Condensing Oren threads, dispersing them throughout his Spirit, and manifesting Mysteries of the lineages of Creation, and Destruction, before urging them to clash, only to arouse the Mysteries of Life from the Seed of Life behind in the aftermath of the clash, leading his Spirit to a rebirth. That was the Art of Spirit Rebirth. Whether it was its First, or Second Cycle, the essence remained the same. The only difference between the two cycles was the Mysteries that he had to Forge his Spirits with. And even then, the only difference between the Mysteries was their level.
In their nature though, the Mysteries of the Second Cycle were still similar to the Mysteries of the First Cycle. It was only natural then, for him to get used to the Second Cycle in no time. Besides, having faced Death itself, Alnea was not afraid of some mere pain. Still, he remembered the warning his master had given him, and Forged his Spirit only once a day. For the rest of the time, he was either Wandering the Origin Sea, practising his Martial Styles, fighting Oren Beasts, or tempering his Heart.
There were also the occasional dreams that he would often find himself seeing, but he had been trying hard to do without them. And he had been succeeding for the most part. Nearly half a year had passed since he became a Wanderer. Half a year of practising to replace his sleep with meditations. Even if he had been dumb, and stupid, he still would have figured out a few tricks. And he was not dumb. Not to mention the weird sensations that he had experienced before the month of Inkah…
Those sensations had disappeared after he reached the Intermediate Stage, but he still could not rest easy. Especially since he knew what those dreams, and memories might represent. The curse of fate, and the man who denied his death… He could delay the problem within his Spirit, but what about the threats that came from the world? What about the threat that came from his fate?
…Maybe, he really could not do anything. But that was true only for the moment. As long as he became strong enough, nothing would be able to threaten his Heart. If he kept mulling about the inevitability of his fate though, then he truly would be left at the mercy of the world. And as he had experienced himself, the world was never kind to the weak.
Resolving another conflict within himself, Alnea let out heavy breath, as he felt his Serenity deepening. At the same time, he also felt the pressure on his Spirit, stopping it from strengthening. Another bottleneck. How long had it been since he reached the Intermediate Stage? A little over two and a half months? And yet, he had already crossed three bottlenecks. Counting the bottleneck that he was facing, it would be his fourth.
With constant life, and death battles, and the numerous Fortune Springs that he had explored with the girls, the surge in his Spirit Power was somewhat expectable, even if a little unreasonable. However, with the rate that his Spirit Power was growing, it would probably take him only about four to five months before reaching the limits of the Intermediate Stage. He might even reach the Advanced Stage. His Heart though…
There was no use worrying, Alnea thought, and suppressed his stray thoughts back at the bottom of his Heart, before opening his eyes to the darkness of the canyon. To the boulder he was sitting on. And the other boulders that surrounded it. They were not very large, and neither did they have strange grasses surrounding them. They did, however, have a strange statue at the centre.
Roughly around half a metre tall, with a width of half its height, the statue was formed naturally over the course of its life, before being transformed by the Origin Sea, and its Mysteries. Anyone who laid their eyes on the statue could tell that it was a Fortune Spring. However, the statue was not just any Fortune Spring. It was one of the rare Fortune Springs, that only those blessed by Goddess Ilea could find.
The Fortune Spring was so hard to find that even those who stood next to the boulders would not see them. With the Mysteries emanating from the statue covering the darkness, and the boulders around it in a special state, only those who physically touched the giant rocks could see them. Similarly, only those who had the luck of touching the boulders could see the statue standing at their centre.
Though the Fortune Spring was practically useless otherwise, just hiding the boulders, and those who sat atop them, from the rest of the canyon, along with the fact it never stopped working, was enough to make the boulders as their base. As for the cave… It was left behind in the wake of his progress. And the death of most of the advanced phase Oren Beasts in the canyon.
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They had been so rampant in their challenges against the Oren Beasts, that after a certain point, even the peak phase Oren Beasts had begun chasing after them. Thankfully, there were only a few of them. And they never came in groups. Still, there was a limit to how many Oren Beasts a canyon could accommodate. The numbers were bound to fill up in time, but they did not have the leisure to wait. And so, after a discussion, they decided that it was time to move to a new canyon.
The same thing was repeated in the next canyon though. And in the one after that. After all, from fighting one advanced phase Oren Beast a day, they had slowly shifted towards fighting three, four, and at times, even five Oren Beasts a day. Not at the same time, of course. They were not so crazy. Yet. With how the mind of the girls worked though…
“Are you thinking of something strange once again?” Cecilia said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Just like him, she was also sitting atop a boulder towards his left, and was close enough to see the strange look on his face. Or his eyes darting about to—
“No,” Alnea said. “I never think of strange things. What about you though? Why are you looking at me, instead of meditating?”
“…I just completed my meditation. That’s it. Besides, aren’t you doing the same?”
There was no one more unreasonable in arguments than Cecilia. A fact that Alnea had come to learn over time. And though teasing her was fun, he was afraid that if he teased her too much, she might just flip out. She would not do anything excessive, but he did not have the heart to sour her mood. After all, the day was a special one for her.
“…Happy birthday, Lia.”
“…Thank you,” Cecilia said, with her grin returning back to her face. “You did not prepare any Dust Eater Rats for me this time, did you?”
“…That was a special case,” Alnea said. “And where would I find Dust Eater Rats in the canyons anyways?”
“You could have asked Yuri—
“Do not drag me in between your little play,” Yuri said, from a little towards his right. They were sitting in a triangular formation so that they would be able to see the threats coming from all direction, and be ready to fight back in case the Oren Beasts were lucky enough to touch the boulders.
“Jokes aside, happy birthday Cecilia.”
“…Thank you, Yuri,” Cecilia said with a sheepish smile, before turning towards Alnea. “Where’s my present?”
“…Here,” Alnea said, reaching into his storage bag to take out a scroll, before throwing it to Cecilia. “I made this Arcana especially for you.”
Cecilia replied by showing off her tongue to him, before opening the scroll to read its contents. “Lia’s Shine,” she read, before scoffing at him. “I will forgive you this time.”
Alnea did not know what he was being forgiven for, but that was how things were most of the time. He never knew what Cecilia was thinking. Yet, that only made teasing her more interesting…
“Quite a nice name for an Arcana.”
“…I think Yuri’s Dominance was better.”
“Is that how you see me in your mind? A dominating girl, who likes ordering you around?”
“…What else would I have named an Arcana than can crush Intermediate phase Oren Beast to death with just the pressure of gravity?”
“Why are you asking me? You created it. Naturally, you should also be the one to name it.”
“…Why are you girls so unreasonable?”
“You have not seen anything yet,” Yuri said, adding in her chuckles, as she took out a scroll herself, before tossing it to Cecilia. “This is my present. Not an Arcana… but one of the scrolls that you asked from me earlier.”
“Thank you, Yuri,” Cecilia said with an embarrassed smile, only for Yuri to shake her head.
“It is just my duty…” Yuri said, trailing off in the end. And yet, Cecilia understood what she was trying to say without any need of hints. The girls… were they keeping a secret from him?
“Besides, it would not be too late for you to thank me after you get my second present.”
“She gets a second present?”
“…You can think of it as a present for you too.”
“What kind of present is it?”
“…How about we go hunt some peak phase Oren Beasts?”