Glenn spent a dreamless night, something he had come to enjoy, even more, when it meant it would be a good, restful night of sleep. Technically, it would be more efficient to Meditate through the tiredness, but he still chose to sleep normally. The comfort of the bunk bed and the quality of sleep made him validate that choice, until morning–no, until Maron came.
Splash!
"Huh?!"
"Haha, that's for waking me up in the night, you stupid...!" As soon as Glenn understood that the liter of water that just hit his face came from Maron, he instantly shut his ears to the curses that were sure to come.
'Oh, if only I still had access to the Silence curse...Is there no way to use it even if I'm not a Third Circle, Diamanes?' The young man mentally asked, turning in his bed while shaking off the water. The entity yawned.
'Uhh, no, sadly. You still have access to all the 'knowledge' that was unlocked when you reached the True Initiate stage, but you just don't have the authorizations to use the skills that come with it anymore,' Diamanes explained with a lazy tone. Glenn sighed, jumping out of bed seconds before Maron threw another bucket of water on his head. He stretched, ignoring the pokes and the weak slaps on his back from the merchant, grumbling at the sight of his bed filled with water. With a flick of his fingers, he summoned his clothes before swiftly escaping Maron's rageful onslaught.
'Last night was certainly enlightening, but it was also certainly not enough. I need to find a way to gather Mana and refine it to push for the creation of my Third Circle without messing up my future,' Glenn rubbed the tiredness off his face, heading to get breakfast. The workers were already eating, something that smelled like roasted chicken but had the appearance of a yellow jelly with vegetables mixed in it. The young man picked up the plate without complaining, only realizing the strange combination once he was sitting.
"...Who the hell cooked?" He mumbled confusedly, summoning the identification knife to poke the food, the jelly wiggling at the touch. It looked strange, to say the least, but hey, if it smelled good, it had to taste good, right? The firepit he was sitting next to suddenly crackled as someone threw a small log in it.
"...I think Javier did," A tired voice answered his question. Glenn turned his head to see Josh, similarly looking at his food weirdly. Glenn blinked.
"Javier?" He turned and looked back to where he picked his food, seeing indeed the silent Pale Son busying himself in the makeshift kitchen, which, by the way, was just a handful of big pots cooking over some equally big fires.
"That's a surprising sight. I never thought he would like to cook," Glenn remarked, before looking back to his food. He shrugged and spooned a mouthful out of the strange sludge before putting it on his tongue. He half-expected the thing to taste wrong, but no, it was just a thick mixture with a heavy eggy taste, seemingly supplemented with bits of carrots and mushrooms. How did Javier cook that stuff in a pot, he had no idea, but it sure did the job of filling his stomach. Javier had served him only a reasonable portion, but the young man felt like he had just eaten a full-course menu with desserts.
Josh steeled himself before putting the food in his mouth, swallowing it with difficulty.
"The thing is...he doesn't enjoy cooking whatsoever. No, maybe it would make more sense to say that he never figured out what he should or should not put in a meal...Damn it, did I swallow something he made...?" The Pale Son placed his plate next to him, a disgusted expression on his face. Glenn stopped licking his fingers and looked at Josh with a confused expression.
"What do you mean?" He asked, feeling a seed of worry grow inside his stomach. Josh paled and raised a finger, before putting his other hand in his mouth and pulling a strange strand of...leather?
"...That–" Josh coughed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, "–is exactly what I mean," He threw the strange bit aside, before looking at his plate with a lost look. He picked it up and held it toward Glenn.
"You seemed to love the stuff...don't hesitate to take my part, really," The Pale Son smiled in a not-so-convincing way. Glenn looked at the plate, then at Josh, then back at the plate. After an instant of hesitation, he politely shook his head.
"Thanks, but I'm full. I'll be checking things out with Maron and try to figure out when the hell out we leave this hole," The young man slapped his knees and stood up.
"Mundare...Ah, much better," He cleaned his hands and left for Maron's tent. A second before stepping in, Lefeivre, the counter master, stepped out with a relieved expression. Their eyes crossed, and the man nodded slightly at Glenn.
'Oh god, does that mean we're finally going to get the fuck out of this place?' Hope bloomed in his heart like a cherry blossom in springtime. The young man stepped into the tent wearing his best-seller's smile.
Sadly for him, that hope was squished down under Maron's dirty cold boots.
"Ah, Glenn, perfect. We're leaving Palancar today to go back to King's Rise," first began the merchant, his crazy demeanor having seemingly weakened slightly. Glenn nodded, before feeling a chill crawl down his spine.
"...But of course, since we have still a bit more free time, I think we should use it to make a quick stop by a place I know in Retni's Forest," Maron grinned ominously. The young man gulped.
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"...And where would that be, if I'm allowed to ask?"
The merchant's smile grew wider as if he had expected the question.
"Oh, nothing too fancy. We're just going to gather some materials in an abandoned quarry, it'll sell for a bit and help pay your debts. I decided to go there with you and your comrades' wellness in mind, trust me on that point," The merchant exclaimed, the glint of money already gleaming in his eyes. The young man twisted his thumbs behind his back.
'This sounds simple. Way too simple. Is there–no. I refuse to jinx it again, damn it.'
Uncaring for Glenn's worries, the merchant crossed his arms and turned his back on him.
"...If everything goes well, in two more weeks we're back in King's Rise," He muttered, before turning back swiftly and staring into Glenn's eyes.
"By the way, do you want to know what the remaining debt you and your colleagues have to pay?"
Glenn shrugged, nodding thoughtlessly. The merchant coughed lightly, before looking at the ceiling thoughtfully.
"So, if my calculations are correct, y'all still owe the Maron's company a total of four-hundred-seventy-three golds, nine silvers, and fifty-four coppers. Wait, if we take out the water I splashed you with this morning, we're at fifty-two coppers. My mistake, I'm not much of a morning person."
Glenn frowned, before paling.
'Wait. Do we have that much debt to pay this bastard? No way, is he fucking with me?'
The young man cleared his throat and opened his mouth but Maron interrupted him by raising a menacing finger in the air.
"Neheh. You don't want me to explain to you how much I've lost, do you? Or I can make you the list, but I'll warn you: it's over ten pages long." The merchant threatened, Glenn willing stepping back and turning his head shamefully.
'...Alright, that might be that much. Shit, we're going to drown in debt. Wait, is there interest?' Glenn tried to open his mouth again, only to be interrupted by Maron once again, the merchant seemingly reading his mind.
"No, I might be shameless, but I don't intend to chain you all to me forever. I value my life as much as my money," The merchant honestly said. Glenn's eyelids twitched.
'...Aren't you supposed to care more about your life, not "just as much"? This guy is crazy for gold, it's insane,'
A snicker interrupted his thoughts.
'Hah! The pot calls the kettle black!' Diamanes mocked. Glenn shook the comment off.
"I'll leave you for your...work, then, Monsieur Maron," He politely excused himself, inviting an insidious chuckle from the merchant.
"Yeah, yeah, get out of here. Each second with you is another copper wasted," He spat, turning to look at some documents sprawled out on a desk. Glenn happily obliged, his depressed face lightening up when he noticed Sahro training in an empty corner near the forest. The Black Heir was holding his curved sword single-handedly, his brows creased in concentration.
Glenn approached with nifty steps, curious about how his friend was adapting to the loss of his limb. Sahro closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, holding his sword still. Then, suddenly, he pierced the air with the sword, a flash of electric light crackling around the stab. The attack was so fast Glenn only managed to see a blur of it.
'Could I even dodge something like this?'
The Black Heir looked at his sword with an unsatisfied look, before frowning. He clenched his sword tightly and wrapped it in the familiar red-Aura, before slashing in Glenn's direction. The red Aura blade brushed against the young man's fluttering hair as he hurriedly ducked, letting it go over his head. A grin decorated the young man's face and his hand shot for his waist to get a hold of his axe, only to painfully remember that he didn't manage to find the weapon again after the fight.
Despite looking through every corner of Palancar and asking each of its inhabitants, no one saw Half-Moon, to his greatest dismay. And so, he found himself without any weapon, facing an actual Knight, a rank 3 Aura-practitioner while he was only a Second Circle Initiate.
Yeah, that didn't bode too well for him.
The young man clenched his fist and instead moved his Mana to summon a Magic Bullet, the first spell he ever created. The spell shot powerfully, only to be easily parried by Sahro, who charged straight at Glenn. He planted his sword in the ground, before ripping it out with a roar. The ground opened in two as another reddish blade flew at Glenn, who easily dodged it by turning his chest, ignoring the destruction it caused to the forest behind him. A longsword of pure Mana appeared in his right hand, gleaming with a blue magical light. Sahro's features brightened a little and he spun on himself, trying to kick the blade out of Glenn's hand. Instead of blocking it, Glenn grabbed the Black Heir's boot, groaning as he forcefully pulled Sahro off the ground while trying to hack at his leg with his sword.
A horrible sensation suddenly washed over Glenn, who dropped Sahro in shock. His limbs trembled as sparks of electricity exploded all over his body. Sahro quickly recovered his stance, not waiting a single second as he stabbed with deadly precision at Glenn's heart. Blueish, electrical sparks appeared once again around the blade as it shot out at the speed of sound.
Glenn grinned through the foam that had accumulated at his lips and released the Blackhole he had been secretly preparing in the ground, taking Sahro's foothold away and making him slip into the hole, uncontrollably pulled by the powerful spell. Sahro clenched his teeth and stabbed at the Blackhole with his curved sword, piercing with a condensed Aura spear. The Blackhole dissipated, but the time it gave Glenn was enough to power another spell, an Implosion right on Sahro's face.
The young man pointed his hand at the Black Heir, smiling wickedly.
"...Winner for once!" He exclaimed until a snicker inside his mind made him lose his concentration.
'I'm not so sure about that,' Diamanes mocked. Glenn didn't even have a second to try and understand that the Implosion he had tried to cast disappeared in the atmosphere, his reserve of Mana unable to power it. Dizziness washed over the young man and he fell back on a knee. Sahro extricated himself out of the dirt the Blackhole had pulled him in, smiling with all his teeth.
"...Exactly what I had planned. I win again, heh," Sahro taunted him, making his sword gleam under the light of the sun before sheathing it. The Black Heir held his hand out at Glenn to help him up. The young man grumbled and grabbed it, his legs shaking under him.
"Shit...I hate being back to the Second Circle stage," Glenn complained, the symptoms of a lacking Mana showing on his face, which became paler by the second. By chance, he was getting better and better at handling the backlash, even if it remained painfully annoying.
'I need to get my Circle back. I simply can't get used to this pitiful Mana reserve again.'
"Yeah, try to find an excuse. You just got your ass handed over to you by a one-armed swordsman," Sahro mocked. Glenn shook his head.
"I don't see where you handed my ass back to me. Had I been at the same rank as you, you'd already be dead and buried."
"Yeah, yeah, too bad that's not what happened, heh?"
They continued their banter for a few minutes until a strident whistle shook alive every resting worker.
It was time to leave Palancar and head back to King's Rise.
Well, there was a stop on the way, but that should be nothing too crazy, right?