For Sylvie, life recently had been pretty different.
Things had changed inside her, and she was well aware of them.
'Child.'
She had been constantly dreaming about soone whenever she slept. There would always be a silhouette that had been appearing, and the silhouette would look [Divine].
Their voice would be holy, and Sylvie would be in a trance whenever they appeared.
There was also another change inside her. In her status window, Sylvie could see one of her [Traits] had changed.
A trait that had always been a mystery to her was now awakened.
[First Lord's Authority]
That was what it wrote on the status window, and she knew that power was related to this trait.
She intuitively knew the powers lying inside her. She could sense them. She was also well aware that her abilities were all enhanced.
If before she was having a hard ti healing people and using her mana smoothly, now she didn't have a hard ti.
Whenever she had wished for sothing, the wound would disappear. It was truly a miraculous scene. She could also see the feelings of people in a lot more detail now, and she could understand them a lot better as well.
At first, it was a little overwhelming to see all those different feelings and thoughts of people. Especially the first days had been tiring.
But after a week had passed, she no longer felt overwheld.
But that wasn't the end. She knew the powers inside her were ant to be different. She could sense instinctively that she had now beco soone very important.
Of course, she didn't ntion anything to anybody related to her powers and kept them inside since sothing was telling her that she should never trust people. Especially from the mont she had seen Danielle and the feelings she had harbored.
However, now she had a different problem than all of that before.
The two people bickering in front of her, her teammates.
One of them was Astron, the boy she sohow had the weirdest interactions and the other one was a girl she only knew outside.
Irina was a girl she never thought she would talk to, and she also never wished to. After all, she was well aware of how this girl's feelings suddenly erupted out of nowhere.
The fury and the hatred she possessed rivaled Astron's, but if one thing was different, then that would be the fact that she always showed it rather than hiding it like him.
And, in the midst of these two volcanos, she was trapped.
'Why am I with these two?'
She asked herself, but the answer didn't co.
"If you could go alone, why do you think they put us in a team? Did you forget what happened in the first dungeon?"
"…..I didn't."
Seeing their bickering, she couldn't help but feel like this wouldn't go anywhere.
'I need to do sothing.'
She knew she needed to do sothing, but at the sa ti, she felt scared.
'No.'
However, she swore to herself that she wouldn't stay as her weak self anymore, not after what she had seen. Though, things were never as easy as they seed.
"S-Seriously, can we, um, focus on the a-a-assignnt?" She stamred, her voice barely audible amid the continued bickering of Irina and Astron.
'!'
The mont she spoke, both Astron and Irina turned to look at her. Irina's fiery gaze clashed with Sylvie's anxious eyes while Astron's more indifferent expression bore into her.
"I don't need soone who can't even defend themselves properly," Irina scoffed.
"You are the one to talk. Did you forget who saved you last ti?" Astron shot back.
"Tch. You don't need to rub it every ti."
"It is not like I want to. It is just that soone seems to forget things quite often."
"Right….At least I am not escaping."
"Better than setting everything on fire when I get annoyed."
"….."
'What is this?'
As Sylvie observed their exchange, annoyance started to bubble within her.
'He is enjoying it?'
It was not just the bickering that bothered her but the fact that Astron seed to be enjoying this banter with Irina.
'When I am trying my best to keep them together?'
It felt like she was standing there, invisible and unheard.
'Why can't they see I'm trying to help?' she thought, her frustration growing.
The frustration within Sylvie reached its peak, and with a sudden burst of courage, she interjected with a loud shout, "Enough!"
Both Irina and Astron turned their attention to Sylvie, surprised by the sudden outburst. Even the ambient mana in the room seed to quiver montarily as if to respond to her emotions.
Astron's eyes were especially wider than Irina's as if he had realized sothing different with Sylvie.
Irina also gave a surprised reaction as, being a mage that sensitive to mana, she could easily see the fluctuations that were happening around them.
'There was soone like this in the lower ranks?'
Irina was well aware of the powerhouses in the academy since she was forced to study them, but she had never heard about this girl.
'Sylvie Gracewind, huh? Interesting.'
"I-I an, c-can't we just work together?" Sylvie continued, her voice wavering but determined. "We are a team, and arguing like this won't help us with the assignnt. We need to cooperate."
However, at that second, she had returned to her usual state.
'Does she not know how to control it?' Irina thought, looking at Sylvie.
Sylvie's sudden burst of courage seed to dissipate as quickly as it appeared, and a blush crept up her cheeks. The attention from both Irina and Astron made her feel self-conscious. It was evident that the stage she was in was just. Before was unnatural and ca from her heart.
"I-I an, um, sorry if I shouted. I just thought, you know, we should try to get along," Sylvie stamred, her gaze shifting nervously between her teammates.
'How amusing.'
For so reason, seeing the girl's innocence, Irina felt refreshed.
'It had been a while since I felt like this.'
It was a weird feeling that she got as if being in the presence of this girl made her heart calm. She turned to look at Astron, only to see him with his brows knitted.
'Sigh….This guy never takes a step back.'
Knowing this, she knew the more they bickered, the more things would be pointless. Contrary to this guy, she needed to get good grades in each assignnt, and she needed to keep herself from trying to give an answer every ti.
Even without herself knowing, slowly, she was becoming a different person with each interaction.
"Sigh….Let's calm down, as she said," Irina remarked, her voice adopting a more resigned tone. She glanced at Astron, her fiery gaze softening slightly. "We're stuck in the sa team for now, and there's no changing that. Might as well make the best of it."
Astron, though still wearing a hint of irritation on his face, nodded in agreent. "Seems like soone finally got their act together."
'Tch…Bastard, you will never let have the last word, won't you?'
Even though his words stung a little, she simply swallowed her pride and started walking towards the forest.
As they walked, Irina took a mont to explain the task at hand. "Our goal is to find Mana Formulas hidden within the forest, just as the instructor said. Do you know how to use Mana Observation?" Turning her head to the other two, she asked.
Sylvie and Astron exchanged a glance before shaking their heads in unison. The concept of Mana Observation was foreign to both of them.
For Sylvie, it was because she had never needed to use mana in this manner; neither had she had any desire to do so.
For Astron, it was mostly because he relied on his [Skill] rather than using the raw mana to enhance his vision and also because he partly ca from another world, though Irina had no way of knowing that.
Irina sighed, recognizing the knowledge gap. "Mana Observation is a basic technique for a mage. As you've been learning spells and magic, you need to see the world through the eyes of mana."
'Is that why I was matched with these two?'
The Academy certainly had a way of doing things. She knew she didn't need any teammates from the start since she could find the magic formulas on her own. However, now she felt like she was slowly understanding the purpose of this test.
'Are they trying to make use of high-ranking students to teach others at the sa ti? It is quite clever.'
She laughed her chest with pride, knowing that the academy regarded her as a high-ranking mber. After her last conversation with Seraphina, her confidence got a small hit, but with this, she returned to her usual self.
'Anyway, I should continue.'
She continued, explaining the intricacies of the technique. "It's not as simple as it seems. You need to infuse your mana into your eyes effectively. This enhances your neurons and the receptors that capture light, specifically attuning them to mana signals."
Irina glanced at Sylvie and Astron, gauging their understanding. "Magic Formulas are crafted from pure mana. Normally, our eyes are designed to receive information transmitted by light. That's why a regular person wouldn't see mana unless it turns itself into light. But when you apply mana specifically to your eyes, the receptors beco receptive to mana signals, allowing you to perceive raw mana."
She took a deep breath, considering the significance of this information. "So, to find these Mana Formulas, we need to use Mana Observation. It's not optional; it's crucial for this task. Let show you how to do it."
Irina slowed her pace, allowing the others to catch up. As they continued through the forest, she demonstrated the process of Mana Observation. "Focus on the mana around you. Picture it flowing through your surroundings, and then channel your own mana into your eyes. It's about attuning your senses to the mana wavelengths present in the forest. Try it. It might take so practice, but it's a fundantal skill for any Hunter, let alone a mage."
'Humph. You should thank the academy that for having at the party instead of other high-ranking students specializing in close combat.' She thought with a smile.
"You don't need to be successful on the first try; it is okay to struggle. Even the mages would-"
She was about to elaborate that even though it sounded easy to make, in reality, it wasn't, but at that second, her whole belief shattered.
"Umm…Like this?"
The girl she thought to be cute and innocent appeared to be a hidden dragon.
'What?'
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