When Ethan woke up, he judged the clock to be 11:00 by the position of the sun. This wasn't too early so Ethan set off to talk to Daniel about talent improvement.
He reached Xenon Street in a couple of minutes and found Daniel's house. He knocked a couple of times and Daniel opened the door.
"Good morning Ethan, why are you so early to come over today?"
"Good morning. I have something to talk with you about magic."
"Come on in then."
Ethan walked into the shack. The interior of the house was similar to his own but there were some flasks and vials and other alchemy-related glassware placed haphazardly around the place. Ethan went straight to the point.
"So I learned that my talent is fifth-grade and I know I would need to do a lot of work to become a Magician. I wanted to know if there were any way to improve my talent. I am really eager to become a Magician like you!"
Daniel was surprised, after a second he avoided his eyes while his expression showed sadness, "Oh, fifth-grade huh. Well, talent-improvement is only in the legends and I haven't heard of anyone actually improving their talent."
Ethan was disappointed but didn't give up yet because there was something off about Daniel's tone. It seemed as if he was hiding something. "Come on Daniel, I know we have just met and I know you similarly have fifth-grade talent. You must know something. I promise I will be quiet about it if you ask me to!"
Daniel had a pondering expression and said after a couple of breaths, "Well, I may have something but before that I need you to do something to prove your sincerity."
"Okay, I will do it!"
Daniel opened a drawer and pulled out a light-blue glowing crystal that was emanating distorting waves around it. "I need you to concentrate your spiritual power into this crystal."
"I don't know how to control my spiritual power though."
"Then close your eyes and I will help you to sense your spiritual power." Daniel approached Ethan and touched him on his shoulder. Both of them started concentrating. Daniel injected some of his spiritual power to incite Ethan's spiritual power. Ethan felt something entering his body and another similar-natured energy emerging from his mind and pushing the entering thing outside. The similar-natured energy belonged to him, however, it was not powerful enough to dispel the invading energy.
Daniel hurriedly said "Okay, now you can feel your spiritual power instinctively repelling mine from invading your body. Try and control it with your thoughts and push my spiritual power outside. You should feel your body using another kind of magical energy, mana, to dispel my spiritual power."
Ethan tried to use his thoughts to guide his spiritual power and found that certain areas of his body emanated powerful energy to aid his spiritual power. He gained control of his spiritual power and with the help of mana he expelled the invading spiritual force.
"I did it!"
"Great, now take control of your spiritual power once again and guide it inside this crystal. By the way, you have officially become an Apprentice of level 0."
Ethan felt the cold light-blue crystal in his hands and felt that it was somewhat otherworldly. He guided his spiritual power into the crystal. Instantly, a stream of his spiritual power was absorbed into the crystal. The crystal emanated stronger distorting waves and became brighter. It looked like space was bending around the crystal.
With a blinding bright light, the distorted space was suddenly brought back to its original state and through this process a strong boom was produced. Ethan could feel that a link formed in his mind to a location which was getting further and further away from him.
"Congratulations Ethan! You have just become a dimensional magician and became my accomplice. Now, we're in this together."
"W- What??" Ethan was shocked by what Daniel just said. Becoming a dimensional magician was a crime? What was dimensional magic in the first place? The book on magic had nothing about dimensional magic.
"Yup, the only commonly-known way to improve talent is to use Dimensional Magic. Here is a starter's book on Dimensional Magic that you can use to familiarize yourself." Daniel handed Ethan a thick book with a light-blue cover.
"We have to be careful with the Sorcerer's Inquisition because they have methods to detect Dimensional talent improvement. I'm going to show you how to improve it after you're officially initiated as an apprentice. We can't have dimensional magic done on you before you sign up as an Apprentice otherwise you'll be immediately caught." Daniel had a glum and serious expression.
Ethan was in a daze and couldn't find words to respond with. He was suddenly introduced to something new again and had inadvertently broken the laws of the country he was in. He realized how foolish and naive he was to ask somebody he just met to help improve his talent. He hadn't realized the dangers of this world yet and was going into everything too quickly.
"Okay, use the book to understand Dimensional Magic and read these notes later to understand what we Dimensional Sorcerers do to keep ourselves safe in Sorceria." Daniel handed a set of notes to Ethan which had a title "Enchiridion Veneficus Scriptor" which stood for Sorcerer's Handbook. Anybody who read the title wouldn't doubt that the owner was a dimensional magician.
"I don't have time to teach you the secret code so put this cheat sheet inside the Dimensional Magic foundation book." Daniel put a sheet of paper inside the thick book that he gave to Ethan earlier.
Ethan had to decide what to do now and was in a daze. So he left with a short reply, "See you later, Daniel."
He was still in a daze when he entered his shack. "Wow, that just happened..."
It was too late for regrets now and Ethan wasn't one to be crushed under pressure that easily. He would do his best to overcome the obstacles to become a sorcerer. He quickly collected his mind as an experienced student and got to deciphering Dimensional Magic. He had to learn more about what he received and how he could use it to stay alive in this world!