Teras: the deadly game of cards

Departure?

In the end, Teras got to his room and he decided to lie down on his bed, he slowly fell asleep on this dark and quiet night

"What are you doing?"

said a shadowy figure

"You are wasting your time you have to find them, fast he will not wait for you, so quickly get back on your feet and don't stop you should find them and put an end to this suffering because only you can don't ever forget that!"

Teras woke up, he was full of sweat he felt heavy the whole world was moving around for him

"What was that?"

he asked himself out loud, indeed, what was that?

After what Teras saw he decided to go outside for a night walk so he could calm down from this event, he was really concerned about his dream, he felt pressure he had never felt in his life. As he was walking in the dead calm town he saw a person in the distance, he didn't seem to possess any kind of weapon but he had a fixed look at Teras

"Hey what are you doing this late at night!!?"

Teras screamed at the man, the man must have got afraid of the scream so he disappeared as if nothing happened

'What is wrong with people? first the dream and now a stalker, why did I have to witness all these disturbing events in a single day?'

some time passed by and Teras decided to go back to sleep since he was wasting his energy walking aimlessly in the town, he entered the mansion and went to his room, to his surprise Tokkou was waiting for him on his bed

"What is this?"

said Tokkou as he was pointing to the baby bunny sleeping on the floor

"Oh sorry I completely forgot about him, I was going to tell you about him but all those things happened and you know, they made me forget about it"

Teras said anxiously to Tokkou

"First of all, it is a she, and second of all, can you raise a stray bunny? you know this breed grows to a horse's size right? can you feed him or take care of it properly?

Tokkou said to Teras with concern

"It's not like I a got him on purpose, some scums were abusing it, I couldn't sit down and watch them do it"

Teras replied

"It appears you have misunderstood my intentions, you see a demon bunny is a rare breed of bunnies and they are mainly used for combat and racing, so considering you found one for free is a really good thing"

Teras's eyes sparkled with happiness, he was really happy he could keep her, in the end, he promised to never abandon her and raise her with care

"Her name will be Cromi"

Teras said to Tokkou, Tokkou then came to an agreement with Teras and went to sleep, Teras brought his bunny to his bed

"Don't worry Cromi now nobody will treat you poorly, since I'm here for you"

he told to the bunny, he fell asleep right after

"What do you think about this kid? Do you think that he will be able to learn how to use mana?"

Tokkou asked Becka

"He seems promising, he understands the basic concept of fighting but I don't know if he can fight at a more advance level"

Becka said as she stared at the starry night out of the window

"Never mind about that, now about the real deal! Do you think this assassin will attack us?"

Tokkou asked

"We know that he is somewhere here but we don't know who it is and how they look, plus with so many tourists and adventurers coming here to look at you or the arena is almost impossible to research each one of them!"

Becka said as she turned to Tokkou

What will end up happening?

the next day Teras enjoyed a full of vitamins breakfast and went straight to the backyard, he saw Becka waiting for him, he picked up the pace and went outside

"I'm sorry that I made you wait, Mrs.Becka, I was distracted with my breakfast"

he said with his head bowed down

"It's okay kid I didn't even wait for a minute, so let's finally get started with your training"

Becka said in an attempt to encourage Teras, Becka then showed Teras a path to a place full of plants that were showered by a waterfall, the waterfall was fairly small but it seemed like a peaceful place to train

"So we start with the basics, this is the most important thing you need to do, visualize the mana, think of it as a small source of light and energy wandering around the environment, when you can imagine the mana outside try to think the same thing but the mana flows inside your body like a slow river, then try to make the river faster but don't make it more intense"

even though Becka tried to explain as hard as she could, she couldn't really pass the message to Teras

"You are going to stay here until you manage to control your inner mana, no excuses, the earlier you do it the more will learn so make it fast kid"

Teras was anxious, he didn't understand anything about mana control

"Can't you give me a hint or maybe even help me, if it's possible? "

"I will give you a small hint, you have to imagine, for example, think of a river then imagine the river meeting a dead end and slowly turning into a waterfall, like the one you are seeing, also when you feel you have spread the mana all over your body then try to release it on something, you can also gather mana into a single point of your body to defend it, also don't let the mana spill out of your body without your consent or it will end badly, that is all from me when you manage to make it then come to me so I can help you advance further"

Teras didn't lose a second he quickly started to try different things

'This is never going to work, I have to be calm'

Teras then closed his eyes and focused on the sound of the waterfall

'don't force it, just maintain it, like water, flexible, you can do it, it's simple really, just maintain the flow and spread it, now... '

"ENFORCE IT!!!"

as soon as he said that a silver aura covered Teras, he could feel that his power was increasing

'cool, now maintain it, try to move around, do something while you have it, maybe hit a tree while releasing it'

Teras then punched a tree, the whole tree shacked the result of the punch was bending the tree to lit of bit the direction Teras stoke it

'I am sure that I'm ready, all I have to do is bring Becka here and continue my training'

that is what he did, he went to the mansion and found Becka, he told her about his results, Becka didn't really show any type of happiness

"Ok if you can hold your mana flow for over 3 hours you will pass to the next stage of your training"

"3 hours? that's impossible for me, I just started to make some progress!"

Teras replied, but Becka insisted that he held it for 3 hours or else she couldn't continue with the training, Teras then decided to go back to training but before he left, Becka told him

"Just so you know kid, this type of exercise is performed by the strongest people out there just for a warm-up to their day, so how hard could it be? and also I will observe you so you can't cheat"

Teras was amazed by the amount of training high rankers did but he didn't give up, he returned to the waterfall and concentrated, he fell deep into meditation, and the grey aura showed again

"There it is, now hold it, it doesn't matter if I'm in pain or if I can't feel my senses, just focus, it's me and nothing else there, I CAN DO IT!!!"

Teras then tried his hardest, he was sweating, feeling like his body has been sent on fire, but he didn't stop, all he could think of was his dream, which told him he was wasting time, he felt the same, that it's why he didn't want to stop if he couldn't endure a warm-up of the strongest, then he can't survive alone, he had to find who he was in the past, he can't just roam around aimlessly. Teras was in the urge to give up but he kept on going

'I must have 2 hours left, at this point I can't give up, I will just endure it until I can't anymore, that would be more than enough'

suddenly someone touches him on his shoulder, he quickly turned around, it was Tokkou

"What are you doing here at this time of the day?"

Tokkou asked

"Ms. Becka told me to train here for 3 hours"

he replied

"What time did you get here?"

"About 6 in the morning"

Tokkou then busted out laughing, Teras confused watched him

"You are here for about 6 hours, hahaha, you maintained your mana flow for 6 hours? are you an idiot, just an hour is enough"

Teras was shocked

"Then why did Becka tell me to do it?"

"Oh she did, I don't know maybe to see how long you can control it, and to be honest 6 hours is a lot, my max has to be around 1 day and 13 hours when I was in the war against some revolutionaries but other than that I don't hold it for too long"

Teras was furious, since not only did Becka force him to do an almost useless exercise but she also forgot to notify him if 3 hours passed, Teras quickly arrived at the mansion, he asked random maids for Becka but none knew where Becka was, then he screamed

"BECKAAAAA!!!"

there was no answer, then he decided to go to the training room he was introduced to yesterday, in his surprise he found Becka laying down on a rocky bed

"Why did you tell me to do this exercise?"

"Oh, Teras you finally gave up?"

Becka was relaxing at this place since Tokkou gave her time off but she didn't realize how fast time passed, she only realized it when she took a look at the sun

"WHAT IS 12 O'CLOCK!!!"

she screamed

"I can't believe it I was watching you for 3 hours, you completed my task and I decided to take a break here so I could relax, little did I know you lasted 3 extra hours, I apologize I thought you would give up after a minute or so"

Teras was angry but he accepted the apology

"So what's your max time at the control of mana flow?"

Teras asked for fun

"Oh me? about 2 hours"

"2 HOURS AND YOU TOLD ME TO HOLD IT FOR 1 HOUR EXTRA!!!?"

Teras screamed

"Of course, I wanted to see if you can pass my time, keep in mind I'm a housemaid I'm not supposed to fight. that's why I don't have to increase my mana level, but you have that's why"

Becka replied

"Still if Tokkou didn't interrupt me then I wouldn't stop so hypothetically I could last longer"

"I see then I must say you are more than fit to begin the training"

'yea no shit'

Teras thought

Becka then stood up and used her power, the whole house out of rock got swelled by the earth and completely disappeared

"As you have realized mana increases almost everything every physical attribute your body has, like endurance, strength, and agility plus mana has some unique powers that cards don't have like healing, shielding, and setting up traps the most useful out of all of them is mana eyes, these eyes can help you look at the traces of mana that someone left when he was there, it has other uses too such as night vision, you can zoom in to see things that are far away from you and also you can see the magic traps, it also helps you with detecting someone that is using his power or mana so you can't get caught in a surprise attack, some also use it so they can see while moving fast "

'I didn't use mana eyes but I could see Tokkou's aura, strange?'

he thought to himself

"Wanna learn them? they are pretty easy but as your mana increase so do these abilities so keep it in mind"

"Sure let's start with healing"

"Okay scratch your skin with a blade and try to heal it, think of the mana as a thread, you are sewing your wound with this thread and you are slowly closing it"

Teras then cut himself and then healed it

"Don't think is that easy, it's just a scratch, if you get a big wound it will be harder. moving to the next, shielding, try to imagine your mana gathering in front of you as a preferably curved circle and try to harden this mana"

Teras tried and succeeded with ease

'Woah I guess she told me that it would be easy'

he thought

"Now for the traps think of a pressure plate and try to place the mana on the ground, the trap can be a box of chains, whatever you desire, some even mix them with their card and use them to shoot out fire or water, it really can be helpful if you are creative"

Teras completed it first try too

"Now throw something on it"

Teras threw a rock, and as soon as the rock touched the trap a shield formed around it

"Nice job kid now finally let's do the mana eyes, you have to simply gather some mana into your eyes"

so naturally Teras did it, the world gained a darker filter but he could see Becka glowing with weak light, Becka was amazed, Teras was learning every use of mana in a flash, it had been a while since someone could to this

"You glow Mrs.Becka!"

he said to Becka with excitement

"You are pretty straight forwards, girls can get scared if you act like that"

Becka said with sarcasm, this comment made Teras embarrassed

"Mana also helps you increase the power of the cards, but you must know all that since Tokkou explained them to you prior, so let us advance now, have you decided which card you want to learn to use first?"

Becka asked

"I haven't but if I had to go with the one I will have to go with the 3rd, the super speed one, since it can help me fight and escape, also I have realized that I'm quicker than the normal person so an upgrade wouldn't feel so bad you know"

"Wise choice, but if you want to learn how to use a card you have to attend a school which we don't have in our town, so you have to go to the neighbor town, the town is called Prodo and it's about 13 km away from here, it's also a town for people that adventure to complete quests, so maybe you can find some people to adventure with, you just can't stay here forever"

"I understand but I have to talk about it with Tokkou and I will need some days to pack my things, just so you know I'm really grateful for your teachings"

Becka also didn't really think that her teaching was so helpful but she accepted his thanks

"I also know you have a crush on Tokkou, so if I come back I promise that I will try to get you 2 closer to each other"

he said before he left, Becka blushed and got embarrassed but didn't say anything because she found the idea brilliant

'This kid is way too kind for this world, but it makes me happy to think that people like him still exist'

Becka thought as she waved Teras off...