"Okay, Nea, I assume you have some business with me, don't you?" - Laura asks when we are all back to the room and sitting around the table, though Geil and Ned are still not coming back. - "I don't think you would have come out of the sewers just to talk."

"Yeah." - I nod. - "I would like to go out."

"You mean to the forest?" - She asks. - "Are you sure you are strong enough? I mean, my danger sense tells me you are barely stronger than Helia."

Hela flinches to this comment and looks at me with understandable surprise. After all, I am shorter and younger than her and coupled with my appearance completely unbefitting a fighter most people will not consider me as large of a threat as I really am.

"Yes! She is strong enough!" - Yana butts in with barely lower excitement than before, earning a few confused glances from other children.

"Hm~?"

"I can also spar with you if you want, that would make it clearer."

"...Alright, but not now. We'll get to your business later." - Laura replies after a while, then gets up. - "Let's eat, kids. I brought something special. Nea-"

"I'm good. I have my own food." - I interrupt her.

"Ha? You mean rats?"- Laura asks, surprising the kids.

"Un, my spirit is preparing them for me, but it exhausts quite a lot of her power, so can't do anything more than that for now. It's better now, though, since she regained some of her power, but still it is only enough for me."

Laura looks at me in a slightly weird way. - "Isn't it kind of... extremely rare ability? I heard that only skilled biomancers can make meat edible. That's also the reason why meat is only sold for nobles and wealthier commoners. We can only get it if the guild gives it out."

"It isn't exactly rare and requires very little mana, but a person needs very precise control over it so beginners are unable to use it. That's what Natria told me at least."

"Oh, okay. Well, no matter. I'll be back in a minute." - Laura says and disappears behind kitchen's door.

I look around to see the kids looking at me with questioning gazes, and soon enough Helia breaks the silence. - "Um, may I ask what spirit you are talking about?"

"Her name's Natria, she is a spirit that started following me some time ago. She helps me a lot in recent days, especially with food and information."

"Oh, okay. And, Yana, why are you so sure she is strong enough to go out? Don't you know how often even hunters die out there?" - She turns to the half-vampire and asks with some accusation in her voice.

"Um, when I went out, we fought a bit. And she beat me up so skillfully I wasn't even able to retaliate!" - Yana replies in a happy voice, making me flinch and earning both me and herself suspicious and slightly angry stares from other kids.

Not to mention she very much sounds like a masochist right now, and not the best kind.

"Could you please say that in another way? You make it sound as if I was hurting you unreasonably." - I say with a frown.

The girl looks at me cluelessly with wide eyes, then almost theatrically widens her eyes and slams her hands on her mouth, hastily correcting herself. - "I, um, sorry! I mean, we had a spar and she defeated me with ease multiple times! No one could do that, even Ned could barely defeat me! And she even gave me very useful advice!"

"That's better." - I say with a smile. - "That said, though, I think I am still much weaker than hunters, but if I go to outskirts of the forest there should be no problems, not to mention I might get into hunter's team in some time."

"Oh, okay." - Helia replies after a while and continues with a frown. - "And one more thing, what are you planning to do in the forest? I don't mean to butt in your business, but I don't think it's a place for you."

I sigh lightly hearing this question.

Certainly, to an outside person it would seem this way, but I have no other way to get stronger. I mean, I could theoretically kill people in the city, and I don't really have problem with that, but other people would definitely take notice, including the higher-ups.

And in such case being treated as a criminal would be quite good result, since they could as well assassinate or secretly kidnap me or something and use for some publicly unknown purposes.

"Well, there are quite a few reasons. First is my ability, pulling souls out, which I obviously can't practice on random people. Second is my training, I guess. I have a lot to learn about myself still, since my regeneration is not so simple and I need to check out how it works more thoroughly. And third reason would be Laura, I guess, since I am... kinda indebted to her, so I want to get stronger to be able to help her properly."

"Un, I see." - Helia said with a thoughtful look on her face.

We stayed in the room a while more talking lightly and then Laura came back with a steaming pot and six wooden bowls in her hands.

The kid's eyes light up immediately as they saw the meal and caught its smell.

"I made broth today with some meat Hunter's Guild gave out. Enjoy, everyone."

She pours some moderately thick soup into the six bowls and gives it out to everyone apart from me along with a good slice of dark bread, ending with herself and sitting in her seat.

At the same time I reach into my cloak and pull out a whole rat without fur I peeled off some time ago.

As a side note, in terms of size my meal is slightly larger than others’, but made wholly of meat and bones, so it should be much more nutritious. The kids seem totally unbothered apart from Yana who looks at it intently, probably having smelled the relatively blood, but restrains herself quickly and comes back to her own food.

And Laura, who flinches lightly and looks at it with an apprehensive look on her face, probably thinking about drinking blood of a living thing.

“““Enjoy the meal.””” – We all say and dig into our own meals.

As we all eat in comfortable silence only disrupted by chewing, gulping and occasional slurps, I ask Laura between the bites about the mana stones I have accumulated.

“Um, Laura?”

“Yes?” – She raises her head.

“Do you have a way to deal with mana stones?”

“Huh?” – She asks with surprise. – “You have some?”

“Yeah, mainly from slimes. Master says they can be refined into my own power, but I don’t need them, not to mention I can’t do it now. I thought you would make use of them in some way.”

‘That reminds me, the kids all don’t have Mana Cores, right?’

{Yes. Honestly, I am starting to doubt people here even know about that, but they should by all means if they want to use proper magic.}

‘Proper magic?’ – I ask, slightly surprised. – ‘What about, like, kyanamancy, animancy, pyromancy and this stuff?’

{Yeah. To be exact, there are four types of magic, starting from lowest level wizardry, based on chants and runes and only outside mana, magecraft, that is using runes and circles made using mana to manipulate it, sorcery, influencing outside mana with the help of Mana Core, so inside mana, which is often used in tandem with magecraft, and finally proper magic, which is pure manipulation of mana requiring Mana Core that can also change its attribute and a few other things. There are also some forms combining these types, but generally these four are most common.}

‘I see. So you are saying that it is possible that people here do not have Mana Cores and use only wizardry and magecraft?’

{That is quite likely, but I would need more information. As a side note, please remember that there are some talents that work in almost the same way as magic, but are not classified as proper magic, for example pyromancy. Essentially it does the same as magic, which is manipulating mana directly, but it works only on fire-attuned mana which can release its stored energy, creating fire.}

‘Hm, alright, good to know. Thanks. By the way, would it be a good idea to… um, actually, can you, like, create a Mana Core?’

{Yep, that’s what I want to do soon with you. If you wanted to ask if I can do that with the kids, then I sure can, but I am too weak now to do that properly. And it might be a bit bad to do that, because if anyone had soul sense out there, they will surely notice the abnormality within them and who knows what they will do. I advise not to do that, and even if you want, then only to Yana. If someone notices an abnormality within one or two kids they will certainly get interested, but shouldn’t do anything drastic. But if it will be eight, not to mention living under one roof, it will attract to much unnecessary attention.}

‘Alright, I’ll think about it.’

I focus on Laura once again, thinking about the convenience of having Master inside my spirit. It means that the time outside is not equal the time inside and can be manipulated to certain extent, so our talks with Natria usually are sped up a few hundred times unless I am doing something while talking.

“I… could use them. I’m not sure what refining you are talking about unless it is the refining formation, but I can sell them or use them myself. That said though, if it’s only slimes, it will be worth very little.”

“Um, what refining formation?” – I ask.

Laura hesitates for a moment, but soon starts speaking as everyone looks at her with interest. – “Actually, I haven’t told you all about them, did I? The refining formations are something Hunter’s Guild, the Church and some other organizations have, and it is used to absorb the power within mana stones. But they have stupidly high fees if someone from outside wants to use them, so I haven’t seriously considered using them for you all.”

{Oh, that. Okay, so, if you wanna know, the refining formation uses mana from mana stones to empower one’s soul instead of it getting absorbed by Mana Core they don’t have, but it is extremely inefficient unless done well. I thought it would be as such, because these things are very common, but I hadn’t expected they wouldn’t know about Mana Cores. Well, no matter. As a side note, I could create one such thing for you, and I might later on, but for now it doesn’t matter at all.}

‘Um, okay…’

“Um, stupidly high as in?” – Angelin asks with furrowed brows, to which Laura grimaces.

“Depends on the quality, but at least one silver for one hour and ten times that if you want something of decent efficiency. And into gold for really good things.” – She says, making Angelin and others grimace as well.

Ten silver might not sound bad for somewhat wealthier people, but it is very much so for us.

The monetary system is made of bronze, silver, gold and white gold or simply white coins, each small or normal with value increasing ten times with each coin. So ten silver coins are equal to a hundred small silver or ten thousand small bronze coins. In comparison a loaf of bread costs around ten to thirty depending on quality, higher if we talk about that sold for higher class.

Even one silver coin is worth a few days of food for the eight kids and Laura, not to mention ten silver coins.

And Laura usually earns a few silver coins per mission plus sometimes things like meat that are distributed from the guild, and minus all the costs for equipment maintenance that are deduced from the pay. Come to think of it… doesn’t Murky deduce her more than he should? It should be that, right?

{Probably.} – Natria chimes in.

Well, we’ll take care of him soon.

“So, well, as much as I would like to take you there, I can’t really do that, and they won’t let you use the formation in my place, so…” – Laura says helplessly.

“Laura, how much would these be worth?” – I reach out to my pocket and take out three mana stones, one from slime, one from zombie and one from drowned.

She looks at my hand and her eyes visibly widen in surprise seeing the size of the stones on my hand. The one from slime is at most the size of the pinky nail, but the two other are both around three times heavier and with proportionately larger volume, for her easily recognizable as something from larger monsters.

“Where did you get that? What monster is it from?” – She takes the mana stones and observes them carefully.

“The smallest is from slimes, I have six more of them, the darker is from a zombie and the bluish is from a drowned. All from the sewers.”

‘Come to think of it, shouldn’t humans also have mana stones?’ – I ask Natria, thinking about the human I have killed.

{It depends. If a human is attuned to mana, then sure. The one you killed didn’t have one because the Beholder sucked out his mana and it was incapable of regenerating in his state.}

‘Oh, I see. So should I take them out in the future?’

{Well, if you don’t mind doing that, then there is no reason not to.}

‘Okay.’ – I say and go back to the current conversation, focusing at Laura, who looks at me with slightly stupid expression.

“That… That is an E Rank monster, you know that?” – She finally asks.

“Well, yeah.” – I answer nonchalantly. – “It is enough to smash it into the ground with enough strength.” – I look at the other kids. – “Ned and Yana should also be able to kill that. Actually, could I take them and try that in some time?” – I ask, making Yana’s eyes light up immediately.

“Ha? How did we get to that? Um…” – Laura frowns. – “If you were able to defeat that drowned… I think you could, but not now. The sewers might not be particularly dangerous, but they are very unpredictable, so I would prefer if you did that when I am around. But enough of that, we’ll talk later. For now these three.” – She points at the three mana stones on the table. – “I could sell them, these from slimes go for around… ten per one piece, and these two forty or fifty I believe. You can also sell them though, why don’t you do that?”

I sigh at that question. – “Well, I would prefer not to attract attention, and my looks already do plenty. Additionally it would be pretty suspicious if a girl who knows from where suddenly started showing up regularly and selling mana stones, right?”

“…Well, yeah. I see the problems that could cause.”

“Okay, so I’ll be giving you stones I get. Save yourself fourth of the profit and we’ll be fine.”

“Uh?” – Laura freezes for a while. – “Fourth…? That’s too much, I ca-”

“Fourth.” – I interrupt her. – “You know why.” – I look at her with raised eyebrows and slight smile while reaching to my pocket and bringing out the remaining five small mana stones and another larger dark stone from the second zombie.

I place them at the table, and Laura nods with somewhat hesitant expression and scoops them up, then places in her pouch. The ten stones I gave her should be worth around two small silver coins, which would easily make a few small meals for the kids or one larger like today’s dinner. As a side note, we are usually eating three meals a days here, which are breakfast in the early morning, dinner somewhere around noon and supper after work in the afternoon, then sometimes in the evening a light meal.

Even fourth of these two small silver coins can be of help considering Laura goes on missions once a week at most and we usually can’t spend more than one or two small silver coins a day, and that including the meager earnings the kids have from working on various things.

That said though I am not planning on wasting my money.

My plan is to use it either to buy food or save up some money and get some equipment for kids so they would be able to earn better. Alternatively some clothes for me or the kids, but that’s not a priority for now, since however bad quality of the clothes they have, they work well enough.

‘Though, thinking about my expenses, is making that formation for the kids a viable option?’

{…I would like to say it is, but it is not so simple. I could make it, but I need a few things even for a weak formation, mainly a catalyst. You see, what this formation does is expanding the soul’s capacity using mana instead of with time as it is naturally with time, so this formation needs something that would make it possible for mana to interact with the soul. Alternatively I can make the weakest version that merely speeds up the natural expansion with mana, which is most likely used by these humans, but it would be extremely inefficient.}

‘Um, how much better would be the one with the catalyst?’ – I ask with a frown.

{To put it simply, the best formation without catalyst I can make with my current strength should be around two times less efficient and incomparably slower than one with a catalyst you can moderately easily obtain.}

‘Oh. And what would that catalyst be?’

{There are a few viable options. The best would be a Mana Core extracted from a stronger monster, but I very much doubt anyone would sell that and obtaining it with my current strength is impossible. Probably the most appropriate for now would be a soul of some monster from the sewers. I would also need a good magic conductor, probably metal, but blood for example can also work.}

‘I see… Well, we’ll see. It would certainly be nice if you could make one such formation for Laura and the kids, but we have different priorities now. And additionally it would cause serious problems if your formation turned out to be something not even royalty has access to or something along those lines.’

{Yeah, that could definitely happen. I haven’t told you I have great mana sense, did I? I have picked up a few patterns that are probably these formations and even the strongest of them, they are in the Church by the way, are so weak I could make them right now if not for lacking strength.}

‘What about the weaker ones?’

{Hmmm… I could make them if I had full mana. Yeah, that would be no problem.}

‘Oh! So could you make one soon? It doesn’t have to be particularly efficient, but it would be great if the kids could get stronger.’

{Actually, hm… You know what, you should get Mana Core as soon as possible.}

‘Huh?’

{Never mind that. I think it would be better to wait a while and get a good formation later after stabilizing your income and accumulating some good mana stones, especially considering that saving up some of them for better formation would yield better results than using them outright with weaker one.}

‘Hmm… Yeah, right. Okay. Let’s focus on getting stronger for now.’ – I nod. – ‘By the way, I wanted to ask earlier but didn’t have chance to do that. What does size of the soul have to do with strength? I mean, what makes the difference?’

{You are probably asking what makes the body stronger. Well, this is a bit complicated subject, so listen carefully. What makes your body stronger is mana. Soul is the medium that spreads mana around your body. The larger soul you have, the more mana will flow through your body. It is called bodily mana flow and it represents how dense is mana inside your body. Additionally, the mana flowing through your body is used for various purposes. Most of it is consumed or expelled, but some gets assimilated into your body. The amount of mana that can accumulate in it is set so that the density inside it and flowing through it is the same. Do you get it or do I need better explanation?}

‘Um, I get it more or less. To put it simply, some of the mana flowing through the soul gets assimilated into my body, and the amount assimilated is directly proportional to the size of the soul. What about Mana Core?’

{Mana Core on the other hand is a separate container that stores mana you can use freely without impairing your body, but it still is limited by the size of your soul.}

‘I see. But wouldn’t it mean you can artificially increase the mana flowing through your body and make it stronger?’

{It’s not so simple. In this case you can compare soul to a pipe. It has set size you can only slowly increase, and you can make the water inside flow faster, but it won’t change how dense it is, merely increase its speed. What you are thinking about is used quite often and it temporary increases your power in exchange for increased strain on the body, but has negligible effect on your soul. There are also some methods to stretch your soul temporarily or make the body absorb more mana, but all such methods with significant efficiency have severe side effects, without exceptions.}

‘I see…’ – I nod.

We have meanwhile finished our meal, so Laura cleaned up the table and I went outside to spar with her once, with all the kids as spectators.