Two cows floated in a cave without a care in the world. Rydel was too tired, he gazed at the blue fluorescent moss on the ceiling and admired the two-colored auroras.
He regretted not admiring the views before, training had taken his top priority. Part of that was because the resources were boosting his inner greed, and also because Rydel wanted to shine.
Getting stronger for the sake of power was good enough for the majority of people. It was the same for Rydel, but he added to this wanting to be a dependable figure for those that he cared for.
What if a tyrant appeared and he was too weak to do anything? It was an unlikely scenario, but if you thought about all of the bad things that could happen because of lacking strength, then it wasn’t so unlikely anymore.
Rydel wanted to support his clan and family. He wryly thought about his current situation, floating above a cow that had strawberries growing on her, in a cave that was the dominion of a fox, or at least that was his theory, with a scrawny body that could barely move. This isn’t what he’d imagined the second coming of his life would look like.
He has checked his status and his attributes appeared like normal. He has used his Moonlight Mending, the light tingled him but it dispersed after a while, it was of no use.
They have been flying for a month and he could finally see the silver sphere growing bigger in his vision. Granted, it was still extremely far away, but at least it wasn’t an illusion.
Months kept coming, the cows were surprisingly resilient, only needing to rest a couple of times per day,
they ate and slept a couple of hours. Rydel spent his time on meditation, as there was nothing else to do, even the landscape had grown dull after a couple of weeks. His condition hadn’t improved but it didn’t become worse either.
As they traveled to the core of the cave, the beasts kept becoming stronger. Rydel even felt a horrifying presence in the distance that he suspected was a D-grade being.
Rydel thought about his mission, he had crushed all the hearts of the rhinos, but he had been far-sighted and hunted a couple dozen more crows, elevating his stacks of hearts above 150. He only needed to survive the two years and come back home.
When they reached the periphery of the silver sphere, they had already been flying for a total of six months. The sphere was unfathomable. The last stretch was the easiest as they were being helped by the gravity of the sphere.
Rydel didn’t know how the land and the ceiling weren’t collapsing as everything else was attracted. When he first entered the cave, he thought that the sphere was small due to the perspective. Now, if someone told him that this moon was the size of Earth, he’d believe it.
The surface didn’t have any buildings or vegetation, but there were craters filled with mercury-like liquid. He hadn’t seen any beasts in the last month either.
They landed on the moon and Rydel inspected the cows. They started to change the moment that they touched the gravity field of the moon. A red cloud was leaving them in a slow and controlled manner, the tips of their strawberries were being tinted in white.
Rydel thought that it had to be a good thing, as they weren’t visibly suffering. Donut laid down and let the changes happen, an action that was mirrored by Cheesecake. They didn’t seem to want to move from there.
Rydel thanked his companions and chose a direction. The calling was from the west of his landing. Rydel wasn’t able to sprint but did his best impression.
A day later, Rydel was in front of a hole with a 10m of diameter. The depths were pitch back and endless. Rydel threw a stone to estimate the height of the drop, and was surprised that he never heard any response.
With his actual perception, even if the stone dropped 10km away, he’d be able to hear it. The call was coming from there. Rydel thought about chickening out, but he dismissed the idea.
Rydel felt incredibly tired, he didn’t know if he could survive the return journey to the Elphyra Clan. And if someone was calling him, it had to be the thing behind the fox cloud.
“Mother Earth, if you are hearing me, put a safety net on the bottom.” Rydel took a leap of faith and jumped.
There wasn’t any air on the tunnel, he had to depend on his energy reserves to not die. The speed of his fall kept increasing for some minutes, and he still couldn’t see anything. When five minutes passed, Rydel had his doubts, and at the ten minutes mark, he despaired. How is he going to survive this?
He had read that to survive a lift falling, you had to lay down to distribute the impact of the hit to the whole body. The theory was great, the problem was that he wasn’t incinerating because he kept a spiritual layer around his body, that was what it was burning.
He couldn’t move either as he had enough problems trying to survive. Soon, fifteen minutes passed and his situation didn’t change. Rydel was in equal measures horrified and confused about what the hell was going on. At the twenty minutes mark, he saw a light becoming bigger, Rydel closed his eyes and prepared for the impact.
A minute later, Rydel entered a big chamber, the walls were scorching red, and he could see the tunnel continuing right under him.
He didn’t feel any change of temperature, which was rare considering that he was inside a bubble in a pool of magma. Also, the falling stopped right in the center. A force stopped his impulse, and he just levitated there. The levitation didn’t have anything to do with that force, there simply wasn’t any gravity here.
Rydel looked around and found a girl lazily chilling above a fluffy cloud. She was in her early twenties, her skin was white jade, soft, and without any blemish. She had long silver hair styled in a messy bun held by a little spherical moon. She was small, about 1,6m tall, and slender. She had five long tails waving around and long furry ears, but otherwise, her aspect was humanlike, or elvenoid as his clanmates liked to say.
“You look horrible.” She said in a pleasant voice.
“Greetings, senior. How should I address you?” Rydel made a polite gesture with his right open hand on the center of his chest facing downwards.
“You are polite, I like polite.” She stood up and walked in the air until she was in front of him.
“Hmmm, not bad.” She poked his body with a finger and inspected him. She also used her tails to gently rub him. Rydel blushed.
“Don’t worry, I’m not into little kids.” She raised an eyebrow and he looked away in shame. She didn’t stop though, she was finally satisfied after two minutes of intense scrutiny.
Rydel felt like an animal in an exhibition, she even asked him to open his mouth to see it.
“I’m finally done! You have good potential, a strong soul and your foundations are perfect, only requiring the last push. I’m satisfied with your performance.” She nodded at herself.
“You can call me Lady Akemi.” She added in an afterthought.
“Lady Akemi, do you want to do anything bad to me?” Rydel used his puppy eyes and tried to get some information acting childish.
“You can cut the act, this level of manipulation is too amateur to have any effect. However, you do gain an extra point for acting cute.” Akemi used two of her tails to pat his head. Rydel had to admit that she knew how to comfort someone, her tails were the concept of fluffiness taking form. She also had a motherly aura that made him lower his guard.
“Why did you call me here then?” Rydel asked.
“To ask you for a favor. Of course, you can refuse, but if you accept, I’ll help you with your little problem.” Akemi said.
“What’s my little problem?” Rydel probed, he knew about the symptoms and what caused it, but not why and how to fix it. If he could receive a clue, then even if he refused that favor, he still had a path forward. Akemi thought for a second.
“Okaaay~ I’ll tell you as an act of good faith. You currently look malnourished because your body lacks spiritual energy. Your spirit attribute is around the 50 mark, which for an F-grade is impressive, it's just that you forwarded your cultivation when you rid yourself of impurities.” Akemi explained.
“How did I do that?” Rydel asked in confusion. He still didn’t have much knowledge of the E-grade, as you usually were informed when you were 13. This was made to not cram the head of the little elves with information that was not currently relevant for them, and not distract them with their future path.
“In the early E-grade, you create budding meridian pathways. These pathways are like veins that are used to transport energy all across your body. They are created by removing the impurities inside you and clearing the area so to speak. In the middle stage, your meridian pathways are solidified and can’t be changed anymore. And at last, in the late stage, they are enlarged and reinforced.” Akemi patiently explained.
“As you have already cleared every last speck of impurities on your body, you have finalized the early stage in advance, and your body is trying to solidify your foundations. Problem is, your spirit attribute is too low, therefore, your body is trying to drink but has no source. It’s not a matter of quantity either, as that can be easily solved with time, is that your spiritual energy can’t affect the physical realm yet. You lack quality.” Akemi said.
“And before you think about it. You can’t use just any spiritual energy, it has to be compatible with you. In your case, the person who helps you needs to be attuned with the moon.” Akemi happily said. She only lacked neon signs aiming at her saying that she was his savior and only solution.
“What is the favor that Lady Akemi wants from me? I don’t know how strong you are, but anything that I can do, you can easily accomplish.” Rydel said with confusion.
“Great! I was getting tired of boring lectures. You just had to take care of my little baby girl.” Akemi waved one of her tails and from the cloud rose a blue pillow. Sleeping above was an azure fox with two tails wrapped around her, she had really long ears. Akemi appeared next to her and rubbed her cheeks with love. Akemi used her tails as a pillow and put the little fox on her plentiful bosom.
“Is she your sister?” Rydel asked with some doubts.
“Flattery will get you nowhere, little elf! Sigh, I know that you have some doubts after seeing my young and beautiful self. But Naveena is my daughter. And you can have the utmost honor of being the companion of the cutest fennec of this galaxy.” Akemi said while pampering Naveena with scratches and kisses.