Derus stood in front of the duke staring passively at the man who had his face twisted in a rather incomprehensible manner. The duke blew out a stale breath whilst turning to one side and raising and opening his hand in front of himself. Binding mana to the space in front of himself by imbuing mana on his finger tips, the duke pulled and twisted the space causing a two dimensional vortex distortion. "What was that you did just now?"The duke then placed his hand inside the vortex after dissipating the mana from his hand and pulled out a pouch which he then tossed towards the humanoid before moving towards his knocked out subordinate. Checking the pouch, Derus saw that it contained 50 gold coins within. Curious about what the duke did, Derus turned and asked.

"Magic Storage." came the curt response from the duke.

Seeing as how the duke continued on his way towards his subordinate without any further regard for the humanoid, Derus paid him no further mind.

"Nice one on holding back! Don't worry about the duke, that's just the look of his pride being broken." said Farris with a wry smile looking towards the duke's back after which she turned to Derus and continuied, "Guess you don't need to stay in the sick bay any longer, right?"

"I dpn't mind staying in the sick bay but I would need to acquire a private place to stay. Is it possible for me to construct my own place anywhere outside the villages or towns of this country?"

"... You know that there are monsters roaming about just outside those villages and towns right?"

"Yes, but what I am concerned about right now is if it is ok or not."

"I don't think anyone would have any problems with it if you can build a house in the wilderness.

"Thank you."

After that, Derus turned towards the village and headed towards the blacksmith's smithery.

Entering the smithery, Derus could hear the sounds of clanging metal as the humanoid stood in wait observing the smithing process once more. The short man was hammering away at yet another iron lump, flattening it into the shape of a sword blade whilst at the same time injecting mana into it. After the man finished, he noticed the presence of the humanoid inside the smithy and moved towards them.

"Ah you're back again lad? Still interested in learnin' how to be a smith?" asked the short man.

"Yes." responded Derus who then went on to take out a coin out of the pouch that was received from Protus, "Will this be enough?"

"...Oi lad... actually, nevermind. Let's start right away." said the man who then went on to introduce himself, "Name's Granuf and as you can see, I'm a dwarf."

"Derus Allen, Ex Machina."

"Dunno what an Ex Machina is but let's get started. First, I'm going to 'ave ya do the injection binding on this 'ere ingot" said the dwarf whilst picking up an ingot from the cobblestone floor near the forge to the back of the smithy.

"Extend your mana from one of your fingers to this part on the ingot." instructed Granuf.

"I don't know how to use mana." responded Derus making the dwarf choke on a breath.

"You serious lad?"

"Yes."

"...Just a minute then" said the dwarf who then went through the door to the backroomfor a moment before coming back out. In the dwarf's hand was an arm bracer which he shoved towards the humanoid.

"Wear this, it should help you with mana manipulation."said Granuf who waited for the humanoid to put on the bracer.

Derus equipped the grey coloured arm bracer which had a red gem embedded on it as well as some red lines streaking from it forming a red pattern of an eye along the surface of the bracer. From the system notifications received, Derus could feel something was beginning to collect within the self, the consciousness, which stemmed from a link created by the bracer on the humanoid's wrist. Setting the system to analyze this interaction, Derus turned on the energy vision, the glowing blue color of the eyes startled the dwarf a little but was ignored as Derus tried manipulating the energy to compress into a normally invisible orb which hovered above the humanoid's hand.

"I think I'm ready to begin." said Derus after dissipating the orb.

"...Oi..."

"...?"

"You 'ere just pulling me leg when ya said ya don't know 'ow to control mana weren't ye lad?" said Granuf with eyes squinted at the humanoid.

"...What?" came the confused reply from Derus

After having a hearty laugh at the humanoid's confusion, the dwarf continued, "It's a joke lad, a joke. That bracer's ability is to make it easy to use mana, it'd be a surprise if you weren't able to use mana even with that."

"I see, thank you for the mana bracer."

Item Description Updated! Mana Bracer A bracer which greatly aids in the ability to manipulate mana. Currently owned by the dwarf Granuf of Saroot Village.

"It's on loan while we do the lesson so ya'ave to return it, got it?"

"Understood. Is this bracer available for purchase anywhere?"

"Nah, it was a useless item from a trek in a dungeon a while back. Kept it as a souvenir ever since. Now let's start with the blacksmith lesson, we can talk about this later."

"Ok."

"First, use your mana and connect it to this point I have my finger on." instructed Granuf which Derus did after failing to do so once and succeeded after being assisted by the system.

"Next connect your mana here and tell me if you feel any difference."

Doing as such, Derus could tell that the first point Derus had connected to was comparatively softer than the second point which Derus relayed to Granuf. Smiling on hearing this, Granuf remarked on Derus's natural talent and for an hour, tested Derus on different points which would sometimes be extremely close in thoughness or have different textures. When Derus's mana ran out after the hour, the humanoid went still as the glow of eyes in energy vision mode and angular lines running across the humanoid body changed to red as Derus received a dizzing jolt after which Derus was inside the code space again.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Warning! Unknown abnormal state induced!

Entering sleep mode!

Enabling contact electrical defense measures!

Entering administrator mode!