Novaris. Septer. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Waning Gibbous ??. Days 18-22.

  Everyone had received a message from Jasmine letting them know to expect her early in the morning at Lili's place. They all knew that with Jasmine's return, they would return to adventuring. And adventuring was what they needed because they could train all they wanted, but nothing would ever beat actual live combat testing. So early on the morning of the 18th, the first people to arrive at the shop were naturally Lili and Tesilim. Following the couple was Rose, then Alyx, and finally Jasmine arrived.

  “Hey Jasmine!” Tesilim greeted, having noticed the half-elf first.

  “Welcome back, Jasmine,” Alyx added, his eyes not leaving the book he was reading.

  “Good to see you again,” Lili told her sweetly.

  Finally, Rose was the last to greet their friend, but not with words; instead, she gave Jasmine a large hug.

  “Glad to be back,” Jasmine responded happily as she and Rose walked back.

  “A lot happened while you were gone, well, actually, never mind, you were there for all of it, right? At least sort of,” Tesilim said, his words having sounded confident at first but had progressively made him doubt himself.

  “Yeah, I was,” Jasmine responded with a giggle, “Though I wish I had been here in person,” the twin finished, sounding slightly sad.

  “Wait, if you were watching, and your body was here, weren’t you here in person?” Tesilim questioned, slightly confused.

  “I mean, yeah, but it's different. To us, my brother was the one present, as for me it was like watching a play instead of being part of it,” Jasmine explained, and Tesilim, along with everyone else, instantly understood what she meant.

  “Huh, that is interesting, but I am legitimately not sure what to say. Are you, like, okay?” Tesilim added, unsure of how to proceed.

  Hearing Tesilim, Jasmine let out an abrupt chuckle before replying, “Yeah, I am fine. Now, should we do some adventuring?

  “Let’s do it,” Tesilim told her with a smile.

  “Let's kick some monster butt!” Rose exclaimed.

  “Sure, but we aren’t doing anything crazy, right? I don’t want to put on my armor,” Lili asked, the elf wearing one of her usual short dresses.

  “No, I think for training we continue to keep things simple,” Alyx commented as he finally put his book away.

  As the week of training progressed, everyone began to showcase some of the new moves they had been working on. Many of them were still in the works, but were functional enough that the party could use them in combat to some extent or another. Tesilim was the only one who hadn't shown anyone what he had been working on, except for the spells he had managed to convert into techniques. They were still in the basic stages but were fairly functional. At least the fireball technique was, as the elf had the image of a fireball rather imprinted on his mind.

  Meanwhile, Rose's techniques were progressing well, with one developed to aid in healing and several others that the redhead had made incredible progress with. Even then, everyone was impressed by Jasmine, as she had probably been the one working on her stuff the least, yet she was almost caught up with them. Two of the half-elf's techniques were mainly supportive in nature, but seeing a few half-illusory clones from her was quite the surprise. Supposedly, she was able to keep up because her techniques focused solely on the mana she had access to, which aligned with the concept she was working with. And at the very least, she was slightly behind them in terms of enhancement, something she would no doubt catch up with as well.

  Now, throughout the week, the only one that wasn't really present all the time was a certain drake. This was mainly because the damn drake had shown them all up. Drex was apparently so in tune with what he was that he had created both a defensive and an offensive technique in under a week. Apparently, the drake had gained certain memories about pocket monsters, and he considered himself half pocket monster as well as a possible dragon. So, when he used that knowledge and his sense of pride and willpower, which dragon kind had, well, he left them in the dust. This had become a problem because the drake had started bragging, which had annoyed everyone, and Tesilim had allowed him to leave and head to Jolly’s realm.

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  Outside of training, another important thing that happened during the week was Alyx looking into a specific problem Jasmine had been experiencing for a while. The twins had always wondered why they were only able to extract mana with the dark mana, and the gnome decided to investigate to see if it would reveal yet another layer to the existence that was the two siblings.

  As usual, Alyx began the search with a multitude of rituals and various tests. However, none of this yielded anything useful to the gnome, and he had to switch to other methods of information gathering. He had to step back and question the root of the issue, which was the manna itself—something he should have done to begin with.

  Luxana, as a deity, was a goddess of good, but that was simply a side effect of her followers. She was the Goddess of the Night, Dreams, and the Moon, things which for most individuals could range from good to bad. A night could be beautiful, bringing the stars and the moon into the sky, along with a sense of rest and peace. This peace and rest were connected to sleep, which brought dreams. Naturally, as far as people were concerned, dreams were either good or neutral, while nightmares were considered bad dreams and a completely separate entity.

  The thing was that though the stars and the moon were beautiful, they weren’t necessarily good in nature; they were simply objects that were neutral when all things were considered. Then there was the obvious part of the night. The night brought darkness, which many viewed as something to be avoided; too many things lurked there—bad things and bad people. Yet, Luxana had received all the positive aspects of the night, while Setiel had been the complete opposite. Setiel was the Goddess of Darkness, Nightmares, and Misfortune. So, why were the two goddesses who were both aligned with the moon and the night turned out to be so different?

  The answer was their followers —or, to be precise, the original worshipers of their planet who brought the gods into being. These individuals saw the two entities as belonging to separate aspects of reality, and, as a result, they formed groups sharing certain ideas but in massively different ways. Luxana’s followers and her original worshipers made her into a kind deity, even though, realistically, her concepts were more aligned with neutrality. Meanwhile, Setiel was negatively aligned or evil, all because the concepts she was based on were not only viewed negatively but also associated with concepts such as thieves, killers, and monsters, who worshiped her so they could gain her help with things considered evil.

  Naturally, over the centuries, the two deities had evolved into their current forms. Luxana was more caring and opposed the darkness and all those who lurked in it, while Setiel reveled in doom and gloom. She was selfish, seeking only to bring terror to all as she took what she felt was hers.

  So, moving back to the twins, the two could, for all they knew, have turned out to be normal individuals, but due to major influences from the gods, they were molded into what the two gods valued. Thankfully, it had not been a full conversion, likely because of the entity that had intervened, an entity the gnome was beginning to suspect was the World Crystal. Anyway, this entity had helped the twins retain and, to some extent, grow their own personalities.

  Now, why did all of this matter? Because likely it was that very entity that had given them the power to absorb mana. Alyx found it hard to believe that whatever entity had the power to intervene—likely the World Crystal—had not implemented any checks and balances in creating the twins. After all, someone with the power of two gods was a force to be reckoned with. These balances likely came in their inability to heal and, more importantly, restore their own mana with a mana cycle.

  Finally, the entity, as it created this mana-absorbing power, likely knew what the personalities of the two twins could turn out to be. It knew this, possibly because of each twin's alignment; Jasmine came from a caring goddess, while Arelion was more selfish and willing to get dirty. Meaning that the ability was designed for Arelion, but was allowed to be used by Jasmine.

  Of course, the big question was, could Jasmine use her godly mana to perform a similar feat? Well, the answer was: yes. However, the issue of creating a similar ability was two-fold. First of all, Luxana’s godly mana was not meant for consumption, at least not normally. In reality, concepts could be applied to anything with enough creativity, and thanks to magic, it was possible that Jasmine could imagine the light eating the mana and transferring it, like light eats darkness.

  The second issue was the real problem, as the first could be beaten with enough training. Naturally, this second issue was Jasmine herself. An ability that ate away at something would likely have the same damaging effects as Arelion’s ability, and Jasmine would likely avoid such a thing. Due to this, if Jasmine were ever to absorb mana, she would have to find a way to peacefully, naturally, or even willingly take a creature's mana.

  Sadly, the very idea of a creature willingly giving away its mana was ridiculous, meaning Jasmine had quite the task ahead of her.