Chapter 20

‘I can do this. I can do this.’ Rine calmed himself as he gathered nearby origin and readied his spell. The time for Cort to move was close and he could feel his heart beat faster.

With his eyes closed, he began his chant at a slower pace than normal. Remarkably he managed to maintain some degree of calmness throughout the process, even as a sudden arrow grazed past his cheek.

‘Warning shot.’ He thought before softly whispering the name of his spell. A ball of fire materialized on his palm, but the attack was interrupted from its usual course as Rine grasped it tightly. Bearing through the terrifying pain and sizzling flesh, he chanted once more.

The second arrow came just as suddenly but he was anticipating it nonetheless. “Go!” He yelled as a second ball of fire materialized on the palm of his other arm before shooting towards the arrow almost as if to derail its course. But to Cort’s surprise, the attack merely passed by the projectile and made its way towards his location.

Cort casually dodged the fire and made his way closer to the boy, for now was his time to strike. Forgoing the bow in favor of his sword, he chose to end this similarly to how it always ended.

Rine knew none of this due to his preoccupation with the arrow. Moving his hand just fast enough, he intercepted the weapon with his fire-coated hand. The ensuing explosion blasted him away and he could feel a couple of his crispy fingers breaking. But the life-threatening arrow was dodged and that was enough for now.

His back feeling the presence of a nearby tree, he smirked as he felt the familiar coolness of a blade press against his throat. A mild sense of Déjà vu came to him.

“You lose.” Cort said coldly as he looked down upon the magician.

“N-not yet.” A smile bloomed on his face as he whispered the name of his attack.

A small fire left a trail in its wake as it sped towards Cort.

Tilting his head to the side slightly, he dodged the attack again. “You’re getting faster at it, but ultimately it remains futile-” He squinted his eyes tightly as he felt a warm object approach his side.

The world slowed down as his eyes turned sharp. He could now clearly see it. The boy was clutching a ball of fire that burnt his flesh away. The agonized hand drew closer to him and he instinctively knew that it was too late. ‘I’m too close.’ Hurriedly, he lifted his shoulder upwards and blocked the attack from reaching his face.

A small explosion separated the two as Cort skidded backward while Rine felt himself dig closer into the tree. From start to finish he never stopped chanting the one spell in his arsenal.

Studying his arm, Cort deduced that his injuries were light and posed no serious threat. ‘[...if I were you I would not underestimate that kid’s potential …] ‘ The old man’s words came to him again, but he shook them away. Picking up his sword, he leisurely made his way towards the boy once more.

“{Fireball}”

He dodged lightly to the side as the attack passed him; the warm wind ruffling his hair. It seemed that the mental fatigue of continuously casting spells was getting to the boy as his attacks grew weaker. ‘No second one this time.’ He thought as he studied his opponent's appearance.

With two bloodied hands and hazy eyes, the boy continued to mumble.

‘I won’t lose.’ Rine thought as he laboriously raised what remained of his hand once more. “{Fire-”

Pain.

His head was forcefully pushed to the side as Cort’s fist made contact with it. He fell to the floor and felt his consciousness slip away. Once more he had lost. Despite his best efforts, and despite finally succeeding at what he had set out to do. He still lost, only this time it was not through the man’s sword, but rather his fist.

Drearily, he watched as Cort turned to walk away. “Good fight.”

‘Good fight?’ Was that it? Was that the end result of giving it his all? No! ‘I will not let it end like this!’ His head spun as anger grew.

Slowly reaching out his arm, he grasped the departing man’s ankle. Burning fingers leaving bloody trails on his clothing.

“N-not yet.”

Turning his head backward, Cort looked at Rine. He sighed before kicking him swiftly and accurately in the side of his head. Finally, the magician was asleep.

Cort closed his eyes as he relished in the silence, but the stinging in his arm prevented him from doing so fully

“You can come out now.” He said to no one.

The old man appeared out of nowhere with a pondering look on his face. “Simply amazing. I never expected him to accomplish multi-casting so fast.”

"This world of yours...sure is an odd one." The youth remarked.

"I could probably say the same of yours."

“I’m in.”

“In what?”

“In on whatever this plan of yours is. But know this, I still don’t trust you.”

“Out of curiosity, what changed your mind?”

“I’m in a good mood, plus I’m curious. Just how far will your determination get you?” He looked below him to where the unconscious boy’s hand still gripped his ankle tightly.

…………………………………………

Rine woke from his sleep with an aching head and numb body.

“W-where am I?” He said as he slowly opened his eyes. A clear blue sky greeted his vision. It looked to be noon.

“Well if it isn't Rine boyo or should I say, junior disciple.” The old man’s cheery voice sounded as he popped up suddenly before him.

“Old man…”

“In the flesh.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Well of course you’d be, you’ve been sleeping for about a day already.”

“A day!?”

“Yup.”

Slowly, he made his way up to a sitting position. He was at their campsite which remained largely the same save for the addition of a new tent. Rine shifted his gaze over to his body and was horrified to find two bandaged stumps in place of where his hands would normally be. He worriedly began tugging at the bandages in hopes of removing them.

“Now slow down, it took a while for your senior brother to bandage together your hands, kid. You damaged them pretty badly. Even with my medicine, it will take a while for them to properly heal, though you should regain the function of your fingers in a day or two.”

Breathing out a slight sigh of relief, Rone stopped fiddling with the wrappings. The rumbling of his stomach reminded him once more of the fact that he was famished.

“Sit tight for a while, Cort boyo went to get us some lunch, in the meantime, I suggest heading down to the river to get a drink.”

“Y-yeah, ok.” He replied as he unsteadily stood to his feet.

The walk over to the river was uneventful and once he reached it, he began to ferociously down mouthfuls of water.

“Slow down, you’ll hurt your stomach.”

Rine refused to listen and kept chugging away. Only after a few more mouthfuls did he grow satisfied and thus sat down comfortably.

“I must admit boyo, you surprised me greatly. Originally I was just planning on teaching you how to get comfortable at maintaining two spells at once, and from there on I would ease you into multicasting. But no, you did what should have taken months in a single day. Good on you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh don’t tell me you don’t remember that either? During the fight with Cort boyo where you socked him good with that second fireball?”

Vaguely, the memory of that happening resurfaced in his head. “Oh yeah…” He could still remember the way it felt. His origin suddenly split apart and two new models were hastily made. The spell was weaker as a result of the splitting but that was a small price to pay. Despite that, he was unsure of whether he would be able to recreate that move again. He supposed it was mostly luck that it worked out the first time.

“Now don’t get me wrong, we still have a looong way to go, for one thing, your power remains unstable and your emotions are too erratic.”

“Erratic?”

“Yes, too all over the place. A magician must practice restraint when it comes to his emotions. Cooler heads always prevail in the end. Anyway, that’s beside the point. The fact is we have a lot of work to do, but if we keep going at this pace, we should be able to get you to the late stage of Origin accumulation in a few months. But we have a lot of things to prepare…”

“3rd-grade magician.. me?”

“Yes, you.”

“B-but I’m not even fully in the first grade, how will I magically become third?”

“Not fully in the first? What are you talking about? Boyo, what is the main criteria for being classified as an early Origin Accumulation magician?”

“The ability to successfully and consistently perform low-level spells of any nature.”

“Ding ding ding. Now tell me.. when was the last time you failed a spell?”

“That…” He struggled to remember.

‘That’s right it was during my entrance exam.’ He was shocked to remember. It felt so long ago yet it had only been two weeks.

“Two weeks..” suddenly, he remembered something.

“Yes, two weeks, since then you’ve probably done the spell dozens of times over, and yet you have been successful every time. If you as-”

“My grandfather!”

“Your grandfather?”

“He is going to be worried sick, I should be home by now.” He stood up flustered.

“Whoa whoa wait a second. Let’s wait for Cort to get here with the food and then we will all talk.”

“Talk? About what?”

The old man smiled mysteriously. “About how we’ll be spending our lives together from this point onward?”

Rine gave him a quizzical look.

…………………………………………

An hour passed as Cort arrived and began to prepare the meal. After rejecting Rine’s help, he got everything done quickly and efficiently.

The enticing smell of barbecued meat caused Rine’s rumbling stomach to protest louder.

The trio sat in silence as the meat reached completion.

“It’s done.” Cort finally said, before Carving out a piece for himself.

Like a rabid dog Rine also lunged at the food and began to scarf it down.

The old man watched all of this with a comforting smile as he thought of the road ahead. It was a long and arduous one for sure, but he knew it was worth it. ‘We cannot keep hiding away like this. The longer we put participating in the battle off, the more difficult it will be to catch up…”

‘Can these young men reach the peak of this world and uncover the lies that make it up? I do not know. But one thing is for sure, and that is that I will give it my all. I will make them strong enough to decide, and may the gods help the world when they do.’

A clapping sound interrupted the young men from their feast and when they looked at the origin of the sound they found an old man.

“Now then, what better a time to explain our circumstances than when in the presence of a warm fire and good food. Truly the only thing missing is the wine and this would be a fine day indeed. Well, we shall leave that for next time. Now I am sure that you have questions, chief among them being those pertaining to my goal and most probably my identity. I will answer one of them now, though with as little detail as I can, mind you.” He gave a cheeky smile. “My name is Carson Kerrington, and I will be your teacher going forth. Well met.”

Carson paused his speech.

Hesitantly, Rine replied “I’m Rine.”

“Cort.” The third replied tersely

With a boisterous laugh, old man Carson stood. “You may call me teacher, mentor, and even professor. You may even refer to me as old man Carson for all I care, just know this. Whether you like it or not, We are now family."

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