"Ms. Jennah? What the hell are you doing out here?"
Taufik asked, seeing his teacher sitting on the ground in fear.
Hearing the voice of her student, Ms. Jennah came back to her senses and quickly asked back.
"What did you just do? How did you manage to unleash such powerful magic? And also without chanting... A-All I know is that only dragons and fairies can use magic without chanting because they have their own magic systems, but humans can't do that. A-Are you sure you're still a human being? … and blah blah blah"
Said Ms. Jennah, who asked plenty of questions that overwhelmed Taufik.
'I'm not' was what Taufik wanted to say, but he decided to keep it in his mind.
"..."
"...You haven't answered my question, Teach. Why are you here? I was pretty sure nobody followed me when I entered this forest, so how could you suddenly be here? And what the hell is that dragon and fairy thing?"
Taufik said, trying to sound a little intimidating.
Hearing Taufik's question and seeing his rather threatening gaze, Ms. Jennah trembled a bit and then responded:
"... I-I followed you with an invisibility magic that can erase a person's presence as long as their mana can sustain it. Probably because of that... But, seeing the level of magic you showed earlier, you should have realized if someone was following you using magic, right?"
'How am I supposed to know that? I only learned you existed like two days ago' Taufik thought to himself.
"You? Magic? How?"
Taufik asked, trying to dig for more information from Ms. Jennah.
'By hearing the system's explanations yesterday, I already suspected this world might have witches or something like that, but...'
Taufik thought as he looked at Ms. Jennah.
'...I didn't expect to find one this quickly. No, more precisely, I was found by one'
"Wait a minute, your answer still doesn't explain why you're following me. So spill the beans quickly, or else..."
Taufik said, manifesting the blue flame like before in his palm. However, this time, he limited the flow of his Mana, so the fire only appeared the size of a basketball. Even so, the heat it released was no less intense than before, making it equally threatening.
Seeing the fire in Taufik's hand, Ms. Jennah freaked out a bit and quickly began to explain her reason, though she was still visibly nervous.
"Th-That was... That was from this morning when I entered the classroom. I saw a stream of mana radiating from your body. It was the purest mana I'd ever seen. So I was curious, and when school was over, I saw you stealthily entering the forest. At first, I found it quite normal because all the teachers in school 'mostly' already knew that you usually come to the forest. But when I remembered your mana flow this morning... I decided to follow you."
Ms. Jennah then took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before continuing her explanation.
"Although I'm not very good at magic... The Robins family is a family of magicians that has existed for a long time. So, as a member of the family, I've met plenty of magicians, and none of them have mana as pure as yours. At first, I thought you were a dragon who killed my student and pretended to be him, so I was a bit afraid before. But seeing your mana flow, I dismissed that thought immediately... Because from what I know about dragons, their attribute is 'chaos,' so their mana flow would also be the same... I've given you my answers, s-so, can you dismiss that fire? Hehehe~"
Ms. Jennah said, looking up at Taufik while trying to appear cute.
'*Ughh* Don't look at me like that, please! Although it's cute, please remember your age!'
Taufik thought, then tossed the fire into the crater that had been created earlier before he went back to questioning Ms. Jennah.
"What do you mean by my Mana being purer? Are other magicians not the same?"
Hearing that, Ms. Jennah put on a confused look.
"...I'm not sure if you really don't know or are just pretending. That is the first and most important lesson if you want to be a magician. If you know what Mana is, you'll understand why your pure Mana is so precious"
Ms. Jennah said while looking at Taufik suspiciously. But seeing him remain calm, she continued her explanation.
"Haaa~ whatever. If you want to know what Mana is, first we need to understand where Mana came from. If I explain everything, it's going to take a long time, so I'll just cut it short"
She said then began to explain the origin of Mana to Taufik.
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At first, this world didn't have MANA, but that changed when Emperor 'Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus took over as Roman emperor in 54 AD.
Since his ascension to the throne, Emperor Nero has been known as a ruthless emperor, not only to his people but also to his own family, as he did when he poisoned his brother at a party with poisonous wine because he regarded his brother as an enemy who one day might snatch the throne from him.
Even his mother didn't escape from Nero's cruelty. 'Agrippina Minor,' his mother, who also constantly committed acts of violence in the name of Nero and often boasted about her position as queen, fueled Nero with great anger. Fearing his authority would be taken by his mother, he then made a plan to kill her.
After successfully killing his mother, Nero accidentally found a sealed box that belonged to his mother, and out of curiosity, he assigned an expert to open the box.
When the box was opened, Nero found a book that looked very old and had a language that he did not know. With great curiosity, he gathered several linguists to translate it for him.
Months after months had passed, the book had been translated, and Nero was delighted to read it. He wondered what kind of book his mother had so carefully kept that it had to be sealed like this.
Nero then read the book carefully. It could be seen from his expression as he flipped the pages one by one that the book was not an ordinary book. After reading the book, Nero felt that the knowledge he had about this world was crumbling into pieces with each sheet he read.
Fearing that the knowledge would spread widely, instead of rewarding the linguists, Nero ordered his soldiers to kill every linguist who participated in the translation of the book.
Nero felt it was necessary, considering the knowledge contained in the book. This knowledge could lead some to question their existence as human beings.
It tells about life before humans set foot on this earth. The book is about a great war that happened on this earth between the devil's camp and the angelic camp that lasted for millions of years and continues to this day. It says that the war ended temporarily because the first human, Adam, set foot on the earth.
Adam's presence on the earth triggered a reaction from each of the camps. They thought Adam and his descendants had the potential to end this never-ending war. So, they would continue the great war once they had finished assessing the existence of these so-called humans, which would either benefit or harm their camp.
That book also contained knowledge of the magic used in that war, but it was mostly the magic the devil used.
At the end of the book, there is a special magic to summon demons and angels, but the part that contains the calling of angels is incomplete, and only the parts about the devil are complete.
The devil's summoning required the summoner to sacrifice two souls of humans with whom they have a close relationship, as well as thousands of souls of ordinary humans. By completing the summoning of the devil, the summoner can request anything, and the devil will grant it.
Knowing what the summoned devil had promised, Nero, as a power-seeking madman, was naturally interested. But since the close humans he had, his mother and brother were already dead, he was about to give up. However, he then remembered his pregnant wife and decided to do something that even the devil might feel inferior to.
And so, over time, Nero managed to summon the devil at the cost of the lives of his people.
The devil was called and fulfilled the contract, but as everyone knows, the devil always tries to find a loophole in every situation for their own benefit.
Nero, who was impressed by the magic used by the devil he read about in the book, asked the devil for the same magical powers. The devil, who heard the request, had to brainstorm since, when the wars were abolished thousands of years ago, the MANA on earth had become thinner and nearly disappeared.
Although the devil is famous for their cruel and cunning nature, if it concerns the contract that involves their souls, they always try to fulfill their client's request. They will do anything, no matter how, and don't care about the consequences of their actions.
So the devil had the idea to open a passage from the earth to hell so that the MANA in hell could be channeled to the earth. This would make the MANA on earth active again and usable once more.
But this decision contaminated the MANA on earth.
Nero, who felt invincible, grew even more mad with power over the years of his reign. He began to sacrifice many souls again to give them to the devil in exchange for gaining more power to conquer the whole world.
Since only Nero knew how to manage the MANA in the world right now, he was confident he could achieve his goal.
The devil, seeing Nero's actions, felt it was time to harvest Nero's soul because, for the devil, the best soul is the soul of the fallen one who has many sins.
So the devil began his plan and then quietly distributed the methods to manage the MANA from this world to people who had some influence at the time.
The selected people slowly began to master the MANA, and when they saw that the people could no longer resist Nero's behavior, they urged them to act immediately. Nero automatically heard the news, but he didn't take them seriously.
Feeling the time had come, those who had mastered the magic gathered the army they had built for this day and rebelled against Nero.
The group was led by a Roman governor in the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gaius Julius Vindex. He then declared his allegiance to the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, Servius Sulpicius Galba, and other governors as well to gain more support.
Vindex, Galba, and the other governors' armies easily outmatched Nero's army.
Vindex and the group of magicians then went to deal with Nero themselves because only they had the possibility of defeating Nero, who had already mastered MANA earlier than them.
Nero, who felt invincible, looked down on them and decided to wait for them to come to his throne. But he was shocked to see that the group was capable of using MANA, which caught Nero off guard.
Nero was severely injured, but the group was not without injuries either, especially Vindex, who had used MANA just to enhance his physical body. He was the one who received a fatal injury from Nero's attack.
Nero, who was confused about how they could use magic, then remembered the devil, who had a sly smile. He immediately got angry and called out the demon's name, but he didn't get an answer and eventually resigned to his fate.
But Nero, who was a man with high self-esteem, automatically refused to die at the hands of a group of people he considered weaker than himself. Not finding any escape route, he chose to end his own life.
When Nero chose to commit suicide, the demon, who had witnessed the event from beginning to end, was surprised and then smiled widely. The fallen soul was already precious, but the soul that chose to end its own life would add value to that soul in the devil's eyes.
Once the demon had finished harvesting Nero's soul, he disappeared and was never seen again.
With that, 68 AD was the year when Emperor Nero, infamous for his cruelty, was officially dead. However, the one who led the rebellion, Vindex, also died because of his fatal injury.
Galba, who was the first to swear allegiance to Vindex, claimed the throne of the empire because Vindex was dead and Nero didn't have a successor. As for the rest of the group, Galba tried to recruit them to work for him, but they refused and asked Galba to keep their existence secret for future generations. They preferred to continue practicing magic further to pass their knowledge to their descendants.
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from the six infinity stones, I just want one... the power stone (:v)