"How was it?" was the first thing Lily heard when her lovely eyelids fluttered open. Seated next to her was the boy she was travelling with. His long blond hair was carelessly left as it was – unattended to. And his beautiful blue eyes were focused on her and her alone. Lily didn't know how long she had taken, or how long Mane had been sitting next to her. But she subconsciously let out a smile seeing him sitting by her side calmly and waiting for her.
"I am now a Trainee Scholar," Lily smiled happily and said.
"That's great!" Mane exclaimed, genuinely enthused about her breakthrough. He knew that she had wanted this for a while now, and seeing it happen for her was satisfying for him as well. Even though he expected that she would breakthrough since he had, it felt great to her it from her.
"That's not all," Lily smiled mysteriously and said.
"It isn't?" Mane stated with a slightly confused expression. "What else did you get?" Mane asked with a curious expression etched on his handsome face.
"I am at the peak of the Trainee Scholar Level" Lily informed Mane.
"This…" Mane stuttered with his blue eyes wide open. The shock on his face was so vividly expressed that Lily couldn't help but laugh out loud for it was rare to see Mane like this.
"You can use telepathy!" Mane exclaimed with Lock-On, shaking Lily's poor ears. Yet she couldn't even fault Mane for this. For what she had just revealed was stunning.
When she informed Mane that she was at the peak of the Trainee Scholar Level, she didn't do so by parting her lips and striking her tongue against her teeth. No, she didn't speak. What she did was to transmit her thoughts directly to Mane! And that was why Mane was so surprised. It wasn't because of her excessive breakthrough. If the information was enough to give him such a boost at the Mid Scholar Level, then it would definitely be more beneficial for Lily. Plus he broke through directly into the Beginner Scholar Level when he became a Scholar. So that wasn't enough to warrant such a reaction from him. It was the telepathy that startled him.
Mane was a user of a high level scholar manual he inherited from Ananse. And it was because of this manual that he was able to use skills like Lock-On and Words of Power. Those two were special skills that his manual conferred onto him. The only skill that was expected for any scholar no matter what manual they were using was Scout. But even Mane's Scout had mutated into Trace. Every manual had the kind of skills it gave, and the higher the level of the manual, the better the skills one would receive.
But telepathy was different. It was something that no manual could give you. One could only unlock it if they had the talent for it inherently. It was the same with Telekinesis for Spiritualists. Yet Lily had unlocked this rare skill, and that was what Mane wasn't expecting.
"I can," Lily replied once more with telepathy.
"That's incredible," Mane sighed and said. He was happy for her, but a bit envious since it was an incredible skill. He started to wonder if he could ever unlock such a skill.
"You have no right to be envious," Hildegarde who was seated on his shoulder could immediately tell what was going on in his head.
"You are a Body Wielder, an Energy Wielder, a Scholar and a Spiritualist. People count themselves lucky if they could be Dual Wielders. Yet you, an 11 year old in the skin of a 15 year old, are a Tetra Wielder. You have no right to be envious."
Mane smiled wryly hearing his fairy's words. She was right. He was massively talented, and many would be jealous of him if they knew just how much he could do. He even had the luxury of limiting himself and his skills when fighting because he had advanced in so many of them and was seeking inspiration to reach the much coveted Full Mastery Realm for all of them. With the many gifts he had, he had no right to be jealous of another. Hildegarde was absolutely right concerning this.
"What other skills did you unlock?" Mane asked Lily. Since telepathy was her own gift, she ought to have unlocked other skills. Logically, she should unlock three since her manual was also a High Class/Level Manual.
"Well, I got Lock-On," Lily replied via Lock-On. Unlike with telepathy her lips moved when she spoke, and Mane didn't feel the words resounding in his head like before.
The manual she was given by Mane also conferred Lock-On to user. After all, it was mainly because she witnessed and experienced Mane's use of Lock-On that she became enamored with the skill. So that much wasn't surprising.
"What else?" Mane probed once more.
"I got Scout. And I also got a skill called Track. It is a variation of Scout." Lily gave up the last two skills.
"Track?" Mane was surprised by the last skill.
"Yes. You know it?" Lily asked.
"I do," Mane nodded his head in response to her inquiry. "It is a very useful skill," he added.
"It is," Lily smiled gleefully.
Track was indeed a variation of Scout. It allowed a person to place a mark on someone. Dissimilarly to Trace it could only be used on one person at a time. And unlike Trace, it had no distance limitation! So Lily could track the location of the person marked no matter how far this person was! It was an amazing skill. Besides, Mane knew from the memories he inherited from Ananse that when a user of Track reached the High Scholar Level, the skill would integrate with Scout to create a new skill called Explorer. Surprisingly, not even Ananse knew how Explorer worked. The skill was so rare that not much was known about it. And even the Wise Spider Goddess was no exception.
"Now that you are up we can leave," Mane informed Lily, and the Elemental Princess nodded her head in agreement.
"We need to get back to searching for a Revival Grass," Lily whispered and stood up. She hadn't forgotten their purpose.
"We don't," Mane smiled mysteriously and said.
"What do you mean?" Lily was confused. Didn't they come all the way to this place for that particular plant? Did Mane somehow come up with a solution when she was having her breakthrough?
"Here," Mane smiled and handed his open backpack to Lily. It was now that Lily noticed that Skimpy and Roxanne were in the cave with them. It seemed that Mane had gone for them whilst she was breaking through. The two horses were asleep however, and that was why Skimpy didn't come over when Lily 'woke' up.
Lily curiously peered into the backpack, and when she saw the new addition to its contents, her eyes flew wide open. She faced Mane with the same expression he had on when he learned of her telepathy and asked with her voice trembling slightly, "Are those Revival Grasses?"
"Yes. It turns out Silver wasn't lying about the grass. They really had it here. It was given to me by his mother." Mane smiled seeing her expression and explained to her everything that had happened whilst she was in her mindscape, including the relationship between the Emerald Crystal Monkey and Silver. He didn't hide anything from Lily.
"I've got to thank her," Lily hastily wiped the few tears that gathered at the corner of her eyes and said. She stood up hurriedly and approached the Emerald Crystal Monkey. Mane only smiled and watched her leave. He didn't say anything. He had to only wait a minute for Lily to walk back to him, and the first thing she said when she returned was,
"So when are we leaving?" Now that they had what they came for, the only question they had left to answer was this one.
"Initially I wanted us to leave immediately after your breakthrough," Mane stated. "But Silver's mother asked that we stay a couple of days. I didn't agree. I wanted to hear from you first. What do you think?"
"Really? You want my opinion?" Lily had a strange look on her face when she asked this question. Mane had basically been making all the decisions since the journey began and had never asked her for her opinion.
"Yes," Mane blushed in shame. He understood why Lily was behaving that way, and he was ashamed of himself for being so dominating the entire journey. He could make excuses and say it was because he was a dominant male or because he was used to doing things on his own, but it wouldn't change the fact that he had been wrong this whole time.
"Who knew that you also knew how to be ashamed and regretful," Hildegarde giggled melodiously seeing Mane's expression. It was in times like these that she loved to fly around the young Supreme, just so that she could see his full reaction. Besides, it also made it impossible for Mane to ignore her since he could see her flying around his head in circles.
"I think we should accede to her request. She did give us what we wanted after all. And if not for her, we would have definitely spent a longer period of time looking for the plant. Remember that Ivor even said that it could take up to a month to find it?" Lily's answer was in line with what Mane was thinking.
Both knew that the only reason the Emerald Crystal Monkey would ask them to stay was Silver. After all, she didn't know them and she had given them a gift. In essence, they owed her a favor and not the other way around. So if keeping Silver company for two days was all she wanted, then they would do that.
"I remember," Mane nodded his head. "We should let her know we are staying then," Mane replied and stood up, moving to the giant monkey to inform her of their decision.