As Braiten came to the conclusion of the absolute necessity of strength for his goals, the door to his room opened. Immediately, the person who walked in dropped the basin and towel that was in her hands and rushed towards Braiten. Arms hugged tightly onto Braiten’s head as he felt hot tears falling onto him.

“You’re okay! You’re okay!” Isolda said over and over as she tightened her grip on Braiten’s head.

Hearing the commotion from inside the room, Eron anxiously rushed into the room. Seeing Braiten awake with his own eyes, he broke into a wide smile and went up toward Braiten to clasp a hand on Braiten’s shoulder.

It had been three days since the invasion. Braiten was unconscious the whole time that the town came back to life, and slowly resumed its daily comings and goings. The guild auxiliary members, who were pharmacists, that checked up on Braiten said that he was merely exhausted from the battle that he had with the horned man called Aethelbeorn. They had mentioned that Braiten should wake up in a day. Therefore, the two had been sitting around twiddling their thumbs in worry of Braiten’s health when more than a day had passed.

Braiten was slightly touched by his friends’ worries, but felt guilt well up inside of him. He knew that he could not continue to babysit them here or bring them to dangerous places beyond their ability. Staying here would also prevent him from understanding nature’s laws quickly as well. There was just not enough harmony between the laws in Human civilizations for him to understand the breadth and depth in which the laws may reach.

Braiten let the atmosphere of the reunion soak in, enjoying the peace that had settle in between him and his friends. He chose not to break the news of his eventual parting yet. Isolda calmed down, and blushed at the thought of having jumped on Braiten as she did. She thought that she could have kept her calm better. Eron, on the other hand, although outwardly calm, felt his worry-clenched heart ease up and a great weight lift off his back when the situation had fully registered in his disordered mind. He was truly relieved that his friend was finally up and about.

The trio then chatted about what had happened over the past few days when Braiten was unconscious. Apparently, there was a lot of commotion when it was revealed that Braiten was an advanced cultivator. Information could not be kept under wraps due to the many witnesses, and several martial sects had sent important elders to meet with the “young” genius. The guild did their best to rebuff the elders and it was fortunate that Braiten was unconscious, which had helped with delaying the elders.

The guild had sent news over to the main branch at another frontier town, and had sent three journeymen to protect this talent and prevent the martial sects from getting too underhanded should they be unable to get their way.

Eron and Isolda also mentioned that they had been getting attention from the guild members who participated in the battle. While Braiten’s fame lay with the citizens and outsiders, the adventurers and mercenaries were interested in the two. There were many parties that offered to take them under their wing once Eron and Isolda’s mentorship had ended. The duo felt uncomfortable about the attention, and often came to seek refuge in Braiten’s room.

Dashurie was busy with the guild’s management. As trio’s mentor, she was absolutely furious with Wiatt. With the support of her party members, she actually hung the muscular man on top of the gates and spun him around over, and over, and over. Wiatt was so dizzy that he had puked many times. He had even developed a slight acrophobia.

Of course, Dashurie’s actions led to punishment. However, she argued that parties should never be separated forcefully without consent. Privy to the conversations of the new adventurers, she also mentioned that the management’s decision also had made many new guild members question the ethics of the guild’s higher ups. Loyalty was something that any organization needed. Therefore, Wiatt had been made into a scapegoat with Dashurie’s actions as his punishment and Dashurie’s had only consisted of running odd jobs for the auxiliary members for a few days.

Dashurie’s punishment had given Eron and Isolda some time for things to cool down and a much deserved few days of break. They had been told that the rate that they had completed their tasks was actually quite intense, to have condensed four weeks of tasks into three weeks with only a couple of rest days in total throughout the three weeks.

As they ran out of things to say about the past three days, the conversation naturally turned to what had happened to Braiten when the harpies charged towards the group of fleeing civilians. Braiten gave a detailed account to the sparkling-eyed duo, omitting the use of magic and mentioned that he had used several natural laws to cover up. He did not tell of his past life, but glossed over the information by saying that he was friends with other races beyond Humans and therefore knew what to do. The two martial artists listened attentively, they were immersed in Braiten’s telling of the experience first-hand.

By the end of it, they had gasped a few times, and were breathless from the tale of the fight and at the newfound information of other races despite the lack of embellishments when told by Braiten. To think that Humans were not the only ones that inhabited this continent and that the other races may be many times stronger.

Eron and Isolda also seriously considered what Braiten had mentioned as comprehending the natural laws and incorporating them in your martial arts as he did in his fight. They felt like Braiten had touched on something very important. Whenever Braiten mentioned such strange things, they thought that the Martial Way that they have been taught in the sect was very primitive. All they were taught was that the Martial Way was against the heavens. Natural laws that were in harmony with the way of heavens were naturally not connected to the Martial Way, or so they were taught.

The history that the duo was taught about the Martial Way was that in the history of humankind, there were fantastical creatures that roamed the earth. There were even sentient humanoids that had scales for skin, and breathed fire along with other mystical humanoid races. Martial skills that absolutely shook the land and pierced the skies existed aplenty back then. Presently, all the cultivation methods and martial skills were but remnants of that past.

Progress was made throughout the many years that had passed since then, but due to the secretive and selfish natures of martial artists, advancement in the Martial Way was stagnant. Only those who were truly strong are privy to some of the secrets of the past and the current development of martial arts.

When their thoughts concluded, Eron and Isolda had a strange light in their eyes. It was as if they had suddenly seen the light regarding something. In their hearts, they firmly decided to leave the martial sect. They felt that the Martial Way was more restricted within the sect, where you could not truly focus on it and had to constantly watch your back. They remembered when Braiten had said that martial arts was found in everyday life, but with the revelation that nature could complement it, their vision grew wider regarding their cultivation.

Eventually, the day grew darker. The sky had streaks of red as the sun was setting. Chatting happily with friends and enjoying the reunion that they had, time had passed relatively quickly. Dashurie had bounced in on them as she took a break between odd jobs. She merely looked relieved, chatted for a bit and soon had to leave once again to finish the last of her “punishment”.

All in all, Braiten had decided to notify his party members and Dashurie of his leaving when the mentorship has ended. It was a much better time to say it when Eron and Isolda had to leave for their sect.

***

Four more days had passed quickly. Dashurie and her party, along with Eron and Isolda spent time with Braiten doing more leisurely things, knowing that they had to separate soon.

Things did not go according to Braiten’s plans and he had to reveal that he needed to part with them to grow stronger. This had happened when Eron and Isolda approached him to say that they wanted to leave the sect and live the adventurer’s life with Braiten.

Filled with guilt, Braiten had divulged his plans to leave this place for a while to grow stronger. At that time, he said that he was not sure how long he would be away. Being understanding people, Eron and Isolda told Braiten that they will wait here for him until that day comes.

Dashurie was also informed of the trio’s plans. She promised Braiten that she would look after the two martial artists until the day they reunited.

Right now, the six were arranged in a circle in a group hug. Instead of the painful parting that happened before the monster invasion, the six were at peace and had smiles on their faces.

With closed eyes, Braiten was enjoying the companionship around him when he spoke, “Ten years…”

At that, the five people looked at him.

“I will be back in ten years. Eron, Isolda, you should be able to catch up to my cultivation by then. With your eyes open to the nature, I know that your cultivation speed has improved by leaps and bounds. Who’s to say that you won’t reach advanced cultivation in ten years? My cultivation method is very slow, so don’t worry about the possibility that I may far outstrip you then.

Dashurie, thank you for imparting as much knowledge as an adventurer as you could. The time spent with you and your girlfriends was enjoyable.

I’ve thought long and hard for how long this parting should be. I think that ten years would be just right,” Braiten added.

The five nodded their heads in agreement. Then, the six of them closed their eyes once again to revel in the companionship before saying their goodbyes.

***

Braiten has travelled deep in Aermagh’s forest for a month. Aermagh’s inner forest was considered one of the danger zones on the continent. Braiten merely used the hostility detection magic while releasing his qi aura to deter weaker beasts and monsters as he travelled. Stronger beasts and monsters still attacked, but Braiten relished the fact that he could freely wield his magic out of the sights of others.

As Braiten had no need for food, so he did not see the need to kill beasts. Monsters were vengeful by nature, and needed to be killed before they could gather allies and hunt you down. Therefore, the only beings that Braiten attacked without restraint were monsters.

Braiten had also approached various intelligent beasts with a variety of customs that the nature-friendly races had back in his previous world. So far, the intelligent beasts had been pretty receptive towards the Faerie, Elf and Therianthropic races’ customs. This has led to a troupe of beasts which followed behind Braiten and kept him much needed company that he missed from his parting at Aermagh.

Without the suggestive magic that diverted other beings, Braiten had also found out that there were pockets of sanctuaries within the forest that he could not have noticed before. In these sanctuaries, beasts gathered in droves. Be it carnivores, omnivores or herbivores, they gathered together in harmony. They lay lazily together and predators even frolicked with the young of their prey.

The harmony in these sanctuaries caused many a wonder to surge through Braiten. He had felt that he touched on something important each time he stumbled upon one of them. However, it had always felt like it was avoiding his grasp every single time. Helpless regarding that issue, Braiten could only rest in the sanctuaries and observe the miniature paradise that was present before his eyes.

Staying within the latest sanctuary he had come across, Braiten closed his eyes as he rested his slightly fatigued mind from his travels. He leaned back on a black mambear which curled up next to him. The scales were slightly squishy and comfortable.

Braiten let his mind drift as the first thought that came to him was, ‘This truly will be a fresh start.’

===

Author’s notes:

Well now, I’m wondering if I should keep the martyr jburge1’s poll post on this fiction’s chapter list. All in all, it seems he was just being a 10 year-old trying to make an “honest” review and poorly phrasing it to be insulting instead. It was clearly a “this sucks” review masked in pretty words to seem like it had actual full critique.

My reaction was over the top and I should have been more mature about that issue, but it helped me clear up a lot of doubts I had over writing style. It also allowed me to see what kind of reader base I had.

Archetypenecro didn’t give any answer to the long, long, long, long reply that I gave to his comment over plot holes, so I don’t know if that’s just an effort to be different(trolling) or true lack of interpretation on his part. At least reply in affirmation that you understand or don’t understand it, so I can move on to revising my future writing to be more descriptive or not.

Sometimes, I wonder why I entertain my reader’s questions. Like, should I just be on a high pedestal looking down as a douchebag writer, or should I take the time to look at the posts and reply as promptly as possible? Hmm.

On another note, I think I will be focusing more on the feedback in the threads than the review section. You guys are more active over in the threads and it will allow for more two-way feedback. If poorly worded feedback is given, I’ll do my best to be a more mature person and probe you for more details along with asking for advice instead of taking angsty actions.

Not much has changed so far, I’m still contemplating on how to improve the writing. Other fictions are more dialogue-heavy. I’m thinking about how to implement that in my fiction so as to liven up the story a bit. Thank you all, for supporting this fiction.

(Note to self: USE FREAKING DIALOGUE)