Elena turned back to the forest, following Korbyn. Lilith looked in with awe and surprise, While Amelia just shrugged off the woman's introduction and walked towards land.
Huh…Water king style.
"E-emperor rank?" Lilith turned to Kale. "She's like…better than you!"
Kale scoffed, walking through the water. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. She's got a cool whip blade, makes things move the way she wants it too. Big whoop. It's not as strong as Fire King style." He paused for a moment after his little rant, he gave Lilith a concerned look. "Are you alright? How's your side?"
"Hm? Oh, I'm well now!" Lilith patted her side. "Kota healed it up."
"Good, Good. Oh, Kota!" Kale was walking towards me as he said that. "Forgot to tell you something."
I watched as he leaned forwards, getting head level with me. "Uh…Yeah?" I awkwardly looked at him. What'd he forget to say?
He pointed a finger at me, a frown growed on his face. "You made a stupid decision."
Eh?
"You really needed to do all of this on your own? Why'd you have to put me inside that fort of yours?"
"I-I thought that those three needed to be protected! If you haven't been there, what if one of the monsters came by and attacked them? You would've been there!"
"But you almost died! And Lilith!" Kale looked back at her. "You two don't have enough experience to be doing that sort of thing! Let the more experienced people do it, and you guys learn from it."
"But would you have done in our position?" Lilith asked. She gestured at him with a confused look. "There's no way you could've handled everything. Plus, me and Kota worked well together. If he hadn't shot out that fire spell, we would've all been killed."
"No, I get that." Kale frustratingly pressed his fingers to his nose. "But I'm here to keep the both of you safe. If you had let me join that idea of yours, it would've gone smoother."
"You wanted to leave us?" Amelia chirped in.
Kale paused to look at Amelia, the sudden realization that the girl was next to him hit him. He quickly looked away, rubbing his chin. "I-well…You didn't want to be trapped in that fort too!"
"Because I didn't want to be in that thing with Chris! You heard how much he was screaming in that thing!"
"Mmm…Right about tha-H-hey! At least you were safe in it! You just had to follow me out when I told you not to, you really wanted to help Kota, huh?"
Amelia began to blush as she began to stomp into the water, splashing it around as she had a tantrum. "Yaaah! You weren't supposed to say anything! You outed me!"
Kale didn't mind her tantrum, simply continuing on. "Amelia saw me with those two, and she was so scared for Kota that she offered herself up as bait for the Big guy."
"Yaaah! Unacceptable!" Amelia yelled, her hands clasped around her ears as she scrambled her way to dry land. "Embarrassing!"
As she ran back to land, Kale chuckled before composing himself. That small argument with Amelia was just a distraction from the conversation.
"Anyways, Don't ever do anything like that again. Unless I give the go." He pointed at me and Lilith. "You don't want me going back telling your parents, do you?"
"…You mean Kota's parents?" Lilith chirped in. Not even angry or upset by the blond man's mistake.
"R-right…uh…Lecture is over!" Kale began to walk to land. "Let's see what our elven brethren have to say!"
As Kale walked away, Lilith and I stood there for a moment.
To think that Amelia wanted to help me, isn't that weird? I thought she didn't like me? Hm, maybe being around me changed her. I mean, look at Lilith, she's changed a lot since I first met her. Maybe I'm having the same thing with Amelia? Or maybe she's just a genuine person who doesn't like seeing people die, that could be it too!
"Hm?" Lilith looked at me confused. "What's up?"
"Nothing, just thinking about Amelia."
"Beg pardon?" She squinted her eyes at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Er…Nothing? I'm just curious about her actions." I think I've triggered Lilith…
"She was being nice, that's it. Isn't that what friends do?" She shook her head. "Let's just follow kale and see what they're doing."
Was that tone of jealousy I heard right there? Nah…maybe my ears were clogged with water, I'm sure Lilith couldn't be mad about amelia.
I then nodded, walking alongside her as we walked to land. There we saw Korbyn kneeling on the ground as he was drawing something, Elena standing by watching him before looking up to see us.
"You two…Kale and Amelia went and grabbed those other two they were speaking of. Come, Rest here for a moment as we get the teleportation circle ready." She waved her finger at us like it was an invitation. As we got closer and stood idly, she looked at Lilith. "I was only able to catch that one strike you could've made to Mandy. That swift slash you wanted to do…I'm assuming you are under Fire King style teaching?"
Lilith nodded. "Yes, Kale taught me."
"Aggression and pure strength doesn't always work. You lack the common sense of your surroundings." Elena said, still staring at her. "Perhaps you should take a Water King style lesson from me."
"Uh…" Lilith looked surprised by the woman's invitation. "I'll…I'll need to ask Kale about that. I haven't even reached King rank like him. I'm still an intermediate."
"Not many, but some have managed to learn another style to a certain extent. Having another's knowledge could prove quite an advantage in a fight."
"You know…Kale actually knows another style." Both me and Lilith head Korbyn say. We looked past Elena to see the brown skinned man drawing a pattern onto a large piece of paper. "I bet you he never told any of you?"
"Eh? Really?"
"Yeah, of course…He probably doesn't want anyone to know it. Probably embarrassed by it. All because of-"
"Stop talking." Kale said behind Korbyn. Korbyn jumped from his sitting position, turning around to face the blond man.
"Whoa! Okay, don't come up behind someone making their magical circle! You know how much you can mess it up? What if I got a symbol wrong, Hm?" Korbyn had a smirk on his face.
"You keep that mouth shut, or I'll tie you up like I did in the Guhard Dungeon." Kale pointed a finger at him.
"You mean the Dungeon where you had to carry me back after alerting all the Earthworms in it? And ended up having me do a forced collapse on the entrance?"
"I only asked you because literally everyone else had already left for the inn, and I wanted to make sure those worms didn't get out."
"But we had like two mages in our group, and you chose me. You know…the guy that doesn't have any blasting magic or explosives. You just wanted to bring me because you felt bad for tying me up and messing up."
"…Alright, you win this one." Kale said, reluctantly holding his hand out. "That's a point for you."
"Yessir, it is!" Korbyn happily shook Kale's hand.
Once the two stopped holding hands, Korbyn immediately went back to working on the magical Circle. Kale watching above him.
…What the hell is transpiring in front of me? I can't tell if they hate each other or just love annoying each other.
"Aaah, you two are alive! I thought I lost two employers!" I heard someone call to me. Behind Kale, a brown haired kid came bawling towards me. It was Chris, who was oddly crying? He gave me a hug and he buried his face into my chest.
"If you had died, who would've read my book?! Or who would've taught me the cool magic spells?! I can't get another Tutor!" He said, his voice muffled as his snot smeared onto my shirt. "They'll give me an old man, or Richard!"
"Oh, gross! Hey! Relax, Chris!" I tried to pry him off me, but he wouldn't budge.
"Waah!"
As he continued to cry on me, Claire walked alongside Amelia. The two sisters murmured something to each other before Claire looked at me. Amelia looked away, with a mix of embarrassment and disgust all over her face. Before anyone could say anything, Elena clapped her hands loudly.
"Alright! Can Someone stop the boy from crying…It'll hinder Korbyn's focus on the circle." She said with order. Lilith, with a single thought, walked right up to me and yanked Chris off of me. Once she did, she shook the boy.
"Don't cry! Be happy we are alive!" Lilith said with a frown. "Or at least not put snot all over Kota, or me. Don't get near me."
Chris, shook right out of his crying, simply nodded and stared at her. I think he had some of his senses knocked out of him just from the shaking…
"Kota?" Elena asked for me. "I'm assuming you have some sort of knowledge on Magic Circles? You are Chris's Tutor."
"Um…What's your definition of knowledge?" To be honest, I haven't found a good reason to really use magical circles at any point. Nor have I really looked into them. I remember reading in the University of Prusha that Magical circles somewhat went out of style due to incantations and the lack of convenience.
Korbyn looked up from where was squatting, an inked quill in his hand. "You know how to activate one? Or know the differences and types of circles?"
"Uh…I didn't really study about magical circles in university. I focused on trying to learn healing spells and just taking classes."
"I know!" Amelia said, raising her hand. "I've studied more than him, I haven't seen him in our library as much as you'd think he'd be in there!"
"Then care to explain Magical Circles for us, young one?" Elena proposed.
Amelia cleared her throat, looking down at the magical circle being made. "Magical Circles are an old fashioned way of using magic. Mostly because before incantation, people needed these circles to activate their spells. See the symbols?" She pointed at a specific part of the circle. Looking towards it, the magical circle was sort of like a pentagram. Symbols that reminded me of Japanese writing in a sense were written in the empty parts of the circle. "Those are writings from a thousand years ago. Most patterns or symbols date back that far, at least that's what the books in Prusha said."
"Very impressive." Elena clapped her hands in appreciation.
Amelia looked closer at the Magical circle being made. "Usually, magical Circles are used for far more advanced spells that people can't usually use. Like barrier spells or Teleportation spells. There's a special ink that people use to infuse the patterns with their magic, making it easier to activate on the fly so you don't waste mana at that very moment. This magical spell is using that dude's mana." Amelia pointed at Korbyn.
"And it's draining me quickly." Korbyn said, smiling. "Not that it's a big deal."
"The Symbols being used right now are the ones we use to make our teleportation spell back to Ozoth." Elena further explained. "We use it mainly when we are out patrolling for a quicker way back. Most of the time we usually walk our way back…but it appears that we have some baggage to bring back."
"Yeah, we need to grab our stuff from the carriage and make sure they're alright." Kale said. "Let's go ahead and do that while Korbyn finishes the spell." He then quickly shuffled his way past Amelia and headed towards the broken carriage. Claire, Chris and Amelia followed behind him.
"Come on, let's go help." Lilith said, walking past me. I went on to follow her, but was stopped by Elena. She stood in front of me now, making me realize that this woman stood Maybe above six feet?
"Wait. We might actually need you." She said, her hand gently placed on my shoulder. "Since you are a mage, why don't you help with fueling the magic circle?"
Well…it's better than picking up pieces of our baggage. I didn't reject that offer, nodding hesitantly before Elena guided me to Korbyn. The older man scooted away to give me space, allowing me to squat down next to him.
"Once Korbyn is done with finishing the symbols, place your hand on the paper. It'll start to siphon magic into it, though it might take some time."
I watched as Korbyn was finishing up the circle, noticing that now there was a faint rainbow glow to the lines of the ink. Once he finished up the circle, it stopped glowing. It must've been his own mana that was causing it to glow.
"There." Korbyn huffed, seemingly out of breath. "The magic circles got some mana in it, but it'll need a lot more to transport all of us. Usually, this would be fine with me and Elena…but there's Seven of us waiting fo-."
"Hey! Make that Eight, I'm taking Benjamin!" Kale's voice rang. "Can't just leave him out here!"
"…Alright, guess that's eight." Korbyn groaned. He then looked at me. "I'd usually say no, but…That's kale's horse. Anyways, we're going to need a lot of mana for this. You probably have a good amount considering you are a mage."
Oh yeah, I got plenty. I got my own bank and a god's bank too. Though I'm curious how much this will be needed…maybe if I just pour as much as I can into it, it'll just charge up fast.
I put my hand onto the paper sheet and waited for something to happen…and nothing happened.
"Eh?"
"You must place your hand onto the ink itself in order for it to siphon your mana." Elena said, watching me. "I'm quite surprised you haven't been told about this sort of thing before at your school…"
Maybe I've been taking the wrong classes…or maybe I went to the wrong school. Considering I haven't even met the Principal yet, I'm starting to wonder how dysfunctional that whole university is…
I placed my hand on one of the lines, just one of the corners of the whole circle. Immediately, it glowed once more, although more vibrantly than Korbyn's. I could see at the palm of my hand and fingers a rainbow glitter slowly sinking into the paper sheet.
Thinking back to my last idea, I slowly began to pour more of my mana into the paper. The glow grew brighter and brighter, lighting up the darkened forest around us as it hummed a low tone.
"Woah, Easy there! Don't want to go overboard and exhaust yourself!" Korbyn warned me. But to be honest, I wasn't really feeling any sort of fatigue.
The glitter of my mana began to spread across the symbols and sheet, already getting half of it. Korbyn watched with intrigue as more mana was pulled from me.
"So…Who are you?" I asked him. He gave me a frown when I asked him that.
"Huh? Kale hasn't talked about me?"
"Well, he's talked about being in an adventure group with Tera."
The name Tera made Kale's eyes widen with surprise. He turned back to Kale, who was soothing the frightened horse. "He's with Tera?"
"Yeah…They both live together in the same house." The look that he gave me made me certain that all of this was new information to him.
"No way…" Korbyn was in disbelief for a moment, then began to chuckle. "So he finally got over her, huh? Well good for him! I thought he'd never get over it…just didn't expect that."
"So if Kale hasn't told us about you…why don't you tell me who you are?" I asked him another question. At this point, the magical circle was about half done. Korbyn straightened himself out, his thumb pointed at himself as he began to introduce himself properly.
"Hah! The name is Korbyn Sereal. King ranked in Wind King style! I used to travel with that old blonde back in the day, and now I serve King Vergis on his Guard force!" He had his thumb pointed at his green uniform, a crest on his chest that looked like a large tree was pinned to his uniform. Most likely might be the symbol for Ozoth.
"Wait…Sereal?" Before I could even ask my question, the magic circle began to hum loudly. A bright light flashing before my eyes before vanishing. As I looked down, I saw that the ink lines made by Korbyn were now burnt into the paper sheet.
"Oh, it's finished. The Teleporter spell to Ozoth's Adventure district is ready." Elena spoke. "Enough of the side talk, let's get everyone ready."
Korbyn quickly got up, stretching his arms before quickly jogging his way to where Kale was. I stood up to asked him, but it was too late. I couldn't even get my question to him.
"You aren't…Tired?" I turned to Elena, who was uncomfortably close to me and looked at me with concern. She probably hasn't seen someone like me before…or maybe in a while considering her age. Or maybe. She was just getting a closer look at the paper sheet and ended up this close to me. Either way, I was getting a view.
Considering how close she was, I noticed that her green uniform had three buttons to it for the dress piece. I couldn't help but notice that button that was near her chest was looking like it was about to explode and hit me on my face.
Speaking of the tightness of the button, it now seemed like the whole uniform she wore was quite frankly tight around her chest area…what explosive thing does she hold beneath that outfit? The brown belt she had was also tightly wrapped around her waist, an indent was made on her waist that seemed quite enticing to me.
Ok, I think she's starting to notice that I'm staring. Let's say something not too weird…
"Nope, I can still go."
"Hm, you have an Abnormal amount of Mana in you."
Wait, does she know about the Duvul curse? I remember in Synthia's book about it that most people don't like those that show signs of being under the curse…I better play this safe.
"I-Ive been honing my mana capacity for some time now. It's a lot bigger than it was some years ago."
"Ah, I've heard about that. Most people have a set limit that they don't try to overcome. I can see another reason why Prince Lucian picked you to teach Chris."
"Haha…yep. I'm going to grab my staff." I awkwardly pointed to the river. Elena nodded and moved her way towards where everyone else was. It looked like they were almost done.
I quickly made my way back into the water, picking up my staff. As I headed my way back, Everyone was all set and ready. Kale even had Benjamin all prepped up with some of the baggies we had. Korbyn was holding the paper that had the symbol on it. It was quite a long sheet of paper, to be honest.
I got next to Lilith, who was holding both of our baggage. We watched as Korbyn began to chant out the spell for the paper.
"From which we roam, allow us to set foot Home! Send us to Ozoth, the kingdom of the Great Library!"
The scroll lit up, a blinding light flashed before seemingly vanishing.
The paper sheet he had in his hands burnt and blacked before turning into ash right in his hand.
The spell was a bust.
"Ah." Korbyn let out. "Forgot, I messed up on one of the Symbols. I think I spelled Ozot instead of Ozoth…"
We were off one letter?! Man, if only I knew that language. I suppose this is a good example of what happens when a spell is written wrong or changed incorrectly…
The groan of utter disappointment could be heard from everyone who stood behind him. Elena slowly closed her eyes as she palmed her face.
Korbyn turned back to us all, his hands in front of him. His face said it all, it really told us "yeah…I messed up."
"Alright! New plan!" He said. "We…will walk! It's only a three hour walk, and we'll be right at the entrance of the adventure district!" He let out a smile as if it would help.
Elena slowly dragged her palm down her face, her blue eyes visible. "…Then I suppose we shall help with carrying some of the baggage, to rid some of the burden."
"Yep!"
"I'll have you take them. As a form of punishment."
"…Alright, seems fair…" The sound of defeat was in Korbyn's voice as he quickly went on to grab Amelia's and Chris's baggage, holding them on both his shoulders.
"Welp." Kale sighed. "…Guess we'll walk."
A/N: Hey all, Hope you enjoy this Chapter! At the moment, I plan of revising a couple of chapters from Volume 2. Mainly the chapters that deal with Kota going to the University as I feel it's way too vague on details. So I'll be putting a short hiatus on uploading new chapters to revise older ones for a moment. I'll probably be back to uploading new ones in two weeks or so.