Eight years ago.
Deep into the night, the rest of the party slept soundly inside the cheap inn. The young Mage sat alone on the damp grass outside. She looked up at the dark sky. Bright blue stars twinkled in the cold air.
"Blue Star," Lumina muttered.
Tears suddenly spilled from her eyes. Her nine-year-old heart could not take the pressure anymore. She tried so hard every single day to impress her hero, but she never received a single nod of acknowledgment. She only got cold rejection.
Every afternoon, she failed to keep Kian floating for the full eight hours. When his shiny shoes eventually hit the dirty dungeon floor, Kian would just look down and blurt out the word "Weak".
She pulled her knees to her chest and sobbed quietly.
Three days ago, she desperately asked Kian for advice. She wanted to know what she was doing wrong.
"How can I increase my Mana Capacity?" she had asked him.
Kian just looked at her with empty eyes and delivered a crushing answer.
"It's impossible. You have to die many times over before you can make it."
Those words hit her hard. The absolute hopelessness of that statement broke her spirit. She cried into her sleeves, feeling entirely useless.
"Why are you here, Lumi?" a soft voice asked from a few meters away.
Lumina jumped and turned around. She saw Celia standing in the grass.
"I'm just having fresh air," Lumina lied quickly.
Celia walked closer and noticed Lumina was frantically wiping her teary eyes.
"What happened?" Celia asked.
"It's nothing," Lumina sniffled.
Celia did not ask any more questions. She sat down on the cold grass and wrapped her arms tightly around the small girl. She hugged her in complete silence.
That gentle warmth completely destroyed Lumina's fragile defenses. It made her cry even harder. Her loud, ragged sobs echoed into the quiet night.
"Why am I so weak?" Lumina cried, her small fingers digging into Celia's clothes.
Celia did not speak. She held the girl close and listened to her heartbreak.
"I want to be strong," Lumina whispered fiercely.
High above them, a bright meteor suddenly streaked across the sky. It burned with a fierce, blinding light before vanishing into the dark horizon. Lumina watched the falling star, and a desperate, burning resolve took root deep inside her chest. She wanted to shine just as bright. She wanted the strength to protect the people she cared about, and she was entirely willing to do whatever it took to reach that height.
---
The next morning arrived. The party gathered in the lobby to head to the dungeon. Celia and Lumina did not prepare their gear. They walked downstairs wearing simple, casual clothes instead of their usual combat outfits.
Celia stepped forward and held Lumina's right hand tightly.
"Ki," Celia started, her voice shaking slightly. "Can we..."
Kian tilted his head.
"Can we take a day off today?" Celia asked.
Brown, Red, and Pink gasped in shock. Yellow closed her eyes and gripped her skirt tight. She fully expected a loud complaint, a harsh rejection, or a severe scolding. Lumina stared at the floor, completely nervous.
Kian's face remained entirely blank.
A rest day? Seriously? Kian thought.
He was smiling wide in his mind.
Finally! This is a very good sign. Yellow and Black are starting to feel tired. Or maybe they think they are wasting their time. Or maybe they are just getting bored because all they do is cast floating spells and healing spells continuously. If they rest for a day, they will eventually request more days off in the near future. When they finally realize it is not worth joining this party, they will quit the Feeble Soul. In any case, them requesting a day off when they never asked before is an excellent sign.
Kian felt silently overjoyed because his plan to crush Yellow and Black's spirit was working. He was worried he would not see any results, but this request confirmed it. His strategy to make them quit the party was a success.
"Sure," Kian said smoothly. "You can take a day off today."
Yellow and Black's eyes widened in pure shock. The jaws of Brown, Red, and Pink completely dropped.
Kian looked at the three melee fighters. "How about you three? Do you want a day off?"
"No!" they shouted in perfect unison.
Damn. These three are a tough knot to crack, Kian complained internally.
"Let's go," Kian ordered. The four of them walked out the door.
After they left, Celia and Lumina let out heavy, synchronized sighs of relief.
"Let's go," Celia said.
---
They walked through the busy city streets until they reached a huge stone building. A grand sign above the doors read: Vireldrian Institute of Etheric Studies.
Celia and Lumina walked up the stairs. Before they could cross the threshold, a uniformed guard blocked their path.
The guard was initially startled when he saw an elf, but he quickly recovered his composure.
"What are you kids doing here?" the guard asked.
He looked down at them with mild annoyance. He knew elves lived longer than they looked, but the blonde elf standing in front of him still resembled a fourteen-year-old girl. The kid on her left looked no older than nine.
Celia offered a polite, respectful bow. "Good morning, sir. My name is Celia Oakheart, and this is Lumina Frost. We are hoping to speak with a magic researcher today. There is an academic matter we desperately want to ask about."
The guard stood completely stunned. Elves were famously arrogant and rude to humans. Hearing this polite, well-mannered greeting from a demi-human completely threw him off balance.
I can't believe she's an elf, the guard thought. She's like the elf I know. She's actually polite.
He cleared his throat. "Even so, the policy of this Institute is very strict. I am sorry, but you need an appointment to enter this building."
Lumina's face fell in deep sadness.
Just then, a woman wearing thick glasses happened to walk past the entrance. She caught sight of the blonde hair and stopped.
An elf? she thought, blinking rapidly. It's the second time I've seen an elf in this building. Is the world ending today? I should probably check if the sky is falling.
She shook her head to clear the silly thought. She noticed the elf was speaking politely to the guard. She felt very surprised to encounter another elf who did not act rude toward humans.
"What's going on here?" the woman asked.
The guard quickly bowed. "Assistant Director. These kids said they want to talk to a magic researcher, but they don't have an appointment."
The Assistant Director looked closely at Celia and Lumina. Her sharp eyes caught the subtle calluses on their hands and their firm posture.
These kids are not ordinary, she deduced silently. They look strong. Probably Adventurers.
"What is it you want to talk about?" the Assistant Director asked kindly.
Celia felt entirely surprised by the direct question. She knew this was her only shot. Without wasting any time, she asked her question right there at the entrance.
"We want to know how to increase the Mana Capacity," Celia declared.
The Assistant Director raised an eyebrow. She felt deeply intrigued. It had been a very long time since she heard that specific question. Nobody in the Magic Research community talked about that topic anymore because the magic community closed the debate five hundred years ago.
"That's impossible," the Assistant Director stated flatly.
Hearing the word impossible from a real magic researcher shattered all the hope in Lumina's chest.
Celia knew her time was limited, so she spoke quickly. "I heard if a person, especially a Mage, deliberately exhausts their Mana regularly, their Mana Capacity will be stretched each time."
The Assistant Director responded almost immediately. "You probably heard that from storybooks read by kids. There are crazy magic theories in those storybooks which are actually false information about magic."
She paused and thought of a way to explain the concept to children.
"Mana Capacity refers to the exact size of how much Mana a person can carry," she explained smoothly. "It's like a container. Think of that container like a sealed glass bottle. Whenever a person consumes Mana, the energy is sucked out from the sealed bottle container. It flows through the Etheric Veins and produces Aura when it moves outside the body. No matter how much Mana you suck from it, you will automatically recharge that empty space with proper rest without ever drinking a Mana Potion. You can deliberately exhaust yourself over and over again, and recharge as many times as you like. But the glass bottle will never get bigger. The theories in storybooks are telling lies."
Celia did not read a storybook. She had heard the theory from other Adventurers on the street.
"As a person grows older, the glass bottle or Mana Capacity will increase, but just slightly," the Assistant Director added. "About twenty percent. When a person is still a kid, their Mana Capacity is already set. They are just weak because their young body cannot produce enough Mana to fill the tank quickly. As a person grows, the amount of Mana their body can produce to fill the tank also increases. But no matter how much Mana a person can produce, if their Mana Capacity is small, then that is the absolute ceiling of their potential."
She adjusted her glasses. "When a person reaches their Maturation Cap, the Mana Capacity stops growing as well. The Maturation Cap refers to the age of a person when their Mana Capacity officially stops expanding. For humans, the Maturity Cap differs from person to person. It is usually around fifteen to nineteen years old."
The Assistant Director looked at them softly. "Did that answer your question?"
"Is there really any other way to increase the Mana Capacity?" Celia asked desperately.
"No. There is no safe way to increase the Mana Capacity," the Assistant Director answered.
Upon hearing those specific words, Lumina blurted out, "What do you mean there is no safe way?"
"It means exactly what I said," the Assistant Director replied.
"What you said implies there is a non-safe way," Lumina challenged.
The Assistant Director stood completely stunned by the young kid's sharp deduction.
"I want to know the truth about magic," Lumina demanded.