Corwyn would have never thought that the sight of the endless desert before him would bring joy to his heart. If it hadn't been for the special circumstances in Konen, then he probably wouldn't have felt this way at all.
The expedition party had successfully passed the territory of the juggernaut and now walked up and down the countless dunes. It had been over a month since the last time they had walked purely on sandy ground, and it gave off a nostalgic feeling. It was as if all that happened in Konen was just a dream, and the expedition continued onward like it always had.
Except, there was one tiny difference in their march formation through the desert from before. To be precise, it was dozens of people fawning over a single young man, walking at the far back of the party. It really didn't make much difference to Rogar, the leader of the expedition, but concerning the young man himself, the situation couldn't be even more annoying.
"I told you already, it's not a big deal! There's no need for you to thank me, really!"
"How could we not do that? You saved us all! If we don't show you our gratitude, how could we face you in the future?"
"That's right, how could we not?"
"You are a hero now, Corwyn!"
"Goddamnit, I told you not to call me that!"
The young man in question was, of course, Corwyn. As soon as the award ceremony was over and the expedition party left the city, countless adventurers began to crowd around him to express their gratitude to him. Occasionally, some of them asked him questions about his ability, which he answered half-heartedly, since he didn't want to reveal too much about his ability to everyone.
Corwyn originally had planned to keep his ability a secret from the expedition party, except for his few friends, since he didn't want to attract attention. However, he had not expected that his ability would be the key to escaping the city of Konen, so he had no choice but to reveal it for the greater good.
In the end, that really allowed them to escape, but now, Corwyn had no way of hiding it any longer. All he could do was to swallow up his frustration and hope that the attention placed on him would slowly subside. Because currently, he had no idea of how to deal with the situation.
"Haah, being famous must be nice, huh?"
Hanaan said out loud with the face of someone who could barely hold back his laughter. Corwyn glared daggers at him.
"Shut up, it's not funny!"
"Oh, from my perspective, it really looks like you are enjoying yourself!"
"I told you already, that's not the case at all!"
In addition to Hanaan, Teo started to throw in comments too, which made Corwyn even angrier. But there was nothing he could do. Feeling gloomy, he kept on walking forward with his head hanging low. The day continued like that all the way until sunset, and the expedition stopped in order to prepare for the night. It was only then that Corwyn could finally escape the attention from the other adventurers and relax a little. While everyone was busy cooking and eating their dinner, his gaze wandered off into the distance.
Although their schedule got delayed by a whole month, their route and destination still stayed the same as before. In about two weeks time, the expedition party would reach the next city, and from there on, it would take another whole month to reach Corlina. So they still had quite a bit of distance to cross, but that couldn't compare to what awaited them after they had reached Corlina. Traveling through the desert was uncomplicated and relatively safe as long as one brought enough people and stayed near the Arcor veins. But the jungle in the south was different.
According to Rogar, a member of the previous expedition, the terrain of the jungle was difficult to cross, and there were no cities to resupply at all. Adding in the fact that multiple native tribes lived inside there, it was many times as dangerous as the desert. They ought to appreciate the time they had left until they reached that stage of their travel.
But Corwyn didn't want to think too much about the future. Currently, he was much more interested in his research towards his ability. Because of the difficult training environment in Konen, he had made great progress in increasing the Arcor capacity of his body and his Arcor control. His ability in creating weapons hadn't increased all that much though. There was nothing Corwyn could do about that for the time being. He needed Arcor in vast supply to forge a complete weapon, and it would take the expedition party several days to reach the nearest Arcor vein. Until then, Corwyn had to be patient and throw his curiosity to the side for the moment.
Corwyn returned to where everyone else sat and ate dinner with them. Teo and Hanaan continued to tease him, but Corwyn showed no reaction this time, so they quickly gave up and resumed eating their own dinner. Once he had finished the last bite, Corwyn turned his head towards Hanaan with a serious expression on his face. Hanaan noticed it and asked:
"Do you need something, Corwyn? Is something wrong?"
"Hanaan, train me!"
The man with the red hair blinked in surprise at Corwyn's serious attitude.
"What are you talking about? I'm already training you!"
"That's not what I meant. I want you to train me how to use two swords!"
Hanaan was once again stunned. Corwyn wanted to learn the dual blades style?
"What's with that sudden change of mind all of a sudden?"
Corwyn seemed to have trouble to explain the reason, because he turned his gaze downwards and folded his arms in his lap. His words came slowly and stagnant.
"It isn't really a particular reason... It's just that... You, Teo, Dalios, even squad leader Jarrok, you all have one defining combat style you excel at. But I am kind of a jack of all trades, and am proficient in multiple styles, however, I can't really switch my weapon during a real fight, and when facing people like you, who have mastered their combat style, there is no way I can win..."
He looked up again, straight at Hanaan's face.
"So, I need a combat style where I can hold my own even against strong opponents. From all our training, I know that the one-handed sword style is not where I'm best at, and the spear style isn't either. But your dual wielding style looks interesting and dynamic, so I thought I might as well give it a try."
Finally, Corwyn managed to put his thought process into clear words, and waited for Hanaan's answer.
Hanaan appeared to be spacing out for a moment, then ruffled his crimson red hair with his hand and averted his face from Corwyn's, looking down at the ground in front of him. His answer came in a low voice.
"Well, I don't have anything against teaching you in particular, so I don't mind. But I can't guarantee that it will really suit you. That depends on yourself."
Corwyn was briefly startled at the sight of the normally cheeky and open-minded Hanaan being embarrassed, but he decided not to mention it and instead replied:
"Thank you very much, Hanaan! I will definitely give my best!"
That sentence was all it took for a smirk to appear on Hanaan's face again instantly.
"Since you're that determined, I guess we should start immediately! And just so you know, I won't hold back against you, so you better prepare yourself for some bruises!"
"Figures."
Corwyn sighed, but was still happy inside that Hanaan agreed to train him. He stood up and followed him to a place a little to the side from the rest of the camp.
The next few days of traveling went by without anything out of the ordinary happening. Corwyn walked with everyone else, ate his meals and trained the dual blades every day. Occasionally there were some members of the expedition who were curious about his ability he had to shoo away, but apart from that, those days were quiet and peaceful.
It took them one week to reach the Arcor vein, and from there on out, travel became much safer compared to before. Indeed, nothing major had happened during the previous few days, but their experience with the juggernaut taught them to never let their guard down in the vast desert again.
Traveling along an Arcor vein simultaneously meant Arcor was available in large quantities again, allowing the water ability users in the party to fill some of the water barrels while they walked. For Corwyn it meant he could finally test out how much he had progressed in creating a weapon. But that had time until the night, for now, he didn't want to attract even more attention than he already did.
(The last thing I need to do now is to give them a live demonstration! That would practically ensure they never left me alone! No, I'll wait for dusk, that would definitely be the best plan.)
Once that was decided, Corwyn chose to stop thinking about his ability and instead let his mind wander to another topic that heavily lay on his mind currently. It had just been a week since Hanaan had started to teach him the dual blades, and it had proven to be considerably harder than Corwyn originally had imagined. It wasn't too difficult to move two swords at the same time, but to coordinate them both into combination attacks or continuous attacks was on a whole different level of difficulty. Most of the time, one of his swords was just dangling around doing nothing, and when he tried to use both at the same time, he often ended up hindering his own attacks or leaving large openings.
But after a week of training, Hanaan told him he had made considerable progress. In Corwyn's view, he still hadn't really improved, however, Hanaan told him that sometimes progress was visible to the eye of another while it was invisible to yourself. Corwyn had no idea if that was the truth or just an excuse to soothe the disappointment of his disciple, but on the other hand, Hanaan wasn't the type of guy who told you nice words to comfort you, so Corwyn decided to believe him for now.
Evening came eventually, and once everyone had settled down and was occupied with something else, Corwyn quickly made his escape from the squad and hid inside one of the supply tents. He quickly confirmed that no one had followed him, then gave all his attention to the Arcor around him. Corwyn's ability to stretch out his senses and absorb Arcor at a fast pace had been notedly raised during his time in Konen, so finding a large amount of it and pulling it inside himself only took a small amount of time. He was almost surprised at how easy and natural it felt.
It had been over a month since the last time he was deep inside the Arcor network, so he had nearly forgotten how it felt like to be surrounded by so much Arcor at once. Back in Quorin, it would have taken him at least five minutes to collect the amount of Arcor he needed for a simple one-handed sword, but now, 30 seconds were enough.
The required amount of Arcor was therefore gathered soon inside Corwyn's palms, and after taking in a deep breath, he began forming the sword.
Steel came into existence, at first only a tiny amount, but it quickly expanded between Corwyn's two hands. The handle of the sword was completed extremely fast, and not much after, the blade followed. This part was a little bit more complicated, since Corwyn had to be careful with how much he could stretch the metal at once. If he accidentally overdid it, ripples in the metal would be caused, and the sword would break soon after. Until now, it was this step of the creation process that caused Corwyn a headache over and over again.
But to his surprise, the blade kept on expanding smoothly, and making it more flat and sharper didn't cause any problems as well. Not even three minutes had passed, when the completed sword fell onto Corwyn's lap. He couldn't help but be stunned.
Was it always this easy?