Looking up to the origin of the ripples, he saw Anna with her finger still in it's tapping posture, 'This is Magic energy. She's using magic energy in the air, and her control isn't shaky and rough at all, instead it's perfect and delicate.' He thought.
The ripples pushed him back away from the center of the twins it also pushed them back. It was like a gentle nudge like a soft push like moving with the flow of water. This force wasn't aggressive, yet it was irresistible. Drake regained his footing and the twins also landed a few steps back safely.
Drake put his daggers away but his eyes never left Anna. 'With that level of control over magic energy she is at the very least a Four Star Mage, she might even be a Five Star Mage.'
Anna thought 'To think he won in such an unfair match up against the both of them. That's quite impressive!' Then she directed her gaze to the twins. "You two better have a good reason for attacking a guest, or else."
"Hehe there's no need to get angry mom, we were only checking to see if he really is as strong as Sylvia said he was."
"Haha, as expected! He really is strong."
"Sorry about that dude, we were just checking to see if you were a fake."
"Yeah, we were just looking out for our little sister. After all it isn't the first time someone's pretended to be some good person just to get close to his target to accomplish his goal."
"We wouldn't want her having fan girl syndrome for some phony. At least, even if you're not a good person you should be strong enough. But from your reaction I can tell you didn't come here with ulterior motives."
Drake immediately realized what was going on. 'so that was a test.' That made sense, 'But then again isn't this guy a bit too sure with his judgment?' he thought. So he asked, "How are you so sure I'm not an enemy with that kind of reaction?"
"That's because when we attacked, you were surprised. You weren't expecting to possibly get attacked, you were completely off guard so the first thing that came to your mind was to protect yourself, you didn't even have time to mobilize your magic power. However, if you had planned this, then you would have already been prepared for anything going wrong and had your magic power ready to go in the instant things went sideways."
"Also the first thing you would have done probably wouldn't have been to defend yourself or fight back. Instead it would have been to run away."
Drake couldn't help but nodded in agreement when he heard their reasoning, 'As expected of business men, nothing they did wasn't thought through!' Anyone that had ulterior motives would definitely know that Anna was a very powerful mage and fighting in front of her would be futile, so running would be the first thing that came to mind. Maybe because that was the only option they had if they wanted to survive.
"Sorry we had to scare you, but that was the only way to know that we could trust you. Hope you don't mind." said Paul with an honest smile.
Drake smiled wryly and shook his head, now that they explained it like that if he kept holding a grudge people would call him petty.
Seeing that Drake was willing to waive it off Anna finally heaved a relieved sigh.
"Alright now that that's settled, I should do a proper introduction. Drake these are my children, the annoying one is Peter and the one that keeps him out of trouble is Paul. She said while pointing at them. "As their mother and the manager here I will still extend an apology to you on their behalf for their rash behavior and on behalf of Obsidian Palace. I hope this doesn't affect our relationship."
"Of course it won't don't worry mom, he's a man. We men have magnanimous hearts; we don't really care about stuff like that, we don't have time for emotions and holding grudges instead we would rather dedicate all that extra time to training and getting stronger." Peter said as if he was speaking on Drake's behalf. He spoke naturally like he was in Drake's own mind. Then he turned to Drake and asked "Speaking of which, you have got to be really strong. What star mage are you at?"
"You really shouldn't flatter me, I'm not really that strong, in fact I'm only a One star mage."
What?!
That's impossible.
Dude, you don't need to be modest with us.
"It's true. I sensed his magic energy fluctuations and his energy's concentration really is only at 1 star." Anna confirmed
"You're only a 1 star mage and you defeated the both of us?"
Paul raised his hands to his heart, "My Pride."
Drake however was confused, he didn't win according to what he had seen at that last moment the two of them had activated their light armor.
Light armor was a special ability 2 star mages had. You could say it was the ability that gave them an edge over 1 star mages. It was a kind of armor formed when mages used magic power to form a special layer of protection over their body. It could only be used starting from 2 star mage stage because only then could a mage release magic power outside their body.
With light armor active it makes it hard for any harm to befall a mage. The light armor could defend against the elements and even against sword or spear. Strong light armors could even block attacks from other mages whether physical or energy based.
If light armor could defend against all that then there was no way Drake's mere daggers could harm the two that is unless he can somehow cut through the armors energy barrier.
Seeing Drake like that, Peter guessed what he was thinking so he said, "Don't worry we're not sore losers and there is nothing to be confused about. Think about it this way, both of us 2 star mages attacked you while you were completely unprepared. Yet, relying solely on reaction and the speed of your body you not only deflected our attack but also put us in a life or death situation, even without using your magic power. Also when we attacked you we did so thinking you were also at least 2 star."
"If under these conditions we still didn't come out with the upper hand, then even if we don't want to admit it, we lost."
Paul also nodded while adding, "If you could handle us this cleanly while being weaker than us, then that means it would be even easier if we were to be in the same level. We can't let that happen, we need to train more."
Drake couldn't help but approve their open minded mentality.
"With your skill level you must be a top student in your academy right? Which mage academy do you go to?" Anna suddenly asked. She was thinking on a much deeper scale than the twins. Drake had not only beaten the twins, he had beaten two 2 star mages with space affinity, one of the strongest most abstruse and mysterious affinity's in the series, as a 1-star mage without breaking a sweat. You don't just pick up that kind of talent on the street, no that kind of skill takes lots of dedication and grooming to pull off.
"I haven't yet joined a mage academy"
What?
"No way!"
This information was another bomb that drew another round of exclamations.
This time even Anna was stupefied. 'He hasn't joined a mage academy, yet he's already that skilled. Doesn't that mean he is terrifying? And with the kind of dedication and hard work he would need to put in to train to this level of skill.' She couldn't help but feel her breathing quicken and she made her decision, 'This guy has great potential, we must have him on our side no matter what, we can't risk him falling into the hands of others." She continued saying, "You said you haven't 'yet'. Does that mean you intend to?"
"Yes but I haven't really decided on where I want to go yet. Do you have any suggestions?"
"I can give you some information that could help you decide if you like."
"I would really appreciate that. I hope it's no trouble."
"It's no problem, it's not really any secret. You could look it up on your Sky link if you like at any time anyway." She waived, before starting her explanation."There are mainly three mage academies in the empire; these are the Imperial academy, Omega academy and Alpha academy."
Raising a finger she started, "The Imperial academy is based in the imperial city. It was established by the imperial family twenty-five years ago, and has always been run by them with the current Holy Emperors younger brother Vincent being the Dean. The imperial academy is where most if not all the children of the royalty and noble scions go when they want to attend a mage academy and almost everyone that graduates there gains a position in court.
"In short, it's basically a grooming ground for politicians. People like the scions from the top clans being raised to be the future clan head and everyone interested in that line of work almost always end up going there. That way they can start building connections to others like themselves and those related to the more influential families."