Eiwin continued her explanation of the region, but moonstones never came up. The information, however, was still helpful to Red. It felt like now he had a clearer understanding of how large the surface world was. The underground and its tunnels could not even begin to compare in size.

"I assume there's a lot more than just this region." Red pointed at the map.

"This doesn't even begin to cover it." Eiwin smiled. "This is merely depicting the lands under the baron. It's just a province in a larger kingdom."

"Kingdom?" The boy was confused. "I thought we lived under a baron."

"We do, but the baron is a noble serving under the true ruler of these lands - the king." The woman explained. "There is a fealty contract these nobles sign with each other that lasts for generations. I'd be willing to explain this to you, but it's a complicated topic. A lot of it might not make sense to you without proper context."

"I understand." Red was interested, but learning about the intricacies of the ruling class was hardly a priority.

Eiwin folded up the map and looked at the boy.

"Did my explanation help you?" She asked. "There's a lot of other materials we import into the city, but the ones I mentioned are native to our barony."

"It was helpful." Red nodded.

Although the boy hadn't found what he was looking for, learning about his immediate surroundings was beneficial to his goals.

"Do you think I could still have that book on materials?" The youth asked, fully prepared to be denied.

"Sure!" Eiwin, however, just smiled at him and nodded.

She got off her seat and went to look through the bookshelves. This search, however, took her longer to complete. When the woman came back, she was carrying three books with her. Spreading the items around the table, she began to talk.

"So these are the ones we have with us." Eiwin explained. "There are many different kinds of materials in the world, but they're more commonly divided into three classes: minerals, plants, and animals."

She pointed at each book in turn.

"There are others that might not fit into any of these categories, but they're rarer." The woman continued. "In any case, as I said, these books have a lot of words you probably won't recognize, but it might be good practice. Besides, there are also a few illustrations."

She opened the rightmost book, revealing a depiction of a terrible winged beast gorging upon the entrails of a smaller animal.

"Uh... Yeah, a lot of it is unnecessarily descriptive." The woman gave him an awkward smile. "But it's nothing someone as mature as you can't deal with."

Red nodded and picked up the books.

"Can I bring them to my room?" He asked.

"Master Hector says we aren't allowed to..." Eiwin frowned. "But I honestly can't recall the last time he ever bothered visiting our library. So, sure, go ahead. Just make sure you return them."

The youth nodded, running off with the items in his arms and leaving a speechless Eiwin behind.

"Be careful with them!" She yelled.

...

By the time Red was done with his lessons, night was fast approaching. He almost wondered how he was supposed to be reading these books in the dark, but then he recalled the lantern Eiwin had shown him before. Thankfully for him, there were a lot of those hanging around buildings and poles in the courtyard.

Rather unceremoniously, the youth picked up a lantern that had already been lit close by outside his room. Wandering inside, Red closed the door behind himself before setting the books on the table. It was time he did his own research.

Of course, the boy knew that what he was looking for was definitely a mineral. That eliminated two of these books off the get-go and let him focus on a single one. The book on minerals seemed to have over two hundred pages, and Red couldn't help but wonder how difficult it might be to explore it.

Of course, just by opening it, the youth was able to understand Eiwin's earlier warnings. Unlike the other books he had seen before, this one seemed to be written with fairly small letters. The authors were perhaps eager to fit as much information as they could into the pages.

Leafing through the pages quickly, Red also noticed a distinct lack of illustrations. There were a handful of them, but none that looked particularly well-drawn. When the boy was done checking the pages, he concluded there was nothing that looked like moonstone in the illustrations.

Red didn't panic, though. There was still a word the boy knew that could help in his search.

'Moon.'

The youth still remembered how it was written according to Eiwin's explanation. Maybe if he looked through the book again, he could find it. It was going to be a strenuous task, but not one Red was unwilling to do.

...

Unfortunately, even after two hours of arduous looking, the boy couldn't find any sign of the word "moon." Red had even tried to look for the characters in the large blocks of text, but he was still unable to locate them.

The youth thought about doing another search, but he decided against it. It seemed that either moonstones were exceedingly rare, or they were kept a secret from the public. Neither of these possibilities made much sense to Red.

There was an unending supply of them in the underground, and as far as the boy could tell, they had no particular use, so it didn't make sense to keep them hidden. If these stones were more important for the guards, they wouldn't rely on malnourished slaves to scavenge for them.

From what Red had learned from Viran, it seemed the guards were put there to make sure nothing left the mine. But if that was their only use, why not collapse the mine entrance? That way, nothing would get out either way.

'There's something I'm missing.'

It was of the utmost importance for Red to learn about it - there was still too much shrouded in mystery. There was the curse the blob had mentioned, the guards who might be looking for him, and then there was also Viran's special technique. It wasn't just a matter of curiosity. It was about his own safety. The youth felt like any of these matters might blow up in his face at any time.

In the end, though, he couldn't help but sigh in resignation. Without guidance and including his lack of knowledge, it was unlikely he would arrive at an answer any time soon. Would he really be forced into revealing his hand?

'Not yet.'

Red wouldn't do it until he had exhausted all options. Not to mention, he had been on the surface for almost a week, and nothing serious had happened for him to rush his decision. Maybe nothing bad would happen.

The youth doubted it.

Just as Red was reflecting on his choices, something caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a wisp. It was ephemeral, almost invisible. However, once the boy focused his vision, he was able to see it more clearly.

It was a misty green strand.

Red recognized it. He squinted and felt his blood run cold.

Trying to keep himself calm, the boy examined the strand. No matter how he looked at it, though, it resembled the one he had seen in the fight with the insectoid. The youth, however, had a hard time determining its trajectory with the bright lantern in the room. He turned the lantern down until the brightness was completely gone.

The green strands became clearer. There were three of them, and they were all coming from the window.

'No, that's not right...'

They weren't coming in. The strands were leaving through the window.

Red shivered and followed the trajectory of green energy down until he saw its origin

They were coming out of his body. Two strands from his upper arms and one of them from his spine. Even in his apprehension, the youth was immediately able to tell these were the positions of his special acupoints. The boy was confused and unsure of what to do.

Red didn't feel anything strange with his body, but how could he ignore these signs? He walked over to the window. Unfortunately, due to how high the opening was, he couldn't see where the strands were going.

The boy frowned and wondered to himself.

'Can the others see it?'

The strands were very faint, but it was still the middle of the night. However, even if they could see them, what could he possibly do about it? That was out of his control, and first of all, he needed to understand what was happening.

No longer hesitating, the boy walked out of the room. Strangely, the green strands connected to his body broke off as soon as he closed the door. However, more energy continued to leak from his body and fly up, uniting with the severed strands.

Red looked up, trying to see their trajectory. However, as he followed their traces, he eventually lost track of them in the night sky. They didn't seem to be stopping, though, and the boy could only watch on helplessly.

Eventually, though, his eyes caught something curious. The moon was dark tonight - all of its reflected light was entirely gone. However, the outline of the gigantic entity was still visible on the starlit sky. When Red looked up at the sphere, though, he froze.

Something moved.

Red blinked again in disbelief.

And yet, it was still there.

Movement.

Something was moving on the surface of the moon. Red couldn't see it clearly, but the faint outlines of an indescribable stirring shape were apparent to his eyes. Eventually, the movement came to a stop, but the youth could still see the silhouette of something was still there.

Something was on the moon.

Suddenly, Red felt a gaze set upon him. He felt horror like he had never experienced before. And yet, he couldn't move or avert his eyes. That being was looking at him.

It had noticed him.

Abruptly, the boy felt a pain in his body. The green strands started to leave him even more frantically, and his acupoints strained under this pressure. Soon enough, it felt like all the green energy had been drained out of his body. However, the siphoning pain didn't disappear.

It wasn't satisfied.

Soon, something else started to leave his body too. Red didn't know what it was, but he felt a pain that seemed to attack parts of his body he didn't even know existed. After what felt like an eternity, though, the feeling eventually disappeared, and Red collapsed to his knees.

The gaze moved away from him.

Finally, the boy could move his body again, and he braced himself. The physical weakness and pain he had expected to feel weren't present. Red tentatively moved his body before noticing it was as strong as before. He frowned.

'Another illusion?'

The youth hesitated, recalling the feeling of horror. However, Red steeled himself and took a deep breath. Eventually, he slowly looked up at the dark moon.

His blood ran cold.

The shape was still there, as clear as day, and at that moment, Red could feel it.

As the boy gazed at it, it too, stared back.