"can you spare some of that boar meat?"

"...sure"

Mars found no harm in sharing a little meat so he gave Rex a couple of newly roasted boar chunks while he roasted some more while looking at the dark forest before he asked Rex

"what's in the vile?"

"it's a potion, it speeds up the healing process and prevents infections"

after Rex spoke he reached into a small belt pouch and pulled out the potion and handed it to Mars before he ate some boar meat as Mars was inspecting the potion that was in a small gla.s.s vile that was about 5 centimeters tall with fine lines on the gla.s.s

"...how do you make a potion like this?"

hearing Mars ask a question Rex quickly chewed and swallowed the boar meat before speaking

"that potion is made with a few ordinary herbs and then processed in a Magic formation by a alchemist to increase its healing properties... the lines on the gla.s.s is a formation that keeps it from spoiling"

"...i see"

after looking over the potion Mars handed it back to Rex that was stuffing his face with roasted boar meat and asked

"what do you normally eat when you are on patrol?"

as Rex had stuffed his mouth with boar meat he reached into his pouch and took out a small brown bar that was 10 centimeters long and 7 centimeters across Mars gave it a sniff and discovered it had no smell

"it's called a nutrient bar, it contains 1 day of energy an adult elf needs while on a patrol, but we usually hunt some magic beast to eat while on patrol"

Mars handed the nutrient bar back to Rex before he looked out into the forest and mumbled

"...she almost here"

Mars felt Victoria getting closer and stood up and looked towards the forest while Rex looked a little confused and asked

"who is almost here?"

Mars gave Rex a teasing smile before he spoke

"Victoria is almost here i sent her to pick up the last member of your squad, i think her name was Chloe?"

hearing Chloe had been captured Rex gave a sigh and stopped eating as he also looked into the dark forest waiting for them in silence before Victoria showed up in the edge of the clearing while purring loudly clearly proud of the prey she was dragging in her mouth before she spotted Rex sitting next to Mars and instantly stopped purring and dropped her prey (poor Chloe) on the ground as her horns flashed and a slightly grumpy sounding voice appeared in Mars's head

"why elvers... still... alive?"

hearing the dangerous sounding words from Victoria Mars gave Rex a glance with a slightly stiff smile before he answered Victoria

"because i made a deal with him... never mind that bring Chloe, your prey over here so Rex can take a look at her"

hearing Mars, Victoria picked up her prey and walked over in front of Rex that was slightly dazed and dropped Chloe at his feet gave him a cold look before she walked over to Mars and jumped into his lap and laid down clearly in a bad mood

"...well sorry about that Rex"

Mars began to pet Victoria on the head as usual while feeding her small pieces of roasted boar meat hoping to improve her mood while Rex was still slightly dazed before he woke from his daze and asked Mars while he looked over Chloe

"...is she a shadow death panther?"

"yeah she is, she is h.e.l.la cute right"

as Rex looked at Mars that was spoiling Victoria that was rapidly getting in a better mood he gave a sigh before he asked

"...why does her fur look like that?"

"that pattern? it appeared after i made a contract with her"

Rex stopped looking over Chloe after having discovered she only had some light scratches from being dragged through the forest and received some more roasted boar meat from Mars before asking

"what kind of contract?"

"i don't know i just mixed my mana with her"

hearing Mars Rex froze for a few seconds before he gave another sigh and mumbled

"your mana huh..."

"is that weird?"

as Rex was finished with looking over Chloe he laid her on the ground before he turned to Mars and asked him

"you know what is mana right?"

"...the stuff you use for magic?"

hearing Mars's answer Rex gave another sigh and ma.s.saged his temples slight before he spoke

"mana is more than just the stuff you use for magic, while n.o.body really know what mana is, it's the theory that mana is a protection layer or maybe the aura of the soul, mana also have different attributes for person to person like fire, water, earth and air but also in some rare cases a person is born with more than one attribute such as fire and water or a even rare attribute like s.p.a.ce, time or lightning"

after silently listening to Rex Mars thought for some time while he was petting Victoria in a daze before he asked Rex

"then mixing mana and being able to use another attribute of magic is weird?"

"...it's more the weird, it's like tearing off your own arm to trade with another arm that you sew that arm on your back and then being able to use the sword skills of the previous owner of the arm perfectly"

hearing Rex's example Mars felt that it certainly was weird or even abnormal and remembered that it was Victoria that knew how to make the contract and asked her

"Victoria who told you about that contract we made?"

"no... one i... always knew"

"i see..."

Mars sat and thought a little more before he asked Rex another question

"how do one normally use magic?"

"well first one needs to activate or circulate ones mana"

as Rex spoke he started to use his mana

"then determine what kind of spell to use"

then the mana gathered in his hand and formed a small water orb in his hand

"and then you activate the magic"

as Rex spoke he fired the water orb into the dark forest

"and that's how you use magic"

listening to Rex Mars thought back on when he was experimenting with [Shadow magic] and asked Rex

"how do you learn new spells?"

"well there is 3 ways to learn a new spell, first is to have someone to teach you, this is the most common way to learn new spells and depending on talent and the teacher a new spell can be learned in a couple of weeks"

Mars gave a quick nod to Rex confirming he understood

"second way is to make a spell yourself, this can take years or days depending on talent but mostly luck but it i also dangerous as one rick's to destabilize their own mana in the process and cause expositions and permanent mana dispersion that's one of the most painful ways to die"

Hearing what Rex was talking about he remembered what info had told him about soul compatibility and opened his mouth to ask Rex about it but quickly changed his mind as telling a mortal the words of one of the 13 subadministratie could be bad for his health

"the third way is to read a kind of magic book called a grimoire that implants the spell directly in memory but grimoire are often unstable and can cause large mental damage or even insanity, while stable grimoire that have no side effects are often owned by powerful empires and rarely appear on the market"

listening to Rex's explanation Mars felt he had gotten rather lucky with his [Shadow magic] experiment and thought for some time before he noticed Victoria was nodding off and stood up and stretched before turning to Rex

"i see... well then me and Victoria are going to bed, what about you?"

"i'm going to watch over my squad"

"well then good night Rex, come on Victoria"

flowed by a sleepy Victoria Mars walked into the cave and vent to bed leaving Rex alone with his squad outside that stroked his chin while he mumbled

"...a half dragon living G.o.d with a shadow death panther cub at his side... i need to get on friendly terms with him for the sake of my home"