Chapter 201 - Ring

Amazing. Adion couldn’t help but marvel at the effects of the Profund Water as he took a few sips and felt his Will return to the peak.

He had held himself back the previous day, but after just finishing his routine of painting in the morning, he couldn’t help himself and gave it a try.

It seems the Profound Water is more potent than I thought. It only takes a few sips, and I am completely recovered.

Doesn’t that mean I have enough to last me months?

Adion stared at the painting in front of him. He didn’t know what guided his memories to appear. They seemed completely random. This morning, he had finished painting his old teacher Francis. It was a strange, non-significant memory from when he was eleven years old. Francis was holding a class in the library to the Remori children about the different powers on Shiora. 

Adion took his eyes off the painting and stared out over the vast landscape in front of him. It was a sunny day, and even if it wasn’t as hot as the Saba Desert, it was still certainly hot for a summer day. But even so, the trees looked green and full of life.

To think that even such a small memory would mean this much to me one day. Adion couldn’t help but think, feeling slightly melancholic. 

To think that all those people I took for granted are dead now. 

Adion slowly began to pack his things. He suddenly felt a strong urge to return home to his remaining family and make sure they were alright. He also felt guilty that they were out there worrying about him. 

But at the same time, he couldn’t ignore the possibilities in this place. Who knows what kind of opportunities he might leave behind if he left now? And traveling home might take him a long time. Staying here for a while wouldn’t make much difference.

Besides, if he used the Profound Water, even sparingly, he would be able to speed up his memory recovery a lot. He might even get back on track with his advancement. 

He knew that he wouldn’t have that opportunity once he started traveling. He couldn’t waste time painting for a few hours every day. And being in that state wasn’t exactly safe in the middle of the forest with beasts around. 

Let’s give it at least a week more. I’ll see how things look then and give it some more thought. Adion thought as he got to his feet and walked away from the view, heading back to the grand hall.

Adion didn’t see Shindo when he arrived, so he released his space mana to find him.

There he is. Why is he hiding his aura all the time? Truly too cautious.

Adion walked over to the statue with the now-empty basin, where he found Shindo sitting cross-legged on the ground, meditating. 

As Adion came close, Shindo opened his eyes and greeted Adion with a smile, “Morning. Finished painting?”

“Yep,” Adion nodded, “Want to continue exploring this place?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Shindo asked as he jumped to his feet with an excited grin. 

“What direction do you want to head in? Any ideas?” Adion asked. The grand hall they were in was still almost entirely inaccessible.

“Let’s keep going this way, that seems to be the closest wall,” Shindo said, pointing out a direction, “After that, we’ll just follow the wall and hope we stumble across a new doorway.”

“Sounds good,” Adion said with a nod, “You start.”

“You really want me to waste my mana?” Shindo asked.

“Fair is fair,” Adion said with a shrug.

“Still, I hope to make use of the Profound Water to meditate. I will waste a lot of time by spending my mana like this,” Shindo said with a slightly pleading expression. One could only start working on advancing once they had a full core, after all.

“And you think I want to waste my mana?” Adion shamelessly argued, never having used his mana once during their time there.

“You seem to just want to spend your time painting, so what if you empty your core?” Shindo asked.

“Are you sure you weren’t kicked out from your family? I’ve never seen someone so uncooperative before,” Adion said with a scornful expression.

“I’m just trying to reason with logic, no need for those cheap shots,” Shindo muttered, “Fine. I’ll do my part.”

Shindo quickly found his target and conjured two huge lightning bolts in succession. After that, he sat down, panting on the floor.

“You’re overdoing it,” Adion said with a plain face.

“This isn’t acting,” Shindo said, lying down, “Go on without me. It’s all up to you now, Adion.”

“Weird,” Adion muttered. He grabbed hold of some space, made it volatile, and continued crushing rocks in the direction Shindo had pointed out. 

When he felt he had done enough, Adion wiped some imaginary sweat from his forehead and sat down on the ground. 

“You know,” Shindo said, creeping up from behind, “We would be done here a lot sooner if you used some Profound Water to recover.”

“Are you offering yours?” Adion asked.

“Never mind, let’s clear these rocks,” Shindo said, stepping forward to clear the rubble. 

Adion got up to help, keeping his eyes alert for any treasures that might be buried underneath the rocks. 

Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything. And they didn’t reach the wall through this one effort, but they should be able to make it in one more try. 

“Well, I guess that’s it for today,” Shindo said, “Unless you want to give it another try later.”

“I can’t use all my Will on this. I need to advance too, you know,” Adion argued.

“Then we will need to stay here for a long time. I don’t mind, but I thought you wanted to get back to the Academy?” Shindo asked.

“That’s low. Fine, I’ll recover and make another effort tonight,” Adion said with a sigh. Secretly, he was happy Shindo had brought it up, though. It really didn’t take much Will to clear a few rocks. He just didn’t want Shindo to be suspicious. But now, when it looked like they might be here for a while, he really couldn’t pass on the opportunity to work twice as fast.

And the Profound Water was a perfect excuse if Shindo were to notice Adion using more of his Will than he should be able to.

“Good guy,” Shindo said, slapping Adion’s shoulder, “I’m going back for some sunlight to recover. How about you?”

“I’m starving,” Adion said, staring blankly at Shindo.

“You want to eat, then?” Shindo asked.

“Can you really get us food? We used my last rations yesterday,” Adion said.

“I’m…a little too tired,” Shindo said hesitantly.

“Then I’m a little too tired to help clear boulders from now on,” Adion said with a frown, sick of Shindo’s evasive personality.

“Fine, fine. I’ll handle it. Don’t get upset,” Shindo said, raising his hands in defeat, “Let’s go to the hole and eat.”

“Good,” Adion said with a small smile, curious how Shindo would solve their need for food and water out of nowhere.

As the two made their way back, Adion could overheard Shindo alternating between quietly muttering to himself and sighing exaggeratingly. 

“Just asking for a small rest, yet get treated like a pest,” Shindo said mournfully with his head down.

“What are you doing? Poetry?” Adion asked, baffled.

“I’m just thinking out loud, don’t mind me,” Shindo said.

“Curse me all you want, there is no need to rhyme,” Adion said warily.

Shindo continued his quiet muttering, and Adion didn’t know if this was a genuine reaction or if Shindo was just awful at guilt-tripping people.

Arriving at the large hole in the wall with overview of the mountain and forest down below, Adion turned to Shindo and asked, “So, where is the food?”

Shindo turned to look at Adion with a cheeky grin and responded, “Actually, I was mostly worried about you, Adion. I’m quite impressive, you might want to wait to recover you WIll before you see me perform.”

“Just get on with it,” Adion said.

“Are you sure? Last chance,” Shindo said, staring into Adion’s eyes.

“I’m sure,” Adion said with a determined nod. But he still couldn’t help but look around cautiously, affected by Shindo’s warning.

“Alright,” Shindo said, putting his hand in his small pouch and pulling out a ring.

As Adion watched Shindo put the ring on his finger, he couldn’t help but recall the time when their senba was attacked by beasts. He had seen Shindo put on the ring at that time as well, he had even thought something was strange about it. But as beasts were attacking, he had no time to think about it.

Now, watching the ring again, Adion couldn’t help but focus on the strange feeling the ring gave him.

Shindo turned to Adion with a light smile before putting his hand into the air in front of him. 

Adion suddenly saw the ring light up in strange patterns, and Shindo’s expression turned red from effort. Shindo quickly downed a small vial of Profound Water, and Adion slowly realized something incredible.

The space in front of Shindo’s hand was subtly changing. It was incredibly strange. It was different from teleportation, but in a way, very similar. 

Adion’s eyes gave an answer of what was happening before his space sense did. 

A round, dark disk the size of a plate appeared in front of Shindo’s hand, blocking the view behind it. Adion’s space sense got incredibly confused. He pushed some space mana into that disk and discovered, to his shock, that there was a space there, disconnected from the area they were in. It was like a small storage room had appeared in the middle of the air. But it didn’t take up any space.

Shindo put his hand into the disk, reaching so deep his whole arm disappeared. When he pulled it out again, he had a big bundle of dried meat in hand. 

“Haaah,” Shindo breathed out in what appeared to be genuine exhaustion. He sat down on the ground and took a few deep breaths before looking up to Adion with a smile, “Impressive, right? Do you have these things on Shiora?”

“No,” Adion answered with a whisper, still completely baffled by what he had experienced. 

“Thought so,” Shindo said, “Well, I got us food. Let’s eat.”

“What is that thing? Do these things truly exist on Quemer? I’ve never heard anything like it.” Adion questioned.

“We call it a storage ring,” Shindo said, “And most people don’t know about them. It’s a rare type of relic from the Relic Age.”

“Relic Age?” Adion asked.

“Age of Wonder,” Shindo clarified, “Don’t go around talking about it too much in the future, or I’ll get in trouble.”

“Sure,” Adion agreed, “But how come I’ve never heard about this? Is there more than one?”

“Of course,” Shindo said, “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be left with one.”

“But how come I’ve never heard about it?” Adion asked, confused, “I’m a space mage, you know. The Headmaster would have told me if he knew.”

“Like I said, it’s rare,” Shindo repeated.

“Rare enough for a Sage never to have heard about it?” Adion asked, “What kind of family are you from?”

“The kind with a few treasures,” Shindo said with a shrug, “Every family has these types of things. Did you think every discovery is shared with the world? That’s too naive. No family clan would share their discoveries like that. Everyone is only thinking about their own benefit.”

“That…but still,” Adion said, having a hard time accepting it.

Heavenly Light seem to be very powerful even on Quemer, and yet they were excited enough by a teleportation formation to start a war on another continent. Would they do that with things like this existing in their own backyard?

“How does it work?” Adion curiously asked.

“How should I know?” Shindo asked. But then he looked at Adion hesitantly for a moment.

“Here,” Shindo said, taking his ring off and placing it in Adion’s hand. “See if you can figure it out.”

“What?” Adion asked, shocked.

“You’re a space mage, right? If anyone has an answer, it should be you,” Shindo said, “Just promise to share your discovery with me, and I’ll let you examine it all you want.”

“Really? I agree,” Adion said, immediately taking a seat, looking closely at the ring in his hand, tracing the patterns with his fingers.

“Weren’t you hungry?” Shindo asked.

“Later,” Adion said.