Guiding Light

"Coercive Figment?" Lucas began inspecting the book, looking at its glowing exterior that didn't seem to come from any machinery.

It just seemed like the book was glowing because of the material that was used to make it.

"That's right!" The necklace glowed brightly, a tinge of pride could be heard as Maya answered him.

"That technique is one of the best foundation techniques that I developed myself!"

Lucas stared at the book intently once more, trying to understand it a little more despite having not a single clue about it.

"Don't just stare at it, go ahead and learn it!" Maya urged him.

Although he had never seen such a book before, Lucas knew that if you want to learn from a book, then you need to open it.

Lucas opened the glowing purple book and found,

"What is this…?"

Instead of seeing texts or pictures, Lucas only saw symbols, unknown ones, being written all over the contents of the book.

No matter which page he turned, he only saw those unknown symbols written all over them.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Feeling his utter confusion, Maya heaved another sigh.

"Ah, I forgot to tell you." 

"It's not an ordinary book, it's a high-level technique guidebook."

"Instead of reading its content, you need to inject your mana to learn the technique it holds."

The necklace stopped glowing for a second but glowed once again after it heard Lucas' voice.

"And how do I do tha-"

"You just need to keep feeling the book and try to establish a connection with it using your heart."

Lucas still had 0 idea about what Maya was saying since it all just happened without any proper explanation.

He had no idea what mana was other than the fact it was something that he heard in games and anime.

But one thing he knew from going to a public school, is it's better to try out what your teacher taught you first no matter how absurd it is before asking any questions lest you want an earful of beratement.

Knowing an unexplained why was only a luxury that people with dedicated and passionate teachers got, not someone who went to school with teachers who barely cared about anything other than themselves.

Lucas then closed his eyes, trying to 'reach out' to the inanimate object in his hand, just like Maya had told him.

Just like he had expected, he felt nothing other than thinking of himself as a fool.

But still, the words of the unknown woman rang deep within him despite his best efforts trying to ignore it.

He needed to kill people. 

And having some kind of unknown magical technique from a fox girl that came out of nowhere would certainly be more beneficial for him rather than having nothing.

So even though he didn't feel anything, Lucas kept trying his best to somehow feel and connect with the book in his hand.

Maya stayed quiet as she looked at the human that she had just made a contract with.

She was desperate, maybe as desperate as Lucas though the reasons differ.

She had to look for someone in another world in a very small time window. 

She couldn't even explain anything to Lucas as she had to sneak herself and Lucas into Gula when the kingdoms and empires transported people over.

She was lucky to run into him soon after she arrived on Earth as she could sense his very high mana affinity.

And she was also very fortunate that he had a very desperate situation that called for a foolish and reckless action, such as trusting an unknown entity that came from another world to help him.

However, she wasn't fortunate enough to be able to prepare him for what was to come.

Just as Lucas was desperate to survive and get the golden opportunity to change his life, Maya was also desperate for Lucas to succeed.

With the contract between them, Lucas's failure would also mean Maya's prolonged suffering to continue.

Maya contemplated in silence.

Looking at Lucas struggling at doing such a simple act of learning from a high-level technique book that was literally made to babysit you to learn the said technique, Maya could only bite her nails as she gambled on Lucas' very high mana affinity.

She could teach him slowly how to do it, but anything with the word 'slow' in it wasn't something that they could do right now.

She couldn't sit still when she saw Lucas wasting his time trying to understand her technique.

'Should I just tell him to learn that basic strengthening technique…? It was designed for mortals after all…'

Although his chance of surviving would lessen with the ordinary technique, he would at least have something in his arsenal rather than going in without a single technique.

However, her worriness disappeared altogether and hope began returning to her being when she saw the book in Lucas' hand glowed brighter.

Lucas struggled hard.

No matter how much he wanted to connect with the book, he just couldn't do it.

However, when he felt lost in his own mind,

Something, an unknown feeling, suddenly appeared.

Just like a person who suddenly saw a light after being trapped in an endlessly large dark room, Lucas followed that light.

He didn't know where he was going, but he only followed that guiding light as it was the only thing he had.

Before he knew it, Lucas finally got it.

The glowing purple book glowed even brighter as the purple hue began enveloping Lucas' body.

The light coming from the book was slowly but surely being absorbed by Lucas.

Inside his mind, images began popping up in Lucas' head.

Other than the name of the technique, Lucas knew what kind of technique it was, how to use it, and more importantly, the basics of moving the mana inside his body to materialize the technique.

After the light was completely absorbed by Lucas, the purple book lost its glow as it now looked like an ordinary purple-colored book.

Lucas then returned to reality as he opened his eyes and found himself still standing in the empty white room.

Although his new technique required another person to be used, Lucas still tried to move the mana in his body just like the book taught him to see whether it would work.

And as if he had been doing it for years, the mana in Lucas' body moved according to his will as he followed the feeling and instruction the book gave him.

Sensing the movement of mana in Lucas' body, the red pendant glowed brightly as Lucas heard Maya shouting,

"You did it! Lucas! You actually did it!"

Being awoken by the sudden shouting, Lucas stopped testing the technique and flicked the necklace.

"You're really not sure if I can do it or not and you still force me to do it with an absurd command and barely explain anything to me!!"

Lucas shook his head.

"You are crazy."

"Ahem!" Maya coughed.

"I believe you 100% from the start you know? Why else would I give you such a precious book if I don't?"

Sensing the lie coated all over her words, Lucas just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Lucas then walked over to the simple-looking book given by the unknown woman and picked it up.

He opened the content and found that there were actual words written in the book instead of unknown symbols and the words were written in the language that he understood.

'This is much more understandable…'

He skimmed the book over and tried to get an overall understanding of the technique explained in the book.

Maya saw what he was trying to do and the necklace glowed once more.

"Hey, don't get cocky! You can only learn my technique easily because of the rare technique book I designed to imprint the whole technique into someone's min-"

"I got it."

Lucas cut Maya's words off as an image of the technique that he just read being pictured in his mind.

Different from before when he found himself in a completely dark room feeling nothing but lost for quite a while, the second the image of the basic body strengthening technique appeared in his mind, Lucas now found the guiding light almost instantly.

Just like before, he followed the guiding light.

He wasn't doing it fully consciously before, but now after he knew how to control the mana in his body, Lucas realized that as he followed the guiding light, the mana in his body moved in a certain way.

The way that had been described in the basic body strengthening technique book.

Not for long, Lucas had memorized how the mana in his body moved before he opened his eyes.

This time, instead of following the guiding light, Lucas moved the mana on his own.

Soon, Lucas felt his mana seeping into his skin, bones, and muscles as he felt power filling up his body.

 "You… Did you just learn that technique from that trash technique book…?"

Hearing Maya's voice once again, Lucas answered, "Yes?"

Maya stuttered once more.

"In under 30 seconds…?"

Lucas swung his limbs left and right and tried moving his body which now felt as light as a feather yet as sturdy as a rock.

"Umm… Yes…?"

"You…"

Maya was stupefied, but deep down, she was rejoicing.

'Maybe… Just maybe…'

'I could finally be free…'

But she internally shook her head as she reminded herself that this was all just the beginning and Lucas would still need to go a long way before he could do anything to help her.

A few more minutes went by before the alluring woman's voice came back again.

"Ding dong! It's time!"

Lucas' body tensed up as he heard the voice for the second time.

Although he now knew a couple of tricks that he didn't even know were possible before, he still didn't know whether he could do that thing.

"Are you all ready? This is the time you all have been waiting for!"

Lucas then heard the woman's voice once more before his world went dark, his mind still contemplating whether he could actually make himself kill another human being.

"It's time for you all to kill each other!"