Chapter 29: Condition

The sun and moon crossed the sky many number of times.

7 months slowly passed by since the incident occurred

During the first 3 months, Teo tried to approach Emily every so often before the class started, but every time he was ignored.

After class was even more hopeless, Emily's brother always arrived early to take Emily away.

From such fruitless endeavors, Teo eventually gave up.

As time passed his guilt became buried within his heart. He slowly accepted that if she did not want to be friends, there was nothing he could do.

After that, life within the academy was not eventful

Teo spent his time the same as before the incident happened. He practiced his Sensing stage exercises during class, read books from the library work, and read the array books within the inner world. When he was not working, he hanged out with Windle and Lia.

As time flowed, Teo's mastery of the Sensing stage made a lot of progress. It was almost at the point where he could see the elemental energy of all his elemental attributes.

The inner world really helped him develop his senses at a much faster rate than he had anticipated. Although he could probably master a few of his elemental attributes, he slowly advance the sensing stage for all of his elemental attributes equally.

...

Within the inner world, the motionless sun shone brightly in the sky.

Teo who was sitting down on the bench slowly showed a smile on his face. He slowly closed the array book and looked towards the sleeping old man.

'I wonder what I'll get this time' he thought

Within the past months, Teo and old man Cien often made small bets against each other; sometimes Teo would win, other times old man Cien would win, but in these bets the size of wager wasn't something big. When Teo won, he would get hints of building different basic ranked arrays. When he lost, Teo would have to treat old man Cien with food, massaging his shoulders, purchasing things that fancied him.

As such, Teo was expecting a bet this time too

Teo approached the ever sleeping Cien and said

"Mr Cien, I have completely finish understanding half of the book, can you tell me how I can read the rest?"

Ever since his first array, his understanding of the patterns dramatically increased. And with the minor bets that he had with the old man, it helped him even further.

Old man Cien slowly opened his eyes. He did not looked surprised at all, but instead was quite happy.

'This brat truly doesn't let me down'

"Hoh hoh hoh. So you 'completely understood' it is it?"

Teo nodded his head in reply

"Well then let me test you"

Teo had expected this. He was confident, but strangely enough, old man Cien did not propose a bet. Before Teo could even ask why, the old man began his questions

....

"Very good, very good indeed" said the old man

Teo found all of this strange. The old man didn't gamble with this test, and even stranger, the old man praised Teo for doing so well

"A perfect score, I guess I can let you see the second half, But.."

The old man made a short pause. This pause made Teo become more cautions 'but what?' he asked in his head

"But you have to become my disciple" the old man said with a proud look on his face

'Ha ha kid, aren't you speechless of my generosity?' The old man thought

Teo who heard the condition, was speechless, but he did not fully believe it. 'What does he mean by disciple?'

"You are going to personally teach me about arrays?" Teo asked.

Ever since he met the old man, he had never received much help from him. Although the old man gave him clues due to their bet before, the clues were at bare minimum. He basically had to think of it on his own.

"No" The old man quickly replied

"Then what do you mean about me becoming disciple?"

"You just have to follow what I tell you" The old man said with a solemn face

'Isn't that basically becoming your slave?' Teo thought.

"What you don't want to be my disciple?"

The old man was somewhat surprised. He was willing to accept this kid as his disciple but this kid was hesitating

'If he doesn't accept my offer, it might take another hundreds of thousands of years till I find a suitable candidate again'

Before Teo could reply, the old man continued

"Kid, there are many other advantages to becoming my disciple"

"Advantages?" Teo became hopeful of the benefits he could get

"Like.. you can read the second half of the book!"

Teo's hopeful face sank down. Although the offer was tempting, it wasn't worth it if he becomes the old man's slave

The old man sensed this and quickly said

"Uh.. I will even cancel our previous bet! I won't even ask you to do much, just a few conditions and I just need you to help me with some stuff in the future"

The old man didn't hold that bet of any value anymore. With Teo's rate of improvement with understanding arrays, he should be able to make a medium ranked array before the year was over

Teo could tell that the old man was somewhat anxious. Being able to read the second half, canceling that earlier bet, and only have to help him with something in the future.

Teo was carefully thinking about the offer and couldn't help but ask

"What conditions? What do you need me to do in the future?"

"For the conditions... I need you to keep arrays a secret once you start reading the second half of the book. I also need you to swear that you will not betray me. As for what I need you to do in the future, I will tell you went you are strong enough"

The old man remembered his last disciple and his teeth clenched together

"When I am strong enough?" was still confused

"If you become strong enough to be able to help me then you must help me, if you don't then you don't have to do anything"

The old man Cien was taking a big gamble with himself. With Teo's capabilities and his guidance, Teo will have a chance to help him and this time he can take precautions

When Teo heard this, he evaluated the situation.

By becoming a disciple, he would be able to continue reading the array book, cancel the previous bet, and he wouldn't have to do anything if he didn't have the ability to help

On the other side, if he had the ability to help, he would have to and he must never betray the old man Cien

As for keeping the arrays a secret, Teo had already planned on keeping it a secret unless absolutely necessary

Old man Cien tried to hide his anxiousness as he waited for Teo's reply

After giving it some thought, the deal was not bad at all, but Teo was still cautious. The offer was almost too good to be true!

If he failed making a medium ranked array it wouldn't matter because he couldn't read the second half of the book. Teo already knew how to make certain basic ranked arrays; as for medium ranked arrays, he just needed more time to make one as well. Teo was well satisfied with what he knew about arrays and although he was curious about the second half of the book, the old man's offer was too suspicious.

Teo shook his head and said

"I am sorry Mr Cien, I will have to decline"

When the old man heard Teo, he was slightly annoyed. A good candidate finally falls on his lap and this kid was resisting. It would take him too long to find another candidate as capable as Teo.

When he saw Teo back in the well, he had seen the kid's constitution and found that it was rare even by his standards. Even if the heavens blessed you with this kind of rare constitution, it wouldn't matter if you can't make full use of it. So the old man decided to take a gamble and test Teo's comprehension.

'I guess I have no choice but to use it' Old man Cien thought to himself.

He wanted to convince Teo with his "benefits" that really amounted to nothing. He was lazy to offer more than he should and it was also too troublesome to find another candidate.

The old man had a sinister smile and said "You owe me a favor"

Old man Cien's eyes lit up and his fingers danced in the air

Words form in the air and Teo slowly read it. It was a contract with the previous conditions listed out. Although he was forcing Teo to become his disciple, the conditions he offered before was still within the list

"Accept the contract"

Teo hesitated. He truly did owe old man Cien a favor. Teo also knew how powerful the old man was. If he went back on his words, he might face the old man's wrath.

Without much choice, Teo nodded

"Don't resist it" old man Cien said

Then the contract split into 2 lights. One flew into Teo's body while the other flew into the old man Cien's body.

Once the contract was complete, old man Cien's anxiousness quickly faded

'Yes! My candidate this time is pretty good and with this contract, it won't turn out like that bastard before'

He waved his hand and Teo's body suddenly became restricted.

Old man Cien had a smile on his face

With his body unable to move, Teo saw the old man's smile and he grew worried.

The old man slowly walked near him and said "This might hurt a bit"

[Author's note: This chapter is the start of the Second Arc]