"I guess you wouldn't really care about anything other than food when it's right in front of you huh?" Pops sighed. I watched as he turned around and walked up the stairs, I followed behind as he went to the kitchen and set everything on the center island, motioning for me to take a seat. "Sorry I took so long. There was a bit of a situation in the Main Commerce area that stalled the distribution of things until it was resolved...

I tilted my head at that, he was hiding something. I was sure of that, but what could've gotten him irritated enough like this, from what I understood Pops didn't get annoyed that easily. 

...Well, whatever it was, it was over with now and he'd been able to get food nonetheless so the wait was worth it in my eyes. Especially when I was able to actually dig in: the flavors and spices were on a similar level to the things that he used, but the meat was different: it was a mix between savory and tough, something that took a second to eat, but it was worth it as the taste never dulled at all as I chewed. And with how much different my jaw structure was and how sharp my teeth were now it was a testament to how hard this most likely would've been to eat, and whoever prepared it was clearly very skilled. 

It took me probably twenty minutes to eat the five skewers that he'd brought back: they were pretty big skewers too, with each of them being as long as Pops' legs and almost just as thick...I was definitely going to find wherever it was that these were made and figure out a way to learn how they were able to cook meat like this. 

"This is Ogre meat," Pops spoke up seeing that I was almost finished, and I tilted my head at him: I'd heard about Ogres before back on earth, even seeing a bit of art depicting several different kinds, but maybe it was different here... "They're one of the few humanoid creatures found in dungeons that area considered a delicacy amongst all forms of meat-eating Beask-Kin and other sentient humanoid beings. Now of course it was a bit of a controversy whether it was considered to be cannibalism considering they're also humanoid, and some of them are able to grow strong enough to become self-aware, but the general public amongst Beast-Kin and other species like myself enjoyed their meat too much to care so eventually the stigma disappeared and some diners and traveling carts started selling Ogre meat as jerky or skewers like such.

"Of course, you've never seen one before so I wouldn't expect you to know how they look or what to think about this. The change did happen only a few decades ago, and that's fairly recent considering the history of this Empire, but to other sentient quadrupedal creatures like Dragons and related species. These guys were hunted nearly to extinction. Going as far as to flee to Dungeons and Portals in order to escape. Then something happened here and there and now they can be found as a naturally generated monster in most of the higher leveled Dungeons around." 

He leaned back against the counter-top next to the sinks in thought, "Come to think of it I believe that there was a special kind of dragon hunting group specifically for the capture and elimination of specifically Ogres among the Dragons, due to their high resistances to most kinds of attacks as well as their naturally high threat level." He looked at me, I was still tilting my head at him to show my curiosity and he chuckled, "They're natural rank is around a Higher B Rank Adventurer, and those that are able to get around the hundreds in level can even reach S Rank threat levels. So for dragons and other kinds similar in level or even slightly above, hunting them was a lot of fun. Maybe even a bit of a challenge for the newer hunters in the groups...I know that I certainly had a lot of fun killing them: I couldn't just (Disintegrate) them, as that would be a waste of high-quality meat, and they were highly Resistant to Impact and Stabbing attacks, as well as Fire and a wide range of other Magics." 

That sounded like something I wouldn't be able to face until I got a little stronger yet. "If you're thinking you wouldn't be able to take one down by yourself I don't know. Your venom is corrosive to a degree and they're still susceptible to other kinds of internal damage, so as long as you're able to get past their tough skin--which I'm sure your claws, tail, and teeth are already capable of--you would have to get through another way: eyes or mouth are usually the most widely used options. Though, Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to actually sell any of their meat for profit as your venom is only able to be consumed by you and you alone, and there's no way to purify it either." 

...Dang it. Way to crush my mood Pops.

"Alright. I can see you're done eating now, so how about we properly test your magic output instead of you going about destroying everything out of curiosity." He smirked at me from across the table, and I huffed unamused at him before hopping off the stool-chair.

When we got back to the Training Area he had another test dummy come forth and set it's toughness at a level above that I'd had it at: I think he put it at level 10 or something..."Alright, now I want you to use your flame at a rate similar to that of a normal spell..." I looked at him blankly. Was he serious? I didn't know what a normal spell's output was, I couldn't see how much each thing cost, nor how much Mana they were using per use...

He and I looked at each other for a moment, a sort of staring match. Until sighed, asking, "You don't know that I mean do you?" I just continued to stare at him blankly and he sighed once more. 

"Alright, this is a normal spell and the damage it would do to the dummy at level 10, no matter how high level something is the amount of Mana put into a spell can still be controlled to a somewhat normal tier spell for practice purposes." He opened a hand and a ball of fire appeared in it. Shocking me for a moment, and causing me to step back away from him. He chuckled at my reaction and tossed the fireball at the dummy's feet. The explosion was akin to what might be expected from a grenade and I looked at him in shock.

That was a normal Fireball?!

"Ah there was a bit much in that one, but you should get the idea right." He pointed at the dummy, "Look, the most you should to at the minimum is giving the dummy a few burn marks: I'll let you be if you manage to break a limb or two for your first few times, unless your (Flame) and (Toxic) attacks are only breath specific?"

I looked at the (Flame) Skill again; it wasn't breath related like (Toxic Breath) was, so I should be able to replicate what he did fairly easily, but how did I do it? Was it just compacting the fire into a ball and throwing it or tossing it at something? I didn't exactly have the best of limbs to toss or throw things just yet...maybe when I grew older and taller maybe, but at the moment I was stuck just using them to scratch at things and maybe open a door or two.

I could tell he was watching me curious as to what I would do, so I just breathed a quick plume of flame from my mouth, but I tried my hand at controlling the fire to become a sort of ball before it puffed out of existence. Thankfully he noticed, "I'll take that as only your fire is a general element, and that's alright. It would certainly have been interesting if you had a dual element like (Toxic Flame) or the like at such an early stage..." 

He knelt down and held a hand out palm facing the ceiling, "I don't know how best to teach you, since touching you and directing your flow of mana would not only be a breach of privacy, but it's also a very big no-no when in contact with dragons. I'm hoping that you are able to learn from sight so it won't come to having to direct you like that." He started creating a series of sparks in his palm and I watched intently, "I'm going to show you how to create a (Fireball) this way. It's a tremendous waste of Mana and it's horrifically wasteful, but if you're able to learn this way it'll be worth the strain." 

The sparks in his palm turned into a small plume of flame, "You're going to need to supply a flame with your own Mana to keep it going otherwise..." it puffed out of existence in his hand, but he quickly reignited another in it's place, "...It'll puff out of existence the moment you lose concentration or stop supplying it with enough mana." The fire suddenly increased in intensity, shooting up and just barely licking one of the support beams before returning to normal. "On the other hand, if you use too much Mana that will happen and when you're at the stage of controlling a spell to keep a certain shape or property it will back-fire and will most likely explode wherever created." 

He started to make the flame slightly stronger in intensity and the shape seemed to grow more and more spherical in his palm until it was about the size of a pea. "You'll want to condense the structure of the spell slowly and as steady as possible without losing concentration or changing the supply of Mana put into it. This is the lowest possible size and energy level for a lower-leveled (Fireball) spell to manifest, as you get more proficient you'll be able to increase the amount of energy and Mana put into the spell and the result will be more and more explosive." He swiped his hand towards the Dummy, but the spell didn't make it a few lengths before exploding with a small pop. "That was actually much further than most, so don't be disappointed if your first try ends up being underwhelming." 

You did see me make a giant Fire-beam of Death earlier...right?

I decided that I would just follow his instruction for now until I convinced him that this might be at a lower level than I was at currently. I was about to create the Fireball in my mouth but thought about my actions for a moment, if this backfired on me I'd rather it explode outside of my body instead of in my mouth: potentially causing more damage than if it happened outside of my body. 

It took me a second, activating the (Flame) skill a few times in my mouth to get a feel for how it worked, and then I felt confident of being able to do it outside of my mouth: I used the skill as a bit of a kick-start still as I formed the ball in front of my snout, leaving my mouth only partially open so the skill could leak through around my teeth before stopping the flow and just focusing on keeping it in place where I wanted. It was sort of like thinking there was something anchored to your face, but not actually feeling where it was anchored to until you moved around. 

I got caught up in myself playing around with it: moving my head side to side, and making sure it stayed at the position I wanted it at the tip of my snout. Then I realized what I was supposed to be doing again and glanced at Pops sheepishly--he was smirking at me-- I mentally launched the ball of fire towards the Dummy. It shot forwards like what I imagined seeing a cannon shot would be like and struck the dummy, exploding into a giant ball of fire on impact: even sending a small shockwave back towards us. I was confused, I was sure that I put the same amount of magic in it as I usually did earlier when using (Flame) as a breath attack...before I ramped up the energy by a ton and turned it into a beam of energy. 

I looked over sheepishly at Pops, he was looking at the target with a raised brow and when he glanced over at me I quickly looked away at anything else I could use to direct my attention toward. "It seems I was mistaken at your current proficiency in controlling an element. That was similar to a Fireball Skill at level 35 or so..." He sighed and shook his head, "What am I going to do with you? First I arrive to a Fire Ray at an energy level I've never seen before, and now your using a Fireball spell like a toddler playing with an Impact-Enchanted toy-ball..."  

This was a chapter that I wasn't sure I would get done in a way that was interesting enough, but it ended up being quite fun to write. You all get a little information as to how spells work, and how different Sc'the is at using them compared to most other beings, and Sc'the got to have a little fun of his own using magic without limit for the first time since Chapter 23...jeez, just seeing how far I've come since then is insane while writing this. 

Anyways I hope you enjoyed and next chapter Red will be coming back, so I'm planning on having that be a bit of an event...

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one!

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