9 Cauldron Village

The two decided to head back if they had stayed any longer they might've been in trouble with the passing flock of beasts.

"Could you explain to me what mana is again?"

"I could, but I don't understand it well enough to tell you. You can ask my brother about it, he's been teaching me for a long time."

They arrived at the rustic house, handing over the collected ingredients to his brother. Sage was curious what lies behind the divider so he peeked at the alchemist work station. There were several glass bottles, small vials, and a large pot, it seems like the place where the concoction was being brewed, they were clean and well maintained. There Carmond was stirring the large cauldron in circles slowly.

"What are you doing with that pot?"

"I'm making mana potions you want to watch me make them?"

Sage simply nodded.

Carmond brought out the ingredients one by one placing them at a table, crushing them mixing the dry one before mixing with the wet ingredients. It was like baking, but with different types of unknown ingredients.

"Mind if you grind this mandara root for me? If I finished making these I'll give you a small vial for free, deal?"

"Sure"

The two worked on the mana potions. Sage learned that these potions were their main source of income, they sell them to the passing caravan of goods that came from the capital. The caravan goes from village to village, there are guardians that are stationed in neighboring villages they act out as a bodyguard whenever a merchant's caravan decided to visit their village.

"Sir Carmond can I ask you something?"

"Kid, just Carmond is fine or you can call me bro"

Playfully winking at Charlotte's direction, Charlotte nearly dropped the glass bottle she was prepping for the finished concoctions.

"Ask away"

"Can you explain to me what mana really is? And its relation to kaha?"

"Never knew kids your age is interested in these kinds of things. How can I start, there are many energies in this world kaha is one of them its an energy that exists within every being, Elves has them Dwarves, Beastmen too many to name them all. Even angels and demons. However, mana is another energy the surrounding energy it exists in the planes of ether it flows with the wind, and its relations to kaha well think of it this way take this concoction inside this pot this is the mana floating around this world"

Carmond scooped a ladle full of the concoction.

"And this bottle is what you call kaha the existing energy of every living thing"

Carmond slowly poured the brewed liquid into the glass bottle.

"So, in other words, kaha is a container while mana is another energy that can be stored on our kaha?"

Carmond excitedly swung his lady soaked in liquid potion.

"Yes!, correct you understand me, and they say I'm not qualified to teach kids anything"

Sage full of splattered with liquid concoction only stood still in utter awe of this man's eccentric movements.

"I'm really sorry I got so excited"

"It's fine"

"You know Charlotte's learning to become a mage, and this alchemy thing is only her pre-mage study"

"Should you really be telling other people these things?"

Charlotte cut into their conversation looking apprehensive.

"I'm sorry I got carried away"

Sage looked at the both of them.

'It's rare to see a younger sibling to scold an older brother for something so simple, seems they haven't trusted me yet to let me know'

"Brother, how do you become a mage then?"

"Oh, that's simple you need to go to Alteras the capital of this huge country Sirfis, that's where the greatest of the great mages were born, there are many archmagi teaches there you won't probably see any Crowned Magus or an Ascended in this lifetime but at least you can have some Archmagus teach you how to become a mage"

"Mages? Archmagus? Crowned what?"

"Oh, let me explain them one by one in order"

"Mages are what you call an initiate they are new magic users that are mostly apprentices to High Mages, the scale of power which they are categorized is that they can only fight off one to three people at most. High mages are the adept ones in magic they have a complete understanding of magic they are mostly in the fields of war beside knights the power they are categorized as is they can support the platoon as well as fight more than-"

Carmond held out all ten fingers at Sage.

"The Archmagus, they are, you can say complete experts at using magic. Sculpting mana like an artisan. The scale of their power is they can annihilate a whole platoon of soldier they can literally end wars if they can. The crowned Magus, they are extremely rare, they are usually under the rule of a king. You will see that most kings have a trusted crowned magus at his side. As for Ascended ones, they are as you can say a disaster class entities, there are records that they can wipe out entire countries, some kingdoms sometimes don't want to associate with them and sometimes they are heralded as gods. I heard rumors that some countries worship these individuals and given tribute to protect their land or kingdom because no kingdom can hold their own to an Ascended. Only Ascendeds can fight Ascendeds"

"How can they measure such individual's power? They can't always be flaunting their power and destroying countries just to prove their power"

"In the mage guild, there are scholars devoted in studying magic created a device to measure an individual's power. Did you know? Those scholars even made mana encha-"

Just before they finish their casual chatter multiple crashing sounds reverberated above the ceiling, alarming all of them. Without hesitation, both Carmond and Sage raced outside the house only to see three Shelled Ospreys prancing around on his roof.

"How did they track us down?"

Sage shot a look at Charlotte but Charlotte simply replied with a shrug.

"It was probably my fault, you know beasts are hungry beings, they go for anything that has strong energy"

'It's not just their sense of hearing and smell that I need to look out for? Then does this mean he's stronger than we think?'

Carmond mumbled unknown words under his breath, from his back three small fireballs flickered into existence. The three balls of fire shot out in an arc towards the birds, The fireballs were not meant to hurt them but to lure them off the roof of their house, the three hostile birds simultaneously soared towards Carmond. Six long talons spread wide open, ready to gouge out whatever they can at Carmond's body. Calmly Carmond held out his arm once again, mumbling indeterminable words great pillar of flame shot out of his palm, roasting every bird that charged towards him. The magnitude of his strength is unbelievable Sage has never seen flames like that, they were like a large scale blow torch incinerating the birds whole.

"I hope you guys like seared osprey cause we're eating tonight"

"KAAAAAA!"

They thought they were finally out of the woods with eliminating three birds but things are not that easy as they looked above them. Countless shelled ospreys were seen following each other like a merry go round stirring the people below. The whole village was being circled by a flock of shelled ospreys. The complete oddity of the beast's movement left them shocked.