You're A Wizard, Glenn

Reacting on instinct, Glenn's hand shot out, his palm connecting with Redan's cheek, snapping the old man out of his half-trance state. Redan blinked, his expression dazed as he rubbed the spot where Glenn had struck him.

'Wow, did you just slap the face of the warmage grandpa?' exclaimed Diamanes, unable to believe what he just witnessed.

"No, I didn't," Glenn said aloud, his relief palpable. The old man wasn't dead. Phew.

Redan, still disoriented, looked around in confusion. "What... What did ya say?"

Glenn quickly improvised, attempting to hide the fact that he had just slapped Redan's face. It seemed the old man wasn't aware of the gesture. "Oh, I was just wondering why we didn't continue."

The old man rubbed his painful face. He was probably pondering how he managed to hurt himself, while he sat back from the chair he just fell from.

Rubbing his sore jaw, Redan gingerly sat back in the chair he had fallen from. "Kid, to be honest... I think me heart might have stopped when I saw that thing in your Mana Heart..."

Glenn raised an eyebrow, wondering if Redan's statement was figurative or literal.

'Is he speaking metaphorically, or does he actually know he was technically dead for a second there?'

"What I glimpsed in there shouldn't exist. You're not meant to be.." A troubled expression settled on Redan's face as he locked eyes with Glenn.

Apprehension lingered in the old man's gaze.

"Ya...Who are ya really?" Redan's question hung in the air, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

Glenn hesitated for a moment, considering whether to reveal his true identity to the old man. Eventually, he decided against it, not due to a lack of trust but because he doubted Redan would believe him.

Smiling, Glenn just shrugged his shoulders.

A smile played on Glenn's lips as he shrugged. "I'm Glenn. And I'm pretty sure I'm human."

The old man's dissatisfaction with that response was palpable. "What about your parents? Are ya of a certain blood, royal maybe?"

Glenn couldn't help but wonder,

  'Where did that come from?'

He shook his head, surprised that Redan could even think of such an idea.

"Then... Never mind. The Mana Heart is the core of your magic. It stores your mana and serves as the source of your spells," Redan explained, his demeanor shifting to that of an instructor.

"The shape and color of your Mana Heart define your magical affinities. I, for instance, have a Mana Heart shaped like a spear made of White Ice."

"Due to some unusual circumstances, I can wield both Magic and Aura, a trait shared with the Black Heirs. But that's not feasible for ordinary people."

Glenn absorbed this revelation with a mix of surprise and curiosity. While he had a basic understanding of magical systems from his extensive novel reading back on Earth, hearing an explanation about it from an actual practitioner felt surreal.

"What's the difference between Mana and Aura?"

"Well, Mana is creative energy, while Aura is destructive. Of course, that's an oversimplification, but it should suffice for now," Redan elaborated before taking a sip from a water skin beside him.

"A Mage uses Mana Circles to gather and store Mana in their Mana Hearts. I know I say Mana a lot, but get used to it."

"Another Circle will be created when they reach a certain understandin' of Mana or when their Mana capacity reach a certain point. If you fail the upgrade, you risk your Mana Circle broken or worse, your Mana Heart blowing. But there's no reason for this to happen, so don't worry kiddo. Of course, it goes without saying, but more Mana Circles means more Mana capacity and more powerful spells."

Reassuring, great.

Redan continued, "Magic uses Mana as fuel. Ya weave spells by envisioning what ya want and by manipulating Mana accordingly." He gestured towards Sahro, who observed from a distance, dumbfounded.

"Aura, on the other hand, is fueled by one's life force. At a certain level with Mana, ya have a reserve of it in your Mana Heart, making it so that it doesn't strain you when you use spells. Of course, at the beginning, it does, as all things do when you start learning them. But that's the difference with Aura."

"It also gets measured differently. Instead of being stored in a central organ like the Mana Heart, Aura will be stored in your whole body. When your understanding of Aura or its capacity becomes too grand for one's body, well it gets upgraded. I think ya can guess what happens if ya fail to upgrade."

Glenn gulped.

Redan grinned toward Sahro who was still staring at them.

"Ya see, Aura, on the other hand, draws from your life force... Aura requires constant energy but also strengthens your body over time. Black Heirs like Sahro possess bear-like strength in a human form. And it can become much higher than that."

Glenn also looked at Sahro, having a hard time believing the old man's words. He thought that this guy was just a random hard-ass, but he actually was someone who could flatten him any time he wanted.

Damn, he really needed to stop making enemies.

Redan toyed with the waterskin, and poured a bit of water in the air. This water transformed into ice, which he fashioned into a makeshift compress for his jaw.

"I'm an Aura user too, how did I manage to hurt me self?"He muttered, not understanding how this simple fall could damage him like that.

Hearing this, Glenn quickly put the subject back on track.

"So what's wrong with my Mana Heart?"

Redan studied Glenn before answering, ice compress pressed to his jaw. "Ya lack affinities. Or rather, ya don't have a common specialization."

Glenn's face lit up hesitantly. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Redan shrugged, uncertain. "It might have been if your Mana Heart had taken a shape."

"It hasn't?" Glenn recalled the rainbow-hued gase sphere from his Meditation with Redan.

"No, it's formless, well, not in a form that I know of or can recognize," he said, a perplexed gesture accompanying his words.

"Your First Circle settled smoothly, but your Mana Heart remained shapeless. The shape should determine your preferred spells and the color of the element. But yours is of every dam' colors, formless, to top it off!"

Glenn struggled to interpret his feelings about this revelation. Was he supposed to feel disappointed or excited? Wasn't being irregular a sign of greatness?

'I agree completely,' Diamanes chimed in his mind. Of course, as the weirdest sh*t he had encountered until now, the evil hand clearly should be something special.

The old man stood, clapping his knees. "I've no idea how to guide ya! So, I'll teach ya as if you were me!"

'Okay, I can live with that,' Glenn thought.

The old man muttered something, seemingly worried:"Ya'll just have to find your element yourself, but that's a problem for later..."

Redan positioned himself in front of Glenn, an ice ball materializing in his hand. Sunlight made the object gleam like a diamond.

"Recall the feeling when I led ya into Meditation? Try to recreate it, and when ya do, envision projecting something at this ice ball."

The ice ball hovered at Glenn's eye level, a few meters away.

"A projectile?"

"Yeah, it can be anything, an arrow, a rock, whatever tickles your nuts kiddo."

"Alright."

Seeking the Mana's presence once more, Glenn closed his eyes, attempting to reconnect. But the only thing that managed to connect was Redan's finger flick on his forehead.

Glenn rubbed his forehead, perplexed. "What was that for?"

Redan chuckled. "Think an enemy would wait while ya close your eyes to cast?"

'He's got a point,' Diamanes added.

Sighing, Glenn did his best to try and feel Mana again, his eyes wide open this time. Opening his hand, he did his best to envision a projectile. Finally, after a minute of full focus, something started appearing in his palm.

The concentration made him aware of a lot more things than before. The pulse of his heartbeat, the drop of sweat that was falling down his back, the fluttering of his clothes in the wind.

For the first time, he could actually feel like he was doing something magical, the thing with the water Shard back at the inn looking like a parlor trick in comparison.

Of course, Diamanes didn't count, as he felt like it was magic that came more from the being in his hand rather than himself.

'Something to pierce this ball... A bullet... That would be perfect...'

The idea fixed in his mind, Glenn kept on focusing. Suddenly feeling ready, he thrust his hand forward, the sound of an object traveling through the air extremely fast, resounding like a pistol shot.

The ball of ice tinged, a crystalline sound replacing the sound of the shot. An impact had appeared on the ice ball, ruining its previously perfect geometry.

A whistle resounded, Redan clapping slowly.

"Well done, kid. That was pretty good! Was it some kind of invisible arrow? I could see the mana move, but not tell what it was?"

Glenn looked at him, a hand covering half his face.

"I call it...the Bullet of Death..."

'I don't even need to say anything. Big L, Glenn,' mocked Diamanes.

'Damnit, just leave me have my fun!'

Redan looked at him with a dubious stare, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, that's great and all, but now ya have to do this in seconds."

Wait.

"Until then, ya don't eat, ya don't go nowhere, and ya don't sleep."

What?