The bright sunlight shined through him, his face was reflected on the water below. Rio had just got out of the dense trees in the Valley, he finally arrived at pool of water at the bottom of the hills.
Splash!
He grabbed some water using his two hands as he washed his face and hands throughly. The constant running in the dense of forest and the horrible fight between him and bear, made him dirty. He might aswell clean himself.
"…Now what?" Rio muttered as he looked straight at the ends of the pool of water, it seems his direction was there. The direction he was looking at seemed infinite because of how long the path is. If he were to assume where the seed was, it was most likely at the deepest ends of this Valley.
"Good grief, another long walk…" Rio sighed as he shook his head. He wasn't fan of walking, truly. It took too much time. He had a couple of skills that could enchance his speed but he didn't want to waste his magical reserves.
He drained his magical reserves to half when he fought the bear at the dense trees. He could've easily overpowered it with some skills he knew, but his fear prevented him to think clearly, adding the fact he doesnt have money to pay for the fees on destroying the environment.
All, in all, while the magical reserves inside his «Miracle Core» was drained into half. It was worth it at the very least. It will recover as he walk anyway.
Magic was an untamed energy, therefore people weren't able to use it with control and skill. The only magic people was able to use flexibly and freely was the magic stored inside their «Miracle Core». In any case, what it meant is that magic outside of the «Miracle Core» couldn't be used in combat due to how hard it is to control.
'Better to start walking to end this faster…'
Rio thought as he walked deeper in the valley. He looked at the sky and blistering bright sunlight. He hoped he would be able to get the seed before night comes.
—
It had been an hour and a half since Rio had started walking the path to deepest ends of the valley. If he gets tired he simply stopped, and drank water from the pool beside him.
The water was clean and safe, it wasn't sullied with any dirt nor toxicity. Another suprising thing to note was that he didnt even saw any other vistors beside him as he walked to the deepest ends.
Understandably so, since the Valley was indeed large. If he had to guess, It was either they were at the opposite side of the valley, or some of them were already in the deepest end.
He wasn't concerned that others would get the Formless Seed. He was the only one that knew it's existence and location by the vague description of the novel.
As he walked the long path, he pondered about the novels content and his situation. He was transmigrated here with no purpose given whatsoever, the odd realism of everything made him confirm in his first few weeks in the academy that this was no virtual reality, or hallucination. This was a real universe, with real living people.
The only thing he knew about his transmigration is that his friend, John Smith, is connected to this somehow or another. As for the novel contents, they were his most useful weapon and asset. He wouldnt want to lose it.
But he knew that in the future as time marches on, it would turn useless. The only thing he could benefit from the novel was the future events and hidden artifacts in the world. And he was going to use them to it's full of potential.
Now that he had some quiet time to think, why was he desperate for power in the first place? To survive? If he wanted to survive, he could just settle somewhere in the world peacefully. His desperation for power will only invite dangers in the future anyway.
To save people? Ha, no chance. He wasn't a saint. To him, events that had no relation to his safety were good to be left out to main cast of characters instead.
Then if those two wasn't the reason, then what was driving him for power then?
Then, Rio realized. He had nothing. No motivation. No reason. He was just a blind man walking a linear path of no ends, hoping for the emptyness in his heart to be extinguished.
"Haa…" Rio sighed as he shook his head, no time to think about such depressing things. He needed to find the seed first. He continued to walk silently, wanting to avert from the truth he was nothing but an empty shell.
—
As he walked deeper an deeper he finally caught on where he was heading to. At the deepest end was a plain land with just a few trees in it's field.
Suprisingly, his guess was wrong. There were no other people at deepest ends at all, most likely because of how barren it is. There were no magical beast, therefore no profits. And what kind of treasure will sprout in a plain grassfield like this anyway?
Others wouldn't know, but Rio sure did know. A treasure of limitless potential. The Formless Seed. In the topic of the said seed, Rio didnt even know it's origins.
He only knew it was priceless and was marked as an SSS rarity by the Discovery Appraisal Association. A SSS rarity are artifacts or things in general, that has infinite and limitless potential.
Rio has just walked over four hours straight with some simple break. He was suprised it didn't take longer as he thought it will be. Now here comes the most serious problem.
How does he find the seed? He knew that it was in this plain land somewhere, but not specifically where. He only knows that it does exist and it's appearance is a transparent small cube.
Oh well, it doesn't hurt to try something, Rio thought as he prepared himself and walked over to one of the trees in the plain grassfield.
He approached one of the smaller trees. He observed it intently and found nothing strang about it. It was just a normal tree. He tried knocking it.
Tok! Tok!
He waited for several seconds but still, nothing happened. Only leaves fell, no sign of cube at all. How about calling for it then? Rio thought in interest.
"Formless Seed." Rio called out as he knocked the tree. He waited for several seconds but still, nothing eventful happened. However, he wasn't going to give up any soon.
There were still fifty more trees to go. He gone over to the next small tree and tried his approach again. However just like previously, he didnt find anything stranger nor did anything call out for him.
"Strange…does this mean that it's avoiding me?" Rio muttered in worry. That would be unreasonable, just what kind of violation did he do or what criteria he didn't meet for The Formless Seed to avoid him?
He decided to not give up. He walked to another tree again, afterwards if there were no results he walked over to the next one. It repeated until unknowingly night came.
—
"Ha, It's not use." Rio sighed in defeat. He tried in every single tree but to no results at all. Maybe the novel was unreliable and wrong afterall. He shook his head at that thought.
The Formless Seed did exist, somehow in his mind he knew that it does and it was near him. Unknowingly, while thinking about that, Rio stood up and walked over to a medium sized tree.
He put his palm in the wooden trunk, his plam spreaded. Rio fell in a trance as his eyes closed and mout muttered a chant with an unknown language.
A small cube sprouted from thin air at the tree, falling directly to Rio's hand. Rio also finished muttering the chant and opened his eyes.
"…What happened?" Rio opened his eyes, confused. Why was he standing? Wasn't he laying on the ground thinking of something? Like how to find the fo—
He felt something bobbly in his arm. He looked at it and rubbed his eyes to confirm that he wasn't imagining things. It was a small transparent cube, glowing in the darkness.
This wasn't fake right?
This cube, if he wasn't wrong, is the Formless Seed. How did it appear in thin air? No, no, that was a stupid question. Magic literally appears in thin air.
How was he able to find it? Rio thought as he held the transparent cube softly, he caressed the edges of the glowing cube. If he remembered correctly, he was laying on the ground thinking about the Formless Seed.
Was thinking about The Formless Seed the way to find it? No, that's impossible. He had been thinking about it all the time and it didn't come his way.
Then by Sherlock Holme's words,
"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Then, the cube must've called into him. It feeded information directly in his mind to obtain it. Rio thought. He was happy and suprised he got the cube, but it was…horrifying to realize that your body moved without your consent.
It was like someone controlled you, Rio thought as he looked at the cube intently. That experience left a wound in his mind, after he comes back to the academy he definetely needed to study about mental defenses.