Horizon's Edge

by TurtleMe

  I wanted to ask.

  Why was it that she could use her healing powers now?

  How was she able to heal Dad when he had been struck by the mage on the way to Xyrus? I still remembered her desperately healing my father as he ordered me to take my mother and run. That was before I fell off the cliff.

  I bit my tongue and forced a smile. My father was right; I should wait for her to tell me first.

  My mother let out a sigh before taking her hand off of my chest. She stared at me, and gave me one more firm, wordless hug.

  We eventually began talking about what happened. My father took a brief moment to tell me how Professor Glory had visited and told them what had happened to me before she had to hurry back. All the while, my sister sat wordlessly on the couch, curled up with Sylvie, as she seemingly stared at a particular spot on the ground in front of her.

  On my end, I tried not to make a big deal of what transpired for the sake of my mother. I skimmed over the fight with the minion crawlers, telling them how there was just a bit more than we expected.

  Both my parents gave me a face that told me they didn’t believe it was that simple. They knew me too well.

  How much was I supposed to tell them?

  My mind lingered towards the fragment of the demon’s horn that floated inside the dimension ring I was twisting with my thumb.

  The scene flashed through with such clarity, as if plastered into my brain. The dismembered corpses… The river of blood… Alea…

  Taking a deep breath, I told them the full story. All of it…

  …At least until where I landed

  I never understood why those old stiffs from the Council in my previous world used to say ‘ignorance is bliss’ ...until now.

  Nothing good would come out of knowing everything I witnessed at the bottom of that dungeon earlier today.

  “When Professor Glory came in yesterday during the middle of the night, she was wounded and tired but from her expression, I knew she wasn’t even thinking about that.” My mother’s hoarse voice broke the silence that followed after my story.

  “She said that you stayed behind with her to save the class. She told me you were a hero. But you know what? I didn’t care.” Her voice barely made it to a whisper as she trembled slightly.

  “More so than some hero, I just wanted my son to come home without being half dead every time. What if one of these days…” My mother couldn’t finish her sentence as tears began streaming down her face once more.

  “Art, you’re only twelve but why does it feel like I’ve almost lost you so many times already?” Her voice choked.

  “…”

  Words failed to form again as I stared blankly at a particular mole on my mother’s arm. How was I supposed to respond? Her question felt like a trap with no right answer.

  “Honey, that’s enough.” My father reached for Mother’s hand and grasped it tenderly.

  I realized that, just like how I’m growing, my parents are growing as well. My father’s once immature, haughty side had been molded into a mature and gentle demeanor. He was still the same father that cracked jokes, but he had a layer of depth now that most likely came with raising my sister.

  My mother had always been on the mature side but through the years she’s become a bit more refined. Associating with the Helstea house and with Tabitha and Vincent’s friends had made her more elegant, but right now, she seemed to have reverted back to an earlier age when her emotions weren’t as stable.

  I didn’t blame her. I would probably be tempted to lock Ellie indoors if she ever came home even half as wounded as I had been earlier today.

  The rest of the conversation went by a bit more comfortably. Tabitha and Vincent came down after noticing that things seemed to have been settled. I hadn’t seen them in quite a while so after greeting them, we all took some time to catch up.

  Ellie was nodding off to sleep so I carried her to her room, leaving Sylvie with her. Even in her sleep, my sister still sniffled from crying so much. Through the night, she didn’t say a word. I knew that this episode had been pretty traumatic for her. A professor actually visited them, after all, and told them that I was missing. If not for the ring that my mother wore telling her that I, at the very least, had not died, she would’ve already fainted.

  It might actually have been worse for my mother, in this case, to have the ring. All she could do was stare at the ring, waiting for it to notify her that her son had died. What kind of mother would be fine after going through that?

  Getting to my room, I slipped out of my tattered uniform and washed up. I planted my face directly against the current of the warm, gushing water, almost wanting it to erase what had occurred earlier in the dungeon. Alea’s last moments kept pounding into my skull as a constant reminder of how weak I was.

  *Knock* *Knock*

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure,” I replied.

  My father entered, closing the door behind him before taking a seat next to me on my bed.

  “Arthur, don’t mind too much what your mother said tonight. She may have said she didn’t want a hero but we are both proud of what you did back there in the dungeon. Knowing that my son isn’t someone who’d abandon his allies is something I can take absolute pride in.”

  I always knew when my father was serious because he would call me by my full name instead of my nickname - Art.

  “I don’t know what really happened back there in the dungeon and I won’t ask, but just know that I’ll support whatever you decide to do.”

  I struggled to swallow the knot that formed in my throat upon hearing my father’s last sentence. It was supposed to be a supportive statement but all I felt was a sour taste in my mouth.

  Without giving me a chance to respond, my father stood up and ruffled my hair. Opening the door to my room, he turned his head and gave me a goofy grin before walking out.

  I didn’t immediately go to sleep when he closed the door behind him. Instead I sat cross-legged and began doing something I haven’t done seriously in a long time - training.

  ____________________________________________

  The dark yellow core inside the pit of my sternum had cracks all over it, signaling that I was about to break through soon.

  The various noises of the night were drowned out as I keenly focused on the activity going on inside me. Wind, Earth, Fire, Water… these were the basic elemental attributes that mana had, but that was it; they were merely attributes.

  When mana circulates inside the core and throughout the body, it wasn’t distinguished as anything other than simply mana. Like the ki in my old world, it was formless, attributeless, and pure. Over time, mana will adapt to its surroundings and form attributes. For example, near regions in the north where there is much more snow and water, magic pertaining to those elements will obviously become stronger due to the attributes of the mana. The mana, depending on the environment, slowly changes and contains attributes to better exist there.

  As mages, we are able to absorb, purify and guide mana with our will into different shapes and forms that we call spells.

  The purer our mana core is, the higher the capability we have in manipulating the existing mana inside us. As to how well one utilizes their mana, that will depend on how creative, sharp, and skillful the mage is when fighting.

  The whole aspect of elements lies in the underlying fact that everyone had elements that they are naturally more sensitive to; being able to manifest and shape that pure, attributeless mana into an element being the cause.

  Alea, along with the other Lances, were most likely white core mages, capable of causing widespread devastation if they truly wished to. Yet, Alea had been so easily defeated and killed by that black-horned demon.

  Every pore in my body took part in absorbing the surrounding mana as the mana inside my core swirled fiercely.

  *Crack* *Crack*

  I imagined the sound of outer layer of my core cracking as the bright yellow underneath the crumbl
ing outer shell was revealed.

  “Phooo…” As I let out a deep breath, I stood up and opened my eyes to stare deeply at my hands. I willed mana out of my body and it began circulating around me.

  Letting out an unsatisfied ‘Tch’ I sat back down again and began cultivating once more. It took me almost the entire night to break through when I had been already on the brink anyway.

  How much more did I have to train in order to even be on par with those demons? If even a white core mage had to give her life to merely chip off a fragment of the demon’s horn, what stage did I have to get to?

  What would happen after breaking through past the white core stage?

  Chapter 71: A Confusing Day

  I decided to stay home one more day before heading back to school. I was going to come back next week for the Aurora Constellate, but I guess mother and sister developed some sort of trauma, that I was going to somehow get hurt every time I left home.

  I knew that I had people to inform but I owed it to them to be there.

  As a change of pace, I was determined to spend time with my family, namely my mother and sister. Father left at dawn for work after checking up on me so it would just be myself and the girls. Tabitha decided to tag along and after a rather brief discussion; they wanted to go shopping. It was fairly apparent to me that they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  Sigh…

  I could at least use that chance to take a detour, after, to Xyrus Academy. I knew that everyone was safe according to what my parents heard from Professor Glory, but I shouldn’t keep them in the dark about what happened to me for an extra day. I was also a bit worried about the condition of Tess’s assimilation.

  I lost count of the many places we visited after the umpteenth store but I didn’t dare show my displeasure in front of the girls. While browsing through the stores, I realized how ignorant I was. The fact that the only time I browsed through stores was a bit after I was first reborn into this world, struck me; this, coupled with the fact that I had no noteworthy equipment besides my sword, made me contemplate getting new equipment. I still remembered the time when I was slung on the back of Mother and got to see all of the small tents filled with merchandise back up in the tiny town of Ashber.

  Most of my childhood was spent in the Kingdom of Elenoir, more specifically, inside the castle. Even the previous time I went shopping with the ladies, we went directly to the fashion district so nothing appealed to me. There were some items with protective capabilities from either the material it’s made from or from runes etched into the inside, but nothing powerful enough to catch my interest.

  “Aunt Helstea, are there stores where they sell something that can help me train faster?” I asked while we were headed inside a store that specifically sells only scarves.

  “Hmm? You mean elixirs? Of course.” Tabitha gives me a confused look as if I had asked some sort of trick question.

  I’ve never used the elixirs here, but if they were anything like the drugs some practitioners used in my old world, then I didn’t want to get anywhere near them.

  “There’s actually a small elixir and medicine shop around the corner if you want to go take a look while we shop for some scarves…”

  That was all I needed to hear before strategically bolting out of the store.

  “Thank you! I’ll meet you in front of the store!” I shouted while running out after carefully dropping the bags I was assigned to carry.

  “Kyuu!” ‘Don’t leave me!’

  I saw Sylvie extend a paw out towards me in a desperate attempt to escape Ellie’s firm hold on her but I just gave her a look of condolence before running off.

  ‘Your sacrifice will not be in vain,’ I saluted.

  After turning the corner as per instructions, my face crumpled up in bewilderment.

  This was a store?!

  The corner I turned in led me into a narrow alleyway that thugs had probably used to mug unsuspecting passersby. At the end of the narrow alleyway was a dingy shack that even rats would find too revolting to live in. The wooden planks that made up the store looked like it had been painted with moss and fungus as a musty, stale air emanated out, drifting towards me. At least it complemented the sickly green weeds creeping out from the bottom of the store as if even they didn’t want to be stuck there.

  WINDSOM’S POTIONS AND MEDICINES

  I had to tilt my head to read the etched title on the angled sign, which had been barely dangling on a single nail.

  Did they really sell potions and medicines there? I would be less surprised if they sold bottled diseases and poisons.

  “Spare some change, young lad?” A haggard voice startled me out of my stupefied state.

  Beside me, sitting down was a pale old man with a hand reached out towards me, palms up.

  I immediately took a step back in surprise, instinctively layering my body with mana.

  How did I not sense this old man that was almost right next to me?

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, young lad. I’m but a mere aged man asking for some change.” The old man’s face wrinkles as he reveals a pearly white smile that didn’t match his ragged state.

  “Ah yeah, sure.” I reach in my pocket for a copper coin, using the opportunity to take a closer look at him.

  With a thick, uncombed bed of pepper-tinted hair that fell down to his slightly hunched shoulders, he looked up at me with his milky eyes. The old man’s wizened face, though, didn’t come off to me as weak and weary, but intelligent and bright, for some reason. I could tell that this man was probably very handsome in his youth, which all the more made me feel a bit disheartened seeing him end up like this.

  “Many thanks, young lad.” His gnarled hands nimbly grabbed the coin out of my hand with a speed that surprised me.

  Between his middle and index fingers was a coin that was silver instead of copper

  Damn! I gave him a silver coin by mistake! That’s 100 copper coins!

  “Wait… I meant to give you this…” I reached into my pocket again and when I made sure that this time, the coin in my hand was indeed copper, I looked back up to see that the old man was gone.

  “What the…” I stood there, bewildered for the third time in the last five minutes.

  My money…

  After letting a helpless sigh escape my lips, I took a step forward towards Windsom’s potion shack. I reached for the handle of the wooden door that seemed like it would break upon mere contact when I felt a concentration of mana from the copper door knob.

  Coating my hand in mana, I wrapped my fingers around the knob, preparing to turn it, when a stiff jolt coursed through my hand and up my arm. Thankfully, the mana protecting my hand helped me from pulling away so I forcefully twisted the knob, opening the door.

  *Cling*

  As soon as the door unlocked, the shock stopped as well. Pushing open the creaking door, I’m welcomed by a breeze of something indescribably horrendous. The stench was so strong that it immediately triggered a stream of coughs from me.

  “Oh a customer! What can I do for you?” A familiar voice welcomed me.

  “You!” I couldn’t help but point my finger at him in both anger and confusion. It was the same homeless old man that disappeared after taking my silver coin!

  “What brings you in here?” He looked at me with an innocent expression.

  *Sigh* “Can I just have my coin back? I need that money to buy some stuff I need… and besides, you said you were homeless.” I stuck my hand out towards him.

  “No no... I said I was but a mere aged man. Based on the environment where you met me and by my appearance and demeanor, you assumed I was homeless.” He wagged his finger at me in a scolding manner, as if I was the one in the wrong.

  “How about this, you can pick one item here for free as a thank you for the present.” He answered in a magnanimous manner as he twiddled my silver coin between his fingers, mockingly.

  My brows twitched in annoyance but I calmed myself down and quickly
took a scan around the sorry excuse of a store.

  “Are you sure there are even items here worth a silver coin?” My voice came out with a twinge of frustration in it.

  “Of course! I don’t give this chance to just anyone, you know. You just have to choose carefully.” The old man’s eyes gave off the excited twinkle of a 2nd rate gambler who had a winning hand.

  I rubbed my temples to try and calm the boiling rage stirring up inside of me.

  The elderly should be respected, Arthur.

  The elderly should be respected…

  By this time, my nose had become accustomed to the mysterious stench that had the power to drive even the most ferocious mana beasts away. Taking a look through the shelves caked with dust, I became more and more amazed at how this place was still even running.

  “Don’t you ever clean this place, old man?” I asked as I slid my finger along one of the shelves. I could probably build a snowman out of dust with the amount collected here.

  “Are you asking an aged man like myself to do manual labor?” He gasps sarcastically, putting on a horrified expression.

  “Never mind.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at this man. I couldn’t gauge him and that made it all the harder for me to trust him.

  Making my way past the half-open boxes blocking the path, I go towards the shelves near the back of the store.

  While scanning through the various vials and containers filled with either murky liquid or colored pills, I’m startled by a figure sitting on the top of the shelf.

  Dammit, what was with this place?

  I couldn’t sense anything inside here until it was right in front of my nose.

  The figure became more apparent as I focused on it; it was an almost pitch black cat. The only part of its body that wasn’t black were the tuffs of white fur in front of its ears, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. It was the cat’s captivating eyes. Eyes that seemed as if it held the universe inside them. It looked like the night sky with bright twinkling stars sprinkled inside each of its eyes, with its white, vertical slitted pupil glowing like a crescent moon.