“Has anyone understood my words today?”

The future Protagonist frowned and opened his mouth.

I felt that I wouldn’t be able to learn the secret of creating a heart’s ring today either. I quickly opened my mouth. I didn’t know why my mouth was opening.

“I know.”

Even after speaking, the Protagonist was surprised.

This was a dream. All the Protagonist could do was observe memories. I touched my Adam’s apple. My face seemed close, and today I had become one of the disciples.

‘Should I call it possession?’

I didn’t know what had happened.

It didn’t seem like a simple memory. The Protagonist had come to a place where something happened long ago, and might be intervening.

“You really understood? Aren’t you the least talented among them?”

The future Protagonist stared in disbelief.

He also added a threat that it would be a big problem if I was lying.

I wondered what kind of experience made the Protagonist so poisonous.

As I nodded, there was a stir around me. The one the Protagonist had possessed seemed to be in a position of lower skill among the disciples and was subtly ignored, with some people even scoffing.

The Protagonist, now a master, spoke.

“Good, since you say so, I will ask. What do you feel has changed?”

I bowed my head.

As I hesitated, choosing my words, the disciples watching from the side smiled even wider. It seemed they thought I would be thoroughly humiliated today.

But Protagonist was recalling what had been said before.

Future Protagonist had spoken about the changes that would occur when making the Ring of the heart. He asked what would be different. And Protagonist immediately realized it right there.

Thinking, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Freedom.”

“Freedom?”

Future Protagonist opened his eyes.

It felt strange to think that Protagonist would look like that when he grew older and made a Gnoll-like expression. Unlike Protagonist, his eyes were dark and his gaze fierce, exuding a decadent beauty.

“You previously created a Water Mass, didn’t you? Am I correct?”

“That’s right. You have an excellent memory. It was a month ago.”

The disciples, who had been laughing just a moment ago, all had rigid expressions and couldn’t even breathe.

It was because the master, who they thought would shout any moment, was agreeing with the other person and nodding his head.

Since Future Protagonist had a trashy Castle-like personality that would even kill his own master, it was clear what he must have done to the disciples.

“Water Ball creates one Water Mass at a time, and its size and power are limited. But Master… you…”

It was hard for Protagonist to say the word “Master” to him.

“Why are you hesitating? Speak up.”

“You created several with a single spell. And of considerable size. This means you modified the spell. Am I right?”

“You are correct.”

Future Protagonist opened his mouth. His expression was questioning how I could know the difference. Thinking it was Protagonist, I felt like I could read his expression well.

“But you’ve only got half of it right.”

“I’m not finished yet.”

“…”

The disciples gasped. It was as good as telling their master to shut up, even if they hadn’t said it directly.

“The Water Mass fell midway through its flight. It wasn’t that the spell was cast incorrectly from the start, causing it to waver, but rather that you deliberately intervened to prevent it from maintaining its form. This means…”

“You can control mana outside your own body.”

The master said.

The disciples were dumbfounded, merely listening to our conversation.

Future Protagonist looked at me again. The dismissive gaze from earlier was gone, replaced only by admiration.

“It seems you’ve had a tremendous realization. You are more than qualified to create a Ring.”

“Are you going to teach me?”

“I keep my promises. Anyone who doesn’t deserves to die.”

Future Protagonist said with a terrifying face.

I wondered why he was so obsessed with promises.

I wanted to know what event could have made the same Protagonist so different.

But my voice wouldn’t come out clearly.

It was an instinctual realization that I shouldn’t ask. A gut feeling I could only experience because Protagonist was in front of me.

For now, I needed to learn how to create a Ring.

“I said before that if anyone could figure out what I meant, I would teach them the process of making a Ring. Come on, everyone, give him a round of applause. Thanks to him, you’ll all learn about that process today.”

The master said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

The disciples dared not disobey and clapped their hands. Jealousy was visible behind their smiling faces.

When someone from below suddenly surged ahead, people tended to get annoyed rather than happy.

This was normal.

But it didn’t matter.

This body I was in did not belong to Protagonist, and my position was simply to receive instruction from Future Protagonist right now.

The master looked at his disciples.

“What do you all think mana is?”

One disciple raised his hand. He glared this way, as if he was trying to compete.

“It’s life force.”

“Half right, half wrong. Next.”

“Hand?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Uh… because we use our hands to manipulate mana?”

“You imbecile.”

A few more spoke, but no one got it right. Naturally, their gazes came to me, but I shook my head. Even I didn’t know.

“Listen carefully, you pigs who only consume meals. Mana is the origin that forms the world, and it is the very essence of possibility that can transform into anything. Everything in the world possesses this mana, and possibilities open up according to one’s skill in accumulating and manipulating it. And only those who have opened all their possibilities move on to the stage of dominating the outside.”

“So the Ring is a tool to dominate the outside.”

“That’s right. You’ll probably create Rings seven or eight times out of ten.”

The disciples frowned.

The future me had only offered a few words of praise, yet they reacted like that.

It was clear how stingy the master had been. Given his skill, the disciples wouldn’t have impressed him at all.

“Those who can fully control the mana in their bodies gather it in their hearts to create a condensed mass. That is the Mana Heart. It takes the form of a Ring around the heart, but there’s a reason it’s called that.”

The more I listened to his story, the clearer my mind became.

At the same time, my vision blurred.

It seemed like the real me was waking up from sleep. There was still some time, but I didn’t know when I would fully awaken. Becoming impatient, I raised my hand and shouted,

“Um, could you just get to the point? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

The disciples’ mouths dropped open.

For the future me, who seemed to have a foul temper, to speak with such an attitude to the person who was teaching him was an act of extreme disrespect.

It wouldn’t have mattered if I was told to leave immediately, but the master merely showed a slightly displeased expression and then stopped. He waved his hand and continued speaking.

Rather, it seemed like he considered this behavior natural. It would be strange for a Mage to tolerate breaking the Wall.

“Very well, I’ll keep it short as you wish. Do you know what role our heart plays? The heart moves on its own, sending blood throughout the body to circulate it. The Mana Heart is the same. We usually chant spells or form Hand Seals to speed up the flow and draw out mana, but with a Mana Heart, that becomes unnecessary. Just as the heart constantly beats and moves blood, spells are completed automatically.”

The future me moved mana so violently that it felt like wind was blowing around him.

It was a deliberate consideration, like swinging a sword widely, so everyone could see clearly.

Whatever else it was, moving mana like that was akin to changing the course of a river, making it extremely difficult to control. Yet, he was moving such mana and even smoothly changing it.

This was like a man holding a boulder the size of a house in one hand and swinging it smoothly. His previous mana manipulation skill seemed to be far from basic.

The future me gathered all the mana in his body, absorbed it into his heart, and made it rotate within.

I couldn’t fathom how severe the impact on his heart would be, having crammed such a vast amount of mana into it.

However, his expression was calm.

It was proof that he was protecting his heart while confining the mana.

The disciples weren’t fools; watching his mana manipulation, they couldn’t help but admire it. At the same time, realizing how arduous the task of creating a Ring was, their faces turned pale.

Even with just the current process, a mistake could tear the heart to shreds, like a rag.

No one could live with a damaged heart. Even if a Potion were used, it would be after death, so there could not be a single error in creating the Ring.

I watched the process closely.

Even without him deliberately manipulating a lot of mana to show the process, I could see it with my eyes and even smell it. Thus, I could observe the process in more detail than others.

The future me was deliberately spinning the mana rapidly.

As a result, the mana only circled the outside, creating a space in the center.

If he had only tried to confine the mana, it would have run wild inside and torn his heart apart.

Even knowing this, it was the same.

If fear of a damaged heart caused even a slight delay in recalling the mana, the heart would explode.

It was something only someone with immense protagonist potential, or the madness to throw away their life, could do.

I worried if the protagonist could do it.

No matter how much I wanted to become a great Mage, I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice my life for it.

Perhaps the future protagonist saw through it and said that seven or eight out of ten would make a ring.

The future protagonist said that. I could only marvel that he had the leisure to speak while doing such a thing.

“If you’ve gathered mana in your heart, you must now circulate it even more. If you endure this for seven days, the mana will circulate on its own, forming a ring, even without you intentionally controlling it. If you succeed in this, you can become a High-ranking Mage.”

“Do I absolutely have to endure it for a week?”

“If you can change the quality of the mana before then, you can stop whenever you want. Even an hour of endurance is possible. It depends on how quickly you can accelerate the flow of mana, on your own capabilities. A week is the period I succeeded in. For ordinary people, it would take a month.”

There was no color in the disciples’ faces. It seemed they thought they didn’t count as the ‘ordinary people’ their master spoke of.