Feeling mana and using it were two different things.
My father now learned that the hard way. He could use mana, but the amount of mana in the atmosphere was so low that he could at most gather it around his staff and make some mana particles glow.
Casting something like a fireball was out of question.
"I should have warned you dad. Mana in our world is at present not available in large quantities.
That is one of the reasons why the game as we know of it exists.
As I was told, it is a win-win situation for both sides.
Our side gets mana, and the goddess of creation gets hundreds of thousands of new believers.
Just look at myself, I even asked her for help yesterday and was very shameless in my demands. If you can get someone like me to believe wholeheartedly in a God, than you can get anyone."
"Pfff" My father scoffed.
"I guess I have to carry mana crystals here through my void storage."
"Or you just use a different source than mana, dear."
Mother intercepted from the sidelines again. Although she made a good point.
"My mana doesn't have to come from the natural mana around us. One of my abilities is linked to my high elf race. The clan I now belong to, is dubbed Star Elves by many.
From what I got so far from my history classes that my grandmother over there is teaching me, is that the sun and moon elves that existed previously, came to the conclusion that both drew their mana not out of a particular celestial body, but out of the stars itself.
And from what I can see, our milky way has enough celestial power to support thousands of star elves."
Right... We forgot mom in the showcase of our abilities. With all the fluffy cuddling, I totally forgot her.
"I am sorry we skipped over you mom…"
She did not seem to care at all that she was skipped in the introduction of abilities.
It brought her some funny looks of dad, so that was all she cared about.
Not her opportunity came to show her skills.
With only a flick of her hands, mana flowed around her into the shape of a small fireball.
A subtle air of supremacy surrounded mom as she held the flame in her hand and walked closer to dad.
"Joan, are you kidding me? There is no mana around us. How in the world is there a fireball in your hands all of a sudden?"
A rare occurrence happened just now. For my parents, who would always call each other using couple nicknames, to be called with the given name only happened when the other did commit a grave sin.
Ninjalooting or killstealing were two examples where this occurred.
Betrayal could be seen painted all over the face of my father.
He, who was desperate to be a great mage, felt close to no mana around him.
Why was his wife able to use the mana while he was not?
How was mana created? Where did it come from? How did one access the mana around oneself?
From afar I could see the brain of my father go into deep concentration mode.
He did not even look at my mother anymore as he was so focused on the questions about magic that interested him.
Letting my father do his thing, the rest of us scattered and went on to do different things.
Me and my sister talked a little bit about fighting and when the topic of level came up, I was feeling defeated.
Without doing any quests, she had reached a shocking level of 8.
After an entire day of fighting everything I came across in the forest and completing a quest that pushed me beyond my limits I only got into level 4.
Elly and me were always competitive when it came towards levels. We would often just strive to have a higher level as the other.
When we reached the maximum level in a game we played, our goals shifted to everything else we got our hands onto to compete over. Damage per second was a simple metric as well as clear time for dungeons or mobs.
My family consisted of hardcore gamers. Myself as a rather casual player could only hold up to them through sheer skill and luck sometimes.
I thought I finally found something where I had a huge lead on my sister.
But I disregarded her ferocious behavior and nature.
Even the gifts of God could not help me achieve victory over my sister.
This meant I have to do something that I would not do under normal circumstances.
"I will grind faster than you. That is a promise!"
I held my hand up and pointed at her while grinning and without waiting for an answer I sprinted towards the capsule room.
She did not rush after me. Not even taking a single step to be exact.
The only thing I could hear as I entered the room was the laughter of the maniac, I called my sister.
A subtle but still audible answer could be heard throughout the house after she was done laughing.
"Bring it on my sweet little angel."
After that statement that maniacs laughter resumed.
I need to get strong fast. The goddess made a great point before. Our goals align perfectly.
She wants evil to be eradicated and so did I.
Even our reasoning behind it mostly stayed the same.
I logged into the world with more determination than ever.
For now I had a clear goal. Becoming stronger to beat my sister at a stupid competition, while also doing good was a hundred time better that what I was used to for forcing myself to do things.
I woke up and went directly towards the church.
The inn I chose was decent when it came to privacy. Not a single person was overly annoying or wanted something from me.
Rushing past the people that were present on the streets I made my way into church.
As I entered, the priest who guided me yesterday was also present and I could already see him sweating by just looking at me.
I approached the priest and tried soothing his mood a little bit.
As an angel myself, it was kind of my job to also look after the followers of the great mother.
"Be at ease priest. Today I do not come to ask shameless thing of the great mother."
He was already annoyed with ne. The look on his face was one of disappointment and a hint of anger.
"I would like a little more respect young one. Either call me father like most or at least priest Jonas."
Father? No thank you kindly. That sounds wrong on too many levels.
"Then I will stick with priest Jonas. The reason I came to church today is only to get some clothes.
That shouldn't be something that mother offends."
The priest was properly confused by now. Did the boy really just came to the church for clothes?
Was he that poor?
"What kind of clothes can the church provide for you? We have all sort of gear that we can give out for free for the not so fortunate population."
Not it was my time to be confused. Did I look that poor in the eyes of that priest?
It was a good decision to come here to get some things.
I did good yesterday. At least I should look like an angel while behaving like one. That wasn't too hard, was it?
"Nonono, I believe we talk around each other. I came here to receive some kind of formal combat clothes from the church. Yesterday I eradicated an entire goblin camp while looking something like this."
That was not a lie I told right now. As a wolf I technically was naked the entire time, but I still felt shabby wearing these clothes in public.
As an angel I couldn't walk around this in a city.
The priest was fearful at this point. A goblin camp was not something a fine looking man such as the one in front of him could accomplish that easily.
"There is an official uniform for paladins of the church, if you are even looking for something of that kind, but sadly I am not in charge of the order of paladins and have not even met one of those in quite some time."
Haaaaa~~~~ That means I have to be kind of shameless again. Oh, please understand my situation and be merciful mother…
I walked past priest Jonas, which surprised him. Even while I was not looking at him anymore, it wouldn't be far off guess that he was sweating profusely by now.
He could not fathom the young boy that walked towards the main altar again.
Why was he risking divine punishment for something menial as clothes?
Yesterday it was something that would put every cartographer to shame and today clothes?
What was wrong with the youth, was all priest Jonas could think of.
"Mother, I need a little bit of your time…"
Looking up to the statue of mother, I started speaking in a calm but firm voice.
After it began glowing with a warm light I felt ready to proceed.
"I require the appropriate clothes befitting my circumstances. People should know who I stand with by just looking at my attire. Meanwhile enemies should fear me as I imbue my clothes with my holy aura."
If yesterday was shameless, today would be less critical of a demand but it was still far from okay to ask such things of the goddess of creation.
Why didn't he pick a lesser god to help him? The divine punishment they could inflict was far less than the literal highest and mightiest God of in the world.
Who did he think he was? A personal envoy of the goddess? Some kind of knight?
Priest Jonas could not comprehend the thoughts of the boy. For all he knew of him was basically nothing.
The statue of the goddess slowly lost its glow as three stones flew from above on the head of the boy.
The first was a stone came with a message engraved on it, while the other two had clothes attached to them.
Priest Jonas fell on his knees. Mouth wide open and not knowing what this boy did to get simultaneously punished while also receiving the things he asked for.
He even got more than he asked for.
The young boy was oblivious to the customs of the church, otherwise he would have flipped out by now. The standard robes of paladins or even high-ranking officials had a strict color code.
Priests like Jonas would only be allowed to wear black, while paladins were forced to wear red with a golden outline. The color changing to lighter colors the higher rank one had.
The clothes this boy received were completely white with golden embroidery on the sleeves.
He received exactly what he asked for. But it will be a surprise for the boy that not only enemies would fear him.
Every person in this world with a general knowledge would also fear or in the very least, greatly respect him.
The boy, minding his own business quickly hid behind a corner and got changed.
The audacity of this youth was something that priest Jonas had never before seen or even herd of.
To change in this holy halls close to the main altar was even bolder than asking the gods for clothes in his opinion.
It took five minutes for Alex to change into this new attire of his.
He chose to stick with the combat suit that the goddess gave him. The other one being formal clothes that were in the style of a full set of formal clothes.
While the combat clothes made him look like a war ready holy soldier, the formal clothes were akin to a royal dress up.
It would be good for times he did not want to impose on nobles too much.
Not that they could stand in his way either way.
As Alex made his way back towards priest Jonas, the priest panicked a little bit more.
Jonas looked at the combat ready Alex now in a devoted manner. He could not risk offending this crazy youth anymore. Not that he did that before, but he had to actually be respectful to him now.
Alex was someone who got a skill from the goddess and godly clothes as well.
If favoritism needed a new definition, Alex would be a perfect example.
"How do I look Jonas?"
The aura Alex now carried while wearing these clothes was too great for Jonas.
"Great, fabulous, imposing."
Jonas could not form complete sentences right now as he was too panicked to offend Alex.
"From your behavior I assess that these clothes do their job properly."
Alex just walked forward past Jonas and left the church.
This was being disrespectful towards Jonas but he did not care.
Rushing back into the innermost chambers of the church Jonas fled in the opposite direction that Alex walked in.