Chapter Six

Leslie took Claude in her arms and started following Milo.

Claude asked

" What's a magic crystal, Master? "

Leslie didn't reply straightforwardly but she answered

" To learn about magic crystal, you need to know about magic."

Claude asked quickly,

" What's magic? "

Leslie said smilingly,

" What's the rush? I'll explain all it to you but step by step, okay. "

Claude answered with a bright expression " Okay. "

Milo interrupted them, and said

" Don't forget take a look around, Claude. We don't know when we will be able come here again, so maximize your gains today. "

Claude nodded his head.

Leslie began " What's magic? " and looked at Claude. She was amused with Claude's expression, she suppressed her laughter and continued,

" Magic is a power far greater than anything in this universe. There's no comparison for it. It has the power to turn imagination to reality. It can make a commoner into a king and turn a king into a commoner. "

She looked at Claude once again and continued " Sure, magic is great but it isn't omnipotent. Like everything in this world, it has it's nemesis. "

" What are it's nemesis? Master " asked Claude.

" I'll answer that but first take a look around. Tell us if you find something interesting. " said Leslie and put him down on the ground.

Claude started to look around and came to a stop before an object, he looked at it curiously and asked Milo,

" What's that, Master? "

Milo took a look at the object and was about to answer, when a voice sounded out from besides them,

" It's a weapon, young master. More precisely a gun. It's a very powerful gun, young master. It was personally crafted by a master from Dwarven realm. Master who crafted is very famous in the Dwarven realm. " said the voice. That voice belonged to a attendant from the shop.

Claude turned back to look at his master, and Milo began to speak " Yes, it's a gun Claude but it's not that good. I've some better ones at home. I'll give them to you. "

When the attendant heard that, he was full of anger but he couldn't show it because he was present when earlier incident occurred, he knew how powerful they were, so he just snorted and started to walk away.

When he started to walk, Milo said in a loud voice,

" Don't ever believe these quacks. They just stand there and lie to your face, understand. "

" Yes, master "

and both began to laugh.

When the attendant heard their words, he nearly stumbled but he quickly recovered and started to walk away.

Leslie berated them and continued her lesson

" Claude, you have to remember magic is powerful but there are various ways to counter it. Some are well known, some aren't.

Some of the best ways are totems, charms and talisman. Milo has more knowledge about them, so he will explain it to you. I'll tell you about the other methods. Main difference between the former and latter methods is of resources. Former method requires lots of money and materials while latter one requires close to zero resources. "

" You do know that magic requires mana, right? " inquired Leslie

" Yes"

" So, imagine what would happen if there was no mana? "

" There would be no magic" replied Claude promptly.

" So this method is based on this principle, what we do is remove mana either forcefully or it removes itself. "

They began to move again towards other displayed items, Claude would oftenly ask either of his master about things that interested him. Let's be honest, what would interest a child? The answer was everything.

He would stop at every item and ask Milo, but Mil would tell him

" That's fake, see anything else."

or " That's too much for a rubbish material. "

At one point, he began think ( Are my masters messing around with me?)

But his magic lesson continued, after 15 minutes of walking and seeing things, Yelena came and informed them that their items have been prepared and if they followed her they could proceed with the transaction.

Leslie looked at Milo and indicated him to coax Claude to come with them or he would just stare at the weapons and armors in the hall. Milo nodded and said to Claude

" Let's go Claude."

"But we haven't bought anything, Master." argued Claude.

" Yes I know about that but we have to buy magic crystals first, don't you want to see them. "

Claude eyes brightened and said " Let's go and get them. "

Milo felt guilty and thought ( Kids will be kids)

As Leslie saw this, she said " Let's go Miss Yelena."

Yelena took them to a room which was just plain with no decoration in it, no previous lavish decorations could be seen.

There were simple furnitures in the room, a table four couches and a vase kept on a table.

A soon as they entered, they saw Jeremiah entering the room from a another door.

" Hello, we meet again, sirs and madam"

Leslie and Milo just nodded, Claude also followed them but he was distracted by the attendants standing behind Jeremiah. Jeremiah gestured them to sit in the couch and ordered attendants to put the crystals on the table.

As they sat, Claude saw many types of crystals on the table, some were crimson, some were yellow, some were pitch black too and all other color. He could feel some energy emitting from them and that scared him.

He looked at his masters and found that they were already looking back at him.

Leslie opened her mouth as she had expected this and said " What you are feeling is mana, don't be afraid of it, try to feel it, try to sense it. Don't just use your senses but use your soul too. Try to match your soul wavelength with mana's."

Claude didn't reply but he closed his eyes, trying to follow his master's instructions.

His master had given him advice, but he didn't know how to follow it. He again opened his eyes and was stunned, he saw many faint colors trying to wrap themselves around him. They were coming out of the crystals on the table, he moved his hand forward to touch them but they evaded, he tried again but they evaded again. As he tried again

Leslie's voice sounded out,

" There's no use trying, you haven't reached that level to touch them. But you've done well, to see mana on the first try. Very good. "

He stopped trying and started to use his eyes again.

" Very good, Claude. I shall gift you anything you want to celebrate your accomplishment." said Milo

Claude grumbled " But you didn't even let me see all things previously. "

"Don't worry, they have even better things here, so I'll ask them to show us."

..........

15 minutes ago

...........

Jeremiah knocked on a door, he knocked once and a voice sounded out.

" Who is it? " said the voice.

It was a calm voice but you could sense the authority in it.

Jeremiah composed himsef and replied

" It's me, Jeremiah, Master. "

" Oh, Come on in then. " said the voice

Jeremiah opened the door gently and closed it after entering. He greeted the person with a bow.

It was a man sitting behind the desk. He had glasses on. He looked old but his eyes were filled with energy. He had an air of tranquility around him.

"Tell me, what is it? " asked the man.

Jeremiah answered, " Master, a person came here with crystal token. "

" Oh, who is it, do we know him? " asked the man without a change in expression.

" No master, I've never seen him before." answered Jeremiah.

" Okay, is he alone, Jeremiah? "

" No, there's a child and a lady, with him" said Jeremiah.

Man was silent for a minute, then said,

" Here's what you have to do, treat them with respect, do not anger them, accommodate them. To have crystal token, they must know how our trading house works so if they ask for me, send for me. For the rest, you take care of it. " ordered the old man.

" And one more thing, show them our secret collection, they might find something facy to their eyes. "

" Yes, master. I'll do as you told. " replied Jeremiah and excused himself.

In the room, old man went back to his study.

As Jeremiah was going back to the sixth floor, he ran into Yelena,

Yelena catched her breath and said " I was looking for you, Mr Jeremiah."

When he saw her appearance he asked her

" What happened to you? "

Yelena narrated the whole incident and his master's word ran in his ears, ( respect them, do not anger them.)

He quickly replied to Yelena and said "Bring them to the room right next to the main hall. "

Yelena asked " Why there? "

Jeremiah replied in a rude tone "Just do what you're told. "