"As I was saying, His Majesty had sailed across upon our only ship. Any important message or report you have the for his lordship will have to wait until he returns himself. Unless, you have a horse crazy enough to brave through Liom, Dharvegawan, kowarre-west and east, just to reach the perpetually snowing kingdom of Draftt. And by then, knowing how many monsters and beasts would delay and delay your journey, most likely, His kingship would've already returned to us here in Par'Talucca." Having said her piece, a dhan who worked within the palace gently bowed before returning to her duties.
Chloe Bedevere and Violet, feeling quite useless as they weren't able to fulfil a certain aspect of their mission, speed. Could only resign themselves into waiting around, and whilst Chloe diligently continued her training, Violet made use of her time finding the best chefs and children of the city. Both partaking and sharing of the exotic sweets as she surrounded herself with food and laughter. Equally enjoying their stay in Par'Talucca as if it were a vacation, Bethel had been tagging along with the dark-elf.
"Violet, can you tilt her head back, knock your nose up slightly higher, peer downwards at others and slowly say Ara Ara~"
Whilst Violet hadn't a clue as to what such sounds meant, she entertained the bubbly-human's wishes. Thrusting her chest upwards as she looked down upon those around, and spoke the magical words. "Ara ara~"
The young men of Par'Talucca hadn't a clue as to why, but their man-hoods all started to rise, propping up their own tents. Bethel clapped in applause as her eyes relished in the atmosphere she had just orchestrated. "The mummy vibes were delicious, thank you Violet." Like a knight, Bethel saluted the woman who was already ignoring everyone else, and back to stuffing her mouth with food as quickly and as gracefully as she could.
...
Over on Chloe Bedevere's side, the half-elf was working up a good sweat as she ran circles around the training grounds. With a quiver that held infinite arrows for as long as her mana-heart could continue beating, as well as a weapon that self-sustained and regenerated itself. The slender-beauty had no worries about her arms and munition, and only had to focus upon her stamina and endurance.
Having visited the women's section in the bathing-area, Clam who was swiftly kicked out now managed to find himself upon the training grounds. Insanely glad to find a friendly face, one that wasn't out to slap the man, he called out.
Inspecting his new appearance, and his awkward attire, Chloe threw out a spare uniform from her storage ring. As it was simply a set that had minor alterations when compared to Trichia's usual uniform, and was meant to be delivered to Asai himself as a demo of sorts before entering the large-scale manufacturing stage for the rest of Trichia, the professionally crafted set of beast-leather was a perfect fit for the man who quickly got changed then and there, out in the open.
Whilst he preferred adorning a heavy set of steel-armour upon his body, as the weight gave him a soothing feeling of safety, Clam found the leather to be highly comfortable, as if his skin was easily breathing through it.
"Your [Mana Heart] is resonating with the clothing, the hide once belonged to a mixture of lycans, bergs and ogres. All beasts that utilized their skin as armour as their mana empowered them, thickened them. What you're feeling right now, get used to it as soon as possible Clam. In battle, you'll need to instinctively imbue it with mana or even a dull blade will pierce you."
Taking his gaze away from his clothing, and meeting Chloe's jet-black eyes, Clam was feeling strangely awkward from the different treatment.
"Why are you telling me these things now? Why not before?"
"You should already know why, you're simply privy to the information now, whilst before, you weren't. It's not something decided by Asai by the way, it's something decreed by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria Del Lagos. People will kill and burn to have what you obtained, by keeping them in the dark, no one can want and lust over a power they aren't even aware of existing."
"I see..."
"If anyone else asks, depending on whether or not they also have mana, you should tell them you received it by goddess Loha's grace and blessing. And that you've always had it, but you simply didn't know how to utilize it, to unlock it until now."
Pulling out a random plate of iron, that was an inch thick, Chloe held it before the human. "The dagger on your hip, use it to attack this. Do it was as much strength as you can summon up."
Doing as instructed, he tightly gripped the dagger with both hands and performed a direct forward thrust. Clashing the tip into the iron-plate and producing nothing as it simply glanced off.
Chloe, with her level 90 status in comparison to Clam's level 75 stats, didn't even move a single inch as she continued to hold the target.
"Good, now breathe, take deep breaths. Imagine a fire or a light that circles and circles, swirling around within the depths of your heart. Imagine it raging, angered that its slumber has been disturbed. Picture it surging out of your heart, into your muscles and through your arms. Imagine it converging and filling your weapon like water, imagine it overflowing, imagine your weapon shake as it struggles to hold such energy. Clam! Open your eyes!"
Clam's eyes opened to find his dagger brimming, shaking violently as his forearms flexed their muscles in an attempt to stay the angry-blade.
"ATTACK NOW!"
Repeating the same motion, he performed a straight, and whilst the prior attack simply bounced off the iron, his current attack tore through the inch-thick plate like a bullet. Blasting the mineral apart like paper as a gust of wind blew through.
"Congratulations Clam, you've managed to summon your mana and imbue it into a weapon for the first time. Exhilarating isn't it? I know~"
Clam, entirely speechless, as he failed to process and compute the feeling and experience into words. As it was simply out of this world, failed to reply whilst Chloe continued to smile upon him, recalling the days Robin Sol had trained her, albeit Robin was a horrible teacher who explained everything as if everyone else had a profound understanding of mana in general.
Tapping upon her chest twice, on the leather armour the Trichia elites wore, she made another order.
"Do it again, except hit me right here." Seeing how confused and worried Clam immediately became, she had to reassure the man. Whilst also inciting his loyalty for hesitating upon receiving an order.
Being pushed into doing so, he performed the slow process of calling forth his mana, feeling the heat and blood drain from his heart, and enter his weapon, he performed another straight, directly aimed at Chloe's chest.
However, as Chloe was actively imbuing her entire being with mana, and with her extraordinarily high agility and evasion stat. Whilst Clam had performed the very same thrust in which he had trained for years to perfect, his strike was off-course and struck one of the half-elf's breasts.
His eyes opened wide in shock, surprise and relief, as he found his weapon bouncing off the girl's breast and failing to leave a single scratch upon the pristine-leather.
"And that, is why Asai continues to utilize monster-hide over steel-plates for defence. It's simply better and much sturdier for us [Mana Heart] owners. Which is why you must get used to wearing lighter-attire from now on, instead of your usual heavy-crap."
Truly, Clam's eyes were opened up to a whole new world. A world that was infinitely beyond him, as his level had stagnated at level 75 for so long, which was the man's level-cap. However, having gone through with the transformation and purification of heart and body, the human now had the chance of chasing after Asai and Robin, up towards the legendary 99.
However, as someone entirely new, and someone without a system to quantify strength and ability. Clam would forever remain in the dark, as to how far the gap still was, when comparing himself to his lord and duke.
"Asai, bro. I'm finally going to catch up to you, I won't be relegated to defence no more..." With such thoughts lingering within his mind, he quickly shot out his next question. "Do we have more of that tree-dew? We should give one to Gary asap!"
Chloe's mind, which was occupied with deciding upon the next training exercise, snapped back to reality as she reminded the man.
"The one you consumed was the only one, didn't Mel say it loud and clear? One of its kind... Perhaps, it might've been the only one to exist within our world." Seeing the man feel somewhat down about his brother-in-arms back in Trichia, who equally went through thoughts of self pity. Chloe tried to cheer the man up. "Don't worry, perhaps you'll find another one, in another dungeon with Asai~"