The Third Party - Chapter 32

Ken’s POV (12 yrs. and 3 months old)

“You guys okay?” I said to the people in front of me whom are eating, well, dare I say, sloppily? I mean look at them, they’re stuffing the food like there’s no more tomorrow, or more like, the others would take away their food.

I can’t even say anything for my childhood friends, they’re also stuffing food into their mouths, they didn’t even notice me asking, did something similar happened to me?

‘Yes, it did, although you were able to quell the hunger in no time.’ -White-

Thanks White, *sighs internally* why didn’t I warned them ahead of time? Enough of this mentality, for now I need to prepare more food for them, better ask first.

“Are you guys still hungry?” this time a little louder so I could get through them, they looked at me eagerly and a chorus of yeses resounded and so off I go to the village, and make some more food.

Good thing the village leader’s kitchen is big enough to make food fit for a battalion, just kidding, seriously thought, how do all our masters have big houses on this village, should I even call this place a village?

Ten minutes after, 7 steel containers with food are floating towards the training grounds at the table were my companions are eating, with my magic of course.

Let’s see, there’re vegetables, meat, soup, and some side finger food -don’t ask me, why I put them there I just did, but they’re baked goods-, hope these will satisfy them, good thing the food me and villagers prepared earlier was not consumed right as I arrived.

“Here you go guys, dig in.” I said, now to feed myself, a-… Nope wait, I need some of those too! I hurriedly took some meat and delicacies before they’d scooped them to their plates, wow, guess starving for 24 hours does that to you, but really, why do they have such big appetites?

‘Look into their mana pool.’ -White-

‘Huh? Okay.’ Concept: concept of revealed mana pool. Oh… I’m dumbfounded, their mana pool’s doubled in size, how in the world did this happen? Nope wait, that’s a dumb question, I already know the answer to it, it’s due to my method of cultivation.

Their mana pools are almost engulfing their entire body, even my childhood friends, wait what’s happening to the glows, it looks like it’s… improving? It’s become a little brighter.

If I’m going to measure it the glow increase five inches, in the past it was just one inch, same goes for Princess Lang, and the other three, as for our friends from this village theirs grew by half.

Have I introduced their glows? Hmmm, I think I haven’t, then let me describe it, the most common I’ve seen them have is that all have white glows, thank goodness if it was pitch black or red I’m afraid those are the glows that are needed to be extinguished, simply put, they’re evil glows.

Allen, has blue and sky blue shades, Glen has brown shades, Saber and Lila both have black shades, Riyah has sky blue shades, Icarus has red shades, while Flin has indigo shades -took me a lot of time to figure his one out because his looked similar to Allen and Riyah’s-.

Here’s something important to remember, the shades are what represents the element or power they posses or better affiliated with, the glows represent their intentions, you could say it shows their personality, but the most useful part of this it that it determines their mood, I’m able to adjust accordingly to whatever mood they have by reading their glow.

But just like any other person, I just can’t use the glow as an excuse to forcefully or unconsentedly make them change their mood, and make them experience emotions just like any other human -or people- do and don’t judge them for that.

I’ve done this many times in the past, especially when we were kids, gosh it was such a lot of work trying to let them understand for themselves why this is like this, why this is like that, I’ve introduced them the concept of freedom of choice.

The concept that entails that yes, you have the freedom to do anything for yourself, but just make sure that what decision you made did not cause harm to others, unless it is your intention to cause them harm.

I did not stop them from learning what bad things they can do to others, but I would always be at the sidelines waiting for them to finish, so that I can talk to them, but if they don’t want to, that’s fine by me.

Thought I haven’t encountered a moment where they didn’t let me talk to them after they’ve done something bad, and they do the same thing to me too.

I swear I didn’t tell them to do it for me, I guess they just went out of their way to do it for me too, okay I just repeated what I said, *chuckles*

“What are you chuckling about?” Hmm? Wilbert.

“Oh nothing, I just remember the old days when we were little.” He nodded as I deactivated my ability to see the glows, sometimes they hurt my eyes if I stare too much.

Finishing my food earlier than them, I made use of the extra time as they continue eating by washing the other containers and my plate, spoon and fork using water magic.

Of course I’d went to a relatively far distance to clean the dishes, and by the time I was finished, I’d come back to find them resting and full.

If you’re wondering how I washed the dishes, I’d made them all float, and let them pass through a big water bubble I conjured, since there was no soap or dishwasher, I made the water inside the bubble twist and turn to hasten the process of washing dishes.

Wish I had soap though, but still I don’t understand why but with my magic and water I’m able to still clean myself and not smell,

And let’s not forget the concept of a counter where to wash dishes, I think they have something similar here at the village. Do we have a washing counter at our home?

Hmm, better check it out some other time, I’m always on the run every morning and not noticing things, that makes me think, I should spend some time with my parents.

“Alright, I’ll wash the dishes and when I come back, be sure to be prepared for combat class.” groans erupted into the air as they sounded their complaints, I just chuckled at their childish response, and don’t think even for a second that princess did not grumble, for she did.

Wow, can’t believe they’ve even finished all the pastries, thank goodness for flour, and being taught how to bake by our local baker back home.

After doing the process of washing again, I walked to where everyone was as I made all the utensils float behind me, I’d stacked them slowly on the table, all clean.

Time to do some combat class, ahh right on time, everyone’s prepared themselves and our masters are arriving. Skip, skip, skip, what? Can’t I just skip to the formation? I know, I’m very contradicting at times.

‘More like all the time’ – White-

Right… Anyway, let’s start practicing.

“Everyone, find partners, but since the group is an odd number, I shall choose someone as the spectator for this exercise.” said Master Klein. “Ken, you be the spectator.” Huh?

“AWWWWWWW, I wanted to fight too.” I walked to the side, dejected as they chuckled at me, bleeeee, HMPH! Am I supposed to just describe their fight now? *sigh* Can’t help it.

“Stop talking to yourself Ken.” I look up to who talked.

“UGH! PLEASE! You know I can’t.” I say to Wilbert, he chuckled again at me. *pout*

“For today’s combat class, unique fighting styles are allowed, in other words, you are allowed to do any means to fight your opponent, whether you are ranged or melee, go ahead and pick,

but for the importance of this lesson, is to learn your opponents, that would be all.” said Master Klein, which made everyone confused, I think it was on the last part Master said. “Now, find a partner.”

Hmmm, who would they partner with? The masters moved to the outer edges of the field, probably to create a barrier, are activatable barriers known here? Was that even a word.

*SHING*

The barriers up, and Oh yay a platform, nope wait it’s just transparent, let me make it physical, and there, with this platform on an elevated view, I’m able to watch them more clearly, now to make it move as much as I wish.

‘Momentum Magic: Guided Object.’ I made this spell up too, but with concept, I’m able to make its effects come true, -what is this, some kind of wish?!- the spell let’s me enchant an object to move to a specific location, ignoring the laws of physiques, hehe I apologize in advance if this is such a cheat.

There’s one downside though, as I would always get notifications for creating skills, this one bore no difference, I’m only able to use it on one object at a time, and if I don’t lift the enchantment I won’t be able to use it on another.

For now this skill is on level one, making me wait for 24 hours before I can lift the enchantment and use it on another object, pretty handy but difficult to find precision, thinking about it,

I won’t be able to use it as much, since the requirement for a spell to upgrade is for it to be used numerous times, and this one has such a long cooldown, but still fair enough, don’t want to be too overpowered.

‘You’re already overpowered.’ -White-

’Right…’ I replied.

‘*sigh* I’m gonna have to adjust things for the next world.’ said White, that’s understandable.

Okay let’s go back to spectating. Glen is partnered with Wilbert, Allen and Saber, Lila and Celine, Princess Lang and Riyah, Icarus and Flin, this line up is fine, since we’re not that close with one another yet, as for Celine and Princess Lang’s.

I think they don’t want to cause any harm to the other, seeing their fragile friendship. I can only hope they’d be able to learn to trust one another, and if not, then it’s all up to the fates to decide.

Let’s look at the other girls first, Celine and Lila, seeing as the two were trained from the same master, I think they would be equal in terms of fighting, tactics, and spells, but since Celine uses a bow and Lila uses daggers, their fight was natural with a tinge of crafty tactics here and there.

Distance is Celine’s advantage, which can be countered easily by Lila’s close combat abilities, and right now they’re trying to get one on the other, jumping here and there, releasing arrows at point blank and long range, while the other either blocked or dodged the projectiles.

Nice one, Celine dodged Lila’s swings effectively even on point blank range, by back flipping and all sorts of close combat dodges you can do once in such a situation, wasn’t there a word for this?

And so their fight continues that looks to be on even terms, but both haven’t used any abilities yet so it might get interesting in the future, but looking at them closely, both are desperately trying to have the advantage over the other.

Awww, I’m so proud of them, as what I would always say to them, regard an opponent as an opponent once in a fight, regardless of status between both parties, as your goal is to get stronger, defeating your opponent is one of the ways.

But you can always decide the fight to be a draw, decisions matter yes, but always go for what your heart says, I know it’s cliché, but I think I’ve shown them enough possibilities to know what kind of decision to go for that suits them, haven’t taught them about nobility though.

Guess they’ll learn it from the dragons, or at the kingdom. Next one, Ooooh, Riyah and Princess Lang are using spells to fight one another, its fire against’ ice, wait did I mention that there are zones within the barrier? I think I haven’t.

Well it’s simple, the zones are just as what it says, it keeps others away along with any stray spell or attacks by either bouncing back with the force greatly reduced, or spells getting cancelled.

As for the two, both are dishing out area of effects spells but are dodging them with relative ease. A flurry of spells, thankfully their spells don’t cause shockwaves, but still they decorated the battlefield with burnt or frozen grounds.

Their casting spells with long chants, that’s why I won’t be mentioning their spells, just that it consist of fire and ice in the beginning.

Speaking of spells, seems like Allen and Saber chose a magic battle, funny enough, the distinctness of the twin sabers is that the sister mostly uses blades and physical means to harm her opponents, while Saber mostly use magic, and when you combine the two, they are absolute menaces.

Allen’s mostly using water and ice magic, while Saber’s using shadow, oh, interesting, their using it as enchantments for their attacks.

Allen’s using a sword enchanted with ice magic, while Allen’s using daggers enchanted with shadow magic, oh another enchantment, looks like they’re going to be fighting mobile too, ahh, the perks of being a battle mage.

I’m just floating the platform from place to place.

On to the next one, Glen and Wilbert are just sparring with each other using swords, so they’re going to be using brute force this time, oh, enchantments too, hmmm, strengthening… and precision, oh, are they wounding one another intentionally? They’re even healing them slowly, *GASP* light magic. *Giggles*

Though the two are muscle-heads, I’m sure they must have learned a thing or two from getting beaten by me, oh and as for me, so proud of them, they’re like children of my own, they grow up so fast. *whimpers*

‘Oh quit whining.’ -White-

Ahehe, joke, but seriously, I am proud of their growth in both skills and individuals. Okay, on to the last pair, wow, surprisingly Flin can stand his ground against Icarus, seeing as Icarus has strong chaotic fire magic compared to Flin’s calm and mild spirit magic.

Icarus is using a sword, while Flin’s using… Is that a flute? Oh okay… THAT’S SO COOL!!! He’s even using it to parry Icarus’s attacks, and he uses it to enhance his magic, it’s like a conduit to his spirit magic.

Unlike Icarus who just conjured fireballs after fireballs with alternating from both hands while switching the blade to the other, against’ Flin, both are good at dodging too, nice.

Okay, so far everyone’s doing good and through-out my close observation by moving from above the barriers, I’m sure the fights will drag on until the next class, which is just a regular magic class. Hehe

In the mean time I’ll just hum a song. White have they arrived yet?

‘As of now, yes.’ said White. Good, make sure you keep informing me once they talk about anything suspicious.

‘Understood.’ he replied. Time for humming.

3rd Person’s POV

Indur arrived safely at the dragon kingdom, after securing their things and the carriage that carried their data, he proceeded to the throne to talk to the King.

Fortunately, he found the King unoccupied at the time, looks like it’s his lucky day, he thought.

“Excuse me your majesty for my intrusion.” Indur said as he kneeled down in greeting to the King at the throne, his Queen is not with him today as she was in conversation with their officials in the court room.

“Might I ask where the Queen might be?” Indur asked after the King acknowledged his presence as he stood up.

“The queen is at the council Indur, what brought you here anyway?” said the King in a monotonous voice, of course this person before him would look for his wife, many men have been pursuing his other half due to his weakening in strength, thankfully, he’s had enough to protect his dignity.

“I’ve come to report that a new artifact has been located.” The King’s ears perked up at the mention of artifact, drawing his attention to the head researcher.

“Go on.” The King said.

“From the valley were your daughter is at, someone possesses a scythe artifact.” Indur said, with growing interest in remembering the power emitted by the scythe.

“Have you learned of the power it possess?” asked the King, sitting straight.

“So far we’ve concluded that it holds immense power, and I believe it has a similarity to the artifact contested over five thousand years ago.” said Indur, now the King is a lot more curious of this artifact.

“Were you able to collect it?” said the King.

“Unfortunately not sire, but don’t worry, I have a plan to take it.” said Indur, the King rouse an eyebrow at that and said…

“And what exactly this plan of yours is?” said the King, and so the two conversed awhile longer measuring up the pros and cons of Indurs plan until evening, where Indur was dismissed to go to his quarters, a smile plastered on his face.

-Back in the village-

‘What, seriously?!’ exclaimed Ken into his mind.

‘And not only that, apparently they’ll be bringing a device that’ll seal the power rendering it useless.’ said White, telling Ken of the last information he gathered.

‘This is going to be very interesting indeed, well, let’s just anticipate for the future, time to sleep for sleep is important.’ Ken flopped on the bed and sleep overtook him in a matter of minutes, but he had dinner first before bed.

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