Vance spent the rest of the day at home with the McKinnley family. The boys recounted their successes and failures in the tests, and those of the group, to Nathaniel.

Vance could hear the pride in Nathaniel's voice as he showered his son with praise for having kept up with the second-year students. Nathaniel didn't forget about Vance, giving him the same congratulations and offering thanks for his time spent assisting James.

At some point during the conversation, Vance brought up the deed. Nathaniel had been a member of the nobility for a long time, so he was well armed to answer his questions.

Vance learned that with that deed, his family had ownership of a small plot of land, roughly ten acres in total. It described the long, narrow strip of land upon which their home stood in Wethermane and the small piece of the forested region behind it. According to Nathaniel, this would afford them several benefits.

First and foremost, they no longer had to pay for their lodgings. Their home, which their father had previously paid yearly for, was now theirs. Secondly, while they still had to pay taxes to the empire, they would not be required to pay taxes to the local government, in this case, the mayoress.

In addition, they had the right to build, demolish, harvest or otherwise use the land however they saw fit. This point was largely already true for them considering the nature of their environment, but landowners always had the final say on these matters. If, for example, Vance wanted to go and start a farm on that land, nobody had the right to stop him.

Vance began mentally planning a trip back to Wethermane almost immediately. He had a few things to take care of in the city before he could spare the time to leave but was eager to get the deed into Leon's hands.

That evening, Vance quashed the flames in his core, freeing up his willpower. Now that he had some time, he wanted to perform a test of his own. First, he slowly spread out his mana sense. He felt it pass through the walls of his bedroom and spread it out experimentally into the home.

The walls and doors of the building offered him only the slightest hint of resistance. Many times before now, Vance had explored a building with his mana sense. This time, he was able to mentally traverse every room in the McKinnley estate with little effort. It was only when he reached the far corners of the structure that the natural mana of things began to conceal itself from him once again. There were a few points in the home that he avoided peering into out of respect for the adults in the house.

Naturally, he did not afford James the same privacy. While he was sifting through the resulting ocean of information, he could sense the water mana that was flowing around a membrane that sat cross-legged inside James' room. James was already back to practice, too.

Vance had a big, silly smile on his face the whole time. Over time, his mana sense had been gradually improving. Today, he found that it'd made a qualitative leap forward. With his willpower focused on the fire core, he could consistently sense a few meters around himself, further in an open area. With his will unrestrained, that was child's play.

He pulled his mana sense back inwards and let his fire core flare up again. He stretched his arms out above his head and considered performing his normal practice routine. Instead, he opted for an early night. Today had been as taxing as it had been informative.

Vance opted to visit the college the next morning. He'd decided that it was best to strike while the iron was hot. The purpose of his visit was to meet with or arrange a meeting with Aaron Olstater. To that end, he decided his search would begin at the administration building. There, he'd likely be able to find out if he was staying as a guest on campus or not.

Sure enough, Aaron was staying on campus. Vance got directions from the young man named Jensen who was working the admin building that day, then headed to a group of spare office rooms that he'd never visited before. He silently thanked his mana sense for giving him the ability to follow directions like this with more ease than ever before.

When he arrived, he knocked on the second door on the left. Just for fun, Vance cast his mana sense past the doorframe into the room, just in time to pick up on the membrane making its way towards the door.

"Hmm?" The first sound to come from the individual who opened the door sounded more like somebody who'd been interrupted during a moment of intense concentration.

"Oh, Vance! Thanks for coming. Saves me hunting you down!" The boyish tone of Aaron Olstater washed over Vance's ears with all the energy and playfulness of an overly enthusiastic dog.

"Good morning, Master Olstater. I wondered if you'd be free to talk with me today?"

"Please, call me Aaron. Also, I'm the one that invited you, get in here!"

Vance was ushered inside. Aaron quickly made his way back over to his desk where Vance heard two thumps as Aaron put his feet up on the table. Vance kept his mana sense active, keen to catch any magical tricks Aaron might feel inclined to show off.

Had Vance not been paying attention, he might've missed the subtle gust of wind mana closing the door behind him.

"So, Vance, I wanted to ask you about this little superpower of yours. Would you tell me what exactly it is?"

Seeing as Aaron wanted to get straight to business, Vance did his best to convey the basics of what he'd learned about his mana sense to Aaron. He didn't tell him much about how exactly he'd developed it. Instead, he focused on how he could use it and that it was becoming more and more powerful. At some point during his exposition, Vance realised he was essentially trying to sell himself like this was an interview or something.

Apparently, Aaron decided not to go for the obvious questions about how he came about this mysterious skill. Instead, he had other questions.

"How far does this sense stretch, precisely?"

"I'm not sure, at the moment, I can probably cover perhaps a quarter of the college grounds or so, but it'd be hard."

"That's very impressive!" Aaron said, sounding surprised. "That sort of reconnaissance ability could be extremely useful out in the field, you know."

Vance heard the gentle squeaking of wood as Aaron pushed, balancing the chair on two legs. A few seconds of silence passed and the front two legs slammed into the ground again. Vance heard two more impacts as the ever-animate Aaron placed his elbows on his desk.

"With skills like yours, I'd recruit you right now if I thought you'd survive out there. Unfortunately, the moment someone discovered what you could do during a chase, they'd drop a building on you. Maybe when you're older..."

Vance couldn't tell whether or not Aaron was making a joke. His voice said yes, but his words said no. Regardless, Vance was pleased.

Vance continued to answer questions for a little while. Eventually, he did tell Aaron that he wasn't born with mana sense but instead developed it. Before elaborating, he started to ask some questions of his own.

"Aaron, do you happen to know anyone capable of performing a life shift?"

"Sure. I've met a few. Most are dead now, though." Aaron's answer was casual, but Vance could detect that there was some bitterness hidden in his voice. Vance didn't like that Aaron had correlated those two statements, either.

"I Don't suppose you or any of the other guests that visited can do it?" Vance opted for the safe question. He wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to know whether or not Aaron had been the one to kill them.

"Afraid not, sorry. If you're looking to find someone, your best bet would be Veronica Chelham. Her organisation is obsessed with the various mana shifts and all of that stuff. She probably knows loads more than me."

Vance was hoping it wouldn't be her. She had mentioned before that her group, the apotheosis agenda, was more interested in academic talent than magical prowess. Vance had improved, but he was still certainly more powerful than he was intelligent. Even so, he thought it was worth a try.

"Would you be willing to introduce me to her?" Vance asked in his most polite voice. He was hoping that Aaron wouldn't be offending and was concerned for a few seconds when he remained silent. Suddenly, Aaron exclaimed "Sure!", got up out of his chair and walked to the door. He swung the door open and shouted.

"Hey, Veronica! Get in here! I've found you a bookworm!"

Vance opened his mouth to say something, but Aaron was already 'whispering' back to him across the room.

"It might not be entirely true, but that should get her attention," Aaron said, conspiratorially.

Vance heard another nearby door open, then heard a flurry of furious footfalls heading in this direction.

"Yeah, it worked," Aaron said. "Good luck."

"What are you dribbling on about, Aaron? Oh." Veronica's voice was light and high pitched, but she seemed perpetually exasperated. Her sentence came to an abrupt stop when she arrived at the doorway.

Vance stood, then heard a few more footsteps heading in his direction.

"You're blind?" She asked, emotionless. She spoke with conciseness and confidence. To Vance, it sounded like surveying questions she'd asked thousands of times before.

"Yes."

"But you can perform magic?"

"Yes."

"Show me." Veronica sounded entirely unconvinced. Evidently, she'd not been paying attention during his tests.

Vance picked at random and performed a basic water shift, presenting the sphere of flowing water mana.

"Passable." Vance caught a hint of inflexion appearing in her voice for the first time during her incredibly detailed assessment of his performance. "Can you perform any advanced shifts?"

"Perhaps one," Vance answered carefully. Evidently, her standards were very, very high. It was at least worth a try.

"Show me."

"Oh?" Aaron chimed in. "Yes, please do."

Vance hadn't actually tried to perform a wood shift since his first attempt in the forest. At the time, he'd felt so far off. Now, he was regretting neglecting that particular piece of his practice.

Vance gathered up every scrap of his willpower that he could spare, squashing his fire core into silence. He pulled in ambient mana to hover above his palm, then began to perform a shift. As he'd tried before, he pulled the mana tightly together above his palm. Then, he caused it to begin to move in the way he imagined a tree would grow from the ground, like a point pushing its way upwards.

Until he'd developed his mana sense, he had never really been able to take in the full form of a tree. Now, as he tried to reconstruct one in the palm of his hand, he had to think back to how its mana profile had appeared to his mana sense before and attempt to recreate it.

The mana began hardening and becoming largely immutable starting from the bottom. Like a candle melting in reverse, Vance had to constantly bring new mana to the top of the tiny mana tree to cause it to grow upwards. Then, it suddenly shattered apart as his willpower faltered. The mana he'd gathered instantly shifted back and fled his control.

Vance went to apologise and ask for another try, but Veronica spoke too quickly.

"Excellent. Here, try this."

Veronica walked through the room, grabbing a plant pot from the side. She sounded like she was excited and was clearly performing an experiment. Even her mannerisms changed.

"Hey, that's mine!" Aaron interjected.

"Oh, stop whining," Veronica responded coldly, tearing the plant out of the pot, leaving just soil.

"No! Samson!" Aaron yelled, distraught.

Vance very nearly exploded with laughter but held it together. He hadn't expected Aaron to name his plants.

"Would you do the same thing but in this soil, please?" Veronica asked gently, unfazed by Aaron's reaction.

The huge shift in her attitude towards Vance told him that he was doing well. At first, she treated him like a formality but these two small actions of his had clearly captured her interest.

Vance focused on the ambient mana around him and ushered it towards the plant pot. He wove the ambient mana into the tiny, imperceptible gaps between the soil then began to gather it together at the centre, pushing some of the natural earth mana aside to make room for his new creation.

As he began the process of performing the wood shift, he found that it was much easier. As he went, the earth mana in the pot seemed to be supporting him in some way. He could feel it reacting to his actions, aching to perform its natural purpose. It glued itself to the wood mana and held it in place, supporting and maintaining it.

Within thirty seconds, he'd conjured enough wood mana for the small wooden creation to push its way free of the dirt, where he managed to cause it to grow an inch or two further. Then, he reached the end of his available willpower and was forced to let go. Advanced shifts seemed to require a much greater amount of willpower to sustain.

To his surprise, as he released his will, the wood mana stayed exactly where it was.

"An interesting phenomenon regarding wood mana. When used in the proper environment, it will automatically solidify. Conversely, in all other environments, it cannot be sustained without the will of its creator," Veronica said, seemingly lost in the thought.

"So..."

"You've just created your first tree. Congratulations." Veronica sounded happy for just an instant, then returned to her business-like demeanour. "Very good. You're a first-year?"

"Yes."

"To have reached far enough to learn an advanced shift during your first year shows me that you're clearly a quick study, not to mention driven. You're a perfect fit. You're welcome to join my organisation once you finish your basic studies."

"Um..."

"I'll collect you at the end of your studies here. Good day. Goodbye, Aaron."

She either didn't care what Vance had to say, heard what she wanted to hear, or made an assumption. She was gone in a flash, practically running out of the room.

"Give her a second," Aaron said, sadness in his voice at the loss of what was presumably his favourite plant.

True to his words, a few seconds later, Vance heard footsteps on their way back to the room.

"What's your name?" Veronica's voice rang out, a hint of hesitation in there. Vance figured she was embarrassed.

"Vance Kalliea, Ma'am."

"Good. I will remember." She went to leave.

"Wait, do you know anyone that can perform a life shift? It's the one I want to learn!" Vance shouted after her this time, hoping to get at least one small answer out of this whirlwind of a woman.

"Yes, my master can. Goodbye, Vance. I have work to do."

Like the wind, she was gone.

Vance, given this new prospect, was elated. Granted, the timescale was a little further into the future than he'd like. He took a moment to think on that and considered that if life shifts really were as rare and difficult as people seem to suggest, then he'd want all of the practice he could get. He'd only really come here to plant a seed, and that'd be a resounding success. Whether or not he'd decide to reap the fruits of this particular labour later was not a problem for today.

So, Vance opted to take this whole strange unfolding of events as an absolute win and helped Aaron to repot his lost friend, Samson. A short while later, Vance made his way back to the McKinnley estate where he discovered Nathaniel was waiting for him.