Nel got ready to leave as there was nothing else to discuss. He just wanted to get as far from Swan as he could. The more he stays, the larger his guilt would be despite knowing that he shouldn't be feeling this way.

“Please, wait a second.” When Nel was about to turn around, he heard a pleasant-sounding young female voice. The speaker was a young girl in her teens. Maybe in her early twenties, he assumed. Her long brown hair was pouring down like a waterfall. What surprised him the most was her eyes—they were yellow, like a precious gemstone.

It was his first time seeing someone with such unique eyes.

“You are?” Nel asked, confused. He wondered what this lady wanted from him.

She stopped next to Swan and performed a curtseying bow towards him. “My name is Celpie. I’m the little sister of big bro Swan and Bell.”

Nel rose an eyebrow in her introduction. He switched between Swan and Celpie a few times before focussing on the girl. He scratched his nose, still looking confused.

“Ohh! Then, what do you want from me?” Nel asked, pointing a finger at himself. “Revenge?”

Celpie shook her head negatively. “I don’t care about revenge. For me, big bro Bell’s life is more important.” She looked on with her shining, gem-like eyes, “please! Help me heal my brother!” Celpie joined her palms together as she pleaded.

“Seriously!?” Nel frowned. Knitting his brows together, he shook his head, “Do you even know what they did?”

“I...I know." Celpie looked down, eyes downcast and face pale. "I know what they do and what they did." Her tone took a sharp turn, "I also know what you did."

"Knowing all that and also knowing what I did, you are still here to ask me for help?" His every word dripped with enough sarcasm to drown a person. Nel thought he heard one of the funniest jokes ever. His hands were tense as he held the empty shaft. Swan frowned and clenched his fist, looking ready to move anytime.

"I know... but," Celpie's golden eyes pierced into Nel's as she displayed her determined face. "I care about big bro more. I'm willing to do anything if it meant he'd get well."

Nel's stared into her golden expressive eyes for a while before letting out a repressed sigh. "Sorry to break it to you but I'm not a healer. I don't know any way to heal anyone."

"I am not asking you to heal,” Celpie said, shaking her head. “I only want your help with a little thing.”

“Oh!? What do you mean?” Nel rose his eyebrows in surprise. He turned towards Swan, only to find him staring at him coldly. Nel noticed traces of shame and anger in his eyes.

“It's like this,” Celpie cleared her throat and started explaining Bell’s situation. “The knife you…lodged inside big bro’s ears had a huge chunk of your mana coating it like a bubble. It's preventing us from properly treating him.”

“My mana? Impossible!” Nel shook his head. “I don’t have such capability,” He admitted.

He can imbue anything with mana, that’s true. But it only remains for a few seconds at most after losing contact with him. It had been an hour since their fight; how can his mana last this long?

“That’s your mana, for sure,” Celpie said, then suddenly covered her mouth as a realization occurred to her. Her lips trembled, and her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “Wait! What did you just say? You don't have such ability?”

Nel nodded his head, finding Celpie’s reaction a bit strange. “That’s right.”

“This, really…” Celpie's reaction got even more exaggerated. She stared from side to side and her shoulders shook slightly.

“What’s the matter?” Swan, who was playing the role of silent observer all this time, asked worriedly seeing her rapidly changing facial expression.

Celpie ignored him and looked Nel in the eye, making the latter uncomfortable for some reason. Nel shifted from one foot to other while he gripped and ungripped the shaft of his spear.

“What?” He asked, unable to endure the young girl’s pointy stare.

“I guess, I should congratulate you,” She said with a heavy tone after a full minute of silent staring.

“Huh! Why?” Both Nel and Swan asked at the same time.

“Well, from the residual mana inside big brother Bell’s head it is clear that you, Mr. Nelson, have officially achieved the Projection,” Celpie said steadily. She herself was in disbelief, let alone Nel and Swan.

With trembling lips, Nel pointed at himself, “Projection!? Me!?”

“Yes.” Celpie nodded her head.

His mind went blank after the young girl’s nod. He dared not to believe in such a bold claim. It was too far-fetched to be believable.

Aside from Skills, mana can also be used in its raw form to supplement a hunter’s prowess. These supplementary abilities were called [Mana Application].

[Mana Application] has three stages. Empowering, Projection, and Conception. Empowering is the process of applying mana on every nook and cranny of the body, strengthening them. For example, empowering eyes will allow the user to see everything in better clarity. In some cases, even night vision was possible. Doing the same to the ears will increase hearing capability.

Nel’d often use Empowering to boost his physical attributes and attacking power. This abled him to play the role of tank/bait for his team perfectly. In fact, not even Loui could compare to him when it comes to Empowering.

After he mastered the stage, he learned an auxiliary ability called Mana Ripple, which helped him a lot in his hunting career.

XXX

The second stage, Projection, refers to a hunter’s ability to discharge their mana outside of their bodies. There were a lot of stringent requirements to achieve this stage.

Mana was formless in its most basic form. It can not be seen or touched, only felt. Each time a person breaths, they take in some mana together with oxygen. The mana would enter the bloodstream from the lungs and then flow to every part. It was a natural process.

At some point, when the body was saturated enough with mana, it would gain the ability to produce its own mana. Hunters call this process, Awakening.

To make the formless mana gain a shape and then project it out of the body, would take a lot of effort from the user. It was especially true for those without an offensive type Skill.

XXX

Nel had already mastered Empowering for a year already, yet he couldn't even begin to comprehend the basics of Projection. Hearing that he had achieved this stage out of nowhere by a girl younger than him, whom he only just met, Nel’s mood was all over the place.

“Are you telling the truth? How did you know?” Nel’s voice cracked. His eyes were wide and red, nearly scaring the young girl. Swan stepped in front of Celpie and glared at Nel, warning him not to come any closer than necessary.

Realizing his mistake, Nel controlled himself. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed his heart and stared past Swan, into Celpie’s golden eyes.

“Is there… is there a way to confirm it?” Nel asked, barely concealing his excitement. If what she said was really true, then it’d be a huge thing. His whole life will change.

“Well, sure.” Celpie nodded. “Gather all your mana in the middle of your palm. Then, picture the shape of something you are very familiar with as you push it outside. If the mana molded into your imagined shape, then-” She shrugged her shoulders, leaving the sentence hanging.

Nel nodded his head at the girl before raising his right palm upside. Mana flowed to the middle of his palm, guided by his excellent control. Closing his eyes, Nel followed in Celpie’s instructions and imagined a spear.

He was a spear master. He spends more time holding a spear than anything in a day. Therefore, it was the only thing he could perfectly imagine.

Suddenly, Nel felt a pull on his Magic Reserve as a chunk of mana left his body, almost giving him a headache. Nel heard two distinctive gasps, but he couldn't focus on them since all his attention was elsewhere.

There was something in the middle of his palm to which he felt a connection. It was like a limb connected to his body. Nel opened his eyes to look at what it was, only to become speechless.