“I suppose I should say… as expected of a ‘temporary residence.'”
Yakumo stared at the shelter before him.
Calling it a house would be generous.
It was closer to a treehouse.
“I can’t believe I actually expected an elf to build a proper house on the ground.”
“I already told you it’s only temporary.”
Frieren didn’t see anything wrong with it.
“It’s convenient.”
“As long as it keeps wild animals away, it’s much more comfortable than sleeping outside.”
“Although I don’t have any bedding prepared for you.”
“That’s fine. I brought my own…”
Yakumo sighed.
“So, Frieren, did you really bring me here because you want to learn that thing you mentioned?”
“The technique for concealing mana?”
“You don’t strike me as someone who can be persuaded that easily.”
“Even I don’t say things without reason.”
Frieren placed the basket beside her.
“I genuinely need a technique that completely conceals mana.”
“The same applies to suppressing mana fluctuations.”
“…I see.”
Frieren stared at Yakumo for a moment.
“You don’t know any mana-detection magic.”
She had identified his problem almost immediately.
“That’s rather surprising.”
“You possess an ability no one else has, yet you’re missing something so basic.”
Frieren stood up.
She rummaged through a chest on the other side of the shelter for a moment.
Despite the fact that the chest didn’t look like somewhere one would store writing supplies, she pulled out a quill and bottle of ink.
She quickly wrote something down, then handed the sheet to Yakumo.
“What’s this?”
Yakumo accepted it.
The system apparently translated the writing for him, because he could understand everything on the page.
It seemed to describe some kind of spell from this world.
He looked at Frieren in confusion, unsure what she wanted him to do with it.
“This is mana-detection magic.”
“It’s something most mages learn when they first begin studying magic.”
“For most mages, it becomes almost instinctive.”
“For demons, it’s an innate talent.”
“They judge the strength of others based on the mana they detect.”
“So that’s why you suppress your mana.”
Yakumo finally understood.
Even so, he couldn’t stop himself from muttering.
“But a spell like this… I probably can’t learn—”
He stopped.
“No.”
“I think I can?”
All of his magic so far had come from the system.
Logically speaking, anything outside the system should depend heavily on personal talent.
Especially something like magic.
It wasn’t supposed to be something just anyone could learn.
Yet as Yakumo looked at the handwritten spell…
He instinctively knew that he could learn it.
His mind automatically began analyzing the spell.
How it was cast.
How it was controlled.
How it was supposed to function.
Was this because of all the points he’d invested into INT?
Yakumo quietly filed that possibility away.
Once he received more Ability Points, he would invest another point and compare the difference.
For now, though…
He had genuinely learned Mana Detection.
The skill also appeared in his system’s Skill Window.
Interestingly, it wasn’t assigned to any of his post-advancement skill tabs.
Just like Soaring, it had appeared under his Beginner Skills.
It was a buff-type skill.
In some ways, it resembled passive upgrades he would obtain later.
It was essentially a permanent utility ability.
Even better, just like Soaring, it consumed no MP.
He could toggle it on or off whenever he wanted.
“Hm.”
“You learned that surprisingly quickly.”
Frieren’s face showed a rare hint of surprise.
“Are you sure you were never formally trained as a mage?”
“If you truly started from the level of an apprentice…”
“Then your talent is extraordinary.”
“I told you already.”
Yakumo answered helplessly.
“I’m a half-baked accident.”
“But yeah…”
“Even though it’s extremely faint, I can see your mana wavering slightly above you now, Frieren.”
“Oh.”
“It shakes even more when you move.”As though deliberately giving Yakumo a chance to test it, Frieren moved her hand around.
After hearing his answer, her eyes widened.
“You can already perceive that much immediately after learning the spell? Maybe you really are a genius.”
“Since you can see the fluctuations in my mana now, explaining this to you will be much easier.”
Frieren continued,
“Like I mentioned earlier, sensing mana is instinctive for demons. Using mana detection to locate enemies is the same.”
For demons, using fluctuations in mana to detect enemies in their surroundings was basic common sense.
Most human mages did the same thing nowadays.
Magical beasts did too.
In complicated environments, mana detection served as an excellent early-warning system.
A sufficiently skilled mage could even detect incoming magical attacks in advance.
And when Frieren’s teacher had trained her, she had given Frieren a particular instruction.
She was to spend her entire life suppressing her mana in order to deceive demons.
Frieren had already lived for more than a thousand years.
The amount of mana she’d accumulated was unimaginably vast.
If she made no attempt to hide it, merely walking around would turn her into a natural beacon that attracted demons.
And Frieren had indeed followed that instruction.
Countless demons had been deceived by her disguise.
But maintaining that suppression was exhausting.
It was like being perfectly capable of taking full breaths, yet forcing yourself to breathe at only half capacity at all times.
She had already been doing it for a thousand years.
Continuing wasn’t really a problem.
She had long since become accustomed to it.
But after seeing Yakumo’s condition, she simply couldn’t remain indifferent.
From Frieren’s perspective, Yakumo’s method of using magic was extremely crude.
Aside from being capable of casting spells, he was an amateur in virtually every other respect.
Yet this complete amateur had casually accomplished something she herself had been unable to achieve.
“Magic is a world of imagination, Yakumo.”
Frieren spoke to him with unusual seriousness.
“If you cannot imagine yourself accomplishing something, then you will never be able to do it.”
“Conversely, if you can truly imagine it, magic will inevitably help turn that image into reality.”
“So I just keep driving and leave figuring out the solution to Uncle?”
“…?”
Frieren tilted her head.
She very clearly had no idea what Yakumo was referencing.
“No, never mind. I was talking nonsense.”
Yakumo hurriedly shook his head.
“But I’m not lying either. I genuinely can’t explain how I do it.”
“If I absolutely had to describe it as some form of mana control…”
Yakumo looked troubled.
He didn’t possess enough knowledge of this world’s magical theory to actually give Frieren the information she wanted.
He had, of course, examined his own mana.
It really did form an extremely thin layer pressed tightly around his body.
Only when he cast a spell did part of it bulge outward, almost like a slime squeezing out a tiny piece of itself, producing a fluctuation in his mana.
“Then would you like to study under me?”
Frieren continued watching Yakumo.
“I’m not particularly happy that the Hero of the South’s prediction came true this quickly, but I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“I’ll teach you about magic.”
“In exchange, once you’ve learned enough, teach me your method of concealing mana and controlling mana fluctuations.”
Frieren formally extended the invitation.
“…Deal.”
Yakumo nodded.
He had no reason whatsoever to refuse an offer like that.