After about half an hour, we quickly passed the midway point back to Aquarine. I didn’t admire the beautiful sky that had just passed sunset… My whole attention rested on the fact that the steam kite began wobbling suddenly.
“Tuilë?”
She didn’t respond.
[…]
Condition: Injured | Poisoned (severe)
Poisoned (severe)
This individual has been poisoned, and it has spread widely to vital body parts. Immediate treatment with detoxification is required.
Other than the information given by [Identification], I noticed that her breathing was ragged, and her face flushed red like an apple. I felt her temperature with my hand and was met with a searing hot skin; the toxin had gotten the better of her. But then I realized that if she didn’t operate this thing to fly, no one was operating it at all. To rephrase it, we were going to crash. Oh, shit!
“Maxim, quick grab the parachute; this thing will tumble in less than a minute!” Lunaria’s voice appeared from inside my backpack.
True enough, the steam kite soon wobbled and slowly descended toward the ground. I’d had this feeling ever since the symptom started kicking in on her, so I already prepared the parachute within arm’s reach.
What luck that she brought this with her among the baggage in case of emergency.
In any case, I had no way of knowing how this thing operate, and it was hard to switch position midair, hence my best option was to take her with me to jump. That said, I wore the parachute-carrying backpack along with mine on the back while holding on to Tuilë on my front. Once I made sure that everything was in place, I threw myself into the air.
I was immediately met with intense wind pressure, but it wasn’t so great that it bothered me. We weren’t that high from land, probably only a kilometer or two in the air, so I could immediately deploy the parachute If I wished to.
Not far away, the steam kite was free-falling and about to crash into a forest below at an incredible speed, tumbling its way down. If we had remained on it for a few seconds longer, it would have been difficult to escape.
Ten seconds into the free-falling, we were close enough to the ground that holding the parachute close any longer would result in death. And thus, I deployed the parachute and was immediately pulled back violently from my fall. Luckily, the parachute was strong enough to slow down both of us.
“What an experience… Never once did I ever do sky diving before…”
I peered down at Tuilë’s face. Her complexion was even worse than before. Flushed skin that was hot to the touch caused by the elevated body temperature. Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead like a never-ending stream. Please don’t die on me… All of this would be for nothing, you know, if you die...
While still holding Tuilë tightly, I tried to get a clear view below. A thick green forest was covering my area of falling — I couldn’t easily steer away to a more open area because of my lack of experience in using a parachute.
“Just my luck! There just happens to be no open space around the landing site…!”
Around a hundred meters above the forest, I prepared myself for the impact while protecting Tuilë by turning my body so that my back became the shield. The two backpacks would also minimize any impacts that were to come.
In a few moments, I crashed into the forest canopy, breaking branches one after another until I fell to the ground, releasing my hold on her in the process.
“Argh! Cough… Huff… Hah… What the hell! Who in their right mind would land in a forest instead of an open area?! A pond would be best!” I was exhausted mentally and physically as I lay down on the ground, unmoving.
“Why are you yelling?” Lunaria interjected, “You should be grateful that you can live another day.”
“Guess you’re right.”
When my body was no longer exhausted, I got up and inspected my surroundings. Green vegetation abounded on the woodlands around me from top to bottom. Even though the biodiversity of the forest near Aquarine was a bit weird, it was still better than the one under the red fog. At least this place wasn’t crowded with mutated monsters…
“Lunaria… Can you tell me where Aquarine is located?” While I asked that, I inspected Tuilë’s condition which was even worse than ever.
“Mm-hmm. Follow me.”
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Taking off the parachute bag, I switched the position of my bag to the front before carrying Tuilë on my back. Then, through the drone Luna-1, Lunaria guided me toward Aquarine. Since we were from the north, it must be located somewhere toward the south.
I sprinted as fast as I could, traversing the now already dark forest until I came out to a plain. To tell the truth, my real destination wasn’t the town itself, but Spitzek.
“…Hah, hah, hah…”
I’d been running for two hours straight. The creek where Spitzek was at was only around the corner. Frankly, there was a part of me that had thought of slowing down to take a rest, but the notion that might endanger Tuilë renewed me with energy.
Above all else, while it might sound rude, my whole purpose in helping her was to use her abilities for my own use — repairing the airship and thus avoiding death. Without her, I might fail the mission, and… needless to say what awaited me at the end of the road.
That was my ulterior motive that probably kept pushing me forward despite the weight that exceeded my carrying capacity. There was nothing better than a sense of urgency to keep my energy up all the time.
“There, Maxim. The creek is right there,” Lunaria said. There was a small creek a bit to the right of where I was going.
“Mhm… I know.” I quickened my pace, galloping like a horse showing its final burst before dying. Like literally. If someone were to see me from the sideline, they would think of me as a desperate marathon runner that desperately trying to get number one.
Thank goodness, the tent was still there.
Although he had said that he was going to the town, he never told me how long he would stay there, nor did he say going to another place. In haste, I rushed to the tent and only stepped when I was right in front of it.
“Here goes nothing.” I opened the tent’s curtain and yelled, “Spitzek, you here?”
Inside was a bipedal molluscoid with two protruding eyes wearing a hood. “Lad. We meet again… Faster than… I thought.”
“Spitzek! Please save her!” I beseeched him.
Spitzek didn’t reply, simply gesturing to me to place Tuilë on the bed, so I laid her there. By this time, the symptom had reached a terminal level, and the poison had spread from her back to her shoulders. If not for her high vitality, she would have died many times over.
“She… I know her…”
“You do?” I turned my head toward Spitzek.
“Mm, yes. Three years ago… She’s much like you,” he stated.
“Oh…”
I didn’t bother to ask further and let Spitzek cure her. Just like how he did when I was injured, he made her drink the transparent liquid — a detox. Ugh… That nasty thing. I couldn’t shake the lingering taste out of my mouth.
Though I began noticing something urgent meanwhile. I really wanted to go to the bathroom, so I excused myself to go outside.
When I returned, I noted that Tuilë’s complexion had changed for the better. Her once extremely pale skin began to regain its vitality, while the wound on her back, where the poison had spread, had completely vanished. Whoa, what magic is this?
“Is she going to be fine?” This was the most important question of all.
“No problem… Give it a day or two…”
“Phew…” I let out a huge sigh of relief.
Now that was done, I could finally release the tension in my shoulders and had myself slumped to the ground. I was deliberately holding myself from collapsing right there and then. From fighting countless monstrous creatures, escaping alive from the huge sinkhole, and running for hours on end. Maybe a break would be in order.
I was literally wiped out, leaning on the side of the bed to catch my breath.
After some time, I seek Spitzek to ask for something. “Uh, I want to talk to you for a sec. Is that okay?”
“Go on… You may speak.”
“Can you teach me how to become an evoker?” Now that I was here, I might as well go along with what I wanted to do.
“You want to learn… magic?”
“Yes! Of course, I will pay in full along with her treatment.” I turned toward Tuilë before returning to him, then I slipped out the Second-Order source crystal and put in on a nearby table.
His mollusk eyes shone as he quickly snatched it up and put it under the sleeve of the hood he was wearing.
“I will gladly… tell you everything I know…”
“All right…! Let me rest for the night first, though.” I wasn’t afraid of him going back on his words. He was, after all, one person that could be trusted.
“That's fine.”
While a Second-Order source crystal might be precious, it was still nothing but a useless piece of rock without the proper knowledge to make use of it. Besides, I could gather more in times of need, so long that I kept clashing with these monsters.
At long last, I was able to get a good night's sleep.
***
I was abruptly awakened by a faint disturbance in the air, like a subtle ripple in the fabric of source energy, coinciding with the first rays of the rising sun. Although subtle, It felt the fluctuation of source energy in the air being sucked… It was similar to but the opposite of when I made my breakthrough to Tier 1.
Sensing the unusual energy flux, I ventured outside, only to discover that Spitzek was nowhere to be found. This just made me even more sure that the source of this disturbance was linked to him. Ever since becoming a source user, I had developed a heightened sensitivity to the ebb and flow of source energy, so I was able to trace the origin of the mysterious suction-like force.
A five-minute-walk distance away, near a clearing beside the creek, Spitzek was meditating on top of a flat boulder. He was going through a breakthrough — well, more like he had done it.
Intrigued, as rude as it might be, I used [Identification] on him. Basic courtesy should be tossed into the trash can before my curiosity.
Spitzek Arhak
[…]
Source Level: Tier-2 enhancer | Tier-3 evoker
Source Element(s): Dendro | Life (healer)
Vocation(s): [Shrouded Hand]
Stats:
* STR: D (55 → 56)
* AGI: D (48)
* VIT: D (53 → 54)
* SRC: C- (59 → 62)
* SPR: D- (44 → 47)
Accumulation Points: 62 → 67 [D+]
He has become a Tier-3 evoker! That’s awesome! Also, his source elements were available for me to see. To think that he mastered two elements… Hm? I don’t think “Life” is among the element available to me…
Shaking that thought away for now, I glanced at Spitzek who was now walking toward me. He stopped a few steps away and spoke.
“You are early, lad… Ready for my teaching?”
“Without a shadow of a doubt!”
I replied thusly, enthusiasm filling all my limbs.