The atmosphere in the room was grim as Isaac finished his assessment. According to him, Chloe had about a year left before the peach in her body decayed completely. When that happened, she’d go through a rapid aging process and die within weeks.

“Oliver, who has a golden mountain lily?” asked Ethan after the healer left.

The youth was squirming visibly and refused to speak.

“You’re not going to steal it.” said Ana concerned. “There’s plenty of time for us to raise money.”

“Yes!” Oliver chimed in. “You can sell beast parts and mana cores from the forest.”

“It will take forever.”

“I can get you some servants to help. Or, you can bet on Ana at the tournament.” Ethan did not seem convinced. “I can get you a job. The mountain path in the preliminaries is full of expensive herbs, and…”

“Just, stop it!” said Ana annoyed. “It’s my mother who’s sick, so we’ll do as I say.”

Ethan hadn’t seen this side of Ana until now. He wasn’t sure what caused the outburst, but it snapped him out of helper mode.

‘It’s not like we have time for this anyway.’ After remembering his goal, the boy decided to stick to the basics.

“If you want to raise money, then we should both get stronger.” he advised. “The higher rank you are, the easier it is to get coins.”

Oliver let out of breath of relief and nodded profusely. He even offered to help in any way he could. While Ana was thinking things over, her mother finally spoke.

“You should do what you feel is right.” Her voice was weak but firm. “As you might have guessed, I’ve lived a pretty long life already. Do not sacrifice yourselves to save me.”

Ana gave up most of her childhood to care for her. Chloe couldn’t allow her daughter to do that again.

“The tournament starts in a little over 5 months.” said Ana. “Let’s increase our strength until then.” Oliver claimed there were coins to be made during the tournament and Ethan was adamant that power equals gold, so this seemed like her best bet.

Chloe and the boys were happy with the decision as well. By the time the eternally beautiful lady went to sleep and they left her room, Ethan had already planned out a course of action.

“Oliver, can you get someone to bring us a few things?”

“Sure.” the boy answered readily. ‘Anything to get you off my back.’

“We’ll need 1000 pieces of paper used to make spell scrolls, my and Ana’s side of herbs from the expeditions, an alchemist’s pill making pot, several needles, some cooking utensils and condiments, camping gear, long sleeved clothes with matching gloves, a s**t-ton of vitality pills, and most importantly, a bunch of cleaning scrolls with dandelion scent.”

After finishing the list, he dropped a bag of coins into the boy’s palm.

“Sure…” Oliver got a servant to write everything halfway through. Given the list, Ethan’s plan could only be one thing. “You’re going into seclusion?”

“We’ll be back before the tournament starts.”

“Wait. What about my mother?” asked Ana.

“Just go.” A low voice was heard from the room they just left. “It’s not like you’re here much anyway.” said Chloe smiling.

The rest of the day Ana spent in her mother’s arms. While they talked about all matters under the sun, Ethan was cultivating just outside the room.

When the next morning came, all their things were ready. Oliver wasn’t sure whether to be sad because his friends were leaving or relieved to have escaped potential trouble.

“If you need any help, just send the word.” he said while they filled up their dimensional pockets. The lighter items were put in backpacks due to lack of space.

“We’ll be fine.” said Ethan with confidence. For the past couple of weeks, things had been going swimmingly. Ana was finally matching his pace and they made decent progress. ‘This is just the beginning.’ he thought happily.

However, right after leaving the Wilson family’s yard, Ana put a wrench in his plans. With a somber and slightly worried expression, she voiced a request.

“Before we leave the city, there’s something I need to do.”

Though Ethan couldn’t tell what was going on through her head, he knew it would be a pain.