Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 193

Chapter 193: Mana Pact
‘Why is everything regarding this kid nonsense…

I wonder, does he even exist? Or is he just an inner devil sent to me to punish my life’s decision’

“So? Do you know anything I could teach to my student?”

“How much of an advantage are you planning on giving them?”

“Mh… let’s see, at least enough to make them as strong as you”

Caelan watched Hans with an emotionless face:

“Do you… think so little of everyone?

I’m an apostle of god okay?!! I am a genius even when compared to the Frosbane family’s members, who are all considered extremely powerful.

Not just any random kid can get up to my level, and even if you let a talented mage live a thousand years, he still wouldn’t amount to half of what I did by just training for slightly more than a dozen years!

Do you get how powerful I am?!”

“Yeah… that’s why I want to make them as powerful as you”

‘This… fricking…’

“How about this, I feel bad making you spill everything out without giving you anything, we’ll make a deal that will benefit both of us”

Calean’s interest was immediately piqued by those words, after all, he had nothing to lose.

“Let’s hear it!”

“Caelan, do you remember what happened that one time when you explained to me the Pankus’s nature?”

Caelan was taken aback by those words, as he remembered the strange experience he had been through some time ago…

It was like… he had taken over Hans’s body, but only as a spectator, he couldn’t control it or move it, he could only follow its movements and feel what Hans felt.

“I do remember, what about it?”

“What if, from now on… I’ll call you out every day, for a few hours or so, but in exchange, you will aid me whenever I need it”

“Why… would I ever agree to that? Aren’t you just trying to get the most out of me?”

“I am, but it must be pretty lonely here, I’ll give you something that you’re missing, and you’ll do the same.

My entertainment for your knowledge, doesn’t that seem like a pretty good deal?”

Caelan seriously considered this offer, because while initially he was bothered by Hans’s presence and wanted to be left alone, as time passed, the nothingness all around him started to dull his soul.

The thought that Hans, like many others, where still enjoying life while he would’ve been trapped in there for eternity was not appealing.

“What do you say? I may not be able to entertain you forever, but I’ll do my best for the sixty or so remaining years of my life”

“Why do you think that your life will be so short?”

“It pretty average in my world for people to live eighty years”

“Yes, in my world that’s the average too, but we are different, we are mages”

“And?”

“Our body retains mana more efficiently compared to normal people, as a tenth circle mage, I could’ve probably lived a hundred and fifty years, maybe even more., and considering the fact that I could’ve achieved the eleventh, twelfth, and maybe even thirteenth circle, I could’ve probably survived for a thousand years without dying, if I just hadn’t been forced to sacrifice my human body to keep myself alive…”

“Thousands… of years”

Hans was wondering what the world would look like after a thousand years of life…

‘Wouldn’t everything look boring?’ he pondered.

‘Wouldn’t life lose its meaning?

Will I… ever get to know these answers?’

“About your offer…”

Caelan replied.

“I have one condition…”

“Let’s hear it”

“If you ever had the chance to do it… please, speak with the winter goddess one last time for me.

I need to…. Apologize to her for what I’ve done, and thank her for what she’s given me”

“Alright. Seems like a pretty reasonable deal”

Hans held his hand up to shake Caelan’s hand, but the other stared at him weirdly.

“What? Do you need something?”

“Huh?…

No, this is something we do in our world, it symbolizes the closure of a deal or an introduction, and it means something like:

“Its a pleasure”

Still doubtful, Caelan shook Hans’ hand, and their deal was finally sealed.

“So, what are you going to show me?”

Hans asked, curious to know what Caelan had in store.

“It is something that could probably throw a world into chaos if not handled correctly, that’s why, I will first of all teach you something else.

A way to form a pact… as we just made.

However, this path is special, it’s called a mana pact, and it was used in high-ranking agreements back in my world.

If you wanted to, you could also classify the pact between an apostle and a god as a mana pact, but those are way more limiting.

To form a mana pact, two people need to agree to the terms, but there’s no need for both of them to do it in this case, because it will be a one-way contract.

The contract will be made with everyone you want to teach this skill to, and it must be something that prevents them from getting this skill out.

Remember, if you do not do it, the skill could pose a huge threat to your world’s peace.

Hans spent a few minutes learning how to conjure a mana path from Caelan’s memories, and was able to swiftly adapt it to his mana in less than an hour,

To test it out, he and Caelan made a two-way contract, simply repeating once again what they had agreed upon before, this time making it official with mana instead of a handshake.

As soon as the contract was made, something began to change in the dark power.

A lot of mana was rapidly sucked inside the plain of darkness, and with it, Hans’s consciousness came back to his body.

“Agh!!”

His hands were placed above his heart, as he gripped onto his chest.

A burning sensation made his body twitch from the pain as his heart stopped.

‘Fuck!…’

But just a few moments later, the mana that had been flowing to the earth changed direction, and it all condensed in a single spot.

There, in the middle of the pitch-dark mana surrounding Hans’ heart, a bright star formed, as if it were a tattoo.

Finally able to think straight again, Hans got back up on his feet.

“What the hell was that?!”

His heavy panting resounded through the room, and little beads of sweat ran down his body.

He was scared… He had almost died.

The first thing he did was check the situation with his mana, carefully feeling what was going on around his heart.

The power, which once seemed to be like a lump of nothingness, had actually gained a point of reference that Hans could recognize.

It felt like seeing the Northern Star in the sky and being able to tell where the rest of the stars were.

But as he wavered his mana over that little star, something happened, and his mana began being drained once again, it wasn’t the dark power absorbing the mana, but rather the star directly.

‘Not again’

Hans thought, but before he could even try to stop it, a voice resounded in his head:

‘Wow… so you really kept your word, I thought you had ditched me for the second time’

“This voice…

‘Caelan?!’

‘Yeah, what’s up kid? Where the hell are we? It looks like a temple of some sort’

What they were actually seeing wasn’t any sort of temple or anything like that, but Hans’s room.

Still, for someone who had never seen modern architecture and internal design, it must’ve looked really strange.

‘So this is your world?!’

‘Yeah, what do you think about it?’

‘Mh… it’s bland.’

‘Yours was covered in snow so telling me my world is bland is kind of contractionary don’t you think?’

‘Why? Isn’t your world covered by snow too?’

Caelan was asking seriously, and Hans took that chance to show him.

The young man walked up to the window and opened it before glancing outside at the Academy.

The green grass, and in the distance, the trees that already showed some signs of autumn’s arrival with their orange leaves, all the colors shocked the man who had lived hundreds of years ignorant of all that.

‘So? Still think my world looks bland?’

‘It’s… beautiful, this is how some people in my world pictured heaven, a world where cold didn’t reach, and snow didn’t fall, this is what… Everyone dreamt of.’

Caelan couldn’t shed a tear since he had no eyes to wet, but as a form of respect for him, Hans stood still watching the scenery until the man had enough of it.

‘Thank you…

Said the voice.

‘It’s nothing, I’m also enjoying it’

As soon as Hans closed the window, he closed the connection with Caelan by stopping the mana flow and then entered the plain of darkness once again to ask Caelan for the second spell he had promised to teach him.