"First, I would like to know how you tamed those mystical wolves and how you managed to form a contract with them," Sigrún looked intently at Erik, waiting for his response, intent on not missing a thing.
"So they're called mystical wolves, that's a good name," Erik said with a smile as the wolves perked up their ears, dropped their toys, and barked happily while wagging their tails.
"As for taming them, I didn't do anything special. I just raised them like dogs, although I somewhat regret it now because they bark all the time like dogs. But I don't understand what you mean by 'contract'. I didn't do anything besides feeding them and teaching them a few commands and such."
"Are you not aware that you made a contract with them, Erik?" Sigrún asked, looking a bit confused and surprised.
"Not really. They've been with me for years, but I truly don't know what you mean by 'contract,'" Erik responded, even more confused.
"Let me explain what a contract is. First, a contract is a sort of ritual in which a magical animal and a human participate, where the magical animal accepts the human as its master. It has interesting properties.
For example, the animal and the master are always aware of each other's position. Additionally, the master can share their mana with their contracted animal, which not only temporarily enhances its abilities but also, over time, strengthens the animal by nourishing it with the master's mana."
"Is that really a contract? If so, then I have a contract with them, because I can more or less sense their location and give them 'chi' or, well, mana, as you call it. But I always thought those were properties of mana; I never imagined it was something like a contract," Erik commented thoughtfully, which puzzled Sigrún, who quickly asked.
"Properties of mana? How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, from the moment I felt mana for the first time, I immediately discovered that one of its properties was to enhance my strength, endurance, and toughness manyfold. Over time, this has improved, and now I need much less mana to achieve a similar effect.
Another property I discovered was that this 'hardening' could be applied to other things, like my tools. This led me to discover another property: if I sent my mana into something, it started to feel like a part of my body, to the point where I could sense everything that happened to it, down to the smallest scratch, similar to how you know where your hands or feet are at all times without having to look at them.
The thing is, when I picked up the pups, they were newborns, and I had no way to feed them with mother's milk or anything like that. So I decided to try a property I had discovered about 'natural energy'. Ah..."
Erik raised his hand and pointed to the air before continuing.
"By 'natural energy', I mean those little balls of energy in the air. The property I discovered was that if you mixed them with mana, you could delay the sensation of hunger or fatigue. So I tried to pass this mixture to them, and it worked. But soon I realized it was unnecessary since they could eat meat without any problem, even though they were newborns.
However, they liked it so much that they wouldn't stop whining if I didn't give it to them with the meat. So I spent a lot of time giving it to them, although now they've stopped a bit, and I only give it to them occasionally as a reward.
The point is, since I could sense what was happening to my tools when I gave them mana, it wasn't too illogical to think that I could know the location of the wolves, to whom I had also given my mana. After all, following similar logic, I managed to create my 'chi sphere', or I think you called it 'ethereal projection.'"
(DAMN MONSTER!!! What properties, you idiot?! You just mentioned intermediate and advanced techniques, as well as communion with the Myst, a master-level technique!)
Sigrún was stunned by what she had heard while staring at where Erik had pointed, as she could clearly see an 'energy ball' as Erik called them. She quickly took a deep breath in secret to calm herself and, in a calm voice, commented.
"So that's how you created the contract. What you mentioned about combining your mana with the Myst or the 'natural energy' as you called it, is a very ancient and basic way of forming contracts with magical animals."
"Although it's very inefficient, the amount of mana that contracted animals can utilize is very low, and they also cannot communicate telepathically or cast spells together. So, if you want, I can teach you how to make a contract with your wolves later."
"Oh, that sounds good," Erik responded with a cheerful smile, nodding his head.
"Well, then we'll do it later. But there's something else I want to know. You told me that you felt the mana after copying the movements of an old man you worked for. Did you feel the Myst the same way?"
Sigrún asked casually, trying to disguise the wild mix of emotions running through her.
"Oh yes, after feeling the mana, I circulated it through my body while doing those movements, and after a while, I started to feel the energy points or the Myst around me."
"How long did it take you to feel the mana and the Myst?"
"Hmmm..." Erik brought his right hand to his chin and started to recall before continuing, "With the mana, it must have been about 30 minutes, and for the Myst, I'm not exactly sure, but it must have been a few hours."
(30 minutes and a few hours? YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! Stop rubbing your damn genius in my face! It took me a month to feel the mana and a whole year to feel the Myst, and I'm supposed to be the greatest genius in history. How I hate you, you damned genius!!!)
Sigrún almost started hyperventilating from her suppressed feelings. She had always been the best at everything, far surpassing previous records, which made her feel quite proud, and it was fun to show off in front of the old grumps.
But seeing a genius even more monstrous than herself in front of her made her feel very strange. Despite being somewhat annoyed that there was someone with talent far superior to hers, she also felt incredibly excited and full of anticipation.
After all, it was what she had always wanted. It had always been very lonely being the best, the genius of an era, always receiving envy and admiration from others. Although she had some friends, acquaintances, and her sworn sisters, it wasn't the same. What she wanted was someone not only at her level but someone who could surpass her.
But that finally changed. Now she had met someone even more talented than her, and he was her disciple, so he would be with her for a very, very long time, and she would no longer have to feel alone at the top, which filled her with incredible anticipation and joy.
"I understand... by the way, could you show me the movements you copied from the old man?"
"Sure."
Erik stood up from his chair and started performing the basic Tai Chi movements he knew. Although all that about the old man might seem like a lie, it wasn't. The main reason he decided to try Tai Chi movements was that there really was an old blacksmith he worked for who talked about chi and did Tai Chi movements. Although they were a bit different from the ones he knew, the difference wasn't very big.
Initially, it never occurred to Erik that he wasn't on Earth. After all, although it was a very different place from the memories of his previous life, in the place where he lived in this life, the people and even the technology were not much different from the medieval age he remembered from history books of his first life.
So even after seeing giant magical animals, he didn't doubt he was still on Earth, maybe far in the past or in a post-apocalyptic future, but never in another place. After all, although they were giant and magical, they had the same form as the animals he knew.
But now he wasn't so sure, because the first thing he noticed when he saw his planet from space was that it didn't look anything like Earth. Although he hadn't traveled to space in his past life, like everyone else, he had seen photos and videos from space stations, and what he saw didn't look anything like that.
Starting with the shape of the continents, although he could only see two, their shape was totally different from what he remembered. So, either it's far, far in the future, and that planet is really Earth, with tectonic plates rearranging the continents, or it's a completely different place. Additionally, the planet's most prominent color from space was greenish, even though the oceans were blue on the planet's surface.
Meanwhile, Sigrún was doubting her existence. She couldn't understand how such simple and basic exercises, which had nothing to do with mana, Myst, or any kind of body refinement technique, somehow helped Erik feel the mana.
Initially, it seemed quite suspicious to Sigrún that someone would decide to practice initiation exercises in front of an orphan, as Erik claimed to be. On a planet as primitive as Erik's home planet, something like that would be incredibly valuable and well-controlled, not something any random orphan could access.
But since she didn't detect any lies in Erik, and deceiving her would require a legend-level power, not just anyone, Sigrún started to think that maybe there was something in the boy's story that even he didn't know, perhaps some political scheme where the boy was a bastard son of some noble or something like that. But the reality turned out to be simpler than she expected.
The reality is that no one showed Erik initiation exercises. The movements he practiced had nothing to do with anything related to mana; they were simply simple exercises that might serve to train an older person but could never help someone sense mana. In fact, running would have a better effect than what he was doing.
But then there was a big question: where did the impressive bio-mystic exercises come from, the ones she saw him practicing the first time they met? Those exercises surprised even her, as they were not only beautiful but also very practical for combat. More importantly, they helped refine mana and were in perfect sync with the Myst.
As if that weren't enough, the bio-mystic exercises Erik practiced were also incredibly well-suited for him, fitting like a custom-made glove, almost as if they had been designed specifically for him. Additionally, they bore no resemblance to what he was currently showing.