Back in his room, Alnea set the soft, fluffy cushion aside, and sat cross legged on the ground, reflecting upon his mistakes. Though the cushion itself was not at fault, and neither did it hinder his meditation, he could not help but wonder if he had been indulging in luxury a bit too much recently. Three hundred and seventy Blood Coins. Almost four hundred False Oren Stones. All just for his first attempt at inscribing a Glyph…
Alright, maybe four hundred False Oren Stones was an exaggeration. Blood Coins were not exactly equal to False Oren Stones. Sure, the city did give him only a hundred Blood Coins after taking a hundred False Oren Stones as an entry fee, but that entry fee covered much more than just the initial welfare of the city, including the subsidy for canteen. How else could he explain the city allowing Wanderers to eat as much as they would like for just a Blood Coin?
Then again, the city did have easy access to Oren Beasts roaming out in the desert. It probably bought all the beasts hunted by Wanderers in the desert at a discounted price. Maybe, it even sent some of its guards out periodically, just to hunt some beasts. Regardless, Alnea was sure that a Blood Coin could never be equal to a False Oren Stone. At best, it would have only one tenth of the latter’s value.
Still, nearly forty False Oren Stones was not a small amount. Especially if he was trying to inscribe just an Intermediate Stage Glyph. The materials he had bought could be used for inscribing even some Advanced and Peak Stage Glyphs. Especially the Red Oak Tree’s bark and Ornia’s Tears. Both were some of the better materials of the False Rank. Consequently, they were also very hard to control. Maybe they were the reason why—
No, Alnea thought. The bark and the tears were not the problem. He was sure of it. The way he had handled those materials was impeccable. Especially the bark. He knew how dangerous the bark could be if not handled properly, and so, had used only its shavings. They were much easier to control than a whole piece. The only reason why they even exploded was because of the spontaneous combustion of the rat’s skin. On their own, they could have never escaped his control—
No, Alnea thought once again. Just because the shavings of the bark did not explode on their own from his first stroke did not mean that they would not have exploded by the time he was done with his Glyph. Even if they would have stayed docile until the end, there was no guarantee that they would have remained stable until the Glyph he inscribed wore out. On second thought, maybe the Glyph wearing out would have made the fragments of the bark even more unstable…
He should not have used such a dangerous material in the first place. At least not until he was confident of keeping it stable from all kinds of internal and external stimulations. It was not appropriate for an Intermediate Stage Glyph anyway. What was he even thinking when deciding to use to Advanced and Peak Stage materials for an Intermediate Stage Glyph? That he would become the greatest Scholar—
Alnea put a reign on his thoughts, taking a moment of calm his raging Heart. Recognising his mistakes was a good start, but he could not let himself flow with his emotions. Especially if they showed tendencies of pulling him into the quagmire of self doubts. He was not the same as he used to be when he had just begun meditating. Back when losing himself to his emotions did not use have any long lasting effects.
Having tamed over thirty Aspects, and mastered over a dozen Mysteries, including the one corresponding to his Glyph, Alnea was no longer as ‘immune’ to losing himself to his emotions as he used to be. And he certainly had no intention of repeating the Whitebud patriarch’s mistake. The day of the Spirit Test was still very vivid in his mind. As was the result of losing control of one’s emotions… of one’s Heart…
Heart… A Wanderer’s core… The fulcrum on which Wanderers balanced their conviction and beliefs against their actions… their thoughts… Once, Alnea used to think his master was his Heart. Later, his Heart evolved to include other people. People whom he could trust. People whom he could take his Oath for. And for a long time, that was not a problem. After all, when his Heart had evolved, there were only five people whom he could trust, and care about enough to take an Oath. But…
Zain, Aren, Fran, Norren, Ralph, Karl, Vestia… They were all his teammates, people whom he could trust. Even if that trust was based upon the constraints of the Lost City, it was still a kind of trust. At the very least, it was enough for him to take an Oath for his teammates. Sure, the Oaths he took for them was indirect, but they were still his Oaths. A part of his Roots…
Even if he left the others aside for a moment, what about Vestia? Others may have come to him after he decided to form a team, but the idea of forming a team itself came from Vestia. She was the first one to approach him, and except for some inappropriate advances, she had never shown him any malice. Not to mention that he had also given her his promise. A separate Oath, one taken solely for her sake…
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Why did he take that Oath? Why did he promise her? Did he really care about her? Did he subconsciously consider her as a part of his Heart? And what about others? What about his other teammates? Did he consider them as a part of his Heart too? What exactly was his Heart? What was his core? What was he using to balance his thoughts and actions against his conviction and belief?
…Alnea did not know. Or maybe he knew but did not dare to guess. Matters of Heart could not be handled recklessly. At least not as recklessly as he handled his Oaths. Still, he knew that his master was still his Heart. As was Yuri and Cecilia. And big sis Serena. Even his mother was still as important a part of his Heart as ever. And for the moment, that was enough.
With his Heart Serene, and his thoughts silent, Alnea began to reflect upon his mistakes once again, the first of which was selecting unnecessarily overqualified materials. For his first attempt at inscription, his priority should not have been to make his Glyph as powerful as he could, but to make sure that he could successfully inscribe a Glyph. Using materials generally used for Advanced and Peak Stage Glyphs to inscribe an Intermediate Stage was an overkill. Maybe even overconfidence…
Still, grave as his first mistake was, it was not the direct cause for his failure. The fragments of the Red Oak Tree exploded only because they were directly exposed to flames. As for the reason why the base of the Glyph spontaneously burst into flames… it was only when he began inscribing the Glyph that the problem occurred. So, it was because he put the ink to the base?
But whether it was the ink, or the surface of the base, both were made using the Red Tailed Scorpion’s blood. Coming from the same source, even if their end form was different, as long as he did not deliberately manipulate the two to conflict with each other, there should not have been any adverse reaction between them. So, the problem was not with the ink itself, but how he used the ink… Did he somehow overstimulate Red Tailed Scorpion’s blood by using the Red Tailed Eagle’s feather?
Probably not. Be it the Red Tailed Eagle, or the Red Tailed Scorpion, they were both devolved species, with much weaker affinity to Fire than their original counterparts, resulting in them being a little inert in nature. Though he did use some catalyst to stimulate the blood, he also used other means to keep its activity in check. Even if the problem did originate in the blood, it should not have been because of the feather.
Still, since Alnea had already thought of it, he made a mental note to verify his guess later, before returning to his earlier train of thought. Where exactly did he go wrong? Was it when he was preparing the Glyph’s base? Or was it when he was making the ink? But he could swear that he followed the exact steps in their preparation as had been described in the scroll… Did he make a mistake when inscribing the Glyph?
No, Alnea thought. At least not as far he could recall. The Glyph seemed to work perfectly fine when used through a Glyph Disc. Was he supposed to do something different when inscribing it? Was that his mistake? Not inscribing it correctly… Then again, what kind of mistake could he have made in just one stroke? The Glyph base did not even give him the time to react, bursting into flames at the slightest fluctuation of the Mystery…
That was it. How could he forget it? The Mystery. It was not the reaction of the materials with each other that caused them to burst into flames, but the fluctuations of the Mystery that descended on them. Though if that was true, then it would also mean that he had not handled the materials properly. For them to combust so readily… At least part of them should have been left teetering on the edge of instability. Such poor handling…
No, his handling was not poor. There were not many things that Alnea was sure of, but he was confident of his foundations, including basic handling of materials. His master had seen to it, forcing him to hone his skills every day. Even if the materials he had handled were new to him, he was skilled enough to follow the steps mentioned in the scroll down to their very last detail.
If problem was with how he had handled the materials, then the Wanderer sharing his experience in the scroll should also have failed. Obviously, the Wanderer did not fail. So, there had to be something wrong with the scroll. But the scroll was given to him by his master. It could not be wrong. Unless it was both right and wrong at the same time. Yet, that was impossible. How could something be both wrong and right at the same time…
That is it, Alnea thought, heaving a sigh of relief. Finally, he found the answer to his question. The cause of his failure, and his second mistake. A silly mistake, but a mistake, nonetheless. Next, all he had to do was verify his guess. Though that would mean taking another risk. With standard materials, of course, not the advanced materials he had used for his first attempt. He was not stupid enough to repeat the same mistake.
Still, before he could verify his guess, he would have to take enough precautionary measures to not disturb his teammates again. He had taken an Oath, after all. Just as how he had promised Yuri that he would invite her to observe his experiment. Even if that promise was not verbal, and had no restriction on his Spirit, he had no intention of going back on his word.
Though keeping his word was not going to be easy. Yuri would not be so easily convinced with his rhetorics. Not to mention that he was not going to risk her safety on just a guess. That was never an option. And Yuri knew it too. Cunning girl. He would have his revenge one day… For the moment though, he could only wait for Enn to rise before he could confirm his guess through other sources. That left him with nearly four hours… Might as well put that time to better use, Alnea thought. Like enjoying his Serenity…