LX

  Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, he was unable to look them in the eyes. It was a moment where he lost control of himself, and he wasn’t sure if it was the fire mana that was coursing through him, or if it was just him. Another option could be his Mana Core, but thinking about it, it wouldn’t make sense for it to act up during that situation.

  The Dwarf sighed, and spoke to him in a calm tone, “Regardless, you have our thanks for saving us. After losing the rest of our group and us getting randomly taken as prisoners, we were only hoping to join our group in the afterlife.”

  Kaz only winced at that, unable to form any words that could uplift them or console them. He wasn’t good with coming up with words to comfort someone, or even speaking normally with other people. He usually kept his talking to a bare minimum, and he’d rather have an awkward silence than say something he could regret. His mouth moved before he could think of anything, and he muttered, “Sorry for your loss.”

  The Dwarf only grunted, and they moved on relative silence. They traversed through the rocky terrain, barely speaking unless it was to warn the group of hazards along their path. Once they got through the worst of the walk, they decided to take a rest where there was enough space for all three of them to lay comfortably throughout the night.

  The Dwarf, who introduced himself as Thomdid, made a small campfire, and they all sat around it, with Kaz passing around what little rations he had. He planned for a week long trip, so he had some extra food to spare. The Gnome, who was named Priza, explained their situation, “We were a small party of four. We’ve been adventuring for two years together, and we are approaching our First Revelation. We took a Quest that called to investigate an unusual group of Stonerock Goblins who seem more than just ordinary monsters. We thought this would be a good Quest to get us ready for our trial for our First Revelation, so we instantly took it.”

  Kaz nodded, immediately understanding as he himself wondered how these goblins were considered monsters when they were stronger and more intelligent than the previous encounters that he had with them. Priza continued, “Once we were approaching this location, we were ambushed by them. It was a large group, possibly ten in total, with the Elite and the casting type goblin,” she shuddered at the memory of the caster, and Kaz felt it too. He wasn’t alone in this weird feeling that came from the Shaman.

  “We fought hard, but we were so overwhelmed that I wasn’t able to keep up my healing on the two front line fighters, Thomdid and his brother Thombin. Thombin was impaled by the Elite and was gone before I could cast my best healing Ability. Lenata fell quickly afterwards from the caster, unable to dodge the dark red fireball that struck her, burning her to crisp.”

  Kaz noticed Thomdid staring off into the distance, and he sympathized with the pain he felt, not only losing a member of the group, but his own brother. Priza sighed when she followed Kaz’s gaze, realizing she was opening up the wound of that memory. She concluded, “And that was probably a week ago, so you came relatively quickly. It’s very thoughtful of the Guild to send out an Adventurer approaching their Second Revelation for us, thank you again, from the both of us.”

  He stared blankly at her, before correcting her, “Sorry, but I am only approaching my First Revelation.”

  They both stared at him, both of them had their mouths open slightly, and Kaz could only look at the floor, flustered by their reaction. It was Thomdid who spoke up, “Well, I’ll be darned,” and chuckled, Priza following shortly with a burst of giggles.

  With that conversation wrapping up, they all fell asleep, the crackling of the campfire providing the noise to relax them. The next morning, they continued onwards in slightly better spirits. It was no doubt the result of getting over the shock of everything, and also having a meal along with a night of peaceful rest.

  They all took turns talking, mostly about their own adventures, which Kaz always asked more about. He learned about the nearby regions, which interested him greatly as he wanted to explore out of Sarus and the surrounding area himself. They were nearing Sarus, but it was still a bit too far to travel through the night.

  They made another small camp, and they all went to sleep relatively quickly, as they wanted to pass the time as quickly as possible in their sleep in order to get back home to Sarus. Kaz took the opportunity to check his gains that he received from going through the Quest. He opened his [ Archive ], going straight to his Abilities. It displayed:

  — [ Skill Abilities ] —

  [ Lightning Burst - ? ]

  Rank 47 > Rank 50

  [ Mana Shield ]

  Rank 29 > Rank 50

  [ Mana Siphon - ? ? ? ]

  Rank 50

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  — [ Passive Abilities ] —

  [ Mana Regeneration ]

  Rank 45

  [ Evasive Step ]

  Rank 43 > Rank 50

  [ Glaive Novice ]

  Rank 48 > Rank 50

  A wide smirk painted his face, his Mana Core thumping in his midsection. He was basically there. Everything was Rank 50, apart from his [ Mana Regeneration ]. Kaz wasn’t even upset by the fact that he managed to gain on everything besides that, just because he knew how much effort he went through recently to get so many Ranks for all his Abilities. He probably had his three-star enhancement to thank for the rapid progress, but he knew deep down that it was also because of his crazy effort of pushing himself.

  He was slightly stumped on how he could Rank his [ Mana Regeneration ], but thankfully it was something that related to his Mana Core, so no doubt he would be able to rely on it to guide him through to get the Passive Ability up to Rank 50. And then he would be ready for his First Revelation.

  Sleep was not possible that night from his excitement, imagining the process of undergoing his First Revelation. He had no idea what would happen, only that he would be given a Quest that acted as a trial to test his willpower and readiness for the next step in his discovering his true place in the Cosmos. He was split on what he would want from the Quest itself. On one hand, he wanted a trial that included combat, so he could push himself, but on the other end, he had so much combat already in his journey to this moment, that he hoped it would be something more of a test of his capabilities of using mana.

  When the sun rose, the other two immediately shot up, and they continued on the way back to Sarus, the town’s imposing walls present in the distance. The two survivors were practically running, unable to hide their emotions of being back home, the feeling of safety behind those walls. Kaz barely kept up, but he couldn’t help but smile softly at this. He was the reason that they were able to come back home, he saved two lives. It was like almost everything he had gone through as an Adventurer was worth it for this single moment.

  They made it back to the town, and they went directly to the Guild. Kaz was surprised that they joined him to the Guild, assuming that they would go home first thing to see their family or friends, and just unwind after a week of pure agony. They explained that they needed to file a report for the two group members that they lost during the Quest, and to explain the specifics of what went wrong.

  Kaz nodded solemnly, and once they entered the Guild, everyone in the Guild eyed them. A few people rushed over to the other two, questioning them. Kaz managed to slip away, and approached Laelara. He immediately put the heavy sword on her desk, massaging his sore shoulder where it was resting on the whole journey.

  Laelara immediately took it, putting it somewhere below the desk with some difficulty, and motioned for his Badge. He slid it over and she announced to him, “Congratulations on completing this Epic Quest, Kaz!”

  He blushed at the compliment, unable to meet her eyes. She continued on, “So here, is your standard reward, twenty gold coins for completing the Quest. And for your extra reward, for it being an Epic Quest, your [ Archive ] will provide you with a piece of gear or weapon of higher quality.” Unable to restrain himself, he immediately opened his [ Archive ], only to receive this disappointing message:

  Generating reward, check again shortly.

  He huffed in annoyance, and Laelara only giggled. She eyed the commotion in the common area, and she asked him, “Do you know what that’s about?”

  He bobbed his head, and explained, “They were prisoners of the Stonerock Goblins. It was an urgent update to the Quest once I arrived. Unfortunately, two of them died during the initial combat.”

  Laelara winced hearing that, but waved it aside, saying, “Well, I’m glad at least two returned home. Somebody else will do their report, as it is a long process, and I particularly do not have any interest in that.”

  With some more small talk, Kaz decided to get going, wanting to figure out a way to Rank his final Ability to fifty. He could almost feel the Revelation coming, and he was beginning to become impatient. He constantly checked his [ Archive ] for an update for his reward. After an hour or so, with him already reaching the gate out to the other side of the Sarus, he finally received an update from his [ Archive ]. It only read:

  You have received (Refined) Shadowmagick Trinket.

  Once he read that message, a silver chain necklace hovered down in front of him. It was a simple silver chain, with a small black crystal attached to it. He grabbed it and put it around his neck, despite the ominous name it had. He prompted his [ Archive ] to tell him more about the necklace. It wrote out:

  The (Refined) Shadowmagick Trinket provides a passive 5% increase to speed in combat.

  Upon activation, it boosts speed and strength by 25% for 5 minutes, cooldown of 6 hours.

  He scratched his head, wondering how he could activate the item. Kaz decided he would try it once he was outside the walls just in case it went wrong or something. He would hate the attention as well if it was something that caused a scene when activated.

  Approaching the gate, he flashed his Wooden Badge, and was allowed through. Kaz walked along the path, unsure of where he was going. He quickly became lost in his thoughts, and just allowed himself to be pulled a certain direction, no doubt by his Mana Core. Or maybe it was just his subconscious.

  Once the gate was too far away for him to even make out, he decided to activate his trinket. He awkwardly stood there and reached out to his [ Archive ], prompting it to activate his “trinket”.

  Immediately he felt a surge of cold power coming from his chest where the crystal was, and everything became darker around him. With horror, he looked down at his arms, and the rest of his body. He was covered in the same black haze as the Elite goblin and the Shaman. Kaz tried to calm himself down, knowing that the [ Archive ] wouldn’t give him something that would actively harm him. Or so he hoped.

  Swinging his glaive around, he noticed it weighed a lot less with his buff, and was surprised himself at how quick he was able to go through his combos. To the average person, he probably looked like a blur. This would be beneficial during a tough fight, like with the Elite Stonerock Goblin, to push him over the edge to end a battle, or to save himself from getting defeated.

  He continued walking on, and before he knew it, he arrived a spot that he remembered all too well. It was a small opening in the woods, with still some small traces of blood and disturbed dirt. It was the spot where he defeated his first person, the Dwarven Bandit.