Maximus eased away for a moment, wiping his tears with the pad of his index finger. Jyle gestured to him with a warm, reassuring smile.
"Don't worry – I'm here to help you. What's on your mind today? You look... tired."
Maximus just shook his head and spoke in a composed tone.
"It's nothing. It's just... something else has been weighing on me lately. I don't belong in this world, and every person and thing I see feels like fantasy – almost entirely foreign to my eyes."
Jyle listened closely, letting Maximus speak slowly and clearly as he talked about his past and all the pain he had endured in his own world. He had never been able to share it with his parents or his sister, he was afraid of adding more pressure to their lives, and that his sister would grow overly worried about his wellbeing. His family had never had an easy life.
His father worked long hours from home, while his mother handled nearly all the household chores. As the eldest brother, Maximus felt responsible for everything that happened. He had also been growing increasingly curious – and disturbed – by what he'd seen in the basement, mannequins with what looked like blood dripping from their mouths. It was horrifying to even think about, and the memory had left him deep in thought, unsure if he should ever speak of it again.
After quietly laying out everything from his past and confessing that he was from another world, Jyle smiled gently and said:
"No matter where you came from, right now we're friends. If you need help, come find me – alright?"
"Right. Thanks, Jyle."
Jyle patted his shoulder before heading for the door.
"Remember to eat your bread and drink your milk."
As soon as he heard the door close, Maximus picked up the bread from the plate and ate it slowly. It looked just like the ordinary bread he'd eaten back in his world – but the sweetness was different somehow, richer and more flavorful.
"It's really good. Maybe they use some kind of sugar that doesn't lead to diabetes. I wonder how that works."
Finally, he stood up and straightened his back. He grabbed the small sack he used as a purse for his journey, along with a belt to hold his tools. He was ready to head out and explore the forest once more – this time with more caution, and less reckless curiosity.
As he went downstairs, Jyle suddenly noticed him all ready to leave his house.
"You're already going?"
"Yeah, we'll soon eventually cross paths and meet each other once again sometime, I'm sure of it."
"Alright then. Stay safe out there."
Jyle gave him a warm goodbye smile, but before he left through the door, he quickly stepped forward and called out.
"Wait a second."
"Hm? What is it?"
Jyle held out an orb – not just any orb: it was emitting a strange, gentle light within its very center, such a thing could never do such extraordinary things like that naturally in this world.
"It's a mana orb. You can use it to abstract and draw mana from other predators and creatures around you, as every single person and beast in this world emits at least a single drop of mana from their bodies. But you... you feel strange to me. I detect no sense of mana and no powerful energy resonating inside you at all, and yet here you are – surviving every single day like it's nothing."
"Oh, I think it's probably that I'm not born from this world at all. I just suddenly appeared out of nowhere one day, right?"
Jyle nodded slowly, putting a finger up to his chin as he inspected him closely with his 'Sight of the Detection' – a special ability that allows him to detect any form of energy, mana, or something else entirely out of the person's or creature's body.
"But... without having any mana at all means you cannot have mana cores permanently embedded in your being. There's no single way you could possibly survive this world without a single drop of mana in your heart – it is impossible nevertheless! Even though people varies in strength and counts on mana even if they're weak, a normal person would still have some small amount of mana for them to use and emit their own small power. Beasts gets easily attracted with the sense of mana, that's why you're still alive and unharmed so far... but still, it's extremely dangerous out there for you."
Maximus just shrugged it off casually, and puts a hand over his chest where his heart would be.
"Relax, don't be so worried about me like that – I have strong survival instincts and I could counter and adapt through any difficult situations that I've come through before. Although it really sucks that I cannot have a very cool mana core like you guys do here, I could still survive in this world for a very long time as long as I don't let my guard down for too much or get careless, right?"
Jyle just looked straight into his eyes with a serious and concerned expression on his face.
"Still – you can't keep surviving without a mana core forever. And since there is absolutely no way for you to obtain one at all, as it would break the very concepts of the laws of this world, you have to survive within my upright protection as much as possible. So here..."
He handed him another orb, but this time it was emitting thick dark smoke rather than the bright blue-whiteish color he saw in the other orb.
"What's this now? Another special orb?"
He asked curiously, taking it carefully in his hands.
"It's a weakness orb. If you press that into a person or a predator directly in their chest, they'll immediately go dropping down on their knees for at least a second or two. Although this mostly doesn't work on high management mana peoples and strong beasts, it still works well when you're dealing with weak-willed predators and those mana cores that are star rank and below mostly. But it kind of still works for me too – although I have an high-end strong mana core myself, the orb would weaken me for a full ten minutes before I can regain my composure and strength back fully."
Maximus chuckled lightly, as he let's all the information come into his brain, taking his time to consume it and memorize it slowly and carefully.
"It's pretty useful to be honest – I could have something like this all day and it would help a lot! Since – wait a second, does this work on people who don't have any mana at all?"
"Well... I do not know for sure, but–"
Before Jyle could even finish talking, Maximus quickly puts the orb right into his own chest to test it out.
...
Nothing happened at all, which clearly stated the fact that since he doesn't have a mana core or any mana in him, he's completely immune to its effects – as only people who have mana flowing in them, possess mana cores, and have high-tier energy within their bodies could be weakened by this orb.
"I'm genuinely astonished. Well then, that definitely checks the fact we already knew. Good luck on your journey out there, Maximus. And one more thing – if you break those orbs by accident, the smokes and light inside the orb will release out into the air and cause a minor convenience or disruption to the surroundings around you, so please be really careful with them."
"Alright, I will – thank you so much, Jyle."
Afterwards Maximus turned and left, waving his hands towards Jyle as he walked off the porch and headed down the path, finally entering the dense forest once again.