A sudden mana surge entered Elius’ body and filled him with power. The room vibrated with the overflowing mana and woke the others. It was crazy early in the morning, so Liam whined instantly as soon as he opened his eyes.
“What is this shit now?”
He saw Elius, who was radiating mana uncontrollably.
“Stop.”
“I can’t!”
The room shook, and cracks began to appear on the walls.
“Oh, you mastered the earth element.”
Idarin said while rubbing his eyes.
“How do I stop it?!”
The mana was gathering around him, and the cracks were getting wider. If it continued, it could crumble the walls.
“By focusing. Try to suppress it.”
Elius took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
“Earth is mainly symbolic of groundedness, stability, strength. You should be like that against it.”
After hearing that, Elius understood what kind of approach he should take. Then the incrementation of the shakings stopped and gradually became less. After a while, it completely stopped. The mana that filled Elius and the room finally dispersed.
“Wow.”
Elius looked at his hands. He felt more powerful and reached his hands towards the wall next to his bed. Just before he touched it, the wall bent inside, just like how Elius imagined. It was like it lost its logic completely. The wall was bending at Elius’s will like a jelly. He was even able to form a face on the wall for a brief second.
“It takes practice to become good. Fix the walls.”
Idarin said and turned back to sleep. As he said, Elius fixed the cracks.
“It is like, entirely under your command right now.”
‘I feel like my mana domain expanded significantly.’
He reached his hand forward towards the window.
‘I feel like I can crush those houses from here.’
“But you know... You shouldn’t. By the way, good job! There is only fire left!”
“Okay! Get up, don’t even try to sleep back!”
Ruvyn shouted to Idarin and Liam.
“Since we woke up, we should go!”
“You are the only one who can get that ring, so it is not going anywhere!”
Liam put the pillow on his head to suppress the sounds, but Ruvyn snatched it away.
“If we move now, we can reach there in the evening.”
Idarin got up with a stupid expression and began to prepare without even questioning it.
‘Wow, I didn’t sleep, yet I feel renewed.’
“You were in a half-sleep half-awake condition all night. If you can master it, you can work on your spells even in sleep.”
‘Nice.’
They finished preparing and forcefully dragged Liam outside. The first lights of the sun greeted them. Even though it was this early, citizens were already awake and working. The cold breeze of the morning made Liam wake up.
“They are really hard workers, huh?”
Elius glanced around. There were people besides dwarves, but not many. Most of the houses were small compared to average ones, and everything seemed to be built with earth magic. They began to walk after Ruvyn. Since he was looking at his map, his shoulder bumped into someone. He felt a weird sting on his shoulder.
“Ah, sorr-”
When he raised his head to apologize, he froze. Two soul-piercing eyes were looking at him with a scary expression. The man he bumped into was wearing a hoodie so that Ruvyn couldn’t see his entire face. Without saying anything, the man continued on his way with his companion next to him. Just for a moment, Ruvyn thought he saw pointy ears under that hoodie.
“Hey, will you let them walk away?”
Liam said and turned back towards them, but Idarin stopped him by slapping the back of Liam’s head.
“Stop causing trouble.”
He looked at those two men from the corner of his eyes.
‘Interesting.’
Idarin also took out a map.
“Gather round.”
He pointed to an area on their way to get the ring.
“This place will be our first and last stop before reaching our destination.”
“What are we going to do there?”
Ruvyn asked.
“We will eat beef. Really high-quality beef. It costs 250 silver per person.”
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Since Idarin gave them the reward money, they all currently had one gold.
“Total one gold for lunch, isn’t that a bit expensive?”
Liam was already struggling with money, so he was hesitant to spend more.
“Yes, that is why we will play a little game called last come pays.”
He began to float in the air with a smile.
“The rules are pretty obvious, I suppose. If you reach there last, you pay the price!”
“Wait, what?”
Liam quickly took out his map to mark where Idarin showed, but Elius and Ruvyn were already jumping from roof to roof when he raised his head.
“Wait up, you fuckers!”
He quickly began to follow them. As a berserker in the dwarves empire, he seemed like a giant running around.
“Why did we stop Zelphar?”
The guy who bumped Ruvyn asked his brother, who was watching Ruvyn.
“Something is odd with that kid. They seemed like searching for something.”
“What could an elf look for in here?”
Then both of them looked at each other.
“Wait... How odd are you talking about?”
“His mana flow was unordinary.”
Zelphar smiled, and his brother’s eyes widened.
“Could it be?”
“I don’t know, but there is no harm in following them, right?”
Then they both suddenly disappeared.
* * *
Keith turned back to the hideout after he sent for an investigation.
‘Doing errands for a kid now...’
Their hideout was an abandoned house in the middle of a forest.
‘Whatever, it is fine as long as I’m not in that hell hole and he doesn’t limit me.’
When he arrived, he saw Kaiser and Lyra doing training. Their fighting style was not something Keith had seen before.
‘Still, I can’t sense any mana. He broke the mana blocking chains with his bare hands, which is impossible. He killed two A-ranks in a few seconds, but he would probably struggle against an S-rank.’
Then he glanced over at Lyra.
‘And that woman... She is very dangerous. Even I’m not sure if I can take her on. Maybe when there is a full moon...’
While he was in thoughts, Lyra and Kaiser stopped.
“Stop looking at me like a creep.”
Keith smirked at Lyra instead of answering.
“Oh, you are back. That was fast. What happened?”
Kaiser asked while trying to control his breath.
“Who do you think I am?”
“A sniffing dog.”
Lyra said mockingly, but Keith ignored her.
“I traced the smell of the piece of cloth you gave me. I found the man.”
“See? Was I wrong?”
Lyra chuckled.
“Wow, we’ve been looking around for a few months.”
Kaiser turned toward Lyra.
“I guess people here aren’t that incompetent, right?”
‘People that are here? Where did these two come from?’
“So, where is he? Is he close.”
“Yes, we could reach in a few hours.”
“Nice, nice, let’s go!”
Kaiser said in joy and instantly began to move, but Keith stopped him.
“I’m pretty sure the man I found is the owner of that cloth, but are you sure he is the one you are looking for?”
“I’m sure about 90 percent. Why?”
“He is...”
He paused for a second.
“He is on the verge of death.”
“What?!”
Kaiser’s eyes widened, and without a second of hesitation, he began to run.
“Show me the way! Quickly!”
With full speed, they began to run.
‘I’m almost using 70% of my speed, but this kid can keep up without a problem. They are definitely weird.’
After an hour of running, they found themselves in the middle of a town. It was relatively a small but lively town. They slowed down to not attract attention. Kaiser was breathing heavily and was covered in sweat.
“Is that his house?”
Keith nodded. Without waiting, Kaiser knocked on the door. A minute passed.
“Is he good in there? Should we break our way in?”
Lyra was ready to blow away the door at any time. Finally, after the second knock, the door slowly opened. Someone appeared with a ghost-like appearance. He was skinny, using a walking stick to stay standing. You could tell he was in a horrible state with just a look.
“What do you want?”
He asked with a wheezing voice.
“W-what happened to you?”
“Why do you care, and who are you?”
“I-I am a fan of your work!”
Kaiser excitedly shouted.
“You are the soul master, right? I’ve been watching your masterpiece, but it died and-”
Lyra stopped Kaiser.
“Stop shouting. We will draw attention.”
The man was surprised after hearing the kid. As Lyra said, he let them in to not attract attention.
“How do you know about me?”
‘No one can know who I am. I work very meticulously. What is their motive?’
“We’ve done our research. You are a genius! Containing a soul in an artificial body that is made with alchemy. Giving it a purpose and bringing it alive with magic...”
The man smiled. He never heard of approval for his works from anybody in his life.
‘Is he sincere? What a weird feeling.’
“Even if I did, it doesn’t matter anymore. Look at me. I couldn’t even see the death of my masterpiece.”
“I did.”
Kaiser smiled brightly.
“It almost destroyed an empire...”
He began to tell what he saw in Mohan Empire. After he was done talking, the man’s eyes were teary.
“Wow, are you attached to your puppets that much?”
Lyra said after seeing his teary eyes, but the man shook his head.
“Not because of that. Imagine having an army of puppets that is under your command no matter what. Strong, loyal, ready to sacrifice itself for you. Even better, you can create them anytime.”
Keith looked at the skinny man’s eyes and saw madness for a second.
‘Great, another mentally ill psycho.’
“I always dreamt of bringing the world to its knees, yet here I am.”
The man didn’t care if they had an ulterior motive or not since death was unavoidable for him anyways. He threw the walking stick in his hand in anger.
“You still didn’t tell. What happened?”
Kaiser asked again, but instead of the man, Keith answered.
“Looks like mana poisoning. What a pity, it is an incredibly rare disease, yet the man you are looking for has it.”
“Can it be healed?”
“As far as I know, no. Your veins will shrink, you won’t be able to flow mana through your body, and your mana core will leak a small amount of mana every second. It will eat you alive from the inside, rot your organs, and you will feel like suffocating.”
Keith explained.
“In theory, if you could flow mana that is eating you to the outside of your body, you might have a chance, but it is impossible. The more mana that entered my body, the faster I die.”
Kaiser smiled after hearing that.
“What if something other than mana enters?”
Then he turned towards Lyra.
“Can you open his heart chakra and heal him?”
Lyra shrugged.
“Probably.”
Kaiser turned back towards the man.
“Hey, old man, want to make a deal?”
And asked with a smirk.