Conflict...?

With no idea what the Redisle empire was, or even the approximate geological location of his camp, Nolan was flabbergasted by such a turn of events.

It turns out that the Redisleshad been fighting a war on two fronts, against a revolting barony, and a large tribe of nomads that were extremely proficient in disguise and concealment magic, which resulted in Noctus' hostile reaction on seeing that Nolan's age-to-magic power ratio was greatly abnormal and that he had found the boy out in the wilds, in the middle of nowhere.

"State your origin…or I will have to utilize lethal force!" Noctus shouted at Nolan once again from a distance. This time, issuing a final warning.

I'm just out here camping though…

Nolan's state of mind right now was not the best, seeing as he had failed to realize the immediate danger he was currently facing. Seeing as Nolan had no reaction to his ultimatum, Noctus immediately casted a binding spell he had been secretly preparing when he started questioning Nolan. Having taken a sixth order mage more than a minute to prepare for just a binding spell was a clear indication of the power it contained.

…chains of a leadened heart…bind…guilty burden…Bind!

A barely audible whisper of the chant of a spell escaped from Noctus' lips.

As expected, the moment the chant ended, mana concentrated around Nolan in an attempt to bind him. The sole reason why a simple binding spell would take Noctus so long to prepare was because of the concept imbued into the spell. The name of the spell used by Noctus here was "Harrowing chains of guilt", which was a variant of the normal chain binding spells, utilizing a concept of guilt. The stronger the feelings of the one targeted by the spell, the greater its power would be. Despite the effects sounding lacklustre, it was the pride of the Redisle empire, whose ancestors used it to bind even a dragon in the old ages (It was a dragon who had its secret gold stash stolen by an adventurer resulting in its uncontrollable wrath).

However, Nolan was feeling just a mild sense of confusion and intimidation. Of all the times Noctus had used this spell in battle, never had the enemy been as empty of emotions as Nolan at the moment. Weak chains formed by flimsy mana made a strangled attempt to bind Nolan, only to have him brush it off.

The chains, seemingly indignant of such a defeat, dissipated in shame.

Nolan looked at Noctus, who was gawking at his inconcievable feat of breaking a concept-imbued spell as a third order mage. Despite the concept being slightly weak, a concept spell was not anyone could dispel, requiring a higher understanding of said concept than the caster. This was the normal way to break a concept spell…not in the scuffed way that Nolan had blundered through it. Visibly less intimidated than before, Nolan even harboured the thought of utilizing his recently mastered concentrated fire mana explosion thingamajig to deal with the old man. Thankfully, he had recalled just in time before he released his mana that the old man had proclaimed himself to be a member of a council of sorts, prompting Nolan to be just a little more cautious of Noctus.

If Noctus could read the thoughts of Nolan right now, he would probably die of a stroke on the spot.

Noctus, having witnessed Nolan's "power", had now gauged his power to be of at least seventh order archmage level, if not above. Little did he know, Nolan was just a third order mage with a bit of luck on his side.

Judging the situation to be dangerous and disadvantageous to him if he dragged this on for longer, Noctus promptly activated his focus, an external conduit that humans used to imitate a mana core to greatly increase the power of their channeled spells. His focus was a single gauntlet encasing his right hand, its jagged body, similar to a dragon claw, was made of a greyish high grade polyelemental alloy that contained streaks of pitch black that was similar to obsidian, with a large round, mirror-like scale of unknown origin adorning the back of the gauntlet. Noctus curled his hand into a fist as he felt the familiar, warm feeling from his focus. One could observe the air rippling and twisting from the sheer amount of concentrated mana emanating from the gauntlet as he flexed his fingers.

Nolan gaped in horror as he saw the absolute monstrous mana emission from the strange claw the old mage had seemingly materialized onto his hand.

I should run. I need to run. I will die. I must run. Now. NOW.

Nolan's primal instincts took over, and he looked for a way to escape the scene. But this notion was quickly extinguished as he realized the severity of his plight. No matter where he could run to, Noctus would catch up within a matter of seconds, and no matter where he hid, he would be found almost immediately by Noctus' external mana sense. He was forced to fight…with his life on the line.

I will lose.

There was no doubt about it, and Nolan knew very well. There was no hope or chance of him winning in this faceoff. His tricks would not work against an opponent as powerful as this, and he had no wider knowledge of the world around him outside the little forest he was camping in. Truly, he had no ideas left.

Eyeing the boy suspiciously, Noctus hovered at a distance from Nolan as he circled him cautiously. The boy was completely out of it, blanked out and staring into the distance. Noctus had expected even an eighth order mage to react immediately when he pulled out his focus, perhaps unleashing a focus of their own.

But the boy was just standing there. Menacingly. Seemingly ignoring him, even, as he stared elsewhere, as though thinking about what was for dinner.

Noctus was, for the first time in his life, at a loss for what to do. He did not want to fight a dangerous existence on the level of an immature dragon - equivalent to a ninth order mage. However, he was obligated by his allegiance to the Redisle empire to take care of any potential and existing threats, like this boy whom he suspected to be a member of the nomadic tribe in disguise. His mana circulated through his brain as he utilised his focus to achieve mental acceleration through mana. A sense of clarity swept thought him as he thought more carefully about the current confusion situation…

Wait…suspected? Why am I fighting him exactly if he could easily kill me? Actually, why is he not killing me if he is actually from the nomadic tribe? I seem to have made a blunder now that I think about it…luckily I hadn't started attacking yet.

"Boy…why are you out here in the wilds?"

Nolan blinked as he stood there after he heard Noctus' question. He had thought he was dead for sure. With his voice still shaky from his fear and despair, Nolan stammered an answer to Noctus.

"I-I'm just out here camping…I told you earlier…but you didn't believe me…"

Noctus was speechless. How was anyone supposed to believe that a third order mage was out in the wilds, far from human society, just to camp? Not only that, but a 3rd order mage of Nolan's age would immediately be treated as a genius in any of the academies in Redisle empire, providing him with a massive amount of resources and ensuring his safety. Which idiotic academy would let a 10 year old 3rd order mage go on their own to the wilds for a camping trip?

All the mages of the Redisle empire were trained and educated from 3 major academies scattered in the areas with the highest population density across the vast lands of the empire. The location Nolan is currently camping at, is at least a week's travel from the nearest academy, and becoming a third order mage typically took a mage around 15-20 years, which was why no academy would let someone that had achieved third order run off into the wilds on their own. To see Nolan out here was not strange, but after confirming that he was a third order mage after measuring his internal mana with the detector, Noctus was of course very suspicious of his origins. 

"Which mage academy are you a student of?"

Why does this old man keep assuming I'm part of some academy?

"What's an academy?" 

Noctus was speechless once again. 

===

This cycle went on for quite a while, until Noctus had finally filled in the gaps in Nolan's knowledge of the empire, and learned about his origins properly. Still, albeit being apologetic about jumping to conclusions, Noctus still had to bring Nolan to the mage council to report such a strange case and have him registered in the empire's registries. While in the mage council, they gave Nolan a complete checkup, and got rid of all the parasites and strange spells and curses that had latched onto him in all his years in the wilds. Placing the familiar mana detector in front of Nolan again, Noctus took a step back. 

"Put your hand on the orb, boy."

"My name is Nolan."

"Put your hand on the orb."

Such banter had already occurred several times throughout the day. As Nolan put his hand on the orb begrudgingly after being given a death stare by the lady helping him with his checkups, it similarly glowed orange like when he had used it in the wilds. However, this time, while Nolan had his hand on the orb, several mages were monitoring him with their mana senses. A sudden flurry of hushed discussion erupted as Nolan took his hand off the orb.

"He's not emitting the mana a normal third order should be emitting..."

"Why is his mana presence so weak?"

"We should conduct other tests other than internal mana capacity..."

The spectating mages were mages working in the mage council but had nothing else better to do at the moment and settled for watching Noctus conduct mana proficiency test on Nolan, whose abnormal situation had already spread as gossip throughout the mage council. 

Due to the strange happenings noticed by the collective mages, Noctus decided to conduct more rigorous testing to make sure of Nolan's mage order. 

Instructing Nolan to emit as much mana as he could within a specialized room fitted with external mana detectors, Noctus stepped outside the room to observe the readings from the detectors. 

Nolan's mana core had been on the brink of evolving into a solid mana core after he absorbed a lot of the surrounding mana when he woke up from his coma induced by his grimoire, but the exposure to Noctus' seventh grade concept bind magic had introduced a large influx of mana to his internal system, which were all absorbed by his mana core, resulting it being too dense and splitting into three smaller cores, forming a trinity core on the way to the mage council. 

As Nolan began circulating the mana within his body and mana core, the room trembled from the extreme mana density induced in the room due to him emitting mana. Noctus, who was in the observation chamber, had assumed the shaking was from some mage practicing a new spell on another floor, until he started reading the readings from the sensors. 

"WAIT! STOPPPPPP!!!!!!" 

Rushing into the room, Noctus nearly tripped over himself as he frantically approached Nolan. 

"THE ROOM IS GOING TO COLLAP-"

BOOM~

The walls could no longer bear the mana density in the room, which was increased up to 50x just by Nolan releasing his mana alone. 

Coughing, Noctus brushed the dust off his robes as he used gentle wind magic to disperse the dust clouds. A crowd of mages had gathered around Nolan as he came to and walked around inspecting the pillars supporting the walls of the sensor room. Seeing that Noctus had brushed himself off, Nolan walked over.

"Why are the walls of your mage council so weak? Do you guys have money or budgeting problems...?"

Noctus spurted blood from his mouth after hearing this. ITS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING???? ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW???? 

"Alright...I don't think further testing is needed...we'll give you your third order mage certification"

Noctus muttered as he threw a small crystalline badge with gold engravings towards Nolan, while guiding him towards the exit of the mage council.

"We have you registered in our records already, so just use the badge I just gave you as an identification token. Now get out."

Noctus shoved Nolan out the mage council building, and slammed the doors in his face.

Looking around, Nolan found himself in a bustling city, with merchants and adventurers everywhere, the deafening noise of those within the crowd peddling their wares or engaging in casual conversation was overwhelming, and Nolan quickly escaped to a more quiet zone within the city. 

After a quick walk around, Nolan found that he was in Helmuth, one of the capital cities of the Redisle empire, where the Redisle mage institue of magic research and development was located - one of the 3 major academies...