Farend Jungle

The two boys walked through a humid jungle with little bits of sun poking through the leaves of the high trees.

『Hmm… This is the Farend Jungle… So your mana is limited right now, right?』[Mune]

Mune walked slowly, talking to Nova as he moved vines out of the way.

『It is. Probably to around the level where I first met you.』[Nova]

『...Damn, that's a lot of backtracking.』[Mune]

He pulled out a piece of paper, evaluating it.

『Etrudi. A whole village… When you hear a low humming noise, I want you to start burning your Blessed Flame Rebirth all around you. Absorb any mana you can into your body.』[Mune]

『...Etrudi? Where have I heard that before…?』[Nova]

Mune pulled out a Stardrop and tossed it into his mouth.

『They attack while making a loud noise enhanced by mana. It disorients their victims.』[Mune]

Nova vaguely remembered Sarena telling him about them a few weeks ago.

『Etrudi… and mana enhanced noise…?』[Nova]

He kept on walking forward before Mune put his hand out and stopped him from going forward.

『Huh..?』[Nova]

『We're in their territory. Put up your flames and diverge the mana. Half to your shield and half to your body. Burn the pollen clouds that appear.』[Mune]

As Nova was about to ask something, Mune clicked his tongue and frowned.

『...Too late. Lucifius!』[Mune]

Lucifius manifested himself in Mune's hand with a heavy clicking noise as he readied a sword drawing technique.

『...Falling Sun Style, fourth form…』[Mune]

『Wh..What..?』[Nova]

『Rising Ray!』[Mune]

Mune swung the sword in a wide arc in front of him, blasting out a huge wave of red petals that eviserated the giant trees in front of them.

The second the trees began to get shredded, a giant cloud of glowing red pollen emerged and began to creep in closer to them.

『...Pollen…?』[Nova]

Mune jumped back, leaving Nova in the front to face the cloud of pollen.

『Right! Burn it!』[Mune]

A bit of bright red pollen landed on Nova's face, sticking to his skin.

『Blessed Flame Rebirth!』[Nova]

Nova's flame engulfed the area, turning the bright red pollen into mana for Nova before fading.

『...Oh…?』[Mune]

Nova felt his mana suddenly swell in quantity.

『...My mana…!』[Nova]

『The pollen absorbs mana! The red pollen is from my mana, so just absorb that! This entire forest is filled with this kind of mana pollen!』[Mune]

Nova nodded, but suddenly thought about how Freyana shared her mana with him.

『...Couldn't you just give me your mana?』[Nova]

He turned around to look back at Mune to discover that he had a grossed out face.

『...I don't swing that way.』[Mune]

Mune suddenly walked past and started moving faster.

『...Wait, what?! What do you mean by that?!』[Nova]

Nova ran behind him as he moved faster.

Mune laughed a bit and began talking while they ran forward.

『...I'm just kidding. That's something you do with people you have a strong emotional attachment or bond with. I'm fairly confident that your mana would reject mine if we tried it right now.』[Mune]

Nova frowned a bit before comprehending what Mune meant.

『Oh…! So you can't even share mana with each other unless you have a good bond with them?』[Nova]

Mune nodded while weaving through the trees.

『Right. There is also a few other things at play as well. Each person has a specific type of mana to go along with their type of casting specialty. It's hard to explain right now, but Reagan is the one doing the research on this. Some people can heal better, some can summon, and so forth.』[Mune]

This was the first time Nova had heard about Reagan's research, so he was slightly taken aback.

『Reagan is the one who discovered that…?』[Nova]

『Yeah. Last time I peeked at his notes, he was classifying them into types similar to role typing. Some things like the "healer" type collaborate well with the "sentinel" and "striker" types, while they don't do well with the "swift" and "mage" types. I believe it was in the shape of some pentagram.』[Mune]

『...So it's based on what you specialize in, huh..?』[Nova]

『Right. I'm personally some place inbetween a mage and a striker myself, but I'm sure you're some kind of specialist outlier.』[Mune]

Nova awkwardly laughed because he couldn't even deny it.

『...Well…』[Nova]

Mune grabbed Nova's arm suddenly, causing them to both stop moving.

『...Huh?』[Nova]

Mune stared at Nova's arm before a red mist crawled out and seeped into Nova's body.

『...Oh, shit.』[Mune]

Nova's face had an expression of fear creeping in on it.

『What?! Is something wrong?!』[Nova]

Mune's surprised face suddenly flattened out.

『...Actually, your mana is pretty compatible with mine. Maybe you can even pick up some Falling Sun techniques if our compatibility is this good!』[Mune]

Thoughts of him surrounded in blue rose petals rushed into Nova's mind.

『Really?!』 [Nova]

He looked straight into Mune's eyes filled with hope.

『Yeah! Why not? Maybe you'll show me a variant skill.』[Mune]

He let go of Nova's arm and began to run again.

『A variant skill?』[Nova]

『It's a slight difference from person to person that results in something crazy. I'll demonstrate one for you at the Etrudi village. We should be coming up anyway.』[Mune]

Just as those words exited his mouth, a low humming could be heard from all around them.

『...Get ready.』[Mune]