In the middle of a large coliseum the group of twelve people was diligently training, some swinging swords and spear at training dummies, others were holding up shields and blocking projectiles with others dodging and throwing those projectiles. Three of them were sitting perfectly still in the middle of all these happenings, while a single person was busy talking with the Goddess and holding her hands.

All of them, save for the ones meditating, were feeling intense emotions at this moment, the turbulence of them clear in all of their eyes.

“You are doing wonderfully. Now that you have a feeling for my Holy Power, please join Kal, Noelle and Altair with their meditation training. It is imperative that you get a good feeling for Mana so you can clearly differentiate between it and Holy Power.”

“Yes, Goddess. And… thank you. Thank you for… a lot of things, really.”

“Do not worry. I have selfishly decided to enlist all of you and rip you from your previous lives. All of this is the least I can do for you. On top of that I even made a mistake that I simply must make up for.”

“Yes. A mistake that we all need to fix as soon as possible.” The girl did not yet let go of the Goddess’ hands, instead entwining her fingers with hers and leaning in further until their foreheads touched. When the group first arrived such intimacy was unthinkable, but they quickly grew closer to the Goddess over the last few days as they began training in her Divine Realm.

Of course, the closest among them was Emmy, who was chosen to become her Priest and Apostle, and such skin-ship was not unusual for her even before.

“Please. Please let Ray be okay…”

The Goddess did not respond and simply tightened her fingers. This was a situation that they could not yet do anything about, save for train with all they could. She already contacted the God of Earth, but it did not result in anything. The distance between their Realms had already grown too large and Earth has always been difficult to interfere with from a divine standpoint.

After another minute Emmy let go and went on to join the meditation group that had now grown to six people. After all, Mana is an important force for all professions, so they all had to get used to it.

The Goddess then went around the grounds, aiding people where she could, recovering their bodies with spells and lifting their spirits with conversation. She had no experience in combat to aid in their training directly, but luckily some of her Apostles were competent and willing to offer their time.

Thus, the training in the Divine Realm of the Goddess of Protection went well and all twelve people that had been kidnapped so suddenly had already grown explosively.

Soon the time would come for them to descend to the Realm the Goddess was in charge of and begin their journey.

Usually it would be the journey to fulfil their quest, but this one would instead be dedicated to the discovery of a single spell.

The spell with which they could summon the missing member, the most important person.

The Brightest Star.

The Hero, Ray Lumos.

***

“Dammit. DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!” A young man was in the process of flailing a closed umbrella wildly in the air, attempting to hit something, but constantly missing.

Kekkekkekekk.

A terrible, dirty giggle rang out across the surroundings along with sounds of wood breaking as the man’s umbrella impacted the surrounding trees, instead of the source of this raspy, weirdly pitched voice. A sound that grated on the nerves and sanity of any being.

Interestingly enough, the umbrella was not taking any damage even with his want-on destruction of nature.

“JUST SIT STILL YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” Another crash as a smaller tree was completely cleaved into two and began falling.

Kekekekekke. GYAHH!

The sound the was previously a laughter instead turned into a scream mid-way through as the strike did not connect, but the felled tree did as it fell on top of the reddish-brown creature, catching its wildly flapping wings in the branches and leaves, taking it down along with it.

The crashing sound as the tree connected with the ground rang out but dulled by the flesh caught between the wood and the earth. Of course, the energy that would have created that sound instead created a cracking noise as several bones of the tiny and agile, but fragile creature were broken by the impact.

“FINALLY. FUCK! Slippery little bastard.” The man shouted into the woods, directed at the creature that he had been trying to catch for the last hour, yet had been evading his attempts deftly and with a playful and mischievous air about it.

“Ugh. Why can’t you be like that fucking Goblin from the classroom and just sit still? Seriously. The first Imp I fight and already on my shit list.” He complained while winding up to deliver the final blow to the struggling creature he called an Imp.

A loud crack rang out, along with the dying breaths of the being. Silence filled the clearing where he had finally caught the demonic creature before the air was sucked in to the place where it died, leaving behind a small stone shining with light-blue light.

“Well, at least I got it in the end. Not that I actually know what I can really do with this stone except just absorb it for now.” The man touched the stone, which quickly dissipated into globules of light of the same colour that moved to the right side of the man’s chest and disappeared within.

He felt strength fill him and some of the energy he had expended return. A similar, yet distinctly different feeling from when he did the same thing with the stone, the Magic Stone, he had found previously.

Then finally came the other feeling he had been expecting as his body began absorbing the Mana the being had left behind upon death and that could not be condensed into the stone. The feeling lasted longer and was more filling compared to his first kill.

He was already getting the hang of it.

And he would only get better at it until he could absorb every last drop.

“Good. I almost fully recovered. But to think that even this beginner’s level mana could be enough to cleave through almost ten centimeters of solid wood. Well, I did expend almost all I had for that, but still.”

The thing he did not, could not, consider is the purity of the mana in question, which heavily influences the efficiency.

And of course, as befitting a man born to be a Hero, his Mana boasted such immense efficiency and purity even at a beginner’s level that most Archmages could not catch up to.

And he would only grow from there.

But for now, he was truly still a Beginner and not quite willing to put himself into more danger. He quietly left the space, only the destruction and bruising of many trees to guide his way back out of the forest.

When calmly walking back instead of frantically swinging a blunt object, the distance he had travelled felt much larger than in the heat of the moment and he had some time to organize his thoughts.

Primarily, however, he was preoccupied with two thoughts.

How to return his twelve classmates.

And.

The need to aim for greater heights.

The greatest heights that he could ever reach.

The Furthest Star.