I am finding myself facing someone very influential, probably very strong and above all who seems to suspect me from what I am pretending to be right now for this mission, that could easily terminale my mission or my life if I am not careful.
Magician : "I am waiting for an answer and I am not very patient"
I don't know what he knows, I don't know what he's looking for as an answer, I don't know either if my excuse of spying will be enough.
I can't prove that I'm on a mission and I also can't prove that I'm not "allied" with the baron, I really don't have many options left except to deny it and see how badly I'm screwed.
Lucian: "I don't see what you are talking about, I'm just another servant at the orders of the baron"
Magician: "Yes that's why I've never seen one in the three days I've been here and you mysteriously appear on the last day"
Lucian: "I only got this job very recently"
Magician: "Then why are you already in the baron's service"
Lucian: "Because I am the most competent"
Magician: "That still doesn't explain your presence of mana"
Lucian: "It's because I have one of my parents who possess some magic and they put a protective magic on my clothes"
Given the very small trace of mana that I had left, it seemed plausible, a small amount of mana, even if useless, could circulate in my veins or on normal clothes.
Although it is rare for the child of a person with high power to end up as a butler or a low ranking human, it is not impossible.
Magician : "A weird explaination"
Lucian : "But true"
Magician : "Hmmm, you are talking to me very weirdly for a low rank"
It seems I quite didn't respect my position as a clear servant and showed too much reaction where I supposedly should have been afraid.
Lucian : "I am not used to it, I am sorry"
Magician: "It's okay, you are not used to it"
He seems to not believe me even if there is some weird things in what I said, it mostly was accumulating events that are quite rare, but it was not impossible so he could not prove that I was lying, the fact that I already knew all this already sufficiently substantiates my version.
Magician: "Do you mind if I teach you a little magic on the way, it won't make you stronger but hey it could at least help you on a daily basis"
Magician: "We have a long way to go so let's make it interesting for both of us"
Oh interesting, the opportunity to learn from a magician how to use magic, although I knew very well that it was probably a trap to test whether I was telling the truth or not, it could still be useful to me.
Even if reading all the demon magic books and the different uses of mana that each demon had already allowed me to reach a good level, I wanted to see what an experienced magician was worth.
Lucian: "Okay that's fine with me"
Magician: "In exchange you will tell me everything you know about the Baron"
Lucian : "That's quite easy"
I told myself that he clearly did not trust the Baron regarding demons but from there to directly asked his servants, it's weird, would he try to test my "loyalty" by this little set-up.
Well, as long as I make up enough lies to deceive him, it should be enough for him to teach me something during the travel.
Magician : "so do you agree ?"
Lucian : "Okay"
I quickly accepted his request and we both got into the carriage that has come to pick him up, heading for the magicians' tower with it and the magician powering it up with magic that made it ultra fast.
As he was just putting mana in the wheels with one hand he was finishing his document with another one and then seems to remeber that I was also here.
Magician: "Let's start with the basics, mana can be considered as your blood, it circulates throughout your body constantly, even if you don't see it, it acts on all physical functions"
Lucian :"okay"
So far, nothing new, I myself appreciate considering mana as a fluid, well, he doesn't seem to be talking about an external manifestation at the moment, which clearly means that it will focus on a strengthening aspect.
Given the amount of mana he could see in me, it was the most logical thing and it suited me very well given my power as a "fighter" type.
Magician: "I will teach you how to manipulate your mana so that you can put more in your legs or in your arms, in one day you will only have the basics but with a little training it will be fluid enough to be used unconsciously, if you are lucky after 10 years you will succeed without effort"
Lucian : "10 years"
Magician : "Yes its not like breathing it's not necessary for the body so you have to force it to put it in.his system which is very long"
Lucian : "That's so long"
Magician : "Well that's to be automatic with it but you dont really need that"
10 years of time, I would like to have all this time but if I'm lucky I have a maximum of 4 and a half years (5 years of the start minus the 6 months at the library and training) so well 10 years just to slightly strengthen my legs or my arms automatically it clearly wasn't going to be enough.
I needed enough magic and control over it to beat the hero with magic abilities just a little higher than an an Arch mage so let's say I needed insane amount of mana and use for it.
Magician: "You will try to make sure that all your mana is concentrated in one point, your heart, you will gather everything in one place, the heart being in the middle of the body it is exactly in the right place to distribute the mana as you wish, in addition it helps to better protect your heart"
Lucian : "So I don't die"
Magician: "Yeah, now stop talking and do it"
Well moving my mana is something I know how to do quite easily, but well I had to pretend to have difficulties, to do that I took my time until the next city to concentrate my mana.
I had no real idea what he expected from me in terms of performance, but pretending to have a hard time and moving the mana slowly should probably lower his suspicions about me.
Magician: "Well you took a long time to just move from one place to another, it seems that for you we will lean more over a 20 years period...Now you take all your mana and you will move it from one place to another, to now your left arm and then your hand"
I purposely took less time to do this step here than to do the other one since I intuitively knew that it should take less
time.
For the moment I was quite disappointed with the magician but well I had my little idea on how to make me do other things.
Lucian: "It doesn't seem practical, it's more of an embarrassment than anything else"
Magician: "If you train enough it will allow you to gain efficiency and can save yourself"
Lucian: "Yes, but I have less time to train physically and become stronger than with your technique, it doesn't surprise me that the knights are considered as better than you"
If there is one thing that magicians hate above all-another is to be compared to knights, especially to say that they are less good.
Indeed, a magician could be something that people sometimes dream of, but they received much less appreciation from the general society, often living together in towers living on commissions from nobles or the king and having to train much more than normal sorcerers.
Magician: "How dare you compare us to these monsters of muscles full of sweats and without elegance"
Lucian : "That's just the truth"
Magician : "You don't understand the beauty of mana, I will show you"
He stopped the wagon immediately leaving the horses to rest in an area next to us, we went to the side and he began to take his mana and arrange it on all his body as Vector used to to do when je was training, even if Vector clearly had less mana than what the magician was using, Vector was probably faster because of his daily use.
But the magician's control let him do many more things, many more combinations than Vector could probably ever do and also have a completely and obviously better result than Vector did.
Magician: "Everything I'm going to show you, if you practice every day you can do it, with that you could even defend yourself against a knight"
Lucian : "Now that really seems interesting"
Was he really just saying that someone who has a one-star or two-star talent (from what the magician knows) could potentially defend himself against someone of 3 stars with just training, there he interests me.
Magician : "Just stay here and enjoy the show"
He took his mana and concentrated it on his hand, then activated it, making waves of mana, then he took a branch and put his mana on it and cut a tree with it with a simple swipe of his hand, it seems that he is doing like me and using his mana like a gelatinous fluid even if he probably doesn't realize it and do it intuitively.
Knowing that the book in which I discovered this was written by the master of the undead, the guardian of the demon king, the most powerful of the demonic mages, never a human would have had the same idea.
Magician: "You will probably never manage to manipulate mana so finely given the level of complexity but if you practice you will be able to concentrate all your mana at a specific point and resist any attack"
Lucian : "Any attack"
Magician : "If you just put more mana in that point than your opponent, then yes you will always win"
Lucian : "Seems awesome"
Magician : "I know"
Compressing my mana, he doesn't know what mistake he just made to tell me that, so it would just be enough for me to be able to read my opponent's attacks and be fast enough and I could probably take no damage.
As long as I don't come across someone with mana more focused than me on this exact point I could win any battle by just defending.
Magician : "What do you think ?"
Lucian : "Clearly better than a knight"
Magician : "That's for sure, now let's go back to our travel"
Lucian : "Yes mr Magician"
Oh it's exciting, I finally have it, my way to kill the hero, gain as much mana as possible and learn to compress it as much as possible to be able to resist his attacks and kill him hand-to-hand.
While I was in my thoughts and the magician just thought that I was amazed by his prowess, we were getting back on the wagon and on the roads that we were taking.
Magician : "It's just too boring, why do I have to do it each time"
Lucian : "Ask someone else to do it"
Magician : "They are all just bad"
Lucian : " Make them better then"
Magician : "As if"
A day passed like this while traveling without taking too many breaks, answering his questions as I promised him, even if now I felt a little guilty for lying to him but it would be less easy if I even had things to say and hide which is clearly not the case.
I told him stories that could male him sleep about the death of my parents, how the baron helped me by giving me a job, finally, little information about his passions and others (I remind you that the mc knows nothing about them so he say random stuff he saw on books).
The magician noted quite a few things, even if his suspicions about the Baron did not seem to have dropped much at all, he had less and less reason to refuse his requests as I made him the good guy.
Magician : "Quite annoying, don't you have anything bad to say ?"
Lucian : "I don't he saved me"
Magician : "I still really don't like him"
When were talking the scénario outside was changing very quick, Quicker than before because he figures that he won't get anything for me and then speeded up until our destination.
At the horizon, finally that was it, a big blue and golden tower with inscriptions, and a lot of stuff everywhere, far from being an architectural beauty it was at the very least suite intriguing
Magician: "We've finally arrived"
We went off our wagon and a line of magicians seems to be here to greet the man who was with me, that conforted my idea that he was very high ranked.
Another Magician: "Master Egon, you have finally returned we have a problem with the mana collectors"
Egon: "Well it seems that you are going to accompany me a little longer than I had expected"
Before I could enter someone interfered between me and the magician as he did not even know why I was here, anyone would find it suspicious and rhis guy that doesn't seems to like Egon made it quite clear.
Other magician : "Sure you don't think about making that (talking of the mc) enter our precious tower, it's against every rule"
Egon : "Remember me, who makes those rules ?"
Orher magician : "As an administrator, you do sir"
I could clearly see all the authority he had as he calmed and put down the person infront of him rhat was clearly trying to challenge him, bad for him, that's the worst idea he could have had as Egon was already quite unhappy.
Egon : "That's what I thought, so tell me, who exactly is supise to punish me right now ?"
Other magician : "Nobody but still..."
He looked at him in the eyes, indixating that his attitude was far from being the good one and show him who's the boss, so he just shut up and was surely complaining about all od that in his head.
Egon : "If you have any comments go see the administrator, oh wait thats me...now I said let's go"
He did something that I didn't expect he let me enter the magician's tower and even defended me agiant the complaint of the others, he made me enter a place normally forbidden to the public except for very rare exceptions and I was clearly not ready for what I was going to discover.