Rei didn’t notice a thing.

By the time Avaln went to sleep, his only concern was that maybe the girl had witnessed his essence refinement process, but when she woke up there were no signs of her having done so. In fact, she got scared when she saw Avaln there with her.

She apologized later for her reaction, which only made him feel more awkward, so after casting his healing rune on her once again, he ate an apple and closed his eyes. He was glad that even healing her proved beneficial for him, as it served as practice.

They also decided to resist their thirst by eating the few fruits they had left, as Rei’s injuries could still use some healing before braving the forest to look for the stream.

As the night before, Avaln spent that time inside his soul, further learning his new secret art for essence refinement.

The secret art was called the Ten Thousand Petal Lotus State. It was designed to refine the world’s essence to nurture one’s own, and further develop one’s essence circulation. Avaln had already learnt the gist of the former, and applied it, while the latter didn’t seem to be within the knowledge he’d received from the blue book.

It seemed the secret art had many stages, divided into three parts of which he only had the first, and despite its many benefits, it had really high restrictive conditions to be used…

One, the adventurer needed to possess an essence circulation past the O shape everyone was born with. That is to say, their level of circulation should be higher, which could be achieved by modifying said shape to something else. In Avaln’s case, his had a clover-like form, and seemed to be at the Second Ascension phase.

There were multiple Ascension phases, up to the hundreds, which quite literally blew his mind, then fueled his own desire to rise even higher.

Two, the adventurer’s attribute must be elementless. This was because any other attribute would be overwhelmed by the world’s essence and be washed away, stripping the adventurer of their entire circulation.

As for their fate... they would be left in a vegetative state. Alive, capable and conscious, yet devoid of any will to act.

The last condition had caused Avaln some worry, as he could only guess what it meant at the time, yet he was now sure it wouldn’t be an obstacle for him.

The third and final condition was that the adventurer must have achieved the seventh sense fusion stage. From what the secret art mentioned, as one’s seventh sense improves, it can be combined with one of the basic five senses and open a new door for one’s comprehension of essence.

When Avaln learnt that, he surmised that sensing colored essence was not the norm for most, and that somehow his essence circulation had allowed him to awake his seventh sense directly at the fusion stage.

He felt his gut burn at the prospects of so many paths to improve on.

He had such a long way ahead... yet he could only feel excited.

The next day, after healing Rei and checking she could walk quite well, Avaln told her they should go to the source of water she had mentioned. After a nod, their steps quickly took them towards a zone Avaln had noted down in his mind while seeking refuge, and soon confirmed it was indeed the case when he sensed a familiar blue essence.

The source of water was a stream, wide enough for him to bathe, but with a depth only up to his knees.

After probing the area and realizing there weren’t any immediate dangers, he turned towards Rei, who for some reason looked slightly abashed. “So…”

“Mister… would it be alright if I washed my wounds?” She asked, interrupting him. She quickly apologized after realizing it, to which Avaln could only scratch his head at a loss. “I… I’d need mister to keep watch…”

He smiled at her, finally understanding. It was also the very same suggestion he was going to voice. “I’ll keep watch behind that tree. And don’t worry, I won’t peep.”

The girl’s cheeks blushed red at this, then nodded, then bowed. Avaln didn’t want her to suddenly explode from so many different emotions so he walked towards the location he said he’d keep watch from.

Once he arrived there, his mind went through the strategy he’d formed to deal with any demon boars that may wander their way. They were at a source of water, so it was indeed possible for them to approach that place seeking the same thing. Besides, their final objective was to reach Gale, and it would be quite naive to think they wouldn’t find any danger on their way.

He changed his hand wielding the spear in a quite superfluous flourish, and when he realized it, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. That spin he had just performed was the same one he watched Sgithe do ten years ago, and like so many other of her moves, It had been engraved in his memories.

The fact that he had just reproduced it as if he had been training with that spear since childhood, was one of the consequences of his mind and body being so closely connected now, thanks to his essence circulation. Muscle memory, which usually required years of practice, was something quite easy for him to create now, yet he didn’t expect it to be that easy.

That flourish, he thought, was probably an exception. It had been in his mind for so long it just directly translated itself into his muscles without him realizing. As for her other moves, he only caught a fragment of them, and even if he could recall them now quite easily, ten years was enough time for their truth to erode, so they probably weren’t reliable for him to execute. He’d have a much better time learning them through the Dún Scáith spear arts she developed.

Avaln took a deep breath, returning to the matters at hand, then released his seventh sense to its max, as it swirled with new found strength. Before he could only reach a ten step radius around himself, but now that distance had doubled, and the detail to which he could probe his surroundings was also much higher than before.

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The yellow-brownish essence of the stone was still feeble, but now he could clearly distinguish it beneath the grass, and even found a much stronger earth essence beneath it, of a rich brownish color. It seemed hard rock was different from fertile earth, and it made sense.

No demon boars seemed to be in the immediate area, so after double-checking just in case, he directed his spear towards the ground and drew a large rune he had learnt the previous night. After he finished, he took two steps to the left and traced another one.

As of now, he knew how to use four runes.

One meant to regenerate. It could boost the body’s natural healing and close wounds that normally wouldn’t close otherwise. On the other hand, it couldn’t help much with injuries of a more vicious nature, like burns, or with toxins inside the body.

Another one to transfer. This one served to direct essence towards a certain direction, and with some modifications it could also convert said essence to another attribute, albeit not to all of them, and at a cost. Right now the efficacy he could draw from it, when converting, was around 40%, which could reach around the 70% if only transferring from one body to another.

After fighting the demon boar, he had used the transfer rune with a conversion from demonic essence, to nature essence. The latter was the most effective for the regenerate rune, yet he now knew he had only been able to do so because he was in a forest, a place rich in nature essence. Such were the rune’s limitations.

The first rune he carved on the ground was a new one, meant to slow. In theory, it would sap the speed of any creature that entered its area while active. Its strength however, depended on the amount and purity of the essence poured on it, and the difference with the creature it tried to slow down.

And the second rune he carved was meant to freeze. Despite what one might think, its function wasn’t a stronger version of the slow rune, but an entirely different one. What the rune did was to drain the heat from a creature within its radius to the point of freezing it on the spot if the essence used was strong and vast enough.

The two last ones were precisely the runes Avaln wanted to use to fight the demon boars, and basically his plan was to set a trap. By slowing them down and then freezing them, he expected to weaken them enough for him to exploit their weak point from a relatively safe place.

However, the plan had quite a few holes he needed to patch before he could put it to action.

In the time one brews and drinks a cup of tea, Rei approached him from the left while he was deep in thought, sitting cross-legged beneath the tree with his spear resting against his left shoulder. There was no trace of the runes he’d carved before.

Of course, his seventh sense had already detected her. He wouldn’t be much of a guard if he hadn’t.

Rei seemed to be refreshed, a curious shine on her cheeks. “Thanks, mister.”

Avaln’s brow twitched upon hearing her calling him like that again, and couldn’t help but stand up with slightly more force than intended, which startled her. He quickly reprimanded himself for being so childish inside his mind, then smiled and said, “Sorry. I was thinking about something. Can you keep watch here for a moment? I won’t be long.”

Rei nodded, eager, her still wet pale blue hair dripping on her shoulders.

Seeing her response, Avaln disappeared behind the tree.

A quarter of an incense stick later, he came back.

Rei, upon seeing him, jumped away, her sword in her hands before even she realized it, “Who?! Mister! Mister!”

Seeing her surprise, Avaln wanted to facepalm himself. “Calm down! It’s me!”

His voice appeased her somewhat, but she still held some suspicions as he inferred from her lifted eyebrow, so he pointed at the whole on his pants, above his left leg, which had a bloodstain yet no wound could be seen on his skin. Upon casting a glance on it, she dropped her guard like letting go of a sack of potatoes, arms hanging at her sides as she showed a flummoxed expression on her cute features.

The reason for her shock?

Avaln had shaved.

“Mister… how old are you?” She managed to ask while examining his face.

It was like looking at a completely different person. His hair now shined, was shorter, and had been tied into a neat ponytail, while his face was devoid of his previous dishevelled beard, revealing smooth skin and a defined jawline.

“I’m probably only two years older than you.” He replied, and at her lack of a follow-up, he met her gaze with a gentle, calm smile. “If you keep staring at me like that you are going to make me blush. Is it that much of a change?”

Rei couldn’t help but avert her eyes, a pretty red highlighting her cheeks. After a breath, she realized how inappropriate her actions had been and quickly gestured away, apologizing. “I- I’m just surprised, that’s all! I did think you were much older before, so I should probably stop calling mister, mister… H-How should I call you?”

The gentle smile never abandoned his expression, and just waved her worry away. “Just call me Avaln.”

She, however, quickly shook her head. “I can’t possibly be so disrespectful!” She seemed to ponder something for a breath, then continued, “What about Venerable? No! Venerable Master?”

“V-Venerable?” Disbelief evident in his voice, It was his turn to gesture the idea away. “No! That would be troublesome, and awkward, and I don’t like it. Call me Avaln.”

She shook her head again, pearls flying from her hair, dripping her surroundings and him.. “I’ll call you Master Avaln. That’s as far as I’m willing to go. Master Avaln saved my life, and it’s only properly that I repaid the debt with respect and service!”

Avaln facepalmed. For a moment he would have preferred to go back to being mister. Then a notion came up in his mind…

Why did she think of this now?

“You should shave. You’d probably be quite handsome if you did. Who knows, you might even enchant a rich mistress who can pull you out of this mess!” Alary’s words, from a not so distant memory.

He shook his head internally. He wasn’t so desperate to need to caress his ego with such thoughts. It probably was just the huge difference which had made her think about how she should refer to him.

It had only been so long since they met after all.

His eyes fell on Rei again, who stared at him intently with rosy cheeks, fists and elbows together in a pleading pose. The girl, despite her innocence, could be quite stubborn with the weirdest things.

He let out a sigh. “Alright, you win.”

A pretty smile flourished in her expression, which made Avaln glad she hadn’t heard anything from his time shaving…

Cutting his hair was not an issue, as it had been long enough to just make a ponytail and get rid of the excess. Probably not the best work but he could make do.

However...

He’d always had skilled hands, so he never stopped to think that maybe shaving with a half-dull spear would be difficult… and it was. He injured himself quite a few times, releasing his pain in the form of a sucked breath, sometimes a weak groan, and had to cast his regeneration rune on himself to erase the proof of his clumsiness.

But he couldn’t help thinking that the joy in the face of the girl in front of him was a small but generous reward.