Chapter 13:

Rine’s lungs were on fire as he ran through the forest, and the sword in his hand grew heavier with each passing second. But none the less, he refused to slow down for he knew what type of terror was coming for him.

‘Shit shit shit shit shit’ His mind was constantly in a state of panic as he ran through every curse word in his dictionary.

[To build a grand structure, we must first demolish the mess that existed before it.] He remembered the old man saying with the appearance of a strict teacher.

[It’s going to hurt, but I know you know that it’s what’s best for you.]

‘Best for me my ass’ He thought as he felt his muscles tightening and aching. If that wasn’t enough, he could still feel the wounds all over his body threaten to burst open at any moment. Granted, the old man’s medicine was great and his wounds did begin to heal at a surprising pace, but did that really give the old bastard an excuse to punish him so much?

He grounded his teeth as the thought of the old man’s smirking face fueled his anger even more.

But this fury proved to be detrimental as, in a moment of carelessness, his foot got caught in a particularly thick tree root. He tumbled down while twisting his ankle. Pain shot up his leg and through his entire body, but Rine could care less as he felt a familiar object rapidly approaching his direction. Before he could react, he heard a loud thud beside his head. Shifting his gaze over, he saw an arrow sticking out of a nearby tree trunk inches away from his face.

A shiver was sent down his spine he recalled a certain person’s warning [You get one warning shot] The cold voice echoed in his mind.

“Fuck” He said aloud as he frantically raised his sword up. In the nick of time, the sword intercepted another arrow that aimed for his eyes. The recoil was heavy and Rine’s hands hurt from the impact.

Hurriedly he stood from his position and began to run again. But a few steps in, he realized the pain from his ankle was too much to bear, and thus his end drew near.

He slowed his pace as he began to chant the words to a spell. A few seconds later he narrowly dodged another arrow, before standing his ground and yelling: “Fight me, coward!”

No response came.

Rine’s eyes darted from place to place as he felt the power of his spell weakening with time. He knew it was a mistake to prepare spells beforehand, but it was a difficult habit to get rid of. Rine grew angrier as he realized that his assailant was purposefully stalling. “Tsk” He clicked his tongue as he deactivated the spell's chant. Like clockwork, seconds later, he caught a glimpse of a fleeting figure as it dashed its way from tree to tree.

Rine grew anxious for he knew what came next.

A moment of silence descended as he made a mad dash to finish another casting. But as if mocking him, a sword slash threatened to decapitate him. He stumbled backward in a panic and fell on his ass.

Wincing at the pain, he tried to stand once again but he was prevented from doing so by the cold feeling of a blade resting against his neck.

With dread, he looked towards the attacker's face.

Only to be met with two emotionless eyes. “You...lose….” Though his accent was terrible, Rine was able to understand his words perfectly.

“I’m sorry.” Towards the strange man, Rine felt emotionally conflicted. On one hand, he found his actions to be barbaric and excessively cruel, while on the other hand his actions also made sense.

Thinking back to the magician he killed, Amy, he was reminded of her hollow eyes as life slowly drained from them. The barest hint of emotions showing on her face as death took her soul.

“Come.” Rine felt the sword retreat from his neck as the man’s cold voice informed him of their next actions.

“Can’t we take a break?” He asked between pants.

The man said nothing as he looked at Rine’s disheveled appearance.

“Fine.” Sheathing the sword back into his side, he then sat down and closed his eyes.

He watched the man with curious eyes. He was undoubtedly one of the strongest people he had ever known, however, that wasn’t saying much considering his short experience. The old man said that the man fell under the tier of low-mid rank warriors. And while Rine did not know how strong that was exactly, he was at least sure it was much stronger than himself.

“So you’re name is Cort huh?” He attempted to make conversation.

“Yes.”

“Cool cool.” Rine fumbled with the close-ended answer.

“You’re not from Elemente, right? Which continent are you from?”

Cort opened his eyes and looked at Rine plainly. “Are you done resting?”

“A few more minutes. Are you from Mach?” He asked as he recalled Cort’s use of an artifact during the fight with William.

“Mach… the continent that excels in the production of artifacts and the only place where Himmel’s first and last divine level artifact was found or made.”

“So you are from Himmel!?” He asked with shining eyes.

“No.”

“…”

“…”

“Are you done resting?”

“Yes…”

                                                                                 …………………………………………

“Fine minutes and 56 seconds.” The old man said as he lazily stared at his disciples. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you’re improving but must you do it at such a soul-crushingly slow pace Rine-my-boy?”

“Yeah yeah. I know.” Rine replied distractedly as he rubbed some kind of oil over his swollen ankle.

“In any case let’s continue with our lessons. Do you remember what we talked about yesterday?”

“Yes, you talked about the classification system for magicians.”

“What are the main stages a magician must go through?”

“The stages are Origin Accumulation, Core Formation, Core Refinement, Core perfection, and finally Creationist stage.”

“Good. I won’t go over the details of each stage, for now, you’ll learn about that when you get to it. Just know that the earlier stages are all about building a solid base and each of the first three determines an important aspect of your fighting capability.”

“Got it…. I think”

“Don’t sweat it boyo I’ll explain. Take Origin Accumulation for instance. So long as a magician reaches the required level of refined origin, he or she will be able to break-through.”

“How will I know when it’s time to break-through?”

“You’ll just know.”

Rine tilted his head in confusion at the old man’s words. ‘Isn’t that a bit too wishy-washy?’

“However, it is common for magicians to hold off on advancing to Core Formation. As-”

“What? Really? Why?’

“I’m getting to it. The aspect that the first stage focuses on is reserve limit. Also known as the amount of refined origin you can have at any given time. Now, stored origin may be less potent than freshly refined origin in the context of attacking, but it is essential to Refining and perfecting your core. Thus it makes sense that the more Stored origin you have, the better your chances are at forming a decent core. The larger and more robust a core is, the better a base it will make.”

The old man watched the boy’s glazed over eyes as he waited for him to ask the question he had brewing in his noggin.

“Where is the core exactly?”

The old man pinched his brows as he felt a headache coming on. “It’s here” He said as he pointed towards a spot just below Rine’s belly button.

“Woah really?”

“No, it’s just where it’s commonly visualized. A magician’s core is both existing and non-existing, it is more of a notion or a concept rather than a physical entity. So I guess the more appropriate place for it would be here.” The old man pointed towards his head.

“I understood nothing of what you just said. If the core is in my mind, then why did you point at my stomach?”

“Because it’s one of the main key points of Origin flow. Regardless, you’ll understand later just remember to protect that spot well.”

The old man sat up from his slouching position as he looked at the boy.

“Now onto today’s topic. Origin Absorption. Where does one get Origin?”

“From his surroundings.”

“Yes, Origin is all around us. It permeates through every object, living or not. This tree has Origin, the plants around us have Origin, even the soil beneath our feet has Origin. We magicians typically extract Origin from our surroundings for either temporary or permanent use. When using a spell for example. Spells never last forever and one of the hallmarks of a strong magician is spell duration. When a spell expires, its origin is diffused back into the surroundings. The tale differs for when magicians refine origin and use it to build their cores, as in this case they permanently take origin from their environment. This robbing of Origin sometimes has adverse effects on the lands, but that is a lesson for another time.”

Rine yawned as he listened to the old man prattle on. He vaguely knew of how important the matters he spoke of were, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Now, the method of accumulating origin is quite straightforward and widespread. In fact, it is a longstanding tradition for each emperor of Verlau to divulge his method of origin accumulation. These methods are then written down and distributed among the masses. Which has led to the odd situation of there being an ever-constant flood of techniques one could use to accumulate Origin. But the gist of it is quite simple. A magician must first feel the Origin surrounding him, and once he establishes contact he must then draw it within himself. Show me your method boy.”

Rine snapped awake as he heard the old man address him “W-what?”

The old man sighed. “Gather origin.”

“Oh..ok” He closed his eyes as a look of concentration overtook his face.

The old man watched this with amusement before waving his hand at the youth’s direction.

Rine staggered as he felt the gathering origin dissipate “Hey what was that for?” He asked with annoyance.

“Rule one: Never close your eyes. Start again”

“Wait how am I supposed to gather Origin while not closing my eyes?”

“And who said closing your eyes was necessary?”

“I… it’s how I always did it.”

“It’s not how you did it during the fight with William.”

“What are you talking about?”

The old man paused as he looked at the youth’s honest appearance. ‘Strange. Does he not remember? Could it be…… is he gathering Origin subconsciously? No. Impossible.’

“OK enough nagging kid, here’s the deal. Magicians don’t have to be in a state of meditation to gather origin, and the ability to gather it while moving is invaluable. Thus its beneficial to start training that during the formative stages. For now, you don’t need to move, but don’t close your eyes.”

Rine stopped protesting as he listened to the old man explain. “Will this make me stronger?”

“Yes.”

“Fine then.”

Rine concentrated once more as he began to feel his surroundings for origin. Doing so with wide-open eyes felt extremely alien to him. It almost felt as if he was trying to sleep without shutting his eyes. It was unnatural.

The old magician watched the youth while pondering over the events of that night. He did find it strange how the boy’s power fluctuated wildly from spell to spell. There were even times where the spell’s power encroached upon the level of magicians nearing the Core Formation stage.

‘There’s something there….’ The old man struggled to completely see through the youth as he felt a headache coming on. ‘And this one is the least troublesome one’ He looked over his shoulder towards the other member of their trio. The mature yet still youthful face of Cort remained fixed on the boy as he watched him struggle with his task.

‘Tomorrow’s the final day huh…’ The old man thought as he recalled the deal he made with him prior.

                                                                                     …………………………………………

“Simply amazing.” Cort muttered as he dipped his fingers into the ointment. Lifting his fingers up he could feel a liquid with the viscosity of oil and the color of vinegar drip down his hand. The old man called this medicine and while Cort was skeptical during the making of it, he couldn’t deny the results. In three days most of his flesh wounds were stabilized, and while some of his bones remained broken, the pain was bearable.

‘Though, the process of making it is still utterly disgusting.’ Cort shivered as he remembered the smell.

He wiped the oil over his wounds as he massaged the areas that ached deeper. His gaze refocused towards the concentrating Rine who was still attempting to gather origin with open eyes. His mind was still digesting the information spouted by the old man during his lecture. He could understand him perfectly despite using another language and this proved useful in his learning of the language. As for reading, while that was trickier, he still had a way to comprehend it faster.

After half an hour, he was done with his treatment and was ready to move. He stood up while looking at the sun. Night was approaching, and he now had errands to run.

Looking at the pair of magicians, they were still focusing on completing the day’s task.

Cort said nothing as he disappeared into the forest.

                                                                                         …………………………………………