XXXI

  Kaz woke up to bright lighting, his eyes immediately squinting. He was confused as to where he was, as he tried to get up from his bed. Sharp pain struck his head, and he hissed, falling back into the bed.

  “I would take it easy, young one,” a soft voice spoke out to him.

  Squinting his eyes even more, he tilted his head to the side from where the voice came from and noticed a slightly older Human male looking back at him. Kaz rasped out, “Where am I?”

  “You are currently in the Academy’s infirmary. You have sustained quite the mana poisoning,” the Human calmly answered his question.

  Kaz grunted as he tried to rack his memory. How did he end up here? And what is mana poisoning?

  It came rushing back to him, the meeting with the Elder, to him walking out, getting bullied by the group led by Nahan Faedusk, their fight in the courtyard, and then everything going black. What happened to cause him to lose consciousness?

  “Mana poisoning happens when someone is exposed to an overload of mana, causing someone to potentially lose feeling of their body, feeling of nausea, and/or lose consciousness,” explained the older Human.

  Looking dumbly at the Healer, or was he a Mage? Kaz muttered out, his voice regaining strength, “Who are you?” He winced after saying that, as it sounded quite disrespectful.

  The older Human took no offence, as he simply chuckled and replied to him, “My name is Karios, and I am currently the Academy’s Cleric who helps with injured or sick students. Although I must say, I haven’t had a student who has had mana poisoning to your degree.”

  Laying numbly in his bed, Kaz looked at the ceiling, processing everything that happened recently and what the Cleric just told him. He managed to get dragged into an altercation that wasn’t started by him, and yet he was the one who ended up in the infirmary, and it wasn’t even because he got beat in the little skirmish. What caused the mana overload that silenced his own mana, and also managed to take him out? He decided to test his luck with the Cleric.

  He politely asked this time, hoping to be nicer to make up for earlier unintended rudeness, “What caused the mana poisoning? I know I was in a little… disagreement with the other group, but suddenly I felt this overwhelming pressure, and I lost consciousness.”

  The Cleric rubbed his chin, clearly trying to find the right words to explain, “I am not entirely sure, as I was not present during your altercation with the Faedusk boy and his little group. But from my understanding, Elder Aelon was called upon by the Mage Guards, as they were hesitant to get involved with someone of Faedusk’s standing. I am not sure if you are aware, but Elder Aelon has one of the most influential standings not only in Sarus, but the whole Realm, so dealing with someone like Nahan Faedusk is not detrimental to himself.”

  Kaz nodded, following along, prompting the Cleric to continue talking, which is something he seemed to enjoy as he was just spewing words at Kaz, who was honestly thankful for this, as he was getting more information than he bargained for.

  Karios continued, “So when Elder Aelon strolled into the scene, he flared his own mana, mind you, I am not too sure on this Ability as I am only a simple Cleric, but essentially his mana dominated all other mana in the vicinity, essentially snuffing everyone’s mana out. And from my theories, your mana core was exposed to too much of this mana, causing it to overwhelm you, resulting in your loss of consciousness. Your abdominal area above your mana core was extremely inflamed, which was an interesting result of the mana poisoning, something I have never seen before.”

  This gave some food for thought for him. This isn’t the first time he has experienced pain from being in the presence of too much mana, especially with the pain originating from his mana core. Wasn’t this common though? Why did it only happen to him. He decided to ask his questions, “So why do you think that is? I have noticed I am quite… sensitive to high quantities of mana.”

  “Hmm, that is an interesting question. Most people are sensitive to mana, especially those who do not possess Mana Points as their Ability Source. It is also potentially due to the fact of your Mana Points being quite low, and suddenly being overwhelmed by the sheer difference of it could cause such a reaction. If I may ask, how much Mana Points did you possess at your Awakening and currently how much you possess now along with your Resonance?”

  Alarm bells went off in Kaz’s head, as usually people didn’t ask for such detailed information, but he quickly ignored the warning, as this was a Cleric who was clearly looking to help him out. After some hesitation, which the Cleric noticed, Karios quickly spoke up, waving a hands at him, “Don’t tell me if you’re not comfortable with it, I was just merely getting lost in the potential of the theory that I didn’t realize how personal such a question is.”

  Calmly, Kaz before responding to him, first checked his [ Archive ] to see if anything has changed, which it didn’t, he replied, “Do not worry, I know you have no ill intent, I was just slightly taken aback by it. I started with 50 Mana Points, and I currently have 92 Mana Points at 15 Resonance.”

  The Cleric immediately paled at that, slightly slumping back in his seat. Kaz was alarmed by his response, which caused him to jerk up, sending a huge jolt of pain throughout him, causing him to hiss, but he couldn’t understand the Cleric’s reaction. He quickly asked the Cleric, his voice rising slightly, “What’s wrong? Is there something bad with what I just said?”

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  “Usually, a normal person, in your case Kaz, a Gnome, would begin with something around 100 Mana Points, and then gain an average of one to two Mana Points per tier of Resonance. And for someone like Karios, a Cleric, they begin with roughly around 50 Mana Points and also gain one to two Mana Points per tier of Resonance,” a familiar voice cut through the room.

  Whipping his head to the source of the voice, Kaz saw Elder Aelon standing there with a grin on his face, and he quickly panned over to the Cleric, who seemed almost ready to pass out, overstimulated from the information Kaz provided along with the appearance of the Elder.

  “You know, Kaz, I am quite intrigued with you. I noticed something different about you from when my eyes first landed on you, and you keep surprising me, which is a rarity these days,” he spoke up again, his eyes glinting in amusement.

  Kaz blushed, his face and ears turning a light red color, and he instinctively reached to bring his hood over his face, but he noticed he wasn’t wearing it at the moment. He quickly looked around in a short burst of panic but saw it on a chair near his bed, instantly relieving him of his sporadic bout of anxiety. Kaz replied to the Elder, uttering quietly, “I am anything but intriguing, Elder Aelon. Everything in my life is a curse at the moment, so I apologize in not sharing your opinion at the moment.” Kaz bowed his head in shame, feeling upset at the dark thoughts flowing through his mind at the moment.

  With an amused grunt, the Mage Elder approached the bed, taking a seat next the Cleric, who had managed to regain his senses, and he swiftly straightened when the Elder took a seat next to him, Karios lowering head into a half bow to show his respect. The Elder simply waved his hand, excusing the Cleric from his sign of respect.

  “While it may seem like everything has been a curse for you Kaz, you contain a potential that I have not seen yet. From reports that I have gathered of the incident, you managed to hold your own against students who are both around and above your tier of Resonance. Those students were those who have Awakened the previous year, and yet they still are no match for someone like you. Is that a curse?” The Elder looked intently at Kaz, smugly grinning at him again.

  Simply nodding, he didn’t trust his own voice to respond to that. The Elder knew of his previous trials and tribulations, so he didn’t feel the need to explain himself again. He decided to address the looming question that has been putting his emotions into unease, “What will happen to me, Elder Aelon? What punishment awaits me for attacking Nahan Faedusk?”

  “The only punishment awaiting you will be attention, which is one of the worst kinds of punishment you could receive,” the Elder answered ominously.

  The temperature in the room seemed to drop and the silence was deafening. Kaz decided to look outside the windows, sighing as he realized what the Elder was implying.

  Essentially, he wouldn’t be punished, but everyone would know about this altercation, and most likely Nahan would have to explain himself to his family, which apparently had some influence in this town. Was it only in this town or the whole Realm?

  “Elder, the Faedusk family, I do not know about them if I am being honest. Are they truly a family that have massive influence?”

  “Regrettably for you, the House of Faedusk is one of the most influential Houses in the whole Realm. They have direct connections to the royal family that currently rule over our Realm, along with some connections to various Factions in this Stratum. Nahan’s direct household is not that influential to be fair, but Nahan gets along well with Maxian Faedusk, who is the son of the current head of the House of Faedusk, and also your age.”

  The revelation sunk in, draining him from all feelings, causing him to feel hollow and cold.

  He made a mistake.

  The Cleric chose that moment to add his input to the conversation, assuring Kaz, “Young master Kaz, as someone who is witnessing your rise, and all the information presented to me, I would not worry myself over something like this. Sure, you made Nahan lose some face during your little skirmish, but at the end of the day, you are still relatively children discovering themselves. So, the important ones of their House will not even acknowledge this small incident, as them retaliating over something so trivial will only degrade their own Honor.”

  Kaz nodded absentmindedly, as to him, he felt the Cleric was missing the whole point, something that he picked up from the Elder’s simple yet thought provoking statement. Attention. This means that wherever the House of Faedusk has influence, they will most likely keep an eye on him, and could potentially try to interfere in the background, considering their influence. They will not attack him directly. They will make his life difficult.

  With a deep sigh and a quick shake of his head, he simply gave a halfhearted smile to the Cleric. He nodded to the Elder, confirming that he understood the underlying message, to keep his eyes open and be wary of any places that have direct connections to the Faedusk, which meant more tiptoeing around for him. He thought that he left that behind in Forith, but like he thought earlier, his life was simply a curse.

  Gingerly exiting his bed, he stretched, groaning at the soreness his whole body felt, which was odd as he thought it was just his mana core. He asked the Cleric, “Am I good to go now?”

  Karios nodded rapidly, remembering that Kaz was a patient in his infirmary. Kaz gave a deep bow to both the Elder and Karios, put on his brown robe and grabbed his glaive, ready to leave this Academy and go on his journey to complete his Quests, feeling the need to deal some damage to monsters.

  As he left the relatively small room, which felt inviting for an infirmary, he quickly put up his brown hood, keeping his head down. He had one problem though, as he didn’t know where he was, and how to exit the Academy. He noticed a student, who froze when Kaz approached her, but quickly pointed to the exit when Kaz asked for directions, scurrying away after Kaz faced away from her.

  ? ? ?

  Back in the infirmary, the two old people sat back, contemplating the Gnome who seemed to shake things up in their small Academy. The Cleric spoke up first, “That kid will be something one day, hopefully he makes it to that point.”

  The Elder nodded thoughtfully, “This Realm will be too small for him in the coming years, or even year, which is highly abnormal. Still, something seems off about him, and I cannot piece it together. I hope for the day I am able to understand him and his strength curve, as he does not have the natural progression of the people of this Realm.”

  The Cleric nodded back at the Elder, amazed at the young Gnome’s potential. If the Elder, who was one of the strongest Mages in this Realm who was claimed to be around the tiers just over 150, felt this way and praised him so much, then he could only imagine the potential.

  “Is it true he fended off Nahan Faedusk and his group?”

  The Elder nodded, chuckling lightly but his voice became serious, “From the reports, he could’ve easily defeated the group of five, who are older by a year, and displayed Abilities someone his tier of Resonance shouldn’t possess. The most impressive aspect of it all was the restraint he showed, only firing one [ Mana Burst ] during that whole encounter. The [ Mana Burst ] was fueled by something more than just any normal affinity, which begs to question, what else is in his mana besides his affinity, and what does the young prodigy really possess?”