Chapter 41:

Rine smiled giddily as he felt the time approach. It had been a week since he started preparing for war and, finally, the time to harvest was upon him.

Opening his eyes, he could see a mass of Origin larger than anything he had gathered before swirling around him. As days passed with him bitterly training, he naturally became more experienced at handling Origin. The amount he could gather initially paled in comparison to now.

“Now!” He exclaimed, ushering the undulating energy toward his center.

His body shivered as it greedily absorbed the Origin. Like the dry desert floor experiencing rain, his body ravenously devoured the Origin, not leaving a single drop.

‘This!!’ His mind shook as he suddenly felt the rampaging Origin gather within his body, inches below his navel.

This almost seemed like Core Formation.

‘Am I breaking through?’ He asked in disbelief. Normally it would take a magician anywhere from half a year, to a couple of years for them to form a core. Yet here he was, not two months into cultivating, and he was already a step away from forming it.

In a blind panic, he began gathering more and more Origin. Not willing to wait, he neglected gathering it properly before absorbing it.

As the fresh and raging Origin met with what he had gathered previously, an unprecedented amount of force was raging inside him, slowly and painfully condensing.

His body shook and pain-racked his mind. Blood started dripping from his mouth, but he did not care. At this moment he only cared about breaking through.

Close to fainting, he could finally feel the once gaseous Origin slowly turn liquid.

But alas, it seemed he was too eager.

Blackness assaulted him as he lost consciousness.

…………………………………………

Hours later he awoke to the sound of a running river. His aching body was being carried roughly by a youth he was familiar with.

“C-cort?” He asked weakly, but no reply came.

“What are you doi-” He meant to ask but was caught off guard by the sudden force of being thrown away.

‘What?’ His mind shook. But before he could process what was happening, he was assaulted by a coolness that penetrated his body, reaching his bones.

With a splash, he fell into the river.

His chest tightened in panic as the thought of drowning haunted him. Feelings of confusion and betrayal bogged him down even more, and just as he began to swear vengeance upon the bastard that drowned him, he noticed the feeling of his butt hitting something hard.

With his hands, he felt around the thing he had landed on when, to his relief, he figured out it was the river’s floor. He sat up, his face emerging from the river’s surface.

Fully sitting down, he blushed as he noticed the shallowness of the river. Even in a seated position, the river only reached the lowest part of his chest.

“So you’re up,” Cort said in an amused tone as if knowing what Rine had felt.

Rine's embarrassment deepened and he moved to stand but stopped when the pain became too unbearable.

“Don’t move too much, you’re still in bad condition,” Old man Carson suddenly appeared with his trademark casual smile.

“Here, catch,” Cort continued as he tossed a vial of what seemed to be medicine at him.

Barely catching it, he inspected the liquid inside the vial. It looked positively ominous with its blood-red color.

“What’s this?” He asked the duo.

“Medicine,” As always, Cort replied curtly.

“To be exact, It’s the medicine that should help with your internal injuries,” Carson continued.

“But how’d you know this would happen?” Rine asked, uncapping the glass. The smell was horrid.

“It was pretty obvious to me that you’d get too emotional to stop yourself. The temptation was quite serious after all. You’re not the first magician to fall for it, and you won’t be the last. That is why I had Cort help me make the medicine you would need to recover.” Carson replied.

“It took a lot of work, so drink it. We’ll talk about how you should repay this debt later,” Cort said as he turned around to leave. “And congratulations for breaking through to the third grade.”

Rine’s eyes widened in surprise as he heard that final remark. Focusing his sight to within himself, he lightly gathered his origin and felt a sturdy clump of energy resting within him. This clump that more resembled a liquid was a telltale sign that he was approaching Core formation.

But when he tried to move his Origin, his body flared up in pain. He quickly drank the medicine.

“You know, that boy talks coldly, but his heart is unexpectedly in the right place. When I told him to help me, he did not hesitate.” Carson said mysteriously.

The medicine was the worst thing Rine had ever tasted and his expression crumpled.

“And of course, I’m sure he’s not actually expecting you to pay him back. Given all that, I think you should trust him a bit more,” Carson continued, uncaring of the youth’s complexion.

Rine nodded as he registered what the old man was saying. Recalling how close he had been to swearing a life-long vengeance upon Cort, his embarrassment returned.

“Anyway. Your training is coming along nicely. Better than I expected. You should have no problem forming a core soon, but you shouldn't be too impatient. Get used to your current level first, then breakthrough,” After saying that, the old man disappeared.

…………………………………………

Cort made it back to the campsite and busily sorted his items. His goal in this war was to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

Luckily for him, the thing he ordered from the father-son merchant pair arrived yesterday.

Taking something out from under his shirt, he studied the ring that was attached to a chain he hung around his neck. This artifact had cost him an arm and a leg, yet he still deemed it a worthy investment. It was a fabled storage ring.

Or rather, it was a defunct version of it. The space within it was rather small, amounting to a two cubic meter room. It couldn’t be locked by Origin signature, meaning it was possible for literally anyone with a red Origin crystal to unlock and use it, that was not mentioning magicians who did not even need an Origin crystal to use it. And finally, it looked far too gaudy.

The ring was an unnatural gold color with a stupidly large ruby embedded on its surface. Like all of Cort’s other rings, its inscriptions were engraved on its inner walls, making it virtually impossible for anyone to know what it truly was.

When Cort first got it, he was eager to try it on, but when he looked at his hands he felt like an idiot. Aside from the fact he was wearing three rings when on Earth he refused to wear even one, the rings did not even match. An ordinary-looking ring made out of steel from William, another better-looking one from Ratson that he wore on his thumb, and finally the positively hideous storage ring.

After much deliberation, he decided to store William’s ring within his own storage ring and hide his own under his shirt. Leaving only Ratson’s ring on.

Aside from the ring, he was equipped with the boots he took from the gang’s vault. They were inscribed with magic that lessened the sound of his footsteps.

His armor was ordinary and so was the sword he hung on his waist. All of his true weapons were stored in his ring.

He was finally mostly prepared. The only thing he had left was the odd map he got from the gang. He had originally taken it with the intention of showing Carson, in hopes of him possibly knowing something about it. But the results he got back were underwhelming. Apparently, the scribbles were from an ancient language, but their meaning was rather mundane. It said: “In the old cave we know.” Accompanied by an X that marked a spot in the middle of what seemed like a forest.

In short, Carson had no clue. Showing it to Lucy also yielded no result but she did seem strangely interested in it.

In the end, he decided to take it with him, it wouldn’t take too much space in his ring anyway.

And with that…

“I’m ready,” He said with a slight smile.

…………………………………………

After resting for a few hours, Rine felt well enough to move. Making his way to the campsite, he ran through a mental checklist of the items he would need to prepare. He knew that the essentials would be provided by the official military of the Wind Palace. That included things like food and lodging.

According to Cort, the war wasn’t expected to last long, and the casualties shouldn’t be heavy. Nonetheless, it was best if their party was able to maintain a low profile.

After reaching the campsite, he packed his things and prepared. He wore light leather armor with a sword attached to his hip and a bag on his back. He looked like any other adventurer.

Cort, who stood next to him, wore similar gear except for the fact that his bag looked slightly empty. The difference between their bags wasn’t great, but Rine knew what type of person Cort was and thus he found it odd. During the relatively short time in which they knew each other, he always knew Cort as the type who was overly cautious. Every Time they went hunting, he had a big bag with him where he kept a lot of weapons.

Apparently, he always fought while lugging a bag. But now that bag was empty.

“Just look at you two!” Rine’s attention was brought to his front where Carson stood with tears in his eyes.

“We’ve known each other for only a short while, yet it’s already time to part. Alright! Cort, dig there!”

Cort seemed surprised, yet he complied. Grabbing a shovel, he dug where the old man pointed. The spot was close to Carson’s grave, but both seemed not to mind.

After a few minutes, the shovel made a sound of metal hitting metal. What was dug out was a small box that was locked. However, with a wave of his hand, the old man unlocked the box and it popped open.

Inside it was a strange-looking crystal and a piece of paper that looked like a map.

“The crystal is for Rine while the map is for Cort,” Carson said happily.

Cort nodded as he handed the crystal over to Rine.

Crystal at hand, Rine couldn’t help but wonder what it was. It was a light grey color and slightly translucent. He couldn’t feel any Origin from it. “What is this?” He couldn’t help but ask.

However, instead of answering, the old man just smiled. “You’ll know when it’s time.”

Rine was unsatisfied but made no other reply.

“However I will tell you what the map is for. I left a few things in the place marked down on it. There are some things that are mine, and some things that I’ll give to you. Luckily for us, the location isn’t very far, so you can go after the war.”

The old man gave one final look at the two.

“Boys. Though short, our time together was amusing. Rine, things will be hard, but always remember this: Life is short, so wasting it on people who don’t deserve it is stupid.

Cort, I know you’ve had it rough. I hope you find what you’re looking for. Finally, I want you both to know: I always wished one of you were a pretty girl,” He said with a calm smile and graceful appearance.

Cort spat at the floor while Rine scratched his cheek wryly.

…………………………………………

As the two young men made their way out of the forest, they remained silent.

“Hey Cort.”

“Yeah?”

“Wasn’t that weird?”

“What was?”

“The way old man Carson spoke.”

“Get to the point.”

“It was like he was saying goodbye,” Rine said quietly as he stopped walking.

“Rine,” Cort said as he kept moving.

“What?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Bastard,” Rine said as he ran after him.

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