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36 – Syzygy I

October 4031. Monarch Academy

Class finished early. Moreover we didn’t have any combat training at all. However Maera talked about pros and cons of attending Molten Peak trip.

Nevertheless by the end of the class I was the only one who was willing to go to Molten Peak for meditation and beast hunt. I had another week to cultivate and meditate so without losing another moment I departed classroom to go to my house to train.

Existence of May in our house as servant had given me advantages in terms of time. The most important factor being, I could eat at home rather than going to cafeteria. I was saving an hour and half of travel time which was used to meditation.

Arman, as future leader and head of the Crux trading company, was good at gathering information. Whether it could be identified as useful or useless was up to the subjective decision of the person but overall somehow he knew anything and everything.

Sofia, Arman and I were having a great time at the backyard almost every single night. May had arranged a wooden table and three stools for us to sit and enjoy the stars while drinking tea with biscuits. It was then that Arman said “Are you trying to be brave or an idiot to join the Molten Peak trip?”

Sofia gasped at his words as if it was something extraordinary to attend the trip. “Whats so brave about joining the trip? What’s so idiotic about joining the trip?”, I answered him with questions. “Do you really don’t know?”, Sofia asked. “Know what?”, I was puzzled.

“Argh...My friend, don’t you know most of the attendees will be third and fourth year students?”, he questioned me. “Why should I care?”, I still couldn’t grasp the logic behind his words.

Arman continued on “Even the number of third and fourth year students would not reach more than number of fingers on both hands. The reason being, it is just freaking hard to survive in the area near Molten Peak. Moreover people who are going to the trip to gain battle experience as they live in territories that are not stable in economic and political sense. Why are you even joining the quest?”.

“To get stronger”, I replied. “for what?”, he was not going to end the questions so to appear as a dumb peasant I said “I don’t know, I want to be strong I guess”. I couldn’t tell him that I plan to gain enough strength to get my freedom and prosperity for my family. Without strength how could I break the ties with Cohen family?

“Aren’t you afraid to die? You never know what kind of magical beast may attack the group! There is no guarantee for survival even if the teachers are there!”, he spoke in angry tone. I knew that he meant no harm to me but wanted my well-being. “If I’m supposed to die now, I will die by the bite of a mosquito. But if I’m supposed to live, then even if the legendary phoenix attacked my I’ll survive”, I said in a calm manner.

“You sound like those old priests and nuns of Holy Church. I didn’t know you are that religious”, Sofia commented.

“I have never been to church”, I told her. “Never been to church? Really?”, Arman said. The course of the conversation had changed and I was relieved in a sense that they were not going to question me and try to change my mind about Molten Peak trip.

At nights when everyone else went to sleep, I sneaked out of the house to the backyard to meditate. There was no single position to meditate so at nights instead of sitting on lotus position I was lying down on grass to achieve an altered state.

After three days of practice and training, I made a breakthrough from second to the third level of origin realm by opening the third gate to my origin energy center. The dark red mana that was firing as a flame in my origin center had grown more powerful although its size didn’t increase. The royal blue mana was swirling around it faster than I was used to.

My physical strength had increased a lot. I was still looking like a normal teen. My muscles had not grown like of a bodybuilder’s, but power, might and force flowing in my body was extraordinary. I could life a big rock with my hands and feel no pain.

Speed of my legs had multiplied too. As much as I understood through the internal cultivation as I passed over from one level to another there was a multiplier effect in agility and strength.

A month ago I could not lift 200kg boulder even in my dreams. Right now it didn’t even bulge muscles in my arm when I lifted it with a single hand.

These days I was able to sense movement of animals while having my eyes closed lying on ground or either in lotus position. Every single step or movement of even their ears had an effect on air which was automatically detected by developed senses of mine.

Advancing in terms of internal cultivation seemed to have more advantages in comparison to using magic so I was slacking and meditating less in area of magic spells. My goal was to reach to the same level both martial arts and magic wise.

Afterwards I could spend same time to increase my cultivation and understanding of both of them.

In addition I was training physically and writing down techniques and moves of judo and aikido. Philosophy of the martial arts that originated from eastern countries of the old world were interesting to me in my old life.

Especially the philosophical background of aikido. Sensei had always told us to be like water. If there was a big stone or rock in front of a stream, it would pass by it from sides. If there was a high ground, the stream would flow the low ground. In short, stream would never stop movement but would endlessly seek for the best possible way to pass obstacle.

Fundamentally the new martial arts that I was working on had the same philosophy as aikido.

Furthermore I was able to use the dark blue mana within me to sense those imaginary obstacles. When I was standing still, I could sense anyone even if they tried to attack me from behind. Of course, in practice I could sense rabbits that roamed in our backyard and May who would come to ask if I wanted to eat.

Theoretically I could sense everyone, but being able to avoid or counter-attack depended if my speed was higher than opponent’s.

Being affiliated with air and water, dark blue mana was giving me enormous advantages over the possible opponents. In any case I didn’t want to overestimate my newly found powers as it could bring more harm than gain.

Foot movements that I was working on for an half an hour a day was exact copy from aikido. Front, back, left and right were the main ones. Additionally there were blank space in between those directions which added another four possible moves.

In total, 8 simple step movement which could decide life and death in times of danger. These step movements were useful in close-combat. Especially if I was against a human being. In case I faced a magical beast then the best possible way was to increase the distance until I could change the flow of battle.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed, it felt as if it was yesterday that Maera had informed us about the trip to Molten Peak. We were at the main hall where vice head master announced the names of participants one by one.

Arman’s information regarding the attendees was on spot. There were 9 students from third and fourth year students who were going to go to Molten Peak. Surprisingly Cyrus Lyth was one of them. Nevertheless, the shock that hit the students and teachers of the Monarch Academy was when my name was announced.

I went to join the group. Kyle’s eyes stared at me for a moment and our eyes met. I hadn’t informed him about my decision although he didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Vice took a deep breath and continued. The voice echoed through the hall reaching every single part of it in a high clear tone “Last member joining the Molten Peak Expedition will be the first year magician, Zepho Kig”.

The student whose body was covered with robe from head to toe moved towards us. Zepho’s head was looking down so it was hard to distinguish his face features. As his posture was not straight and head bent, his height seemed to be lower than mine by a lot.

Three teachers were going to be with us during the trip. Plan was to go to Molten Peak and camp near the volcano for two weeks. Afterwards depart the volcano towards south-west to the mountainous border of the House of Byron with Molten Peak where we could hunt magical beasts.

The teachers that were going to oversee us during one month training trip were Malor Ratarr, Elena Hara and Ivis. First two were mages while Ivis was supposed to be the warrior accompanying us.

To everyone’s surprise, Mr Ivis was nowhere to be found and Maera volunteered on spot to go with us. She had already prepared a backpack which arose suspicions but nobody raised a voice. “Dangerous woman”, I whispered in a low tone. Few students, who were close by to hear me, smirked.

Choices are always there. You may see them or you may just omit. You may create them or destroy. Nevertheless you have to make the choice. Destiny is the overall result of those choices. Though fate is something else. Fate is the result of the mix of all of the destinies together, living or dead.

All three teachers were introduced to us. Including their area of expertise. Afterwards, we shook hands with them to greet them. As my hand touched Malor Ratarr’s hand “this is fate”, passed my mind.

This is fate. Because Malor was the best magician in the continent with affiliation to fire mana. 7th rank magician who I had met after seemingly irrational choices. Even when I had volunteered to join the training I had no idea that Malor would be coming. I had no idea about his existence.

So if it is not fate, what it is?

P.S: Proofreaders and editors are welcome

P.P.S: Sorry for the late release!!! Holidays:)

P.P.P.S: I would like to indicate that none of the female characters story's protagonist had met till now are conceived as love interests... Maybe in future, but not right now. Reason being he is too young for stuff like that:)

P.P.P.P.S: damn too many post scriptums.. BTW, should we go for a harem or stay with just one girl?