Voice remained tranquility, upon hearing 36's agitated voice.
“The Ones, their fame, and strength are not far the strangest and the strongest thing about this. They accumulated an enormous amount of techniques in their path to body perfection. Wait, why am I telling this? They highly restricted this kind of information. Ahhhh. hehehahurieaforsoe...” The voice suddenly became twisted in a weird speech. As if possessed by something that angered it. Turned it strange in a twisted tone.
“What? The Ones? They are called that? What in the bloody demons... So they are the people who forced me to do this? Beings who I should go against? I did not know about their names in the past. I wonder if this is also the name of their organization. It is probably not so low-key for them to be unknown to me, but I did not know a lot of organizations when I was alive. Simply because I had no need to worry about some idiots who did not concern me.”
“Alright then, this was a good harvest as well. How am I able to get access to the Wisher? That last moment, was it some sort of restriction put on that voice? I hope I will be able to blackma... ehm summon its services in the future.”
“Wait, I remember now, months ago. That woman said something about me and my existence. Is it related to this? And her warning... The Ones could reach out to me and kill me in no time if I am still here. This is very troublesome, but I can't rush it. It is more that I cannot do anything by myself. Everything depends on Allan. Shit! Fuck!” 36 shouted in frustration. He thought it through and came to a realization that he was completely helpless.
“Alright, let's calm down first. What can I do now with Allan's information about his past? I wanted to check his talent, but I don't know if I can get it from the Wisher. His old man was a user of energy, which is good, but nothing extreme. Lots of mortals could awaken their mortals if enough luck is involved. It should be easy to follow the techniques body forging involves, but once again, everything is about the bloody Allan. If he has no talent whatsoever, then all I can do is for him to focus on body techniques.”
“His father is gone from that war. If even energy users are getting into such conflicts, it is probably not so weak planet after all. It could be some subsidiary plane to a higher plane. That is possible. If so, there could be more ways to get some materials, but he needs wealth. Money to purchase them... How to go about it... I should have asked the Wisher more dammit!” 36 slammed the desk in frustration.
“For now, it will satisfy me that Sarey will work around my task. Next time, I will ask about their plane condition. Perhaps I should have done that, to begin with... To know is the first step towards victory.” 36 remembered a saying from when he grew up. They were rather unpleasant memories, but that saying was a key for many earliest paths towards greatness.
Considering he ended like this, it was not that much great advice. . . .
Back in the home of Zigmund and Sarey.
Zigmund was finishing his work in the remaining good mood he had. It was getting late, so he wanted to be done before going to bed.
“And that is a last one.” He said as he put the last wooden box willed with meat wrapped in paper to the ground.
“Damn. I hoped that Sarey's help would last longer. Whatever, I could manage at least this much.” He complained as he cleaned up the kitchen.
Sarey suddenly appeared around the corner. She looked a little bit flustered after forgetting about some other thing she completely forgot about. Getting Allan and the instructor was her idea, after all. She is strong, but having an adult would be much more effective in training Allan.
Her initial task is the problem of not getting into 36's task. She should have asked for it first.
“Well. Well. Well. What a naughty girl is peeking around a corner?” Zigmund asked in amusement.
“Hmph! Not me! This is something I wanted to ask you earlier, but I forgot. Can you entrust this to the merchants tomorrow?” She put a piece of paper on the ground.
“Just this? You could have done it yourself.” He complained again.
“I will go to a town tomorrow to ask around some merchants I know. My teacher could help as well, but I don't know.”
“You still have time to worry about your teacher?”
“Not really. I stopped going since Allan woke up. I already learned pretty much everything I wanted. These years were worth it.”
“It is your decision. I will get this to the merchants tomorrow. No problem.” He said as he finished his cleanup.
“Thank you,” Sarey said and left her room once more.
“Hmmm. What does she need this for? Fiery Tulip? And these two... They are basic medicinal herbs used even in the military, but they are rather restricted. I don't even know if the merchants have access to these since I left a long time ago. All I can do is wait and see if the merchants know about them or not tomorrow.”
Zigmund folded the piece of paper and took it into his pocket.
“Come to think of it, if I will become his instructor, he will need some better treatment. At least something made from these semi-extraordinary herbs. Yes. Yeeaaas. Hehehhehehe. She thinks that far ahead or what? I guess I will do my best if she thinks like that.” Zigmund giggled in satisfaction.
He thought that this would be very interesting. It has been a while since he spared someone. This idea stirred his mind greatly. “Wait, should I be too easy on him? Maybe I will need to see his fighting spirit first. If he thinks that the world of fighting is such a nice place to accommodate a crippled, blind boy, he is very mistaken.”
Zigmund then walked back into his office. He did not sit there as usual. Instead, he walked to the small open wooden shelves that were stacked on top of each other on one side of a wall.
He then shoved some books on one shelve aside. It revealed a slim-looking box hidden beside the shelves.
“There we go. It is just right that I will take this.” He said smugly.
It was rather a long box, upon taking it from the wall. It was very short, barely 10 centimeters in height, but almost a meter and a half long.
Zigmund opened it without hesitation. Inside were stacked weapons and some clothes. There was one long blade spread diagonally in the additional cover, and around its sides were the rest of the shabbier-looking blades.
“Hello there,” Zigmund said as he grabbed the clothes and put them into the air. It was a military-grade uniform, but its quality was excellent. It was a brown and gray color scheme with some metallic outlines and strengthening across some parts. The quite pleasant look of it made it very fancy and expensive looking.
Zigmund smiled in nostalgia. After some time, he put it aside and grabbed the blade that was laid in the box.
Swish!
He swiftly drew the blade from the scabbard and faced it across his face
“Huh! Still sharp and ready? Very nice. Not like I need you for anything, but some fun came up.” Zigmund muttered in excitement.
He no longer waited for anything. He tossed it into his chair and sat there in his chair with crossed arms around his sword. Momentarily losing himself in thoughts over his actions, since the finding of Allan in the middle of that mess.
He still did not forget about that untouchable wealth in that forest. He was not afraid to touch it, but what was the point of that? It was impossible to sell or use. All he could do was forget about it and use the most normal-looking items from that pile for some transactions that had to be deliberately chosen.
It was considered safe after he dig around for some information. There were always some extraordinary items circulating the market in this whole Tricloud region. Hardly any regulations about such transactions were available in the market. There was, after all, no kingdom that wanted to touch this place for now.
The best way to go around this was to go with his elder brother's advice. However, he was not willing to throw it all away from his mind. It would remain in his possession, but it was not his. If an owner of it suddenly appeared, that was some wild idea which he didn't want to consider.
It was clear as the sky itself that all of those materials were from some higher plane. Some clans, sects,s or schools that worked with top-tier materials such as these weren't something that would forget tons upon tons of materials gone missing.
Zigmund hoped that they have no way to track it down. If so, it could be said like finding a needle in a mountain of hay. Space was a vast place, even with limited knowledge of what Zigmund was aware of.
Considering a planet, there were not many simple ways to hide things in the size of cities. Finding a small hill underneath the rubble is much easier. Tremendous wealth could remain buried under the trees, mud, and earth, and no one would think of it.
“Whatever, I will wait it out. For the next year, there shouldn't be any issues. If I have some sudden guests... I will know it.” Zigmund thought to himself.
He continued watching the ceiling in the silence. After some time of clearing his mind. He went to the bed as well. He left his stuff on his desk. Blade included.
In Allan's room, there was the usual silence in the dark. But he could not fall asleep as usual. He had trouble with it since he woke up. He hated the constant darkness around him. His perception of time and space was not getting better. Day or night, it didn't matter too much to him. He could only lay there and rest his body. If he will fell asleep, good. If not, then that is fine too.
He already manages some sleepless nights where he went through the thoughts of what he could do. Allan was an overthinker since childhood, so his mind was trained to be processing a lot of things at once. Nonetheless, the darkness of his vision left nothing but troublesome thoughts. Nothing much changed his mind, not even 36's not-so-pleasant teachings.
There were some things on his mind right now that made it even further to fall asleep. He considered 36's words, Sarey's generosity, and finally, his ability to do blacksmithing once more.
He mixed all these things in his mind since he could afford them. He could feel his body becoming stronger, but he still found it rather strange. There was no sign of that since he put some muscles in Clayton's shop. This time, it was a distinct feeling, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
It was more of a raw feeling, something that was very fast and aggressive. Even then, in the heat of a few moments, it was intangible feelings of getting better tractions with his training and ease of pain. Strength and limits, he previously thought, were impossible to overcome, and were much easier to accomplish. Yet, he still felt reluctant to share them with anyone.