"..... And there I saw you sitting at the top of the mountain of corpses and someone shouting your name in anger."
As Eldric finished speaking, Luna went silent for a long time, her eyes constantly flashing in pain.
"I need to take some rest." This was all she said to him before suddenly disappearing.
Eldric didn't stop her or speak words of comfort. He knew nothing about her situation or what she went through. His usual words of sympathy might sound like mocking to her. Hence, he could only stay silent and hope that one day he could help her.
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While Eldric was sitting there in silence, the figure of old man Magnus disappeared as soon as it walked out of the market and reappeared outside Eldric's apartment.
He didn't enter but stood before the door as if waiting for someone. And sure enough, a few moments later, the door opened by itself, revealing the scene of Aria lying on the sofa with a lazy expression while flipping through a thin book that was floating in the air.
"How did it go?" Even though she was still looking at the book, her question was aimed at Magnus.
"Sigh...
Unfortunately not so good." Magnus could only sigh in helplessness while talking about it.
"Hmm!?" She didn't speak but an invisible pressure seemed to overwhelm Magnus who almost kneeled on the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he looked at the woman in front of him with anger but didn't dare to speak out. He could only give her an explanation.
"....."
"So, you are telling me that he had no interest in joining a university or learning from you?"
Aria asked with a frown as the book floating in front of her suddenly fell to the ground.
Magnus who was sweating profusely could only gulp down a mouthful of saliva before giving her a nod.
"I see..." Her eyes seemed to be filled with exhaustion as he sighed helplessly.
"Forget it... If he doesn't want to, then there is no need to. Let him live his life in peace."
The more she spoke, the colder her voice became. Till now, she believed that perhaps Eldric was just an unlucky fellow who awakened an ordinary profession but was willing to work hard.
But it was only now, that she understood what kind of person he was.
Even if he were to awaken a mythical or higher-grade profession, he wouldn't have been able to make any progress. After all, he believed in luck, not in hard work. And people like him have no future. Not in this world... Not with her...
With this thought, the little bit of goodwill and sympathy she had towards Eldric was now completely gone, replaced by a never-changing indifference.
"And what about those two bastards who plotted this against me?"
There was an intense murderous intent in her words as she spoke this sentence. So much so, that the entire room seemed to have turned into a river of blood.
"We are still searching." Lowering his eyes, Magnus replied while looking at the ground.
"Find them..." It was a bone-chilling voice. "Find out who they were in contact with throughout these years.
They used Crystal Of Resonance and Decree Of The World.
It isn't something the likes of them could afford. There must be a Scholar and an Architect involved. Start from there."
With a brief pause, she spoke further.
"Oh, and also tell Eldric that something went terribly wrong and his supposed wife can not regain consciousness ever again."
Even when she spoke these words, there was no change in her expression. It was as if she was talking about something insignificant.
"Handle it well. I have to head back now. There are still many things that I need to do."
With these words, she waved her hand as a thin layer of light engulfed her body. When the light disappeared, the usual icyness from her face was gone, replaced by a blank expression as if only her body had lost its soul.
"Sigh..." Looking at Aria who was walking towards her room with a blank expression, Magnus could only let out a sigh full of helplessness.
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"Really?
Gone already?" Inside the shop, Eldric kept on looking around, hoping to find Luna, but to his disappointment, she seemed to have vanished again.
Thinking about how there were still a lot of things he wanted to talk to her about, Eldric could only grit his teeth in frustration. Now he can only wait till she shows up again. As for when she was going to appear... He doubted it was going to be anytime soon.
After hesitating for a long time, Eldric finally decided to buy the professional stone from the nightmare shop. He didn't know what it was or how it was going to help him in the long term, but at the moment, he couldn't suppress his curiosity.
[Gardener Profession Stone: 50 Tokens]
(Let's you have the Life Profession of a Gardener)
Eldric never thought that one day he would buy this thing. His main goal was to earn tokens and max his Attributes as well as evolve his skills to their limits.
But after fighting against the outlaws as well as listening to Magnus's explanation, he realized how big of a mistake it was not to get a Life Profession. Perhaps he too would be able to make something like those scrolls, giving him a huge improvement during combat.
.....
"Let's do this." Holding a small black round stone in his hand and looking at the pitiful balance of sixty tokens, Eldric could only comfort his bleeding heart.
Slowly, the small black stone began to merge with his palm before disappearing completely. At the same time, Eldric felt a rush of energy entering his body as he began to tremble.
This lasted for a few moments before everything turned back to normal.
"That's it?" Eldric didn't know what he was expecting, but he sure as hell wasn't expecting it to go this easy.
Looking at the panel in front of him, other than a new tab beside his information, there wasn't anything new.
Curiously he touched the new tab and the moment he did it, a new panel opened in front of him.
[Name: Eldric Stormborne]
[Life Profession: Gardener]
[Skill: Plant Whispering] +
Compared to the previous one, this panel was rather straightforward. But this wasn't what stopped Eldric's breathing. It was the '+' sign behind the skill that almost made him jump on the spot in happiness.
With heavy breathing, he touched the skill to know more about it.
[Plant Whispering: Lets you understand the needs of a plant and help it grow faster and increase yield] +
Touching the '+' sign, a new window popped up in front of him.
[Plant Whispering: Can be Evolved]
[1 x Heart Of The Forest. 1 x Fairy Dust]
Looking at the two items with such mighty names, Eldric had a bad prenomination in his heart. And sure enough, the moment he checked the price for the two of the items, he almost wanted to hit his head against the wall.
Looking at the price of two items, Eldric thought it was a typing error and the price was in two digits instead of three.
But after searching again and rubbing his eyes, he couldn't help but accept it.
"Just how many times can I evolve my skills with these many tokens?" For a moment, Eldric even regretted awakening a life profession. But Alas! There was no medicine for regret.
The only thing he could do now was to earn as many tokens as possible.
With this in mind, he spent the rest of the day in the shop. It wasn't until almost an hour before the closing time did he stood up, closed his shop, and rushed to the centre of the city to the market.
After an hour, he returned home with a new set of grey robes and two more masks with different designs and colors. Even though the chances of running into those outlaws were slim, he still didn't want to take a risk.
With everything ready, Eldric prepared dinner but was surprised to see the gloomy face of the old man Magnus.
"There is a bad news." Sensing his gaze, Magnus didn't wait for him to ask but spoke in a stiff tone.
"...." Receiving no reply from Eldric, he spoke further. "I am afraid, Aria will no longer be able to regain consciousness."
"Huh!?" This sudden announcement from Magnus was like dropping a bomb in the middle of the lake. For a moment, Eldric almost thought he heard it wrong. But after looking at the old man's face and realizing that he wasn't joking, blood almost drained from his face.
Just a day ago, both he and Aria were happily talking and he had even thought about which topic to discuss with her next week after she regained her senses. But after listening to the old man... Eldric felt like everything around him was bleak.
"What the hell happened?" He couldn't help but shout at Magnus. He wanted to know what went wrong and whether there was something that they could do. But Magnus just smiled helplessly in reply.
"It was my fault.
I thought the new potion might help her. But unfortunately, this wasn't the case. Instead of making her better, it just worsened her situation."
"Get out."
"Huh!?" Magnus looked at Eldric wondering whether he heard him right or not.
But this doubt was soon answered by the roar.
"I SAID... GET OUT."
Looking at the young boy who doesn't seem to be joking, Magnus wanted to say something. But in the end, no words came out of his mouth. The only thing he could do was shake his head and walk out of the house, leaving behind the figure of Eldric sitting there in silence.
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"You are making a mountain out of a molehill." It wasn't until a few minutes passed after Magnus's departure that the voice of Luna sounded in Eldric's ears.
"...."
Receiving no reply from him, Luna just snorted in displeasure. "You are acting like you truly loved her.
Oh please!
It wasn't love."
"Really?" It was only now that Eldric spoke in a hoarse voice while looking at her.
"And how would you know that?"
Luna narrowed her eyes for a moment and answered his question in a blunt tone.
"What you felt was just a sense of responsibility and nothing else.
She was imposed upon you like a fucking baggage. And you... You being the idiot, accepted this worthless role of her husband."
"So, don't give me all that excuses about love and whatnot..."
Eldric didn't retort or reply but just stood up and walked towards Aria's room before opening her closed door with force.
He stood there in silence, looking at her sleeping soundly as if she was going to wake up any moment, and gently caressed her face with an expressionless face...