The Third Party - Chapter 77

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 8 months)

“Ken, what are you doing?” asked Lana, genuinely curious and a little bit worried as to what they’re disciple is doing at the moment, not to mention the cold energies coming from this round shape water container thing was incredibly colder than a standard’s ice energies.

The three masters had approached Ken awhile ago and observed for a moment what their disciple was doing. They’re confused, that is a given, so they decided to ask.

And classes is about to start, this situation might get in the way.

“Master Lana.” exclaimed Ken who hastily opened his eyes at the voice, and turned towards his master. “Ummm… I’m trying to cool off master.” Lana gave him a confused look.

“What seems to be the matter?” she asked. And so, Ken explained to his masters the situation he is currently in, starting from the time he lifted off the spell he forgot on his body, and up to the point he made the ‘pool’ to cool down.

“Have you tried checking your body or healing it?” asked Klein beside Lana, to which Ken nodded.

“Are you still in pain?” asked Ulysses.

“Yes Master.” replied Ken. It just goes to show how comfortable his masters are to him, with the concern evident in their voices. Ken doesn’t mind. In fact he’s grateful.

“You need to get checked up first.” said Klein after a few seconds of pondering over the matter.

Ken resolutely nodded as he does need someone to check on his body, he’s confident he can heal any parts of his body back into shape without a sweat, but this… this is something he is unfamiliar with.

There’s no tear or wound be it internal or external, his mana flow still feels and looks healthy no matter how many times he checks, the pain just came from within him, and it’s excruciating.

Hastily, the four people went out to pay Ken’s parents a visit, leaving an instruction to Allen that he’ll be the one to take charge in the morning class’ activities while the three of them accompany Ken.

Just like them, they’re also concerned about Ken’s well being, for out of all the eleven of them, he was one of the most prominent practitioner when it comes to healing spells, even a level higher out of the eleven of them.

And knowing that Ken is under a discomfort of sorts that he himself cannot cure or heal, clearly something is up. Not only that, there’s something about Ken that they cannot quite put their hands to.

It’s like he’s oozing some kind of energy…? That is neither pleasant nor uncomfortable to the feeling.

While walking Ken kept a straight face on the road to their home where he suspects his parents where at, but inside he was actively trying to calm himself or he might go and make another pool of ice with seething cold water.

The ‘heat’ inside -for which he would like to call- felt so unceremoniously uncomfortable under his skin, it feels like something’s boiling inside him after the pain of lifting the spell from earlier.

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, they exuded unyielding determination, whatever this may be, he’ll find out for himself, he just has to hold on for a little bit more.

The four arrived in front of Ken and his family’s temporary home, Ken walked in to find no one inside, except a sphere of white on top of the dining table, strategically placed not to go unnoticed.

Ken approached it, held the ball in one hand and transmuted a little bit of mana in order for the ball to activate.

The ball was one of the temporary inventions he and his family made, that when injected with mana, it would play a scene on the ball depicting what the messenger wants to convey or what message they left for anyone who would activate it.

It’s called temporary since it’s just a one-time thing, but on the other hand, it’s duration is near infinite since it supplies itself with little mana on its surroundings to preserve the message inside and it’s form.

A handy tool indeed. The Masters were not that surprised since they’ve witnessed this invention before, what greatly shocked them was that it can be made of mana.

Sure there are those inventions that needs imprints of mana and or runes written on their surface to function, but this, is just purely mana taking the shape of a solid ball with the color of white.

Blame Ken for being such an imaginative person that he even made such kind of invention. The ball glowed white once and out came the face of Ken’s mother.

“Kenny, I don’t know if you’re going to receive this or not, but if you do, we just wanna say that me and your father are with Kara doing some research about a discovery that we’ve made.” His mother squealed on the recording for a moment as if she was having a crush for the first time.

The three masters watched helplessly at the person for many times have they encountered such a reaction from Ken’s mother due to being such an enthusiast when it comes to exotic things.

Not to worry, they don’t do exotic experiments, they are more inclined on finding new discoveries that they cannot help themselves but be excited about it.

What a bunch of researchers at heart, no matter how much they look like warriors and battle ridden -especially Alfred-, the two of them still runs and picks over discovering new things.

Speaking of Alfred, the recording resounded his voice calling out to his wife who was still not getting over the ecstasy, dreaming to herself what kind of discovery they have encountered.

“Anyway, come find us at your Aunt Kara’s cave if you need anything, byeeeeee.” The recording ended, and the ball of white dissipated into the air.

“Guess we’ll go there.” said Lana, everyone nodded at the statement and they all slowly walked out of the house, leaving it neat and tidy as before.

The four of them arrived in front of the town hall, without wasting a second, Klein summoned a tunnel on the ground that will lead them to Kara’s cave.

Aside from the cliff where they fended off the demons where the entrances the magic beast leaders cave can be found, tunnels to their caves can also be found in front of the town hall.

This was done so that everyone has easy access to the caves and to the center of the town. Aside from the masters who can just summon tunnels to their caves wherever they are, these two locations are the only ones the other ordinary beasts use whenever they enter the master’s cave/s.

Thinking about it, if they had used the entrance to the caves by the cliff, they might have been able to use it strategically, but if they were overrun at that part, surely the unarmed civilians of the Northern Forest would perish, thought Ken.

It was indeed a good that this kind of thought didn’t come to their minds during the battle.

The four of them entered the tunnel, balls of light in hand illuminating the area around them as they slowly descended.

The deeper they descended the colder it became, indicating that they are nearing Kara’s cave, or more precisely, an underwater cave.

Stairs appeared in their vision as it did on the other time they were here, leading to a platform ahead where everyone could see water covering almost all parts of the cave, except for a little island ahead.

They all noticed on the island, silhouettes of people walking about, so they instantly knew that they were there.

They all flew above the water since swimming on it would be time taxing, besides, who made their caves as wide and as big as Klein’s? Apparently no one.

On the island, the three people who were rustling about, writing, deciding, and doing whatever anyone would do in a brainstorming state. One of them suddenly noticed something amiss in the air.

She raised her head and felt around her as she had noticed that the flow of mana had been altered and was rushing towards… the entrance of the cave? Good thing she was wearing a casual clothing or at least in her opinion.

For she was wearing a plain purple dress hugging the right curves on her body which looks homey and feels like she is ready for bed, well what can she wear when she is at her home near her bed, so she decided that she didn’t need to dress up much,

Unlike her guests and the other two whom looked like they’re off to training, and these two, wearing a casual white shirt and brown pants, and yes, the other woman was also wearing it, she doesn’t know why, probably it had something to do with the experiments.

She looked ahead and saw that her fellow masters as well as their human student, but she felt suspicion, since the mana flow was directed towards them, even with their far away figure she could still perceive it.

But they’re in a group, who could be pulling all that mana to themselves, guess she’ll have to find out later, meanwhile she’ll have to inform these two people whom… are still lost in their own world.

How can these two be so out of it, yet found themselves, she wonders how their dynamics have started in order for her to uncover the mystery that is Ken’s parents, she could only sigh for herself.

“Excuse me, you two, we have guests.” The two humans who heard as Kara’s voice was loud but not obnoxious yet strong caught their attention, they turned their gazes and immediately their expression turned joyous.

Their son was with the other Leaders of the village as well as the other two leaders. The four landed softly on the ground near the other three.

“Ken, what brings you here with the leaders?” asked Lyn approaching her son for a hug, Ken reciprocated the action.

“To get some help from you mama, and papa as well.” He said, raising Lana’s eyebrows as well as Alfred peeked behind his wife at Ken with wide eyes.

It was such a rare chance for Ken to ask help from them, what could it be this time. On the other hand, the person who felt that something was really strange in the atmosphere stared at her guests one by one.

She stared at Ken, slowly scrutinizing her gaze at him. She listened in on the conversation as Ken explained to him what was happening, and when Ken mentioned that he had encountered some kind of situation that’s when she noticed something.

“Your mana’s being depleted fast.” The statement stopped the group from reacting, as they all turned to look at Kara.

“Come again Kara?” asked Klein. Abruptly Kara stood up from her stone seat and approached Ken, held both of his hands.

“That’s what I’ve been noticing earlier when the four of you arrived.” She said, further confusing everyone around her.

“Please explain.” said Alfred. Kara took a glance at him then back at Ken, astonishment evident on her features as she gazed at Ken.

“I’ve been noticing the flow of mana in the air getting sucked into a specific direction, and when you explained your situation to me, that’s when it clicked!” she said enthusiastically.

“But how does that explain why Ken is in immense pain?” asked Lana.

“That’s just it, the more his body kept sucking in on the mana around him, the more his body could not be able to bear with it, leading to excruciating pain as the body desperately tried to expel the excess mana inside.” She said.

Collective gasps rang around them, not knowing whether to believe her statement or not.

“How did you come to that conclusion Kara?” asked Lyn.

“Remember that research you’ve brought with me earlier?” Lyn went into thought of it and she recalled that it was the reason she and her husband was here with her, since she was one of the people sensitive to mana.

“You mean the research of mana accumulation in a higher rate…” she fell silent, her eyes widening in realization as she stared at Kara, the latter giving her a nod.

“I believe you’ve found someone of similar situation, but I’m not saying that everything happening to your son is exactly what you have described on your research.” said Kara.

“Though, I must say, it was quite a bit of a contrast if the spell he broke from his body was something to endure the pain, actually turned out to be the natural stopper of his mana from running wild.” added Kara.

“Or is it that he broke a natural order of his body by accident.” She said softly to herself. Ken heard, which lead him to think, was it the former or the latter situation. Despite that the other two were oblivious to Kara’s further remarks as their questions would be answered.

There’s nothing more exciting than discovering the new.

“Yes yes, the question what would happen to people accumulating mana at a higher pace do to their body is something that we’ll be able to answer at last!” said Lyn to herself.

“But we must treat our son first shouldn’t we?” said Alfred, holding the shoulder of her wife.

“How are we going to observe the phenomenon then?” Lyn asked, which got Alfred thinking, yeah, how are they going to observe it after they have treated Ken.

“Uh hello, you can just collect information during the process of treating your son.” said Kara, feeling complicated at the situation before her.

“Are we really gonna be able to do so?” asked Lyn, this time with no intention as to whether there is a need for her to fulfill her curiosity or the need to finish her research.

“Yes, and besides, I think the treatment would require a lot of our time.” replied Kara observing Ken, or more specifically, the mana rushing towards Ken, and the mana pouring out of Ken.

“Why?” asked Ulysses, shattering the silence that befell on them. Kara stared at them blankly. A single thought in her mind. ‘Do they not notice that big chunk of mana surrounding Ken?’ she forgot she’s one of the few gifted people who could perceive mana on a solid state.

“The mana rushing towards Ken is heavy.” They blinked once, realization dawning in on their brains, but confusion planted itself in their brain.

“Perhaps it’s best if I let you all see what I can see.” said Kara. Almost… almost giving them a scrutinizing gaze, particularly directed at the three leaders.

Look at them, they are practitioners of immense mana yet they could not notice the thick mana around Ken! Now that she mentioned it, why is the mana starting to accumulate and not rush into Ken’s body?

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