Chapter 40:

Rine sat in a meditative position with his eyes closed and back straight. Compared to the torture of repeatedly casting spells, this type of training seemed rather tame.

That was, of course, if it weren’t so maddeningly boring.

The gist of Carson’s lesson was this: Don’t gather Origin! Rather, collect it.

Ordinarily, Origin would be absorbed into a magician’s body where they would be able to change its nature and shape it into a spell’s mental model. From there all they would have to do is chant and expel it. What Carson suggested was to gather Origin but refrain from absorbing it.

So there he sat, alone in a silent forest with a constant film of Origin gathering inches away from his skin. So tantalizingly close yet ever so useless.

'What's the point in this?' he thought to himself as he felt the swirling energy.

A few hours into his meditation, his frustration reached its peak.

'What's going on?'

At some point, he had grown curious and wanted to see how much Origin he could actually gather. Problem was that it became increasingly more difficult to control it as it grouped up.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, opening his eyes.

All the gathered Origin dissipated as if their presence was a lie. One little mistake momentarily robbed him of his focus, wasting all his hard-earned Origin.

With a wry sigh, he stood up. It was almost time for him to meet with Calvin and Amelia. They had agreed to train together in preparation for the upcoming war.

Apparently, their parents scolded them heavily for involving themselves in the matter. Their father even went as far as to start preparing them for travel, but thanks to the vehement protests of Calvin the trip was canceled.

The story, however, was slightly different with Amelia. Being the treasured jewel of the family, the sibling pair could find no argument with which they could assuage their parents. Finally, and after a long night of bickering, the parents barely consented.

…………………………………………

“Hap!” Cort grunted as he swung his sword heavily. Not stopping at one, he continued to slash the air with his sword at varying speeds. He had lost count of the number of swings he had done.

Registration at the guild went about as well as he thought it would; So did the rank up from stone to iron. It seems he may have overdone it bringing four wolf carcasses at once though.

He was surprised when the guild offered to buy the corpses, but he denied them after realizing they were offering less than Phil.

After selling the wolves, Cort decided to do some research. Picking up a couple of training manuals, he began flipping through them.

The results: Crude.

All the manuals were far too simplistic. An example was the one concerning spears, where it talked at length about moves such as thrust or slash. Furthermore, the book neglected to speak of things as simple as footing.

After promptly returning everything to the library, he picked out a book that claimed to teach high-level swordsmanship; it was called Verlau’s Orthodox sword technique. Despite the name, the fact that the book had to be bought or rented and not burrowed lent it credence.

But after memorizing its contents, he found it equally disappointing. Nonetheless, he decided to practice it.

The moves were simple enough. The technique was broken down into several stances, called movements.

A swooshing sound was made as the sword cut through the air in a wide arc.

“What are you doing?” Carson’s voice appeared abruptly beside him.

“I’m training.”

“It would appear so.” the old man paused before continuing "You realize that's useless right? As far as I can tell, you’ve already peaked with what your body can do physically. As for technique, well it’s clear that you’re already far more skilled than anything this book has to offer.”

Cort glanced to his side where he saw the old man flip through the book he bought.

“What are your rules magic man.”

“Excuse me?”

“You seem capable of exerting physical force, yet as far as I know you’re a spirit through and through. Can all spirits affect the physical world? And to what degree? Like can you exert enough force to deliver an attack?”

“You’re overthinking,” Carson said with a smile as he reached the last page of the book. “But let me answer your questions. First, it’s extremely rare to find a spirit that can affect the world of the living. Even the most powerful of Magicians, upon death, may only utilize the surrounding Origins roughly. As for your other questions: no, I am incapable of affecting the physical world without using Origin.”

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Cort had a skeptical look on his face as he stared at the old man holding the book.

“What? this?” Carson said as he lifted the book. “Don’t believe everything you see.”

Cort’s eyes widened as the book vanished from the old man’s hands. Turning his head to the side, he could see the book lying where he had left it.

Instantaneously, he crushed an Origin crystal and his eyes began to shine with a faint light.

‘No lingering traces of Origin. Surrounding Origin, undisturbed,’ Cort concluded as his brow furrowed

“You didn’t use Origin…”

“Good, it seems that you are getting better at using that artifact.”

“How did you do that?”

“Seriously though Cort, what you are doing now is pointless. Why don’t you try to increase your toolset? I always thought of you as a jack of all trades anyway,” Carson said before disappearing.

Cort stood in place, watching the surrounding origin twist and distort only for it to then regain its calmness a few breaths later.

He always felt lost after his talks with Carson.

‘Well anyway,’ He thought as he resumed his training.

…………………………………………

“So why do you want to join the war anyway?” Rine asked Calvin as they watched Amelia kill a Swift-foot.

They were back at the fields where Rine and Amelia first met. Deeming the act of hunting wolves too dangerous, the trio decided on reaccepting the Swift-foot quest. Though they did not put up much of a fight, they were nimble little things, making them decent target practice.

“Warriors fight. It’s only natural I’d go to war someday, might as well get a taste now,”

“I see what you mean,”

“Though I do wish I can convince Amelia to back out,”

Rine nodded. Though their time together was brief, Rine felt like he understood both their sentiments. They were similar in many ways, and Rine could feel how stubborn the two could be.

He lied down and closed his eyes as he relished the feeling of sunshine on his face.

“What about you?” Calvin asked. “You don’t seem very nervous.”

“I guess I’m not.”

Rine himself had begun wondering why he felt no pressure from the war. Rather, he felt a slight sense of anticipation.

He fully understood the meaning of war. He had heard of the horrid nature of it. But lately, he had begun to wonder.

‘How bad could it be?’

The face of Amy flashed through his mind and he winced.

Hadn’t he already killed before? Wouldn’t it be the same this time too?

His hands already had blood on them, how much of a difference would more make. Faintly he wondered whether he was growing more numb to the act of killing. He truly did not know whether that was a good thing or not.

‘Well, old man Carson says that most magicians must learn to tune their emotions out so it must be a good thing right?’

Right.

But then what was this restlessness that had taken root in his heart?

“I’m going out for a walk,” He told Calvin before standing up to leave.

“Oh, sure. We’ll report to the guild after finishing up.”

“Thanks.”

After making it back to town, Rine strolled through a familiar street. Though the festive mood had gone, the sense of nostalgia still hit him.

[Hey kid, want a bite?] Silva had asked him once.

Rine smiled as he recalled the scene.

He stopped before a vendor, the familiar smell turning his feet to stone.

“Hey there! Can I get you anything?” The man behind the stall asked. In front of him was meat being kept warm by Heat stones.

Paying the man a small-sized red crystal, he picked out a particularly juicy cut.

Albeit a bit chewy, he still thought the seasoning was good. Oddly enough though, he thought it tasted more bitter than before.

…………………………………………

“You’re leaving for a while?” Nelem asked in shock.

“Yes,” Cort, who was acting as Nier, said calmly.

“But what about the gang?”

“What about it?”

“We’ll be losing our main fighting force at the most crucial point. We just got done absorbing all the assets from Deep Blue.”

“And that should be enough to ward off any immediate threats.”

“Or it might be the reason a larger gang would need to cause trouble.”

Cort leaned back on his chair sighing. “Look, I told you before-hand that I wouldn’t be involving myself too much into the matters of the gang. I trust that both of you are perfectly capable of running it for me. Right, Hunter?”

Hunter, who had been minding his own business was caught off guard by the sudden question.

“A-ah, yes.”

“See? It’ll be fine~” Nier’s teasing voice sounded.

…………………………………………

Nelem gave an exasperated sigh as she rubbed her forehead. Recently she had been very busy with matters concerning Deep Blue. On one hand, absorbing the rivaling gang greatly boosted their numbers and opened many avenues through which they could expand their business; on the other, it also painted a huge target on their backs. Nelem knew that they were currently being observed by several large gangs and, even worse, guilds.

Worst yet was the fact that they weren’t able to fully absorb everything. Deep blue had been famous for its selling of various types of herbs, but when Nelem contacted the supplier in hopes of taking Deep Blue’s place, she was met with disappointment.

Thankfully, the supplier was not particularly attached to Deep Blue, so Red Foot was successfully able to avoid a conflict at the cost of the herbs remaining in the vault.

“What’s this?”

She was awoken by Nier’s inquiry.

In his hands, he held a sheet of paper with crude drawings on it vaguely in the shape of a map.

“Oh, that…” She said as she recalled what happened earlier that day. “One of our customers-”

“Victims,” Nier interjected.

“The customer offered it up as a replacement for his monthly fees and the man we sent found it so amusing he accepted it. The customer says it’s some kind of family heirloom, but no matter how much I look into it I could find nothing.” She pointed at the scribbles found on the sides of the paper. “At first I thought that was some old language, but all the experts I’ve spoken to could find no leads.”

“I see…” Nier said as he studied the paper from all sides.

What was depicted on the piece of paper was a map, but where all the locations were marked mere scribbles were written.

“So It’s a treasure map?”

“Hardly. Most likely a drawing made by one of the customer’s children.”

“Then you won’t mind if I kept it?”

“Sure, knock yourself out,” Nelem said as she rolled her eyes.

“Anyway about the gan-” She meant to revert to the previous topic but was interrupted once again.

“About the up and coming war. Will you guys participate?”

Nelem took a deep breath to soothe her anger. Dealing with Nier was a deeply frustrating affair.

“No, we have nothing to gain from it. And I would hardly call it a war, more like a bar brawl resulting from a couple of grown men throwing tantrums even children would be too ashamed to.”

“I take it you side with the runaway princess then?”

“I don’t side with anyone participating in this farce, but I do understand her. Word is she’s quite ambitious. The marriage would surely have diminished any chance she might have had, so she chose to run and lead her own life. Plus I hear she’s quite a talented Rune Magician.”

“Sounds like someone’s got a crush.”

Nelem’s face hardened and the atmosphere around her grew frosty.

“Kidding, kidding. Relax a little,” Nier said as he stood to leave. Opening up the window, he lightly lept off.

Now alone, Nelem could feel Hunter look at her with inexplicably sad eyes.

“Tsk. What?” She snapped in annoyance.

“Nothing.”

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