When the agonizing manticore saw its attacker fell and went quiet, the first thing that comes to its mind was to get revenge by cutting up the young man's body to pieces before taking a feast with his flesh as the main course.

Intelligence itself does not come with just pros it also has its cons, to the manticore whose gifted with an child-like intellect it also gained something called emotions that dulls its instincts—well, even if it chose to escape it would still be shot to death by a bright laser light.

“Alexis!”

Kyrille and the three men ran towards him who was laying freely on the ground.

“What happened to him?” Heretic asked while looking at his pale face.

Old Man first covered Alexis with cloth before he checked his body.

“He's just unconscious.”

“Is it because of mana depletion?” Lance guessed.

Instead of answering him his hand move to the young man's wrist to check on it, when his palm touched his arm it was much colder than normal.

“Hmm...weird.” Old Man muttered before he closed eyes only to open it immediately, they are filled with confusion.

“What's weird?” Kyrille asked with a hint of worry on her face.

“Well...his mana core was not the same as the others.”

“What do you mean by that?” Lance questioned.

“See for yourself.”

He held out Alexis' wrist towards him, Lance then kneeled before doing what Old Man did, he also noticed the unnatural temperature of the young man.

“...You're right and—”

“Its still full.” Old Man finished the rest of his sentence.

“Looks like he has a strange or should I say mysterious blessing in him.”

The two who didn't understand what they're talking about also checked his body and when they 'saw' it they were also dumbfounded.

“So why did he suddenly collapsed?” Kyrille asked and their topic went back in circle.

The old man brushed his gray beard as he formed his hypothesis. “Even those with blessings uses their mana like how magicians did, one cannot create something from nothing for it was an act of God, this fella paid the price not with his mana but—”

“His blood.” Lance tied the loose ends finally ending the topic while also getting his revenge.

The feeling of dizziness and the lost of heat from his body, it all points at being the symptoms of blood loss.

“This blessing of this little lamb was sure harsh towards himself.” Heretic lamented before praying for his health.

Lance looked towards Old Man and suddenly asked, changing the topic, “Can you teach him magic?”

“Sure I don't mind, its not like I have much else to do while we travel but for what reason?”

Their captain gazed towards the sky blotted with clouds that one could seemingly grasp easily just by stretching his hand.

“One must use all he have to live on this world.”

“Alright I understand, but if I teach him magic then you must also do the same for the sword.” Old Man said before suddenly shaking his head and he added, “No, not just sword, unlike normal flame his was like water able to be solidified and can be formed to any shapes he wants, if you want him to do his best he should also be good at many things so he is able to adapt in any situation.”

“You should asked little Alexis about that later, forcing would do nothing but disaster.” Heretic who finished his prayer reminded them.

“That's right!” Kyrille seconded.

“If he agreed I'll teach him with sword as for other weapons...” Lance did not continued his words as he went inside his own world.

Kyrille looked at the soft and young face of Alexis whose head laid on her lap. “In a way you are lucky...” she whispered while stroking his smooth black hair.

...

The color of Alexis' skin was slowly recovering back to normal, his rugged breathing also calmed down together with his now regular beating heart, and heat also starting to come back to his body. It was not after all of that happened that his eyelids twitched before long his eyes opened and was greeted by the warm light of setting sun.

When they got accustomed to the brightness he noticed that unlike before his vision was not blurry anymore maybe even much better. Alexis felt good when he saw the passing autumn leaves that overlooks him atop of their crowns, its like he finally passed the maze of fog to meet this beautiful world again.

Only after he was satisfied of the orange sky did he pushed himself to sit up, when his palms touched the soft fluffy fur of the beast that is carrying him he was first puzzled before curious, its because he was asleep last time and Ellena also did not used her bear when going to the mountain, that's why Alexis was not aware of this.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He looked down the fur and started petting it before he turned to look forward, there he saw some familiar traits—the beacons inside his world of fog. Alexis was finally able to look at their faces that's why he carefully studied everyone's facial structure, he matched the traits to one another, the easiest one was Ellena as she was always wearing a hood.

Feeling the gazed towards them they all turned back to look at him.

“Looks like you're finally awake!” Damian greeted him first.

“How are you feeling?” Lance followed with a question.

Alexis held his head and replied, “...Just a little bit dizzy.”

“This was the effect of overusing your blessing.” Old Man kindly informed him.

He crawled closer to where everyone are to ease his confusion and curiosity towards the unfamiliar word he just heard, but then he suddenly froze when he felt the wind breezed beneath, when he looked down he was able to see his almost bare-naked body, Alexis hurriedly covered himself with the robe before he asked, “B-Blessings?”

Old Man offered him a tea before explaining it to him. “Blessing is a power given to very few people this power ranges from normal thing of creating a spark to something abnormal and unimaginable. As for where it came from many believed it to be from the gods or higher beings that's why most of them were celebrated an apostle.” he sipped his tea before continuing.

“But your blessing was different, I have a theory that you should already have a Blessing of Fire before the incident but after the tragedy happened it somehow mutated and now it takes your blood as the fuel for the fire instead of your mana.”

Alexis did not know a lot of words he used but there's one thing he knew, “...Isn't this bad?”

“Well it depends on how you see it, but its best if you use it sparingly as the worst case scenario this may lead to your early death.”

Gulp!

“—But you still had a mana core, it was not just in the right place, still it is a mana core so I am sure you'll be able to wield magic.” Old Man gave him another hope.

“Imagine in combat after the enemy thought that you used up all your mana, he was about to attack you but then you suddenly use your blessing! I am sure it would be lethal!” Ezekiel cheered him up.

Lance nodded agreeing with his opinion, “That's why you should also learn magic.”

“But where can I lea..” He cut off the rest of his sentence when he saw Old Man shown an amiable smile towards him.

“Yes I can teach you, that is if you're willing.”

Even though Alexis knew little of the world outside from his small town he knew that these people were strong and a chance to be taught by one of them don't just appear to anyone so he nodded his head almost like a bird pecking a hole to a tree, but to his surprise it did not end with just that.

“Your flame was unique, you can solidified and mold it following your will to create different weapons that could be useful in combat, that's why, you also need to learn more about them.” Lance proclaimed. “I'll teach you the sword.”

“I'll be teaching you dagger and you will become half as good as me!” Ezekiel also joined in.

Heretic closed his palms together before he preached, “Little lamb I will not just teach you about weapons but also about the words of the Lord!”

“You should feel honored human.” Irushka said, it was unknown what made her willing to teach him though.

Alexis' 'pecking' slowed down as he suddenly felt that things were starting to get bad.

“I'll train you in close combat.” Tron briefly stated before punching his fist together, the sound it made when they met made him gulped as sweat starting to build up on his forehead.

“Hmph, I'll also teach you how to use the rapier.” Kyrille added not wanting to lose.

Everyone then looked at the witch curious what she would teach him.

“I'll let you spar with my servants.” Ellena said in her small voice while caressing the soft fur of the bear, her contribution was accepted by everyone as its easier to learn through experiences than just instructions.

Alexis' palms also becoming wet, the feeling of his skin crying was something he hadn't felt a long time but the sweat did not came from the sun instead to the terrible future awaiting for him.

The only one who was had yet to say anything was Damian, when everyone gave him a look he scratched his head and gave it a thought.

“You are already promised by them, what else am I supposed to teach you! Hmm...ah! That's right.” He hit his palm when he thought of a good idea.

He gave Alexis a teasing smirk before he said, “I'll teach you about how the world works, well just the part of it.”

“How the world works?” Alexis as always was curious.

Damian raised his index finger before he said with an evil grin. “For example, nobles were pigs.”

“Don't put weird ideas on him.” Lance immediately reprimanded him.

Raising his hands he gave up and sighed, “But its the truth.”

“Leave it at that, we are close to the camp.” Old man reminded everyone.

When they reached the camp the same thing happened yesterday, only after others gawked at them in awe and the appraisers finished their work of inspecting and tallying their loots did the group went inside the campgrounds, all of them headed straight back to where their tents are to celebrate the rebirth of Alexis—in Damian's words.

“I'll go buy the drinks!”

Who instantly ran off somewhere after getting the money, meanwhile Tron and Alexis went to the makeshift kitchen to cook the meat they had from the different monsters they had hunted.

When the bonfires, torches, and the moon lit up the night did they finished the preparation for their feast.

The group gathered at the long table prepared by Damian, sitting on their own seats, and had their dinner under the moonlit merry night.

“Cheers!”

““Cheers!””

Damian whose already drunk started it first followed by the rest.

While eating the food specially cooked by Tron for this celebration, Ezekiel suddenly asked, “Right captain we already had enough money, when are we going back to the city?”

Killing the manticore warranted them a lot of money, not only for the reward of slaying the strongest monster, but also the manticore's parts which was a hit with the greedy merchants because it could be useful in creating both high tier weapons and magic tools, in the end they earned enough coins to buy a huge mansion in the city.

“If you like we can go back tommorow.” Lance casually suggested.

“I must say they have good alcohol here but there's no good stores for 'that' and its exhausting sleeping on the tent I at least want to sleep on a bed more before we head north.” Damian complained agreeing on going back tomorrow in the process.

“What's 'that'?” Alexis naively asked, it made him smirked when he heard it.

“Heh, that's right I will be teaching you something and after your 'rebirth' a lot of 'things' came back too, its time for you to learn the first thing about an adult.”

“Ahem.” Lance prevented the conversation of the two from going further astray, he stirred the topic after giving a menacing look at the drunkard. “What about the rest of you?”

“I agree Captain!”

The rest of them nodded too indicating that they had no problems with that.

Once they had decided everyone just made a small talk here and there until they emptied out the cauldron. Alexis excused himself early while the rest of them sat there enjoying their after tea, he went back to his tent and sat there as he looked back at all things that happened this day.

“It was really tough.” he smiled helplessly. “—But it was worth it.”

On his right palm a ball of red fire floating its giving a little light inside the tent, the flame gave warmth but there was cruelty hidden in this bright and bloody blessing.

The crimson flames that reflected on his obsidian eyes was the catalyst of strength and his guide in this grand journey that long started.