For Sylvie, life recently had been pretty different.
Things had changed inside her, and she was well aware of them.
‘Child.’
She had been constantly dreaming about someone whenever she slept. There would always be a silhouette that had been appearing, and the silhouette would look [Divine].
Their voice would be holy, and Sylvie would be in a trance whenever they appeared.
There was also another change inside her. In her status window, Sylvie could see one of her [Traits] had changed.
A trait that had always been a mystery to her was now awakened.
[First Lord’s Authority]
That was what it wrote on the status window, and she knew that power was related to this trait.
She intuitively knew the powers lying inside her. She could sense them. She was also well aware that her abilities were all enhanced.
If before she was having a hard time healing people and using her mana smoothly, now she didn’t have a hard time.
Whenever she had wished for something, the wound would disappear. It was truly a miraculous scene. She could also see the feelings of people in a lot more detail now, and she could understand them a lot better as well.
At first, it was a little overwhelming to see all those different feelings and thoughts of people. Especially the first days had been tiring.
But after a week had passed, she no longer felt overwhelmed.
But that wasn’t the end. She knew the powers inside her were meant to be different. She could sense instinctively that she had now become someone very important.
Of course, she didn’t mention anything to anybody related to her powers and kept them inside since something was telling her that she should never trust people. Especially from the moment she had seen Danielle and the feelings she had harbored.
However, now she had a different problem than all of that before.
The two people bickering in front of her, her teammates.
One of them was Astron, the boy she somehow had the weirdest interactions and the other one was a girl she only knew outside.
Irina was a girl she never thought she would talk to, and she also never wished to. After all, she was well aware of how this girl’s feelings suddenly erupted out of nowhere.
The fury and the hatred she possessed rivaled Astron’s, but if one thing was different, then that would be the fact that she always showed it rather than hiding it like him.
And, in the midst of these two volcanos, she was trapped.
‘Why am I with these two?’
She asked herself, but the answer didn’t come.
“If you could go alone, why do you think they put us in a team? Did you forget what happened in the first dungeon?”
“…..I didn’t.”
Seeing their bickering, she couldn’t help but feel like this wouldn’t go anywhere.
‘I need to do something.’
She knew she needed to do something, but at the same time, she felt scared.
‘No.’
However, she swore to herself that she wouldn’t stay as her weak self anymore, not after what she had seen. Though, things were never as easy as they seemed.
“S-Seriously, can we, um, focus on the a-a-assignment?” She stammered, her voice barely audible amid the continued bickering of Irina and Astron.
‘!’
The moment she spoke, both Astron and Irina turned to look at her. Irina’s fiery gaze clashed with Sylvie’s anxious eyes while Astron’s more indifferent expression bore into her.
“I don’t need someone who can’t even defend themselves properly,” Irina scoffed.
“You are the one to talk. Did you forget who saved you last time?” Astron shot back.
“Tch. You don’t need to rub it every time.”
“It is not like I want to. It is just that someone seems to forget things quite often.”
“Right….At least I am not escaping.”
“Better than setting everything on fire when I get annoyed.”
“…..”
‘What is this?’
As Sylvie observed their exchange, annoyance started to bubble within her.
‘He is enjoying it?’
It was not just the bickering that bothered her but the fact that Astron seemed to be enjoying this banter with Irina.
‘When I am trying my best to keep them together?’
It felt like she was standing there, invisible and unheard.
‘Why can’t they see I’m trying to help?’ she thought, her frustration growing.
The frustration within Sylvie reached its peak, and with a sudden burst of courage, she interjected with a loud shout, “Enough!”
Both Irina and Astron turned their attention to Sylvie, surprised by the sudden outburst. Even the ambient mana in the room seemed to quiver momentarily as if to respond to her emotions.
Astron’s eyes were especially wider than Irina’s as if he had realized something different with Sylvie.
Irina also gave a surprised reaction as, being a mage that sensitive to mana, she could easily see the fluctuations that were happening around them.
‘There was someone like this in the lower ranks?’
Irina was well aware of the powerhouses in the academy since she was forced to study them, but she had never heard about this girl.
‘Sylvie Gracewind, huh? Interesting.’
“I-I mean, c-can’t we just work together?” Sylvie continued, her voice wavering but determined. “We are a team, and arguing like this won’t help us with the assignment. We need to cooperate.”
However, at that second, she had returned to her usual state.
‘Does she not know how to control it?’ Irina thought, looking at Sylvie.
Sylvie’s sudden burst of courage seemed to dissipate as quickly as it appeared, and a blush crept up her cheeks. The attention from both Irina and Astron made her feel self-conscious. It was evident that the stage she was in was just. Before was unnatural and came from her heart.
“I-I mean, um, sorry if I shouted. I just thought, you know, we should try to get along,” Sylvie stammered, her gaze shifting nervously between her teammates.
‘How amusing.’
For some reason, seeing the girl’s innocence, Irina felt refreshed.
‘It had been a while since I felt like this.’
It was a weird feeling that she got as if being in the presence of this girl made her heart calm. She turned to look at Astron, only to see him with his brows knitted.
‘Sigh….This guy never takes a step back.’
Knowing this, she knew the more they bickered, the more things would be pointless. Contrary to this guy, she needed to get good grades in each assignment, and she needed to keep herself from trying to give an answer every time.
Even without herself knowing, slowly, she was becoming a different person with each interaction.
“Sigh….Let’s calm down, as she said,” Irina remarked, her voice adopting a more resigned tone. She glanced at Astron, her fiery gaze softening slightly. “We’re stuck in the same team for now, and there’s no changing that. Might as well make the best of it.”
Astron, though still wearing a hint of irritation on his face, nodded in agreement. “Seems like someone finally got their act together.”
‘Tch…Bastard, you will never let me have the last word, won’t you?’
Even though his words stung a little, she simply swallowed her pride and started walking towards the forest.
As they walked, Irina took a moment to explain the task at hand. “Our goal is to find Mana Formulas hidden within the forest, just as the instructor said. Do you know how to use Mana Observation?” Turning her head to the other two, she asked.
Sylvie and Astron exchanged a glance before shaking their heads in unison. The concept of Mana Observation was foreign to both of them.
For Sylvie, it was because she had never needed to use mana in this manner; neither had she had any desire to do so.
For Astron, it was mostly because he relied on his [Skill] rather than using the raw mana to enhance his vision and also because he partly came from another world, though Irina had no way of knowing that.
Irina sighed, recognizing the knowledge gap. “Mana Observation is a basic technique for a mage. As you’ve been learning spells and magic, you need to see the world through the eyes of mana.”
‘Is that why I was matched with these two?’
The Academy certainly had a way of doing things. She knew she didn’t need any teammates from the start since she could find the magic formulas on her own. However, now she felt like she was slowly understanding the purpose of this test.
‘Are they trying to make use of high-ranking students to teach others at the same time? It is quite clever.’
She laughed her chest with pride, knowing that the academy regarded her as a high-ranking member. After her last conversation with Seraphina, her confidence got a small hit, but with this, she returned to her usual self.
‘Anyway, I should continue.’
She continued, explaining the intricacies of the technique. “It’s not as simple as it seems. You need to infuse your mana into your eyes effectively. This enhances your neurons and the receptors that capture light, specifically attuning them to mana signals.”
Irina glanced at Sylvie and Astron, gauging their understanding. “Magic Formulas are crafted from pure mana. Normally, our eyes are designed to receive information transmitted by light. That’s why a regular person wouldn’t see mana unless it turns itself into light. But when you apply mana specifically to your eyes, the receptors become receptive to mana signals, allowing you to perceive raw mana.”
She took a deep breath, considering the significance of this information. “So, to find these Mana Formulas, we need to use Mana Observation. It’s not optional; it’s crucial for this task. Let me show you how to do it.”
Irina slowed her pace, allowing the others to catch up. As they continued through the forest, she demonstrated the process of Mana Observation. “Focus on the mana around you. Picture it flowing through your surroundings, and then channel your own mana into your eyes. It’s about attuning your senses to the mana wavelengths present in the forest. Try it. It might take some practice, but it’s a fundamental skill for any Hunter, let alone a mage.”
‘Humph. You should thank the academy that for having me at the party instead of other high-ranking students specializing in close combat.’ She thought with a smile.
“You don’t need to be successful on the first try; it is okay to struggle. Even the mages would-”
She was about to elaborate that even though it sounded easy to make, in reality, it wasn’t, but at that second, her whole belief shattered.
“Umm…Like this?”
The girl she thought to be cute and innocent appeared to be a hidden dragon.
‘What?’