Aleph awoke to a presence at the door. He opened it to see Brandon kneeling.

"Please teach me!"

It was so ridiculous that Aleph almost slammed the door on him, but Brandon's desperate voice sounded just before he closed the door shut.

"I know what you are!" 

Aleph thought about it. There was only one way anyone could find out he was a god. He opened the door once again to confront him.

"Have you entered the hole?"

"Ah, n-no, sir. I've only taken a quick look. Please be at ease. I have no desire to take any of the mana crystals you are cultivating, only that you'd show me the path to magehood."

That made him pause. For a second, he considered striking him down.

"Where are your friends?"

"They abandoned me after I expressed my desire to come under your wing, master. Worry not, they know nothing of your secrets."

"Not those. I meant your real friends." Aleph clarified. Brandon considered for a moment before answering.

"Ah… I may have told them some things. Forgive me, but I was under the impression that you've already revealed yourself to them."

Aleph looked at Brandon once again. It looks like he hadn't been found out after all.

"Is this why you have been sneaking around me? Fine, I shall consider your apprenticeship. Do you have anything to say as to your merits?"

"W-well, my father's got quite an influence, I'm sure I can arrange-"

"Not your father's merits, boy. I am asking for yours." Brandon flinched at those words. He stuttered, flailing around trying to answer.

"T-that is… I'm not really… I'm sorry, master. Truthfully, all I've ever done is throw my father's name around to get what I want, but still… "

"I shall ask Lacey of your merits. Do you think she would speak glowingly of you?" Aleph said, to which Brandon responded with panic.

"No! I-er, I mean, please don't, master… I've driven them away by choice. As you've no doubt seen, they are the loyal types, and they can't leave things well enough alone. I've tried everything to make them hate me, because I'm afraid they'll follow me into ruin."

While not the entire truth, Aleph detected no falsehoods in the child's words. There it is. The tiniest spark of heroism. This child carries your legacy, Brandon, no matter how faint. Aleph's curiosity was piqued. 

"Ruin? Tell me, child, if I grant you the power to move mountains, reap whole armies with a single wave of your hand, what do you wish to do with it?"

"I want revenge on those bastards that killed my mother."

It was then that Aleph believed he saw this Brandon for the first time. Such fervor.This one is prepared to debase himself to reach his goals, and yet he refuses to jump into the fire for fear that his friends would jump in with him.

"I will consider your apprenticeship." Aleph repeated after a moment of deliberation. Brandon looked elated, but he had the tact to keep it to himself. He bowed once again and said,

"I will not let you down, Master!"

"I said I will consider it." Aleph corrected him.

"I have much to do, and I lack the resources to teach you even if I did have the time. You will assist me in my work. First, you will carry the rocks I carved by the river back here. I will give you a lesson in enchantments when you're done, but this is strictly a transactional relationship. I have not yet taken you in as my student."

_________________________________

Rayse and Lacey came by after lunch to see a peculiar sight: Brandon was carrying rocks while Aleph was sitting in front of the house, leisurely reading one of the books they gave him.

"Hello, mister. I see you've put Brandon to work already. Well done." Lacey said approvingly.

"Yes, he has been quite helpful. What brings you two here today?" Aleph asked, not even  looking up from what he was reading. 

"Well, you did tell us to come 'if it pleases us'. Also, we were kinda worried that Bran would give you trouble." Rayse said cheerily.

"That is true…" Aleph said, finally looking up.

"It occured to me that I have been getting a huge amount of assistance from you both, and while you have not asked for any compensation, I believe some form of gratitude is in order."

"N-no, you really shouldn't have-"

"Please, I insist. I have very little material wealth to impart to you, so instead I shall be teaching you skills. Brandon, come sit. We will begin soon."

And so out of the blue, Aleph started teaching them magic. He handed out three glowing crystals to everyone and said,

"These are mana crystals. They are miraculous things with a lot of applications, one of which you've already seen. I ground an axehead against it as I sharpened it, granting the axe increased sharpness and better endurance. Some use these gems to power their magicks, running them through a series of reagents to create desirable effects. Observe." He pulled out a mana crystal, some yellow colored sand and a small stove. He dusted the crystal with a miniscule amount of sand and immediately put it inside the stove. The whole thing began to vibrate, and eventually smoke started to come out of it.

"This sand is sulfur. It agitates the mana inside the crystal to generate heat. Note that most metals and woods are mana inert, but most basic minerals can be used as reagents. Some plants and animal products, too. You can take these home and find out for yourselves."

Rayse was excited. Somehow he learned the basics of magic. The implications were making him warm and fuzzy. In fact, he was feeling a bit feverish.

"Uhhh, master?" He heard Brandon say beside him. "My crystal's getting dimmer. Is it broken?"

"Mine too." says Lacey, but he could barely hear her. Still, he looked at the crystal in his hand, but was surprised to see it completely dark. A wave of nausea hit him, sending him sinking into the ground. The last things he saw before he blacked out were Aleph's concerned eyes looking right at him from above.

_________________________________

Aleph laid the three down inside his home, careful not to let any more crystals close to them. This wasn't supposed to happen, he thought.

The lesson was going so well, up until the three fell unconscious. He instantly found the cause: somehow the children had absorbed the mana from inside the crystals. Rayse in particular practically drank in the mana from the crystal near instantly.

Fortunately, none of them exhibited signs of mana poisoning, as is normally the case for most people who come into direct contact with this much mana at once.

Unless… could it be that this is not unique to these three? This was completely new to Aleph. Thinking about it, he was naive to think that mana worked the same way here as it did in his world. It was likely that their physiology reacted differently to mana than his, or maybe mana itself was different here from the mana in his world.

He's been holding a crystal in his hand for a while now, but it was still as bright as it ever was. Magic on this planet evolved in a completely different direction than his previous one, and he was itching to find out the implications of it.

He decided on something reckless. Aleph exited the house and went out back. Once he was far enough away that the children would be safe, he slowly crushed a mana crystal in his hand, hoping that direct contact could help him absorb it. Mana poisoning still concerned him, but he gambled anyway. He watched as the mana escaped and entered a gaseous state, slowly billowing from the crystal in his hand. 

It wasn't painful like he'd expected. His hand felt warm, but it was nowhere near how hot it would have felt if he directly touched a sulfur reacted crystal. The warmth travelled to his chest and settled there, but it was somewhat pleasant. Aleph did note that even with direct contact, he wasn't absorbing nearly as much as the children did. Most of the mana smoke fell harmlessly to the ground.

He wanted to inhale the smoke directly, but thought better of it. Even if mana poisoning wasn't a thing on this planet, it was still worth it to be careful.

Aleph observed the entire process up until the crystal was completely crushed. By his estimation, he absorbed about a quarter of the amount of mana inside it.

He waited for another second, but nothing happened. He considered going back inside when he heard something moving through the woods  near his house.  He turned around and saw huge dogs growling at him, three in total. They bared their fangs at him and charged.

Aleph dodged to the side, but the dogs were nimble. He was surrounded instantly. He took out a mana crystal and a bag of sand. He may not have figured out this world's magic yet, but his old tricks still worked.

He scattered the sand over the dogs as they charged once again, covering them in sulfur. The dogs were disoriented as the sand messed with their vision and irritated their noses. Aleph used that to his advantage. He instantly crushed the fresh crystal in his hand and scattered it before he leaped out of harm's way. Unlike his demonstration, the gas and sand particles in the air combined violently. The cloud turned from colorless into yellow, burning the dogs to the ground. The whining sounds of the dogs  were as dreadful as the heat.

Aleph steered clear of the yellow smoke, waiting for the sulfur to be completely catalyzed.

"How inelegant." He complained to himself. He really should make proper tools soon. He stared at the burnt remains of his attackers, deep in thought. This attack came out of the blue.

Where did these come from? Were they tracking the mana smoke? He resolved to track their source down once he was better equipped.

He went back inside to find that Lacey was already awake. She was sitting up and looking around. It seemed she had just come to. Aleph sat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. That seemed to calm her down.

"How are you feeling?"

"Uhhh… Still a bit confused, to be honest. What happened to us?"

"I'll explain once the rest are awake, but for now I need you to rest. Do you remember what happened?"

Lacey went back to laying down and quietly took stock of her condition.

"Uhh, well, we were sitting in your front yard, holding these crystals. You were teaching us about magic and how mana reacts to different things in different ways… Did the crystals react to our bodies?"

Aleph considered for a moment and said, "That is my theory. The mana here is different from my hometown. It was a toxic substance where I came from, never to be handled directly unless absolutely necessary.

I ran some tests of my own while you were asleep and was able to absorb some mana of my own. I do not deem it to be dangerous, but I would need to observe you all for a bit longer to be sure."

Aleph considered for a moment. He felt that he needed to say something else.

"I… Forgive me, Lacey."

Lacey blinked and turned to him, surprised, before smiling widely.

"Hey, don't worry about it! We're fellow mages now, aren't we? Don't be so stiff!"

"That…heh, I suppose that is true." Aleph chuckled in relief.

"Hahaha, I finally made you laugh! Hey Ray, wake up, I finally got the old man to laugh!" She got up and started shaking her friend awake. The commotion caused Brandon to stir.

"Hey, knock it off, I'm trying to sleep over here." he murmured, half awake.

"H-huh? Is breakfast ready?" Rayse followed suit.

Aleph's home got rowdy all of a sudden. Seeing them all in good condition put him in a good mood. Just to be sure, he felt around in his body for the distinct warmth of mana. It was still there, quietly circulating, its purpose still a mystery. 

It can wait, he decided. He stood up and prepared some tea, feeling for the first time that despite all the uncertainty in his new life, things were going to work out.