—Two months later.
"I think you both are ready for our next topic, also your most awaited topic Alstair, "Mana control," Zeydris said looking at both Lucian and then his gaze finally landing on Alstair.
Alstair's eyes sparkled, but then a sudden realization struck him. "Ummm, teach, I haven't awakened my sigil. How can I use mana without it?"
"We are going to awaken your sigil forcefully," Zeydris stated as if it were a casual fact.
Both Lucian and Alstair looked at him dumbfoundedly. "I-is that even possible?" Lucian asked.
"Yes, it is," Zeydris said.
"H-how?" this time Alstair asked.
"You will see when we get there. I've made preparations for it." Zeydris answered again, a smirk played on his face.
Seeing this, Lucian looked at Alstair with pity. By now, they both knew that whenever Zeydris had that smirk or grin on his face, things wouldn't end well for them.
And then there was Alstair, regretting his decision to stay here. He now knew he shouldn't have asked that question at the start of their first lesson three months ago.
"Let's get going then." Zeydris started to leave, and soon, with a defeated look, both Lucian and Alstair followed him quietly.
'Just when we got out of one hell, next thing we know is that there is another one!' Alstair started groaning and questioning his foolish decision.
'We are safe from the monsters of the abyss...but who would save us from this monster?' he thought again.
But Lucian and Alstair didn't voice it out, or else who knew if they did, what that monster in the form of a human would make them do!.
So they quietly followed behind him. They passed through the centre of the ruined town and were heading towards the outskirts of the town.
After walking for about half an hour, they reached a place with isolated, greyish sand everywhere. It was like they were in a desert of grey sands, and the dark sky of the abyss added a more eerie vibe to it. They could see the town just behind them and a desert right in front of them, and between that, they stood in front of a bunker.
"We are here," Zeydris announced, his voice as impassive as ever.
"This bunker?" Lucian asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Yes, I've been preparing this for the past months. Hope you both enjoy it." Zeydris said as he opened the gate to the bunker.
The instant he did so, mana started to leak out of the bunker. "Now go on, you wouldn't want the mana to be wasted, right?"
Alstair might only feel like it was a huge amount of mana, but Lucian felt it differently,
'This mana….it's potent, raw….and what's with this much amount of mana?! I've never seen this much mana gathered in one place…' Lucian thought, but he recovered from his stupor soon and without hesitation, he straight up charged inside the bunker. Alstair followed him.
After both of them entered, Zeydris joined them as he closed the gate and came inside.
Lucian and Alstair were shocked to see the sight in front of them. They thought it was only a high quantity of mana, but what they saw was even more astonishing.
Inside the bunker was a pool full of liquefied mana of high-density.
"H-how did you even arrange this?! Surely enough, it can't be natural!" Alstair asked as he turned to face Zeydris.
Zeydris looked at him then back at the pool in front of him, "Of course it ain't natural. If it was, it would have been emptied ages ago; even the abyss monsters aren't fool enough to let this kind of potent liquefied mana remain untouched. This ain't some kind of fantasy novel you read where the main character stumbles upon a high-density mana zone accidentally."
"I was preparing this bunker and this mana for your training. For the first half of the preparation, I killed the abyss monsters and collected their cores. After that, my second preparation was to build this bunker. After I made this bunker, I crushed every single core I had obtained and compressed them to make this high-density liquefied mana pool."
"J-just how many monsters did you even kill to get this much amount of liquefied mana?!" this time Lucian asked.
"I don't remember properly, but it took around fifty thousand mana cores to make this much liquefied mana, so yeah, around that many, I guess.
'That's fking genocide!!' Lucian and Alstair thought at the same time.
'I was correct with my guess, huh? The moment he said that the figure I met back then was a Myriarch and he was friends with him, I knew he had to be at least six thousand plus years old and on the same level as other Myriarchs. This just confirmed my theory, ' Lucian said in his head.
'I guess it wasn't a bad idea to stay here and get trained by him after all. Being taught by a Myriarch-like being, who can bend realities itself is truly a blessing…..but this blessing came in the form of a monster-like teacher I guess.' Lucian thought and nodded to himself.
"Now let me explain how you are going to form a sigil, Alstair," Zeydris said as he looked at alstair. Alstair straightened up and paid full attention.
"Do you guys know how sigils are formed? Zeydris asked.
Both Lucian and Alstair thought for a bit, then Alstair spoke to answer, "Sigils are formed after our body forms mana veins and cells. After they are formed, the mana cells start to take the form of sigils after absorbing the mana our body absorbs unconsciously. Every single person in the world unconsciously absorbs the mana from the surroundings."
"Though forming a sigil depends on how much mana they absorb unconsciously and how well-defined their mana veins are. Generally, mana veins fully are formed between the age of eighteen or nineteen, and they general age for forming a sigil is eighteen to twenty-five."
"In case a person couldn't form a sigil before the age of twenty-five, it happens due to the mana cells in the body dying as they couldn't fully form a Sigil that could circulate those cells, here you can take a sigil similar to heart, sigil helps to circulate, pump, store and refine the mana absorbed by the mana cells. So, without the sigil as a catalyst, mana cells die after a certain time."
"Good." Zeydris gave a look of approval to Alstair.
" As you said, until your mana veins and sigil are formed, you can't use mana. So what I am going to do is make you absorb the raw and potent mana here forcefully to build your mana veins and force them to absorb more mana so new mana cells can form quickly, and to that, they will form your sigil." Zeydris explained.
Hearing his explanation, Alstair gulped his saliva and asked, "I-is it going to hurt?"
Zeydris tilted his head and thought for a bit and then spoke, "Maybe a little."
Then, without waiting for Alstair's reply, Zeydris grabbed his collar and pulled him inside the pool. He then looked at Lucian and said, "You should absorb as much as you can and try to advance to the next rank or unlock your stars as much as possible."
"I'll go and give that brat a hand," Zeydris stated, and he started to go where Alstair was.
Lucian looked at the scene, and then he, too, went inside the pool, but he chose to stay in a corner. 'I don't want to get caught in the mess that may happen, Alstair, my friend, you are in this alone.' Lucian prayed and pitied his friend.
Then he dived deep into the pool after inhaling oxygen. After he reached the pool's bottom, he sat in the lotus position and started to meditate by absorbing the potent liquefied mana.
Though he still kept his hearing sharp, just in case something happened.
Meanwhile, a bit of distance from Lucian, Alstair too sat in a lotus position and behind him was Zeydris, who put his palm on Alstair's back.
With Zeydris's help Alstair was able to concentrate more and absorb the mana properly.
Just then, Zeydris said, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something. You only get one try. If you fail to form your veins and sigil, the best case is that you'll be crippled forever. Worst case, your body will explode. So don't lose focus."
Alstair froze.
"W-what?!" he nearly shouted, but Zeydris was already focused on the process.
The training had officially begun.