Regaining his control over his Spirit, and body, Alnea let out a sigh of relief, as he felt all the tension, and anxiousness that had been gripping him for the past few days let go of him. Fighting against the malice, and grudges of the Oren Beasts contained within the Rotting Blood Essence was not pleasant, often making him realise things about himself. Things which he was not ready to accept.
He would not deny that learning those things gave him a direction to temper his Heart in. Still, that was not the true reason he had been drinking the abomination for the past ten days. According to his master, Spirits were inextricably linked with consciousness of Wanderers. By contaminating his consciousness with the consciousness of the Oren Beasts, and then getting rid of those contaminations, he was putting his consciousness in stress, which in turn, was supposed to help him break through his bottleneck.
Alnea had been a little skeptical of that theory at first, but since it was his master who had told him about it, he did not doubt her, and gone ahead with her plan of drinking one portion of Rotting Blood Essence every day after his Spirit Power had reached the limit of the Seed Rank. The experience had been a little harrowing, yet results showed that his master was right once again.
Breaking through the bottleneck between the Seed, and the False Rank, which many Wanderers took months, and years to do so… Even Cecilia had taken nearly a month to break through to the False Rank. Still, the experience of fighting against the consciousness of the Oren Beasts… It made him recall the time when he had to fight against the memories of the other Alnea.
How many months had it been? Counting the days that he had spent in the Night Canyons… probably around seven months. Seven months since he had to fight against the memories of Alnea of the world of Attuners… Those memories had been coming to him for more than seven years, but it was only around eight months ago that those memories had begun etching themselves into his mind, turning into his own memories. That was how he had learned the Oathkeeper Arts.
No, it was more appropriate to call it as the Oathkeeper Style. It was supposed to help him in using his Aspects, after all. Arts, on the other hand, at least the type that existed in his world, were based on Mysteries, completely different from the Arts of the world of Attuners. At present, there was only one such Art, the one that his master had created for him, but there would be many more such Arts in the future.
At the very least, he knew that he would be gaining a new Art from his master in a few hours. He had reached the False Rank, after all. The Three Turns Spirit Forging Art was not going to be very effective for him. Even at the Seed Rank, it had begun losing its effectiveness as his Spirit Power had reached the Tenth Rank. Since he had broken through to the False Rank, he would be needing a better Art to train his Spirit. A False Ranked Art.
At the same time, since he was already at the False Rank, he did not have to drink the Rotting Blood Essence anymore. At least not for a while. Using external stimulations like the Rotting Blood Essence was best left for the bottlenecks between the Stages, or the Ranks. Using them to increase his Spirit Power, or getting through the bottleneck between levels would leave his Spirit a little unstable. That was what he had learned anyways. And he did not have any plans to put that theory to test.
Instead, he was more interested in checking out the state of his Spirit after it had broken through to the False Rank. But before he did that, he had a few more things to take care of. Like concentrating his thoughts on the ring adorning his finger of fate. Opening his eyes, Alnea was just about to shift his attention to his hand, when he saw a woman, dressed in a white robe, with patterns of thorny vines running all across its borders, sitting in front of him, looking at him with a satisfied smile.
“Master!” Alnea said, with his excitement, and surprise leaking into his voice, as he almost failed to control himself from rushing towards her to wrap himself around her in a hug. Almost. He had already reached the False Rank, even if just in Spirit Power. He was finally about to become a Wanderer. He could not keep acting like a child anymore. Or… maybe he could. After all, she was also his mother. Disregarding his embarrassment, he let go of all his reservations, and did as his heart demanded of him.
“I missed you so much, ma—mother.”
“Silly child,” his master said, patting his back with one hand, while ruffling through his hair with the other. Her touch was just as gentle, and warm as ever. Rather, not seeing her for a while, she felt even more warm, and gentle than before. “I missed you as well. But it was worth it, was it not?”
“Nothing is worth being away from you, master. I felt so lonely, and sad…”
“Whom are you trying to fool, cheeky disciple?” his master said, chuckling at his lies. “Did you think that just because you were using the Rings of Fate to talk with Yuri, I would not notice?”
“…That was different. Being away from you, no matter whom I am with, or whom I am talking to, I will always be sad, and lonely.”
“Oh? Is that so? Then how about you say that in front of Yuri, and Cecilia?”
“…Technically speaking, though I could talk with Yuri, I was not able to see her, while I could not even talk with Cecilia, so I was also sad about not seeing them.”
“Where did you learn to be so shameless?” his master said, pinching his cheeks, as Alnea pulled away from her, shifting his face away from her to hide his blush. “But this is fine as well. Sometimes, you need to be shameless in order to survive.”
“It is not just about surviving, master. It is also about protecting my Heart. As long as my conscience is clear, then everything else is fine.”
“Why are you so proud of being shameless?”
“It is not called as being shameless, master. It is called protecting my Heart. Protecting you, and the others.”
“…Except for your mother, all the others that you want to protect are Wanderers. Even Cecilia has been Wandering the Origin Sea for over a month.”
“That is why I need to be even stronger to be able to protect everyone.”
“That still does not explain your shamelessness.”
“Protecting! It is called protecting my Heart, while keeping my conscience clear.”
“Right,” his master said, ruffling his hair, as she chuckled at his flushed face. “In a way, it is good that you experienced the attack of the Heterodox Wanderers. At the very least, you have found your path to a Clear Heart.”
“…I would not want to experience anything like that anytime soon,” Alnea said, inadvertently recalling the battle that had happened in Anneve over a month ago. “Not being in control of my own life, and death… That is not a pleasant feeling.”
“Then you will just have to become stronger, right?”
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“Right,” Alnea said with determination flashing in his eyes. “Stronger than everyone else in the world. Only then would I be able to protect everyone.”
“You sure are ambitious,” his master said. “But then again, you need to aim for at least that much if you want to become the greatest Wanderer, and create the path to the Rank of Origin Wanderer.” After a slight pause, she added, “Congratulations on reaching the False Rank, Alnea.”
A wide smile spread across his face, as Alnea heard his master’s words of praise.
“Thank you, master.”
“Do not get too happy just yet,” his master said, raising her brows in amusement at the silly smile on his face. “You have just reached the False Rank, and that too, only in Spirit Power. There is much that you have yet to accomplish, and you have even more things that you need to learn. Wandering the Origin Sea, gleaning its Mysteries, taming its Aspects, and carving out your own path… Your journey is going to get even more difficult from now on. And dangerous. So, you cannot relax your vigilance, or let down your guard.”
“…I know,” Alnea said, recalling the times that Yuri had taken him to Wander the Origin Sea. “I will not make any mistakes.”
“…We will see about that,” his master said. “Since your Spirit Power has reached the False Rank, the Three Turns Spirit Forging Art would not be of much use to you anymore. You will need a better Art. Consequently, Forging your Spirit with the new Art will be a little more painful than before, so you might need some time to adjust to it. But that might expose you to some needless danger… In the near future, you will be training with me. At least until you get used to the new Sprit Forging Art, and learn some Martial Styles.”
“Martial Styles?”
“What? Did you forget that you have learnt only the Auxiliary type of Martial Styles? There are four more types of Martial Styles that you have yet to learn. We have been putting them off till, but since you have reached the False Rank, it is time for you to complete your foundations in the other types of Martial Styles.”
“…As long as I get to stay with you, I am ready to learn anything!”
“…Cheeky disciple,” his master said, pinching his smiling cheeks, with a thin smile plastered on her face as well. “We will begin with only one type of Martial Styles. As for which type it will be… We will discuss about that later. For now, you can relax a little. There is no need for you to keep glancing around in search of Oren Beasts. With me by your side, what Oren Beast would dare to come?”
“…Habit,” Alnea said, laughing awkwardly, while scratching the back of his head. “I just completed a round of training, so not patrolling the area for any Oren Beast makes me feel a little jittery.”
“…It must have been hard.”
“It’s alright, master. It was for my sake anyways. And results have proven that letting me train in the canyons by myself was the right decision. Besides, with the world thinking that I have been captured by Heterodox Wanderers, where else could I have gone?”
“…Seeing you talk so maturely makes me feel that you are growing too fast.”
“Isn’t that a good thing, master? The faster I grow, the sooner I will be able to help you, and Yuri.”
“…It is indeed a good thing,” his master said, patting his head with a wry smile on her face. “Anyways, as I was saying, you need to learn more Martial Styles. So, for the foreseeable future, you will—
“Ah, before that. There is something that is bothering me, master.”
“What is it?”
“Since I have reached the False Rank, I think I should be fighting Adolescent Stage Oren Beasts from now on.”
“That is the most logical course of action. Fighting Oren Beasts at their Infant Stage holds no benefits for you. Especially after you will learn a few Martial Styles, and tame some Aspects.”
“There, that is exactly what is bothering me, master. I will be learning new types of Martial Styles from the scratch. Which means, I will be beginning from the Lowest Grade Martial Styles. Fighting the Adolescent Stage Oren Beasts with Lowest Grade Martial Styles… that sounds a little difficult to accomplish.”
“You are underestimating the Martial Styles too much,” his master said, shaking her head. “Even if they are of Lowest Grade, only Warriors who are at, or above the Fourth Stage of the True Rank can create them. To deal with Adolescent Stage Oren Beasts, Lowest Grade Martial Styles would be enough. Besides, considering your affinity with Martial Styles, I am sure that you would be able to master them in no time, and would soon be able to make your way up to the Intermediate Grade Martial Styles. So, what are you worrying about?”
“…But I still would need to have proficiency in those Martial Styles before I can use them against the Oren Beasts.”
“Oh? And how do you plan on getting that proficiency?”
“How about letting me spar with Cecilia, and Yuri…”
“Cheeky disciple,” his master said, chuckling at his words, as she condensed her Spirit Power into the form of hands, before flicking his forehead with it. “If you want to meet with the girls then just say so. There is no need to talk around in circles with me.”
“I was just telling the truth…” Alnea said, rubbing his forehead. “That was how we did things for the Auxiliary type of Martial Styles.”
“Things were different back then,” his master said. “Back then, you did not know how to fight. And even after nearly a month of fighting against Cecilia, when you fought against an Oren Beast for the first time, you still froze due to fear… do not tell me you have forgotten about that?”
“Of course not,” Alnea said, shaking his head, recalling the time that the Green Wind Wolf had torn off his arm. If not for his master… “That is why I am saying that I should practice those new Martial Styles against Cecilia, and Yuri first.”
“Though your argument is sound, the premise of your argument itself is wrong. Like I was saying, things are not same as they were back then. And neither are you. Not only has your Spirit Power has reached the False Rank, granting you better, and sharper senses, but months of continuous practice, along with food made from Oren Beasts, and precious herbs has strengthened your body to a degree, where it is comparable to your peers from some of the weaker Orthodoxies, like the Lotus clan. Coupled with all the experience that you have had of fighting Oren Beasts, taking care of some of the weaker Adolescent Stage Oren Beasts should not be a problem for you.”
“…We will not know that until I fight with them.”
“Then just take this chance to fight with one. Let me see, a Dark Wind Wolf, a Black Flame Python, a Blue Scaled Snapper… these are some of the weaker Oren Beasts of the Adolescent Stage in this canyon. Which one do you wish to fight?”
“…What if I get injured? I will be Wandering the Origin Sea in a while, so I need to be careful with my health.”
“Do not worry. I will heal you.”
“…What if it disturbs my Heart?”
“Alright, stop making so many excuses,” his master said, shaking her head with a wry smile. “Were you talking with Yuri just now? Was she directing you to ask those questions?”
“…No.”
“You two are really getting bolder, and cheekier with every passing day,” his master said, before putting on a prideful smile. “My son, my only disciple is going to Wander the Origin Sea for the first time. How can I let you go just like that? I have prepared a special celebratory feast for the occasion. Though not as good as the feast for your birthday, it should be passable.
“Unfortunately, Serena has already left for the Grand Chasm, and though your mother has already shifted to Rian, she is still under the surveillance of the Lotus clan. Rather, the entire Lightning Region is paying attention to your mother right now. It is best that we do not tell her about your current situation for now. Still, at the very least, your two friends can accompany you to the feast. Even if it just for the Serenity of your Heart, I would not let you Wander the Origin Sea without meeting them, so rest assured.”
“I knew you are the best, master!” Alnea said, beaming with excitement, as he hugged his master once again, before pulling back from her, and looking at with anticipation shining in his eyes. “When are we leaving?”
“Are you in such a hurry to meet with them?” his master said. “Do you not wish to check your own Spirit World, and Spirit first?”
“What is there to check? I have already seen Yuri’s Spirit World, and Spirit. Mine is going to be the same. And I would be seeing it later when I go Wandering the Origin Sea anyways.”
“You… Forget it. Since you want to meet with them so much, then let us go pick up the other two troublemakers.”
“Wait a moment, master,” Alnea said, before rushing to the crevice in the wall of the canyon, taking his bag out from its hiding place. “Now, I am ready.”