"Alright. Arte, now that you've calmed down. Shall we continue the lesson?"
"Yes, Oppa! Please tell me everything in advance so I will no longer be fooled!"
Arte clenched her fists in front of her chest and looked up at me with a determined, fiery gaze.
"Great! I'm happy you're eager to learn. Did they say experience is the best teacher? Maybe having you experience something bad is a good thing every now and then."
"Oppa…"
"Haha, it's a joke, Arte. There's no need to pout like that."
It's fun to tease Arte since her emotions are so expressive. But then, I remembered that Arte was someone I shouldn't feel too attached to right now.
'Because that would make it difficult when we have to part.'
So I nodded to myself and continued the lesson.
"Anyway, back to the lesson. Now you know, right, Arte? The first way to get mana is to have someone share their mana with you."
She nodded.
"This method is generally inefficient because a lot of mana will be lost in the transfer process, but… let me demonstrate."
I asked her permission to hold her hand and demonstrate a mana transfer.
"Sure! Also, you don't have to ask for everything, Oppa! You can touch me anytime you want!"
"... I can touch you anytime?"
"Yes! Anytime! Anywhere!"
Arte laughed as she held out her hand. Then, she smiled brightly as she squeezed mine.
'Should I teach her not to say such misleading things from now on…? No. It's normal for children our age to not even care or think about such things. So it's me who was being weird.'
Having decided to be more comfortable around Arte, I squeezed her hand and continued the lesson.
"Then, I'll begin the mana transfer. Observe."
[White Dragon Vision]
Now that I see Arte's mana path, I control my mana so that it moves precisely into that path. I told her about this entire process and how doing that alone would increase the efficiency tremendously.
"Of course, not everyone can see someone else's mana path like me. And not everyone has a vast mana path like you, Arte. But depending on the giver and receiver, this method can achieve 100% efficiency."
Fortunately, Arte's mana path was wide, so it was easy to transfer my mana to her.
"And that is the case for the two of us. If I transfer mana to you, then not even a drop of mana will be lost."
Either of us can achieve good efficiency with just about anyone—but even more so if we're together.
"Also, right now, I have much more mana than your body can contain all at once, Arte. So even if I fill your mana this way, I won't run out anytime soon."
Should I say it's the difference in time? Raon and Arte awakened their mana around the same age, when they were both ten years old.
This is proof that both of them are extraordinarily talented in mana. So what will happen if a talented person gets one year of a head start from the other?
'Then, they will become that much stronger.'
Of course, Raon's talent in mana is very different from Arte's talent. If Arte is a genius in using and applying mana as a magician, Raon is a massive vessel that could contain a vast sea of mana in his body and regenerate his missing mana quickly.
This is true even when Raon was still a 1-circle mana user, his mana regeneration speed was already absurd even then. And that regeneration speed makes it so much easier for me to work on increasing this body's mana pool.
'Because there are tricks to it.'
Not many people know it, but in general, if you use up all the mana in your body until it becomes empty, your body will learn to store more mana in the future. And since a little bit of your mana is always stored within the mana circle, you don't have to worry about death or mana exhaustion, even if you used up all of your mana in this way.
'So what will happen if my mana keeps getting emptied and refilled at tremendous speed?'
Then, my mana capacity will grow exponentially to be that much larger and faster. And that is exactly why my current mana capacity exceeds other people by leaps and bounds.
'If not because I chose to specialize in combat, then I might have chosen to be a mage.'
However, no matter how much I want to learn everything, I have limited time until future disasters strike. So, the best thing I can do now is to focus only on one thing.
But the story was different when it came to Arte, who was also a genius in her own right. I could teach her all the know-how about becoming a mage that I learned from the forum and my own experience as a Player.
'Even better, Arte could suck in mana from the world, so her mana pool is practically infinite.'
If there's a drawback, it was the fact that it takes her a while to suck in mana from the world. But that's something she can learn to deal with in the future.
'How should I put it… should I compare her to a gun?'
It takes time to reload, but since she has infinite bullets anyway, she can keep shooting as long as she learns to take cover or reload the bullets quickly. Which is why I am thinking of teaching Arte defensive magic after this.
'But too bad, I don't have a lot of defensive magic I can teach her since I barely learned any.'
I was planning to rely on Raon's self-healing gift in the first place which will make me more immortal the more this gift evolved. But even if I don't have that, I still have [Counter Strike] and [Bianca's Healing Art], so I will be fine as long as I don't die instantly from attacks.
Which is why I didn't bother to learn defensive and attack magic except the basics. The kinds of magic I learned were mostly utility-type, like [Mana Thread], or body-enhancement, like [Haste].'
Besides that, I mostly use mana in many ways outside of magic. Like when using skills or the power strikes, which is great in its own way, but…
'Attack and defense magic looks cool though.'
It's still a shame not to learn cool-looking magic despite living in a fantasy world, but what else can I do? This is not the time to be selfish and insist on doing what I want for the greater good.
"Ahn~ Hng~"
My ears perked up at the strangely girlish voice coming from Arte. She was moaning and breathing heavily as she looked at the mana flowing into her hands with a flushed face!
"?"
What is it? What was going on while I was in dreamland?
"O-Oppa, more~ Pour more of your hot thing into me~"
I checked with my vision skills just in case, and understood why she was in heat! It seems like, while she was 'changing her senses' to get a feel for the sensation of my mana coming in, she linked the wrong nerves and was feeling pleasure because of that!
I trembled at the realization and looked down at Arte's special place. Arte, noticing where I was looking, blushed even more before leaning her body on my chest and whispered.
"Oppa, are you curious? Do you want to touch it?"
"…"
"If it's you, Oppa… you can touch me anytime, anywhere…"
She pulled her head back and looked up at me with moist eyes before fidgeting and looking down at the ground as if embarrassed. It didn't help that this beautiful girl was still moaning too!
I hurriedly pulled back my hand and stepped away from her, because I'm starting to feel weird too for some reason.
"Ah…"
Arte was looking at my hand longingly. She then looked at me with sad eyes like a wet puppy who was trembling in the rain.
However, I had to stay strong and not give in to her signals. Even if I had to be heartless and look away from her distress!
'It was dangerous in many ways. Just a little more and I might have opened the door to a new world.'
Even if I were to get horny, I should at least make sure the other party is not a loli!
:Still, to think that she was able to drive me this far… was she a succubus in her past life?'
It was a shame that I still can't see her lineage with my skills. But this girl was as dangerous as Bianca in a completely different way!
'Arte Starlight, what a fearsome opponent…'
It was the moment I trembled due to the realization that both my teacher and my student were a threat to my chastity. How did I end up being sandwiched between these two dangerous people?
'No, calm down… Arte herself seemed unaware of it. So, it must be an accident… Yes, it won't happen again…'
Back then, I still didn't know just how talented this girl was in getting herself into erotic accidents like this one. But that was a matter for another date.
—---
After both of us calmed down, we talked a bit about what happened and I understood why she was trying to change her senses. Apparently, she was trying to get a feel for a perfect mana transfer by detecting even the slightest movement of mana in her vein.
As for the reason why, she said it was because she wanted to do the same for me when I needed mana. Her good intention was commendable. So I praised her for that.
However, I also began to teach her the right way to do that to prevent something like this from happening ever again.
"But it feels good… Hmm, maybe I can do it again some other day."
I seemed to have heard a strange murmur. But Arte was a good kid, so it must be my imagination.
Anyway, Arte learned how to change her senses the right way in her first try this time too. It doesn't look like she was conscious of it, but that was not something even the archmage could do on his first try.
If I were to explain how difficult what she was doing is. It was like solving a tricky math problem correctly by 'guessing' when multiple-choice options were not even provided.
All other magicians do long calculations and can still be wrong, but Arte just made a guess and arrived at the right answer. It was like seeing the Archmage in his youth.
'No, isn't Arte more talented than the Archmage?'
Seeing Arte's dazzling talent, which is even more absurd than the archmage, I couldn't help but think to myself.
'As I thought, I want her.'
Just like how the Hero recruited his companions as party members, I also had been thinking of recruiting talented people as my party members. This desire kept coming at me since I gained a few subordinates in the forest back then.
'But it's too dangerous.'
No matter how talented Arte is, she is nothing more than a little girl right now.
'It might be different in a few years, but…'
Let alone fighting together, right now, she might even die of a goblin's attack.
'Because practice and actual combat are different.'
Even a skilled swordsman might hesitate when they had to slice a living being's throat and end up dying instead. So why would I ask a child who had not even matured psychologically to fight together with me?
'That's too much.'
For now, it's enough to teach this dazzling talent how to survive in this harsh world so we can meet again in a few years. And by then, who knows? Maybe we could become party members for real.
"Wow! Oppa, Oppa! This is amazing! I can do it, too, now! Look!"
As Arte jumped around in place and began to mimic what I did with extreme precision.
'It really is a perfect mana transfer… damn it.'
The more I looked at her, the more I wanted her. I laughed at the absurdity and showered her with praise.
Really, please grow up quickly, Arte. I'm so excited to see how much you will grow in the future.