Once again, neither of them spotted a tail, but that wasn't enough for Lith. His pursuers could
just really be good at hiding or waiting for him to lower his guard.
Back at home, for the first time in a month, the whole family was reunited for lunch. Lith
arrived just in time to hear Rena complaining that her fianc¨¦ couldn't join them because of his
work.
Lith was secretly happy with that. After three days of pretending, he just wanted to be
himself. He did not like Sentar, but since he never liked any of his sister's suitors it didn't
mean much.
"Dad, I think this is partly your fault. You should stop glaring at him every time you think I am
not looking."
"Since when do I glare?" Raaz put the right hand on his heart, feigning sincerity.
"You know that I like that boy, otherwise I would have never consented to the marriage."
"Please. Since I was twelve, you glared at everyone who got anywhere near me, no matter if
kid, man or elder. You seem to have passed that skill to Lith. Senton said to me multiple times
that whenever he is alone with you, he feels like facing a firing squad."
"That's sign of a guilty conscience." Raaz rebutted.
"Mine instead is clear." Lith chimed in. "I have always been frank with him." In fact, it was the
barrage of not-so veiled threats that scared his future brother-in-law the most.
"You too, sis? Lil bro doesn't glare, he is only protective!"
No one in the family had the courage to tell Tista that her brother that she considered a hero
in her heart, wasn't as perfect as she pictured him, so they happily changed topic.
Lith really enjoyed the meal with his family. Despite she did not have access to the high-
quality ingredients like the academy's cooks, his mother's dishes were always the one tasting
the best.
Raaz shared with him his plans for expanding the farm. The days when they had barely the
money to keep the house standing were long gone. As soon his father finished, the family
started with a barrage of questions he was unprepared for.
They wanted to know everything about the academy. How were the Professors, how his
schoolmates were behaving, if he was eating well and so on.
Clearly, they had only half believed to Lith's daily reports, and wanted to have clear answers
while looking at him in the eyes. It took quite a while to convince them that no one was
harassing him and that both the Headmaster and the Professors were good people.
He even had to exaggerate his relationship with the exam's group, making it sound like they
were already good friends. Contrary to his expectations, none of his parents seemed happy
with such news.
"Lith, I don't think you should be so trusting. You barely know them from three days." Elina
said.
"You see, not always people are like they appear. For every good and sincere person you
meet, there is always another ready to say everything, just to get what he wants. I'm sorry
dear, but it's the truth.
I wanted to hide this as long as I could, but your safety is more important than preserving
your innocence. Even in our small village, since Nana took you under her wing, your rise in
status has made many of our community proud, but many more envious of your success.
My friends kept me posted about all the gossip, how so many thought you were an arrogant
brat at first. Then, once you started your apprenticeship, they started to wish for you to fail,
just to feel better about themselves."
Raaz took Elina's hand, holding it tight.
"What your mother is trying to say, is that if even people that we know from years and almost
consider as family can be so mean, the more the reason to be wary of strangers. Don't believe
blindly in pretty words and kind smiles.
You don't know a person true worth until you really need their help. Always remember what
happened to the poor Nana. So, don't try to change or force yourself to be someone else just
to please a bunch of snotty kids.
If they really are your friends, they'll accept you for who you are. If not, know that is not your
fault. It's just that the world is harsh, true friendship isn't as easy to find like in the bedtime
stories I told you when you were little.
A real friend is like a treasure, hard to find, even harder to keep. Life will keep pushing you
away, but you must never let go of a real friend."
Lith unconsciously rubbed his thumb on Solus' ring, making her giggle like a little girl.
"I never expected my father to be so direct." Lith thought, without realizing what it meant to
him thinking of the word 'father' without making it sound like an insult.
"I always took him for a simple and honest man, trying his best at a simple and honest job
while taking care of his family. Who would have guessed that one day he would make me a
speech about being cynic and distrustful?" ¨C
While pondering about life's twisted irony, Lith realized the key element he and Solus had
been missing to make true forgemastering work.
Chapter 90 Lith¡¯s Surprise
Lith first instinct was to run away and test his theory, but he hadn't returned home to spend
his time working, he really needed some real rest while enjoying the luxury of being his real
self, with no strings attached.
"Mom, dad, thank you." He replied. "I know how cruel people can be. I learned it from
experience since the day I started working as a healer. It started with that noble trying to kill
me, and continued by showing me what a man can do to his wife, a parent to his own
children."
He avoided mentioning brothers, since despite the passing of years, Orpal's name kept stirring
a lot of pain in his parent's hearts.
"This village is not perfect, the world is not perfect. But I'll do my best to remain true to
myself and make you all proud of me."
Lith could say that looking them straight in the eyes, since the wording of choice didn't
mention what his morals were or how he meant to achieve his goals. In his mind, it was all a
white lie to prevent his family from worrying about him.
He stood up and hugged his family one at a time, feeling the warmth of their embrace and
love.
After finishing their meal, Lith insisted to be the one to do the dishes. Elina opposed at first,
but before anyone could even move one plate, he had already washed and cleaned dishes,
cookware and the whole room.
"Show-off!" Tista pretended to scold him.
They spent the following hour discussing the last arrangements for Rena's marriage, which
brought several grunts from the male side of the family, and Lith's academy life, which
brought several grunts from the female side of the family.
He had lived all his life as a monk, going from home to work and vice versa, and doing nothing
else. They had hoped that being surrounded by so many girls, he would have found one of his
liking.
"Dammit, first Yurial tries to set me up with a date, then you, Solus, with all your innuendos,
and now this? For crying out loud, who cares about romance at twelve?"
"You would be right¡" Solus replied. "If this wasn't a world where people get married around
sixteen and seventeen years of age. There's only so much time to just hang out for fun or
make experience with the opposite sex.
Unles
s one plans to marry with his first girlfriend or has an arranged marriage, of course." ¨C
After that, everyone had to go back to work. Daylight was precious, and only Lith was actually
on vacation. Before going back to his forgemastering lab, Lith visited and treated all the
animals in the farm and the farmhands his parents employed.
It would ensure the rise of their reputation and saved them quite some money.
Once back inside Solus's ruined tower form, he could finally share his enlightment. He had
actually offered her to read his mind, to stop the pestering, but she refused.
With the growing trust between them, they rarely accessed each other mind, preferring to
rely on their telepathic link, unless it was absolutely necessary.
"The problem with our earlier experiments, is that we were just imitating the form of the
forgemastering spell, not his nature."
"Meaning?" Solus asked.
"Well, replicating a fire ball is easy, it's just an exploding flame. But what does exactly
forgemastering do? What does each rune individually? That's the problem that we
overlooked. Fake magic is like true magic with auto-pilot."
He took out the dimensional amulet he had bought from the academy, using Invigoration on
it, while Solus did the same.
Unlike for normal unanimated objects, Invigoration was capable of tracing the mana flow
cursing through magical item.
It revealed a mana sphere similar to a core, but much rougher and simpler, kept stable by
thirteen mana patterns that insulated it from external influences.
"By my maker, how did you get the idea of using Invigoration like this?" Solus was amazed by
this discovery.
"Actually, I didn't. It's all thanks to that Scorpicore. Remember when it passed me it's pince-
nez to analyse it?" Solus mind nodded.
"That's the first time that I did it, but back then I was too scared to understand the implication
of the lesson the creature imparted me. I don't know if it did it on purpose to teach me how
to recognize cursed objects, or was just trying to convince me of its good faith.
Whatever was its purpose it taught me something new about true magic, and in turn the true
nature of forgemastering. Unlike some hypothesized, forgemastering isn't about feeling the
mana flow in an object and enhance it.
On the contrary, it allows to create a pseudo mana core, that has to be literally engraved into
an object, and then stabilized by precise mana patterns, that feed on the world energy for
self-sustenance and prevent the core from dissipating.
Unlike yours, the pseudo cores have no conscience, just a purpose. Without an external
binding they would just dissipate in the thin air. To double check my theory, let's analyse the
cuffs of my uniform too."
The pseudo core designed to store the Ballot was even smaller than the one in the amulet,
but more refined.
"Well, this makes sense." Solus pondered. "The amulet can store anything, while the cuffs
only the Ballot. To apply such restriction, the core must be more complex. But that means¡"
"Yeah." Lith sighed. "It means that we will have to forgemaster all the items in the book with
fake magic, just to study their cores and understand the underlying principles, before creating
something really new."
Lith needed several attempts to understand how to carve the patterns inside an object
without looking into it via Invigoration. Every test required a lot of focus and mana
expenditure, but with every failure, he was closer to success.
"Well, now we also know why Forgemasters require so much mana. Even an inanimate object
offers a tremendous resistance to the external energy. The more complex and powerful the
artifact, the more complex the pseudo core must be.
If a 'simple' dimensional object it's taking so much time and effort, I wonder how powerful
was the mage that created that pince-nez." Solus said.
"Probably it was his/her life's work." Lith replied.
"Yeah, it also explains why second attempts at forgemastering are useless. Every rune leaves a
carving, if one creates a wrong pathway for the mana, the object becomes useless."
Lith nodded, noticing something unusual.
"Odd, I should have exhausted my mana many times over, yet I'm only starting to feel tired
now, and I have yet to use Invigoration once."
"Maybe thanks to our bond, you have access to the world energy geyser too." Solus
proposed.
"That would explain why in the legends mages were said to be invincible in their towers.
Between an almost endless supply of mana and the tower defences, defeating them should
be nigh impossible."
Lith and Solus kept working non-stop, and before sunset they had already realized their first
dimensional pebble. Lith brought it in the bedroom, and Solus framed it right beside the
entrance, adding a small tag with the date and a small incision.
"Our first work together."
After that, they created seven low-tier dimensional rings with true magic. He was certain to
be able to craft even the high tier ones, but that would have been a fatal mistake.
Dimensional rings could not be kept hidden, they had to be used, otherwise it was like not
having one at all. According to the academy's records, Lith creating low-tier objects was
already an impressing feat.
Distributing freely high-tier ones would be madness, no less than putting a bullseye on his
chest and back.
Before returning home, he went to Selia's place, her first mentor, the woman who taught him
how to survive with his hunting skills.
"Look who's back! Still all dressed up and everything, I see." Selia hugged him, leaving Lith
quite shocked. He never pegged her for the affectionate type.
"Well, yeah. This uniform can't get dirty and is almost indestructible. I have no reason to
change outfit." He explained returning the hug.
"Wish I had one too." She sighed. "Since you left, doing the house chores is such a bother."
"This disciple is really sorry, Master Selia." Lith mocked her. "But I hope this will make your life
easier." He handed her a ring.
She wasn't impressed at all.
"You know, is all right for a hunter to be stingy. But being smug while handing a cheap ring
like this is below even us."
Seeing her disappointed, Lith laughed out loud.
"I admit the ring isn't worth more than ten copper coins by itself, but just like me, it's more
than meets the eye."
He shortly explained her how to imprint the ring. Even someone who had never practiced
chore magic could do it at the first try. After realizing what it was, Selia was left speechless.
"I did it myself." Lith explained. "It can only store three square meters (33 square feet) but at
least you will not be bothered anymore by your equipment and your preys. If you feel lazy,
you can even use it to store food and keep it warm."
"This¡ this is too much. I cannot accept it." Selia knew that such object was worth over thirty
gold coins.
One could build a luxury house at Lutia with all that money. Not to mention it was an
invaluable tool for a hunter, keeping the preys fresh before field dressing it or while looking
for a good buyer.
She tried to give it back, but Lith closed her hand around it with his palms.
"You can, and you must
. First because once imprinted, it's useless to anyone else, unless you
die, of course.
And second, because despite you have always been a stingy, nagging Master that would make
rip-off deals, it's only because of your help that my family was saved from hunger and
starvation, and that's a debt that not even this ring can settle."
Chapter 91 An Old Friend
Lith never expected for Selia Fastarrow to get all sentimental, and in fact she didn't. Her eyes
had barely the opportunity to get watery before she steeled up, replying with a giant grin.
"Now that you mention it, I really deserve this trinket." She said retrieving the hand from his
grasp and using it to ruffle his short black hair. Selia was moved, but didn't like to show her
emotions in front of others.
"It's only thanks to the secret stash of meat that I hid and tenderized for you that you
managed to grow so big and strong. In a way, I'm part of your family as well." She said
playfully, trying to lighten the mood.
"In a way? You are part of my family. Almost like an aunt" Lith replied, hoping to achieve a
critical hit and make her tough mask crumble. He didn't really care much, otherwise he would
have kept tabs on her health too during all those years.
But Lith's debt was real. Without her help and contacts, hunting beasts would have provided
meat, but not money or clothing from the pelts and hides. Everything would have gone to
waste, making his family's life much harder.
Lith wasn't willing to keep any tab open, nor he was enough of a scum to forget about
someone just because she had apparently outlived her usefulness. Relations were important
in such small community.
It was unlikely that whenever his family would need help, he would always be able to
promptly return. Also, he had no idea how long the Court would protect them in his stead.
Between Nana and Selia, they would have the two most important local figures by their side,
leaving the need to call for the Count or the Marchioness only in case it was absolutely
necessary.
Selia hugged him tight enough to squeeze the air from his lungs.
"If I end up marrying and having children of my own it would be all your fault." She said
sobbing a little.
"Who would ever guessed that rude little jerks could become so cute?"
"Guess I exaggerated a bit. I didn't mean to crank the drama to eleven, just wanted her to
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