Quintessence of Arcana

Into The Wilderness (1)

After listening to Erald and grandpa Gin's conversation, Croen on the side finally couldn’t restrain himself from being quiet. He immediately strode towards Erald with glittering eyes then said with an eager face, “Brother Erald, I never thought you have some skills, how about exchanging pointers between us?”

Erald helplessly smiled as he shook his head. “To be honest, I have no idea on how I did that too. I just acted out of instinct. I felt like my body is designed for this kinds of things and acted on it's own...”

Croen rubbed his hands with an itchy heart. He inherits the Wells family’s natural instinct of obsession with fighting. But in this sealed space, the only opponent he could face is his grandpa which resulted him to being defeated every time. Now that another strong man came that is even close to his age, how can he give up such a good chance?

He just wanted to continue to pester Erald but he was interrupted after hearing a light cough from grandpa Gin. “Croen, you should not force him to fight with you.”

Croen revealed an unhappy expression on his face. But soon he rolled his eyes and said, “Brother Erald, since you are this strong, how about you accompany me in hunting together in the future? There are many kinds of beasts in the entire Forsaken Wilderness, in which the Frost wolves are the strongest. It is labled as a C-rank profound beast, and even such a strong man as I, cannot win over it alone. But with your company, I guess we can have the honor to eat its meat...”

“Frost wolves? C-rank?”

On second thought, Erald also wanted to venture outside the wilderness. After a short moment without hesitation, he agreed on Croen's offer, “Okay, no problem. If you don't have any other concerns at this moment, we can go right now.”

“Right now?” Croen felt surprised as he nodded excitedly, “Alright! If that's the case, then let’s go.”

After saying this, he immediately took the bamboo basket that he carry every day on his back, as he was very worried that Erald would go back on his words. Then, he picked up a sword and put it into the basket.

Grandpa Gin on the side said nothing and just looked at them with a smile on his face.

Erald then turned her attention towards the blond-haired girl and bent down. “Aria, from now onwards, you will live with us. This is now your home...”

Aria look at him gently and said, “...Brother, they all hated me but why are you so nice to me?”

Erald just gave a gentle smile to her. “Because you are now my sister.”

He then straightened up and turn to the old man and said, “Grandpa, I leave Aria in your care for a while.”

Seeing Grandpa Gin nod, Erald turned back to the girl and patted her head, “I will accompany brother Croen for a moment. Just stay here with grandpa, okay? Don't worry, I will return soon.”

Aria smiled lovingly and nod her head, “Okay, big brother...”

Erald beamed back in response. He turned to Croen and said, “Brother Croen, let's go.”

.........................

On their way, the two men talked with each other but most of it was just some boring topics, so they eventually stopped and focus on their way. Erald just walked beside Croen when he suddenly felt his senses tingled. His sharp, gray eyes then surveyed the surroundings vigilantly. He felt like he was being watched.

Croen noticed his vigilance and patted his shoulder. “It's fine... Those are probably gnolls which lived in this area. They probably noticed us when we entered in their territory.”

Gnolls were one of the most common types of  monsters in the wild. They had sharp claws and teeth and agile bodies, as well as considerable intelligence. They do not usually  attack when they feel that the enemy is strong.

Croen quickly performed a hand seal with his two hands. Erald on the side wanted to inquire about it at first but he chose to remained silent and continued to observed instead. He then noticed a strange, geometric pattern that suddenly appeared beneath Croen's feet, as it released a greenish energy wave that scattered around the area.

“Now, there's nothing to worry about. I already casted a warding spell. They won't dare to attack us unless they want to die.” Croen reassured with a wide grin on his face.

Erald just nodded and realized that the spell Croen casted had an effective range of roughly a hundred feet, based on his observation.

“I finally witnessed brother Croen performed magic.” Erald praised.

Croen on the other hand just laughed, a bit embarrassed.

The two resumed on their journey as they entered deeper into the snow-filled dense forest. Breaking the silence, Erald eventually asked, “brother Croen, do the monsters here usually classified?”

“Ah..  yes. So far, they are only two types of monsters, that is—ones that are found in a dungeon, and ones that are found in the wild...”

“Dungeon?”

“Yes. Dungeons are special places where most treasures and artifacts are founded. However, it is also a place where the most powerful monsters are lurking...”

“Then, what is the difference of a monster in a dungeon and a monster in the wild?”

“Monsters found in the wild can be easily tamed, and they are not at all dangerous. They are usually called 'profound beasts' rather than monsters. In the case of dungeon monsters, they are the most vicious, clearly representing the definition of a 'monster'. However, the only similarity between them is that they are all ranked...” Croen earnestly said.

“Ranked based from...?”

Croen continued, “The ones in-charge of ranking them are mercenary guilds and they usually ranked the monsters based on their danger levels. A-rank is the highest down to F-rank, which is the lowest. But for some instances, their were also ranked based on their rarity, like those monsters that is seldom seen, and monsters with special cores.” Croen earnestly said.

“Cores? What is that?” Erald asked, confused.

Croen was quite shocked by his lack of common knowledge in this world. But then, he remembered that he had lost his memories and earnestly explained, “Cores are considered as the life source of monsters and almost all of them have it. Just think of it as their hearts. The higher the rank the monster is, the higher the value of their cores...”

He looked around and continued, “Most of the people here used the monster cores to power up some devices that needed the supply of mana. Magic practitioners also used them to aid their magic and to level up their own cultivation...”

Erald nodded and continued to ask, “Then what does the people usually practice here?”

Croen scratched his head from his question, “Many people around the continent study swordsmanship, archery and even assassination. Those who have high talents in magic study magecraft, some scholarly people study Alchemy... in a word, there are too many. But generally speaking, most of the people study swordsmanship, as the sword is the king of all weapons.”

“What about the rankings? Are they also ranked?” Erald asked while thinking about it.

“Hmm... judging by strength, people are also ranked as the same as the monsters. However, magic practitioners are on a different power scaling, as they are considered as the strongest existences among mortals. In the world of magic practitioners, their power levels are divided into several stages, which is the Origin stage, Nascent stage, Profound stage, Mystic Stage, Arcane Stage, and the Saint stage.”

“Oh?” Erald was quite intrigued.

Croen continued, “Origin stage is the initial stage of a magic practitioner and the Saint stage is the highest attainment. Origin and Nascent stages belongs to the low-tier level, while the stages Profound and Mystic belongs to the middle-tier. Arcane stage is under the high-tier level while the Saint stage is on the advanced-tier. According to grandpa, there are only three magic experts who reached the Saint stage in the whole Yden continent... they are without exception, living a godlike existence.” Croen said with admiration.

Erald nodded. “These three should be the most powerful existences in the continent..”

Croen interjected, “Well, you can say it like that. But according to Grandpa, they are some existences that are even stronger than mortals and they came from different races.”

“Oh? I happened to hear grandpa Gin's stories when he told the children back in the village. I even heard him mentioned about the Great Calamity, where deities and fiends fought against each other.” Erald recalled what he had heard at that time.

“Ah, so you already knew that!” Croen was quite surprised, but then he shrugged. “I guess you also knew the story of the Crimson Devil that once plagued the continent.”

“Crimson Devil? I never heard of it.” But it picked up Erald's curiosity.

“I guess grandpa never mentioned this to the kids because it is quite scary. Well, to get straight to the point, it is the most powerful existence in the whole continent. No one knew where it came from but grandpa told me that maybe it is a surviving member of the Fiend race. It is somehow unkillable and had an unquenchable thirst for blood. The three Saint experts that I mentioned together with the Dawnlight theocracy's pope even joined hands just to seal it away using a divine relic that seemingly indestructible. No one knows where it was sealed, but some speculated that it was imprisoned deep inside the Dark Labyrinth, waiting to be released...”

Erald who was listening at the side was deeply convinced of Croen's narration. “A scary story indeed. I couldn't even imagined what it look like.”

“Since it's a nature to m******e and kill, Perhaps the Crimson Devil have eyes like bells, a big mouth full of blood, a wide face with big ears, in a word, too hideous!” Croen shook his head and never again dared to imagine it.

Erald just chuckled and change the topic, “By the way brother Croen, what stage did you reach according to your magic prowess?”

“I barely reached the first level of the Nascent stage...” Croen scratched his head with some dissatisfaction as if he was very unsatisfied with his level. In fact, his talent is just average.

“How about my me? What rank did you think I managed to reached?” Erald asked.

Croen squinted his eyes as he scrutinized Erald from head to toe. A few moments later, he shook his head, “I can’t judge. Generally speaking, a person's talent can be easily judged based on his features. However, your is quite complicated. In terms of your physical strength, you can be considered at least D-rank, based on the prowess you showed earlier. Other than that, I couldn’t see anything else from you. It's just that, you didn't look like a warrior but more of a scholar. And a handsome at that...”

Erald just laughed, “A handsome scholar  huh...”

Croen laughed as well, “To be honest, what I said is really true...”

However, Erald did not respond and instead turned his head at a distance, as if he managed to sense something. Croen happened to noticed this and asked, “What's the matter?”

Erald shook his head and just gave a faint smile. “Your prey is coming.”

“Prey? Where?” Croen asked with confusion before he realized the sound behind him. He quickly turned his body and held on his sword before whispering to Erald, “It’s strange that brother Erald’s ears are more alert than mine.”

Judging by its steps, it must be a big beast. Croen screamed loudly with excitement. But before he could go to the beast's direction, he continued, “Brother Erald, it must be a big one, so it’s dangerous for you to go, I will go instead to check it. I will be back soon.”

Erald just nodded in response before Croen left.