Ch 28

Areth stayed overnight in the rift world.

Morning arrived and Ishea prepared a hearty breakfast for the two. Leyfin took this chance to explain herself and clarify that she did not have any blood relationship with Areth.

"Oh..." Ishea was disheartened at such news. She thought that her daughter had family settled down and started a family. That would be the best, for she knew that her daughter was really hard to court given her fiery temper.

After breakfast, they have a visitor. Sir Karhus greeted the madam and put his attention into Leyfin.

"Leyfin, would you come with me for a moment?"

Karhus explained that it has something to do with her current body. Karhus had examined her with shiny eyes, a body overflowing with mana. That has been the aim of the Mages of Flauren, reaching up to almost decades of researches and yet coming up with no results.

"About this..." Leyfin turned to Areth and signaled him with her eyes. Areth nodded slightly.

"I'm the one who designed her current vessel. If you don't mind, I would accompany along."

"This...?" Karhus turned to look at Leyfin dubiously. How could her son have grown so much in just six years, even claiming to have created the famed Mana Body. Genes were indeed formidable.

"Sir Karhus, he might look like his but he is actually quite skilled." Leyfin assured the man.

"Fine." Karhus nodded and greeted Areth formally, even though he couldn't believe it fully. "Areth right? You can come along with your mom."

Areth nodded, not really bothering to explain himself anymore.

"S-sir Karhus, he's not my child!"

"That's fine. I understand." Karhus nodded with a nonchalant expression.

"No, you don't!"

The three of them walked toward the largest stone building. It was sort of like a dome with a pagoda structure growing at the center.

The person lying on the entrance, chewing grass saw them coming and spoke to them.

"I will inform the rest. Tale a rest at the lobby."

They say in a sofa which was filled with water. The lobby was quite different from the gray and boring stone exterior. It had a sea theme all around, from paintings to the furnitures.

"This must be done by Court Mage Adrass." Leyfin said.

After a while, men and women dressed in common, brown leather clothes walked in the room. A total of eight, they were the Court Mages of Magnolia.

When they sat down, they took the time to examine Leyfin.

When everybody was already seated, it was sir Karhus who started first.

"Leyfin, we have invited you today with regard to your Mana Body. As you see, we have always been pursuing this goal for a while now. Don't worry, we will not dissect you or anything."

"I understand, but I was not the one who made this vessel, rather, it's this child here."

When Leyfin said that, everyone finally noticed the child she had brought along with her.

Some of them immediately begun to analyze the situation. One of them even gasp in disbelief, as though she couldn't accept the result of her calculations. She was muttering, "I see, I see." with the look of one who was enlightened.

'So giving birth have triggered her hidden potential...no, perhaps it was the bloodline of the father that had caused her to transform her body!'

The others were also mulling over things

'A child...perhaps that's it?'

Leyfin already sense that they were having misconceptions about her.

"Everyone, please listen!" She huffed. "This is Areth. He came from another world and apparently, their knowledge about this subject had long exceeded ours by a large margin."

Their shiny eyes shifted to Areth. So Areth spoke no more and gladly demonstrated his skills to them. Creating a mini sized mana body on the spot, causing gasps of amazement and cheers from the spectators. They have never expected that such child could display such skill.

The elders begun to crowd around Areth, asking him about all sort of things about the design with enthusiasm.

So Areth simply took a beast skin and drew the entire blueprint in them. When the blueprint was finished, everyone was awed.

They thought it would be easy to imitate it since it was done in such an easy way by a child. But when they looked at the beast skin packed with lines, equations, and more than thousands of magic circles in all sort of sizes, they felt like their brains would explode. If the beast skin was seen from afar, it would simply look like it was plain red.

Just from looking at it, even Leyfin who was considered a genius started to get dizzy. One of the older mage even fainted on the spot.

Leyfin started to believe Areth's claim. This was beyond genius, unless one installed a computer in their heads, they will not be able to perform all these operations with the precision required for it to work. Let alone drawing it by hand, even remembering it was monstrous.

Areth looked at all of them with pride. 'Behold, my drawing skills!'

Even Leonardo da Vinci would not attain this level...perhaps he could, who knows.

Because of this small incidence, the beast skin immediately became a priceless treasure for the village. Its worth could buy an entire nation.

Areth did not mind revealing them this trick. What Mana Body? What unlimited mana? None of that would matter at the end. Look at my spell card Absolute Rule, it reduces your life points to zero.

In the end, Areth thought differently because he remembered Earth. Once he returned to the Dream World, he would take time to publicize it.

It would have a zero help in the fight against demons, but it will be a good past time for researchers. With their competency, it would take them more than a decade to put the blueprint in practical use.

As for producing it himself? He wouldn't mind if someone he knew requested it, but as a boss, how could he easily give favor to others. It would only become their own strengths once they mastered the technology.

Leyfin was looking at him with a complicated gaze again.

"Hmmp!" She turned her head and ignored him.

"..."

When it was time to head back, they were all talking to Areth, like the Emperor with the boot licking merchants trying to offer him all sort of deals.

While walking, a macho man suddenly appeared and blocked the entrance, his figure blocked the light and casted shadow upon the Court Mages.

"Nestor, what is the meaning of this?"

The Court Mages were enraged, this was a VIP here, and it was not good to act rude.

Nestor was one of the newly appointed Court Mage after Leyfin. He was a young man who trained in both the sword and magic. His skills in magic was also top class among his peers. He don't often mingle with the scholar type mages and he was often in seclusion.

"I heard that an amazing person from another world has come. If you don't mind, would you like to have a spar with me?" he said facing Areth.

Nestor went to the point. He was naturally curious about the Mages hailing from another world, and from what he heard, it was an advanced civilization in terms of magic. He was surprised that Areth looked so young though. He wondered if they had already mastered the rejuvenation technology.

Nestor, as a battle junkie, he desires to experience the strength of the person from such advance world. The opportunity would not come easily if he missed it. He might even witness new spells and it would allow him to broaden his perspective.

"Sure, why not?" Areth smiled and said. He was very free after all, and he wouldn't miss this chance to beat someone, because beating someone has a therapeutic effect on his mind.

If this were before, Leyfin would have tried to stop this, after all what Areth have fought before was just a student. Nestor was a Court Mage, their magic was on a different scale. Mere school competitions could not compare to the wars they have experienced. They alone are capable of obliterating an entire city.

However, Leyfin had another thought now, and so did the other Court Mages.

Leyfin want to find the secrets of this kid, while they want to see the capabilities of an advance world.

Having decided this, the mages headed to a wide plain and created an arena fit for battle by erecting a barrier around the area.

Two person strode on the other side. The rules were simple, outlast the other person. They were both given a token with a barrier spell, the first one to destroy the other's barrier would win. The land and sky were free for them to utilize as a space. There were no worries of heavy injuries or such since they would be probing each other first and the barrier was quite strong. Nestor's control in magic was excellent and he could hold back just fine if necessary. Areth was always holding back.

Leyfin had started to worry again after seeing Areth inside. She had seen him grow after all, she was like a sister to him now. If she brought him back and his mother could not recognize him anymore...

She could only hope that the mysterious organization he joined taught him a trick or two. Her fireball spells would barely suffice unless she was the one using it.

"Alright, you may begin." Karhus acted as a referee, while the other mages simply floated outside the barrier to watch carefully. Some even had recording device prepared, simply for learning purposes.