"Ha ha, there's no need to bow master." Richard said with an awkward smile.
"The process for absorbing a mana stone is as simple as swallowing it whole, from there your body will digest it and absorb its qualities." Richard explained.
"So I just eat this and I'll be able to use magic?" asked Reon.
"Well, it's not quite that simple, to actually use spells you need to construct a circuit of mana within yourself first." said Richard.
"Yeah, at this stage you can't use spells yet but you'll slowly but surely begin to sense mana then be able to pull it into yourself." said Roland.
"Alright. I'll eat it now!" said Reon.
Reon put the tiny brown oval stone in his mouth, then swallowed.
He waited a few minutes, then he felt something within, instantly, he activated Kinshi Sense.
Reon saw tiny particles of mana within the atmosphere enter his body.
He felt it, the dense energy of the mana element.
Sitting on the floor, Reon went into a meditative state.
He wanted to capitalize on this moment and practice controlling mana as much as possible knowing that it was important for mages.
The loose mana particles gathered around him more and more and he could feel the mana all around him, in the air, in the ground, in his students, and even in the badger cubs.
Amazingly he felt a stronger connection to the cubs as if they possessed the same essence as him.
He figured it must have been because he consumed their mothers mana stone.
This process went on for a few minutes then Reon noticed something strange.
The mana particles that had been drawing into him began to surge into him at an increased rate.
Every second he saw more and more mana drawing into him.
He hadn't seen this before, and it worried him, so he stopped drawing mana in, or rather he tried to, the mana kept swelling into Reon.
"What's going on? The Mana won't stop!" Reon yelled.
Richard and Roland knew something was off, the natural inflow of mana that they had developed while training with Reon was being interrupted, flowing towards Reon instead.
"I've never seen this before master. Your drawing mana from everything around, even us!" said Richard.
Although it was strange, Reon wasn't in pain, he just knew from his students that there was a limit to how much mana a body could hold, and didn't want to find out his right now or the drawbacks that came with it.
The mana didn't stop flowing into Reon however.
Right now he was like a mana vacuum absorbing all of the mana.
Slowly but surely he became like a mana tornado, draining it all too quickly!
Richard and Roland now noticed that they didn't have any mana left within them, and couldn't use magic even if they wanted to, then they noticed that the cave itself was crumbling in reaction to this mana storm!
For a moment Reon felt a strong heat within himself, then a strong connection with the earth, as he breathed the floor around him morphed chaotically.
"I can bend stones!" thought Reon.
Roland and Richard were shocked, there was no record of a mage using spells so soon after consuming a mana stone.
He tried to control this and morphed the floor near him into a spike, and it worked. The floor transformed into a stone spike.
Reon felt more alive than ever, and began to laugh at his new found power, but all of a sudden from one second to another, he felt extremely drained, so much so that he fell to one knee.
"What is this?" thought Reon.
It felt like all of his new power was suddenly stripped away, leaving him weak, barely able to stand.
Reon couldn't feel the mana around him anymore.
He activated his Kinshi sense and saw that there was no more mana entering his body, although it was still there.
He tried to absorb some to get that feeling back but no matter what he tried or thought, he couldn't draw in mana anymore.
Richard and Roland were the opposite now, as the mana storm came to a sudden end, they could now draw in mana again.
Reon took a few minutes to recover and asked Roland and Richard what they thought happened.
"I honestly have no idea, master, I've never heard of such a thing." said Richard.
Roland said, "The closest thing I could think of is if a mage draws in too much mana, their body can get sick of it."
Then Richard added, "But you would be in great pain before reaching that point, and you wouldn't have lost the ability to feel or draw in mana once you had it, that would be impossible."
"Impossible huh? But it just happened." Reon said with slight anger.
He wasn't mad at his students, he was upset because he had gained a great power for a monet then lost it so fast.
"I guess if you don't limit the possibilities, that means you can't limit the negative possibilities either." said Reon.
The group collected the horn from the horned sap badger, and the corpse of the winged rodent, to take back with them.
The cubs were both folded into a blanket and carried by Reon on his back.
---------
Back at the carriage by the edge of Apple Forest, Spryta suspected that Richard, Roland, and Reon were dead by now, and was trying to convince Raya to let her confirm it so they could be done with this mission.
She didn't like feeling like she was under Raya's thumb.
"What if they are injured or dead in the forest? All the blame will be on you for letting them go off alone." said Sprta.
Raya who had been practicing everyday, had a scruffy beard now, kept swingin his blade.
He never left his station, but allowed Spryta and Gole to return to the port town Cradle in intervals.
"They won't die. They'll come out of the forest soon." said Raya.
"But what if they don't though?" said Spryta.
Right after saying that though, she was shocked to see 3 people walking out of Apple Forest towards their carriage.
"Bandits?" She initially thought. "Miscreants?
No. It was Roland, Richard, and Reon.
All of them looked absolutely fucking terrible.
They were dirty, smelly, grimy, burned, cut, and bruised, however, their eyes shone like valiant diamonds filled with resolve.
"Told you!" Raya smiled at Spryta, before running to see his benefactor.
"Reon! How was it? How did they do?" asked Raya.
Reon looked at both Roland and Richard.
Remembering the kids he first met on the Inferno Families boat, comparing them to his students now, Roen saw a world of difference.
There was an obvious physical difference as they were much stronger looking now, but he also knew of the power, and mental difference compared to before.
"I'm proud of these guys." he said.
Roland and Richard's cheeks became slightly red.
"The mission was a success. Let's go to Cradle, I need a bath."
--------------
The team made their way back to Cradle.
All of them were relieved to go into a hotel and freshen up, they ate a lot, talked, then had the best night's sleep of their lives in soft beds.
When they woke up they met where they had agreed to the night before, at the docks.
They explained to the Inferno Families people that the mission was over, and it was a success.
The people of the inferno family didn't question that, as they hardly recognized the young masters as they were now.
The inferno family ship immediately made preparations to depart.
"So, this is it, master Reon." said Richard, a sad look on his face.
"No, it's just until next time Richard." said Reon.
"Thank you for everything, master Reon! Truly thank you so much!" said Roland.
"Thank yourself, Roland, it was all thanks to your hard work." Reon replied to Roland.
"And like I said anyways, you guys can just call me Reon." he said.
"Never!" said Roland.
"Young masters Roland and Richard, it's almost time to go now." the servant who had first spoken to Raya told Roland.
The Inferno Family's ship unanchored and began to drift off.
Roland and Raya stood at the edge of the boat, looking towards Reon.
"Remember what I taught you guys in the cave?" yelled Reon.
"Don't ever forget it!" he yelled.
"And keep up the training regiments, when you guys are able to become 3-Star warriors I'm sure you'll be on a whole other level." yelled Reon.
Richard put a thumbs up, and Roland made a fist while grabbing his bicep, this was their way of acknowledging Reon's words without speaking too much.
They knew if they spoke too much they would do something unbecoming of the Inferno Family.
Reon watched the boat drift into the sunset for a moment before going back to the escort team.
"Alright, I guess it's time we finally head back to Crux." said Reon.