Chapter 24
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As Rigel approached the counter of the alchemy shop, the lady manning it looked up at Rigel.
"Welcome," the old lady plainly said. "I saw your fight against the twins yesterday. It was impressive, but I feel that today you'll see their true strength."
"Oh? We had spectators yesterday?"
"Of course. Word got out that there was someone else sparring with the governor's children, so many took a look."
Rigel nodded, more to himself than the lady, then said, "So what do you sell here? This is an awfully strange shop."
"That's because I sell magical herbs and potions. I keep them all in the back in a preservative environment. I sell potion formulas as well, if you'd like."
Rigel put together his thoughts for a moment, then spoke. "I come from a small village, and have never heard of potions before. What are they?"
The lady looked at Rigel with a curious gaze before replying, "Potions are combinations of various magical elements, usually herbs, that perform miracles on the body. Some heal wounds in seconds, others give more, long-term benefits. The most expensive types of potions artificially increase the user's affinity for various types of magic and mana manipulation."
Rigel, still calm, just nodded in confirmation. He didn't really care as potions would have no effect on him. He was only curious at best.
"How much would one of those potions cost?" he asked.
"Anywhere from 50 emeralds to a few thousand."
"So, you'd need hundreds of villages pooling their wealth together to buy a cheap potion," Rigel thought to himself.
Rigel lost interest in the shop and said goodbye, then returned to the manor. There, he saw both of the twins waiting by the front door.
"You ran off on us!" Alkali says in clear jest.
Rigel wasn't amused by the jest in the slightest but smirked anyways and said, "I'm sorry, I was just taking a look at the shops."
The 2 nod in understanding before leading Rigel off to the sparring grounds.
"So, the morning bath yesterday was indeed an exception for me," Rigel thought.
Once the trio arrived, Alkali looked at Rigel somewhat seriously and said, "You said that you only used fire magic so we only used fire magic, but then you went and used water and earth magic, alongside a subschool of fire magic. So, today, we'll use all of our abilities to fight."
Rigel just laughed slightly psychotically while nodding. "Good, alright. Can do."
The twins made a slightly concerned expression before masking it with a look of excitement. This didn't go over Rigel's head, but he wasn't too concerned about it. As far as he was concerned, the twins were merely good tools to be relied on in a time of need, no lifetime friends. If they split ways early because Rigel couldn't maintain an act 24/7 then what was he to do about it?
The only future that Rigel detested the possibility of was that they would betray him in one way or another. The reasoning being that Rigel was no accomplished schemer nor manipulator. He couldn't think of a way to not trust people and still have them trust or like him enough to risk themselves for him. If, however, he did pretend to trust them completely like close friends, then people would naturally feel the need to do the same.
It may seem extremely hypocritical, but the only thing that Rigel really feared was that people would treat him the same way he was treating others.
Starting off, Rigel faced off with Alkali. Alkaline signaled for them to start, and Alkali immediately started retreating back. Rigel, concerned, began to do the same thing until the 2 were both at their respective ends of the field.
Alkali then started thrust his hands upward, each coated in a blue light. In just a twentieth of a second, Rigel felt a chilling cold under his feet. Unhesitating, he dove in front of him. Unfortunately, he was too late and a wall of ice erupted from underneath him, flinging him into the air whilst spiraling out of control. Before he could land, Alkali shot a bowling ball-sized chunk of ice at him. Unable to do anything about the situation, he took it straight to the back and flew into the ice wall.
While, of course, he was fine, Rigel decided to pretend that he was knocked unconscious for a few moments before slowly picking himself up. He was unsure of what reaction a normal person would have in this situation, but decided to look back at Alkali with a face full of joy and excitement.
"Wow! You can use ice magic? And really well, too!" Rigel complimented. He looked over to Alkaline and continued, "You have a tough show to beat!"
He felt disgusted by his own choice of words, but also felt like the twins may view them favorably. Perhaps they liked being flattered.
Alkali furrowed his brows and walked to the sidelines whilst giving Rigel strange looks.
Alkaline swapped positions with him, and the 2 magicians squared off. Instantly, Alkaline shot a small rock towards Rigel with frightening speed- yet not quite breaking the sound barrier. Rigel comprehended its trajectory and narrowly dodged it by spinning around.
Returning fire, he pushed a wall of intense flames toward Alkaline while weaving back and forth behind it. Alkaline merely smirked and erected a wall of similar size as Rigel's- this one made of rock. She also pushed it towards him, but stayed herself stationary. Rigel barely saw it through the fire wall and realized he needed hotter fire to disintegrate it.
"Burn burn burn burn buuurn," he hastily thought.
In a miraculous fashion, the flame wall started heating up more and more while slowing shifting hues. Before, the core of the fire was more of a yellow, and the edges an orange shade. As Rigel pushed himself to his current limit, though, the core started turning more green than yellow, and the orange faded away into yellow.
He giggled a bit and let the 2 walls collide. His wall of flame roared and ate at the earthen wall until both collapsed together into a flaming pile of dirt which quickly died out. He confidently gazed up at Alkaline with a smug grin and took a deep breath.
Alkaline snorted and took up a strange stance. Rigel was curious and didn't care for interrupting her at this point, so he crossed his arms and scrutinized her actions.
The only thing he noticed was that his intuition, his sense of danger that had long been worn away, was screaming that 'whatever's coming, it's gonna hurt'.
Rigel scowled and unfolded his arms, then started dashing diagonally towards her.
Alkaline kept a tranquil face and seemingly paid him no mind. Just as Rigel was at a 45-degree angle to her, Alkaline suddenly broke her stance and extended her right arm at Rigel. Just as she completed the motion, a brilliant, vibrant white luminosity erupted from her hand and instantly arced into Rigel's arm. The electricity roared with the power suiting proper lightning and violently surged through Rigel's body and nested itself into the earth below, slumbering eternally.
Rigel was knocked back slightly by the impact and was shocked to his core by the power exhibited by Alkaline in one strike. As he fell back, he dropped his sword onto the ground. He toppled over and pretended to faint, then, after a few moments, slowly dragged himself up off the ground and looked at Alkaline seriously.
He was pissed, all airs dropped. He even got a new source of confidence from the development of his fire magic, but she shot a lightning bolt at him. How was he supposed to dodge a lightning bolt?
However, he didn't let it get to him and slowly said, "What, exactly, was that?"
Alkaline dropped her gaze and sat down, breathing heavily. Rigel patiently waited for her for a moment before he heard running behind him.
"Alkaline! What are you thinking?! You could have gotten the both of you killed!"
Rigel viewed him as a lunatic fan who was running into the middle of a professional sports game, and paid him no mind. He was busy thinking on how to excuse himself for receiving a lightning bolt with no damage.
Alkali ran up to the now-smoking girl with red skin and knelt down to her level. He started saying things to her but Rigel couldn't pick up what and specific words were.
Rigel lied down on the ground and took a deep breath. Suddenly having a lightning bolt fired at him scared him, possibly more so than anything else in this life. He was extremely curious as to how Alkaline came about possessing such a powerful, self-destructive magic, too, and took the moment to calm himself down.
He somewhat ignored the 2 twins and stood up while brushing himself off. His shirt was fried, but he decided to keep it on and excused himself from the arena. Just as he left towards the northern side, he passed by a tall, built man with similar features to the twins who was hurrying towards the 2.
Rigel smirked knowingly to himself and continued a brisk walking pace straight out of the city and into the vast plains.
He organized his thoughts and decided that he wouldn't be able to bullshit himself out of any reprimands or severe consequences. Thus, he promptly decided to flee towards Zephledawn and lead a new life there. He had no desire to invoke the wrath of a local hegemony.
To Rigel, the issue wasn't too complicated. He merely wanted to see how he compared to the people of this time. Losing a contact in exchange might not be worth it, but the trade-off wasn't too harsh. Rigel now knew that, compared to the up and coming youth of these times, he really wasn't anything special. Yet, that is.
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As Rigel approached the counter of the alchemy shop, the lady manning it looked up at Rigel.
"Welcome," the old lady plainly said. "I saw your fight against the twins yesterday. It was impressive, but I feel that today you'll see their true strength."
"Oh? We had spectators yesterday?"
"Of course. Word got out that there was someone else sparring with the governor's children, so many took a look."
Rigel nodded, more to himself than the lady, then said, "So what do you sell here? This is an awfully strange shop."
"That's because I sell magical herbs and potions. I keep them all in the back in a preservative environment. I sell potion formulas as well, if you'd like."
Rigel put together his thoughts for a moment, then spoke. "I come from a small village, and have never heard of potions before. What are they?"
The lady looked at Rigel with a curious gaze before replying, "Potions are combinations of various magical elements, usually herbs, that perform miracles on the body. Some heal wounds in seconds, others give more, long-term benefits. The most expensive types of potions artificially increase the user's affinity for various types of magic and mana manipulation."
Rigel, still calm, just nodded in confirmation. He didn't really care as potions would have no effect on him. He was only curious at best.
"How much would one of those potions cost?" he asked.
"Anywhere from 50 emeralds to a few thousand."
"So, you'd need hundreds of villages pooling their wealth together to buy a cheap potion," Rigel thought to himself.
Rigel lost interest in the shop and said goodbye, then returned to the manor. There, he saw both of the twins waiting by the front door.
"You ran off on us!" Alkali says in clear jest.
Rigel wasn't amused by the jest in the slightest but smirked anyways and said, "I'm sorry, I was just taking a look at the shops."
The 2 nod in understanding before leading Rigel off to the sparring grounds.
"So, the morning bath yesterday was indeed an exception for me," Rigel thought.
Once the trio arrived, Alkali looked at Rigel somewhat seriously and said, "You said that you only used fire magic so we only used fire magic, but then you went and used water and earth magic, alongside a subschool of fire magic. So, today, we'll use all of our abilities to fight."
Rigel just laughed slightly psychotically while nodding. "Good, alright. Can do."
The twins made a slightly concerned expression before masking it with a look of excitement. This didn't go over Rigel's head, but he wasn't too concerned about it. As far as he was concerned, the twins were merely good tools to be relied on in a time of need, no lifetime friends. If they split ways early because Rigel couldn't maintain an act 24/7 then what was he to do about it?
The only future that Rigel detested the possibility of was that they would betray him in one way or another. The reasoning being that Rigel was no accomplished schemer nor manipulator. He couldn't think of a way to not trust people and still have them trust or like him enough to risk themselves for him. If, however, he did pretend to trust them completely like close friends, then people would naturally feel the need to do the same.
It may seem extremely hypocritical, but the only thing that Rigel really feared was that people would treat him the same way he was treating others.
Starting off, Rigel faced off with Alkali. Alkaline signaled for them to start, and Alkali immediately started retreating back. Rigel, concerned, began to do the same thing until the 2 were both at their respective ends of the field.
Alkali then started thrust his hands upward, each coated in a blue light. In just a twentieth of a second, Rigel felt a chilling cold under his feet. Unhesitating, he dove in front of him. Unfortunately, he was too late and a wall of ice erupted from underneath him, flinging him into the air whilst spiraling out of control. Before he could land, Alkali shot a bowling ball-sized chunk of ice at him. Unable to do anything about the situation, he took it straight to the back and flew into the ice wall.
While, of course, he was fine, Rigel decided to pretend that he was knocked unconscious for a few moments before slowly picking himself up. He was unsure of what reaction a normal person would have in this situation, but decided to look back at Alkali with a face full of joy and excitement.
"Wow! You can use ice magic? And really well, too!" Rigel complimented. He looked over to Alkaline and continued, "You have a tough show to beat!"
He felt disgusted by his own choice of words, but also felt like the twins may view them favorably. Perhaps they liked being flattered.
Alkali furrowed his brows and walked to the sidelines whilst giving Rigel strange looks.
Alkaline swapped positions with him, and the 2 magicians squared off. Instantly, Alkaline shot a small rock towards Rigel with frightening speed- yet not quite breaking the sound barrier. Rigel comprehended its trajectory and narrowly dodged it by spinning around.
Returning fire, he pushed a wall of intense flames toward Alkaline while weaving back and forth behind it. Alkaline merely smirked and erected a wall of similar size as Rigel's- this one made of rock. She also pushed it towards him, but stayed herself stationary. Rigel barely saw it through the fire wall and realized he needed hotter fire to disintegrate it.
"Burn burn burn burn buuurn," he hastily thought.
In a miraculous fashion, the flame wall started heating up more and more while slowing shifting hues. Before, the core of the fire was more of a yellow, and the edges an orange shade. As Rigel pushed himself to his current limit, though, the core started turning more green than yellow, and the orange faded away into yellow.
He giggled a bit and let the 2 walls collide. His wall of flame roared and ate at the earthen wall until both collapsed together into a flaming pile of dirt which quickly died out. He confidently gazed up at Alkaline with a smug grin and took a deep breath.
Alkaline snorted and took up a strange stance. Rigel was curious and didn't care for interrupting her at this point, so he crossed his arms and scrutinized her actions.
The only thing he noticed was that his intuition, his sense of danger that had long been worn away, was screaming that 'whatever's coming, it's gonna hurt'.
Rigel scowled and unfolded his arms, then started dashing diagonally towards her.
Alkaline kept a tranquil face and seemingly paid him no mind. Just as Rigel was at a 45-degree angle to her, Alkaline suddenly broke her stance and extended her right arm at Rigel. Just as she completed the motion, a brilliant, vibrant white luminosity erupted from her hand and instantly arced into Rigel's arm. The electricity roared with the power suiting proper lightning and violently surged through Rigel's body and nested itself into the earth below, slumbering eternally.
Rigel was knocked back slightly by the impact and was shocked to his core by the power exhibited by Alkaline in one strike. As he fell back, he dropped his sword onto the ground. He toppled over and pretended to faint, then, after a few moments, slowly dragged himself up off the ground and looked at Alkaline seriously.
He was pissed, all airs dropped. He even got a new source of confidence from the development of his fire magic, but she shot a lightning bolt at him. How was he supposed to dodge a lightning bolt?
However, he didn't let it get to him and slowly said, "What, exactly, was that?"
Alkaline dropped her gaze and sat down, breathing heavily. Rigel patiently waited for her for a moment before he heard running behind him.
"Alkaline! What are you thinking?! You could have gotten the both of you killed!"
Rigel viewed him as a lunatic fan who was running into the middle of a professional sports game, and paid him no mind. He was busy thinking on how to excuse himself for receiving a lightning bolt with no damage.
Alkali ran up to the now-smoking girl with red skin and knelt down to her level. He started saying things to her but Rigel couldn't pick up what and specific words were.
Rigel lied down on the ground and took a deep breath. Suddenly having a lightning bolt fired at him scared him, possibly more so than anything else in this life. He was extremely curious as to how Alkaline came about possessing such a powerful, self-destructive magic, too, and took the moment to calm himself down.
He somewhat ignored the 2 twins and stood up while brushing himself off. His shirt was fried, but he decided to keep it on and excused himself from the arena. Just as he left towards the northern side, he passed by a tall, built man with similar features to the twins who was hurrying towards the 2.
Rigel smirked knowingly to himself and continued a brisk walking pace straight out of the city and into the vast plains.
He organized his thoughts and decided that he wouldn't be able to bullshit himself out of any reprimands or severe consequences. Thus, he promptly decided to flee towards Zephledawn and lead a new life there. He had no desire to invoke the wrath of a local hegemony.
To Rigel, the issue wasn't too complicated. He merely wanted to see how he compared to the people of this time. Losing a contact in exchange might not be worth it, but the trade-off wasn't too harsh. Rigel now knew that, compared to the up and coming youth of these times, he really wasn't anything special. Yet, that is.
As Rigel approached the counter of the alchemy shop, the lady manning it looked up at Rigel."Welcome," the old lady plainly said. "I saw your fight against the twins yesterday. It was impressive, but I feel that today you'll see their true strength.""Oh? We had spectators yesterday?""Of course. Word got out that there was someone else sparring with the governor's children, so many took a look."Rigel nodded, more to himself than the lady, then said, "So what do you sell here? This is an awfully strange shop.""That's because I sell magical herbs and potions. I keep them all in the back in a preservative environment. I sell potion formulas as well, if you'd like."Rigel put together his thoughts for a moment, then spoke. "I come from a small village, and have never heard of potions before. What are they?"The lady looked at Rigel with a curious gaze before replying, "Potions are combinations of various magical elements, usually herbs, that perform miracles on the body. Some heal wounds in seconds, others give more, long-term benefits. The most expensive types of potions artificially increase the user's affinity for various types of magic and mana manipulation."Rigel, still calm, just nodded in confirmation. He didn't really care as potions would have no effect on him. He was only curious at best."How much would one of those potions cost?" he asked."Anywhere from 50 emeralds to a few thousand.""So, you'd need hundreds of villages pooling their wealth together to buy a cheap potion," Rigel thought to himself.Rigel lost interest in the shop and said goodbye, then returned to the manor. There, he saw both of the twins waiting by the front door."You ran off on us!" Alkali says in clear jest.Rigel wasn't amused by the jest in the slightest but smirked anyways and said, "I'm sorry, I was just taking a look at the shops."The 2 nod in understanding before leading Rigel off to the sparring grounds."So, the morning bath yesterday was indeed an exception for me," Rigel thought.Once the trio arrived, Alkali looked at Rigel somewhat seriously and said, "You said that you only used fire magic so we only used fire magic, but then you went and used water and earth magic, alongside a subschool of fire magic. So, today, we'll use all of our abilities to fight."Rigel just laughed slightly psychotically while nodding. "Good, alright. Can do."The twins made a slightly concerned expression before masking it with a look of excitement. This didn't go over Rigel's head, but he wasn't too concerned about it. As far as he was concerned, the twins were merely good tools to be relied on in a time of need, no lifetime friends. If they split ways early because Rigel couldn't maintain an act 24/7 then what was he to do about it?The only future that Rigel detested the possibility of was that they would betray him in one way or another. The reasoning being that Rigel was no accomplished schemer nor manipulator. He couldn't think of a way to not trust people and still have them trust or like him enough to risk themselves for him. If, however, he did pretend to trust them completely like close friends, then people would naturally feel the need to do the same.It may seem extremely hypocritical, but the only thing that Rigel really feared was that people would treat him the same way he was treating others.Starting off, Rigel faced off with Alkali. Alkaline signaled for them to start, and Alkali immediately started retreating back. Rigel, concerned, began to do the same thing until the 2 were both at their respective ends of the field.Alkali then started thrust his hands upward, each coated in a blue light. In just a twentieth of a second, Rigel felt a chilling cold under his feet. Unhesitating, he dove in front of him. Unfortunately, he was too late and a wall of ice erupted from underneath him, flinging him into the air whilst spiraling out of control. Before he could land, Alkali shot a bowling ball-sized chunk of ice at him. Unable to do anything about the situation, he took it straight to the back and flew into the ice wall.While, of course, he was fine, Rigel decided to pretend that he was knocked unconscious for a few moments before slowly picking himself up. He was unsure of what reaction a normal person would have in this situation, but decided to look back at Alkali with a face full of joy and excitement."Wow! You can use ice magic? And really well, too!" Rigel complimented. He looked over to Alkaline and continued, "You have a tough show to beat!"He felt disgusted by his own choice of words, but also felt like the twins may view them favorably. Perhaps they liked being flattered.Alkali furrowed his brows and walked to the sidelines whilst giving Rigel strange looks.Alkaline swapped positions with him, and the 2 magicians squared off. Instantly, Alkaline shot a small rock towards Rigel with frightening speed- yet not quite breaking the sound barrier. Rigel comprehended its trajectory and narrowly dodged it by spinning around.Returning fire, he pushed a wall of intense flames toward Alkaline while weaving back and forth behind it. Alkaline merely smirked and erected a wall of similar size as Rigel's- this one made of rock. She also pushed it towards him, but stayed herself stationary. Rigel barely saw it through the fire wall and realized he needed hotter fire to disintegrate it."Burn burn burn burn buuurn," he hastily thought.In a miraculous fashion, the flame wall started heating up more and more while slowing shifting hues. Before, the core of the fire was more of a yellow, and the edges an orange shade. As Rigel pushed himself to his current limit, though, the core started turning more green than yellow, and the orange faded away into yellow.He giggled a bit and let the 2 walls collide. His wall of flame roared and ate at the earthen wall until both collapsed together into a flaming pile of dirt which quickly died out. He confidently gazed up at Alkaline with a smug grin and took a deep breath.Alkaline snorted and took up a strange stance. Rigel was curious and didn't care for interrupting her at this point, so he crossed his arms and scrutinized her actions.The only thing he noticed was that his intuition, his sense of danger that had long been worn away, was screaming that 'whatever's coming, it's gonna hurt'.Rigel scowled and unfolded his arms, then started dashing diagonally towards her.Alkaline kept a tranquil face and seemingly paid him no mind. Just as Rigel was at a 45-degree angle to her, Alkaline suddenly broke her stance and extended her right arm at Rigel. Just as she completed the motion, a brilliant, vibrant white luminosity erupted from her hand and instantly arced into Rigel's arm. The electricity roared with the power suiting proper lightning and violently surged through Rigel's body and nested itself into the earth below, slumbering eternally.Rigel was knocked back slightly by the impact and was shocked to his core by the power exhibited by Alkaline in one strike. As he fell back, he dropped his sword onto the ground. He toppled over and pretended to faint, then, after a few moments, slowly dragged himself up off the ground and looked at Alkaline seriously.He was pissed, all airs dropped. He even got a new source of confidence from the development of his fire magic, but she shot a lightning bolt at him. How was he supposed to dodge a lightning bolt?However, he didn't let it get to him and slowly said, "What, exactly, was that?"Alkaline dropped her gaze and sat down, breathing heavily. Rigel patiently waited for her for a moment before he heard running behind him."Alkaline! What are you thinking?! You could have gotten the both of you killed!"Rigel viewed him as a lunatic fan who was running into the middle of a professional sports game, and paid him no mind. He was busy thinking on how to excuse himself for receiving a lightning bolt with no damage.Alkali ran up to the now-smoking girl with red skin and knelt down to her level. He started saying things to her but Rigel couldn't pick up what and specific words were.Rigel lied down on the ground and took a deep breath. Suddenly having a lightning bolt fired at him scared him, possibly more so than anything else in this life. He was extremely curious as to how Alkaline came about possessing such a powerful, self-destructive magic, too, and took the moment to calm himself down.He somewhat ignored the 2 twins and stood up while brushing himself off. His shirt was fried, but he decided to keep it on and excused himself from the arena. Just as he left towards the northern side, he passed by a tall, built man with similar features to the twins who was hurrying towards the 2.Rigel smirked knowingly to himself and continued a brisk walking pace straight out of the city and into the vast plains.He organized his thoughts and decided that he wouldn't be able to bullshit himself out of any reprimands or severe consequences. Thus, he promptly decided to flee towards Zephledawn and lead a new life there. He had no desire to invoke the wrath of a local hegemony.To Rigel, the issue wasn't too complicated. He merely wanted to see how he compared to the people of this time. Losing a contact in exchange might not be worth it, but the trade-off wasn't too harsh. Rigel now knew that, compared to the up and coming youth of these times, he really wasn't anything special. Yet, that is.
