Chapter Thirty Three: Dual Mana
"Just before I start saying anything, you know what mana is, right?"
After seeing his reactions when she mentioned mana back at the academy and right now, she just had to ask that question.
"Umm…not really but I've heard Erina say something about it before." He replied with his hand on his chin now.
"And what was that?" She asked before quickly springing up from her bed.
"That mages require mana to be able to use their abilities."
"Oh, I see, you have the basic knowledge then." She said with a nod.
"Basic knowledge?"
"Yeah." She replied before slowly walking past him. "Just like your friend said, mages need mana to cast spells but what you don't know is that there are two types of mana." She explained as she slowly made her way to the bookshelf opposite her bed.
"And what are these types of mana?"
"We have dark and…."
She wasn't able to finish that statement because when she turned around, she found Devon sitting on her bed and he was just about to grab the teacup on the small table.
"Um….I didn't say you could sit on my bed." She muttered with her pupils suddenly dilating.
Devon could tell from the expression on her face that she was irked by him sitting on her bed but he didn't bother trying to get up.
"Yeah, but when you invite a guest over you have to offer him a seat, isn't that right?" He remarked with a straight look on his face.
"Yeah, but…." She was struggling to form her words here and that was because this was one of those situations where she would say something mean, but she wanted to avoid that in this case. "Please, just go the seat over there." She sighed before pointing to the seat on the left.
That was where the tiara was sitting last night.
"Okay," Devon muttered before he slowly got up from the bed and made his way to the seat. "Your bed is really soft though." He remarked before sitting down.
Elena didn't say anything to that and just took a deep breath before turning her gaze to him.
"Anyway, just as I was saying, there are two types of mana and those dark and light mana." She expressed.
"And what type of mana do you possess?"
"Dark mana." She replied before she opened up her palm and muttered a few words.
Just as those words which Devon couldn't make anything of escaped from her lips, a small dark orb suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Hmm, so that's how you check what form of mana you have," Devon muttered with a voice of keen interest.
"Yeah, this is the raw form of my mana that I managed to convert into an orb, if someone with light mana should try this, the result would be a light orb. However, it's not efficient to use mana like this."
"Okay, this is pretty interesting but what does it have to do with me?" He asked before shifting his gaze away from the orb in her hand to her face.
"Remember when I told you that it's strange how you're able to touch objects made with my blood manipulation without getting your hand burnt?" She replied before closing her hand to get rid of the dark orb.
"Yeah." He nodded.
"Blood manipulation requires me to mix my blood with a portion of my mana and that mixture is toxic except to the owner of the blood, anyone would get their hands burnt by touching anything made out of it, it would be worse for normal people but people with mana will be able to put up some form of resistance, they will get burnt to an extent though." She explained.
"If that's true, then how was I able to touch it?" Devon asked with a confused expression on his face.
"I was getting there." She replied. "We've been taught this at the academy and I've read numerous stories about it."
"About what?"
"The very rare outcome of someone being born with dual mana."
"Dual mana? And what does that mean?" He asked.
"Well, anybody that possesses dual mana is invulnerable to most of the weaknesses of a mage and that includes the effects of touching a blood weapon or object that is not yours." She spelled out.
As soon as she made that known to him, his eyes suddenly widened in shock as he let out a gasp.
"So you're saying that…."
"Give me your hand first." She chimed in just before he could finish what he wanted to say.
"Okay." He muttered before stretching his right hand toward her with his palms open.
As soon as he stretched his hands toward her, she placed her hand over his before muttering a couple of words.
It was the same words she muttered earlier with a little bit of something else but Devon still couldn't make anything of it.
However, as soon as the words escaped from her lips a small orb suddenly appeared not in her hands but in his.
The orb that appeared in her hand was just dark but this one had two colours, a part of it was dark and the other part was glowing with white light.
"It worked," Elena muttered with a bright smile on her face. "You have dual mana."
"Yeah," Devon muttered even though he was still trying to piece together how something like this happened.
"Everything makes so much sense now." She sighed before stepping back from him a little. "Who would have thought that we had a dual mage in our kingdom?"
"Yeah, but hey, before we continue this lesson could you please give me the ten gold coins you promised." Devon requested.
He had already gotten the idea that she was going to be talking for a long time so he had to ask for it before he forgot.
"Sure." She said before she quickly rushed to her pillow and brought out a small pouch from under it.
She quickly returned to him and threw it to him. Her mood seemed to have turned to something else after finding out Devon's mana composition.
Earlier, she was just making assumptions based on the information she had but after seeing it she was just on cloud nine and Devon found that to be a bit odd and creepy.
After handing the pouch to Devon, he opened it and carefully counted the coins to see if they were complete, and once he was sure of that, slid it straight into his bag before turning his gaze back to her.
"Okay, back to what I was saying, someone like you really needs to be at the academy so that you can learn how to use your mana." She suggested.
As soon as Devon heard her say that, he scoffed before quickly getting up from his seat.
"I think I'll pass on that."
"Huh? Why?" She asked with a confused expression on her face.
"Because your academy is stupid and discriminatory." He blurted before slowly walking past her. "We can continue this conversation later, my Uncle must be looking for me now."
'Oh, so that's how he got in trouble.' She said subconsciously before quickly turning her gaze to him.
"I'm not sure I understand why you feel that way about the academy but you'll still need someone to teach you how to use mana."
"I'll figure something out." He replied with his gaze on the window. "Goodbye princess, it was sort of nice chatting with you."
"Are you leaving without your bag?"
He was just about to teleport when he heard her say that and out of instinct he quickly checked his waist to see that his bag was no longer there.
He had to quickly turn his gaze to her to see that she had the bag with her now and she had already opened it.
"Wow, you take your job as a thief very seriously." She remarked with an expression of bewilderment on her face.
"Hey, don't do that." Devon retorted before quickly grabbing the bag from her. "Goodbye now."
[ Location acquired ]
[ -40 Energy ]
She kept her gaze on him as he disappeared and even after he was gone, she didn't shift her gaze.
"He clearly doesn't have a mark on his neck and he also doesn't seem to know anything about manipulating mana. How does he have these abilities then?" She pondered with her right hand now on her chin.