing the name of their store to include our products in it, although I understood that it was probably both in our favor. Her original market of people who want to buy toys now included people who want to buy clothes. Mom and I would profit, and ten percent of our sales would go to Maly. It was a win-win situation.

Maly's cheerful demeanor caused a smile to appear on the gruff man's face. “Mornin,' lassie. I hear your store was sellin' durable clothes startin' today. Is this it?” the man asked while feeling the shirt with his fingers.

“That's right, sir!” Mom said before Maly could respond. “These shirts and trousers can withstand exposure to harsh conditions. May I know where you heard about our new products?”

The man seemed a bit flustered after a beautiful woman suddenly stood up from the side and gave him a bright smile while advertising her products.

“I-I heard it from Ol' Jasper. His son Garin got some new shirt that didn't get torn even when Crazy Loy's cow bit it!”

Mom's smile froze and she looked at me awkwardly. I also had a stupefied look on my face as I shrugged in Mom's direction. I knew my ability gave my clothes extra durability, but I never expected it to withstand the biting force of a grown cow. I did test the durability of my products by trying to stab them with a kitchen knife. Not even a single strand of thread was cut, so Mom and I intended to do a demonstration when we started selling the clothes. I'll have to thank Garin later.

“T-That's right, good sir,” Mom said after quickly recovering her calm. “These work clothes can even withstand a direct stab from a knife!”

“You're not kiddin' me, ain't ya?!” the man exclaimed in shock. To prove her point, Mom placed the shirt on top of the counter and brought out the kitchen knife from the box she was carrying earlier. Mom brought the knife above her head and stabbed the shirt with a loud “Hiya!”

The farmer jumped in shock from Mom's display of violence, but he got even more shocked when he saw that the shirt wasn't cut in the slightest.

“Wow, you're not kiddin,' are ya'? How much for the shirt and trousers, lady?”

“The shirt is fifteen coppers while the trousers cost one silver,” Mom answered.

“T-That's a bit expensive,” the man muttered. “How aboutcha give me the shirt and trousers for a silver and five coppers and I'll tell everybody 'bout these clothes back at the farms?”

Mom paused for a second, then nodded. “Alright, we'll take one silver and five coppers. Thank you for your patronage, good sir!”

After bidding him goodbye, Mom gave us a big smile.

“Wow, you did great, Mom! I didn't know you could sales talk like that!” I exclaimed. I knew putting her in the position of a saleswoman was a good decision. Mom's charm was definitely a big help in landing sales from the male demographic.

The reason I wasn't helping in the sales talk was that Mom wanted to give people the illusion that she was the sole owner of the clothing business. This was to help keep my Authority a secret by attracting any unwanted attention to Mom. Although I don't like the idea at all that Mom would be the first one to receive any risks when our business attracts attention.

The discount of ten coppers we gave to the man wasn't exactly a loss since the man would advertise our products with his friends in exchange. With the absence of technology here, advertising our products through word-of-mouth was pretty valuable.

“Huhu, you haven't seen me at my best yet, sweetie.”

Mom turned towards Maly and gave my friend a mischievous smile. “I'll handle customers for the clothes from now on, Maly.”

“Fine…”

“Why do you look so disappointed?” I asked.

“I wanted to sell the clothes to that man myself so I could charge the both of you for my sales talk services,” she said with a pout.

Alright, I take back my comment a long time ago that Maly was a cute and innocent girl.

Before we could even celebrate our first sale, another customer that looked like a hunter arrived, also looking to buy a shirt. When Mom asked him where he heard of our products, he told us that Terric, who always sparred with the hunters as practice, was wearing a shirt that didn't tear even when he rolled over the rough ground or got hit by training weapons. It looks like my plan to use my friends as walking advertisements were extremely successful.

More customers came after that. Most of them walked away when they heard our price, but some bought our clothes. By the end of the day, we managed to sell all of the shirts and two of the trousers, netting us a total of five silvers.

As per our agreement, we paid Maly ten percent, which was twelve and a half coppers rounded off to thirteen, for renting their space. We bought a bigger crate of hemp for this batch of clothing which cost three silvers, unlike before where we only bought a smaller crate that cost two silvers. This meant that we had a net income of one silver and twelve coppers for today, which seems small, but we still had three trousers available for sale, which would net us three more silvers if they were all sold.

“Do you think we should raise our prices?” I asked Mom as we walked to the fabric supplier.

“I don't think so, sweetie. Fifteen coppers is already pretty expensive for the people in this town, so you would be hard-pressed to find buyers if you raise your prices too much,” Mom replied. “Even though our products are worth more than their prices, I think a better way to increase our profit is to add more variety to our products, like women's clothing for example.”

After hearing Mom's suggestion, I remembered one potential customer earlier in the day. A young woman came over asking if we sold any dresses for women, but unfortunately, I only made men's clothes for today. It turned out the young woman saw Liz's dress during the past week, which was hand-made by Mom.

“I think I'll start studying how to make simple dresses and the like,” I said.

“Focusing on your job is good and all, but don't forget to rest every once in a while, okay?” Mom said as she caressed my head.

I understood Mom's concern over my well-being since it looked like I was doing dozens of different things at the same time, although I didn't really feel like it was a lot. In the morning, I would train my Authority by exhausting my mana pool, therefore increasing my maximum mana. Next, I would train my mana manipulation by preventing my mana from escaping my body for ten minutes and then recover for an hour, although this training was starting to get harder and harder as my mana pool enlarged. Then, I would help Mom work in the chapel in the garden and after that, create the clothes that we were going to sell, although that only took about thirty minutes. And now, I will be having an additional task of learning how to make women's clothing. Huh, now that I lay it all out like this, I guess I am pretty swamped with work.

After buying another batch of hemp for three silvers, we made our way home and I decided that I wasn't really getting stressed out by all the work I was doing. Instead of ‘work,’ I viewed everything I did as a way to further improve myself as a person. I was getting stronger with my Authority, with my magic, and now I was starting to improve in terms of socioeconomic status. I was even thinking of working out to also improve myself physically and get ripped.

My mind wandered to my past life when everything was so stagnant because I was afraid of taking initiative. I stayed in the same old shitty apartment and worked the same old shitty job even though I knew I could do better. A lot of potential and possibilities and yet I chose to ignore it all, finding everything as a pointless endeavor and choosing to trap myself in an infinite cycle of grief. Looking back, I started my downward spiral ever since my Mom on Earth died. But can I really be blamed for being broken after someone so important to me was gone just like that?

I shook my head to clear my mind from these uncomfortable thoughts as Mom and I walked in silence. The important thing was that I was given a second opportunity. That was why I strived to improve myself in every aspect I could think of and leave the old Brogen behind. Well, looks like physical training three days a week it is.

●●●

“…How long does it take you to make those clothes?” Maly asked as Mom and I set up our products in the stall.

“Well, since they are hand-sewn, it takes about three hours to make one shirt, and several more for the trousers and simple dresses,” Mom answered with an innocent face. She wasn't exactly lying since that was the time it would take her to make the clothes without my help.

“Then how are you selling dozens over the past week when it takes you hours to make a single one?!”

“We started making them since the beginning of winter, so we managed to stock up a lot,” I reasoned. It was an excuse that Mom and I agreed on if somebody asked how we were selling this many clothes in a short span of time.

“Then why didn't you sell those on the first day?” Maly asked, pointing at the new products that we would be introducing today.

“Well, the first day was just an experiment,” Mom said, thinking up a reason on the spot. “We wanted to know first whether there was a high demand for our clothes.”

“I don't really get what that has got to do with not displaying it on the first day…” Maly said, then shrugged her shoulders. “But anyway, I think a lot of women are gonna like your new products today, Aunt Helen!”

It was our eighth day of selling in the town square, and our business was booming. The advertisement of our products through word-of-mouth turned out to be a success and a lot of farmers came over to buy our clothes. Even the hunter that bought from us on the first day talked about us to his friends, so some of the hunters also went to buy from us.

Over the past week, we made more money than the past year! Because of this, we decided to expand our products. Using my Authority to quickly learn how to make women's clothing, I started producing them last night and intended to sell them today.

The ‘new products’ that Maly was referring to was a creation from Earth that I believe will become a top-selling product here: brassieres. I was pretty ecstatic when I learned that bras weren't invented here yet, although Mom gave me a pretty weird look when I asked her if she wanted an underwear that would cover her boobs and support its weight. After assuring Mom that I wasn't making anything inappropriate, I proceeded to make them.

Compared to our first day, we now had more clothes for sale and a wider range of garments to choose from. Our products for sale today consisted of ten shirts, ten pairs of trousers, five simple day dresses, five long dresses, ten panties, and twenty brassieres. The cost for making this batch was a whopping twenty silvers, but if we manage to sell all of it, we'll get forty-two silvers! After deducting costs and paying Maly her due, we'll have a profit of seventeen silvers and twenty coppers! If this continues, Mom and I are gonna be rich!

With the introduction of our new products, I even made a small signboard with all the prices of our products on display.

Shirt - 15 coppers

Trousers - 1 silver

Day dress - 1 silver 10 coppers

Long dress - 1 silver 20 coppers

Panties - 5 coppers

Bras - 10 coppers

“I hope you sell a lot today, Brogen, so you can pay me more, hehehehe,” Maly said while rubbing her hands together like a slimy merchant.

Looking back to our negotiations, I guess we got ripped off, huh? A full ten percent of our earnings would go to Maly just for the use of their space. And here I thought Maly was being considerate of us since we were friends. I need to get better at these kinds of negotiations.

“You managed to outwit us this time, Maly, but when we get our own stall, you're gonna regret scamming us!” I exclaimed, much to Maly's distress. “Mom and I are planning to get our own stall soon.”

“W-Wait! I'm open to renegotiations! Let's talk about this, Brogen!”

“Then how about we pay a fixed rate every day instead of a percentage of our sales?” I asked with a grin.

“What?! That's not fair!”

“Then how much do you pay to the Baronet to rent the space in this town square, Maly?” I asked.

“U-Um, a silver every day…”

“What?! And when you charge us for ten percent of our profits and I offer to pay a fixed rate, you call that unfair?! ” I asked incredulously. “You're basically swindling us from our money!”

After a few moments of heated negotiations, Maly reluctantly agreed that we would pay a fixed rate of one silver and ten coppers as rent to Maly every day. This time, I made sure that it really was a win-win situation. The rent we paid to Maly was more expensive than the Baronet's rates, but we didn't have to spend money to build a stall.

“It's your fault for being scammed in the first place,” Maly grumbled as she wrote a contract with her signature. She was probably right that it was our fault for being scammed like that. I guess business should be separate from personal relationships, huh?

“Yeah, well, I didn't expect my own friend to fool me like that,” I said with a pained tone, pretending that I was hurt by Maly's deed. I wiped my eyes for added effect.

“O-Our relationship as friends is separate from this! I never meant for us to fight over this!” Maly shouted with teary eyes. “Bwogen, pweash don't hate me for thish! I want to stay as your fwiend!”

I panicked as Maly cried and hugged me. “I was just joking! I was joking, Maly! So stop crying!”

“Brogen, what did I tell you about making girls cry?” Mom said with a terrifying smile plastered on her face. She was holding the knife that we used for demonstrations. Wait, hold on! I didn't mean for any of this to happen!

●●●

“We haven't even started training yet, Brogen. Why do you look so tired?” Liz asked as I entered the chapel's library. She was seated by the table in the center of the room.

“Yesterday was a bit… stressful.”

After making Maly cry yesterday, Hayes had to act as a substitute for his daughter. His shift was originally after lunch, but he was forced to take on Maly's shift since we couldn't allow customers to see the shopkeeper with tears and snot dripping down her face. He wasn't really angry that I made his daughter cry. In fact, he even congratulated me for ‘negotiating with a merchant until she broke down in tears.’

The moment Hayes said that, Mom gave him a scary smile and asked if he would congratulate her too if she made him cry. Hayes immediately took back his words and scolded me for making his daughter cry. I didn't know Mom liked Maly so much she even threatened her father like that.

Despite my blunder in the morning, the rest of the day went well. Our new products were very well-received by the female customers. Before the day was even over, the panties, bras, and day dresses were all sold out, and there were also a lot of men who came to the stall, so the shirts and trousers were sold out too.

But despite our success, there was one glaring problem that I completely forgot about: I only made one size for the bras, and to make things worse, I based the size on Mom's cup size. As a result, the female customers ended up getting split into two groups: those who were well-endowed who acted smug and confident after buying the bras, and those with smaller breasts that looked bitter for not being able to buy the expensive underwear because it wouldn't fit.

Unlike the ones on Earth, the women's underwear I made didn't have elastic waistbands and straps since I didn't have any rubber to make elastic. To compensate for that, I added drawstrings to the panties so that they could be loosened or tightened depending on the wearer's size. The issue was the bras. Simply adding drawstrings to it wouldn't solve the issue of different cup sizes.

After we finished yesterday, I decided to start creating different sizes for each type of clothing so I could cater to a wider market of customers.

“Let's just start our training, shall we?” I said as I sat in front of Liz.

Liz nodded and closed the book she was reading. She closed her eyes and started the usual mana manipulation training. Since the training involves constricting the mana to one's body to stop it from escaping and preventing other mages to sense it, we decided to start calling it ‘mana concealment.’ The reason why Liz and I were training together today was to assess each other's progress.

“Wow, your mana is almost undetectable, Liz. All I feel is a very faint presence,” I told Liz. As we continued our training with mana manipulation, our mana sense also improved, so instead of only being able to feel my own mana, I could now feel the mana of others in a short radius around me. Because of this, I found out that everything in the world contained mana, even mundane objects.

“I'm glad that my hard work is showing results,” Liz said with a smile. “Now it's your turn.”

“Alright, here goes.”

Like Liz, I closed my eyes and started the process of concealing my mana. Because of my steady training, I was now able to conceal the presence of my mana continuously for an hour, but as a result of my ever-growing mana pool, it was now impossible for me to completely conceal it with mana manipulation. The best I could do was to reduce the mana I was emitting by three-fourths. I could conceal my mana using my Authority, but I wouldn't be able to train my mana manipulation that way.

“Compared to before, your mana presence now feels like that of a weak mage,” Liz said. “I guess Mother Betha was right when she said that you need to stop doing whatever you're doing to expand your mana pool.”

My face took on a grimace. Several days ago, Mother Betha told me to stop expanding my mana pool because my mana presence was starting to become too strong. According to the pastor, mages tended to naturally emit more mana from their bodies because of their large mana pools. This causes a ‘cloud’ of mana to form around a mage called an aura, although in my case, I only had the ‘beginnings’ of an aura.

Other mages could apparently detect auras easily with their mana sense, but normal people could not. However, if a mage had a strong enough aura, even normal people could feel it, and for them, the sensation was like a subtle pressure that emanated from the mage. Mother Betha said it could result in weird reactions from other people whenever they interacted with me. Is that why Maly cried so easily when I joked around yesterday?

“What are you even doing to make your mana pool increase so quickly?” Liz asked curiously.

“Sorry, Liz, but it's part of the secret that I can't tell you.”

“Well, at least I tried,” Liz said, not disappointed in the least by my response. It looked like she already expected me to deny her an answer. I feel a lot more guilty with her reaction than if she just reacted with plain disappointment.

“Anyway, you should follow Mother Betha's advice, Brogen. I know having a large mana pool is pretty tempting, but with the rate you're expanding it, you'll soon realize that you're actually hindering the progress of your mana manipulation.”

I grumbled underneath my breath even as I continued concealing my mana. When Mother Betha told me to stop expanding my mana pool, I didn't follow her instructions right away. Although she was right that my mana manipulation training would become harder, it didn't really affect the usage of my Authority. That was why I was reluctant to stop the training of my Authority just to compensate for my magic training.

But after making Maly cry yesterday, maybe I did need to slow down with my Authority training. Although I always treated Maly like a little girl, she was actually a strong woman inside who wouldn't cry so easily like that. The fact that I did make her cry meant the pressure caused by my leaking mana was getting out of control.

“Fine, I'll stop,” I said with annoyance. I knew I was acting like a petulant kid, but I didn't really care that much right now.

Liz chuckled at my peevish behavior. She was about to say something else when I suddenly jerked my head to the left. With my fabric sense constantly active, I felt a large group of people rushing through the streets past the chapel and towards the outskirts of town.

“…Is everything alright?” Liz asked worriedly.

“I don't know, I think something's going on.”

Since the library's windows faced away from the streets, both of us went to the chapel's entrance to see what was going on outside. When we got there, we saw people lingering in front of their houses with looks of confusion on their faces as well as a group of guards running off in the distance. It seemed that nobody had any idea as to what was happening. I looked at Liz beside me and saw that she had an uncomfortable look on her face.

Before I could ask if she knew what was happening, I detected a running person enter the range of my fabric sense. I looked to my right and at the very end of the street, a man with a terrified expression on his face was running like a madman and shouting gibberish. When the man was about fifty meters away from us, his words became audible.

“M-Monsters! Monster attack! Monster attack! Mon—”

The man's terrified screams turned into a wet gurgle as a large wolf pounced from an alley and tore off his throat. Fountains of blood spewed from his neck, painting the ground wet with his dark blood. The wolf shook its head side to side, violently swinging the man's body left and right like a ragdoll and spraying blood everywhere, but despite the brutality, the man still kicked and struggled.

The wolf put one powerful paw on the man's chest and pushed him against the ground, then bit the man's head. The man's arms flailed against the wolf's body to no avail, and with a swift raise of its mouth, the wolf tore off his head. Blood squirted out of the man's neck and his body spasmed for a few seconds before going still. Everybody standing on the streets saw everything but did not do anything to help.

When the wolf raised its head and looked at the street full of prey, everybody started running and screaming as the clanging of a bell echoed throughout Erfeld.