What determines one’s elements? Some say it’s mostly hereditary, some it’s related to the type of core you use to awaken, both agree there’s a random factor to it, but they are all wrong.
— Excerpt from Notes For Newstar
Day 620, 12:10 PM
A blue screen appeared.
[Your skill Visionary evolved into Legendary Visionary]
I blinked it away, along with the tears welling in the corners of my eyes.
“Just brother is fine.” I said with a smile, but the boy shook his head.
“After living at the Explorer’s Gate for a few moons, I’ve learned some things. You have seniority, more knowledge, and more experience. You are the big brother.”
He said it with a straight face, straight back, and brilliant eyes. How could I not love the kid? My chin wobbled.
“I’m so sorry I left you behind,” Blunt took the opening and spoke.
I recalled the vision, and the future Newstar’s words, and nearly had a stroke at what had escaped my lips. I could feel Blunt rising up with more, but I firmly clenched my tongue between my teeth.
Newstar stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate, but I had no intention of doing so.
“When did you leave me behind?” he finally asked.
“When I reach the seventh realm while you are wallowing in the fifth,” I lied and felt ashamed.
Yet, my face showed a well-trained smile, one designed to pass a sixth realm mageknight’s scrutiny, let alone a teen’s.
I wasn’t sure I had fooled him; in fact, I knew I hadn’t, but we both remained civilized about it and ignored the lie that passed between us, no matter how much it sullied the holy sensation filling my chest.
I will have to confess everything one day. Until then, I have to make it up to him.
To my relief, he changed the topic.
“Do you know that awakened can sense imminent danger?” he said the words as if they were some big secret only he was privy to.
“You mean danger sense?” I asked flatly. “Mortals can do that, too. Experienced warriors can sometimes tell when someone is about to strike them from a blind angle. You can even tell where if you train hard enough and gain enough experience.”
In fact, if there was a way to teach others, I would’ve taught it to you.
Newstar’s jaw nearly hit the beach’s black sand.
“Mortals know that?” He looked unwell.
“Well, there are legends about mortals having that sense, yes.” I said with moderate concern. I didn’t remember in which world I read those stories, but I’m fairly certain I found some in the Eternal Light empire too.
“And can you do that?” Newstar asked incredulously.
“Naturally, but I cannot teach you.” I allowed the full weight of my regret to reach my face. “I would like to, but this skill is not something you can acquire so easily. Definitely not through someone just explaining things to you.”
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He shook his head. “You can’t be telling the truth.”
“I am serious. I believe it is impossible to teach someone how to do it without exposing them to extreme danger. There is another way, but getting danger sense that way is a gamble; it might happen, and it might not. I am telling you because you are you, but keep this a secret from others. All right?”
Newstar nodded, his gaze distant.
“Prove it,” he said as if in a trance.
How would you even — I just stared at him. “How do I prove it is impossible to teach you something? I can prove I can teach you—”
“No, I mean, I want you to prove you have danger sense.”
Oh? Well, that one’s simple.
I drew a throwing dagger concealed in the ornaments of my black shirt, which Newstar neither regarded nor complimented, despite its beautiful design and high quality. Instead, he just stared at me as if I was a ghost. I slapped the dagger, handle-first, into his open palm and turned around.
“Stab me. You have to really mean it.”
He didn’t move.
“Come on, you have to really mean it; you can even aim at the vitals. I don’t mind.”
My left arm sent out a pinprick of pain, and I moved it out of the knife’s way. His stab came slowly, but after he missed he tried again. And again, and again, speeding up each time until I started dancing out of the knife’s way.
I finally couldn’t help but chuckle at his ever-increasing zeal.
“You are getting awfully enthusiastic about stabbing me in the back.”
He froze, realizing what he had been doing. I spun around on my heel, coming face to face with his shocked, wide-open eyes.
“But the chaplain said only those at the eighth realm—”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “And you are one of those at the eighth realm, right?”
He stared blankly as I took my knife back and sheathed it back into place.
“How do you know I also have danger sense?”
A valid, if a tad stupid question after everything that had happened.
“You were getting too invested,” I explained. “More than one would expect from someone proving a point, almost like you were instead trying to prove that you are unique, and that others should not possess such an ability.”
Joking and teasing aside, I was glad he had danger sense. The skill would save his life and pay for itself. And while I was curious, and I really was, I didn’t ask HOW he got the best skill I have ever seen. I doubt he changed his class into bodyguard and leveled it a bunch of times, which meant he had somehow achieved it on his own!
I made no outward sign of my surprise and continued in a merry, encouraging tone. “That said, you have truly achieved amazing things in mere seventeen short years. Whoever told you danger sense required the eighth realm lied to you brutally. That, or they lack understanding regarding the skill’s true nature.
“You need to practice more, preferably in a relatively safe environment where someone you trust continuously attacks you from the back or while you are under the effect of a bewildering or blinding spell seal.”
Really, kid, whatever you were doing, just keep doing it. You will need it.
He listened attentively and nodded obediently. For a moment, I was tempted. Tempted to drop all my plans, just teach him everything I could and unleash him on the outer gods, but I was afraid. I feared that doing that would let the outer gods find him and remove him while he was still young.
I cleared my throat and got back on track.
“Regarding your request to make a blueprint of your realm, I will gladly make one, but I will need some form of shelter for three to four moons until I am done.”
“Wait,” he shouted as if was about to leave. “There’s one more change we, well, you, need to make.”
I motioned him to continue, but he hesitated again before he finally spat it out.
“Well, it’s like this. I want to use magma as my element, and not fire and earth separately. That means I won’t need the seals for accumulating different types of mana.” He looked up at me, seemingly embarrassed. “You need to know that, right?”
“Yes, right. Naturally.” His decision and seeing him move towards his destined path even without my intervention filled me with joy and confidence.
Maybe I don’t need to teach him myself. He’s a bright boy who will grow into a bright man. What if I started writing down things I believe he will need in the future? It could also serve to consolidate my own knowledge on various topics while also building a reference base for him or his followers in the battle for the fate of the world.
I liked the idea. I liked it a lot. It was a way to contribute to his victory even if I wasn’t there with him.
It will take a bit of time. And I would have to keep the books on me at all times. Luckily, I have a spatial pouch, but I will have to make some sort of self-destruct mechanism that would trigger if I lost ownership of it. Preferably an alarm too…
I wandered into my own thoughts, forming plans for the future. I recalled once saying only the insane plan for the future which starts with “after I die,” but I was just that kind of insane.
Meanwhile, Newstar stood there, politely looking at me. The poor lad must have thought I was planning his realm right then and there.
“I’ll replace those two spell formations with one that decomposes magma-aligned mana into fire and earth. Have you considered specialized aspects of fire? Like radiance…”
