Chapter 30:

A couple of days have passed since Rine last met the black knight.

Currently, he was at the border of his village watching Slug ride away on a horse. Throughout the journey, the two had become close friends. This is why he was saddened by the oddly named youth’s departure, but he was not affected much as he knew they would meet again in Phentar soon.

Taking a deep breath, he turned around. What filled his view was the sight of a simple and humble little village, complete with cute little puffs of smoke coming out of the local bakery’s chimney.

A smile filled his face as he relished in the nostalgia of being here, despite only being away for a week or two.

Running down the familiar streets, he waved at all the people he met along the way. Eventually, he reached the center of the village, where his grandfather’s house was.

He paused slightly before entering, mesmerized by how familiar, how safe he felt. This was his home. Tears began to fill his eyes. He wiped them away and dove straight into the house. He was shocked once again by how familiar everything was, even the creaking sound the door made as it opened was the same. But he smacked his own head as he reminded himself of how little the time he spent away actually was.

Alas after looking through the whole house, he could find no sign of his old man. After dropping his things in the house, he decided to visit the Village Hall to check if his father was there.

The Village Hall was a place where all of the village’s official matters were conducted. It was the place where all the village elders held their meetings and where most weddings took place.

Luckily for Rine, the Hall was right by his house, so he made it there in no time. After greeting the guard, he made his way inside.

“Oh, Rine! It’s nice to see you’re safe.” Once there, he heard the bell-like voice of the receptionist. A middle-aged woman with phoenix-like eyes and full lips. Rine, like every other young boy, grew tongue-tied by her mere presence.

“Ah, Miss Mira. H-hello,” He grew flustered.

Mira chuckled softly and moved on “So you’re finally back! Your grandfather has been worried sick you know.”

“Grandpa has?”

“Yes, luckily we were able to keep him from going to Phentar to check in on you.”

Rine laughed apologetically “So is he here now?”

“Actually yes, the village heads are having a meeting right now. Though it’s nothing too serious. I think they are celebrating because one of the head’s grandkids made it into an Origin school.

“Really?” Rine asked, taken aback.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me! How was your test?”

At this seemingly innocent question, Rine’s face stiffened. “Well, I...ya see I kinda….” He muttered beneath his breath before saying a little too loudly. “I will just wait outside ‘till he’s done. It was nice talking to you, Miss Mira.” He hurriedly turned and made his way out the door.

But before he could get too far, he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

“Rine?”

The young man’s footsteps froze.

“Grandpa...Hey!” He said before turning around and diving into the familiar embrace.

“So it was you, you little bastard.” The old man said kindly before tussling the young boy’s hair.

“I’ve missed you,” Rine said as he tightened his embrace.

The old man seemed surprised at this, and his old eyes scanned through the boy's face. Seeing hints of exhaustion, he began to grow worried.

“Just what happened to you kid?”

“Well well if it isn’t the young Rine,” Another old man said as he left the room Rine’s grandfather was in. Behind him, a whole group of elderly followed. These were the village heads.

Rine immediately straightened his back and addressed them politely. “Rine Greets his elders.”

The elders’ faces lifted at the youth’s well-mannered behavior.

“Now now, Rine, we are all family, no need to be so formal.” An old woman said kindly as she gave Rine a treat.

He accepted it and thanked her, but he did not eat it right away. He knew better than to taste one of Grandma Grutes’ treats right away.

“Well don’t keep us in suspense little one, how did the test go?” One of the elders asked impatiently.

Seeing the expectant looks on the faces of everyone and especially his grandfather, Rine couldn’t help but feel his heartbeat quicken. Yet no matter how much he wanted to, he knew he couldn't run away from this.

"They told me to try again next year…" he said with his head down.

"Hah, I won. The crystals are mine," a particularly shifty looking old man said to the group.

Every elder suddenly had an annoyed look on their faces, even Rine’s grandfather.

Then, in front of the youth’s surprised face, each elder dropped a couple of red crystals in the old man's bag.

He noted that his grandfather dropped a few more than the others.

"So the only upset of the day was old Wang's son. Congrats by the way you old crock," The shifty old man said as he tied his bag up with a satisfied expression.

"Aren't we forgetting something Rusty?" Another old man, Old Wang, said with a haughty look on his face.

Rusty hissed at him before handing over twice the amount of crystals Rine's grandfather gave him.

"Can't even pardon an old man off a couple Reds…." Rusty said beneath his breath.

Old Wang's face soured. "I'm older than you! Bastard."

The pair began to bicker as the rest watched on with exasperated expressions.

Rine began to get a sense of what had happened. It seemed these fossils had decided to bet on the results of the entrance exam. He felt a slight pain in his heart at the sight of how many reds his grandfather lost, but he reassured himself by thinking of the bag he left at home.

"So what happened exactly?" His grandfather asked again.

Rine opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by Old Wang.

"Isn't it obvious? He choked," Wang said viciously before continuing "I knew that one time he succeeded in casting a spell was a fluke! Now look, we took crystals out of the town's fund to support his trip and he wasted them all."

"Enough, Wang" Rine's grandfather, Earl, said impatiently. "Most of the town wanted to pitch in on Rine's trip willingly. Besides, your grandson took more."

"My grandson passed on his first attempt. So I think it was worth it, wouldn't you say?"

Earl said nothing.

Rine kept his mouth shut throughout; he knew that tensions between these two were always high.

Wang was second in charge behind Earl, a fact that did not please either old man too much.

Rine's head lowered all the more as he thought about how this matter would affect his grandfather's standing. Especially when considering the success of old Wang's grandson.

"Ooh, I hardly think that's a fair comparison to make, little Wang," Granny Grute said before continuing "Besides, I think young Rine is a year younger than your little one. Isn't that right?" She ended by giving Rine, who smiled back at her, a wink.

"Hmph" Old Wang sounded, but he did not say more.

"Enough bickering you old bones," Earl said but not before giving Grute a grateful gaze. "Come, Rine. Let's go home."

Village head Earl walked out of the door signaling for Rine to follow behind.

The youth did not dally and directly followed, but he kept walking behind Earl, not daring to keep pace.

"What's wrong?" The old man asked.

The youth did not reply.

“Don’t think about it too much, ok? You just do what you want to. Follow your heart and all that shit,” And though Earl did not turn around, he knew what he would see if he did: A young man with determined eyes heavily nodding. This saddened him slightly.

…………………………………………

Cort clicked his tongue in frustration as he sliced apart the thirtieth leaf. Considering the fact that he used to only managed nineteen, this was quite the improvement. Yet he felt no joy from it. “So slow…” he muttered.

Dealing with the Deep Blue gang was not that hard. Using his wires and sword, the grunts outside were dealt with swiftly. The elites inside the bar however were marginally more difficult. Thankfully he had managed to dispatch the leader with one well-timed shot, the rest of them fell after some effort.

After performing his services, he left the rest for Nelem to deal with.

It was after obtaining the frankly pitiful amount of loot in the gang’s vault that Cort began to truly reflect on his actions. If he had to face either Ratson or The Blue head-on without his guns, five times out of ten, he would lose. This meant that without his guns, his true strength was around a level slightly weaker than the two. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t be thinking of such a thing, but in a world where guns had yet to be created, bullets were not exactly easy to find. This effectively placed a limit on his strength and he did not like that. Besides, he began to realize a fact that startled him. Guns may not be that viable of a weapon later on. He already saw signs of this happening against his battle with the free-form magician from Verlau. Surely his foes would grow stronger. Stronger to the point where his guns would not even pierce their flesh. What would he do then? Clearly, he needed to fight fire with fire, and since magic was not an option for him, he needed to go through other routes.

“But is this really the right way?” He asked as he stared at the torn-up leaves on the ground.

[You are too weak to even be considered a proper pawn in this game.] The old man’s words from that night rang in his mind. He finally understood. This was not Earth. So earth’s weapons would not help him here; they bolstered his strength now, but later on, they would only shackle him down. He had to pursue a truer, closer type of power. Luckily for him. This was Himmel.

Turning around, he dashed into the woods of Phentar.

…………………………………………

“As I said earlier, Aura is simply a warrior using immense strength and unbending will to forcefully change the surrounding Origin.” Old man Carson said as he stood before Cort.

“But what does that mean exactly?” The youth replied.

“Let me speak practically. You want to know how to advance right? Well, let me tell you that Aura is not the way for you to do so, at least not yet.”

Cort’s brow lifted in surprise.

“Before even thinking about Aura, a warrior must first hone his body and his technique to the peak. You must sharpen your physical blade, before even attempting to awaken your spiritual one.”

“Ok, I kind of understand that…”

“It’s simple really, find your limits and break them. Keep doing so until you find yourself stuck. Once in front of an insurmountable wall, keep banging your head against it until finally, you wake up with the ability to use Aura. For your body, this means pushing it HARD. Run until you collapse, train until blood starts pouring from your hands, swing your weapon so much it becomes second nature. Technique wise, anything will do. Some are better than others, but any one of them can be made strong with effort,” At some point, the old man grew so passionate, he puffed his chest up and lifted his head to the sky. Had Cort not known him better, he would think this man was once a peerless warrior. But he knew the truth. This man was an idiot.

Feeling the young man’s mocking gaze, Carson coughed and reigned some of his excitement in. “Anyway, that’s it. Just train. There are no shortcuts, no magic potions, well there are but don’t think about those we don’t have the means.”

Cort had already tuned him out. ‘An idiot though he may be, he may have a point.’ He stood up.

“Where are you going?” Carson asked.

“It’s getting late, I need to do my chores.”

“You mean going to Phentar and visiting your girlfriend at the library?”

“Careful old man, you’re sounding awfully jealous.”

“I’ll have you know, I’ve played around plenty in my days. If you’re not serious about her, then stop messing around, it will only distract you.”

“Yeah yeah. Sure thing.” The young man said before picking up his sword. The time for him to hunt began.

…………………………………………

Rine’s eyes were closed, but he was not sleeping as evidenced by the look of complete concentration on his face.

Opening his palm slightly, a ball of fire materialized shortly before speeding out of the window.

His eyes opened with a smile. “I’m improving…”

…………………………………………