Twilight covered the sky, as it slowly turned to night. The forest below was quiet, the noises of animals turning to silence, bringing a tranquil feeling to the darkening forest. A single light stood out in this peaceful moment, a fire, built in a clearing. A boy with white hair sat next to the fire, enjoying the warmth and sound of the crackling wood with closed eyes. A shirt was hung next to the fire, wet from the blood that had been cleaned off it in a small stream, close by and a sword, quiver and bow were all rested on the trunk of a tree nearby. His dagger sheathed and left right next to him.

The boy reflected on the day and frustration took hold of him. It had taken him a significant amount of time to take care of the rest of the bandits. The fact they had all run in different directions really helped them stay alive for longer. Not by much. But it bought them some time. If they were smart and cautious it was possible some might even have escaped. But that wasn’t the case. The boy had slaughtered each and every one of them. He was sure. He had counted.

He wondered for a brief moment if the group of former prisoners had made it to the town on time, but it didn’t bother him if they didn’t. It wouldn’t kill them to spend a night outside. Still, he doubted they couldn’t make it to the town, which wasn’t far from his current location. Unfortunately, it was too far. At least for him. Too far for him to make it before night, when the gate was shut to the general public. Only people with permits could enter the gate at night and needless to say, the boy didn’t have one.

Of course he could force his way through, but he didn’t want to cause too much trouble. Because trouble could mean something very bad for him. It wasn’t as if he was exempt from the rules of this place and even if he didn’t like it, he would have to keep a low profile for a while. Or… as low as possible, considering his race. He was capable enough to handle himself, but that was it. A real expert in this world could defeat him quite easily and as long as he didn’t know exactly how powerful magic could be that’d prove to only be a further disadvantage. He evaluated his strength to be enough to carry out B-rank requests on his own. But A-ranks would probably carry a very real risk of death. For now, he was too weak. He would have to behave himself.

He also thought about the items in the bandit camp. Those could have been useful, though the group might have taken them. ‘Aww well. Too much trouble to go back for that now. I have nowhere to sell that kind of stuff anyway. Or carry it for that matter.’ The items in the camp was mostly merchandise. Clothes, food, alcohol. The bandits probably had some coin on them, but he was sure the group had taken at least that with them. He had been too… distracted, to do so himself.

All of the men and women there witnessed his deep-seeded hatred. Where the hatred stemmed from, they couldn’t be sure, but that cold, yet burning rage, they saw in his eyes that day would surely leave a mark on all of them. That was why he had neglected to loot the bandits himself. He had been too consumed by that. Eliminating the other bandits took priority far above earning some coin on the side. As for the weapons and armor. It was more that he pointed them out to the group rather than giving it to them. It’s not like he planned on carrying them. Though he had taken at least the coins of the bandits he had slain afterward, as little as they were, only amounting to twenty-four silvers. It at least brought up his total fortune a tiny bit. He had bought the bow, quiver and arrows for a total of seven gold coins, leaving him with nine. Now this brought his fortune back up to eleven gold Rais.

 The boy let out a sigh, as if letting go of all his negative thoughts, and calmed down. That was enough reflection. He would be stuck in the forest until tomorrow and since he had slept two days ago and had taken a nap in the caravan earlier it still wasn’t necessary to do so today. Instead he decided he would practice some for the first time in a while. He released his thoughts, letting them slip off and relaxing his mind into a state as close as he could get to not thinking about anything. He could hear his breathing get louder, and then more distant, until he couldn’t hear it at all. He imagined himself surrounded by darkness. A complete and utter darkness that consumed everything. The same as the space he found himself in after he died. But now. Among the darkness a new feeling aroused. There was something there. It felt like gentle flowing water, yet it didn’t feel suffocating, nor that it was hard to breathe, or that he floated uncontrollably in it. It was like being underwater, but it being no different than being on dry land.

That feeling was it. The feeling of the magic in the air. The feeling of mana. The so-called essence of everything. But so far, the boy had been unable to do absolutely anything with it. The most he could do was force it to move around, even though it quickly went back to how it was originally and seemed mostly unaffected. This was all he could do with it. There was no improvement at all within the two months he had tried. There was something that bothered the boy though. Within all his time meditating he could not sense this mana within himself or anyone else. Not Ann, not Maya, or anyone else he had meditated around. Even the trees in this forest seemed to not have any mana in them. It was strange. According to Ann, mana was supposed to be the essence of everything. Everyone and everything was supposed to have mana. If so and if mana was so clearly and easily felt like he was doing right now, then why did he not sense that of those around him?

The boy speculated that was the step needed to be able to use magic. To be able to feel the mana… if not within everything around you, then at the very least within yourself. The idea that the notion of mana being inside everything was false had crossed his mind, but even if Ann was not a magician she still used that mana in her craft. She was bound to know about it and she confirmed that while she didn’t know if it was essence or something else, everyone was indeed supposed to have it to some extent. And the boy doubted Ann would lie. He didn’t want to think Ann would lie to him about it. Not because he wanted to trust her. But because if she really had then he would have no lead on magic whatsoever.

So today. The boy tried something different. Rather than feeling for the essence of the world, he tried feeling for his own. That’s why. He even blocked off the feeling of the mana around him and instead focused inwardly. It was a strange sensation. Like inside him there was a complerely sepparate world to explore and he was observing it with a third, separate eye. One that could see nothing but mana.

He observed himself, searching for the mana that must surely have been inside him. He did so for minutes, then hours, but he found nothing. Still. He felt progress. He was getting better and better at observing himself through meditation as the process continued. It was much different from the frustrating sensation of trying to control the mana around him, where he felt no progress whatsoever.

Still, as he opened his eyes with the sun already risen, the fire having gone completely out and his shirt still slightly wet, he had sensed not even a trace of his own mana. Regardless, he felt closer, much more so than he did after practicing to control the mana around him. And he now thought understood why. If the mana around him was the essence of the world. It wasn’t “his”. That’s why he had no way to control it. Nobody would unless they somehow had the ability to transform others' mana into their own. 

He would have loved to keep practicing but he had gotten hungry and it was high time he headed back to town. His food had already run out so he would buy some more. He had fifteen beautiful gold coins waiting for him at the adventurer’s guild after all, and that was more than enough to stay fed for months. He could practice more once he was done with that.

He put on his, still slightly wet, shirt and retrieved his equipment. His sword and dagger, attached to his belt and his bow and quiver going over his shoulder and on his back. He walked towards the road, reaching it in less than an hour and started walking in the direction of the city from there.

On his way he thought exactly what he could do with his money. He had already checked the book stores and found nothing interesting. He thought for a moment about some throwing knives, but found it would be a waste of money with his current funds, considering he would have to buy something to carry them in as well. Probably a new belt, which would have to be custom made because of his size, which he would outgrow in less than a month. Thinking about it like that. He honestly couldn’t wait until he stopped growing in size so rapidly. He sighed and reminded himself it should only be a few more months at most. Whether he would continue to grow in age afterwards was something he would have to wait and see.

After thinking about it thoroughly he still had no idea of what to use the money for. He just wasn’t a very materialistic person. He valued ability much higher than possessions or wealth. Such things were only tools to a practical person such as him. Well, it didn’t matter. He would simply buy a bag and some food to put in it, before leaving again. Meditation was much easier to do outside so he didn’t even feel the need to rent a room at an inn. He had survived without one so far and he could do so in the future.

It took him a few hours to reach the city and pass through the gate. He walked straight to the adventurer’s guild, ignoring the curious and fearful glances of the people around him, entering as soon as he got to the large wooden building.

The adventurers were already in a jolly mood, having gathered and discussing with each other just like usual. There were some loners among them, of course, but there weren’t many. Some of them looked at him and once more shut their mouths but there were a few that only glanced over before resuming their actions. They were the regulars. The ones who had gotten slightly used to the out of place Drakin wandering in and out of the building from time to time.

He walked up to the counter, which was once more manned by the older person, Rex had met one day one.

“I’m here about the bandit extermination.” Rex spoke out.

“Complete it already?” asked the old man, for confirmation. He wasn’t surprised in the least. He knew the young man in front of him was more than capable enough to accomplish the task. He received a nod as a reply. “Anything you wanna report about it?” reporting wasn’t necessary but some adventurers did it sometimes. When a request had unnatural circumstances or simply because they preferred doing so. The more information the guild had the better it was for them, after all. When something seemed out of the ordinary, the guild would take that into account.

“Nothing interesting. I just cut down all of them.”

“All of them?” the old man asked once more to confirm. He once again didn’t doubt the boy. He just wanted to make sure he didn’t mean something else. Like that he had eliminated MOST of them.

“All of them.” The boy confirmed, his tone of voice telling the old man that not one of the bandits truly lived anymore.

“Alright. Hand me your card and I’ll update it as well as bring your reward.”

Rex did so, handing over his card, the old man taking it and putting it under the counter, before putting it back on the counter along with fifteen gold coins. Rex took the coins, putting them in his pouch and then reacquired his card as well. He turned his back to the counter and looked around once more for Leon and his group. He didn’t find them but glanced over to the request board instead. He walked over to it looking over the jobs.

There wasn’t any C-rank work left in the vicinity of the town. If he wanted to do more he would have to take one for the nearby villages. Villagers in the area would have to travel to a town to put up their request. Not every one of them could have a guild building after all. Unfortunately, none of the requests seemed interesting or worthwhile. Even the surrounding villages didn’t seem to be having any problems that could warrant a C-rank request. Either that or they couldn’t muster up enough for a reward to issue one. Villages weren’t the richest of environments after all.

Beyond that though. This was a peaceful country. It didn’t have much trouble and as such didn’t have much work. Rex was sure the adventurers who were just looking to feed themselves wouldn’t have a problem with that, but Rex wanted something more. Something he couldn’t find in a peace-ridden environment such as this. And even though he knew it would probably bring him a great deal of frustration and anger he decided. After he was done with Ann’s request he would leave this country and head somewhere else. Where exactly he hadn’t decided yet. But a country that was more exciting would be good. Even if that excitement would most likely be full of annoyance for the young tyrant.

For now though. He would go out into the forest. He would stay there, practicing meditation, probably including some practice with his sword and bow as well. He would check in every morning to look at the requests before heading back to the forest if there was nothing interesting and he would continue this until he reached C-rank. Then he’d get Ann’s request out of the way so that he could once more be free.

With that thought in mind Rex left the building. After procuring a reasonable amount of dried meat and fruit as provisions he headed out to the nearest forest, which would become his home for just a while longer.