A tier-zero mage, however, can break this rule as they are not using their own mana, but that of a higher being. Even if they were to summon a tier nine creature, it wouldn't do them any harm as they are not the one's bearing the burden but the entity to which they are connected," The healer explained. "And most entities that can produce a tier-zero mage wouldn't even notice it if a tier-nine creature started drawing on their mana," She relayed. "In such a case, there would be nothing to do but wait for the mage themselves to die as a result of being exposed to the more powerful mana of the higher entities," She relayed. "Luckily for us, the fact that the dark crawler was a flesh summon meant that the moment your uncle died, it was ejected from this realm," She stated. "This is a good sign, it shows that there is no chance of your uncle somehow making a comeback with some last-minute trick," She added. There was a genuine sigh of relief from the healer after she'd said these words.

Greg sat frozen in his seat. The flat rejection by the healer was still ringing in his ears and try as he would, he just couldn't reconcile himself with this answer. Of course, at the back of his mind, Greg knew that even if the healer completely refused to take him on as her student, he could still learn from Olivia all he needed to know to begin his journey in magic. Nevertheless, there was this feeling that he just couldn't shake that he would be losing out on a lot if he failed to get the healer as his teacher. Even together with the fact that Olivia was a primordial's avatar, Greg knew that she'd only been left with very limited knowledge as far as his path of magic was concerned.Greg was about to open his mouth to try and convince the healer to reconsider. The healer, however, continued. "You've only recently been introduced to the world of magic Roka, so I don't fault you for not knowing," She relayed. "Taking someone on as a student isn't just a simple issue of teaching them

The other thing that Greg noticed was that the rest of the conversation past this point was full of misdirections and lies. Had Greg not been given the chance to see the way the real Olivia came into being, he would have had no way of knowing this. He, however, had. The familiar hadn't really told any lies verbally. The lie is in what she led the healer to believe. She began by asking the healer if she knew who she was. This was to remind his teacher of the real Olivia and not this avatar that had been left behind. This made the healer unconsciously treat the conversation with Olivia as if she was talking to the real primordial and not just her avatar. Greg had been in that room and knew perfectly well that whether he sank or swam as a mage, the real Olivia didn't really care. She had backup options to fall back on in case Greg didn't make it. The avatar, Olivia, had been instructed to help him and so she seemed to genuinely be on his side. She, however, was just barely a tier two a

Greg couldn't help but panic on Olivia's behalf. This was the biggest hole in the tapestry that Olivia had tried to weave so far. She had made the healer think that she was speaking on behalf of her original. But in reality, this wasn't the case. She was just an avatar left behind to cater to a mundane human and nothing more. She made it seem like if she wanted to, she could easily help the healer transcend the nine tiers. How then was it that she couldn't teach a mundane human how to become a first-tier mage? However, unlike Greg, who, though immobile, was panicking on the inside, the familiar sounded completely relaxed as she replied. "Much to my shame, the answer to that is simple," She declared. "Ignorance," She stated simply after a short pause. "Unlike you, I have never at any point in my life been a tier one mage," She relayed. "I was born above the tiers and above the tiers I remain to this day. "Mana cores and mana pathways are things I only know of in theory seeing as I've

Despite her amusement at the look on his face, Olivia continued to speak. "Peel all the layers of a man back, master, and what you find at the center isn't flesh and blood. It's a belief. It's something that they have chosen to subordinate everything else to. For some, it's their family. For some, it's the pursuit of riches and pleasure. For some, it's faith in a higher power and for others, it's the pursuit of power itself," She relayed. "I can train and help you gain the first level of willpower. Making you tough enough to not be broken by pleasure or pain I can all too easily do. What I can't do, however, is give you that thing to believe in," She relayed. "It doesn't have to be a grand ambition. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else other than you. It doesn't even have to be something that others think to be possible. What it does have to be, however, is something you truly believe. Most people have something that sounds nice as the thing they profess to believe in. That k