-The day after the Commemoration-
I had slept the night away after returning home. For some reason, I had been drained after going out. My grandfather's funeral would be held today, and only the people closest to him were invited.
A lot of work had gone into preparing both the funeral and memorial, and it was time for the fruits of that labor to come to fruition. My mother dressed me up again in a similar attire, and we set out after breakfast.
The funeral was going to be held in the home village of my grandfather where he wanted to be buried. It was the same process of going to the commemoration, except this time we were apparently going much farther judging by the price which was 10x more.
Noah had grown up in the Rhatos Kingdom and had moved to Aeulus in his later years where he met Mary. Arrangements had been made to bury his body according to his wishes.
As the carriage made it out of the portal, a very unfamiliar scene flooded my eyes. The town was completely different than Gildian. Instead of the stones and wood of the Aeulus empire, the buildings here were made entirely of yellow stone bricks or even carved into the sides of the mountain.
The town was situated in a valley in the middle of a desert and seemed to bustling with activity, every place you looked you could see merchants and businesses everywhere. In the alleyways, you could even see some unsightly business going down.
We continued through the city until we were eventually out of it. We continued on for a while before arriving at an oasis where some stuff was already set up. The carriage stopped a distance away and we got out.
It was very windy and the sands blew across us. My grandmother's veil flapped in the wind hanging on by a thread.
"You know, Alex, Your grandfather grew up here. There used to be a town here, surrounding the oasis. It was a small place, but it was where your grandfather called home. When he left to go to magic school after awakening, this town was destroyed.
There was nothing left. Rubble everywhere. Not even a single person survived. A beast horde had passed through, a top (Lime) core leading it. The most powerful person here was Gold.
I think that is why he sacrificed himself to stop more deaths. He didn't want the same tragedy to happen to Gildian."
The more I heard about my grandfather, the more I admired him. He seemed like a truly kind and good person.
We had made our way over to a plot of soil that had been prepared beforehand. It was located on a small hill a bit away from the oasis. There had been nothing left of my grandfather to bury, so we were burying his sword in place of him.
When he had delivered the final blow, the enchanted blade had survived, even though badly damaged. We sat down and the priest got up in front of us to do the ceremony.
He said a few words about Noah and recited some passages from their holy book that I didn't pay much attention to. After that, some of Noah's friends and family got up and said a few words.
The first person to get up was a big ruff man. He seemed like the type of person that would be a berserker or a paladin. Had rippling muscles and looked to be around 7 feet. He had blonde hair and a nicely combed mustache with a fresh-shaven beard.
"Noah was a great man. He was strong and always had my back. He was one of my closest friends and comrades. It is a great loss that he is no longer here, but the memory of him will always persist in our hearts."
This guy had served in the army with Noah and even gone adventuring after their military service. After the destruction of his hometown, Noah joined the army to get stronger. Balhem, the man who was speaking, had also joined the army and been placed under Noah's leadership after he had advanced his position. Balhem was Noah's junior and had formed a close bond with him.
Even after the military, Balhem became a mercenary, this world's equivalent of adventurers, and teamed up with Noah and Mary.
The next person to speak was also a member of Noah's mercenary party. It was a woman who looked a it younger than my grandmother, around 40. She had a (Dull-Lime) core and from the look of how her mana circulated was a mage.
Fighters generally had their body wrapped in mana and could extend it to whatever they touched, while mages and archers extended their mana out of their bodies. Fighters had more well-rounded magic circuits, and mages and archers had specific mana circuits that were used frequently.
"Noah was like a brother to me. He was the one who reached out and helped me when no one else would. He was kind and only ever nice to the people he met. The only time I ever saw him get angry was when his friends and family were hurt. His death is a major loss for this world."
Next, my mother spoke about him, and so did my grandmother before we finished the ceremony. The sword was buried and an elaborate gravestone marked it. The stone was in the shape of a sword with dual blades crossing it and 3 stars. It was my grandfather's military insignia combined with the mark of a mercenary.
We mingled a bit after the ceremony finished and the adults talked with many of them coming over to see me as well. We all went back to the town and went to a restaurant to toast.
"To Noah Cassinova!" Everybody exclaimed.
My mother had changed her name to Bellmont after marrying my father, leaving my grandma to be the only other Cassinova left.
The adults talked some more about Noah and I listened in, interested to hear some stories. When it became dark, goodbyes were said and we went home. I had been napping for some time now and once at home I was fully rejuvenated.
Today was the day I was going to advance to orange. I had already expanded my core as much as I could earlier today, all that was left was to compress it. Everyone got ready for bed and went to sleep.
I was still feeling good though and after everyone fell asleep I started. It was much harder than usual to advance, but that was no surprise, Avery had said that it would be especially hard to advance from scarlet to orange.
After what seemed like an eternity, I successfully entered the orange realm! Avery's voice rang out,
'Congratulations Alex, you are well on your way of telling your story. As I have mentioned, there is some important information for the orange realm and above.
The reason it was so hard to advance to the orange realm, was because, not only were you compressing your core, but also your mana. If before your mana was at a gaseous stage, it is now in a liquid state.
This improves your mana efficiency by a lot and even now, the amount of mana you need for spells is halved. As you advance, your mana will become thicker and denser until it is eventually solid.
Another thing is that now, your rate of advancement will be much slower. You will only be able to advance at the rate that your core compresses your mana. You are unable to compress your mana manually, and your core compresses mana at double the speed it takes it in. You will also now need the same amount of mana your core can hold to advance instead of half.
Also, now every time you advance your core only doubles in size. (Peak-Scarlet) can hold 21870, and (Dark-Orange) can hold 65,610 which is triple but, (Dull-Orange) holds 131220, which is double. (Bright-Orange) and (Pristine-Orange) also double. The rules change once again in the Sienna realm.
Currently, your core can hold 65,610 mana points and needs 65,610 to advance. You take in 1 gaseous mana every 7 seconds, so you would have 1 liquid mana every 14 seconds. Because you need 65,610 liquid mana, it will take you 10 and a half days to advance. To get to the (Bright-Orange) stage you would need another 10 and a half more days on top of that.'
You couldn't have told me this information before Avery?
'Well, the information wouldn't have been much use to you and there was nothing you could do anyway. I thought it best not to have you disappointed anymore than you already are, by the fact you can't test out your magic.'
Fair, I couldn't test out the full extent of my magic if I tried anyway. Why is waiting to grow up so boring? It will be some time before I can walk and talk, even with magic.