It had already been many hours since their duel, but Jane was still a little shocked that he had lost. At every trick he pulled to try and catch his teacher off guard, his teacher had a better up his sleeve. It seemed that he was no longer messing around during their spars.
When he thought about it, it was actually quite obvious what his teacher had done in order to win. The only way that his 'Concealment' runes could have come undone was if they came under the effect of negated 'Concealment' runes. In opposition to the dozens of runes that Jane was using to hide himself, his teacher must have used hundreds of negated ones to reveal him. The reason why Jane did not realize until it was too late was obvious, as well. His teacher had countered his magic with a spell constructed inside the range of the 'Concealment' runes he had hastily used to make his teacher unable to sense mana. Because of that, the spell would stay concealed until it was already too late to escape its effects.
Jane wasn't too discouraged, however. His plans may have been foiled this time, but he was also confident in his ability to improvise on the fly. Perhaps his teacher wanted him to learn that, as well. No, that was not exactly what his teacher wanted him to learn. The most crucial takeaway from their spar was that...
'No mages fight in close combat.'
In fact, the greatest reason for Jane's loss was his overconfidence in his stealth, leading him to attempt attacking from up close. There were a few problems with that approach, though.
The first problem had to do with the detection technique his teacher used. It could almost always tell when a being with a soul core approached, so it was resistant to decoys. However, it would not work too well at longer distances. This was because it would take exponentially more mana to cover a wide range as opposed to a short range. So if Jane had not gotten so close, he would most likely not have been detected by that method.
The second was negation of 'Concealment' runes. While Jane had put a decent number into his locket, it was still easily overpowered by his teacher's magic. The reason for this was simple. Since his teacher knew that Jane was close, he could stack incredible numbers of negated 'Concealment' runes around his body. If Jane was further away, his teacher would not have the mana to use such powerful magic.
'Unless, of course...'
Jane looked at his own Manaheart and sighed. Strategies for efficient fighting didn't matter when one had enough mana to wipe out a continent. He felt a bit cheated to have that potential, and still be unable to make use of it.
As he tamed mana every night, Jane had come to certain conclusions about himself. Specifically, about his abnormal soul core. No matter how he looked at it, that had to have been done by someone else. He had never learned even a single bit of magic before meeting his teacher, and so it was impossible for him to have tamed that much mana. Additionally, it would have taken far longer than his current age to engrave so many runes, and so intricately at that. That was not even mentioning the rarity of the required skill in engraving.
Perhaps most disturbingly of all, there was his memory. Some of his earlier memories were hazy, but past a certain point, they became entirely clear. He could remember specific details about every day in the past month. But what caused the change?
'Wait, if it's about my memory, isn't there that?'
The day that he killed the rabbit. The moment he looked into its eyes, and saw the life slowly drain away... Something had went horribly wrong at that time. Somehow, he gained all of the rabbit's memories, and became unable to forget things from that point on. But what about the rabbit?
He searched through his memories of being an animal. He clearly remembered the day he died. He clearly remembered the day before that, too. And the day he had eaten his first carrot. Every single day along the ground of the forest, he remembered it... and then, he didn't. Blurry streaks, abstract colors, vague ideas... and at the very beginning, he was blind.
He grew up again. As hazily as he remembered it, he grew up, and searched for the day that changed him. One day, he found a cricket, and—
"Ow!"
Jane could not tell what hurt, nor did he know why. All he knew is that he was hurt, horribly hurt. It was like someone had ripped his heart itself out, but with an even greater sense of loss. From the hole in his chest, bleeding out, he could make out a single detail.
'My name is Jane.'
When she walked outside, when she talked to people, when people called out her name... that was what they said.
But he had never seen his parents, and he had never heard his brother speak. He never told others his name, so how could they have said it?
Her lover called her Jane, so did the historians, so did her dissidents, and so did her god...
He was single, obscure, and there were no gods. He had only ever been called by one name. In the murkiest depths of his memory, a voice surfaced. A person he did not know, and whose face he did not remember, called out to him.
"Eugene."
It felt alien. It was a name that no one in this world knew, and that no one would ever call him. It didn't want him, and he didn't want it. There was a name that had become one with him, and that defined him perfectly.
Jane took a deep breath, and then focused on his soul core again. The mass of runes looked as incomprehensible as ever, and yet, he could imagine a purpose to it. Once there were ends, there were also means.
'This is a supporting unit, this is a main unit... I can't figure out what that's supposed to do, though?'
In the grand purpose for which the runes were engraved, there was a flaw. The endlessly complex and intricate runes were damaged, and mana flowed freely through their wounds. The grand pattern covering Jane's soul core... was damaged.