After a series of discussion, the first mage gave Grey a new skill called appraisal that could view a mage's stats and how strong they were. After getting the appraisal, Grey decided to put it to the test and he had the perfect test subject.
'Time to see how strong he really is.' Grey smiled when suddenly, the smile froze on his face.
Looking at the first mage in front of him, he was unable to see anything about him as all his magical skills came out as '???'
"What the hell??!!" Grey exclaimed as he kept looking at what he was seeing.
The first mage smiled as if he already knew what was going on. And he really knew what was going on.
"Let me guess, you tried the skill on me right?" The mage chuckled.
Grey nodded along confirming what the mage said was true.
"And it came out as question mark right?" The mage asked again with a smile.
"How do you know about all these?" Grey asked.
"Haha! Aren't I the one who gave you the skill? How won't I know what happened." The mage chuckled.
"I don't understand, you are able to see my attribute, but I'm unable to see yours. What's wrong?" Grey asked.
"That's cause I'm stronger than you. I can see your attributes because you are weaker than me. If you were stronger than me, it would have come out as question marks." The mage replied.
"Oh! So all I have to do is get stronger than you right? Then that's what I will do." Grey said with a smile.
"That's the spirit. Grow stronger than me then we can finally talk business." The mage said as he stood up and his white throne like chair disappeared.
"I'm leaving now. And since my business with you is done, you won't see me again until I deem it's time for me to have the talk with you. Study those books you were given by me and grow strong enough to best me.
Then we will proudly help you when the otherworlders come."
'We again? He mentioned this we earlier. What does he mean?' Grey thought.
The mage was about to snap his fingers when Grey quickly stopped him.
"Hold on, I have a question." Grey said before the mage snapped his fingers which caused the mage to raise an eyebrow and pause.
"You kept on mentioning we since the start of this conversation. In fact you even said we again just now. What did you mean?" He asked.
The mage just smiled and brought his fingers together. "When it's the right time, you will know."
And with a snap, the mage disappeared from Grey's view.
"Darn this mage for always leaving me in suspense!" Grey shouted and then he quickly covered his mouth in fear his mum would hear him.
"Hold on, I have been talking with that mage for so long and we even shouted a dozen times, how come mum hasn't come though those doors by now?" He asked himself as he safely hid the books he was given and quickly left the room.
Heading downstairs, Grey could see his mum still prepping dinner and it looks like she was almost done. Hearing the footsteps behind her, she turned around and could see Grey standing behind her.
"Hey honey! Go and set the table, dinner is almost ready." Clara said.
And Grey got to work in setting and arranging the table while his mum was dishing out the food for both she and her son.
They sat down and ate dinner together while happily chatting away forgetting their worries for a second. But deep down, Clara was worried for her son's future but she didn't show it as she kept smiling while she and Grey talked for long.
After they were done with dinner, Grey went to do the dishes as he cleared the table and also washed the plates clean.
"Alright mum, I'm heading to my room to sleep now." Grey announced from the kitchen.
"Alright honey, goodnight." Clara replied from the kitchen.
"Goodnight mum, I love you." Grey said.
"And I love you too son." Clara replied while Grey headed to his room.
Entering and closing the door behind him, Grey heaved a sigh as he sat on his bed and brought the books he was given by the first mage.
Shuffling through them, looking for the right book, Grey's eyes stumbled on one particular book that didn't relate to magical affinities.
"What's this?" Grey asked as he pulled the book out and read the front cover.
*Introduction to magic runes, symbols and portals.*
"Runes and portals?" He asked with a smile on his face. "I will check it out later. For now, I need to get stronger so I need a fire spell book."
Shuffling through the books, Grey finally found a fire spell book that had basic, intermediate and advanced spells. All in one book.
"Bingo! This is wonderful." He said as he hid all the other books.
Then he went into the centre of the sparse room and began reading the book word for word, sign for sign and movement for movement.
He started with creating small flames on the palm of his hand and started controlling, moving it around trying to get the hang of it. He twirled it around his palm and slowly started enlarging the small fire on his hand.
When he was satisfied, he then studied the spell for fireballs and he tried it after reading the book but he tried and failed multiple times.
He tried to create a fireball for a dozen times till his mana got exhausted. Then he stopped practising and went into meditation trying to restore his mana.
'There should be a way to keep restoring my mana without this meditation technique. I can't be meditating in a fight trying to restore my mana. The more advanced spells I use, the more abilities I use, the faster my mana will get exhausted.
Darn it! I should have asked that mage for a technique to help with this.' He thought.
'Anyway, I will have to keep practicing the spells then till I get the hang of it all.'