'What a monstrous kid!' Nash thought to himself as he saw Rose using a Beginner-rank spell. He had been teaching her how to estimate a spell's rank based on the array and runes used to cast the spell. She wanted to try using them, so he decided to humor her, yet he didn't expect such a result. 'She has the potential to surpass even Lord Igris...if only I got a body half as strong as her.'
"Teacher! What's next?" the young Rose turned to Nash.
Nash simply smiled. "We've done a ton Elemental offensive and defensive magic. We've also done a Beginner-rank spell. Don't you think that you need to wait a little and gather up your Mana?"
"I think I can keep going!" Rose said excitedly. She had already learned quite a lot. She was like a starving beast that was let out of its cage to feast!
"Always remember, as a Mage, you always need to maintain your Mana above 40%, no matter where you are." Nash scolded. "Mages are feared due to how versatile their spells are, what's there to fear if they can't use the spells?"
"V-Versatile?" Rose asked with a stutter.
"Sit. Now." Nash sighed. "Versatile spells means spells that can be used in many different ways. For example, Teleport can be used to retreat back to cast a stronger spell. It can also be used to retreat from a powerful enemy's attack. It could even be used to move to an opponent's blind spot, allowing a devastating attack. Do you understand now?"
"I think so..." Rose fell into thought. Nash merely sighed.
He then moved to Alex who was still cautiously eyeing them. "You, Darkie. Don't you think it's time for me to go back? It's already 11:36 PM. It'll be midnight soon."
"C-Can't you stay here?" Alex asked in an awkward tone.
"Why?" Nash raised his eyebrow as a smirk appeared on his face.
"Teleportation arrays are not exactly cheap to be honest." Alex sighed.
"That's not my problem." Nash scoffed. "I get Swordsman tutelage and you get Mage tutelage, that was the deal. Me coming here was not a part of our deal, so send me back."
"..." Alex bit his lip. He couldn't afford any more than 2 Master-rank Teleportation arrays. This place was pretty far from Frozen Cavern Town, he couldn't use an Advanced-rank array. "Fine, what do you want?"
"Oh my...are you begging?" Nash's smirk widened.
"Don't push it, boy." Alex said with cold tone.
"Alright." Nash chuckled. "I want 2 Mana Crystals for every night I spend here."
"That's too much." Alex said seriously.
"That's too little if you ask me." Nash frowned. "I'm in unknown territory with a guy that's being very aggressive with me, not to mention that he is stronger."
"FINE!!" Alex growled. "2 Mana Crystals for every night you spend here!"
"Good, now all we need is to sign it." Nash smiled. He then pulled out an empty piece of paper from the things Alex prepared for Rose's lessons. He then put some Mana in the pen and wrote out an Elven contract. Dark Humans couldn't care less about Human contracts. What they really cared about was Elven contracts, since Elves were the ones protecting the Dark races. To Elves, Dark Elves were no different than Forest Elves or Fire Elves. They were merely another sub-species of the Elven race. If Alex didn't abide by the Elven contract, he would be put as 'Unprotected' to the Humans from the Earth Alliance's Anti-Dark legion. That would be a true nightmare.
"Fine." Alex grit his teeth as he signed.
"Great." Nash smiled. "Now, hand over the two Mana Crystals."
"You can sleep in the room down the hall." Alex sighed, reluctantly handing the two Mana Crystals. 'What's done is done. While I hate to admit it, the brat has a huge amount of magical knowledge, the only thing Rose lacks. I need him for a little longer.'
"No thanks." Nash went to the corner of the living room that they were in. He sat down then used the Mana in the Mana storage ring and drew a complex magic array that almost split his head off when he moved his finger draw the runes for the array. It depleted his entire Mana reserves just to create the array for the spell. He then used one of the two Mana Crystals to supply the array with Mana and activate it. A large blue barrier appeared around Nash, small blue swords appeared around Nash as he laid down on the ground. Using his bag as a pillow, he laid down to sleep. He was alright with sleeping on the floor, he had slept in worse. He had once slept in the literal stomach of a God-ranked Boss. It took the mobilization of the entire Anti-Dark legion, along with Kane's Strike Force to rescue Nash. They didn't even beat the boss, they just ran away afterwards!
"..." Alex stared at the barrier like he was an idiot, his jaw on the floor. His eyes then opened in realization. 'The bastard has a Multi Class!!'
Alex hadn't realized before because Nash hadn't moved the Mana he's been using outside his or Rose's body. Most non-magical Classes couldn't see Mana without it being in the open.
'Wait a second...that barrier is a Master-rank barrier...' a sense of dread fell upon Alex. 'He's a Human Master-rank Mage...and I...brought him to Rose...'
Alex started trembling in fear. 'What have I done...what have I done...WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!'
He quickly stopped his panic when he saw the barrier slowly absorbing Mana from the Mana Crystal. He squinted his eyes, making sure that it was actually Mana that leaked out of the Crystal. He then whispered to himself, "Why would a Master-rank Mage need a Mana Crystal to cast a Master-rank spell?"
'Looks like he can't constantly use Master-rank spells.' Alex sighed in relief. 'Let's just leave the questions to tomorrow. I can't break the barrier, even if I wanted to.'
Alex motioned to Rose to follow him. When they got ready for bed, Alex pulled out a magic scroll. The reason he recognized Nash's Master-rank barrier was because he had the same exact spell as a magic scroll!
As the two went to sleep, Nash was awake in the living room. He was whispering to himself. "Yeah. I know, my love. It's just that...I know he's a Dark Human, but I need to...alright...thank you for understanding...….goodnight, my love."
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Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Wakey, wakey!" Alex banged on the barrier as he woke Nash up.
Nash gasped awake. He then glared at Alex. "Don't you know how to wake a guest up?"
"To me, unless you get your own food, you're a freeloader." Alex scoffed.
"Whatever, Darkie." Nash whispered underneath his breath as he stood up and stretched. He then put the barrier down. He's probably going to ask me about my Multi Class.
"We need to talk, brat." Alex's eyes turned incredibly serious. "Who are you? What organization do you work for?"
"I knew it was coming." Nash sighed. He then started to recite the speech he had prepared last night. "Let me formally introduce myself. I am Nash Allister. My parents were people with high positions in the Earth Alliance. They worked under the great Lord Nash. They loved him so much that they named me after him. He had even valued them so much that he taught me personally, in hopes that I would awaken as a Mage, that's why I can create Master-rank arrays. It was quite the occasion when they discovered my Multi Class. One day, while my parents were out fighting a Grandmaster-rank Boss alongside Lord Nash and his party, they almost died. They were on the brink, and that's when it happened. My parents converted to the Dark. They even burned their lifespans to quicken the conversion. In their blind rage of destruction, they killed Lord Nash's only family, his sister. He went crazy and backstabbed them while fighting the Boss, killing both of them. He had the balls to tell that to my face...that bastard."
Nash's self-depreciating smile was pretty convincing from Alex's point of view. Nash sighed and continued, "I left the Alliance. Lord Nash's inner conscious wouldn't let him leave me alone, so he gave me a bunch of stuff to use including wealth and equipment. I hate the Alliance because it killed my parents. I hate the Dark because it made me hate the Alliance."
Alex looked at Nash with pity. "I know the feeling very well."
"Then why did you convert?" Nash asked in a genuinely regretful tone. "Why put so many people at risk? Why put your loved ones at risk?"
Nash had never announced his last name to the world. People knew him as "Nash The Founder". His story was realistic enough to be believable...mostly because a majority of it was real. The story he told wasn't exactly far from why he hated the Dark.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, kid. That's something you need to learn in life." Alex said with unfocused eyes.
"Whatever! Forget about these depressing things!" Nash suddenly yelled in a frustrated tone, causing Alex to jump in fright. "What are we going to do today?"
"I was hoping you'd continue tea-"
"Not so fast, big guy." Nash interrupted. "You teach me one lesson in Swordsmanship, and I teach you one lesson in Magic. That was the deal."
"...I'm sorry, you're right." Alex sighed. "Well...just practice your forms. Once I believe you reached a high enough standard, I'll take you to the Ranker's Arena again."
"Alright, then." Nash nodded. Although it frustrated him that Alex wouldn't have anything to do with his improvement, he knew how important basics were in fighting. If he had skipped the basics when he was first starting out as a Mage, he'd have died on hundreds of different occasions.
Nash quickly fell into his standard form. He then pushed a ton of Mana from his ring, which was charging overnight, into his body, more specifically, his brain.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
God damn! The kid's a genius in his own right! His Mana control is off the charts!! Alex observed Nash's muscles bulge only in the places where power was needed, causing his efficiency to skyrocket! He could effectively stay in this form for at least two hours, even without the ring. Alex had wanted to leave Mana Enhancement for later since it would need for him to teach the basics of Mana, but Nash had it figured out a while ago apparently.
"You know what?" Alex smiled. "Let's go now. I think you're ready."
"Now?" Nash raised an eyebrow. "What about Rose?"
"She'll be alright. This place is protected by a security system made by a Human Grandmaster-rank Engineer." Alex smiled.
Humans had to adapt when they arrived at Ashitoria. A lot of the Humans' main careers turned into advanced forms of Classes. Some examples were Engineers which deviated from the Forger Class, or the Chef Class or Chemist Class, both of which deviated from the Alchemist Class. Or the most prominent deviated Class, the Cleric Class which deviates from the Healer Class.
"Alright, then." Nash smiled. "Off we go."