As he entered the house, he sent Rachel to the room where Zoey was so they could catch up on old times.
Even though they were likely not very close, the very fact that they were survivors from Bard should allow them to get along just fine. At least for now.
Later on, Rachel would most likely leave and do something else, and Daron did not mind an anything. Instead, his blood was already boiling. He just wished to rip off the heads of those knights in black, and those mages who ordered them to destroy the city. As well as that Rank 2 magical beast.
They had made him lose 3 of his friends, possibly even all of his family at the church.
However, he had a feeling that Joanne would be enough to take care of everyone, and they should have successfully escaped the city.
Even though he was incredibly furious, he knew he could not do anything. When he compared the data saved by Sirious on the flying mage, and compared it with the old man, it was clear that the flying mage who has sent out the enemies was at Rank 1, while the one he called his teacher was clearly at or above Rank 2.
These were not enemies he could handle for the time being. Instead, he calmed himself down in order to remove the amplifying effect that the bloodline Inheritance had on his emotions.
With that done, he went straight to the old man's room and opened the door without knocking.
"Damn it! Kid, I told you to knock and come in!"
"You could sense me from anywhere in your house with ease, in fact, you should be able to sense me from anywhere within District 11. You could have stopped me from entering, but you didn't."
"Tch, what is it?"
"I finished the mana absorption method."
"Mana accumulation technique"
"I renamed it cause it sounds better this way, since that is its true function, not just accumulation."
"Tch. So? Did you try it?"
"Yeah. I tried it, but just as I was about to finish the second step, 34 hours had passed and my mind suddenly became filled with hunger." Daron replied truthfully.
"Hmm. 34 hours, not bad. It should take you around 9 days to complete the full thing. But you still won't be able to survive that with the lack of food and water. Brat! This is why I am telling you to first learn your spell and then learn the mana accumulation technique. At least…"
However, the old man stopped in his usual rant as he remembered Daron's situation. While speaking just now, he had forgotten that Daron had a total of 0 mana within him, and thus he needed to learn the mana technique in order to even think about casting spells.
"Ahem. It had taken me 9 days to complete this technique as well, so do not worry too much."
Hearing the old man's consoling words, Daron shook his head inside his mind. The old man was thinking that he was feeling dejected at not being able to cast a single spell. However, Daron would not clear this misunderstanding, since he only stood to gain from it. Hehe
[Master, your thinking is too centred around gains.]
'It is not'
[Gains and magic] Countered Sirious, to which Daron had no retort.
'…'
"At this rate, you will be able to become a beginner apprentice in time. Here" As he said that, he threw a box to Daron.
"This is a box of 12 Nutrition potions. Each one will give your body enough nutrition to survive for 10 days on nothing. It will also take care of water and you will not need to excrete anything either, since the stuff in the potions are pure energy for your body with 0 waste. This will cost you another 60 magic stones."
"In time for what?" Daron asked as he opened the box and pulled out one of the 12 neatly arranged test tubes with stoppers on their ends.
Inside was an extremely thick and viscous liquid in a disgusting colour somewhere between green and maroon, with hints of deep yellow, crimson and ultramarine blue mixed in. [1]
"In time for your ride. To the north"
Hearing this, Daron's gaze fell upon the old man.
"When is it?"
"1 year from now. That should be plenty of time for you to become a beginner apprentice, and possibly even an intermediate apprentice. Hehe, the college will surely reward me."
"Alright." Daron simply nodded to the old man. When it came to serious business, neither of the two wasted time on pleasantries, only passing comments every now and then as a break.
"Hold on! Did you say that the college would reward you? Are you selling me off?" Daron's questioning gaze pierced into the old man like dagger.
However, the old man did not waste any more time and with a wave of his hand, he send Daron out of the room with the use of wind. Over the course of time, Daron learned that the old man was a mage that chose to specialise in wind. Naturally, he did not have access to the ability to teleport. The way he had sent Bob out of the house when they had first met was through an array he had set up in advance that linked to the base for the college.
Daron returned to his room, and locked the door before sitting back onto the floor.
He put most of the box into his [Personal Space] and only kept a single tube with him.
'Alright Sirious, plan out everything based on the information from my previous try. This time, Let's do this.'
[1] Imagine, Taco bell vomit…