Ah, I remember. When I first taught him magic. That Lharus… he seemed so excited. Much more than his brothers ever were about it. He was so eager to test his element aptitude. However, one thing shocked me greatly. Not only did he have the ability to use all seven elements, but he also had an inkling of what the basic spells were. He created balls of fire, pools of water, gusts of wind, and mounds of earth. Darkness took over the room for a second before light made it disappear. He did all of that in less than five minutes. At that moment, I couldn’t be prouder, happier, excited. Such a strong soldier to serve our ranks… such utter potential! I have never heard of anyone having all the elements at birth, not amongst us, the humans, elves, or whomever else. Perhaps they kept them hidden, perhaps I should keep him hidden, too.
Two men as tall as the stall itself blocked the exit. Dressed in light armor made of leather and iron in the vital areas, a sword hung by their waist. Neither of them looked any friendlier than that man standing in front of them, whose face flushed red with anger. That man was the stall owner, of course. Some drool dripped down the side of the mouth, and he staggered as he approached.
His dilated pupils widened upon seeing who it was that robbed him. Even in his drunken state, he wasn’t stupid. “Get them!” He shouted, immediately backing away behind the two large men. They grunted and silently approached Kai and Léandro.
“What now?” The blonde-haired boy asked as he took out his sword.
“Don’t you already know the answer?” Kai snickered and rushed them. His feet shone with a soft light and he passed them by before they could understand what happened. His figure disappeared into the darkness, accompanied by Onyx. Glancing back, he noticed Léandro approaching at a fast pace with a stupefied expression.
“I thought we were going to fight?”
“Why fight when we can run? Haha.” Kai laughed and sped up, confident that they left the two men eating dust. He maneuvered in the dark alleyways with the agility of a cat. Familiar with everything and anything that could be found in such places, he avoided them and even jumped on the roofs for greater movement.
They left the city after passing through the gate slow enough for the guards to notice them. However, Kai took a slight detour around the city and in the opposite direction before stopping below a large tree. Onyx waited for him there and Léandro caught up in no time. He had long since put his sword away, and panthed as he leaned against the tree trunk.
“I didn’t expect…. you to be to be so good at running…”
“I got training,” Kai said as he wiped the sweat off his face. “If they managed to follow us we definitely lost them by now.” He added, straightening his back.
“Yeah,” Léandro did the same, even cracking some of his bones. “That was scary, man.”
“Scary?” Kai rolled his eyes, “I thought you’d be used to doing things like that.”
“Huh? No, why would I be used?”
“Well, you’ve killed people before-”
“That’s different,” Léandro interjected, almost snapping at Kai. “I didn’t know you were a trained thief.”
“I’m… not…” Kai thought, reflecting on the past and realizing he had almost never committed a crime. So then where did this sudden idea of robbing people come from? Could it be… He sat down and shut his eyes, leaning against the tree trunk. Léandro watched him, confused but sat down as well.
When I was researching with Barhm, I had a big urge to do so. I do not think I ever wanted to do research on anything before, but something inside me called for it. I joked that it was Rodney but… could it really? Could these memory fragments influence me to such an extent? Ivan’s memories are very incomplete but… he was a traveller after all. How could he afford food every day, in every city? And before that, he was… something.
A cold shiver ran down his spine as he awoke from his thoughts. He shook his head, unwilling to think about it anymore, and decided to control his future urges better. A sigh left his lips.
“Alright, let’s see what we… borrowed.” He waved his hand and made more than a dozen boxes appear at once. Léandro did the same. They stacked on top of each other and made for quite a sight out of the dark corners of the stall.
All of them were made out of refined, dark, and finely carved wood. Just the boxes alone would sell for a few silvers, even if you forgot about their sealing properties. Kai picked one up and opened it. However the shine within his pupils diminished upon seeing that it wasn’t a Blood Flowing Stalk, but something else. River Dust… Not a mana-rich plant at all. It’s mostly used for potions. He recalled the books Aina more or less forced him to read and sighed.
“Not a good one?” Léandro inquired with slight anxiety in his voice.
“Nope, this plant can’t be eaten as it is right now… unless you want to die,” Kai explained and put it away within his ring, before picking up another box.
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River Dust…
Yellow Green…
Firey Blob…
Ugh, Stink Swamp… where did this guy get so many plants nobody but apothecaries can use?
Kai felt quite disgruntled about the whole thing. After all, they had gone through the trouble of stealing them, and then running away, the least they could do was to have a good haul. Despite his complaints, he decided to keep them all, as he never knew when he’d need to use one of them. Not to mention the boxes were of very high quality.
“Look, Blood Flowing Stalk!” Léandro called out to Kai before handing him a box. After taking a look inside, the boy had concluded that it was indeed the plant they needed.
“Let’s keep looking.” He said with a sigh and kept on opening and closing boxes. Kai kept count of how many he had, too. After half an hour of searching, he ended up with a good number of plants, most of which would be helpful.
Fifteen Blood-Flowing Stalks
Ten River Dusts
Two Stink Swamps
Three Volcano Lilies
Nine Spider Tullips
Thirteen Golden Cicadas
Nine Magnol Cups
Ten Round-Faced Lions
Seventy-one plants in total, not bad. I can use the Blood Flowing Stalks and Golden Cicadas to advance my mana core. The rest of the plants are either meant to be used in potions or contain more life energy than mana. To think that man had plants from all corners of the continent… I’m afraid we don’t know whom we robbed. He glanced at Léandro, who didn’t seem particularly impressed at the haul. Well… he doesn’t need to know.
“What are you going to do now?” Léandro asked as he stored away whatever plants he could.
“I’m going to absorb as much of their mana as I can and hope to advance to a Large Core One Star Mage. I think I’ll be able to help Lilith then. However, I make no guarantees.”
Léandro’s pupils trembled, yet he shook his head and nodded slowly. “I understand. I’ll guard you in that case.”
“Thank you,” Kai replied simply and laid out the first Blood Flowing Stalk. He used the technique Barhm helped him create and absorb its mana without many problems. His core greedily accepted the energy and consumed it all. His star on the other hand was only half full, and it would only fill if Kai wanted it to. However, in that moment he only wanted to focus on his core as much as possible.
Fifty seven… The first plant crumbled into dust as he released its dried up stalk, only to be immediately replaced by another.
Sixty three… Another fifteen minutes passed, and another Blood Flowing stalk disappeared.
Léandro watched Kai’s process with a weird sense of awe. After all, mages usually used potions and the environmental mana to absorb mana. Yet, right before his eyes, one such mage absorbed raw mana from plants in an incredibly unusual manner. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes, yet…
Sixty-six…
Seventy…
Seventy-four…
As the minutes trickled by, a small mound of withered plant dust collected in front of Kai, and he had almost forgotten about the outside world. All he saw were his core, the mana flowing in his veins, and the decreasing amount of progress he made with each plant. His small yet hungry core had been refined to seventy percent. However, due to Kai’s previous experiences with ranking up, he knew that the hard part hadn’t even begun yet.
I still have ten Blood Flowing Stalks and thirteen Golden Cicadas… if these aren’t enough to completely refine my core then I will be in trouble. His closed eyes opened wide and he swished his sleeves, summoning the rest of the plants he didn’t think about using. He placed them neatly in front of him and took the ones Léandro picked up as well.
The blonde-haired boy didn’t question his actions and even watched Kai with curiosity. Onyx, on the other hand, rolled his eyes as he lazily lifted his snout, knowing that Kai was about to attempt something crazy again.
Kai scoffed after sensing the Obborik’s thoughts, but Onyx only replied by digging his snout into his paws and pretending to be asleep.
Smart ass… Onyx replied to that with a quick snort.
Kai ignored his companion’s lack of respect and focused on the task at hand. I will absorb the plants one by one until the individual effects are negligent… then absorb all of them at once. I’m advancing fast right now, however, I’m not even a Two Star Small Core Mage yet… I’m afraid I will need a large quantity of plants or better quality plants later on… What a pain.
Regardless of the future, he pushed through and began absorbing the rest of the plants. His proficiency at controlling mana increased alongside his proficiency with using the technique, which in turn yielded better results. From being able to only refine about thirty percent of the plant’s mana, he managed to raise that number to thirty-five percent. Sure it may look like a small difference, but the quality and speed at which the Mana Core got refined increased substantially.
Eighty percent… He thought as he refined the fourteenth Blood Flowing Stalk. That last increase was only one percent… the next one will be negligible. It’s time, then.
His eyes flew open and the plants he placed before him, at least the ones that held significant quantities of mana, floated above him as he secured each of them in a bubble. The Blood Flowing Stalks, the Golden Cicadas, River Dusts, and Volcano Lilies all gathered in front of him in a large mana bubble. He also threw in the remaining mana plants he had in his ring, as every fraction of a percentage counted.
With all the preparations made, he began the process of extracting mana from the plants. He still did it one by one, just like before, and the time it took for him to extract the mana didn’t change. However, as the plants piled up, so did the amount of mana inside the bubble. Likewise, the impurities that gathered in a corner moved about like a cloud.
After one hour, all of the plants inside the bubble became nothing more than dust, which Kai then dropped off. That removed some of the burden on his mana control, but that didn’t mean he was safe just yet. A large empty glass vial appeared in his right hand, and he willed the bubble with the impurities toward it. He placed most of them into the vial, then quickly sealed it and put it back within his ring.
The only thing left now was the mana bubble. It measured fifty centimeters in diameter. The mana inside of it resembled a viscous liquid more than it did a cloud or vapor. Its density was so high that anyone could both see and touch it if they dared. However Kai couldn’t afford to waste time experimenting, as by his calculations, morning would come soon.
“Léandro,” he called out as he took a deep breath. “I want you to get ready and feed me your mana if you feel that I need more. Understood?”
The boy nodded and approached Kai, standing mere inches from his back. “You will know when I will need you.”
After saying that, Kai turned toward the bubble and prepared himself. Absorb it slowly, then all at once when the time is right… Easy, I did worse before… I know what I’m doing now.
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