Xinyan peeked open her eyes.

It was her 30th attempt now, but she couldn't grasp the feeling of the mana.

She glanced over at Yang Mi. 

From her frown, it seemed like she had yet to manage it either. 

Looking over at Elendril, her jaw dropped.

This... this bastard?! He tells me to just "sense" the mana, then he goes to f*cking sleep? Do you have no shame??

Xinyan could feel her fist slowly rising.

A very angry and annoyed expression appeared on her face.

She got up and viciously kicked Elendril in the ribs as hard as she could.

Thud!

Cough!

Elendril jumped back and drew his knife, as he coughed from the kick. 

"Who are you, intruder!"

Xinyan got even more angry.

This guy, did he forget who I was? Me? The girl who saved his sorry ass from the tree!?

"Oh, it's you, Xinyan. What did you kick me so hard for?"

He rubbed his ribs in pain. 

Xinyan got right into his face and started yelling at him.

"You shameless bastard! You tell me to just "feel" mana without any idea of what it feels like, then you just head to sleep like that?? What happened to teaching me and Yang Mi the hunter's technique?"

Elendril stood silently, receiving her angry remarks.

His face remained calm.

In contrast to this calmness, Xinyan's anger made her feel very embarrassed.

For several seconds they stood there, Elendril looking calmly at her, and Xinyan's face growing redder. 

She noticed just how much taller he was than her.

She had to tilt her head almost 45 degrees just to talk to him.

"Hey! Answer me!"

In response, Elendril reached out his hand and tucked in some stray hair behind her right ear.

Her face burned.

"W-What was that for?"

She stammered.

Yang Mi pounced on Xinyan from behind.

She clamped her hand on Xinyan's mouth, and dragged her away, stifling any sounds from Xinyan before Elendril could answer.

Xinyan tried to resist, but because she was so shocked from Elendril she couldn't muster the strength to break free. 

Although surprised by Yang Mi, Elendril answered anyhow. 

"You just reminded me a lot of my old neighbor's cat. She used to have this old cat that always had a terrible temper, but just feed her some fish and she would be the kindest cat in the town for ten minutes!"

Elendril chuckled as he reminisced about the old cat.

Yang Mi desperately dragged Xinyan away, but Xinyan still heard the remark.

Once they reached the other side of the clearing, Yang Mi finally released her hand from Xinyan's mouth.

"Xinyan, calm down! What if you annoy him too much! If he runs away, then not only will our quest be harder to carry out, but the thigh we're hugging will be lost!"

Yang Mi urgently whispered.

Xinyan was close to tears.

"B-but he called me a cat! And an old one! Do I look like a cat to you? He said I seemed like the type of girl who could be satisfied with just fish!"

Xinyan covered her face in embarrassment.

"Yes, yes, you're a babushka cat now!"

Yang Mi said.

Xinyan looked up in confusion.

"I'm a what?"

With a straight face, Yang Mi said matter of factly,

"Babushka means ancient lady."

Xinyan's mouth gaped in shock.

She knew that Yang Mi was not afraid to insult, but wasn't this too savage??

If I was in a manhua and saw myself right now, wouldn't I look like a small chibi with tears streaming down my eyes??

Yang Mi slapped Xinyan heartily on the shoulder.

She had a wide smile on her face.

Xinyan pouted.

"Now that I've fixed you up, let's go back! There's no way you'd not want to hug his thighs, right?"

Xinyan could feel her respect for Yang Mi crumbling, not that there was any to begin with.

With a heavy head, she returned.

Elendril, who had been drawing in the dirt with a branch, looked up as they approached.

"You too are done? Nice. Sooo, I just remembered something else that my dad used to teach my brother to help him get the hang of it. I just didn't remember because it only took me two minutes my first time, so I didn't really pay attention."

Xinyan glared at him.

Now he remembered!

Maybe she should bawl her eyes out every time she wanted something from him!

"Alright, you two. It'll be evening soon, so let's try and grasp mana early so we can practice assimilating with the forest."

She sat down.

He began to pace back and forth.

"The idea is to attach a form of emotion to your mana, so that it is easier to sense. For example, I've associated my mana with calmness. This is usually what most people do. When trying to experience the mana, try to link it to an emotion. Then, only train your mana when you are in that emotion, or force yourself to have that emotion. This is why calmness is usually what people associate "feeling" mana with."

Xinyan stared at him woodenly.

This bastard.

"Are you not getting it? Here's another example. My brother, who didn't have a lot of talent in mana, had to associate his mana with another emotion. So he chose courage. He also told me that he imagined his mana as a raging river flowing through his body, boldly breaking through all obstacles. That should be enough, right?"

Xinyan finally understood.

So she basically had to trick her body into thinking she had mana, and she would have mana. 

She was still curious though.

Why was Elendril's brother a better teacher than Elendril, and he wasn't even here??

She closed her eyes. 

This time, instead of just imagining that she had mana, she did something else.

In her mind, she created an avatar, that was a clone of her body.

Then, she gave this avatar mana that flowed through its veins.

In her mind, it seemed as if time flowed ten times slower as she drew the pathways for the mana to flow through.

Hmm.. What emotion should I give to this avatar?

She thought for a while.

She decided to choose happiness. 

She imagined as if the mana bubbled in excitement, happy to be alive.

This should just be like playing a virtual character inside a virtual character. I just have to overlay the two of them, right?

With a final breath, she blew out. 

And she became the avatar.

Elendril, watching the two of them, nodded.

The two of them had finally managed a basic control over their mana.

Yang Mi had managed to complete it first, as was expected of her being a magician.

If she hadn't been able to control her mana, Elendril would have been at a loss for what to do. 

Xinyan had needed 2 more hours than Yang Mi, but she had still completed it. 

He glanced up at the sky.

It had become evening.

There had been a few monsters that had approached them as they trained, but they were relatively easy to handle. 

Suddenly, from the city, he heard a large bell clanging. 

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A magically enhanced voice exploded from the city walls.

"Everyone, please gather in Falstein. In a few more hours, the first monsters of the monster wave will arrive. By midnight, the monster wave will truly begin. I repeat, please gather in Falstein."

Xinyan opened her eyes.

"It's getting late, let's go back."

Elendril said.

As they returned to the city, Elendril noticed the blue stone around his neck, that had been dull the past week, flashed a brilliant blue once more.

-----(:)-----

"Are you serious?"

Celeste said.

She was in a guest room at the lord's castle.

The three squad leaders were gathered, along with the vice squad leaders and the priest who had the long-distance spell. 

They sat around a large table inlaid with a massive lily. 

It was engraved with golden engravings, and a sword with rays of light stood in the middle of the lily, as if emerging from it.

The priest stood in front of all of them.

He had a simple, shapeless white robe that covered his body.

Right now, he was sweating heavily.

Even though he was a Rank C himself, the pressure of two Rank A's and several Rank B's was not something he could handle.

"Yes, Lady Celeste. That child was likely the heretic described by the residents of Desden."

Celeste frowned.

"So now we have to go find him again?"

"It will create an unnecessary ruckus if we directly search for him."

Damian said.

"Oh, don't worry! From the looks of it, he's an archer, right? We can just lead all soldiers in a big prayer before we head to battle! That'll be enough time to pick him out, right?"

Marielle said. 

"Let's post a bounty for him anyways. Have someone post it in the Adventurer's guild halfway through the monster wave. We don't want to let him know we need to kill him."

Celeste said.

"It's a good thing we found him so quickly. According to my [Identify], he's only level 4, yet he could minimize the effects of the fear debuff. Even geniuses would struggle to stay normal against a Rank A."

Damian said.

"Sigh, Zephyrith really has a good eye for talent, huh?"

Marielle shook her head dramatically, then suddenly perked up.

"But that's not important! Celeste, drink~!"

She quickly grabbed a nearby wine bottle.

Pop!

She uncorked it with her fingernail, and shoved the bottle end up into Celeste's mouth.

"Mph!"

Making sure Celeste drank at least third of it, she pulled the bottle out and swigged from it as well.

"Pah! Now that's how you drink!"