Chapter 292: Like You Mean It

"Don't worry, we can go to the courtyard."

Ned tried to assess the twins and Teklavit. Looking at the twins' reaction, Ned can't help but wonder if since when did Teklavit became their leader-like-figure.

The twins, along with Teklavit, were looking at Ned as if they were full of schemes.

"The twins and I were training in the courtyard whenever we are free."

Teklavit stood and proceeds to the courtyard leaving the roasted meat and the rest. Ned also stopped eating as he saw his energy bar went to full even though he was doing manual labor of serving dishes just a while ago.

The Forgotten Pint, as what the name suggests, at the back of the place was old antiquities the first time Ned had seen. There was furniture made of old woods and was already dusted with having to clean for a long time. They walked to a hallway between the kitchen and Master Claire's room, along the way Ned saw the Questing board the Association was given to the Pint, with half of the Quest almost finished?

As they walked going to the courtyard. The twins talked to Ned about Teklavit. Apparently, his father abandoned him when he was just a kid and was left with his mother to tend with the land owner's farm. But no matter how they forced Teklavit to share the name of his hometown, he never did, as though it was a deep secret he couldn't share with anybody.

Ned entered the courtyard with the sun about to set. The courtyard was lushed with short grasses. It was made to spar since it was wide enough for Ned to ran at his normal speed for about 4 minutes. Although the deep orange sun streamed through the grass, this wasn't enough to change the blow of the wind from chilling to warming.

"Who goes first?" Su'aya asked.

No one knew what the contest about during Hunter's Exam. So, to increase the odds of winning the Exam, the twins, and Teklavit trained their magical core to withstand a longer period of use.

"In my village." Teklavit walked in the middle of the three as he started to explain to Ned about their routine. "The place there is always dry, we would be blessed by the Maker if it rains twice every four months. So, to water our plant, we need to carry a pair of buckets from the nearest river—which was two to three Kil—every day. Anyone who cannot carry twenty buckets a day would have to carry an additional six buckets the next day. Once, I did carry forty buckets. Turns out, it helps with my magical core. So, I asked the twins to conjure a spell but to not use them as though they were buckets that needed to be carried. But instead of length, we changed it to time."

As Teklavit explained their routine, the twins started to conjure their Mana.

Ned was feeling a fresh aura from Su'aya while a strong and compact magical leak from Su'ayan.

Turns out, Su'aya was Wind element type while her twin, Su'ayun, was a Terra magic-user.

But instead of throwing the spell to attack, they formed an orb of their magic on their palms.

Steadying and maintaining for a longer time.

Eventually, Su'aya's orb vanished first like a mist, and a couple of seconds later was followed by Su'ayan.

The two fell onto the grassy ground as they stared at Ned with heavy panting.

"I-Its..." Su'aya said with her lips twitching. "Y-your.. turn now, both of you."

From the start to the point that their mana vanished, it took only five minutes. And the twins were already panting heavily as if their mana reserves has been emptied. Sweat formed on their foreheads as they lie resting on the ground.

"And how about you?" Teklavit went for the twins and offered them water. When did he get a cup of water? Turns out, that behind Ned, near the bricked walls of the Pint was a tall table with a wooden bottle ready to be served.

"How long have you been doing the training?"

Teklavit smiled as he passed by Ned and put the water bottles he offered to the twins and stood a meter apart to his side while the twins stood as they have already rested.

"A month or so."

"Yeah." Su'ayan smiled at Ned. "At first, we could only hold our Mana for a little less than 30 seconds. But as we kept on training with Teklavit. Slowly, little by little, we could hold on much longer."

"It's thanks to Teklavit that we could use our spells much longer than before." Su'aya pointed a finger to Teklavit and said under her heavy breathing, "But seriously, I hate it when you are this commanding."

"Can't help it. My teacher before said to attain feats other couldn't do I must remain focused all the time and if ever I get to help someone, I must not slack off."

Ned can't help but smile as he watched the twins pouting their lips. They seemed to be enjoying their training. Ned hasn't considered before the first time he saw the twins, but their black dress under their white apron looked fashionable fitting on them.

"Then it's your turn." After she shared her concern to Teklavit, Su'ayan turned her gaze to Ned and said with her hands pointing to him, "You too, Ned. If you want to pass the exam, you better do better than him."

Su'ayun stomped her foot as she turned her gaze away from both Ned and Teklavit.

"Let's put you to test then, Ned."

Teklavit moved to the middle of the courtyard and waved his hand to Ned, asking to join him.

This time, Ned can't help it to look at Teklavit and wondered if how was he feeling with his baggy clothing. Doesn't it get in his way?

Ned on the other hand changes his Silk Road to fit his liking. In Sudden Plate—no, in Bogblot Region, even if the sun was high up, it was still cold, so Ned had to increase the thickness of his clothing. He was wearing a long, yet, smooth looking coat with his black boots still intact.

As Ned stared at Teklavit, the grasses around him swayed in different directions, the wind blew like confused: sometimes it came from the bottom, then blew from above. Then, Teklavit formed an orb out of his Mana, swirling above his palm.

Without much of a thought, Ned followed as well, making the air around him hummed as he gathered the mana around his palm. The orb around his palms was colorless with sprinkles of white light rotating around the orb.

[Wow.]

ICE's voice almost took Ned by surprise.

[He is the third being with mana purer than the rest.]

How pure? Ned focused his senses to sense the elf-looking-human (if only his ears were pointy) as he kept on adding more mana in the orb.

[Purer by 15% than the rest we have met so far.]

And who's the second one?

[Your Master. He is by far has the purest mana by 30%.]

The purer the mana the strongest one could conjure a spell.

Looking at Teklavit, with his grinning lips, he sure does make the rest of them looking like a rookie. But then, as soon as he looked at Ned's accumulated mana, his face looked ashen. He knew, and he felt how pure Ned's mana was.

The twins on the other hand stared at Ned with their eyes fixated at him, then back to the orb he was steadily maintaining.

15 minutes have passed and Ned's mana ticked by only five points lower. He thought he could go on for days if the task was only to maintain his mana. But before he was Teklavit, he was relaxed as he stood with steady hands.

20 minutes, then 30 minutes passed, beads started to form on Teklavit's forehead. Ned commends him for maintaining his mana longer than what he had expected. He thought that Teklavit could maintain the spinning orb on his hand not longer than 15 minutes.

Well, he was built quite nicely, Ned thought as he eyed Teklavit's body. He was a bit taller than Ned but was built bigger with visible muscles leaving the gaps of his shirts.

To end their practice, which somewhat turned to a contest, Ned injected more of his mana to the orb, giving a denser look and brighter swirling light.

Not wanting to lose, Teklavit gritted his teeth and added more of his mana, turning the orb mana to that of flaming red.

"Well."

Ned's orb popped as soon as he heard a voice ringing behind him.

Ned cocked an eyebrow to the man standing in one leg, leaning against the edges of the door. He looked at the group with amusements showing his face.

But Ned's orb popped not because he lost focus, but because of the sudden surge of aura that he thought was directed to him.

[For a moment. That aura was similar to someone you have met before.]

Not just that, that Intent was similar to someone who was about to kill, Ned thought as he instinctively raised his hand to conjure a spell to protect himself.

"Master Quentin." The twins bowed in unison and said in unison as they greeted the man.

"Hello, twins," Quentin said gaining a faint blush from the twins. "Well. That was quite a show of control there."

He was looking at Ned as he spoke and he was supposed to be Teklavit's mentor on the upcoming Hunter's Exam. He pulled a silver bottle behind his pocket and started drinking.

"Well," he said as soon as he finished drinking the alcohol. "Since you two were showing off. Why not fight like you mean to kill each other?"