Actually Gillian didn't hear what Chara said and I was thankful for that. I was quite sure that the tree girl would never stop to chew my ears off after that.

I worked on the pool and the tube system under it leading to the rest room when Kalla came over and watched my work.

“Hi Marcus. Chara came by and told me about the new additions to the town. I'm thrilled about being able to bath again without having to go down to the river and risk being exposed to anything living in the water, but didn't you forget something when you planned this nice pool of yours?”

I tried hard to find any problem with my construction but failed to find anything.

“Ehm, not that I could think of. What do you mean?”

Kalla rolled with the eyes and threw me a dirty look.

“On your home planet men and women obviously bathed naked together, didn't they?”

Oh, that she meant! I totally forgot. My silence gave her all the answer she needed.

“That's all I wanted to tell you, have a nice day. I will be going down to the river to help with gathering food. Just that you know, elves don't have mixed naked baths together except when they are couples or becoming one.”

Then she turned around and went down the new stairs talking with some other people about their well-being and such stuff.

“As I see, you have already gotten the gist of it. My wives nagged all morning at me to get your attention. I'm also here for the first lesson you wanted to give the mages about mana manipulation.”

Galen stood at the tree and watched the goings-on in the town. He grinned knowingly and then searched for a place to sit before my crystal. He folded his legs under himself in this unhealthy locking buddha style and then watched my crystal.

“If you don't mind I will separate a part of my mind to get on with the changed pool plans. Will there be no other mages coming?” I asked Galen.

“They wanted to let me test your method first, before spending their precious time on a method that possibly not work for them.”

The sarcasm in his voice was clear to anyone.

“They do not trust me on this matter?”

“Don't be disappointed, Marcus. You have to understand that they take you for a creature not even old enough to walk and nonetheless someone who wants to to teach them new things about something that they studied for their whole life. I will listen and look forward to learn something new because I have reached the end of my wits with what I could find on my own. I have only 50 or 60 years to life if nothing changes and I feel the changes in my body already start to make me slower. So show me your idea.”

I reflected for a moment about what he said and had to admit that he was right. If a newbie would have told me how to play my favorite game, I wouldn't have listened too.

“For starters I want you to tell me what you feel when you try to watch magic around you.”

“What do you mean? I can feel weaker and stronger concentrations of mana around me, but I can't see it. As magical species I think you have an advantage here.”

“Hm, ok let's do it this way. I will create mana concentrations around you and you will detect them and try to tell me how strong they are. I will tell you the exact amount of mana they contain and from there we will try find a way of measurement for you.”

I began to create concentrations of my mana with 100, 200 and 400 mana each and Galen told me his finds. In the process I found out, that inhabitants on this world had access to their status screens, and therefore could tell how much mana they had. They could tell how much mana a skill might need or a spell, but the exact mana detection wasn't something anyone trained, because getting as much as possible to live a bit longer was more important than anything other.

After a while I changed the amounts and told Galen the exact value when he correctly told me which concentration was bigger or smaller. He was getting better over the rest of the day but I also had other things to do.

The pool had to get bigger if I needed gender related baths, so i just dug a bigger hole and layered it with more clay and stone from the river. The part for the women was bigger because there were many more women than men in my population and I also knew that women like to have someone to talk to in any occasion.

I had a sudden idea I wanted to implement but I would need an enchantment for that and I didn't know to create them without using a living thing and changing its complete nature.

So I searched for another mage and found one of Galen's wives sitting besides a fletcher working with some arrows.

“Sorry to intrude but I need some help with a problem of mine.”

The brown haired woman looked up from her work and found the spot I talked from after she felt for a concentration of mana. I found out that that was the way they discovered where I was when I talked with them. And only people trained in the ways of the mage were able to do it.

“Hello Marcus. I'm Nala, nice to meet you at least. What can I do for you, my dear?”

She was a nice person as it seemed. Well-mannered and with a petite build she was the image of a lady. She rested her hands on her lap and turned all of her attension to me.

“Well, I need some training in enchantments because I want to create one for heating the water in the pool. It would make the place much more pleasant to stay at, wouldn't you agree?”

Nala's eyes lit up and she told me all of her wishes for the baths with abandon. The image of a lady disappeared and a devil rose. What have I done!