Only towards late evening were Francis and Luz replaced by two fellow workers. Luz had hunted three hares today and gave one of them to Francis. The two-headed to the canteen and the cooks prepared it for them. Since nothing happened during work, the two talked with each other the whole day. Francis was a magician with a talent in fire magic, which is also neat.

"Francis, if you're not a slave anymore, why are you still here?" Luz questioned.

"Brian is my patron, and to be honest, I have no one left but my friends here," Francis replied with a tinge of embarrassment.

He took a sip of his glass before continuing with: "Currently, I am apprenticing under one of the master mages here instead of attending a magic school. However, I enjoy networking and mentoring the younglings, which is why I regularly help."

"How long did it take for you to actually buy your freedom?" Luz asked.

"Not even three months, however, I chose the hard way. You can think of it this way, the first few jobs are just so you newbies can get used to the place here. Brian gives every newcomer the task to play the shepherd, and only later will you be allowed to go your own way," Francis told Luz before the two sit down on a bench.

"I see," commented Luz as he took the glass from Francis to also take a sip.

Francis, on the other hand, just continued with his narration.

"Some of the mages focus on a warrior career because they believe that only through conflicts, where they find themselves between life and death, can they reach new levels of evolution."

"I've never heard anything about such paths. What are the other paths that one could choose from?" Luz asked.

"That's quite normal. There is also another path one could take. Some of us believe that only through research can we reach the pinnacle of the world, which is why they opt-out for the scientific path," continued Francis before chuckling.

"What's so funny about that path? I mean, it sounds kind of boring?" asked Luz while taking another sip.

"The funny thing is that even amongst those scientists, most of them disagree with each other. Some of them believe that the human body is weak, so they focus on the field of transhumanism. One by one, they replace parts of their bodies with new genetic material or machines until they are no longer human," Francis spoke.

"Ok, that sounds creepy. So for which path have you chosen?" asked Luz as he analyzed Francis's body for any potential parts.

"I haven't chosen yet. Since it's still too early for me. There will be no going back after choosing any of the paths," Francis stated with a serious expression.

"I see. Sorry that I'm just asking questions without contributing anything int our conversation," commented Luz.

"Nah, that's fine. I also was once like you when I first came here," replied Francis while laughing heartily.

Francis asked: "You're actually looking for your siblings, aren't you?"

"Yes, I do. I'm planning to remain here until I get my freedom back and till I've collected enough funds for the journey," sighed Luz.

"My tip is to take Brian as your patron after you get your freedom back.

That way, you should have the highest chance of finding them. Brian possesses the capital you need, and he's willing to spend it on his loyal subjects. I also want to tell you that he got a great network, and no one can escape his eyes," Francis told him with a wink.

"But why is Brian doing all of this for us?" Luz asked.

"Loyalty is hard to buy, but the easiest way to get it is by saving someone," Francis answered.

Luz and Francis talked late into the night about all sorts of topics, and in the end, Francis even offered Luz to give him tips in mage training.

In Luz's body, the parasites in his mana core continued to evolve.

They gained more and more individuality, and it didn't take long till they expressed weak urges among themselves in the mana core outside of food and hunger.

Over time these 5 princes became aware that they were in a host, and contact should be made with him after reaching the mental capacity.

Their initial goal is to enter into a contract with the Host for a symbiotic relationship until they achieve the mental capacities to completely take over Luz.

When it comes to the question: how long this may take, however, the narrator has no answer to it, yet. After Luz entered his room, he saw the children there, reading his books.

They immediately put his books all back after realizing that he was back.

"You guys can continue reading. I generally can only concentrate on one book at a time anyway," Luz said with a smile as he picked up one of the books himself, which was about space magic.

Under candlelight, Luz read the book. He already knew most of the stuff, but rereading the same theories from other authors may be useful in improving his understanding of the matter.

"Interesting. Supposedly you can think of space as a three-dimensional coordinate system. Other stuff like the gravitational constant was also mentioned. Apparently, the world is huge and has gravitational forces acting on everyone. Strange, but what the heck are all these formulas and connections? They are way too complicated for me. I'll continue reading it tomorrow."

If one defines the world in a coordinate system to which one is oriented, choosing a zero point is important. There is a problem with a Cartesian coordinate system. Working with curved surfaces can be quite a challenge. One of the reasons for that is, you're not working on a 2d ground anymore.

If one were to teleport themselves 5 km forward while being with the feet on the ground, one's feet wouldn't be on the earth. Depending on the curvature, one maybe even up by 5 meters and more.

But it gets worse. We now assume that the earth rotates around the sun and around itself.

We now want to teleport five kilometers forward and assume a timing of three seconds.I can't answer the question: "whether one will be on earth after this experiment."

But because of the rotation of the world around its own axis and the rotation around the sun, you will land anywhere but on your planned position.

But enough mental gymnastics for the brain, dear narrator. It is a fantasy book and not higher mathematics or physics lecture.

Luz finally understood why the teleportation spell he tried failed so dramatically. He neither had any real wish where they should land. At the moment of the happening, he and his brother only wanted to get as far as possible from the dragon, who only wanted to devour the last human villager.

Unfortunately for Luz, there were no other mage spells for his talent at the low levels. Forcing him to focus on other magic categories to increase his spell arsenal.

The difference between talent and no talent in a discipline is mainly in the speed of understanding spells of that category and the strength of the output and mana consumption for spells of those magic categories. However, the differences do not exceed 20%.

"Oh, you know what. I'm going to sleep and focus on another magic category for the next few days," Luz said before falling asleep.