Chapter 37:

The trio made their way through the woods with Calvin at the forefront and the two magicians at the back.

“So how’s it like at Shadewood?” Rine as he walked with his hands in his pockets.

“What do you mean exactly?” Amelia asked back.

“Like are the lessons any difficult? How are the teachers?”

“Oh. The lessons are fine, though history is a bit boring. The teachers are cool too but we do have this one languages teacher that is a pain in th-”

“Focus, you two. We are closing in on wolf territory,” Calvin sternly warned.

Rine nodded. ‘Specifically two minutes from now.’

To him, the forest of Phentar was basically his home away from home. He knew the place like the back of his hand. ‘Come to think of it. I’m basically homeless aren’t I?’

Rine shook his head at the thought.

“Relax Calvy we’re fine~” Amelia cooed

“Don’t call me that!”

After a few more minutes, Calvin’s head snapped to the front and he yelled. “Wolf!”

Rine’s eyes focused “What’s the plan-”

But before he could continue, he saw the lunging figure of Calvin.

“Wait, that’s dangerous!” He said as he ran after him.

“Wait for me!” Amelia said, chasing behind.

Catching up to him, Rine could see the wolf Calvin warned them about.

‘Good, it seems pretty weak, if we work together we can finish this quickly!’ He thought.

However, his hopes were in vain as Calvin paid no heed to any planning and rushed straight in, sword at hand.

‘Shit!’ Rine replied as he began to cast.

“Die!” Calvin swung his sword down with as much force as he could muster.

The wolf nimbly dodged to the side before swiping a paw at him.

Quickly recovering from his missed attack, Calvin raised his sword just in time to parry the wolf’s claws. A grating sound issued forth as both of them struggled to stagger the other.

Fed up with the stalemate, the wolf opened its mouth viciously to bite off his head.

Calvin’s eyes widened as they reflected the sight of the beast’s gaping maw.

“{Fireball}!” Rine chanted and a ball of flames blasted against the wolf's face. He smiled at the sight of his spell hitting the mark. Looking over to Calvin, he wanted to make sure the latter was doing ok. However, he was surprised to see the slight anger in his eyes.

“Aghhh!” He heaved as he swung his sword with everything he had once more. This time he did not miss and the beast’s head came flying off.

Rine relaxed his stance and approached Calvin intending to pat him on the back.

“Who told you to butt in?” Calvin asked with barely restrained rage.

“What?” Rine replied.

“I said: Why. Did. You. Butt. In”

“Calvin-”

“No! just admit it. You thought I couldn't handle it! You wanted to come in and save the day.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Hey, hey that’s enough. Rine was just trying to help. And look, we did it! The wolf is dead.” Amelia interjected in hopes of mediating.

“Yeah. We should head back to the guild and report it" Rine immediately went along.

“No. I’m continuing.”

“Calvy wait~”

“Enough! I told you not to call me that” He said with finality before turning around.

Rine was puzzled at the sudden behavior change. Up until now, he had been very affable. He was fun and easy to talk to, but when he started fighting.

‘It’s as if he became another person’

“I’m sorry about that,” Amelia said apologetically. “He gets that way sometimes. It’s why he can't stick with one team. They keep kicking him out after a few missions.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Actually, a big reason Why I joined the guild was to watch over him. After the last time, he said he was going solo.”

Rine nodded as he thought the matter was more serious than he thought.

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“So what should we do about this?” He asked, pointing at the corpse.

“Can’t we just take what we need and leave it? After all, the guild said it just needed a few teeth.”

“Yeah, but we can sell the meat too.”

Amelia giggled at what he said.

“What?” He asked.

“Nothing, you just sounded like an old man. I mean it would just be worth a couple of red crystals so what’s the point? Are you really going to lug such a heavy thing for that?”

“I guess you have a point.”

“Come on! Let’s yank some teeth,” She said before happily skipping toward the corpse.

Rine scratched his cheek. ‘Just a couple of reds huh…’ He wondered what Cort would have to say on the matter.

‘I really have to ask him for my cut of the rewards,’

…………………………………………

Calvin did not turn around even as he heard the two catch up to him.

Truthfully, he felt guilty about the matter. He knew what they said made sense, but he let his emotions get the better of him.

He gripped his sword and the cool steel comforted him. This particular weapon was a present from his father.

It was just after they finished his training, and he remembered the proud look in his father’s eyes as he solemnly gave him his first real blade.

‘That was the last time…’ It was the last time his father looked at him like that.

Shortly after receiving his sword, his sister started taking magic seriously. At first, Calvin thought it would just be another hobby, but he was ultimately proven wrong.

With just enough luck, she pulled off casting the most basic {Windblade} and that event threw his family into an uproar.

Finally, a magician had been born in their household. It had to be known that a magician being in a family was equivalent to having a steady, ample income flow. Even if Amelia only cultivated to the third grade, she would still be able to make more money than their father who was a guard.

Because of this, Amelia became the center of attention. And what of Calvin? The one with no talent for magic? He was cast aside.

He hated it. He hated being an afterthought in his own home.

Lately, he and his father barely spoke as the old man spent most of his time fawning over Amelia.

It wouldn’t have been half as bad if Amelia also turned a blind eye toward him because then he would have a target, but she didn’t. In fact, she remained the sweet, trusting, and diligent girl she always was.

If anything had changed it was that she was paying him even more attention. It seemed like his emotions could not be hidden from her eyes. For several nights she would sneak into his room and comfort him.

His sister was far stronger than anyone gave her credit for, he knew that.

‘Which is why…’ His spinning mind finally calmed and despite the fire in his eyes not dimming, they did grow cold with focus.

‘I’ll become stronger than her. No, I’ll become the strongest warrior. I’ll show everyone that a sword can and will contend against magic,’ His grandiose dream filling his gut with courage, he pushed forward in search of his next stepping stone. And thankfully…

“Wolf!” He yelled before dashing off.

…………………………………………

This time Rine chose not to interfere. He merely cast the spell and waited to the side.

“How are you doing that?” Amelia asked with wide eyes as she watched him play with a ball of flames.

“Nothing much, I just cast the spell then grab it.”

“But won’t it burn your hand?”

“It did at first, but look,” He said before raising his other hand for her to see.

“Oh, so those gloves help you hold it huh.”

“Yup. Plus doing it this way lets me keep the spell on hold without losing any of its power.”

“That’s amazing, then those gloves must be expensive.”

“I guess? They were a gift,”

‘Come to think of it I never did ask him where he got these from. Must not have been easy. I should get him something in return,’ Rine thought with slight guilt as he thought of Cort.

It seemed like Calvin learned from his previous mistake as he was now faring much better against the wolf.

At first, it looked no different from the first fight with Calvin wildly swinging his sword in a wide arc, but when the wolf stepped back, he surprised it by stopping his attack midway and jabbing the sword forward. The wolf struggled to dodge the abrupt second attack and as a result, the sword pierced through its eye.

It did not even have time to howl in pain as Calvin followed through with another clean slash to its face.

From there the results of the fight became blatantly obvious and it took mere minutes for him to put the beast down.

Calvin slightly puffed his chest up at the sight of the corpse. ‘I did it!’ He looked towards the other two.

Amelia was looking at him with warm eyes while clapping her hands happily. Rine was also smiling, but soon his face grew pale.

Calvin tilted his head at this but understood instantly as he heard what Rine was saying. “More Wolves!”

All of a sudden he could hear rustling to his side and a nimble figure jumped at him. It was too fast for him to dodge and soon enough sharp teeth pierced his flesh. ‘Shit!’ Hee thought angrily as he tried to pry the beast off.

Though he didn’t need to struggle too hard as a fiery blast of heat blew the wolf off him.

‘How?’ Calvin thought; he had not even heard Rine cast the spell.

“{Windblade}!” Amelia’s voice sounded and a sharp wind slashed the beast directly where the fireball had hit.

This combination hurt the wolf greatly as it howled in pain. Unfortunately for it, it did not howl for long.

“{Fireball}!” This time Calvin did hear the spell and the wolf must have heard it too, seconds before its body succumbed to the consecutive attacks.

Amelia rushed to his side after seeing the beast fall.

“Wait!” Rine cried.

…………………………………………

Cort readjusted his hood as he stepped into the store.

‘So he’s Phil’s father huh…’ He thought as he watched the man sitting at the front desk.

After taking the loot from the gang’s vault, he had decided on pawning off the things he did not need.

Aside from the gloves he got Rine and the boots he took from himself, the rest were of no immediate use.

Ordinarily, he would have stashed them away for later use but, aside from the fact he had nowhere to hide them currently, he also had something he wanted and that something needed a lot of crystals to get.

First he came to Phil who, upon inspecting the goods, decided it was too far above his paygrade. Thus he passed the matter on to his father and told Cort to come during the day.

Cort found this unfortunate but reasonable. This deal did involve the exchange of a rather large sum of money so it made sense for Phil to tag in his father. The true owner of the store.

“May I help you?” The old and raspy voice asked.

Cort said nothing and just dropped his bag on the counter.

Phil’s father looked at the bag mildly with uplifted eyebrows.

“That was rather rude of you.” But contrary to his impassive tone, he immediately sprung into action retrieving a pair of eyeglasses and gloves.

Cort smiled under his hood at the sight of the gloves. ‘Like father, like son.’

Opening the bag, the man begin inspecting each artifact.

Of course, Cort already knew the rough appraisal from Phil. All of them were either inferior or common grade artifacts.

The difference between an item and an artifact, also known as rune equipment, was inscriptions. The moment an item, be it a weapon, equipment, or other, was inscribed it would be labeled as an artifact.

Artifact rankings went as such: Inferior, Common, Superior, Heroic, Divine.

An artifact’s ranking was determined based on how well it could utilize Origin which in turn determined its use in battle.

For reference, Cort’s mask was an inferior grade artifact, while Ratson’s ring was a common grade one. Rine’s gloves were also of the common grade.

“2000 Reds” The man spoke in a calm voice, interrupting his thoughts.

Cort's eyes widened in shock. ‘Isn’t that way too low?’

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