'Is he not blind? Why is it like he is looking at me?' Wyatt thought as he glanced at Zane, who was scratching his chin 'He's probably thinking of how to kill me' Wyatt internally cried.
"Okay Wyatt let's get on to serious matters. I will ask you a series of questions and if I don't like your answer, you won't like my reaction" Zane suddenly said.
"Okay"Wyatt whispered.
"First question, will someone come to look for you ?" Zane began the interrogation.
"Not immediately, but after a few days they will notice and send people to look for me" Wyatt answered as best as he could. He didn't want to see Zane's reaction to a bad answer.
"Will they send Mages?"
Wyatt chuckled "No i am not that important, unfortunately"
"How much do you know about magic?"
"I know enough to pass hunting school" Wyatt answered.
"So if I asked you a few questions related to magic you will know the answers right?"
"It depends on the question "
"Okay do you know what Cultivation is?" Zane asked as he thought about his so called 'Body Cultivation.'
Wyatt was confused. Zane showed strength equal to a High Mage but didn't know what Cultivation is?. 'Or maybe he is trying to test me' he thought.
"Cultivation is gathering mana into your mana core in order to grow stronger. This can be done by absorbing the natural mana in the environment or by absorbing other mana cores from mana beasts."
"How about absorbing mana cores from other humans?" Zane asked.
Wyatt shivered when Zane said that "That is taboo to even talk about. If anyone is caught absorbing a human mana core, they and their entire family is executed.It is said that the gods themselves enforce this rule" he explained.
'Intresting' Zane thought, he didn't think that Wyatt would lie to him. Zane then remembered the man his parents had hired to teach him magic that time. He had said that the next time they met he was going to teach Zane about the Existence realms.
"Tell me about the Existence realms"Zane said as he sat on one wheel of the carriage. Wyatt was surprised for a second, it was now clear that Zane wasn't testing him. 'He really doesn't know anything about Cultivation. How is he that strong then?' he thought.
"There are Six known Existence realms : Mage , High Mage , Supreme Mage , Magus , High Magus , and Supreme Magus in that order from weakest to strongest." Wyatt explained.
'Huh well that's simple and straight forward' Zane thought. "What is your Existence realm?" he asked.
"I don't have one yet but I am close" Wyatt answered.
"How close ?. You said people advance through these realms by absorbing mana cores. Explain further"
"All these realms are further divided into ranks. For example a rank four mage is stronger than a rank two mage."
"I myself don't yet have an existence realm. As of now I have absorbed 8 grade one mana cores. You need to absorb 10 mana cores equivalent to your existence realm to rank up, or you could absorb just one core one realm higher than you"
"When i say grade one mana core i mean a mana core from a grade one mana beast, which is the weakest. Grade one mana beasts' power is equivalent to a mage, grade two, to a high mage and so on." Wyatt finished his teachings with a sigh.
"So since you have absorbed 8 grade one mana cores, if you absorb two more you become a mage is that correct ?" Zane confirmed.
"Yes" Wyatt replied.
"So now when you become a mage you start out as a rank one mage. Then you need to absorb 10 more grade one cores to become a rank two mage ?." Zane scratched his chin in thought and Wyatt just nodded.
'With a singe existence realm having 10 ranks, and each rank needing 10 grade one cores to advance. That means to go from a mage to a high mage you need to absorb a whooping 100 grade one mana cores' Zane thought.
'Or you could take a shortcut and just absorb 10 grade two mana cores to jump right to high mage'
"Wyatt how hard is it to get a mana core ?" he asked
"I am 50 years old and in my entire life I only saved up 8, I think you get what I mean" Wyatt said.
'And that's just grade one cores, grade two cores should then be impossible for none mages' Zane thought.
"How do people get these cores?"
"Most people who Cultivate are hunters so they just hunt for the cores themselves. However some people who don't like risking their lives, like me, prefer to buy them" Wyatt said as he tried to shift to a better position on the tree. The rope was really tight.
Zane saw that and stood up before cutting the ropes binding Wyatt, who was rejoicing that maybe he was being let go. However....
"If you try to run i will kill you"
"How much is a single grade one mana core ?" Zane asked.
"100 gold" Wyatt grunted as he sat down after checking that the dirt he was sitting on was clean.
'Shit, so I would need 1000 gold coins for me to become a mage. Well that is if I would ever become a mage anyway because of a certain celestial' he thought.
'Getting 1000 gold is not possible I need to hunt. Which I can't do at the moment. I had a tough fight with a bear, I wouldn't stand a chance against a mana beast'
That's when Zane noticed something that kinda confused him "Wyatt, can a non mage kill a mana beast ?" he asked.
"Definitely not" Wyatt instantly replied.
"Well then how do non mages get the 10 cores they need if they don't have the money and are not thieving assholes like you ?"
"They go to hunting school, get the hunters license and start a hunting group. A group of at least 5 well trained, armoured and armed hunters should be able to take down a mana beast" Wyatt explained. He wasn't insulted by what Zane said at all, or at least that's what he told himself.
'With five people fighting for one mana core, that means only one person would get the core per hunt. Then they rotate getting the cores, that would take forever for a single person to save up the 10 cores necessary' Zame thought.
Zane was really conflicted as to what he should do. This Cultivation business seemed really complicated and hard. He even thought of going back home to the farm to live a normal magic-less life.
However then he thought about how happy Aurora would be to see that. He immediately put the idea so far at the back of his mind it was practically touching his skull.
To make matters worse, Zane didn't even know what would happen once he absorbed his first core. Would it just act like bow he uses his mana gathering skill?. It was Zane's fear that he could work his ass off to get a core, only to be disappointed later.
"If only I had a single core to test it out" he mumbled to himself. However, Wyatt's heart started beating slightly faster after he heard that statement.
Any other person would have just ignored that. Actually any other person wouldn't have heard another person's heart beating from a meter away anyway.
BANG!
In a split second, Zane had pinned Wyatt to the tree. His home (or in this case forest) made knife in hand just a few inches from Wyatt's eyeball, which he couldn't close due to fear.
"You have mana core, where is it" Zane said through clenched teeth.