Learning the ropes

Alfred walks back to the main gate, he looks happy for a while then had a tense face just as he stationed himself on his post at the gate.

Raiden looks around, the nearest house near where they talked to miss Heather is Richard's place. Raiden sees that Richard is hanging the skin of the boar they killed earlier.

"Hello there kid, I didn't get your name earlier," Richards shouts out when he saw Raiden looking as he hangs the pig hide.

Raiden approaches the bald man holds out his hand and says, "My name is Raiden."

"Hello Raiden, call me Richard. So you hunted this with Ena or did she steal your kill?" Richard said, shaking Raiden's hand with a grin.

Raiden embarrassingly smiles and answers. "Actually she saved me." Raiden laughed embarrassingly right after.

Richard stares, then suddenly burst out laughing, "HAHAHA! So what were you, bait?" Richard asked while still laughing.

Raiden laughs awkwardly.

"Anyway this big fellow will give us a good feast tonight, even the other hunters brought in some meat," Richard says as he looks at the hide.

"What are you gonna do with all this leather?" Raiden asks. When they walked into the village he didn't saw anyone working on leather. Even among the guards only a few of them are wearing a leather tunic.

"That's the problem, normally when we get leather we sell them for other materials to the nearby villages, and if they're not looking for an exchange we sell them to the capital. we don't have leather workers here if you can tell" Richard explains. He further explains the situation about the unusual bandit problem.

Apparently, the bandits leave absolutely no trace, and even if the merchants are escorted by adventurers. they all have their throats slit with almost no resistance. the locations where it happens shows almost no signs of a fight happening.

"The only way to avoid it is if the merchants hire Rank B adventurers, somehow the bandits aren't doing anything to them. they probably know their limits." Richards finishes explaining. He had a serious look when he talked about what's happening.

"Is hiring them too expensive?" Raiden asked.

"For merchants in the big city apparently not, but for us, they're too expensive. The adventurer guild is still looking into it but alas no clues, no progress." Richard explains with a very worried look on his face.

"Well, I'll talk later after the meat is cut everyone's going to get their share." Says Richard as he walks back into his house.

"Sure, see you later." Raiden continues walking, he sees kids playing around, and at a distance he sees farmers tending to their crop. After a while Raiden sees Ena practicing the bow.

"Hey! Thanks for earlier." Raiden greets Ena.

Shwip.....

"No problem, thanks for luring the Baron Boar," Ena says after she shot the target.

'Oh! so that's what that pig is called' Raiden thought. As he thinks he notices Ena prepares for another shot. the arrow is giving off a slight faint glow. Now that Raiden is thinking about it Ena is surrounded by a faint glow as well.

Before Raiden realizes, Ena pointed out that he was staring.

"What are you staring for?" Asked Ena with an annoyed look.

"Ah! Sorry. I was just wondering what was that?" Said Raiden as he points around Ena and her bow.

"What?" Ena asked confused.

"That." Raiden tries to point again this time looking kind of awkward.

"Uhhm, Archery," Ena Answered Awkwardly.

"No, I mean that" Raiden points around Ena and her bow.

Ena looks around her and at her bow. Then she realized something

"Oh! You mean this." Ena said as she prepares to shoot her bow.

Ena positioned the bow in front of her. After that, the faint glow that Raiden sees becomes brighter especially on the tip of the arrow.

When she let the arrow go, the glow around Ena dimmed. The arrow, for Raiden, was glowing, and as soon as it hit the target it exploded. Pieces of hay were scattered everywhere. The target was fine but everything behind it was blown away. It was like an injection, after the arrow poked the target it released a force behind it.

"You meant that right?"Ena looked at Raiden while pointing at the pile of scattered hay as she asked.

"Yes, Exactly! What was that?" Raiden asked again.

"Well, that was my mana you were seeing, and that was a skill I learned myself. It seems though that you haven't seen a skill before and it also seems that you have a mana analysis skill." Ena concluded from how Raiden behaved.

"If that's so, you don't know know how to use your mana then, right?" Ena asked Raiden after pondering for a second.

"Uhmm, I grew up not knowing about it, and the people where I'm from don't use mana," Raiden said somehow nervously.

'I learned from a lot of things I have seen from the internet that one must never lie to a woman, I am safe I didn't lie it was all true.' Raiden thought to himself he can feel his heart rate increase he doesn't want people thinking he is crazy because he came from another world. Raiden was scared of being a laughing stock like he was before.

"That explains it. There are some hidden places that were never taught how to use mana. It can only be taught by people who know how to use mana also." Ena concluded

"Want me to teach you?" Ena offered Raiden mana lessons as she felt sorry that there is someone who looks a year or so older than her that does not know how to use their mana.

Raiden's face lit up bearing the grin of a man who just won the lottery. "Yes please, master!"

Upon hearing Raiden's remark, Ena felt embarrassed.

"Ok, hold out your hand, I am going to make you feel what mana is then after that you need to memorize how it feels then try to move your mana. It should be easy for you since you have a mana analysis skill," Ena said as she reaches out her hand to Raiden.

Raiden looked at Ena's glowing hand and asked, "That's all?"

"Yeah, after that I'll teach you how to show your Skills," Ena said.

"Ok." Raiden held Ena's glowing hand.

When Raiden touched Ena's hand, he can feel her mana. It felt energetic, like a raging fire, but it also felt fluid and malleable, like water.

Once Ena let her hand go she said, "Now that you know how it feels you should be able to feel mana within you, and since you can see mana it should be easier to learn how to control it."

Raiden calmed himself, he felt it within him. His mana although it felt very faint he can feel it. He tried pushing the mana to his hand. While pushing his mana out he was examining his hand, Raiden is starting to see some glow in it.

"I did it, I can feel it in my hands," Raiden said excitingly

Ena smiled and said, "Great now, that you can feel your mana and move it, I am going to teach you about your skills"

Raiden became even more excited.