Chapter 32:

‘Of all the things she could have focused on, why did it have to be that?’ Cort thought as he listened to the young girl talk. It seemed Lucy was awfully fond of using slang. However, due to his limited knowledge on the matter, Cort guessed that the things she was saying were severely outdated.

“Yo! You listening?” Lucy exclaimed as she brought her face closer to Cort’s.

Unfazed, he replied: “Yes, continue.”

“So basically it all comes down to the recognition of the palace in charge of supervising a city or land.”

‘Ah it seems she’s switched back to normal’ He thought before asking “Palace?”

Lucy’s eyes widened in surprise “What? Don’t you know what the palaces are ya derp? They represent each of the five powers in Elemente and they hold almost absolute authority in their lands, second to the king of Verlau of course.”

“So the continent of Elemente can be split into five different countries huh.”

“Yup, yup. Why don’t you know this? Everyone does. Anyway…” Lucy said as she stood up and energetically went over to a shelf to pick a book up.

After a short while, she returned and opened it up in front of Cort. Before him, the map of Elemente was sprawled out.

‘So less like a pizza and more like a donut huh.’ He thought mildly as he studied the map. The donut ring consisted of four sections neatly separated and colored according to the faction ruling it. In the west the palace of Earth was marked with a muddy brown color, it seemed most of their lands were deserts. East and south were colored Green and red, the palaces of Wind and Fire respectively as for the north…

“Why is this part colored white? Ice?”

“No dummy, that’s the factionless region. Well, I say factionless, but everyone knows that the ruler of this particular land is the Zaggard family. They are few in numbers, but each and every member is a powerhouse thanks to their magic.”

“Why? what element do they use?”

Lucy’s eyes sparkled as she said the following “Lightning magic. The strongest and fastest type of elemental magic. It is rumored that every member of the Zaggard family is as fast and as devastating as a bolt of lightning.”

“Impressive, but if it’s like that then why don’t they just officially state this land as that of the lightning faction?”

“That’s because the lightning faction isn’t the only one there.”

“How so?”

“There are a bunch of other smaller factions that all reside in the north, so calling it solely the Zaggard’s is pretty misleading. Plus there is a long history of war in the continent of Elememte and throughout most wars, the North almost always remained impartial. This kinda pissed the other major factions off, so in a petty tantrum they decided to name the North factionless.”

‘Hmmm, I mostly understand how things are now on this continent.’ Cort thought as he looked towards the map once more. Finally, he looked towards the center of the donut where the hole would be. There, a large mass of water the size of one donut segment was painted blue. The land of the water palace. Numerous little dots decorated this otherwise blemishless mass of water. It seemed like the water palace’s land was a series of little islands.

“I think we got side-tracked, Lucy. You said that the difference between a guild and a gang was the recognition of the ruling palace. Can you explain it more?”

“Yeah sure. So I want you to ask yourself this, who is the strongest in the land?”

“The palaces.” He replied curtly.

“That’s how it’s supposed to be, that’s why it is illegal for any inhabitants of a land to form a group without the permission of the palace. If permission was granted, then a guild would be formed. Guilds come in different styles and sizes, but all of them have one thing in common.”

“They are kept in check by the palaces.”

“Bingo, they get to enjoy a lot of benefits don’t get me wrong but in return, they are treated as the faction’s backup army. To the point that in times of war, all guilds are ordered to participate, and any that don’t are disbanded.”

“Ok, got it.”

“Now onto gangs. They are similar to guilds but they don’t listen to the palace’s orders, they are free to do as they please. Or that’s how they’d like it to be. In truth, they are declared criminals that should be punished heavily. By the way, killing a gang member will get you a reward from nearby guilds.”

“So there’s even something like that huh,” Cort muttered as he thought of Red foot. Luckily for him, he had taken his precautions. To this very moment, Nelem knows almost nothing about him, not even his name.

‘What did I call myself again? Nier? Damn that’s a bit embarrassing.’ He thought as he rubbed his forehead.

“Hey Lucy, what do you know about registering in guilds?”

“Why? interested? Well, it is pretty easy and straightforward, you just have to give them some details about you and sign some contracts and that’s it really. Actually now would be a great time to sign up.”

“Why is that?”

“All of the guilds in Phentar and even the whole of the Wind Palace’s lands began accepting a larger number of applicants, some even began to actively recruit members of the population. The same goes for the Fire palace. Apparently, tensions between the two have begun to rise. Looks like another war is on the horizon.”

Cort was a little shocked by how little the girl seemed to care. “You don’t seem that concerned…”

“Ah, the two palaces fight all the time. This time it seems like some minor princess noble escaped a political marriage. Of course, that’s not the sole reason but it is a fuse of sorts. Well, whatever happens, Phentar is going to be relatively safe.”

“I don’t get why that would be the case, aren’t we in the middle of the two countries?”

“Ordinarily Phentar would be in quite a bit of danger, but that’s not the case at all. A pretty big forest surrounds Phentar, and even if you don’t take the ridiculously dangerous monsters roaming in it into consideration, you still have the silent tomb to worry about.”

‘A familiar name popped up,' Cort thought as he heard the name of Carson’s home. Their base.

“Plus conveniently there’s a wide-open field a distance away from Phentar that’s perfect for battle. That’s where most battles between the palaces are held.”

“Honestly you make it sound like more of an event than a major conflict.”

“That’s what is though. Y’know in the past three wars only a couple hundred people actually died? That may sound like a lot, but considering the billions of people residing within each country; hundreds of thousands of which are related to either the military or some guild then it’s really not much.

It is called a war, but in actuality, it’s just another way to flaunt each country’s strengths. Once, they even didn’t bother hiding it, and the soldiers just held a damned tournament for the fun of it. Magicians and warriors in separate categories of course. For fairness’ sakes,” Lucy said before snorting.

‘As expected of a magic world, even wars are treated so casually.’ Cort thought to himself. ‘Anyway it seems like joining a guild would be fairly simple.’ Phentar was rather lax when it came to foreigners; in fact, Cort learned from Phil that it was possible to purchase an ID that would officially make someone a citizen of Phentar. Of course, the conditions related to acquiring one included the abandonment of one’s former city and a bribe under the guise of tax but even that wasn’t that big of a deal.

As such the plan so far was simple. Cort would gather resources and acquire an ID while waiting for Rine to return. After that, they'd register in the guild and form a party.

Old man Carson did not reveal what the goal after that would be, so that was as far as Cort could plan.

For now, he still had to research which guild to join, the conditions of joining, and how many people it took to form a party.

‘My, my, it seems like I will be a bit busy.’ He thought to himself as he watched Lucy doze off while reading. It seemed he tired her out.

Reaching for the sunstone in the middle of the table, he covered it with its lid; sealing away its light.

Darkness filled the room.

…………………………………………

A few weeks passed by as the lives of Phentar’s citizens marched on. As typical of the city, not much changed within its walls. The newly admitted students of Shadewood settled in nicely. A new guild was formed yet despite its young age, it rocketed through the rankings before settling snuggly somewhere in the middle. On the other side of the coin, a gang called Red Foot was recently making waves in Phentar’s underworld. It seemed like the gang successfully defeated another gang and integrated its members into its forces. Though talks have been going around that the previous leader, Ratson, was actually dead and that the one who killed him (Hunter) was now the acting leader.

Tensions between the fire and wind palaces continued to rise, but no one really cared.

Such sights were quite common, no one paid them much mind.

…………………………………………

Deep within the forests of Phentar, a young man with dull red hair sat cross-legged with his arms outstretched in front of him. Sweat trickled down his face as he hastily chanted beneath his breath. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and roared.

“{Fireball}!”

A bundle of flames the size of a tennis ball materialized inches away from his palm. However just before the spell exploded forth, the young magician forcefully clenched his fist, trapping the flames. The sound and smell of searing flesh resonated within the quiet forest, and pain shot up the young man's arms, yet he persevered.

“{Fireball}!”

He yelled once more as another spell appeared in front of his other palm. Unlike the first, this spell was large, almost the same size as the magician’s head.

He dared not stop the momentum of this attack, rather the opposite. With a faint smile, he thrust the first spell into the second. The two bundles of flames reacted fiercely to one another, each repelling the other yet not completely separating. Finally, the two spells shot forth with frightening momentum.

A small bundle of flames orbiting a larger ball of fire seared the air it ripped through before hitting the mark. Or rather, marks.

Rine closed his eyes as he felt the vibrations of the first tree falling. He smiled as he heard the second, and he laughed as he heard the third fall with a thump.

He was glad.

Previously, he failed to understand why the old man taught him to forcefully suppress his spells. His first guess was: so that he could use the spell up close and in hand to hand combat, but that did not end too well. So then he started releasing both spells at the same time in some vain hope of possibly doubling the damage.

He had managed to somehow pull it off a couple of times, and old man Carson called it simultaneous casting. Problem was that he couldn't use it consistently; he would either lose focus halfway through the second spell or be distracted by the pain of holding back the first.

So he just kept training the spell as he normally would. He kept casting and casting, till he grew too mentally exhausted to accumulate more Origin. He floundered about, continuously conjuring fireballs before almost fainting.

Somehow, at some point, he had gotten it in his head that frequency was more important than quality.

[Man how great would it be if I could just use less Origin for the spell] He remembered thinking to himself.

With this thought in mind, he slowly discovered that he did indeed have a way of cutting back the Origin cost, but the tradeoff was lower power. This was actually another key in solving the mystery. Less firepower meant that he could more easily suppress the spell. As for merging the two spells together, he just tried it on a whim and thought it looked cool, plus the attack power was better like that.

As such a new spell was born. The only problem now was coming up with a name.

‘Solar Shot’ He thought before smiling wryly. To him, the spell resembled a drawing he saw as a child. The piece depicted a blazing sun at the center of many rotating rocks. This was apparently how Himmel and other planets revolved around their sun. The drawing was titled Solar System and Rine took an immediate liking to the name.

‘Solar flare’ He liked that one better but it did not fit perfectly.

‘Sun ball’ Too simple.

‘Solar Bomb’ That one had potential.

As he was caught up in his own thoughts, he failed to see the shadow looming over him.

“Looks like you’ve warmed up nicely.”

Turning his head in shock, Rine saw a young man looking at him with an eerie smile.

“Ready for the hunt partner?” Cort asked innocently.

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