1st of Lumina, year 991 (Lumina is the 7th of 12 months in the Janaean Calendar)
Upon the old man's insistence, Blink dove under the water for a few gems that nearly cost him his life. But when he emerged from the river, there was no sign of the old man. However, he left his things on the rock platform.
After thinking about it for a while, Blink concluded that the old man must have gone somewhere to urinate. As somebody who would just pee anywhere, Blink found it funny that some guys could be so fussy over where they brandished their pee-shooter.
"He probably squats when shooting out his pee," Blink once called out loud to one of his academy friends who always attended to such a personal necessity by hiding himself first. "I think he just doesn't want us to see the size of his little monster," another one cracked while waving his pinky at everyone. They then had a rowdy laugh at the boy's expense.
In Blink's observation, the funniest thing about a group of guys gathered together was that when one began to pee, they would all feel like they needed to pour out their waters as well. Thus, they all ended up lining up and expelling urine at the same time. At such times, it couldn't be avoided for a boy or two to make an offhand comment about someone's penis.
At such times, the worst thing a boy could do was to not line up and confidently expose his manliness like the rest. That boy would be grabbed by the others and stripped of his pants and, sometimes, his dignity. It must be noted that it was Blink himself who started such an awful trend at the Ragha Martial Arts Academy.
As soon as he was able to catch his breath, Blink opened his palm to check on the tiny gems he staked his life for. They really were the size and shape of a tear.
Suddenly, one of the gems emitted a golden radiance before growing a little in size. Curious, Blink picked up the gem with his left hand and held it in front of him. Before Blink's eyes, the crystal-like sparkling color of the little thing turned into black with a soft golden glow. Then, bright red lines emerged giving the gem the feeling of a fiercely persisting ember.
The surprises didn't end there.
The now fiery-looking gem shook free from Blink's fingers and headed straight into the spot slightly above the middle between his brows. Blink felt a burning sensation as the thing forced itself inside his skull. An overwhelming pain that spread throughout his head sent Blink keeling over as he clutched his head with his left hand. He crawled up to the stone platform and smashed his forehead against the hard surface hoping it would dislodge the little gem out of his head. Instead, the pain only grew more intense. The pain was simply too much that Blink didn't even have the strength to shout.
Feeling like he was about to die, Blink mentally bade goodbye to his loved ones. Tears gushed out of his eyes, both from the pain and the realization that his life was fading fast. He rolled to his side then laid on his back. He looked up to the heaven and prayed for a quick death. In that moment of extreme anguish, a surprising sense of tranquillity took over.
It was at that moment of tranquillity that a warm glow covered his entire body. Suddenly, the intense pain subsided and Blink was left with a feeling of extreme calmness. Everything felt surreal.
Blink was about to praise the gods for keeping his life when a scene flashed in his mind. In the scene there was an extremely beautiful woman who was sitting at the edge of the stone platform, her legs dangling over the water where Blink dove to get the little gems. Blink saw that the woman was crying in anger. A tear fell down the river. It was black in color but had a golden glow and streaks of bright red. It was the one inside his head.
The woman covered her mouth and shook her head. She seemed to rebuke herself for an earlier thought. However, the tears flowed once more. This time each of her tears had a different appearance and a different feel from the others.
There were nine tears in all. The very teardrop gems Blink took from the magical dimension he had swum into.
The scene had finally ended. Blink tried to get up, but he had no strength. He was conscious, yet his body was paralyzed.
Having no choice on the matter, Blink gave in to the helplessness and allowed his mind to drift as he closed his eyes.
Images of people flashed in his mind. A few of them he knew, the rest he didn't.
The first face was none other than the love of his life. Berge. She was dressed like a warrior, her disposition fierce and unrelenting. Blink felt his heart lurch. He missed her terribly.
The next one was Hubr. In the scene Hubr was a young man. He was practicing a palm style very much similar to his [Returning Palm] but a lot more profound.
Next was an apprentice currently with the third class at the martial arts academy. After him was a bronze-skinned man with the aura of a hunter. Then there's a charming yet spooky-looking woman with black lips and black shadows under her eyes. Following her was a pair of finely dressed boy and girl in their teens. Finally, there were the overlapping images of a mysterious middle-aged warrior and a large muscle-bound dark-skinned man.
Blink couldn't understand the reason why he was seeing the images of Berge and the rest. He merely deduced that it has something to do with the teardrop gems still clutched in his right hand.
By this time Blink had become completely paralyzed. The only part of his body that could still move were his facial muscles. If the village slut were to come and take advantage of him, the only resistance he could offer was a fierce glare or a strong puff of his breath.
Blink chided himself for entertaining such thoughts. At the same time, he realized that he had been having such lecherous thoughts lately and berated himself some more.
Rolling his eyeballs to the right, Blink saw a note sticking out from one of the metal-ringed books of the old man. He thought of sending the note to him telekinetically but realized that his hands were still paralyzed, so he won't be able to read it just the same.
For some reason, and much to his surprise, Blink didn't feel agitated at his current state at all. The calming effect coming from the invader sitting inside his head near the center of his brow soothed every nerve, muscle and vein in his body. Soon enough, Blink closed his eyes and gave in to the tranquillity he was experiencing.
Blink allowed his consciousness to wander deeper inside his mind. There he saw visions from his past. He witnessed a very young boy being carried on the back of an old man. They were running towards the river. Right behind them was a shadow floating above their heads. Then he saw numerous scenes of happy days playing with Mavr before his acceptance into the academy. His academy days were, of course, the period of his greatest happiness: the pranks they played upon each other, the funny jokes and stories and, most importantly, his friendship and eventual romance with Berge.
All these brought a smile to Blink's lips.
Then his vision turned into a cloud that travelled fast across the sky. The cloud kept changing form. Initially a dog at rest, it turned into a wolf running furiously towards the distance. Later it became a whirlwind that swept across the land. Then the whirlwind stopped and a mountain emerged. The mountain emitted an aura of stability, as if nothing could shake it. In the next moment the cloud reshaped itself into the visage of the jiva-et'ra—the mythical fruit of immortality that even the gods desired. The next moment it was an angry volcano on the verge of exploding. Finally, it turned into a phoenix that blazed new paths through a vast forest.
The phoenix turned to face Blink. It let out a shriek and bright yellow and orange flames covered everything. Then the yellow and orange flames were splotched with crimson. Out of the crimson field emerged a silhouette of a man in the familiar stance of a martial artist. With every sway of his hands fireballs, wind blades and many other strange elemental spells emerged. The magical display was every bit dazzling yet, at the same time, horrifying.
It grew out from a corner. But the bleak atmosphere soon covered the entire area. Withered plants and a dried-up river created a scene of desolation along with all the chalk-white bones and skulls scattered everywhere.
Yet, in the center where the silhouette stood, that small part of the entire frame refused to have anything to do with all the bleakness around it. Instead, that area expanded as the size of the silhouette grew larger. The silhouette was then joined by another. This time it was unmistakably a woman with shapely curves and graceful yet powerful striking techniques. Together they conquered the vast desolation and brought back all the beautiful colors into every edge and corner until there was only a small area where darkness persisted. The man struck it with its sword many times, but it was the other silhouette that finally destroyed the last bit of darkness with a powerful fist strike.
Rays of splendid colors soon dominated Blink's mental vision. In the center of the visual feast emerged a ball not unlike the sun, except that its color was like that of the sky on a warm cloudless day.
The image gave off a strong calming vibe. Before Blink realized it, his mind had entered into a deep meditative state. This lasted for over two hours. During this time tendrils of filmy light entered his head through the tear-shaped fiery gem.
Meanwhile, Blink's soul projected itself. The cloudy substance contained within swirled powerfully. As the swirling continued, it attracted powerful elemental energy of varying colors according to the nature of their power. In no time, these energies were sucked in by the whirlpool inside Blink's soul. With every swirl, the various colors inside Blink's soul slowly turned blue. At first it was a very pale blue.
His soul had somehow refined the world energy into mana. Amazingly, as the mana churned inside Blink's soul, it became more and more condensed, its color turning from pale blue to light blue.
More importantly, Blink's soul had thickened by another centimeter.
When Blink ended his meditation three hours later, the changes in his soul and mana were just impossible to miss. He thought it was the doing of the fiery teardrop gem.
"Hmph, it must have realized it should at least compensate me for nearly killing me," he muttered to himself.
Checking his limbs first to ascertain he could finally move, he felt strongly relieved to flex his arms and bend his knees. Standing up, he felt like he could move a little faster as well as punch a little stronger. His entire body seemed to ooze with a wild vitality that could put any beast to shame. He felt around his upper torso and discovered a lot of black viscous liquid that must have been expelled out of his body like sweat.
Blink didn't forget to check the note left behind by the old man.
The note told Blink that the ring and the two books were the old man's belongings, which he was bequeathing to Blink. The old man left instructions for Blink to study his journal and his grimoire together if Blink wanted to advance further in spellcasting.
"Whatever you read from my grimoire, you must always check with my journal logs," the note warned. It went on to explain that there were hidden dangers to some of the spells in the old man's grimoire.
Blink learned that the old man had left two similar books inside the ring, which turned out to be a dimensional space ring. Following the instructions in the note, Blink let his spiritual sense connect with the ring. The ring accepted Blink's spiritual sense, thus establishing him as the owner of the ring. Using his spiritual sense anew, Blink saw that the two items were there. From this Blink understood that the old man meant for him to use one as a journal and the other as his grimoire.
There were a dozen items more in there, but the note didn't say anything about them. Blink thought that he could always study them later on.
He also had the same thought about the teardrop gems as well as the old man's journal and his grimoire. So he gathered them up and stored them inside his dimensional ring.
Blink smiled feeling like his luck has been specially good as of late.
"I can already see the boys going green in envy once they find out about this ring," he chuckled.
Because the black liquid expelled from his body was making him uncomfortable, Blink happily dipped into the water for a quick bath. He emerged from the water feeling refreshed and ready for anything.
He looked into a particular spot in the forest.
"This has gone on long enough," he said.