"Back already?" The boy-in-black asked in a surprised tone. "Good."
"Keep this up and you might finish the exam in the next decade."
He was sitting atop the mainframe statues head, his eyes focused on a brown piece of paper.
"I figured it out," Gian said with a satisfied smirk. He pulled up the Augmentation Store, and invoked his mana eyes.
With that, the world around him instantly changed. It seemed even the vision transition was skipped all together down here.
"Would you look at that," the boy in black whispered dismissively, still focusing on his newspaper. "He isn't completely clueless."
Gian scanned the room. Unlike on the outside, he could barely see any mana flowing through the air. It was strange.
'I was expecting this place to have a higher density than the outside,' he thought, his eyes moving up towards the boy in black.
"I wouldn't look up here if I were you."
Gian ignored the warning.
The boy spoke as if he were the greatest mage in existence. Sure Gian had seen him perform high level magic when they had first met, but he had to know just how powerful a mage he was.
The moment his eyes landed on the boy, the world unraveled.
There was no mana trail, no core, no center; only a star-filled wound in the fabric of reality where the boy sat.
Ambient mana didn't drift around him; it recoiled, bent, convulsed.
Color lost all meaning, there was no red, blue or any of the fundamental magic colors. What stood in place was a colour the eyes weren't built to see.
"What are you?" Gian whispered.
The scene made his stomach convulse. His knees buckled. His mana core flared defensively, not in challenge, but in terror, a candle shivering beneath a collapsing star.
He vomited bile all over the floor.
"Keep that up and you'll get mana poisoning," the boy in black commented, not a care in his voice.
Gian wiped vomit off his mouth. "How?"
"Not by staring at little boys while I should be training, if that's what you're asking," the boy responded, closing his newspaper.
It took Gian a moment to process what was going on.
He hadn't used mana vision to look at another high-level mage before, so he had nothing to compare with. But he was certain that the boy was something that shouldn't exist.
He began to question whether the boy had been lying about his identity.
With magical power like this, it was possible to look like anyone... to know things that you shouldn't.
"It doesn't matter whether I really am who I say I am," the boy replied, as if reading his mind.
"You asked for a second chance, and this is it," he continued, jumping down from the top of the statue.
Gentle gusts of wind broke his fall, allowing him to land without so much as a sound.
"Now train," he ordered. "There's much more to this place than what you've discovered."
Gian picked himself up careful not to gaze at the boy.
'He's right,' he thought. 'Why should I care whether or not he's lying? The fact is I have the potential to grow stronger now... maybe even stronger than him.'
"That's stretching it," the boy scoffed. "But you have the right idea."
Gian pulled up the coin conversion screen.
Eyes hesitating between the mana pool and the arcane knowledge options.
Adding more points to mana-pool would be useful on the outside, but it wasn't as if he would be fighting soon. Besides, the mainframe offered infinite mana, so if he wanted to make the most of this place...
He allocated 5 points into arcane knowledge, 1 point into mana pool and kept one in case the system would reward interest.
The boy in black nodded.
Gian watched as the system released tendrils of rainbow-colored mana into the air.
Like the first time, 6 small orbs appeared in front of him.
'Should I choose black? That's soul magic right?' he pondered, eyes focused on the black orb.
But then he shook his head.
Even if he increased his arcane knowledge in soul magic, there was no guaranteeing he would understand the soul rune. He just didn't have enough prior knowledge.
No, for now he would have to study what he knew.
He chose the red orb, and it floated forward. Another set of orbs appeared, and Gian made the same choice 5 more times.
"A greedy choice," the boy in black commented. "Couldn't have chosen better myself."
Gian nodded, locking the process in.
The orbs began to circle around his body, before plunging into his mana core.
He felt warm... but this time there was something more.
Something had been lit inside his mind, he feeling he couldn't quite explain. It was like a main numbing rage. An anger directed towards everything and everyone... and yet to nothing particular at the same time.
It overwhelmed him, causing his vision to flickered in unbridled rage.
"What's going on?" he grunted, voice gruff like an ogres.
The boy in black stared him down. "Arcane knowledge," he said. "The fire arcana is the fury and wrath of magical nature."
"This it what it feels like to be fury-enchanted."
Gian found himself subconsciously pulling on ambient mana.
He let it happen, watching as red streaks of mana rushed from the shadows of the dimly lit rune towards him.
He didn't have to do anything, but already the image of the candle found it's way to the centre of his mind.
It was as natural as breathing. In stead of him forcing the candles flame to rise and fall, it synced with his breathing.
"Don't let the mana do what it wants," the boy warned. "It is will over mana that brings understanding, not the other way around."
Gian nodded, trying to take control of the process.
It was like wrestling against a torrent, it threatened to drown his will out.
"Will it always be like this when I increase arcane knowledge?" he grunted, sweat beading on his forehead.
"For as long as your will is a slave to your nature."
Gian continued trying. The red mana swirled in on itself, turbulent like an angry river.
He noted the movements that seemed to make it easier to control, and tried to replicate them.
However he didn't have a good grasp of its control yet, the best he could do was nudge it in a direction he felt was right.
"Good," the boy in black encouraged. "Mana is a raging torrent, you can't just bulldoze your will onto it."
"Atreas Ignis."
A massive, turbulent ball of blue flames phased into existence in front of him.
It's heat sweltered the air. It was unbearable, but Gian didn't care. He stared at it in awe.
This was his doing, his power. And he was proud of that.
The boy in black gave a round of applause, before stepping towards it.
He stretched his hand out, and grabbed it. With that, the mana inside the fireball became unstable, and it collapsed into raw mana under its own weight.
"Why!?" Gian shouted.