35

Sasha grilled the roe deer meat after picking a relatively flat area of land and setting a bonfire. Benjamin, who was watching Sasha sprinkling salt and pepper after putting the meat on a skewer, asked Id.

“I must say, I do quite enjoy traveling with you guys. Could I trouble you to make the soup I tasted that night?”

“Sure. It’ll taste even better today since we have fresh deer meat instead of dry beef jerky. Sasha, please set another bonfire.”

Lara offered to help Sasha as well.

“Let me grill the meat.”

Salting a roe meat skewer, Lara had a chat with Benjamin.

“Id’s soup must have been delicious, right? I am so hungry, so I can’t wait to try it.”

“It was the best soup I’ve ever eaten camping on a trip.”

Most of the mages were gourmets, and Benjamin was no exception. Instead, he was particularly obsessed with delicious food as he lived in the Wizard Tower all his life. It was hard for Benjamin, who had been tamed by the delicious dishes cooked by top chefs working in the Tower, to eat food prepared by Knights or mercenaries during a long trip, but he had no choice but to endure since he couldn’t cook himself.

As the savory scent of grilled roe meat and Id’s soup matched, Benjamin took a bottle of whiskey out of his backpack. When having dinner at the White Rabbit Inn the evening before, Benjamin had tasted Chernobugor Whiskey. After the party decided to purchase mules, he bought a box of Chernobugor Whiskey at a store near the horse market. Lara, who accompanied Benjamin to the liquor store, also purchased several bottles because Benjamin praised the taste of Chernobugor Whiskey so much, and the price was pretty reasonable.

“This whiskey tastes better than any other drinks I’ve ever tried in the Icarus Wizard Tower, but don’t drink too much as it’s pretty strong.”

After drinking a glass of whiskey and tasting a roe meat skewer alongside id’s soup, Lara remarked with a happy look.

“Probably because the roe deer was still young, the meat is so tender, and your soup tastes so good, Id. Benjamin, can I have another glass of whiskey?”

Benjamin, who was about to dissuade Lara from drinking strong whiskey too much, poured another glass wordlessly after seeing the slightly sad but expectant look in her eyes. During the past month, her parents died one after another, and Lara had to flee to escape the clutches of sure death, not even being able to grieve over her mother’s death. She became a little emotional when she felt people’s warmth for the first time in a while. However, Lara wiped her tears, controlling her emotions, and suggested a toast, lifting her glass.

“I think meeting you was the luckiest moment in my life. Yesterday, I saw a few young men of my age at the restaurant, so I asked to join you without any special reason. I’m so happy to have met such good people like you. Let's toast to our pleasant and safe trip.”

Id, who emptied his glass without a word, refilled the soup bowls. Savoring Id’s soup, Lara said,

“This is just like my mom’s soup. I understand why Benjamin especially asked you for soup.”

As Lara glanced at Id with teary eyes, Id blushed and avoided her gaze. Lara kept chatting and drinking a few more glasses of whiskey, then fell asleep on the ground. As Id spread his leather armor on a flat spot and moved her onto it, she murmured a couple of unintelligible words and fell into a deep sleep.

Opening her eyes at dawn, Lara saw Id and Sasha sitting on the ground in a strange posture. They sat on the ground with their shoes off and their legs crossed. Their feet were placed on the opposite thigh with the soles facing the sky. Their hands were on their knees with their palms also facing up. Slightly lowering their heads, Id and Sasha breathed slowly, their lower abdomen expanded and shrunk at a languid pace matching their breathing. After a while, opening his eyes after completing his manna circulation, Id asked Sasha.

“Any signs of a manna hall yet?”

Sasha, who had been circulating manna for years using the method Id had taught him, had yet to make a manna hall.

“I didn’t make a manna hall yet, but now I have a clearer picture of the manna circulating in my torso. I can distinctly discern the manna passages and the flow of manna through them, which I used to only vaguely feel before.”

Id, who had been deep in thought for a while, explained to Sasha.

“As I told you before, I believe you should be able to create a manna hall sooner or later if you keep circulating manna every day. Right before creating the manna hall, the amount of manna circulating in your body will drastically increase. It’s too early to say for sure, but I believe we can probably find a method to build a manna hall within a shorter period by manna circulation for those who don’t have a special affinity for manna. When my manna hall was first built, I thought creating a manna hall was a prerequisite for manna circulation. I was mistaken since my manna hall was made in such a short period. But soon after, I realized the order was wrong. Now I’m pretty sure that manna flows inside the bodies of all living creatures. Most people are just unaware of this natural energy flowing through their bodies. The first step in creating a manna hall is to recognize this flow, and you’ve already accomplished this step. The second step is to intake more manna in the right posture and circulate it inside the body through the right path, and you are successfully performing this process, too. Haven’t you ever felt a moment of stagnation at your lower abdomen during the manna circulation?”

Sasha, who was pondering over Id’s question, answered.

“I think I’ve felt that a few times, but I’m not sure.”

Id continued to talk with a bright look.

“Good. Focus on the stagnation from now. It may be a precursor to the creation of a manna hall. Although you are circulating manna according to my method, your circulation path is a little different from mine. The difference was probably caused by the difference in physical constitution between the two of us, but I don’t think it will matter.”

While Sasha contemplated reflecting on Id’s words, Id spoke to Benjamin and Lara, who were still lying down and pretending to sleep.

“I am not planning to keep the manna training of Sasha and I a secret from you. It is impossible to hide it while traveling together for a long time anyways.”

It was considered taboo to peek at the training of others’ confidential swordsmanship or martial arts without permission. Thinking that Id was teaching Sasha confidential swordsmanship while they were sleeping, Benjamin and Lara were a little embarrassed and pretended to sleep, even though they were already awake. Id said as Benjamin and Lara sat themselves up, returning the Magic Stone to Benjamin.

“Benjamin, the magic diagrams carved on my armor function without a Magic Stone since I have a manna hall in my body. I didn’t tell you about it because I had to talk about many things, including my master’s past, to explain the creation of my manna hall. However, now that we are to travel together for a long time, and Sasha and I have to practice manna circulation twice a day, I think I’d better talk to you about the manna hall so that we don’t feel uncomfortable with each other anymore. Can you keep this a secret for the time being?”

When Id looked at Lara, who was intrigued by Id’s words, she nodded earnestly. Benjamin asked Id.

“I’ll keep it a secret as long as you want. What you’re talking about is the manna hall that the Aura Beam owner from the Mudria Wizard Tower created in their chest?”

Id talked about the story of how he had made his manna hall in his body in detail. He had to talk much about his master, Andrew Adelian, too. Having listened to Id’s long story seriously, Benjamin told him.

“Several years ago, the Mudria Wizard Tower revealed to the outside the method for creating a manna hall. And there was a rumor that several Aura Beam users would soon come out of the Tower after decades of training.”

“I didn’t know that the method of creating a manna hall was revealed to the outside by the Mudria Wizard Tower. I don’t even know if the training method the master knew was the same as the one used in the Mudria Wizard Tower, and I have no idea how they obtained Aura Beam after creating a manna hall in their chest. Why did Mudria Wizard Tower reveal the manna training method to the outside?”

“It seems that your master’s training method you explained coincide with that method released by the Mudria Wizard Tower. Over the past few decades, countless people have flocked to the Mudria Wizard Tower to become a Sword Master, but my understanding is that not many of them have formed a manna hall. Moreover, it is known that very few of the people who succeeded in making a manna hall have obtained Aura Beam, and there must have been a lot of casualties in the process. So Mudria Wizard Tower released their training method for creating a manna hall and began to accept a small selected group of people who have succeeded in forming the manna hall through rigorous screening.”