Chapter 50  

As Moui had predicted, the next day Kea went back to his house to continue the apprenticeship. No one had any idea about what had happened, and she refused to say anything, only giving vague answers.

From her words, she appeared very interested in hunting, but something must have upset her. When Kai tried to ask her if anything was wrong, she glared at him and closed herself in her room.

What did I do wrong this time? I give up.

It wasn’t a perfect scenario, but as long as she didn’t lose interest, Kai considered that a win. She would learn useful skills and not spend whole days on the streets looking for trouble with a gang of kids.

Despite telling himself he didn’t care, Kai went to visit Moui after Kea had left. It was his duty as an exemplary teacher to check if his student needed any advice with Mana Manipulation.

“Everything is going well. You were right, it’s not that hard.” The hunter commented with a humble brag.

Kai rolled his eyes. “Well, just keeping your mana from doing anything isn’t that hard. Making it do what you want is a whole other deal.”

Okay, maybe that was slightly passive-aggressive, but it’s also true.

“Sure, it is…” Moui said, patting him on the head.

Kai glared at him, another comeback ready on his lips, but he suppressed it. He was acting like a child, his ego way more fragile than he would have liked. He spent a lifetime and a half second-guessing his own decisions and hiding behind sarcastic jokes. He was becoming conscious of it, but habits die hard.

“Why was my sister so upset the other day?” He asked, trying to change the topic. Since he was already here, he might as well inquire what was going on.

It worked way better than expected. Moui’s confident smile disappeared and his gaze turned away from his eyes.

“I thought she already knew.” He muttered under his breath.

Kai raised an eyebrow. “Knew what exactly?” He was getting a bad feeling. Moui looked like he felt guilty about something. His tone contained a note of warning. “What did you tell her?”

The hunter looked down ashamed, “She was curious about how I met her brother, you. So, I started telling her a bit about that. You know, how you always find yourself in complicated situations and all that.”

Why do people always gossip about me behind my back? I never looked for any trouble.

Kai gave a look to Moui to prompt him to continue. “What else did you tell her?”

“Nothing bad really, quite the opposite. I might have mentioned how you were probably one of the people with the highest-level Mana Sense I’ve ever met. Also, how much money you made in the deal with the merfolk…”

Kai paled a little.

Yep, that would do it…

His sister knew about most of that, but he had purposefully remained very vague on the exact specifics. She knew he had Mana Sense at a high level, but that could mean anything to her. That was until Moui’s big mouth gave her a pretty clear idea of how high it was. Same with the coins he made. He had told her he had made ‘a lot’, but in her head, she probably thought it was a handful of copper mesars at most.

His sister had always been competitive. She was not like Eleni. He had known with certainty she would not take it well if she discovered his status and progress, which was why he had remained as vague as possible. She might suspect many things, but knew nothing for sure. She had probably thought the gap wasn’t that big or that he was exaggerating.

It had never been a fair competition. There was no way for her to make up for his advantages. He might not have always been very considerate in his younger years, but after he came back from the estate, he tried to be a better brother.

“What did you say?” Kai asked. Moui had muttered something else, but he had not caught it as his mind spiraled calculating all the implications.

The hunter let out a sigh, “I also told her you had reached the orange grade in your race. You didn’t seem to make a mystery of it, so I thought she knew that too.”

Kai wanted to slam his head against the wall. Once again, yes, she most likely suspected it, but having a definitive confirmation was different.

“I didn’t think she would take it so badly. She asked many questions about race grades and how high people could get, so I mentioned you had reached Orange younger than I was at the time.”

Dammit. That must have only made it worse.

Kai gritted his teeth and glared at his uncle. He truly wanted to throw a kid tantrum right now. All his efforts had been destroyed by Moui’s carelessness.

“I’m sorry, Kai. I should have kept my mouth shut, after I asked you to do the same for me.” Moui apologized.

Well, at least now I don't need to feel guilty for revealing his grade to Kea.

Kai tried to hide his great annoyance from his tone. “She was going to discover it sooner or later. Just do your best teaching her about hunting.”

“Of course, I promise to teach her everything I know.” Moui gave his word.

Maybe knowing the truth will give her motivation to train harder.

Kea was not one to give up just because the gap seemed unsurmountable.

With one last glance at Moui, Kai left the hunter’s house. What more was there to say? What was done was done.

He wandered aimlessly, letting his feet bring him through the dirt streets of old town lost in thoughts. Eventually, he found himself in front of the churning waves. The sea always had a calming effect on him. He took off his shoes and walked along the pebble shore letting the cold waves touch his feet.

It had been going so well with Kea. He had been making some real progress, now it was all gone. There was nothing he could do but wait for Kea to come to terms with the truth. He knew her enough to know no words from his mouth could improve the situation. Only time could do it, maybe.

He was mad at Moui’s carelessness, but was it really his fault? As Kai calmed down and thought about that, it became apparent it was an honest mistake. Putting all the blame on someone was easy, but it wasn’t all the hunter’s fault.

After he managed to arrange the apprenticeship, he had been so drunk on his own success he had not thought to warn him. Instead, he had congratulated himself like an idiot.

In the end, my plan did work splendidly. Maybe too well.

Hopefully, Kea would turn her discoveries into motivation and not do anything dumb.

* * *

His remaining days in Greenside passed quietly. Kai tried to keep himself busy. He doubled his physical training sessions to both morning and evening for good measure.

He experimented with using Meditation while doing other exercises. He wasn’t yet able to activate it 100% of the time, but rapidly improving and learning where Meditation would never work, and where he just wasn’t good enough to make it work.

Alchemy and mana exercises took another chunk of his time. With all the levels he gained in Mana Manipulation, he was finally able to move forth in the book of exercises Dora gave him.

The first five structures for internal mana manipulation, that had once been beyond his ability, proved no challenge at all. His cockiness didn’t last long, the next five mana designs soon pulled him down to reality.

His control over the thin thread of mana wasn’t the problem, but preventing the structure from collapsing as it grew bigger and more complex was hard. It took a lot of patience, and a few days, but he got those exercises too.

With this, he had completed one-half of the internal mana configurations recorded in the book. When he first read them, he thought this would be his limit if everything went according to plan. Now he continued to the next set of five.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Kai's brows furrowed in concentration. He controlled the mana thread with mastery, forming a complex braid of knots and loops inside his body. The first half was complicated but doable, then the problems began.

His teeth clenched and sweat appeared on his forehead, his mind strained to keep a grasp on the existing structure while adding more. His pace slowed to a crawl, as more time was spent fixing mistakes than going forward. Like watching a building collapsing in slow-mo, he could only delay the inevitable, not stop it.

Damn, another fail.

After a short break to rest his mind, Kai tried again. He aimed to complete at least one of the five designs before leaving Greenside.

His alchemy practice was much less eventful. To improve and level his skill, his mind wasn’t enough, he also needed ingredients and knowledge. The latter wasn’t a real problem, Dora’s book offered plenty, and he had the two other books Reishi gifted him: ‘Plants from the Deep - a complete guide to the Treasures of the Sea’ and ‘Fundamentals of Alchemy - volume 1’.

After asking his sister Ele for help, the book on aquatic plants appeared very promising with plenty of species of algae, kelp and seaweeds that grew in the Shallow Sea. Unfortunately, in the short term, it didn’t change much. He didn’t have the time to go scour the sea. Going from book knowledge to applying that information in real life wasn’t easy or fast. He let Ele borrow the manual to show it to her mentor.

The final book, the one Reishi called fundamental to any aspiring alchemist, proved less useful. Granted he didn’t go beyond the first pages because it was such a boring read. The author, the illustrious Xolovert De’savot, truly must be a remarkable individual for making brewing potions sound so boring and abstruse. Amidst paragraphs of empty rhetoric, the instruction he found required alchemic tools he didn’t possess or herbs he never heard of, sometimes both. He put it aside till he could show it to Dora.

With his reserves of mana herbs dwindling, so did possibilities. Trying something out of his wheelhouse would teach him the most, but it would likely be a spectacular failure with no way to recoup the cost. His family could put the money to better use.

After closing a few deals with old Selly, Kai had accumulated around 16 mesar and 78 chips. A considerable sum. He had worked hard not to get scammed by the sweet granny who hid a cunning and deceiving demon out for every last copper chip.

Playing around with the random ingredients he had left, he had a few unexpected successes. He sold most of them but kept a couple of red-tier poisons. They weren’t like the bait poison that was harmless to humans, so he didn’t feel right selling that. Maybe he could use them against the beasts of the jungle if the chance arose.

Finally, there was one more activity that occupied his time: deciphering his father's books and notes. It was far more work than he had expected, but he could now get an idea of what a Vastaire text said all by himself.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Decoding (lv1) – Use your knowledge, brain and multiple obscure sources to get to the truth.

Kai had expected to receive a language skill, but he was always happy to add anything to his Archive. It expanded his repertoire, and more possibilities were never a bad thing. He laughed aloud while reading the part about ‘obscure sources’. That was a fitting description for his dad’s notes.

He didn’t plan to take this one either, it sounded even more niche than Persuasion with very specific requirements to be activated. It wouldn’t find much use when he got back to the estate. He had compiled his notes into a notebook he could bring back with him to not forget what he learned, but he needed all Rellan’s books to continue his research. This project was still a work in progress, but he was determined to bring it to completion. No matter how long it took.

Once again, he had to thank Dora for her foresight. He had thought two new notebooks were overkill, but it turned out it was barely enough. He only had a couple blank pages left.

On the last day before his ceremony, Kai walked to the sea for one last time. He spent so many mornings training here. With a satisfied sigh, he laid on the pebble beach, admiring the many shades of orange, yellow and pink the sunset painted on the sky and sea.

Tomorrow was finally the day; he didn’t know what to expect exactly. Probably it was not going to be anything surprising, a few arcane prayers and some bizarre ritual.

He summoned his status with a thought.

Name: Kai Tylenn

Race: Human

Profession: None

Body stats

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 9>10

Constitution: 12>13

Mind: 13>14

Spirit: 15>16

Perception: 11

Favor: 9>10

Skills:

Running (lv75>77)

Swimming (lv74>75 - Max)

Meditation (lv63>66)

Awareness (lv54>55)

Herbology (lv54>57)

Acting (lv44>48)

Processing – Plants (lv35>38)

Reading (lv19>25)

Gardening (lv12)

Sneak (lv7>11)

Mana Sense (lv41>42)

Mana Manipulation (lv10>12)

Alchemy (lv8>9)

Inspect (lv6>8)

Who would have thought he would gain so much while he was away from the estate? He couldn’t wait to see Dora and Elijah’s faces when he told them.

Elijah will certainly say it is all thanks to his exercises.

He had not been able to match the same progress he had made during his alchemy marathon, but those had been extraordinary circumstances. You couldn't sprint all the way. Slow and steady growth was the key. Swimming had also reached the threshold, but he might as well wait a couple days and ask Virya’s advice.

After the sun went down, Kai walked back home. Tomorrow was going to be an important day. It marked the end of his stay in Greenside.