Gerald was speechless and Sera was embarrassed.
"What was that?" Gerald was trying hard not to laugh. Honestly, after all that preparation, the result was just too shocking to keep his face straight.
"Shut up! I said I'm not good at this…" Sera whimpered and tried to hide her embarrassment behind her hands.
Seeing that maybe he should take a different approach Gerald cleared his throat and said, "Okay, how about you tell me what's the problem. Where are you having difficulties?"
"Everywhere!" she answered without even blinking.
"What do you mean 'everywhere'? It's easy to cast a spell, you just need to gather Mana and have the final result in your head. Is it not? At least that's my understanding of it," Gerald tried to probe further.
"Well, it's easy for you to say! You have five Elements! Of course, it's easy for you to fell Mana, but I can barely feel it if I don't concentrate." Sera protested.
"Also I'm not good at keeping a clear picture of a spell in my head. If I do that then I can't concentrate on gathering Mana," she continued to explain. It appeared things weren't as easy as Gerald imagined them to be.
Gerald was racking his brain on how to solve this problem. Increasing the strength of his companion was definitely a good thing. If Sera could also cast spells, even if she was slower than him in casting spells, it could decrease the pressure on him somewhat.
"Wait, what do my Elements have to do with it?" he suddenly asked.
Sera looked at him and sighed before saying, "People that can control more than one Element have a much easier time feeling Mana. It's kind of natural for them. That's so unfair…" she complained.
"You mean that they can use more Elements, and because of that they can then control Mana easier?" he asked her.
Sera nodded, "That's what I said, is it not?"
"Hmm…" Gerald stayed quiet for a while, thinking about what he learned up to now. He also remembered the experiences he had with magic. The first time he sensed Mana was back on Earth from that black crystal.
Back then he didn't really have a reference point, but now he knew how little his body contained compared to the black crystal. If he could contain a single drop, then the crystal contained somewhere between a big lake and a sea.
So much energy contained in such a small space, without any unusual phenomena, it almost seemed like it was breaking the laws of physics. Then again, magic wasn't exactly studied by science. He was basically going in blind. Even with all the human knowledge, it was probably impossible to predict how an unknown energy source would react in a new environment.
Eventually, Gerald spoke, "I don't think that's the case, in fact, it should be the other way around. The ability to sense Mana should come first. I know a person that learned an extra Element later in life. That would mean that the ability to sense Mana is the most important in spellcasting."
Sera was surprised at first, but then sighed and said, "Even if that's the case, it doesn't help me at all. It would just mean that I'm not meant to be a mage in this life." She sounded really disappointed and sad at the same time. Gerald could completely understand her. If he was also unable to use magic, he would already be dead multiple times.
"Maybe there is a certain potion that could increase your sensitivity and if we could get our hands on it…" Gerald started talking, but Sera soon stopped him and said, "Gerald, I know you wanna help me, but just let it go, alright? I already came to terms with my fate a long time ago and there is no point in opening old wounds."
Gerald sighed and nodded, "Alright I won't mention it again…"
Then they were both quiet for a while again.
Eventually, Sera broke the silence and said, "Since we have so much free time now, how about you spar with me? I think you could use some training." She threw him a meaningful smile. Obviously, she was making fun of his bad endurance.
Laughing, Gerald accepted her challenge. He needed to get some exercise and increase his fitness level soon if he wanted to stay relevant in this world.
***
When the evening came, Gerald could barely move. He lost so many times that he couldn't even count. He was really no match for Sera, be it on strength, speed, or endurance. Even though he lost every time, he also learned a lot in terms of combat. At least he should be able to continue fighting for much longer.
Laying on the ground and panting like a dog he slowly cooled down. Soon, the last sun rays went away and darkness fell on the forest.
Sera took a torch out of her pouch and Gerald made a small flame to ignite it. It was time to go.
The nocturnal animals and insects also started waking up. The forest was full of different sounds of crickets, owls, and small critters that were running on the ground and in the trees.
Sera tugged on Gerald's sleeve and said, "Look, the first Moonglows are blooming." She pointed at a weak light in the tall grass. Indeed it was a Black-Iron Moonglow flower. It was glowing with weak blue light, just like the moon.
'Wow, what an amazing specimen of bioluminescence!'
Soon the whole forest was colored in a misty blue color. Gerald was honestly surprised at the amount of Moonglow flowers. He only needed fifty, but there were probably hundreds just in his field of view. The forest was full of it.
"Looks like we will be done soon, that's good. I need to get some good sleep today," he said and started collecting the fully matured flowers. Sera followed him as well.
They were done in less than twenty minutes, even though Gerald collected much more than necessary, for his own potions. After that, they both climbed on a tall tree and made themselves comfortable. They hung the bags of herbs on a branch and soon they both fell asleep.Early in the morning Gerald and Sera returned to the city. They went directly to the Guild to deliver the Moonglow flowers and collect the reward. Later, they split up as Gerald once again wanted to have some time for himself and his experiments.
According to the Blood Codex, the process for making Mana Potions was the same as the Healing Potions. The only difference was that instead of Healing Root it required Mana Root.
Because the process was the same, he quickly tried making some. Sure enough, after just twenty minutes he already made his first Mana Potion. To test it out he opened the window and blasted a giant flame into the sky. That way he used up all his Mana so that he could better feel the effects of the Potion.
"Cheers, to my infinite magic power!" he said with a smile and emptied the vial in one big gulp.