Elemental Cats

Even after Lucy brought Joshua back to the island, Joshua didn't take his eyes away from the circle in his hand. Joshua had finally awakened his inclination, so there was no way he was just going to continue on with his day as if nothing had happened. But aside from the ring's appearance, there didn't seem to be anything magical or special about it, and nothing happened when Joshua waved it around.

And after some time, against Joshua's will, the ring disappeared back into his symbol, and no matter what he did, Joshua couldn't bring it back out. Joshua began panicking since it almost looked like the inclination had gone back into dormancy. He almost began scratching his chest to try and forcefully dig the circle back out. Fortunately, Lucy was there and stopped him.

While Lucy wasn't an expert on all things related to inclinations, he was at least more experienced than Joshua. And he knew that inclinations didn't fall asleep after having already awoken. The only way an inclination became inactive was if the human actively went against it or if the human died, and even then, there could be some unique inclinations that were still active after death.

The reason that Joshua's magic circle disappeared again was most likely because Joshua didn't have any mana. While he had awakened his inclination, he had still not become a mage or a fighter at the first level. It was like a baby standing up before taking its first steps.

Until Joshua learned how to convert mana and absorb it into his mana pool, he would have to put a hold on using his magic circle. Unless he could find another way to fill his body with mana. But until Joshua became a proper mage, his body wouldn't have a capacity for more mana than what would allow him to hold the ring for a few minutes. It was probably due to that Joshua had managed to solidify the island's barrier and generate the ring.

If Joshua didn't already have mana in his body, it wouldn't have mattered if he awakened his inclination or not. Without mana, he wouldn't be able to interfere with his surroundings. Lucy didn't think too much about where Joshua had gotten his man from since Toz would figure it out. Lucy's main focus was comforting Joshua and helping him get started with training his mana.

Thankfully, Lucy quickly got over his shock at Joshua's death and could easily calm both himself and Joshua. Joshua was a bundle of various emotions. Fear of death, exaltation at surviving and awakening his inclination, and then the onset of despair after the circle disappeared. It wasn't good to be so caught up in tumultuous emotions if he wanted to train his mana.

Since it required a clear will to exert one's influence over mana, it would make it difficult for Joshua if he didn't calm down first.

Lucy knew he wasn't the greatest instructor, so after comforting Joshua, Lucy asked him if they should find Toz and ask him for help. But Joshua refused, stating that he wanted to surprise everyone when he finally figured out how to use magic. Lucy could understand that reason since he also liked surprising people.

However, Lucy didn't know where to begin teaching Joshua. Magic had come as naturally as breathing to Lucy. And he was a spirit beast, not a human, so he didn't know that much about how inclinations worked and how to proceed with magic after the inclination was awakened.

The advice Lucy could give Joshua was limited. Their perspectives were so wildly different, and Lucy didn't even know where to begin. If Lucy had known Joshua's element, he might have been able to help more. But Lucy was limited to telling Joshua to simply do it.

Joshua didn't find Lucy helpful at all, so he started tuning out his surroundings and focused on what he knew about magic and training mana. Everyone he had asked in his search for a way to awaken his inclination and in his curiosity about magic had told him similar things.

To use magic a mage needs to convert the mana in the air around them into a suitable attribute. If the attribute is already suitable, it can be absorbed at once. And absorbing mana is basically what actually trains one's mana. The mage draws the surrounding mana of the suitable attribute into their body. And, as the mana courses through the body on its way to the mana pool, the mana already in the mage's body and mana pool gets reinforced and strengthened. And at a few points, there are thresholds in the mage's mana. Those thresholds mark the different levels of power.

Then when the mage wants to use magic, they simply make the mana in their body follow their will, which creates a phenomenon according to the mage's will. That is basic magic, and then there is advanced magic, where the mage uses a spell to bring forth the true power of mana.

Not a lot of people knew about spells and grimoires, but Toz had told him about it since it might help Joshua awaken his mana.

Joshua began by trying to convert or absorb the mana around him since that was what everyone had told him was the first step. However, he quickly realized something. He had no idea how to do that. He couldn't see or touch or sense the mana, much less bend it to his will.

Joshua scratched his head in frustration since he wasn't having any luck in training his mana. Since he longed for his inclination and to be able to use it, he wondered if he should go and ask someone for advice. If he asked Toz, he could still surprise his mom.

However, he had already decided to succeed by himself and surprise all of them. Not to mention, it would be rude to Lucy if he immediately went to ask someone else for help.

Joshua squeezed out as much as he could of his brain power and tried his best to figure out how to train his mana.

Lucy had realized his advice was more of a distraction than a help to Joshua, so he sat quietly and watched Joshua take the first steps on the endless path of magic.