Drifter Encounters Mana

Inside a vast area underground beneath Mirelia's territory, a huge pile of treasures as tall as a mountain lay right at the very center. Perched at the very top was the giant scaled creature who proclaimed itself the Dragon God, seemingly satisfied with itself and its position.

In contrast to the dragon's peaceful rest, however, at the foot of the heap of wealth, a human dwarfed by the humungous collection worked himself half to death as he rearranged articles of great value, separating each item by category while writing an inventory of every object. Every now and then, sounds of invaluable metals and gems clanking on each other sounded, creating a cacophony that tickled the ears of the humungous creature.

"Master, what is this thing?" Yuki held up an item to his dragon master.

"Oh, that! That's a family heirloom of a human noble house somewhere in the Mortal continent. If this monarch recalls it correctly, that is from... actually, this monarch forgot. This monarch took it because it looked nice and shiny. Awesome, right?"

"You took it? Aren't you just a robber, then?"

"How rude! They offered it to me when I passed by, okay?"

Hearing Mirelia, he shook his head in disbelief. If a menacing dragon were to pass by a human settlement, it was only natural for those people to assume that they would get done in if they did not offer something like this while they begged for mercy. It was probably a priceless item if those nobles deemed it enough to exchange for their lives.

"I-It is not this monarch's my intention, though. This monarch was only passing by that place at that time. I definitely did not hover over their territory just to get something like this, alright?"

"I did not ask, though… Did you job change from 'Dragon God' to an Extortionist at that time?"

"Hmph!"

After the conversation entered a lull, he wrote the family heirloom somewhere in the inventory list and looked at the rest of the items right after. Looking at the mountain of things in front of him, a slight despair sprouted in his chest. Just imagining all the work he had to do brought chills down his spine. Heck! He was not even a percent done with it despite doing this for a week now.

"Damn, I'll probably die before I finish with this at this rate."

When he first accepted this position in order to preserve his life, he had thought that it would not be too bad. After all, he only had to arrange some stuff in exchange for his safety. And it was not as if he did not have any experience in doing an inventory with the part time jobs that he had worked on. However, he clearly did not take into consideration the long years that the dragon had lived since its birth and the treasures that it had collected along the way.

"Why do you have so many of these anyway?"

Hearing the human it took under its wing, the Dragon God opened its eyes and snorted.

"What do you know? Isn't it quite pleasurable to have these shiny treasures all to yourself and lay on top of them whenever you like? I thought a greedy race like a human such as yourself would understand this pleasure of our dragon race."

It was certainly as Mirelia said. Whether it be humans or any other race, no one would be able to resist the allure of wealth, especially so in the scale of this dragon's collection. Well, maybe, there were other races out there who did not possess greed by nature, but that was beside the point. However, Yuki thought that there was probably more to it for Mirelia. If he had to guess, it was probably a trait innate to the dragon race like what he had read in the myths back on Earth.

"It's not like I don't get it, you know. It's just that… I'm the one who has to deal with it, not you."

"Well, this monarch do not think it is a bad deal considering that you're still alive."

"Right."

When he thought about it, he should have been more grateful that Mirelia did not send him to his maker immediately. He probably had to thank his status as an otherworlder for this, although remembering it made him feel sour in his heart. Over all, it was not that bad. It was just that there was one tiny problem about it…

"I'm not ungrateful for this. Just that, I think it would have been more convenient if my body did not shake by itself every time I tried to move."

"Oh… This monarch forgot about that."

The Dragon God's golden eyes swam around. Right! It had forgotten that the human it took as a servant probably could not resist its presence well. It was already a feat that he had managed to move despite that. But in its defense, though, it was easy to forget that Yuki was enduring its aura all this time because of how casual he treated the dragon within the first week that they had spent together. Even though it was the Dragon God, a human dared treat it like this…

Mirelia sighed inwardly. It was fine. It would forgive this human with his impudence since it was a magnanimous dragon, after all.

Yuki, not knowing what was going on in its head, stared at the dragon in suspicion. "Okay, I'm going to forget that I ever heard that… But do you have something to fix this?"

Embarrassed, the dragon raised its head in thought. It hummed to itself as it thought of what fix it could do to aid its human servant.

"That's right!"

"Hmm?"

"This monarch can just train you to be durable enough to withstand my aura. Then, there would not be any problem, right?"

Yuki's eyes turned wide in surprise. Wasn't this the thing that he wanted the most? Going by logic, since he was in another world already and Mirelia had mentioned that he had mana, albeit paltry, then he could learn how to use magic and grow stronger. Maybe, someday, that teleportation magic that he wanted so much might not be just a dream.

The dragon sighed in relief seeing that it had dodged an accusation. Well, it also knew what Yuki wanted the most at the moment, and since it had a lot of time in its hands, it was not bad for it to train him. He was, after all, its servant, and it would be quite unsightly for him to be as weak as an ant.

Thus, both human and dragon, with their own agendas, managed to come up with an agreement.

--

"Now, try again. Close your eyes and feel the mana."

Following the instruction, Yuki, although frustrated, closed his eyes once more after many attempts and tried again. After postponing the work that he had to do, he took a rest before the Dragon God began their first ever training session. It had already been hours since then, but he was still unable to achieve the first ever requirement needed for the training that the dragon had in mind.

A sigh echoed. "Master, it's n-not working."

"It is probably because you are just that stupid. What is hard with feeling around the mana? Just feel it, alright?"

"What do you mean 'just feel it'?"

The reason for this might have been partly because he was ignorant of mana and everything related to it. That, Yuki was painfully aware of since the beginning. However, the bigger part of the problem was that his master, this Dragon God, just could not teach properly. He knew that it was powerful, and thought that with its power, it was only natural that it knew a lot of things. Based from that, he assumed that it could probably instruct him about all the things that he was ignorant with. He just never expected that Mirelia, despite its abilities, could not properly tell the steps on how to do the basic things. It was not a surprise, though, as it probably knew how to do it by instinct as a perk of being a dragon, and thus, never had to rely on trying to feel around for mana. Hell, how do mana even feel, anyway?

"I mean, you can feel it when it "fwooosh". Or when you want to move it, you go "whaaaam". Just like that!"

Really, for such an intimidating creature, it had a childish style of teaching. Couldn't it learn how to teach from all the years that it had lived? Understandably, this was probably the first time it had ever taught someone. Yuki sighed, knowing that continuing like this was not going to work. The way they were going about this needed to change.

"Instead of explaining it to me, how about you just do it and let me watch?"

Hearing his suggestion, the Dragon God nodded in exasperation. It had probably realized already that just explaining would not cut it. This new experience was a lot harder than it thought.

It raised its giant claw and brought it up close to his face. Then, a glimmer gathered around it, like an aura that he had seen in an anime that he had watched when the protagonist was trying to power up.

"Amazing…"

Almost in a trance, Yuki stretched his hands toward the light and closed his eyes. His movements were purely instinctual as he concentrated all his senses towards his hands and the area surrounding it. All of a sudden, he felt warmth. This was it! This method, it might just work!

Mirelia watched its human servant reach in surprise. A moment later, a pleased expression shone in its golden orb. Yuki, this human, was more talented than it had anticipated. It was aware that normally, for humans, it would take a lot of time to sense mana. However, he had achieved this only after several hours. Well, technically, it was done in an instant as it knew that its teachings did not have any effects at all. Was it because he was an otherworlder? The answer remained unknown. But with this, the dragon knew that both it and its servant were the same type of people— instinct types.

Instinct types were people who learned not through theory but through practical experience. It was apparent with the method of personally feeling mana manifested by others that Yuki was indeed that type of person. Adding that fact to the mental fortitude that he possessed when he first met with the dragon's overbearing presence, it was apparent that he had more potential when compared to other humans that the Dragon God had encountered.

Unknowingly, Mirelia's eyes curved in a slight smile. It seemed like it was going to witness something fun starting from now.