Ari froze as he felt a foreign power seep inside his body. It made his blood run cold as he gasped for breath. The constant whispering of the strange entity was bashing at his can't, yet his will was strong.

He hated that blue dragon with passion and wanted nothing more than to get his revenge, but this thing, this creature that reached out to him... It was wrong. His aura warned him against it, and Ari himself was not so naive to believe the enticement of a monster.

Although he didn't understand the words, he somehow understood the intent behind them. Ari resolutely gritted his teeth and spoke again:

"I told you to fuck off!" Nothing came for free, not in this world at least, and he subconsciously knew that if he accepts the offer of the stranger the price to be paid will be one far more than what he could handle.

"I'll get that damn dragon myself! I don't need your help! Fuck off from my brain!" Ari cried out as he clamped his hands over his ears in a gain attempt to drown the whispers.

His suffering continued for what seemed like an eternity before his aura sensed the appearance of a brand new aura. This one was different; this one he instinctively recognize. It was a dragon!

Ari did not have enough time to think about everything before the world reverted back to its silent state. He hesitantly dropped his hands, his eyelids shuddered as he opened them and nervously glanced around the cave.

"I-I survived?" His body collapsed to the ground drenched in a cold sweat. His breathing was heavy as he recalled the strange encounter.

His sword stopped glowing, and Ari threw the cave a final glance before he decisively left. What he didn't notice, however, was a small invisible dark strand of aura seeping undetected inside his body.

*****

"Interesting, I think I understand the general gist of it." I nodded while looking at Lana who just finished her explanation of how the powers of the humans work exactly.

The current era of magic relied on the existence of the mana stone. There was an abundant amount of them so the mages never considered running out. This brought me to my first question if the resource was as widespread as she claimed, how come mages are not everywhere?

Her answer was quite simple; not everyone had the power to sense the mana. This was the most important criterion for becoming a mage. After that came the ability to control said mana and bend it to their will.

After all, what use was the mana if it remained harmlessly floating around? And so they would channel said particles of mana into the stones which would in turn allow them to unleash certain spells. The process of creating the spells was a bit problematic as it involved them making a complicated pattern inside their body which would allow the spell to take place.

It was completely different from how we dragons did things, which was understandable. Whenever I used the mana, I did not change it into something it was not supposed to be, nor did I order it. Most of the time I simply asked for its help and it was glad to provide me with that.

So there was no point in comparing us with each other. Then came the subject of the 'Dragon born' humans that have been granted power by the dragons, they went by many names.

Essentially, they are the agents of the dragons in the mortal realm. Lana surprisingly knew quite a lot about them when I asked her. According to some old records, the way this entire thing worked was a lot similar to a divine contract, albeit one of a lower level.

The Dragons would enter a master, subordinate relationship, enabling the humans to gain control over their patron dragon's respective mana. Say, if I were to make a contract between me and Lana, she would gain the ability to sense and use water mana as it is, without the need for any mana whatsoever. The elements the human mage would become able to sense are directly related to the ones the dragon wields.

It was fascinating trying to figure out how the contract worked exactly, but I, unfortunately, was unable to unravel its mysteries, at least not now. It did, however, give us a direction to start from.

To begin with, the fact that entering a contract enables humans to change the way they perceive the mana is proof enough that they could learn. This meant that my quest of teaching them was not just a pipe dream.

"So, what do you think my lord?" Lana asked as she studied my face with an almost enamored expression on her face.

"I have a few things I would like I test out. I'm not sure if they would work, but it's worth a try at least," I answered.

"I-I see, then would you like to t-try them on me?" She asked with a bashful smile, prompting me to roll my eyes as a sigh escaped my mouth.

"Maybe tomorrow, it's already late now. Go back and get some rest," I said to which she seemed to want to argue but in the end, she could only nod and lower her head.

"Good night, my lord."

"En, good night."

****

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of food. Lana was sitting a distance away from me cooking what looked like a soup of sorts. The smell was appetizing, so I stood up, yawned, and stretched my limbs.

"Good morning, my lord!" Lana happily greeted me, to which I nodded back before replying.

"I'll be heading out to catch some prey, I'll be back."

Lana nodded and stood up to give me a deep bow before I shot to the sky. My direction; breakfast by the sea.

After a quick round trip, I came back to find Lana busy writing in her notebook as always. She raised her eyes as she saw me approach, and her face lit up as she ran to the platform.

"Are we going to start the experiments, my lord?"

"You sure are eager. Aren't you concerned something might go wrong?"

To my surprise, the crazy girl simply shook her head firmly; "Not at all!"

A chuckle escaped my mouth before I spoke:

"Well then since you are so eager, let's try."

"Yes!"