Though the continent is big, I have yet to explore most of it, and find God to fulfill my mission…
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The fireplace crackled as wood burned and charred, the flames growing ever so strong and melodic the more they consumed. Onyx sat beside it, sleeping comfortably, not minding the high temperatures. Opposite him, on a fresh carpet, sat Kai, cross-legged with his eyes closed. Behind him, Barhm had his hands placed upon his bare skin.
“Alright, again.” He barked, and then Kai immediately circulated both techniques, simultaneously allowing Barhm’s foreign mana to invade and observe his body. This is so creepy… Kai thought, shivering. However, he didn’t dare not follow what Barhm said. I really hope this helps…
Barhm didn’t care for Kai’s thoughts, not that he could hear them, and simply observed the way Mana moved and interacted with Kai’s body. Sending mana deeper in, toward the core, the image of a large, glowing sphere accompanied by a star popped in his head. From afar, it looked ordinary, however, after studying it and listening to Kai, knew it was far from so.
What started as two cores became one, with the Body Core protecting Kai’s broken Mana Core and repairing it. Due to that, the Fusioned Core was stronger and extremely diverse, yet without the proper technique, was just as hard to advance. Barhm frowned as he followed the mana going inside the core, however couldn’t discern much from just that alone.
Separating a piece of his own mana, he sent it into Kai’s mana veins, making the boy shiver and sweat, however, he endured. Barhm’s piece of mana quickly rushed toward the core, where he was able to look, or rather, sense it more closely. It pulsated with vitality and power and emitted a small suction force that Barhm could easily resist. However, he didn’t, and let himself be absorbed. A weird sensation passed over his body, which he studied and remembered, before completely losing it.
He pulled back the mana he had in Kai’s body, and exhaled heavily. “Just as I thought, they are not in harmony at all. The mana part of your core is trying to pull in mana, while your body one is acting like a filter, however, the gaps within are not big enough for mana to pass through well.” Barhm fell down, his face red and covered with fatigue.
Kai’s eyes opened slowly, sweat dripping down his face and body. “So what do you suggest?”
“Nothing, for now. I need to think.” Barhm jumped to his feet and dragged his legs toward the research room. Kai also got up and followed him, sitting down at the desk, he watched Barhm, with great boredom, write yet another set of notes. Reminds me of Rodney and his team, who always note research and papers…
Sighing, he turned his attention toward the empty desk and pulled out a paper and pen from his ring. I need to think of other ways to get mana quickly, since pills are out of the question, I doubt Aina would give me anymore in fear of killing myself. Let’s see… some plants. Kai ended up staring at that piece of paper for about fifteen minutes as he sorted out the data he had about plants and vegetation. Of course, it all came from Aina’s vast library of medicinal books, books he was forced to study. Ugh, but I hate to say they helped me so far, at least with making some easy money.
With a light sigh, he began writing.
«Relafonum Dorus; Common Name - Golden Flower Root;
A plant that grows in extremely warm and sunlit environments, its most important component being the root. It’s a natural Light elemental plant, which means it thrives in absorbing the sun’s energy. However, due to that, its roots are filled to the brim with mana, and, once it grows to maturity, the flower wilts, and leaves behind its roots and stalk.
Finding this flower isn’t particularly difficult if you live to the northwest of the continent. Anywhere else and it’s neigh impossible to happen upon.»
Looking at the small paragraph he just scribbled, and correcting one thing here and there, a smile creased his lips. Alright… now information is starting to flow. And, with that thought, he placed his pen back down on the paper, and furious scribbling swiftly resounded in the air. Barhm glanced over with the corner of his eye and nodded softly.
Time passed as the two each wrote their own thing, the only thing breaking the silence being their soft sighs stretches, and pens.
Meanwhile, Onyx stood next to Darky, his tail wagging, breathing loudly with his tongue out. The copycat did the same thing, almost following the Obborik’s movements one to one. If Onyx lifted a paw, so would it, if Onyx turned around or jumped, so would it. “Woof!” He barked, and Darky repeated at the same time.
Onyx however didn’t find any of that creepy or weird, but rather, amusing, and he only regretted not being able to break his friend free of the shackles he was in. Alas, that wasn’t possible, unless he didn’t fear the consequences of angering both Barhm and Kai. So he stood there, playing with his friend, and Darky seemed to enjoy it too, despite having no obvious facial expression. The rhythm of his wagging tail swung slightly differently from Onyx’s, and his void-like, beady pupils shone with an intelligent glimmer.
As the hours trickled by, and the two beasts played, Kai finally put his pen down and leaned back on the chair with a sigh. Finally done. Glancing at the half a dozen pieces of paper he inked, a light smile creased his lips. “Finished your little homework?” Barhm commented, almost mockingly. Getting up, he stepped closer and picked up the stack of documents. “Let’s see…” He murmured, attentively reading all the information Kai wrote down. “Hm…”
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“What? Unsatisfied?” Kai asked, reaching to snatch his hard work.
“No, actually.” Barhm dodged, turning around. “Quite the contrary.” He continued, acting like he didn’t notice, and sat down at his desk. “This gives me an idea.” After saying that, he read through the information as fast as a speed reader and seemingly memorized every detail. Soon after he finished the documents, he carefully put them to the side and began new scribbles of his own. However, it didn’t take as long as before, handing his new theory to Kai in a matter of minutes.
After reading through the paper, his pupils constricted slightly, and a light smile formed on his face. “Isn’t this just what I’ve been doing though…?” He asked, hesitating.
“Yes,” Barhm replied, snatching the paper from Kai’s hands. “However you wasted all of those pills or whatever they’re called. I’m willing to bet more than half of their energy was lost because you basically brute forced it inside your Fusioned Core.” Hearing that, Kai’s face flushed red, and his lips parted in protest, but Barhm stopped him before a word could be said.
“You know I’m right. But what’s done is done, so let’s focus on the matter at hand. If you give me better descriptions of certain plants, I think I can create the proper technique to absorb each of them fully or at least with little loss.” His voice sounded confident, and the expression on his face didn’t betray that. Kai knew that, if Barhm wasn’t a man of his word, at least he was a scientist of his word. Nodding, he turned toward his desk and gave a better description of the Golden Flower Root.
The whole chapter took up three pages and a half, including a drawing of how it looked like along with its many components and sub-components. Each component had a detailed description of the way it functioned and what role it served, such as the tip of the root, which had the largest mana concentration by size, but which also broke apart easily if not uprooted properly. The upper parts of the root had less mana by size, but it made up for that in purity. Being so close to the stalk, it could absorb some of the light element from the flower, meaning that it had a richer filling as compared to the other parts.
After a detailed description of every part, Kai then wrote about its medicinal properties, not excluding the flower and stalk. Although they may be less useful from a mana standpoint, the flower was a precious light elemental plant that could be used after drying in the creation of wands, while the stalk was edible. As he wrote in the previous notes, the root became the most important part after the plant fully matured, and died, leaving behind the mana-rich roots.
And so, after what felt like an hour or so to both Barhm and Onyx, Kai had finally put his pen down. Before he even had time to stretch, the boy snatched the documents before him and read them as fast as he could, sometimes a couple of times over. His eyes widened, and it was time for his turn to be surprised. After all, Kai had basically regurgitated an entire chapter of a book and synthesized them in less than four pages. Barhm glanced at Kai, who slouched on his desk, with an even stranger look than before. ‘What the fuck is that guy…’ He murmured under his breath, unsure if Kai heard him.
“Aina’s student…” Kai groaned, his muffled voice partly blocked by the desk. He said it with both pride and pain, mixing in a pot, the contents of which tasted salty and sweet, but mostly coppery.
Barhm nodded, making a mental note of Aina, and resumed his writing and learning of the plant. Ten minutes passed before he put the documents down. “Alright, I have a better idea… now I just need to think. He turned toward the desk and played with the pen in his hand, fingers tapping on the table.
Kai yawned, however, and lazily stood up. “Leaving already?” Barhm asked, not sure if it was night or day.
“No, but…” Kai hesitated slightly, tracing his fingers along the paper-filled desk. “I learned from someone that if you don’t sleep you may end up dead. I don’t wanna die just yet. I can’t.” And with that being said, he went to the couch, Onyx following him quite happily, after saying his ‘see you later’ s to Darky. Barhm watched the two lounge on the couch, Kai patting Onyx’s fluff and the Obborik climbing on top of him. If only for a second, a hint of melancholy glistened in his eyes, before he shut it down and turned back toward his research. Yet, he still stole a glance toward Darky, who happily slept in its cage. He sighed.
…
Kai woke up as soon as the sun set, that behavior was now programmed in his internal clock regardless of the sun’s visibility. Yawning lazily and stretching, waking up Onyx at the same time, who more or less did the same thing, he got up. Quickly scanning the room, a look of surprise manifested on his face upon seeing Barhm sleeping on the arm couch next to the sofa. Shaking his head, he placed a cover over the boy and then walked over to the research lab.
The documents were as disorderly as before, however, a new set appeared on Barhm’s desk. Written in his own tongue, Kai had a harder time deciphering it, especially so with new words he had never seen before being added. It looks like… several technique ideas. Only one developed and the rest were in the conception stage… If he wants to experiment I should go look for some plants in this area… ugh experimenting on me again. Well… Kai stopped for a second, thinking about all the times he nearly killed himself by ‘experimenting’. I’ve done worse, yeah.”
He glanced at Darky, who still slept, a content smile on his tar-like snout. Look at him, copying my friend… it even looks like him when it sleeps. Ignoring the Magical Beast, Kai grabbed the list he wrote and quickly scanned it, then put it back down after finding the information he needed. Alright, ‘Scarfying Bloom’ it is.
Quickly turning around, his fingers scratched Onyx’s head, then headed toward the wall - door, and stepped out without interrupting Barhm’s quiet sleep.
Upon leaving, he inhaled deeply, happy to smell fresh air again, and stretched his entire body as he basked on the evening moon. However, he quickly turned vigilant as a spot within the shadows muttered with movement. Despite that, he didn’t bring his weapons out. Another one?!
However, what greeted him was not the ferocious eyes of a mutant beast, but… something worse. Out of the shadows stepped a man, his emerald eyes shining with a mysterious light. To Kai, those eyes seemed to belong to a viper, and a light shiver ran down his spine as he recalled the fear he felt at that time.
Raymond smiled graciously, not a hint of malice on his face, however, the creepy undertone within his voice as he said “Long time no see,” sent Kai into a cold sweat, and he gulped, his eyes not daring to leave the man’s figure.