It didn't take longer than a quarter of an hour to arrive at the shelter; their new shelter was just a few minutes away from the small river and quite close by the waterfall. Davin put down the unconscious body of Anton, while Evan unloaded the other things.
Wrik walked all the way here. Tanya was beside him, watching over every step he took. Only after reaching the shelter did she let him go, as she went over to prepare food. His eyes followed the leaving figure and remembered he finally had her name. One less thing to worry about.
By the way, Evan was the tall man of the three—they saved yesterday; his full name was Evan Welsh, a man in his mid-twenties. The interesting thing was that he was training to be an inquisitor in Ravanka before getting the chance to climb the Tower, and the other two siblings were from Ravanka as well. Wrik didn't know where this Ravanka was, he hadn't even heard of it before.
Wrik sat comfortably in one corner of the shack with his injured leg unfolded. It was quite close by to his unconscious brother. He sighed in relief, Anton was alright and his wound wasn't hurting as much as before. Medicine did its work, he guessed. He thought about meditating, but didn't start immediately. He calmed his mind by thinking about the future activities and plans.
Wrik still had the onetime entry to the Sword abode. He didn't know what kind of place it was, but it had something to do with the swords, as the name suggests it. He didn't plan to use the privilege anytime soon. He was not ready yet; if he went there now with his current capabilities, it might not be a disaster but it still would be a waste of a good opportunity. Besides, Lucas mentioned using it only when he had enough confidence in himself or in extreme crisis.
His first objective now was to gain a class while he became adept in mana application. Ton had succeeded; his experience might help in this area. If Wrik's assumption was right, then he has to approach the trial more proactively.
Anton didn't rest for any time or the accurate way of saying would be, he didn't have the fortune to have rest. That should be the reason for his unreasonable growth.
Wrik didn't fret over it now, concentrated on meditation as his mood became serene again.
First sense the mana flowing within the body, the veins, the mana circuit. Then he tried to circulate it at will, increasing the flow steadily while trying to connect the sense from inside to the outside. As the link between the two was made, he waved it through the link with the same intensity. Mana emitted from the tip of his index finger for about four and a half seconds before the link got unstable and the discharge stopped. There's some progress.
'There must be some hidden cheat in this; there's no way Ton could do this step in barely five days. Tanya might have already learnt it before coming here, but what about Ton?' He mused inside. 'Well, I have to wait a few hours for the answer.'
He spent the next few hours soothing the wound on his thigh as Maha Mana had some characteristics in healing. And then the other two of the group came back. They were a bit excited.
"We needed to leave this place now. The goblins went berserk for some reason and . . ." Lan said in his usual anxious tone. He was the kid that was frightened out of his wits yesterday. He was only fourteen this year—that's the only things Wrik knew about the kid apart from his name.
"Well, the reason is with us now, sleeping." He didn't let Lan finish his plate, laughed out, gesturing towards the direction of Anton.
"So? Shouldn't we run?" Lan, who was dumbfounded, hearing Wrik's words regained his voice, inquired. His mental health was a bit unstable after what happened to their group. Wrik was not much surprised at that. Her elder sister Lillian was in a fairly better state than him as she stood next to him. She's in her early twenties, with a fair amount of beauty, with a round face and curly dark hair. She could be said to be in her prime, though her face was pale, lost some colour during the trial.
"Wait for some time," Wrik paused for a moment then continued looking towards the cloudless sky, there's still about three hours of the day left. "Don't worry about the goblins."
Yet the boy didn't relax in the slightest. He was about to ask more questions but Lillian quilted him down.
Wrik returned to practice. If nothing goes wrong, he would be able to discharge naturally in three or four days.
. . .
The sun had set as the darkness intensified in the wilderness; there was some chilly breeze going on from the southeast, making the atmosphere quite a bit pleasant. The climate here was about the same as in Elania, but on the warmer side; there was also no complication in the ratio of day and night as well. Maybe the trial was not in the Tower, maybe they were still close to their home, but there was no conclusive evidence to back it up apart from the weather.
After sleeping over six hours, Ton finally woke up from his slumber.
"Why are you all looking at me like that? Am I that handsome?" Ton shamelessly questioned when he found some familiar and unfamiliar gazes upon him.
Everybody was waiting for him to wake up, explain what kind of shit he had done. Even Tanya, who seemed to not care, was present there and clicked her tongue at him.
"Who is this fair lady?" Anton asked, gesturing at Tanya. "Wait, aren't you the one that helped with the goblins before I went unconscious?"
"Stop the introductions, for now, tell us about what mischief you caused with the goblins." Wrik cut to the chase.
"Well, I didn't do much," Anton said to all the faces present there. "I just killed a big fat goblin, and it turns out to be their clan chief."
The others flabbergasted, hearing what Ton said. Not minding the three new members of the group, even Davin was stunned.
"Elaborate," Wrik scratched his cheek and asked. Anton followed with no consideration.
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