Felix observed the mountainous terrain as Bernard struggled to find his place on his back. The man looked incredibly irritated. After taking a deep breath, he exhaled with equal concentration.

Felix was afflicted, more precisely, he had an incredible "mana vein" defect, which compelled him to constantly use it and not accumulate it, only to replenish and use it again - or he would die. At this moment, he was occupied with it, but above all else:

"Bernard, make up your mind, do you want to sit on my back or crawl on the ground?" Felix said irritably, but Bernard continued nonchalantly.

"Very well, I'll put you down," he continued.

With one hand untying leather straps, he supported the spinning Bernard with the other. When they placed Bernard on the grass, he stared intently into Felix's green eyes and shortly thereafter began to move in an unknown direction, slowly crawling.

"Good, let's continue," Felix turned towards the rock.

A dense accumulation of mana, an aura, gathered at the tips of his fingers. Felix was a third-level knight of the fourth rank. Due to his illness, he couldn't break through to the next level - the fifth rank, even though his aura had long manifested itself as something substantial. However, the amount of mana was utterly insufficient for the fifth rank.

Striking the rock, his fingers penetrated several centimeters deep. He repeated this again and again until half of his mana disappeared from the mana vein. His mana replenished faster than that of an ordinary knight, which was why he often used the aura as a catalyst to remove it. Striking again and again, there was not a single intact spot left on the cliff in front of him, only traces of his strikes.

He turned to Bernard, joyfully and wearily watching him when suddenly he saw the child putting a stone in his mouth.

"Hey, spit it out!" he ran towards him, affectionately trying to take the stone from the child's strong grip.