Aeon woke up lying on his back after who knew how long. He shook his head and blinked rapidly to shake off the discomfort he felt. He slowly opened his eyes, the surroundings being revealed to him, bit by bit.
Wait. I can see?!
Strangely, it was now bright as day.
The scene left Aeon dumbfounded. He searched the ceiling for the source of light and found white crystals that were shining brightly. Moreover, there were thousands of them, enough to light up the entire cave. But why are they turned on now? Why weren't they on earlier? Did something trigger them to light up?
When Aeon's eyes caught a glimpse of the creature lying beside him, he flinched. He almost forgot that he had killed it. Thankfully, the sword hilts sticking out of the creature's chest immediately reminded him.
So many things left Aeon baffled, but no one could really answer his questions. At least, now, he had gotten rid of the danger in front of him. Hmm. Does that mean that the beast's lair was now his? Thinking about this, Aeon smiled smugly.
Time to claim my prize!
Aeon supported himself to get up. He then realized that his right arm was extremely weak and he could barely move it. Come to think of it, it must've taken the brunt of the beast's tail whip earlier. It was probably just running on adrenaline when he used it to plunge Verdure into the body of the beast. Aeon shrugged. It doesn't really matter. A kill is a kill.
Aeon moved deeper inside the cave. He temporarily ignored the beast because he knew that he wasn't capable of cutting its body in the meantime. He had to recover a bit. His target, for now, was the garden, a place rich in food.
….
Chomp. Chew.
It's really beautiful.
Aeon sat inside the maze of plants. Now that he wasn't in a hurry, he was able to appreciate its splendor. What kind of plants are those? They looked completely alien to Aeon with their colorful leaves and stems. They did provide good food though, especially the rock-looking fruit in Aeon's hand. It tasted like heaven. It was now his favorite fruit.
If his stomach were a bottomless pit, Aeon would've continued eating. Sadly, it wasn't. Now that he was finally full, he exited the maze.
It was time to explore that part of the cave. Aeon casually walked towards the back.
….
That part of the beast's lair was actually similar to the one where Aeon woke up in. It had an eastern room, a western room, a northern room, and a southern room—an extremely huge southern room that is. The crossing is where the plants grew.
Without thinking twice, Aeon entered the path that led to the northern room. From that alley, Aeon could already see something familiar ahead of him. He was hoping that it was not what he thought it would be, but, as usual, reality disappointed him.
It was what he had expected; a huge boulder.
Though this one didn't seem to have a glowing rune moving all over its surface.
Despite his uneasiness, Aeon still approached the boulder.
When Aeon was only a few meters away from it, he discovered that there was something written on its surface. He started jogging, eager to read it.
Finally! Some clue!
Aeon stopped at exactly two meters in front of the huge boulder. He didn't touch it in fear of triggering something unexpected again.
Aeon read the text out loud, "He who passes the final trial shall be worthy of Hecate's rune."
What Aeon read left him confused.
"Trial? What trial? I didn't sign up for anything," Aeon said with a shrug.
Having read that, Aeon thought that there was still another path behind the boulder, but after circling around it, he only saw a wall. Another dead end.
Silence.
Does that mean there aren't any exits? No way. This place is obviously man-made.
Scratching his head, Aeon walked back towards the crossing. There was one more room to check, the western one.
He silently left the room.
But…
….
Not even 5 minutes later, he was already back. He stood in front of the boulder with a sour face.
He found nothing significant in the western room. In fact, it was the most useless room of all. It was absolutely empty! At least the eastern one had shit inside.
Pwe!
Aeon was obviously unamused. There weren't any paths available. The only thing that came across his mind was the mechanism that lifted the wall of the southern room. In that case, the only trigger that Aeon could think of was… the boulder.
Actually, it was already in his mind earlier.
But who could guarantee that the next area, if ever there is one, is far less dangerous than the one he is currently in?
And how would he know that the boulder wouldn't torture him too? Just thinking about the pain he felt sent shivers down his spine.
Aeon wanted to pull his hair in frustration.
He was well aware that he had no choice but to move forward. But who would ever be comfortable knowing that the path ahead was dangerous yet you had to go?
Aeon clicked his tongue.
Well, the best he could do for now was to recover. He should at least prepare himself for what lies ahead. Aeon headed towards the southern room. He was going to practice his magic.
….
Sparks flew everywhere in the room.
Aeon could only hold Zephyr with his left hand but his lightning danced on both arms. He could only imagine that he was holding another weapon.
Having done it once already, Aeon found it easier to enchant a weapon. Though it was still quite crude, considering the time that it lasted, it was already a success. The next thing he had to figure out was range attacks with his swords.
Currently, Aeon relied on his heavy slashes to create a wind blade that could reach a few meters in front of him. Though it sounded great, it wasn't as practical, especially when fighting colossal beasts. If his actual slash couldn't get past the beast's defense, then his wind blades couldn't too. This was basic logic.
Aeon swung Zephyr, hoping that his magic could be infused on his wind blades. Sword light flashed through the air, but it had no signs of lightning.
….
Ten hours later, Aeon was still doing the exact same thing. He hadn't stopped to rest.
Phew.
Aeon sighed. It really was hard to practice magic without the help of incantations. Incantations couldn't be made up easily too. He could only make one for such a basic spell. Well, he could make more. But would there be any point in that?
What am I really missing?
Aeon stopped channeling his lightning as he was starting to feel the exhaustion creeping up on him. He wasn't exactly a superhuman who could endure 24 hours of training.
He was about to hit the sack when something suddenly came across his mind.
Wait. Is there really no point in making more incantations for basic spells?!
What if there is?
Aeon felt extremely stupid. It was a misconception that incantations were only used for stronger spells. In fact, they were used on basic spells to create a bigger one!
In the most basic sense, an incantation is a word or a phrase. In order to cast a stronger spell, one had to use these words or phrases to create sentences! Moreover, in another sense, these sentences are also incantations. It is just… an extended version!
Aeon was too focused on the whole that he overlooked the smaller details. That kind of reasoning wasn't as popular anymore because people had spellbooks. The spells and incantations attached to it were already a given! No one had to break it down to them. The hard work was already done, so why bother?
Nobody cared whether this B-ranked spell incantation was derived from 20 E-ranked ones!
But in Aeon's case, this was the info he really needed!
"Illuminate!" Aeon yelled while lifting his hand up. A thick ball of condensed lightning immediately formed on his palm.
"Now… Release!"
Saying this word out loud, Aeon had one thing on his mind: to break the ball's encapsulation and let his lightning go rampant.
Unsurprisingly, the ball glowed even brighter. When it almost reached its peak, Aeon threw the ball like he would a baseball!
Weng!
The ball hummed as it shot through the air. Then…
Bz...Bzzzt! Screeeee!
Booooom!
Mid-air, the lightning ball exploded releasing thousands of lightning bolts in a radius of 3 meters.
In a split second, the lightning disappeared.
This scene left Aeon in awe. The smile on his face couldn't be any more genuine.
Long before Aeon could use magic, he already knew that he wasn't a genius. He wasn't exceptionally talented in combat like his father either. But he never gave up.
He believed that skills could be acquired.
For him, it didn't matter if a person was talented or not. It just meant that the talented one would learn faster. But everybody has their own pace. The one who isn't as talented could just catch up.
Aeon could already see his path ahead. He considered himself the untalented one who learned magic later than his peers.
He was a few years behind.
But so what?!
That doesn't mean that he should just roll over and accept being weaker than the rest.
When he returns to the surface, he'll show them his progress.
Aeon wiped his sweat using his free hand.
….