Lenore was woken up early in the morning by Aaron, he wanted to leave fast. She knew he was always like this around her father, she never understood why.
But before they could go, Lenore was going to be given her own equipment, because technically, she was now a holy knight.
Aaron quickly gave her the basic stuff, white armor, a cloak with the kingdom's emblem, and a sword, then he took her to the stable, but she wasn't going to get her unicorn just yet, the headquarters wasn't where they were given one.
At the stable, she saw Ash waiting for them, leaning against the wall. He was talking to his unicorn, but the way he looked when he was talking made it seemed like he was apologizing to it, which she didn't understand why.
When he saw them approaching, he patted the side of his unicorn, then shifted his attention to them, "It took you long enough sir Aaron."
Aaron let out a deep breath from his nose, it seemed like Ash calmed down, but he knew that wasn't the complete case, "I think it's a good thing we took our time, or at least for you." He gestured to Ash's ride as he said this.
"Whatever... We're going to Mr. Lottle's, right?"
Aaron nodded, before whistling, his unicorn came out from the stable and ran to Aaron.
"Who's Mr. Lottle?" Lenore quietly asked Aaron.
"He's the unicorn breeder and caretaker. Since we're riding at Ash's unicorn's pace, it'll take five days to reach him." Aaron answered.
...
Cronix ended up not sleeping through the night, instead he performed cognitive gathering throughout the night, his eyes slowly getting brighter and brighter in the literal sense.
During the occasional times Cronix opened his eyes, it lit up the room.
At this point, Kara was beginning to get worried, but since she couldn't speak, there would be absolutely no point in trying to convey this type of message to him like she did with Lapsa, it would lead to nowhere.
When Cronix opened his eyes again, he frowned,
My mental energy hasn't improved at all... Should I extract energy from the water elements again?
The water elements were slowly being drawn to Cronix's hands, when they touched his fingertips, they entered his mental expanse.
After collecting for a minute, Cronix went into his mental expanse. The first thing that greeted him when he entered was the glow of the wraith, or more specifically, the glow of its eyes.
"It improved so fast, it wasn't like this before! Maybe this is why I haven't improved all night, it's been absorbing my mental energy like crazy this whole time."
He was right, in the whole expanse, mental energy was being drawn over like a whirlpool.
The eyes of the wraith were more than 50% done, but the skin only 10%, despite staring first.
Cronix touched the ice wraith with his left 'hand', the moment he touched it, his aura in the outside world instantly became colder, and his eyes shone so brightly they could be seen through his eyelids.
When Kara saw this she didn't know what to do, and she had to think fast. The door was closed, but an idea hit her. Out of her throat came a cry that resounded throughout the house, waking Cayden instantly. Her second cry woke up Lapsa.
She repeatedly cried until Cayden and Lapsa bursted into the room, worried and confused about what was going on, but then they saw Cronix.
The air around Cronix was freezing, and his eyes were glowing, while this may be a new scene to Lapsa, Cayden had seen this before, the day Cronix first arrived at the Ayuna's.
But he was as confused as he was then, as he is now. Cronix never told him what this was, nor did he say anything about how to help deal with it.
Inside the mental expanse, Cronix was still examining the ice wraith.
"This is an interesting technique, I don't know if any other mental technique is like this, or if all of them are like this, but the ice wraith is creating a body, and that's amazing." Cronx muttered this to himself before withdrawing his hand.
When his hand left the ice wraith, everything in the outside world calmed a little, his eyes dimmed down, but not completely, and the air wasn't as cold.
Cronix shifted his attention back to the water elements, but before he could start the process of extracting the mysterious energy, a weird feeling came upon both his shoulders.
It was a sensation like something was touching him, but at the same time not, thankfully it wasn't painful... Yet.
Because after a few moments of ignoring this feeling, it became painful like it was trying to get his attention.
He only vaguely felt this feeling before, more than three weeks ago, when he was being captured by Topaz. But back then it wasn't even close to being like this, it wasn't even strong enough to point out.
However at that time, Cronix wasn't as strong as he was now.
At this point, he knew it would be stupid if he didn't leave the mental expanse now, there was obviously an external force causing this.
The moment Cronix became aware of his physical self, he realized how dizzy he was, and the pain his shoulders were in.
His eyes fluttered open only to see Cayden shaking him with a grip so hard his fingers were digging into his skin.
But what confused Cronix was the worried looks on their faces.
"Cayden, he's awake." Lapsa softly said, grabbing Cayden's arm.
Cayden stopped shaking Cronix, but he didn't let go of his shoulders. When Cronix's vision stopped spinning, they met Cayden's eyes.
A feeling of guilt began to eat at his heart when he saw the fearful emotions in Cayden's eyes, but he didn't know what to say to make those emotions go away.
Thankfully for him, they were interrupted by a loud knock at the front door that drew their attention away.
Kara cast a dark magic cloak around Lapsa, before he quickly left the room to answer the door.
Leaving the three of them alone, but Kara was silent, probably too focused on keeping the dark magic cloak around Lapsa, so in Cronix's eyes, only Cayden was left in the room.
However Lapsa entered a few seconds later, "The... Renter lady is calling for us."
Cayden's hands finally released Cronix's shoulders and he left the room as a dark magic cloak formed around him, Cronix followed after putting on the cloak. Kara stayed inside the room, she couldn't be disturbed at the moment.
Madame Potpourri was sitting on the couch in the living room, she was wearing different clothes than yesterday, but it was still purple.
Her attendant, Wendril, was standing next to her, also wearing purple. Cronix's lip twitched when he saw this, but he didn't dare make any comments.
When Cronix entered the living room, she tossed him a tablet made of a black metallic material. On the tablet was a formation he didn't recognize, but the strength of the mental energy contained inside was something he never felt before.
"There, the technique part of our deal is done." Madame potpourri said.
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Cayden peered over Cronix's shoulder to look at the tablet, he quietly asked, "Do you know what that is?"
Cronix frowned, and looked up from the tablet, "Should this mean something to me?"
Raising an eyebrow, the madame stared at Cronix, "Are you telling me you don't know what this is? What city did you come from?" Her voice was filled with disbelief.
Cronix smiled, "We're not from this country, so can you explain this to us?"
The madame sighed, and told Wendril to explain, "This is a token for entering the O'Kairo's spell collection tower, you must've seen it when you first entered the city, it's the big tall tower."
Cronix looked at both Cayden and Lapsa, just from this action alone, Wendril knew she was mistaken. Personally she didn't know how they could miss something like the O'Kairo spell collection tower, even if they were outside the walls.
"Well, the point is that this token can get you one spell from the tower, so this counts as the deal for getting you spells is done." Wendril explained, her tone contained a hint of annoyance, which Cronix didn't know how to feel towards.
"Wait there's only one?" Lapsa asked, his eyes shifting from his two friends to the madame and her attendant.
"Of course there's only one, things like these are hard to come by." Madame Potpourri explained, with Wendril slightly nodding along with what she was saying.
"So we have to choose which one of us gets to go." Cronix muttered, he pondered on this for a few seconds before turning to Cayden, "I think you should be the one to go. I already have another technique to practice, and I'm still working on my current one, and Lapsa... Well, you know, it would be more use to you than to him."
Cayden didn't argue, he agreed with him, and Lapsa didn't even have a chance to say anything, but he furrowed his eyebrows at Cronix's wording when he mentioned him.
Madame Potpourri clasped her hands together, "Good, Wendril would take you there, she also has something to do in that area."
"Before you go take the cloak, I'll bring K... Kara? Yeah, Kara... I'll take her with me to the market, and I'll find something that'll help us hide ourselves." Cronix whispered this, but he was sure Cayden could hear him, and he was right.
Several minutes later Cayden left while wearing the cloak, following after Wendril. After he left, Cronix turned to Lapsa, "Come on, we're going out."
When Cayden left the room, Wendril immediately pointed to a tower a distance away, but even with the distance, it was huge, "That's the O'Kairo Spell Collection Tower, almost all major cities have a spell collection tower."
Its size truly startled Cayden, they had to be a few miles away, but it still dominated every part of his view, "I can't believe we missed this! Wait, did you say all major cities have one?"
Wendril nodded, "All except the capital, their tower was taken down and reformed into the holy knights' headquarters."
So I guess that means Klavor isn't a major city...
Cayden wasn't that surprised to find out Klavor wasn't considered a major city, in fact he would've been surprised if it was, because that would mean the Ayuna's were a lot more powerful than he realized, if a mere branch family could occupy a major city.
Following Wendril back to the main building, they approached the side of the building where a little stable resided, beside the stable was a carriage with a harness attached, and inside the stable was a lizard similar to the one they freed during the forest fire; all of these were different shades of purple.
Wendril grabbed a large amount of lettuce leaves from a nearby bin, and opened the gate to the stable, letting the lizard out.
She then stretched out her hand towards the lizard, using the lettuce to make it follow her. It followed her outside and to the carriage that was next to the stable.
When the lizard got close enough to the carriage, Wendril threw the lettuce on the floor, and grabbed the harness off the carriage.
The lizard went straight for the lettuce and while it was distracted, Wendril wrapped the harness around its body; Cayden couldn't help but admire her efficiency while she did this.
But something odd struck him, "You don't have any servants?"
Wendril, who was getting on the front of the carriage, froze, but only for a second before quietly saying, "No."
So that guy was right, the slave market really is dying here...
After that brief exchange, Cayden climbed in the back of the carriage, however this carriage was different from the one they rode to get to O'Kairo, instead there wasn't a top on this one.
After he got on, Wendril got the lizard to move using the reins she was holding that was connected to the harness.
The ride was silent, and only took thirty minutes to reach the tower. At this distance, Cayden could properly see how the tower broke through the clouds.
They rode around the tower until they were in front of a small staircase, leading up to two large metal doors more than 15 feet high.
"You only have an hour to stay inside before the token expires, I'll be back then to pick you up." Wendril said as Cayden got off the carriage.
Cayden gave her a nod, and climbed up the steps to the two huge doors, there was a little slot on the side where the token could be placed.
He placed the token there and... nothing happened. Thankfully Wendril expected this and told him to drip some of his blood on it.
Cayden thanked her, before placing his finger at his mouth and biting as hard as he could. The skin broke with blood dripping out of it. Cayden smeared the blood on the token and the token vanished into the slot with the blood.
A timer appeared above him, counting down to an hour's worth and the doors began to open. Wendril watched as Cayden entered, and once he was fully out of view, she then began to leave to do her own thing.
When Cayden entered, the first thing that struck him was the size, just like how it seemed on the outside, the place was huge, with shelves going higher than the front doors.
The shelves were along the walls and around the room forming aisles.
The amount of spell books on those shelves were astonishing. With so many visible, he wondered how he was going to be able to choose.
There was a desk near the entrance where an old man sat, doing something with the books before the token holders were allowed to take them.
And in the middle of all these shelves was a stand with a crystal ball embedded inside, which Cayden was curious on what they were used for.
There were other people around, and they seemed more experienced with situations like this since they didn't look like a lost boy like Cayden did.
Approaching the shelves, Cayden grabbed a random book, just to get a feel of what it would be like, but his hands began to quake when he saw the cover.
The cover had an interesting texture, and solid colors, there was a complex formation on it as well, he was pretty sure Cronix wouldn't be able to mimic anything close to this, but besides those, all that was left on it was a title, a title with words Cayden wasn't able to read.
How the heck did we forget about this? Did we actually expect that the covers would be enough for me to pick a spell?
Even if Cronix and Lapsa weren't here, Cayden couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He began to look around like a confused child.
After a few minutes of merely standing there awkwardly, he couldn't take it anymore, and began to wander around.
His eyes were scanning the surrounding people, trying to gauge what he should do next.
As he was looking around, he noticed a couple of other people his age, yet they weren't alone. Every other person had an adult, or guardian with them, occasionally giving them tips as they went.
A peculiar emotion flashed in his eyes for a split second before disappearing.
He continued to wander for the next half hour, and his hands were fidgeting with his rings, while he anxiously looked around, quietly cursing under his breath.
As he was cursing himself out for his stupidity, he accidentally saw something interesting. One of the youths he was watching earlier, approached the stand with the crystal orb imbued inside.
They placed their palm on the orb and it began to glow, several books came out from the shelves, and shot towards the youth.
They scanned through a few of them, before settling on one with a golden cover, they looked excited, and scurried off to check it out.
So that's what it does...
Cayden approached the stand with a renewed interest, but before he touched the orb like the youth did, he looked around.
He didn't know why, but he felt a little uncomfortable touching the orb in front of everyone. Thankfully for him, he couldn't see anyone watching him, so he placed his palm onto the white orb.
The moment his entire hand touched the orb, more than 20 techniques came off the shelves, some thick, some thin, some in between.
The amount immediately caught the attention of a specific few.
A man with black hair who looked to be in his twenties, and in the Core Creation stage, tapped a middle aged man, who was in the Star Core Magician stage, and pointed at Cayden, "Mr. Gilart, look at that, that's the most we've seen all day."
The middle aged man, or Mr. Gilart, didn't look too impressed, "Lie, you shouldn't be too excited with things like this, it just means they're suitable for a lot of spells, don't think too much into it."
"Mr. Gilart, isn't that the spell Mr. Ezerta told us to watch out for?" The black haired man named Lie asked, pointing at a specific book. This book didn't come off any shelf, but from another room that wasn't given access to the public, the stand was the only way it could be taken out.
Mr. Gilart looked up, and was taken aback, his coworker was right, however this complicated things. With the focuser survival game coming up, Mr. Ezerta has been very busy, but what would he say when they tell him about this?
With a sigh, Mr. GIlart said, "Let's just wait and see if he chooses the book, before we do anything."
The black haired man nodded, nothing mattered until that book was chosen.
Cayden's eyes were full of wonder, almost all the spells that came to him had long titles and shiny colors for covers, they all looked amazing.
But only one spell book caught Cayden's eyes. Out of all the books that appeared, it was the only one with an actual cover.
This book was neither thin nor thick, its cover was a circle of stones of different colors that he recognized, perks to living underground.
There was a title to the book, he could name the letters thanks to the book Cronix gave him before they entered O'Kairo, but he didn't know enough to actually be able to read them.
To Cayden, compared to all the other options, this was by far the best, while the others looked interesting, he didn't have the slightest hint on what they were about.
He grabbed the spell book from the air, and walked to the check out. Strangely as he was approaching the check out, the old man, who was in charge, was being shooed away by a black haired man, and a middle aged man.
However Cayden didn't think too much into it, he was too glad about finding a book to notice if anything strange was happening.
When he reached the desk, he merely handed them the book.
The black haired man took the book, and took a stamp, stamping over the formation, this removed the formation entirely.
But the black haired man didn't give the spell book back to Cayden, but the middle aged man next to him.
The middle aged man was the one who held the book to Cayden, but he first examined it like he didn't know what it was, which confused Cayden.
He just tried to grab the book back, but the middle aged man didn't let go when Cayden grabbed it, instead he leaned forward and quietly asked, "Do you have any interest in joining the M.M.C?"