Chapter 3: An Unexpected Magician

Mary's POV:

I had been so entranced by the waitress that I'd failed to notice she had sat us at a table with another customer. Devin stared intently at the menu and I couldn't help but wonder whether they had anything cheap enough for us. We were expecting to be able to afford beer, but if I could afford something better, I was absolutely going to take it. The man at the table with us swirled his glass, which looked like it contained whiskey, while reading a book. The cover of the book was a plain tan color with no writings. A journal perhaps? The man reading it wore a white cowboy hat that covered his blonde hair. His hair was long for a boy's standard, but it wasn't quite as long as a girls, going down just below his ears in a very messy style. While the style was messy, it actually looked quite clean. In fact, he was probably the cleanest person I'd seen since coming here.

He wore a long sleeve white leather jacket that was trimmed in a tanner brown. If it was something he'd kept from the older world, he'd kept it in very good shape. The frills that hung off it's shoulders seemed to all be intact. His jacket was undone in the middle, to reveal a basic grey shirt.

I hadn't noticed I was staring until I looked up from his jacket to find his hazel colored eyes looking back at me.

"Excuse me, I just hadn't seen such a nice jacket in a long time." I chuckled nervously, grabbing at the beer our waitress had just brought.

He set his book down and continued looking at me, this time rubbing his chin with the hand not holding his glass of whiskey. "You," he exclaimed, "Can use magic, can you not?"

Can he really tell when someone can use magic?! If he knew when someone could use magic, he must be a master that was capable of teaching me more. Even enough to no longer go on those stupid daily missions! "You can tell?" I said, trying to hold in my excitement by taking a sip of beer.

"If you concentrate mana into your eyes, you can see traces of it. I can tell that you've used some magic, or at least mana, within the last few hours by the traces around your arms," he said while inspecting both Devin and I with his eyes.

"Oh? I bet even Alex doesn't know that..." I pondered.

"Your mentor?" The man smiled, with a tint of confusion on his face. "Usually if you are decent with mana manipulation it isn't too hard to know you can enhance senses with mana. If he can use a few spells, he probably already knows this."

"Nope, he can't use any spells. He only uses mana!" I said, attempting to create a comfortable atmosphere through my own enthusiasm. The more the man felt comfortable, the more likely he'd spill his magical secrets.

"He isn't much a mentor as much as someone who provides occasional advice while she reads a book on magic." Devin said, clearly annoyed his beer hadn't come yet. While the tavern was less reckless than most bars, there were still customers who bumped into each other and the waitresses. Devin's beer had fallen victim of a stumbling intoxicated customer before making it to our table.

"That's true," I said, "Plus I've only been at it for about a week so I can't do a full spell. Best I'm good for is a bright light and a glass of water." I nodded as I talked, eyes half closed as in reluctance. When I opened them fully, I saw the man's eyebrows raised slightly and he was staring at me, blinking on almost scripted intervals.

"You do realize that most people take two months before they can use their first spell? And that's if they can make mana take the shape of something like water after a month. To get there in only a week is insane." The man with the white jacket stated. "Perhaps you've lost track of time?" he said with a struggling smile on his face.

I looked at Devin who began, "No, it's been 8 days. We've been trying to change our hunting grounds and have been counting how much we spend on each day's rations while doing so."

"Well... I'm not sure I believe you to be honest. How about this, my name is Jeremiah, I work for the council and am an accomplished mage in the tower. If you can prove to me that you have a knack for magic, I'll teach you a few spells in exchange for information on how you were able to manipulate mana so quickly." The man began sitting up straighter and took on the impression of being an official compared to the lazy reader he displayed before.

"And how do I prove myself?" I asked, trying to hold in my excitement.

"Simple," he stated. "I'll give you a brief description of a spell, if you can learn it in two weeks, I'll take your word that you are truly gifted in learning magic."

"Deal" I held out my hand.

"Deal, Ms.?"

"Mary, and this oaf is my boyfriend, Devin," I smiled drunkenly.

"Okay, Ms. Mary," Jeremiah turned to face the green haired waiter who was a few tables away. "Claire! Be a doll and get me a pen and paper please!"

The hairs on the back of my neck jumped as he said "doll" and death felt more like a close friend than the distant acquaintance I had hoped death would be. Without saying a word, the waitress, now known as Claire, approached the table taking her notepad and pen from her apron. Her average-tip smile never left her face as, in one smooth motion, she set the items on the table while also picking up the wallet that Jeremiah had left sitting on the table. 

"Wha-- That's..." Jeremiah reached for the waitress who had nonchalantly headed for the kitchen, all while inspecting each bill against the light, as if she expected them to be fake. 

"That's an expensive pen," Devin smirked. Jeremiah uncomfortably smiled at him before beginning to draw on the notepad. 

"My mood has been spoiled, instead of giving you a spell, I'll give you something much more difficult!" I didn't believe him. I can't quite put my finger on it, whether it was the interactions I'd had with him up until this moment, or whether it was the exaggerated smirk that was now on Jeremiah's face. I felt as though what he was going to demand I display in two weeks was going to be the same regardless of what interactions led to this moment. 

"Mana, as you may know, is the natural energy that flows in our body. And as such, that natural energy has learned how our body works just from being within a person for an extended period of time. When properly expelled onto another person, the mana will heal their wounds. It's not a spell, but it is manipulation of mana that most beginners find very difficult to learn. If you do it properly, a person's wounds will heal. If done incorrectly, your mana will attack their mana from the inside. Of course, if you disrupt your own output of mana, the expelled mana that was once yours, will seek refuge in the patient's body and become their mana. The mana on its own will not heal a person, so while cancelling it would be the same as giving someone mana, it won't heal them."

Natural energy. Alex wasn't far off actually. I thought most of his comparisons and lessons were elaborate descriptions of simple mechanics, but this was actually pretty close. Alex had compared mana to being a physical manifestation of one's emotions. 

He explained that creating a surge of emotions would allow a person to control a large quantity of it, but because of those swelling emotions, they would struggle to keep the image in their mind and eventually lose control. The same way that people would trash talk an opponent in a fight. While the person would certainly throw harder punches because of their rage, they would also make clumsy mistakes because they are also blinded by rage.

Could I get even better if I imagined mana, not as emotions, but as some natural energy? To be honest, this was a much vaguer description. I could pretty easily imagine my rage or love travelling throughout my body, but natural energy? Should I imagine what it feels like to be a fortune teller reading and manipulating the 'signs' of the universe? I don't understand the nature that I can see, I doubt I'd master nature that I can't see. 

In my slightly drunken state, I clumsily grabbed Devins hands, nearly making him fall as he had been leaning his face on them. I also grabbed the pen that Jeremiah had been holding. I lightly pricked the end of two of Devin's fingers with the pen, one on each hand. It wasn't enough to hurt him, but enough to draw blood. 

I then held up two of my own fingers. All the while the two men looked at me like a crazy person. My left finger approached Devin's as I began thinking of a natural healing ball of energy. Honestly, all my video game addict brain could think of was a tree like druid casting a green aura to heal people. I imagined a green aura radiating nature from my finger in what I could best describe as a 'healing' feeling. Because it was just manipulating mana, and not creating a physical representation like a spell, I didn't actually need to think of the effect the mana would have. 

When I opened my eyes, Devin's finger was still slightly dripping in blood. His eyes were also shooting daggers at me. Ignoring the oaf, I reached my right finger towards his other hand. 

"Even though it's just a prick on his finger, this usually takes another month even for people who have been able to cast spells," Jeremiah said, pulling out a small roll of gauze he had kept in his item bag. 

Still ignoring the both of them, I needed to imagine an emotion forming on the tip of my finger. What emotion was strongest now? The annoyance the two men were somehow giving me, probably for not believing in me? Maybe the tiredness that had been pulling my shoulders down, day in and day out. 

Nope, right now the strongest emotion I felt was glee from being able to spend at least one night, drunk off my ass and not giving a damn about anything. Admittedly, I had a ways to go before I was falling down drunk. I imagined that warm emotion spreading its glee to the area around my finger. When I opened my eyes, there was a small green ball of light at the tip of my finger, with what looked like a tail coming from the ball and wisping towards Devin's finger. 

"Hehe!" I reached over Devin's arms that were still laid out in front of him. I grabbed his beer, which had finally just arrived, and downed it in one long swig. Leaving both the men speechless.