Claire and Kiyan arrived inside the cafe and they're sitting at the table talking with Mari.

  "Mari did you get the materials I asked you?"

  "Yes, it's already on the basement " Mari replied

  "Great! we can start, let's go"

  'what are they talking about?' Kiyan seemed troubled

  "What do you mean Claire? I thought we're going to practice magic?" Kiyan asked

  "Yes, we're going to practice on the basement "

  "Huh? Isn't that a bit small for us to practice in?"

  "Small you say? Hahaha who do you think you are to say that?" Claire smirked

  The three of them went to the basement, when they arrived Mari summoned a yellow magic circle pointing at the wall and the wall in front of them began to move sidewards revealing a wide space that looks like a dojo.

  Kiyan’s jaw dropped the moment he laid eyes on the secret room hidden beneath the café. Beside him, Claire watched with a smug smile, clearly enjoying his reaction.

  "How is this possible? This place is as big as a whole tennis court! I can't believe there's such a structure beneath the café." Kiyan said to Claire

  "Thanks to Mari, she's the one who created this space." Claire replied.

  " I was able to create a alternate space. You can say that it is the same on how the barrier of the café works."

  "In the other side this dojo that you can see is just a pipeline of the neighboring houses but since you're influenced by my magic you can see the alternate space that I created" Mari Explained.

  'That explanation made me more confused' Kiyan blabbering on his mind

  Claire opened the bag that Mari prepared and she's holding a bottle full of blue liquid. On the other hand Kiyan started doing some stretching.

  After sometime of preparation Claire called Kiyan to stand in front of the testing dummy.

  "Are you ready Kiyan?"

  "Yes!" Kiyan replied with determination.

  "Then let's start, try visualizing your mana flowing to your whole body"

  Kiyan followed Claire's instructions but something is unusual.

  "Claire I can't feel my mana" Kiyan said to Claire

  "Just like what I anticipated, you're experiencing a mana burnout"

  "What's that?" Kiyan asked

  "It's a phenomenon that happens when you overextended the use of your mana. Don't worry it will recover after several days"

  "Does that mean today's training will be cancelled?"

  "Not really, I already assumed that you will going to experience this because you used a very large amount of magic on our last battle. So I prepared something "

  "Can you pass me that bottle Mari?"

  Mari handed Claire the bottle of blue liquid and Claire added some herbs in it, then used gentle fire magic to heat it.

  After a few minutes the blue liquid inside the bottle turned into a dark green colored liquid. Claire cooled down the bottle a bit and gave it to Kiyan then she asked him to drink it.

  "You might experience a little bit of side effects after drinking the potion" Claire warned Kiyan

  Kiyan drank the potion, it's so bitter and Kiyan started to experience excruciating pain on his stomach.

  Claire explains that the pain is part of the process. Because it is repairing the damaged mana points on Kiyan's body.

  After several minutes the pain wore off, Kiyan is panting and sweating because of the side effect of the potion.

  "Haahh... You said that I'm going to experience a side effect but you didn't tell me that it's so painfull!" Kiyan said while catching his breath

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  "If I told you what's up ahead you will not drink the potion, am I right?"

  "Well if you put it that way, you're right"

  "I'll let you recover for a few more minutes and then we're going to start training " Claire replied

  While Kiyan is resting Mari and Claire preparing some dummies for the training.

  Kiyan lay down in the floor resting, as time passes he started visualizing his mana flowing on his body. This time he can feel it unlike earlier.

  ' I really overdo myself last time, I can't let that happen again. ' Kiyan said on his mind

  Few moments later Claire started the training, she told him to visualize a fireball on his hand while preventing it to burn his hand.

  Kiyan followed Claire's instructions and a red magic circle appeared on his hand forming a small fireball but when Kiyan is about to complete the fire spell he got distracted causing the fireball to explode.

  He tried to create another fireball, although it is small he managed to create one. In the other hand Claire seems deep on her thoughts, she remembered the white aura surrounding Kiyan inside the dungeon.

  "Hey Kiyan can you still remember how you summoned the sword on your hand last time?" Claire asked

  "Hmm? About that... I have no idea how I did it but all I wanted to do is to pierce that bear"

  "Can you try to imagine that you want to pierce that dummy over there?"

  "I can try I guess" Kiyan replied

  Kiyan threw the fireball on the dummy barely doing any damage on it and started visualizing a sword to pierce the dummy in front of him.

  The atmosphere in the room shifted. Even Mari and Claire grew wary of their surroundings.

  As Kiyan focused, a figure of sword started materializing in his hand. Claire's eyes widened in shock, she recognized it instantly. It was the same sword Kiyan had wielded before.

  The Sword of Light in Kiyan's hand began to tremble before disappearing, scattering radiant fragments onto the ground. The shimmering pieces flickered briefly before vanishing without a trace.

  The atmosphere in the room is back to normal after the sword dissapeared. Kiyan looked at Claire like he is waiting for an explanation on what happened to the sword.

  "Let's stop the training for now, It seems you can't summon that sword whenever you like." Claire explained with a troubled look on her face.

  "What do you think causing that?" Kiyan asked

  "Based on my observation when the sword manifested it affects the surroundings and your mana started flowing faster. "

  " I can't give you a definite conclusion just yet, but I will conduct a study on the matter. For now, you can go home or spend your day however you like."

  After hearing Claire's words Kiyan nodded and he leaves the dojo leaving Mari and Claire inside.

  The two of them looked into each other's eyes and shared the same expression.

  "Did you catch that Mari?" Claire asked

  Mari nodded and pulled out a crystal ball on her bag. The crystal ball is glowing brightly then she handed the crystal ball at Claire.

  As she gazed to the crystal ball, she noticed something unusual—the glow was faint, almost colorless. Typically, when the crystal ball is used to determine a person's magic, it shines in a color corresponding to their magic type but it's not the case...

  Meanwhile, Kiyan is walking on the streets and he saw a poster. He looked at it for a moment and started reading the contents of the poster.

  ' There's a upcoming festival on Nightingale Town? It says here on the poster it will be held on the 13th of the March. '

  ' It would be nice to invite the others if I'm planning to go on the festival right? I remembered that Rose wanted to visit Nightingale Town when we're at the class'

  Kiyan grabbed one of the posters and started walking toward the Estelle City Park. On the way, he stopped by in a nearby vending machine and bought a can of coffee.

  As he sat on a bench at the park to relax. Suddenly he remembered the first day when he arrived into this city.

  Kiyan’s expression changed as he started reminiscing of his past memories. In his previous school, he had been relentlessly bullied. With no parents to confide in, he endured both the emotional and physical torment of his classmates inflicted upon him, bearing it all in silence.

  He let out a deep sigh before smiling bitterly knowing that the situation already have changed. He met amazing people on this city and made new friends. It felt as if his life had finally started anew.

  Kiyan's phone rings and he looked at his phone and he saw a invitation of a chat group named "Wonder Three" and he declined the invitation.

  Shortly after declining the invitation his phone rings again and there's another invitation for a group and its named "Misfits" Kiyan's curiosity got him and accepted the invitation.

  When he entered the chat group he saw the group member names: Shin,Rose,Claire,Mari, and him.

  That information doesn't surprise him after that he sent a message on the group.

  [what is the purpose of the chat group?]

  Rose immediately replied [It used to communicate to each other Obviously...] No one replied on Rose's message.

  He closed his phone and put it inside of his pocket and opened the can of coffee on his hand. While Kiyan is sipping his coffee he saw a guy sleeping on top of the tree.

  He looked closely and immediately recognized the figure resting on the tree—it was Azriel, napping peacefully among the branches.

  Kiyan calleld out Azriel and he wakes up on his nap looking at Kiyan with dreary eyes. After Azriel recognized that it was Kiyan who's calling him he jumped off the tree and walk towards him.

  "It's been a while Azriel, what's up?"

  "Just resting, there's nothing to do. What brings you here ?"

  " I'm killing some time here and enjoying this coffee"

  "You like coffee that much?"

  " You can say that, It's my comfort drink."

  As kiyan said this he stared absent mindedly at the coffee on his hand.

  "Something wrong?" Azriel asked.

  "What?" Kiyan looked back.

  "You seemed to be thinking about something"

  Kiyan looked down again, he was quite for a while before speaking again.

  "Hey Azriel, Do you believe monsters exists?"

  Azriel looked at Kiyan upon hearing the question.

  " If you're asking me, I'd say yes"

  Kiyan's eyes widened in shock.

  Curious, Kiyan ask Azriel more random questions and their conversation goes on. While they're chatting Azriel paused for a moment and asked Kiyan a serious question.

  "Answer me truthfully—did you already know that magic exists in our world?"

  Kiyan broke into a cold sweat upon hearing Azriel's question. He doesn't know what to say in the current situation and Azriel looking at him straight on the eye.

  He tried to change the topic but Azriel is waiting for Kiyan's answer.

  After some time Azriel noticed that the nervous Kiyan don't want to answer his question. His eyes glows purple.

  Kiyan totally lost his consciousness due to the extreme pressure Azriel presses into him.

  When Kiyan regains his consciousness, he found himself on a space surrounded by darkness, with Azriel sitting on a chair in front of him.

  He struggles to move but he can't move a muscle.

  "I thought I can possess you totally, but I didn't think I can't do that..."

  "Wh-what did you do to me?!"

  "Nothing much honestly, I just wanted to know something from you"

  "Where are we?! "

  "Relax Kiyan, I won't harm you. We're just unconscious on the real world sitting on a bench there's no need for you to be cautious."

  "Forgive me that I wanted to possess you because I wanted to dig into your memories. As you can see we're in a dark space, this place called the astral space. "

  "Why? Do you want to see my memories" Kiyan asked

  "You're an interesting person and I learned something I shouldn't have known." Azriel said while sweat streaming down on his face.

  "The reason why I dragged you here because I wanted to talk to you personally without any disturbances"

  "How can I trust you?"

  A white elegant sword appeared on Azriel's hand pointing at Kiyan.

  "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it earlier, right?"

  Kiyan remained silent and he looked at Azriel.

  "What do you wish to know about me? I can't promise that I can answer it all"

  "Come on Kiyan, you've already seen one haven't you? The monsters that dwells in our world due to its imbalances."

  "What if I said yes? What are you going to do?"

  "I'm offering my help to you, I want to end this madness before it become worse"

  "What do you need in exchange?"

  "Do you think I'm that kind of person? I was once were a — nevermind..."

  "So Kiyan, are you willing to accept my help or no?"

  " I need to discuss it first with my companions"

  "Alright, alright I won't push you any further. Come see me at the rooftop when you made up your answer. See you Kiyan..." Azriel's image dissapeared with a troubled look etched on his face.

  Kiyan woke up and finds himself sitting on the bench at the park but Azriel is not there anymore.

  "My head hurts, goddamit Azriel wha. What did you do to me?“

  " It's getting late I should head home..."

  "I should ask Claire if there's anyone who knows about those monsters, portals, and magic that actually exist—especially Azriel; he seems to know a lot about the matter."

  As Kiyan walk on his way home, Azriel is at the corner of the park concealing himself.

  Azriel is covered with sweat and he is spitting blood while catching his breath...

  "Uhh... I messed up real bad this time. I almost died, but my suspicion on him is far more than what I expected. He's a real deal... "

  Azriel smiled even though he is critically injured as if he finally found the light in the end of the darkest tunnel.