He scooted back into his chair, feeling apprehensive from the intense stair of the old lady's unnaturally blue eyes.
"W-What are you talking about?" Stuttering a little, his head felt constrained and enclosed on all sides by something.
"The fact that you can't tell what I'm doing right now makes me more certain that you aren't a Mage." She was unblinking, boring her eyes and looking at every part of his body.
"I had an unusual master who refused to tell me about basic things, he only left me these two items." Replying with a more confident voice, he calmed himself down a little.
"Right now, I can see your mana vessels, and they are barely active, I wouldn't even qualify their level activity as a novice Mage." strangely twisting her head, her wide unblinking eyes began to release more light.
'Shit, does she have an X-ray-like vision or something.' Smiling awkwardly he answered to the best of his ability.
"I never said I was talented, my master didn't care about me, he was just fulfilling the promise of my dead parents." He regained some composure, all the while feeling a little annoyed by being spied on like this.
"Hm... you sound convincing, but that isn't the whole story is it?" she looked at the bracer for a few seconds, then looked at the amulet hanging on his neck, one that was inactive.
"As I said, it wasn't that long ago I received these items, and he only stayed for a day before he disappeared." Kaine was starting to feel like he was in interrogation.
"I see everything now. Tell me why haven't you imprinted on that shield amulet yet?" blinking her eyes, they returned to their brown color, her normal annoyed face returning.
"..." He stayed silent, he didn't even know how these items functioned or what they were.
"You know what will happen if people find you have an ownerless magic item, especially one of such good quality?" picking up the book on top of the table, she leaned back on her chair and began reading it relaxedly.
"I- I don't know how to imprint on it, even this thing was by accident." Kaine sighed helplessly, feeling out of his depth, he was just some average guy who got dragged here.
"Can you-"
"No."
"But I haven't even asked the question!" He looked at her with his best impression of puppy eyes, he has always been good with grandmas.
"I know what you wanna ask, and I said no, I'm not helping you." She kept looking at her book, ignoring his puppy eyes.
Kaine looked at the floor, feeling dispirited if he accepted the truth, a little depressed. He looked at the uncaring lady who was focused on her book, focusing on her brow-furred face and annoyed look.
"I-I know that being here is stupid of me, and the fact I know nothing of magic or its dangers might seem like I'm just a stupid boy, but I really wanna become a Mage. These Magic items are the only opportunity I have to that goal." Kaine recognized something from her face and how she carried herself.
'She must have lived a life of regret, and helping me here might increase her regret if something were to happen to me.' He didn't know how he came to that conclusion, but as he watched her stoic expression, she seemed a little more softer.
"You don't have to help me that much, just tell me how I can imprint these items and how I can consciously activate them, that's all I'm asking of you." Kaine didn't have any more persuasion tactics, if she refused this he will have to find everything on his own.
He didn't mind learning on his own, but the time he would lose and the dangers of this dangerous world might come crashing down on him if he wasn't prepared.
'I can't let myself become content with just living by, I want to be so much more.' he thought with determination.
"~Sigh~ stop staring at me so much, you brats are relentless." she closed the book and put it back on the table, giving him an annoyed look.
"What are you smiling for, just give me the amulet." with a raised palm toward him, Kaine was smiling as he quickly took off the Amulet, hesitating a little to give it to her, before deciding to trust her.
"So naive, I would advice not to ever give valuable things to people you barely know." She fiddled with the amulet, looking over it and rubbing the runic letters written on it.
"It looks fine, seemed it was made a couple of weeks ago, the artificial barrier energy crystal hasn't been used, so it should last you for quite a while before it's depleted." he didn't understand half the things she mentioned, but he nodded his head.
"The runic spells are done well, and it allows the amulet to manifest 2 types of barrier energy, a smaller concentrated energy shield, and a full enclosure shield, that is meant to block indirect blows. So make sure to practice changing between the two types if you wish to survive the vicious battles awaiting you." She gave it back to him, taking a firm grip of his right hand that held it, she said with a heavy tone,
"Given your injuries, I assume the partially bonded bracer helped you get out of a difficult situation, but it's not how it's meant to be imprinted.
"This is the only time I will do this so pay careful attention. Your abysmally inactive mana veins stop you from utilizing the little mana you have in your body, so I will excite them and make them more active, so try not to stop or fight back against my mana." Focused on her hands holding his right arm, he became flustered when her hands began to shine.
"Isn't that a dangerous thing?" He asked with worry and began fidgeting in his seat.
"It's as equally dangerous for me as well, so stop stressing me lest I lose control and explode you from the inside." He felt it, a stream of air traveling deep into his arm and up his shoulder, a tingling sensation followed by numbness traveling along with the air.
"Close your eyes and concentrate on the flowing feeling in your arm, follow it around, and feel what is doing and where it's going." He closed his eyes, and focused, the feeling of the air in his arm becoming more tangible in his mind.
He did as instructed, and kept following the mana, one that was aimless and kept going with some sort of flow that was already previously established in his body.
Where her mana flowed, he felt the part of his body become more flowing, like river water that was stopped by debris began to flow once it was swept away by a stronger current.
'It's a weird thing, it's like tiny pipes were congested by something before her stronger yet calm flow of mana washed the congesting debris away.' the amount of mana in his body remained constant, and didn't increase.
It traveled to every part of his body in these small veins gently, making them what he could only call active. They were active and fluctuating now, as he began to feel another weaker current of air flowing inside his body.
His current of air was bigger, yet they were weaker and didn't cause much excitement in the veins, but as he relaxed and let everything flow on its own, his current of air began to rush all over the place, while her mana stayed away from his, flowing into more inactive veins.
As time passed, his current of air has begun to travel easier and quicker through the numerous veins, following the same path instead of dispersing and flowing into many veins chaotically.
"Whew! I don't like this at all. You know how difficult its to manipulate my mana to not destroy your weak and tiny mana veins." He opened his eyes and saw the lady sweating a little and taking deep breaths.
"Thank you so much! I can feel them now! So these mana veins are responsible for the manipulation of mana?" He asked what he understood from them.
"That's right, few people have one that's complete and not broken, at least compared to normal people. Remember this, don't let your veins get damaged, you will either die or live a crippled life by the internal damage it causes when the torrent of mana flows to the rest of your body uncontrollably." She leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath.
"Thanks for the advice. But how do I imprint the amulet now?" He asked with shining eyes, calming down a little when she looked at him with a scorn-filled face.
"Do I have to tell you everything, just let the flowing mana into the amulet, and it will do the rest by itself." She said in an annoyed voice.
Kaine focused on the flowing current of lesser dense mana of his, experimenting to see if he could influence it. he didn't expect it would flow where he thought he wanted it to go, and a second later a large contingency of mana flowed into his right hand holding the amulet, and the amulet attracted it.
The amulet began to glow a little, releasing the honey gold color like its crystal, and Kaine to his surprise felt like in his mind he could choose two button-like things connected to the amulet.
Focusing on one, he opened his eyes, looking at the amulet in his hand wide-eyed.
"Is that its barrier?" He asked aloud, looking at a circular 2-dimensional golden clear shield manifesting on top of his hand holding the amulet.