"This is boring."
As the sun retreated and the moon showed its glamour, an indifferent voice echoed inside the training cube under Elina's house. The cube was wrapped with tempered steel forged with the best materials in the Chasm. It was built to withstand the power of a Resonator such as Elina whose abilities caused destruction everywhere she went.
However, it was especially silent the whole day.
"Boring? You need to know fundamental knowledge first. Without the brain, the body is useless."
The reason for this unusual silence was because of the theoretical teachings that Elina was giving him.
"When I first dove into the Chasm, I knew next to nothing. That almost got me killed brutally by a Hollow Creature."
Luciel had been listening to Elina for an hour non-stop about how dangerous the Chasm was and how information was life and blood. He didn't want that. He was itching to swing a sword.
His whole life had been a struggle for survival. There was no time to have fun or indulge in entertainment. His life was bleak, and yet when he saw a black-bladed tachi, his eyes trembled in excitement.
It was as if he was being pulled in by the calling of the sword.
"Hey..."
Luciel stared at the sword with sharp eyes. The blade was menacingly sharp. The hilt was beautifully wrapped by leather and painted with lacquer on top. It was eye-catching.
"Hey...!"
What was that sound? Anyway, he knew that if he were to become a famous Resonator one day, he wanted to be known by the sword. Not that he cared about fame, but being called a Sword Saint might not sound so bad.
'I've read too many webtoons.'
As Luciel was daydreaming about heroic scenes where Resonators came to the rescue, a hand swung by his face so fast that he didn't register the pain for a second.
"It seems that I've been too lenient with you, haven't I?"
Elina stared daggers at him. The pressure she exuded was oppressive and heavy. It was as if the world reacted with her, causing minor changes to the atmosphere.
'I kept forgetting that she's one of the champions of Noxio.'
Elina looked at Luciel for a while before turning her back against him. She walked toward a beautiful crystal monument at the back of the training room. It was a glass cage made out of crystals procured from the Chasm. A high purity one, at that.
She channeled her Echo Energy into the glass cage slowly and retreated her hand. A second later, the crystalline glass emitted brilliant white light that showered the whole cube. Luciel was blinded and had to cover his eyes.
Then he heard a sound of glass cracking and falling to the ground. The sound was very different from normal glass. It produced a hauntingly beautiful melody as each shard collided with the metal floor.
"Elina, what did you just do?"
Elina kept silent and walked toward the shattered glass cage and picked up something. The silhouette of the object took a rather long and slightly curvy shape. The end of it was sharp and the middle sparkled brighter than the fluorescent crystal. Luciel immediately knew what the object was.
Elina strolled happily toward Luciel and handed him the object.
"This is a precious Relic that I got from defeating a Stratum Two Hollow Creature when I was a cadet. It was hideous. I had to will myself to pull that sword out of its insides. Truly, thinking about it makes me vomit. I'll have to order something delicious today..."
Stunned by his master's carefree attitude of giving this precious tachi, Luciel looked at Elina. His eyes gaining a bit of color.
"You're giving this to me?"
"It's collecting dust in that cage, anyway. I have no use for swords. In fact, every single Relic that I placed in these glass cages is simply memorabilia. Something to remind me of what I have achieved. A display of victories of sorts. Relics are rare, after all."
Luciel looked around the huge metal cube and saw many more displays of Relics. Some looked like miscellaneous items that didn't have any value, some looked like it could buy the whole suburbs. A few of them looked rather scary. Luciel turned his sight away from those sinister objects and looked at Elina.
"Thank you. I'll use it for the rest of my life. If it withstand for that long, of course." Elina laughed heartily and rubbed Luciel's soft white hair.
"You don't need to, Luciel. If you find a better sword, go for it. All I wish is for you to keep it well. Something to remember me by."
"You sound like you're about to die." Luciel slightly shook his head.
Elina smiled and gave him a peculiar pearl. It was a pristine white pearl with no blemish on it. It was perfectly pure, as if it was untouched by anything that was profane.
Staring at it, Luciel asked, "What is that? You're giving me too many things."
Elina shook her head and laughed. "This is the first time I see someone complaining about getting free things."
Luciel spared her a glance and continued talking.
"So what does it do?"
He expected it to be another Relic but didn't know what its function was. But what Elina said next wasn't in his predictions at all.
"Swallow it. You'll know what it does."
"Would it kill you if you tell me?"
Luciel gave Elina a deadpan expression before closely examining the pearl. It was quite small and delicate. He could feel some kind of energy rotating in that pearl, but as always, he didn't know what to make of it.
'She wouldn't kill me, would she?'
Shaking off that mindless thought, Luciel chose to believe in Elina and brought the pearl to his mouth.
The pearl had a smooth surface. It radiated a cold sensation in his mouth, making his teeth ache. Luciel then swallowed it with little difficulty. It was much easier than swallowing weird-shaped and rugged pills that Elina forced him to take for "nutritious purposes".
Once the pill seeped deep inside his body, Luciel immediately felt its effects. The heat was burning his body inside out, akin to shoving oneself into a pool of fire. Luciel couldn't withstand and fell to the ground, hugging his body.
'She's trying to kill me. I knew it!'
Luciel wanted to say something, but he couldn't utter a word. Never had he thought that opening his mouth would be so painful. Even moving an inch jolted his body like a person who was being electrocuted, so he could only wrapped himself in a fetal position and embraced the pain.
He glanced up to look at Elina. His eyelids twitching from pain, but he clearly saw her smirking.
'What the hell!? If I survive this, I'll make sure to cook the worst meal ever for her!'
The pain subsided as time went on. Elina was being unhelpful as usual, only throwing a couple glances before continuing her training, so Luciel had to endure it on his own.
Then midnight came. Motionlessly lying on the ground, Luciel took in a deep breath and checked his condition. Weirdly enough, he felt better than ever. His body was light and his mind was fortified. He had sweat and a strange smell all over, though, but that didn't matter. That miracle pearl exponentially increased his power. He could feel it.
"Holy crap," he uttered.
"Done squirming?" Elina chuckled as she elegantly sat down beside the unresponsive Luciel.
"What I gave you is an elixir concocted from the fire of a phoenix. It'll give you a significant boost of power and a stronger body."
Luciel, still panting heavily from that painful episode, wondered how Elina got her hands on a precious item like this. A phoenix was a creature of myths. To have given him without asking anything in return, Luciel felt eternally grateful for his savior, his only family.
"Thank you."
There was not much to say. Words couldn't describe how appreciative Luciel was to Elina. Though, his eyes said otherwise.
'I didn't know his eyes could shine bright like that.'
Within a year, they have grown close to each other and created an unbreakable bond. It was a humbling journey seeing her past self in Luciel. It reminded her the journey she had experienced to get to where she was. The raw emotions she lost and was given back by Murphy's unconditional love. Elina wanted nothing but the best for Luciel.
She stood up and straightened herself. The tracking suit was wrinkled from all the training earlier. Thinking about how she had to iron it later, she groaned.
Seeing Elina acting strange, Luciel haphazardly sat up. "Is something wrong?"
Elina let out a deep sigh. "Nothing. Let's get back up and give you some rest." She walked up the steel stairs with a confident gait. The air around her moved wherever she went. "We're getting serious tomorrow."