"Finally, I managed to convince them"
"I was forced to spend some of my savings, the cheap food and drinks costed me a lot"
Later a night, Dreue throw his himself on the bed, Breathing a sigh of relief. It was hard but he managed it pull it off. He had to create an image of the talented mage who had the ability to feel the presence of mana, a mage who is fated to reach high levels, but alas it seems he had offended someone he shouldn't, or he had drawn too much attention to himself standing in the limelight to the point major powers saw him as a nuisance, a threat and decided to cut his wings early.
He was reduced to this miserable state, yet he didn't lose his pride and was still radiating confidence, he talks as if he was the one doing them a great favor.
"They were shocked after I told them I can sense the presence of mana, what if I had told that I can see mana, literally? It seems feeling mana is much more rare and frightening talent than what I thought. I should never tell anyone about my true ability"
"And those books, I have yet to understand their true value, I should hide very well, if I were to be discovered… the consequences are not something I can handle…"
…..
Next day at the forest, Dreue met the three adventures, today they would carry a test to see if he was saying the truth and what's the extent of his ability.
"So Dreue to make things clear, tell out exactly what you can do?" Hazel the mage asked first, being a mage, she had the most experience dealing with another mage.
"It is as I had said before, I can sense the presence of mana, that means I can tell if there are close monsters, in what direction and where they are hiding"
"But I can tell what's their level, and obviously my detection ability is limited by a certain range" Dreue decided to leave a lot if things out, it would do him no good if should to much and next day wake up in the magic tower as an experimental object.
"Then let's start testing, lets head inside the forest, if you detect any monster tell us" John drew his sword walking in the front, Gallien nocked an arrow walking at the back, ready to shot at any moment while Dreue and Hazel stayed in the middle.
…..
"There is a monster behind that rock"
"There is a one up on that tree"
"Another one is coming toward us from the back, it is very fast"
"One is very close to the left side"
…..
The party returned to the town, carrying several level one and two monsters, like One-horned rabbits, Fire foxes, Iron-claws eagle. They were also carrying some parts of a Goblin, a level three monster. Their gain was not small.
Dreue took some of the low-level nuclei and some other materials, the Goblin parts and nucleus in addition to the rest of the materials, the three adventurers kept them for themselves, it was none of his business how would they divide it between them.
They decided to meet again at the inn at night, after sorting things, in order to agree on the terms of their cooperation.
…..
"Honestly although we somewhat believed you, we never expected things to turn like this" John said as he looked at Dreue who was burying his head in the food.
"Eat to your heart content, today the bill is on us, but Dreue with this rare powerful ability even if you can't advance a mage, many factions would still recruit you and pay you handsomely. You should have never been reduced to this state…." Hazel remarked, she was putting her hands behind her head, crossing her legs in a carefree manner.
Dreue knew they were trying to probe his story, he knew should provide them with a satisfactory answer, it would serve as a base of trust between them, otherwise they would not work with such a dangerous unpredicted variable as him.
It's not like they are in desperate need of him, they can just wait to find a tank for their team and that's it, but as of now they are trying to estimate the possible risk and benefits, after all no matter what having a party member with such an ability would bring them lots of benefits after establishing long term relationship.
"I was a very talented mage, with my ability many people were jealous of me, I made a mistake and offended the young master of a major family, after thinking about it they were not that's important of a family, they were far from being all powerful, it's just that I was nobody they took the chance and put serval charges on my head, I was not able to defend myself, no one would stand for me".
"They blinded my eyes, poisoned me and damaged my core. They decided letting me live in such a state would be worse than death….and they were right". Dreue said in a sad depressing tone, he paused for a while then continued.
"I worked for other factions with my ability, I was able to make a good living, but one day my core started to deteriorate, with the weakening of my magic power my ability also weakened, instead of spotting monsters from far away or scanning large areas, now I can only spot monsters in the vicinity, any intermediate level mage around level five with detections spells would do better than me".
"To this day my mana and so my ability are still weakening by day, and soon I will lose all my mana, my ability will be no more, I would be just a blind man roaming around the country with no place to stay".
"Before that happens, I working my hardest trying to save some money, in hopes opening a small shop, or buying a small farm".
Silence filled the place; nothing could be heard except for Dreue's trembling voice.