Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst

"... That's incredible, Desmond only seems to be around 19 years old and he already has 500..." Erik commented in a low voice, filled with surprise.

"And that surprises you? I’m over 1000 and look how young and beautiful I look," Sigrún said, smiling as she spun around, showcasing her exquisite beauty and tempting body.

"... Yes, you’re right, master, I should have seen it coming from the beginning..." Erik began to reflect, but an idea quickly crossed his mind and he asked his master, "By the way, master, how old is Master Eleonora?"

"Hehehe, she’s over 5000 years old."

"..."

Sigrún's cheerful words left Erik speechless, who looked at her in surprise while he seemed to be contemplating life, but the beautiful woman with golden hair quickly interrupted him.

"Don't worry so much about it, Erik. You'll get used to it. After all, we have a long life ahead of us together. Hehe."

With a small smile on her face, Sigrún hugged Erik briefly and then let go to stand in front of the board, where she wrote something else, all under the attentive gaze of the beautiful maid standing nearby with a professional look and an elegant smile on her face.

"Well, we got a bit sidetracked, but let's continue with the basic techniques. The third one is known as the Mana Pool, and this technique allows you to expand your Hugstjarna, or dantian as you called it, to increase your mana reserves.

By the way, the point where mana gathers in the body has different names depending on the magical system. Practitioners of the aegis system like me call it Hugstjarna, those of sacred geometry call it the Aurea Nexus or simply Nexus point, and in the Zazen discipline, it’s referred to as dantian, so you can call it whatever you prefer."

Sigrún's brief explanation brought a question to Erik's mind, which he quickly asked after raising his hand.

"Master, what is the name of the place where energy gathers in the head?"

Erik's question truly surprised Sigrn. After all, that wasn't something the young star-haired boy should know, which inevitably brought an ironic smile to her face. But after shaking her head to dispel the strange feelings that arose in her heart, she answered.

"That point also has different names depending on the magical system. In the aegis system, it’s called Hugljos, in sacred geometry, it’s called Luminarium, and in the Zazen discipline, it’s known as Niwan. It’s a point directly connected to thought, intuition, and spirituality. But tell me, Erik, how did you learn about the Hugljos?"

At Sigrún's question, a somewhat nostalgic expression appeared on Erik's face, who soon began to explain, not without first sipping some tea brought by the beautiful Victorian maid.

"Well, I actually discovered that point in my head during my early years on the island, master. Since I always had a kind of sixth sense that warned me of danger, which was incredibly useful in that situation, I wanted to improve it somehow, and since mana somehow ‘strengthened’ everything, I thought it was a good idea to try to ‘strengthen’ it.

But since I didn’t have a clear idea of how to ‘strengthen’ something like that, I just sent a lot of mana to my head, and accidentally discovered that strange point, which, if I infused mana into it, allowed me to sense the presence of others.

That little trick was so useful at the time that it at least tripled my effectiveness in the forest, so I kept it ‘active’ all the time, although it was hard to keep it active while sleeping, and eventually, it became a habit, to the point where it feels weird not to sense others’ presence."

Sigrún could only put her hand on her forehead as she listened to Erik's words, who made it sound so easy to master an advanced and quite dangerous technique too. Many ended up with serious physical and mental problems trying it, and there were also those who died.

Meanwhile, Seraphina smiled amusedly, though without losing her elegant and reserved demeanor, as she listened to Erik's story. But shortly after, Sigrún let out a long sigh of exhaustion and gently reprimanded him.

"Erik, don't try those kinds of experiments again. What you’re describing is an advanced technique called Mystical Awareness and it's very dangerous to master. Many have hurt themselves trying it."

"Really?!" Erik exclaimed somewhat surprised, then added in a low voice, thoughtfully, "although I never felt anything wrong, even when I flooded my head with mana..."

"That's because you have first-class mana control, but if it weren't for that, you could have died. So from now on, you have to inform me or Eli if you want to try something crazy like that, understood?" Sigrún demanded in a serious tone full of firmness, leaving no room for discussion.

"Yes," Erik nodded several times as he responded, after all, his master was giving him a rather terrifying expression.

"That's better... and for reference, mystical awareness can also accelerate thinking and improve the ability to sense the Myst," Sigrún commented in a satisfied tone before elegantly sipping her tea.

"Ah!!! So that's why."

Sigrún's words made many things clear to Erik, who always thought he saw everything slow when he fought due to adrenaline, although he never really paid attention to sensing the Myst as it became something natural for him over time. But if he remembered correctly, that started when he sent his mana to his head.

"Well, let's continue then. The fourth technique is known as Focusing, and it's basically learning to focus mana to increase the power of a spell or attack. The fifth and last of the basic techniques is Mystical Sensitivity, which is learning to sense the Myst around you."

Seeing that Erik started taking notes in his notebook, Sigrún let out a sigh of relief, glad that the young star-haired boy didn't mention any other crazy ideas, which for some reason improved the taste of her tea. She then asked him calmly.

"Which of these techniques do you think you still need to learn, Erik?"

"I’d say the mana pool and focusing, master."

"You're right, though more than learning them, you need to perfect them. You already use the basics of the mana pool and focusing, albeit in a very superficial way, and we need to improve that."

"Of course, master."

...

...

...

"Well, everyone, starting today, my disciple will come here every Saturday and assist me. I hope you all help him with whatever he needs and treat him with the respect he deserves."

Sigrún announced cheerfully in the middle of a large and beautiful alchemy workshop with walls of warm-aged oak, engraved with intricate runes that twinkled with a soft amber glow, and shelves of carved wood. Filled to the brim with glass jars containing exotic and mysterious ingredients.

Surrounding a large cauldron on an ancient dark oak desk, there was a group of eight people, four men and four women, dressed in dark blue robes that looked comfortable and functional, providing protection as well as ease of movement. They looked at Sigrún with serious and professional expressions.

After hearing Sigrn's words, the assistants looked at Erik with surprise. But quickly, a beautiful woman who appeared to be around 19 years old, with wavy copper-red hair and lively blue eyes, approached Erik. Unlike the others, she had on the right side of her chest a brooch with the emblem of a flame entwined with a tree. She then bowed respectfully.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, first disciple, my name is Valeria Fenixara, and I am Master Eldurdóttir’s head assistant. It will be a pleasure to work with you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Fenixara. My name is Erik, and I hope to learn a lot from you," Erik, who was next to Sigrún, quickly responded courteously.

"I hope to be of help to you, Disciple Erik, and I’m already married, so you don't need to use 'Miss,' you can call me whatever is easiest for you."

Erik looked a bit surprised at the beautiful woman, after all, it was the first time he had met a married woman at the university. Then again, he didn't know many people, and for some reason, his masters' mansion assistants were all single.

When Erik discovered that almost everyone who worked for his masters was single, he got a little worried. So, he decided to confirm his suspicions by calling some aside to ask if his masters had anything against relationships or something like that.

But, to his surprise, it wasn't like that. In reality, romantic relationships were a very serious matter for mana users, to the point where they only started a relationship when both parties had firm intentions of starting a family and having children. It was quite common for mana users to remain single for a large part of their lives.

As a side note, Erik's little investigation into the romantic relationships of mana users caused Eleonora and Sigrún to tease him for an entire month, and they only stopped when he started ignoring them one day.

"I apologize, Mrs. Fenixara, I’m new here and still have trouble distinguishing things," Erik responded in an apologetic tone, to which the beautiful red-haired woman replied with a smile.

"Don't worry about that, Disciple Erik, and you can simply call me Valeria without any problem."

"Alright."

Meanwhile, Sigrún was trying her hardest to contain her laughter due to the expression Erik was giving Valeria; he literally looked like he was facing a rare animal, and she knew exactly why.

During the time Erik had lived at the Arcane University, he had never left Sigrún or Eleonora’s mansion, to the point where he didn’t know anyone besides the workers, assistants, and disciples, all of whom were single. So encountering a married person for the first time was quite interesting for him.

"Well, Erik, I want to explain a few things to you first."

"Sure, master."

Amused, Sigrún spoke while trying to seem serious, so Erik quickly took out his notebook and prepared to listen to her. However, she simply shook her head and spoke in a more casual tone.

"It’s nothing important, just general knowledge about how things work here at the university."

"Alright."

Despite saying that, Erik didn’t put away his notebook and just waited for his master to speak, so Sigrún could only give in and start with a somewhat amused smile.

"What I wanted to talk to you about is the assistants, precisely. First of all, why do you think I need assistants for my work as an alchemist?"