The next day,

Ryuu and his parent was walking along the riverside after their morning bath.

With curiosity, He used the opportunity to ask them about the last night event.

"Mom, Dad. The earthquake yesterday was quite terrifying right?"

Hearing that, both of his parent looked back.

""Earthquake?""

"Yeah, there was a huge tremor yesterday right?"

With a confused look, Taiyou shook his head while looking at his wife

"I didn't feel anything yesterday, how about you Hana?"

"Nothing... It was calm and peaceful."

She shook her head in agreement with Taiyou.

"Really? It was a huge one you know..."

Ryuu was perplexed over his parents answer as he probed the two of them in doubtful look.

'It was impossible to miss the huge tremor even if it was a short earthquake. The house is nearer to that hill than the flower field.'

'Just what is happening?'

At first, Ryuu only wanted to know his parents condition last night and would forget all about it afterwards.

However, with the unnatural circumstances that was happening around, he could not simply ignore the occurrence.

Ryuu's step halted, his gaze was fixed onto their parents as he was indulged in his train of thoughts.

'I doubt they purposely smoke me... Unless they really think that I was a regular five-years old boy?'

Even if Ryuu was still less than six years old in his physical body; his mental age was actually a few decades older.

It was unreasonable to betray his trust upon a simple matter like this.

"What's wrong Ryuu?"

His mother's voice was calling him from afar.

He shook his head and chased after his parents.

'I should look further...'

He was determined.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryuu was passing through the crowds in Fuku Village as he hastily ran towards the forge.

"The training made me lose track of the time!" He cursed himself loudly.

He ignored the peering eyes of the neighbor as he was chasing the house with a chimney on top of it.

Although, his pace slowed down as he realized there wasn't any smoke puffing out from it until he reached in front of the place.

"Whoa... I actually made it in time!"

A surge of relief filled his body and mind, as he made a cynical remark on top of it.

He didn't want to hear those sermons and absolutely not the penalty work that came with it.

"I'm here..."

With a lighthearted step, Ryuu came into the forge and greeted his master, just to realize that he wasn't in his favorite stool.

The dwarf was standing behind a table and gazed the chunk of black metal over the table seriously, he ignored the presence of his apprentice that had come. Tension filled the air around him and part of it was diffused in the forge.

Looking at the seriousness, Ryuu decided to position himself behind the the dwarf in careful approach by avoiding direct contact with his sight.

His master didn't seem to recognize his presence as he was scrubbing his nose while staring at the metal

He then took the chance to observe the Cross' subtlest movement while enjoying himself.

After a while observing, Ryuu could see the dwarf nodded and extending his hand to touch the metal. However, he then retreated his hand back and once again pondering in his position.

The cycle repeated many times

Ryuu made a wry smile at the indecisiveness.

'This ain't going anywhere.'

He stepped forward and grabbed the chunk of metal in excitement

"Wow! Isn't this a great metal, master?"

With an exaggerated voice he raised the material up to the sky, in hope of destroying the dwarf's thinking cycle.

"KID, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

At the sudden sight, the dwarf gnashed his mouth and quickly snatched the metal back and put it back to the table.

"Well, It piques me what's so special about the metal that magically attracting your attention"

"YOU! Do you know how precious that thing is?" Cross exclaimed at Ryuu

"No, in the first place, that's why i asked you right?"

"I sure ain't telling anyone who handled metal like that!" With an outburst of anger, the dwarf shouted towards Ryuu.

"Can you blame me for treating it carelessly? You didn't even tell me the worth of the metal?" He crossed his arm as he looked down at the dwarf.

"I doubt you could understand the worth of such metal!" Cross snorted in refusal.

"Humor me, Master Cross"

"You..!" The dwarf face became red in anger but couldn't find a comeback for the word...

However, his anger suddenly turned into an ugly smirk, approached his apprentice and gripped on the shoulders with both of his hands.

"Fine! I will impart to you the beauty of this metal and how precious it is."

The grip was getting stronger and an illusion of an ugly demon appeared from his back, at least in Ryuu's vision.

"But if you failed on grasping the value, I will ensure you will have the best out of all penalty work you had done today."

Words was like a magic.

Ryuu suddenly lost all of his energy and his face paled out.

With a regret he cursed the world for all of his earlier idiocy, then as his mind was screaming in front of his master

'I sure blew up a huge mine...'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're one hell of lucky bastard, Ryuu" Said the dwarf as he was sitting in his favorite stool while grumbling about his dissatisfaction over his apprentice.

Ryuu sat down beside the man and let out a huge sigh of relief as he was looking at the irritation of the man.

"Lucky me, the metal background wasn't anything too special in the end. There wasn't really anything new to comprehend."

"Anyhow, I'll be damned if I have to do outrageous penalty job again."

He took a chunk of iron and start heating them inside the furnace. While his master was still rummaging around the tools to continue his daily work.

As an apprentice, Ryuu’s job was usually limited to menial tasks such as cleaning the forge, sweeping, etc. However, due to the lack of labor in the forge. He was tasked with tool creation for Fuku Villages under the guidance of the master smith. At this moment, he could create simple tools such as knifes and cooking utensils at standard grade.

As Ryuu wanted felt the steel was hot enough and took it out, but a word prevented him from doing so.

“No, you have to keep them for another 2 seconds in fire at that rate.”

The dwarf then sat down beside him and start to do his own work and left Ryuu at his own world, as if he was non-existent after the advice. Ryuu followed his advice before he starts on put it on anvil and work on it.

The work was monotonous; creating tools after tools without ending. The constant clanking of hammer and steel had made it enjoyable for him, like it had a certain rhythm that could appease the heart.

In the middle of such times, Ryuu suddenly asked his master who worked beside him,

“Oh right master, may I ask few questions?”

“What do you want kid?” he was still immersed in his own work but responded attentively.

“It’s about the earthquake yesterday… Did you feel it?”

“What earthquake? If there was the village would be torn into crumbles” His cynical remark was all over the place.

“It was a huge earthquake, I find it strange for the village to not be affected.”

Ryuu hammered the iron into anvil and formed a blade afterwards and continued his talk.

“No such thing kid, you must be drunk”

‘I’m almost certain there’s something up here…’

Ryuu sighed softly

“Master Cross, is there a mountain nearby the Fuku Village that is different from the surrounding?”

“…” Cross kept quiet

“Well, I suppose something that the village worshipped or a special place…”

The dwarf suddenly stop hammering and then looked at Ryuu,

“There’s one… A mountain that you’re looking for.”

“Fuku Village [Sacred Hill], it’s the place where they sealed an evil god long time ago.”

“Oh!”

Hearing that, Ryuu became elated and excited.

The master smith suddenly emitted a tense atmosphere with his serious face,

“I tell you kid, stay away from that dangerous place.”

The dwarf picked up his rhythm and the smashing sound reverberated in the forge again.

‘He put up his guard’

Ryuu stared at him for a little while longer before picking up his pace, there was no more conversation flowing between the two.

“Im home!”

Ryuu put down the sack at its usual place and realized that both of his parents were not around, instead there were food on the table and a piece of paper sticked below one of the wooden bowl.

Ryuu read the paper and could recognize the delicate and neat writing of his mother.

[We won’t be at home until late night, have your dinner without us]

He put the paper back below the wooden bowl and looked in front of him

The cheerful presence was no longer there, there was only solitude in front of him.

‘This is the first time I had my dinner alone in the house ever since then.’

How lonely, he thought.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was books scattered all over the places around him, he had finished reading around half the books on the shelves.

“[Fuku Sacred Hill]…”

Ryuu was flipping pages after pages in search for the mountain that his master mentioned earlier afternoon.

Then, he stopped at one of the pages. On the left page was an artistic pencil sketch of a mountain, on the right page was titled [The Sacred Mountain].

Got what he searched, Ryuu was elated and starts to read the content.

[Fuku Sacred Hill]

Located in the Southern of Hama Continent, it was the resting place of a certain god hosting a great demon inside. The surrounding vegetation was filled with an extraordinary amount of dark elemental plants, as well a sanctuary of light elemental plants on the peak.

The place is filled with illusionary magic, proceed with caution.

Gathering Difficulty: *****

Ryuu turned to the front page and stared at the cover title.

[Taiyou’s Gathering Guide].

‘He sure produce some interesting… things.’ Ryuu thought to himself.

Just a little bit after Ryuu finished reading on the title, the door opened up all of the sudden.

“We’re back…” A pair of exhausted voice could be heard as the door was opening.

Ryuu look at them and their complexion, it seems they was working hard that day.

“Food!”

Taiyou looked at the leftover food that Hana cooked, he hastily took a spot and starts eating while ignoring anything else. Meanwhile Hana hastily went to the sales area and start to rummage the shelves in there in search of something.

Ryuu quickly stopped what he was doing and used a spell to make the mountain of books to go back towards their respective places and approached his father by quietly sitting down in one of the dining chair while waiting the other to finish their food

“Dad? Where did you go?” Ryuu curiously asked.

“The elder’s house, something had happened.” Taiyou gave out a small and direct response not long after

“?”

Hana shouted from inside the counter area,

“Ryuu! I need some help. Could you please come here?”

“You’re called” Taiyou swayed his left hand, a gesture to force Ryuu out.

Ryuu was quiet but he quickly moved down and then chased after his mom into the counter.

“Yes mom?” He stood beside the woman.

“Ryuu, please put this away for me…” She pointed at the back.

There was a mountain of vials and plants that need to be shelved in their respected place.

With an exhausted face, she brought a wooden box and left the counter to the dining room, catching up with Taiyou.

“…”

Meanwhile, Ryuu was left speechless.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the spell Ryuu previously used to return the book, he finished cleaning up the counter relatively fast and came back to the dining room.

The food in the dining room was finished during this time and stowed away, replaced by the single wooden box her mom had brought as they were glaring the content inside. He decided to climb up and sat on the dining table to get a clearer view of the box,

Looking inside, there was a lot of artifacts and tools. But amongst them, the most appealing was the pack of amulets that was written with words he didn’t recognize, the condition of the cloth itself was quite worn-out. Ryuu was curious and wanted to ask, but the atmosphere was tense and decided to observe from the sidelines.

“So, what are we going to do?” Taiyou then raised his voice as he grabbed the pack of amulets.

Hana was silent and looked at Ryuu before responding to Taiyou. Her peering gaze on Ryuu was one that judge whether he should be included or not.

“Take some rest while I’m preparing the tools.”

“Cool.” Taiyou hid the amulet in his pockets and listlessly put his head on the dining table.

“You too Ryuu, go get some sleep”

Hana smiled and then she started to rummage over the box and took out some tools and started inspecting them, immersing herself in her own world.

‘How busy…’

At this, Ryuu was left alone. His eyes were still bright and he had no intention to go to sleep, but there was no way he would disturb the two at this point.

Thus, he reached for the weapon, which was tied on one of the wall and quickly disappeared from the back door towards the flower field.

His mind was in deep thought as he stepped his way around the trail, pondering over the information he had gained since the morning.

The irregular mana movement of the mountain,

The sacred hill that hosted a god, a dangerous place to tread in.

The timing of the elder’s meeting in which his parents were called into.

‘Those amulets… there were traces of light-based spell engraved on it.’

Although Mana by itself is a pure energy and can be used directly, it could also be transformed into different elements and then used as a spell.

Mainly the four basic elements and two advance elements.

Wind, Water, Fire, Earth. Light and Dark.

The attribute elements are skewed to some characteristic in terms of effectiveness.

‘[Light]-based spell are versed in purifications and healing…’

‘I think… At this point, it’s safe to say that the sacred hill is the reason why all of these happenings.’

He reached the field as he drew conclusion over the info he gained and stood below a tree.

!!!

Just as he about to draw his weapon from its sheathe,

An earthquake larger than yesterday shook the flower field and caused the ground to crack, creating a rift to the trail Ryuu was using to the house. The suddenness also caused Ryuu to tumble but he managed to float himself using [Flight] spell before he fell down.

He observed the sacred hill as he was maintaining the spell, his eyes had turned blue through [Spirit Sight]. The surrounding mana was concentrated over the sacred hill, like a brewing storm. With the storm eye was situated at the peak of it.

As the storm grew more violent, the earthquake was also growing stronger.

‘Hmm… It’s not a good sign.’

‘At this rate, the village will really be turned to crumbles.’

Ryuu frowned, his dissatisfaction was apparent but he waited for the earthquake to settle down

But, there wasn’t a sign that the earthquake was stopping and his patience reached its limit.

He looked at his small palm, then he closed his eyes and let out a small sigh before looking back at the violent storm.

“No choice, someone had to do it.”

He raised his right palm towards the faraway hill, the surrounding mana in the field had converged towards him like a small tornado.

Ryuu started to chant a spell

“I summon thee, O’ brilliant light.”

As the chant finished, huge of white dust starts to leak out from Ryuu’s body in a great speed, so fast that the dust had covered the surrounding ground around him had piled up until the breeze blew then away gently.

A dull, silver flame was floating above his palm.

It was then turned into the shape of thin javelin under Ryuu’s control.

In its spear form, Ryuu was able to grab and hurled it towards the storm.

The speed of the spear was fast enough to cause a small shockwave and blew the surrounding area around Ryuu as it rushed towards the hill.

As it reached the peak, the javelin was temporarily dissolved into the air, before an explosion of bright light had covered the sacred hill and the villages like a daylight. The storm of mana was forcefully dispersed due to the single shockwave created from explosion.

The earthquake went to a standstill, silence followed as the aftermath.

Ryuu himself became quiet and lowered his hand and slowly descent to the ground with a paled face, as if his life force had been sucked out from his body.

He seemed to be painfully smiling before he resigned himself to the fallen leaves and rested his whole body.

‘Aa… That sure wear out my body.’

Turning his head towards the sacred hill, he could no longer see the storm of mana.

‘Personally, it’s prudent to stay away from troublesome stuff.’

‘But, leaving them alone may cause danger to my family.’

‘I can’t simply let that happen, anymore’

Ryuu was determined to go into the sacred hill.