As Theo looked intently at the magic circle he felt something cool coming from his necklace and then time started slowing down.

As he blinked he found himself in white space of nothingness, “Hello?”, then a flame suddenly appeared, but it was a white-colored flame, “welcome and congratulations Theodore”, said a voice coming from the flame.

“W-where am I? congratulations on what? Who or what are you?” asked Theo nervously, “You can call me Prim, as for what I am that's a little complicated, I'd like to help you”

“Help me how, or with what?” Prim then answered “I would also like to learn your purpose Theodore, what is it that you want? Why have you awakened me?” Theo looked at the flame and said “Awakened you? When did I do that, and what do you mean what do I want? I don't even know where I am”

“It's very simple, I am a power that resides in your chain, you've been taking small bits of my power without realizing it and just now by seeing the magic spell for mana restoration you have unlocked a part of me with your mana”

Theo stared in silence and thought, ‘So whenever time slowed down it wasn't because of me but because of Prim’ “So how does this work, do I get the slowing time power now?”

There was a sudden chilly laugh that came from Prim “Theodore, I am a very special artifact, what would you like to achieve now that you've awakened me?” Theo thought silently and said “For years I've been jealous of everyone that could awaken, I thought I never would, my goal is to be able to protect my family and go back to them,” Theo said the last part with confidence.

“Very well Theodore, I will be accompanying you on your future adventures, you also don't have to worry about losing me, as we will be bound together as long as you accept our contract”

Theo then nodded and continued to listen, “So let me explain a couple of things, I'm a special artifact, as Ray told you I'm made of Verminium, Verminium artifacts can sometimes hold spells but also skills, just now by trying to study the mana spell Ferdinand showed you, you've awakened the only ability currently in me, the Mana Spirit, this will help you learn and use mana manipulation and restoration spells with much more proficiency, it also works a little different as Mana Spirit is a special ability that you will have to use to improve its power, right now it will start at F tier”

Theo just listened, this all sounded too great to be real, “Theodore do you understand everything I've told you so far?” Prim snapped Theo back and he said, “am yeah, s-so now are you going to be able to talk to me all the time, and how will Mana Spirit help me? What else can you do?”, Prim chuckled and the flame lightly cracked “Patience Theodore, let's learn to crawl before you can walk, we can now communicate whenever you want, also Mana Spirit is an incredible ability that with experience you'll learn to appreciate, now we need to agree on a contract”.

Theo stared and the flame then Prim continued “We will be linked, this will be a blood bond, meaning nothing can take me from you and we will be bonded until you are no longer alive or I am destroyed, you can't rescind from this contract it is for the rest of you life do you understand?” Theo nodded and asked “you can be destroyed? And what if someone takes you from me?” Prim answered “you don't need to worry about that, I can hide within you and only you will be able to see and sense me, as for me being destroyed it is unlikely but possible, so do you agree with these terms?” Theo didn't think about it and blurted out “yes!”.

'If Prim can help me become a true awakened I can survive this easily and come back to my family.

Prim then said, “Theodore walk towards me, right now we're in my domain, which in turn you'll be able to use, place your hand on the flame” Theo did as Prim instructed the flame felt cool to the touch, it started to turn a little blue in the center and then the flame traveled into Theo, it then settled on the right side of his chest, Theo suddenly felt a sharp pain and screamed “Ahhhh!”.

A marking that looked like a < appeared and the pain subsided, “Ok Theodore we are now bonded, would you like to go back now?”

 “wow that hurt, yeah let's go back”, Theo said.

Theo then blinked and he saw Ferdinand staring at him, “Hey, are you ok? You've been in a trance for the past 10min”, Theo thought ‘10 minutes but I was with Prim for a few hours, Prim then spoke in Theo's head “ It felt that way because I can slow time a little bit”, “are you in my head right now?”, “yes we can talk to each other, I can hear some of your thoughts and talk to you without anybody realizing, and right now you should probably tell him you were trying to learn the mana spell”

“Sorry I was just really concentrating on learning the mana circle you showed me,” Theo said, Ferdinand, looked at him and said “well ok, but don't try too hard, to learn mana circle tier one can take a couple of days so don't worry” Theo then said “can you show it to me again?”, “Sure,” said Ferdinand.

He then cast the magic circle, and when Theo looked at it he just felt like he knew it, “congratulations Theodore you have learned:

Mana Restoration

Tier 1 spell

(can restore 10 mana per second)

“Mastery Rank is F the more you use it the stronger the spell can be,” Prim told him.

“Theo then said, “ok I got it” he then extended his hand and cast a magic circle, and activated mana restoration, he could feel mana being pulled into his core and could feel the flow of it.

Ferdinand widened his eyes and said, “Wow, you managed to learn it so fast, congratulations!, You can now use this to help restore your mana but it also serves as a way for your body to get used to the flow of mana, it will be the fastest way for you to catch up”

Prim told Theo, “Now that you have Mana Spirit, mana manipulation will be extremely easy for you, you should work on getting your mana core stronger so you can store more mana, you're currently at 100 mana capacity and that's very low”.