“How did you…” Cronix couldn’t stop himself from taking two steps back. He didn’t fully understand how he felt, but any shred of security he had no longer existed.

Mr. Ezerta sighed and said, “I’m sorry, I just felt the faint presence of the ice wraith. I couldn’t help peering into your mental expanse.”

“You… You looked into my mental expanse? How? Does this cloak not cover attacks like that?”

Cronix muttered the last part, but Mr. Ezerta still heard him, which caused him to pause and a small frown to surface on his face.

A few days earlier when Cronix first arrived at the M.M.C mines, Mr. Ezerta couldn’t sense Cronix’s presence until he created a formation, this should’ve still been the case, yet now he could easily sense Cronix's presence, that’s how he found him in the first place.

Mr. Ezerta scanned Cronix, a slight green glimmer caught his attention, and his frown deepened.

Cronix was only just beginning to calm down with the help of his pendant, but when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder he jumped.

“Come with me.” Mr. Ezerta said, and without allowing Cronix to utter a single word, Mr. Ezerta’s mental energy surrounded the two, and they disappeared from the mines.

They reappeared a second later in an office that looked more like a workshop. Cronix almost threw up the moment they appeared, but the pendant wiped away his nausea.

“So when the cloak fails you step up?” Cronix mumbled, with his fingers wrapped around the green gem.

“Give me the cloak.” Mr. Ezerta said, extending his hand.

Cronix instantly froze, did I screw myself over by coming here?

A sigh escaped Mr. Ezerta’s lips, “I already know you’re an Xryle, you honestly have no reason to be scared, I have a friend… No, an acquaintance who is also an Xryle.”

Unfortunately, his explanation made no sense to Cronix, who had no clue what an ‘Xryle’ was, and his face must’ve displayed his thoughts because Mr. Ezerta seemed to get annoyed, and his hand moved to rub his temples, “You don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Although Cronix couldn’t properly see Mr. Ezerta, he could imagine the face he was making as his figure slowly overlapped with Wendril’s, maybe Cronix had a knack for annoying the citizens of O’Kairo.

“Whatever, I’ll excuse you since I saw your memories were sealed. The point is I know you’re not human, and that you’re a ‘demon’, so lend me your cloak so I can check something.”

Cronix flinched. Was he discovered just like that? He scanned the eerie man in front of him, but without being able to see his appearance properly, Cronix couldn’t tell what expression this man was holding.

Yet, Cronix could already tell from his tone, his patience was very thin, so although there was still some hesitation, he took off the cloak and gave it to Mr. Ezerta.

Mr. Ezerta didn’t even bat an eye at the reveal of Cronix’s inhuman features, in fact, he seemed more interested in the cloak.

“What amazing formations, yet…” A disappointed look that couldn’t be seen by Cronix replaced the fascinated look on his face, “Two of them are going to collapse.”

“What!” Cronix inched closer to Mr. Ezerta but stopped before he got too close. Mr. Ezerta glanced at Cronix, then turned the cloak over to him, showing him the formation.

“Look right here,” Mr. Ezerta pointed and trailed along the formation, which was actually an overlap of multiple different formations, “There’s a little twitch in the energy. When it comes to these types of high-level formations even the smallest imperfection could mess up the entire formation.”

Cronix frowned, not only because of what he heard, but also because of what he saw, or more accurately what he couldn’t see.

Everything Mr. Ezerta tried to show him about his cloak’s formation couldn’t be seen with untrained eyes such as Cronix’s.

But there was something odd about Mr. Ezerta’s words, “There are two formations?”

Mr. Ezerta chuckled at the question, “There’s actually three. One for defense, one for stealth, and one’s a type of pocket space array. This thing is, besides the pocket space array, the other two are both going to collapse.”

Cronix was already trying not to panic at this new information, but Mr. Ezerta wasn’t done, after he took a closer look, he sighed, “I think I see the problem, the creator must’ve been in a rush, so they couldn’t properly overlap the three formations, and judging by the energy, the creator must also be dead, so…”

Mr. Ezerta had to stop himself when he saw the expression on Cronix’s face, whose breathing suddenly became unstable. The pendant began to release its calming power, but this caused Mr. Ezerta to frown.

There were another three formations on the pendant, but only one of them was suffering the same problem as the two on the cloak, which turned out to be the one providing this calming energy.

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It was a formation he’d never seen before, but its effects reminded him of someone, and that someone’s legacy spell was now in the hands of another badger that was traveling with an Xryle that was asking him for help.

If this isn’t fate, I don’t know what is…

With that, Mr. Ezerta made up his mind, “You said you wanted my help, right?”

Cronix quickly nodded, and began explaining, “The ice wraith in my expanse is getting harder to handle and… and…” For some reason, Cronix found it difficult to speak. At first, he didn’t understand why, but a familiar pain originating from his head made the reason clear.

Mr. Ezerta knew the reason before Cronix did, and he watched the sight with complicated emotions. He placed a hand on Cronix’s forehead and injected his mental energy inside.

He had to be very careful with how he forced his mental energy into Cronix’s expanse. If it were too strong, Cronix’s mental expanse would collapse; if it were too weak, his mental energy would be destroyed by the expanse’s defenses.

Inside the expanse, the ice wraith was eating away at the surrounding mental energy. When Mr. Ezerta saw this scene, he inwardly sighed and prepared to offer his own mental energy and complete the wraith before it causes any more trouble, but he stopped himself.

Would it really help if he completed the ice wraith for him? The real problem with the ice wraith method wasn’t the beginning, it was what came after creating the wraith.

And the entire wraith had to be the user's mental energy or the mental expanse would reject the wraith as a foreign energy, and all their efforts would’ve been wasted.

While Mr. Ezerta really hated this technique, even he had to admit the ice wraith had its uses when completed, so instead of helping him directly, he took out a scarlet flower dotted with yellow and crushed it.

He gathered his own water elements and sprinkled the remnants of the flower into the water, which immediately turned scarlet. He sent this water into Cronix’s mouth and down his throat.

Placing a hand on Cronix’s stomach, he sped up the effects of the flower and felt its energy spread up Cronix’s body.

Inside his expanse, Cronix wrestled for control over his mental energy once again. The ice wraith was slightly stronger this time, but Cronix was still confident he could win.

This outcome was further strengthened when a scarlet-colored energy entered his expanse. This energy was similar in nature to the chaotic ferocity that belonged to the lightning elements, but it lacked its' power.

At first, Cronix was annoyed that another type of energy entered his expanse as it pleased, but when it started to infuse with his expanse and strengthened both his control over his mental energy and the mental energy itself, he thought he wouldn’t mind if more came his way.

With his strengthened energy control, Cronix easily snatched away all the excessive mental energy moving towards the wraith and forcefully calmed the flow of mental energy entering it.

He inwardly sighed after everything was done, and left the mental expanse. When his physical body became aware again, he noticed Mr. Ezerta playing with a small red seed dashed with yellow marks.

With a flick of a finger, the seed was sent Cronix’s way. It landed in his hands, but instead of saying thanks, Cronix frowned and looked up, his gaze asking for an explanation.

“Consider this as a thank-you gift for showing me a new formation, and it will also be your way of thanking me.” Mr. Ezerta didn’t bother explaining anymore and resumed examining the formations on the cloak.

Cronix placed the seed inside his magic bag, but a small trace of worry appeared in his heart. He didn’t know whether he’ll ever get his cloak back. Mr. Ezerta glanced at Cronix, and said, “Come back in a few days, and I’ll help you with these formations and your ice wraith troubles, just make sure to grow that seed.”

Cronix nodded his head, and the cloak was tossed back to him.

He quickly wrapped himself back into the cloak as Mr. Ezerta said, “I’ll send you back home, make sure you get some rest, you’re about to reach the third level of the expansive phase.” and surrounded Cronix in his mental energy.

Cronix didn’t seem to hear the last part of his words, but before he left, Cronix had one last question, “Wait, what exactly is an Xryle?”

A brief smile rose on Mr. Ezerta’s unseen face, “It’s the true name of your race.” And just like that, Mr. Ezerta sent Cronix out of his office.

…

When Cronix came to, he stood in front of the purple entrance to the Potpourri Residences. His vision spun, and he felt the fruit from this morning reversing its course. He quickly sat down as the pendent made quick work of this headache.

Exhausted, Cronix ended up leaning back on the ground, feeling some of the purple rocks digging into his back and neck, but he ignored everything and closed his eyes, reviewing everything that happened.

The several formations collapsing was a horrible surprise, but he tried to look at the bright side. At least he managed to gain Mr. Ezerta’s interest.

However, he thought about the name Xryle. This was, according to Mr. Ezerta, the actual name of his race, but then what was a Kereta Genus?

And if this was wrong, then what about the other information he remembered? How reliable were they? He was sure that some things he remembered, like the language he spoke before the human language, were correct, but how much would this help him?

Before Cronix could delve deeper into his thoughts, the sound of footsteps stepping on rocks interrupted him. He opened his eyes, and a few seconds later, a head appeared above him.

It was a girl his age, but it wasn’t Wendril. Her colors that weren’t purple actually caused Cronix to frown and look at her strangely, like she shouldn’t belong in this area, despite him also not wearing any purple.

The girl also looked at him strangely but for different reasons. She asked slowly, “Are you okay?”

Cronix stayed silent for a few seconds and observed her, still thinking how her chestnut hair looked so out of place with the purple scenery.

Then he realized her eyes were glancing all over the place like she was unsure of what she was supposed to do next. He started to frown until he finally realized how he was blocking her way inside.

Feeling strangely sluggish, Cronix tried to stand and move out of the way, only to feel his unsteady legs shake upon trying to stand, and he couldn’t find the strength to support himself. He quickly fell back onto the ground, his palms digging into the purple rocks.

The passerby was baffled, she didn’t know if she was allowed to ignore this and continue inside or if she was supposed to stay and help. She already asked if he was okay, was it too late to retreat now?

Cronix looked at this stranger and vaguely recognized her by the jacket she wore, which had the words ‘Orzen Mercenaries.’ He was sure, he passed by her group before he left to look for Mr. Ezerta.

Using a bit of force, Cronix pointed at the residences, and quietly asked, “Can you find a person named Cayden for me?” His vision was beginning to blur, but he was sure he saw her nod.

That was all he needed for him to let himself slip away.