The man that burst out of the pillows had just woken up.
And the first thing he hears is an insult to his work!
The man pounced at Eros angrily and, with one hand, carried Eros high up the ground. Eros unconsciously cast a gauge and saw the man's stats.
---
Grumpy man in his Underwear
Level 19
Strength: 51
Magic: 56
Dexterity: 85
Vitality: 51
Intelligence: 81
Force: 0
---
He had the strength and could have easily killed the boy.
But his pride stopped him, and he lifted the boy in anger.
"How dare you?! What do you know about Energy formation circles?!" The man charged.
Eros didn't know anything about the energy formation circle theories. But from his mories, he knew why Kyros's energy formation circles were far more powerful.
Kyros and Noxus always made energy formation circles from the very center and would spread out. From what Eros could see, the energy would surge from the center and expand outwards. But this strange energy formation circle had an energy flow that was practically chaotic!
"From the center...! Draw... from the... center...!" Eros answered as he barely tried to force out his words.
The enraged man heard Eros's words and suddenly stopped.
"...Draw from the center? Wait... How did you know how I drew? You can see mana? That ans you have mana!" The mage stopped and took out a strange stone, and placed it on Eros's hand.
Eros could feel the stone call out his mana. He didn't want to be suspicious, so he resisted the pull of mana.
The stone gave a strange glow, and a number appeared.
"Oh? This high? Four mana points?! That's amazing!" The man exclaid.
"I only had 1 when I was level 1! The highest number of soone naturally born to be a genius mage was 5. You... you would have great potential as a mage!" The man stopped.
"And you even know about Energy Formation Circles?" The man placed Eros down.
"I-uh... I don't know much about that. I just watched my forr master do it."
"Forr master? You had a master?"
"Er... I was his slave, my lord!" Eros bowed.
"...Did he train you in magic?"
"He... wanted to. But he died. During the war." Eros's voice turned sad.
"...Ah. Haven't we all lost sothing from that stupid war..." The mage turned around.
"So... your master always drew things from the center? Why?"
Eros shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know. But whenever he activated it... the magic would... shoot out. I can see the magic flowing here. It doesn't... seem to have any direction or a path to follow. It wastes energy."
"Huh... I would never have known about that. Interesting." The mage began to sit down and use a strange device to engrave an energy formation circle on the stone. His expression had changed from anger to enlightennt.
"The ore here provides with materials to create these energy formation circle tablets where I can practice it. I may look like a mage, but I'm not even a champion! I'm actually soone who self-studied it."
"You... didn't go to mage school?"
"To be precise, I got kicked out, and I'm banned. Why do you think a mage would work in this mine? My only inco would be from the soldiers nearby or from the miners who want to level up! But do you know how many monsters I need to kill to reach the next level? At my level, absorbing what the miners bring in would not even give any increase in my experience unless they killed a strong beast!" The mage began to rant.
Eros watched as the mage worked and couldn't help but notice that even the center of the energy formation circle that the mage was making was inefficient. Kyros would right and stack several strange symbols on top of each other whenever he made his.
But Eros couldn't rember any exact details and glanced around, hoping to see if the mage would have that potion to help in mory recall!
But the mage had very few potions, and Eros could tell they were for health and mana...
A small energy formation circle was made, and upon testing it, the mage was astounded as he could see a glow appear.
"...It worked! Damn! I was so stupid! This could change the outco! Hahahaha!" The man laughed.
"Kid! My na is Mage Pernt! From now on, if you could bring in so monster to kill, I can give you free level-ups up to level 4!" Pernt chuckled as his expression was full of glee.
"Uh... Tha-thank you, Mage Pernt!"
"Do you rember anything else from your master?"
"Erm... if you have those potions that could help one recall, I probably could help you out more!"
"Eh? A mory access potion?! That's expensive! Only nobles and aristocrats can afford those!" Pernt frowned.
"I-uh... I misspoke!" Eros bowed.
"Eh, forget about it, kid. What you did was like giving a second life in my occupation! Look, the mines should be opening soon. Where you here to get so health potions?"
"Yes."
"Alright. And since you have magic, I'll give you these Fire Ore bombs. It should help you kill a few beasts. Pour in so of your mana if you can and throw it. It isn't much. But monsters lower than level 5 would get hurt or be killed! And be careful! I can't help you out there, kid. Miners tend to steal each other's monster kills. Every day chump would fight and cry about how his kill was stolen from him. You better be careful out there..." Pernt handed Eros three fire or bombs.
Eros gladly received them.
"Get back here when the mines close. I must talk with you more to learn more about your master! If one sentence is this much gold, I believe that whatever practices your master did would help !" Pernt laughed and sent Eros on his way.
Eros walked out and couldn't help but feel a strange feeling.
"...I made a friend? I guess this is what it ans to be outside Fate and Destiny. If this was Kyros, that mage would have tried to kill him or imprison him!" Eros trembled at the thought and moved toward the mine.
As he returned, he saw a long line on the armory and knew that he was among the earliest who entered the mine.
Several people were picking their partners, with many other kids begging and pleading with the adults to take them.
At first, Eros frowned as he could not activate his gauge spell.
"Hey! Move it, kid!"
A man walked and bumped into Eros, who stood still. As Eros turned, he saw the stats when they collided.
---
Man
Level 3
Strength: 9
Magic: 0
Dexterity: 13
Vitality: 9
Intelligence: 23
---
Eros blinked. He saw the stats of the man at level 2 and couldn't believe it.
"People are this weak...!" Eros thought to himself. He had never seen stats and only saw Kyros as a reference.
"...I think Kyros started at level 1 with his strength stat at 50! What kind of a freak was he?! And I thought 18 would be standard level 1! But... won't this an that I have stats that are at least... three levels above this guy? The stat average of my strength would be at level 6!" Eros tried to do so calculations in his head.
Eros shook his head and thought that if that man was at level 3, he should have enough strength to take on the beast in the mines alone!
"I guess Dad did give sothing aweso!" Eros took a pickaxe and went his way. He took so of the miner's bags and began to march off.
"Hey, kid! Stop! Don't go all by yourself!" A soldier shouted, but Eros paid no heed to the man.
"Stupid kid..." The soldier shook his head but ignored Eros.
Eros could see several miners hamring away at various places in the tunnels and paths.
But Eros was confused.
"Why aren't they... mining where the mana gathers?" Eros was confused. But then he recalled that even Pernt was surprised at how Eros could see the flow of magic. Then he realized sothing.
"Could it be? The mana flow I've been seeing deep inside the mines isn't visible. Now that I think about it, I've never seen such thick energy gather before. This should be my mother's wisdom that gave a gauge. Now that I think about it... how can I gauge things by touching them? Maybe I can sense mana in a more sensitive manner!" Eros realized it.
Eros went to a spot where he could see mana gathering near the surface.
It was high up, so Eros piled so stones nearby.
Many of the onlookers saw Eros and were confused by his actions.
Eros pretended that he was having a hard ti lifting the rocks but was quietly placing it one piece at a ti and finally stood over it and struck the pickaxe on the wall.
DING! DING! DING!
After several strikes, a strange red orb fell.
It was similar to the Fire Ore Bombs that Pernt gave him, but this one had a rich energy around it.
The rock fell to the ground.
Eros saw the rich man and knew what he found was profoundly different from what the others would usually mine.
"This stone looks expensive. I might have gotten a week's salary already! And I still have the whole day ahead of !" Eros thought.
And many who saw the bright rock full of glow caused their greed to surface.
Eros picked up the stone.
"Hey, kid! That was my spot! You got there first! Give that stone!" The man who Eros bumped into earlier thundered close to him.
"What? No way. We don't have spots here! I got here, moved the stone, and hit there. This is mine!" Eros answered defiantly.
The man was angered at Eros's answer.
Unknown to him, Eros was chanting sothing in his head.
"Please attack . Please attack . Please attack ... Yes! He attacked!" Eros cheered as the man ran towards him.
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