The Third Party - Chapter 95

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 9 months)

“What kind of lessons do you teach your son?” asked Klein casually, just as the two adults entered the room. Him sitting at a chair, sipping tea, created a pleasant atmosphere, if you don’t count Ken, casually meditating at the other solo chair, both knees on an Indian position.

The two adults, had a small slightly feeling sheepish smile, one for their son meditating and cultivating in the room, and for Klein’s inquiry.

As prepared as they are when Ken casually told them the reason for their sudden visit to Klein’s cottage, still, suddenly being interrogated shook them for a fraction of a second.

Who knew that them teaching their child sealing techniques and spells would result to this. Seeing as the two were having a bit of an internal struggle, he quietly gestured for the two to sit at the bench situated between the two solo chairs, a coffee table at the center.

A wall just behind the bench, cushions were not that popular to them so the two just settled to sit on the wooden bench, not that it really bothered them.

Now that they were situated in the middle, looking at these two people with long hairs, one white, and one black, kind of… they don’t know, it’s a mixture of dread, and admiration.

Two people, with long hair, and incredible mixture of features, blended nicely in both a feminine and masculine way. Ken took a deep breath slowly, and gently let it out, a slight breeze flowing out.

“Are you two going to continue gawking at us?” Klein placed down the tea, Lyn and Alfred snapping out of thought. “Why don’t you start by explaining yourselves.” this time he set his eyes on the two.

The two stared at the other knowing full well that this would result in a lengthy explanation, so they’ll have to summarize what they’re going to say.

The reason being that yes sealing magic is of another league on its own when it comes to different aspects, preferably its effectivity, as knowledge of such magic pertains to suppressing anything the caster wishes to suppress.

But in Ken’s case, it’s more of a modification of the word ‘Sealing’, the effects are devastating, even the two are aware of this, so yeah, this will take a long time, preferably within the time frame that they’d still be able to prepare dinner.

Meanwhile, the person in discussion, meditating at the other chair, actively listened in on the conversation happening before him, ranging from the reasons why he was taught Sealing magic, talent, capacity, capability of using the spell.

Already early into the conversation, the boy lost interest of listening, partly because he’s aware of those things himself, just a little bit boosted since he technically has far greater power, or ability.

He knows that with that ability he had given himself opportunities to further improve himself in so many aspects, be it in magic, or the talent of executing it.

Breathing deep in and out, he imagined himself standing at a field of tall grasses, mountains by the distance, the wind caressing his hair and figure, bathing under the sun.

Letting the calm of the surroundings tune down the noise from the outside as he continues to cultivate in leisure. The technique he liked to call, “Adapt, Change” was a powerful technique all on its own.

This was the one technique he used to jump in leaps and bounds with regards to his overall strength, the concept of the technique is simple, derived from the concept of Adaptation and Cultivation,

He made it so that whenever and wherever he may be, that whenever he enters meditation and cultivate, his body constitution gradually adapts to the surrounding areas allowing him to cultivate easily and proficiently, doubling the cultivation speed even at some cases.

Feeling the air around him, he felt his body taking in more energy from the air, an imaginary stream of blue and white manifested itself on Ken’s imaginary world, filling the place with its color and splendor.

Smiling contentedly at the work he has done, he also made his imaginary figure in the world to squat and join in on cultivating. After a few minutes and moments of cultivating, he finally could not stop that nagging feeling from before.

He doesn’t know why but he knows that his cultivation speed is the fastest as it could, his foundation is solid, so why can’t he feel any advancement, usually at this time, even after three weeks, he knows that there should be some slight improvement to his strength.

But why now? He pulled most of his consciousness inside his imaginary world, leaving just a little bit but enough of awareness of the outside world. He opened his eyes, felt the energy inside him, but there’s a need to get to the bottom of this.

First thing he needs to do is to check his mana pool. Ken’s figure floated in the air and followed the stream of blue and white energies towards his meridians, a world of white and his mana, entering the upper meridian he sees a huge expanse of water contained in mid-air.

This location is stable, so he continued on and traveled below, entering the lower meridian, he sees the same expanse of contained water continuing on below, stopping at an arc where his mana pool ended.

Huge is what the place looked to him, as his mana pool was similar to the size of an Olympian pool, he casually strolled above the waters barefoot in a white suit, his outfit changes whenever his consciousness enters this place.

There’s no change whatsoever, even the current strength he feels he has is still the same when he feels around his mana pool, walking further down mid, a glint of light caught his attention, turning to his left he approached the object reflecting that light.

Upon close inspection, he held the object in his arms cancelling out its camouflage of its surroundings, Ken stared at the transparent spherical object in his hand, ‘Is this a pearl? What is a pearl doing inside my mana pool?’ he thought.

Staring at the object longer, he noticed that the ‘pearl’ was drawing in energy from his mana pool, he threw the object in protest, thinking that maybe this was the reason behind his stagnation, but stared incredulously at his hand again when the pearl reappeared.

‘What are you?’ he let go of the pearl thinking that it might float back to where it was initially before, and it did, as the pearl remained afloat in mid-air, Ken thought that the object camouflaged since it had taken up the color of its surroundings.

‘I wonder if what would happen if I’d place that near the pool.’ He took the pearl again, lowered himself, and placed the object just centimeters above the mana pool. The results were shocking -at least to him-,

As the ‘pearl’ suddenly turned into a hungry inmate, sucking in the mana at its surroundings, Ken felt a sudden pulse of dizziness slap his being, but he quickly stabilized himself with a quick response of cultivating furiously as well.

The crease on his body’s forehead disappeared, his calm expression returning. Inside Ken stared menacingly at the orb that caused that incident, but he can’t casually destroy this thing, as it seems to be bound to him.

‘I have so many thoughts running right now, but I’ll see for myself what kind of results this ‘pearl’ will bring.’ He thought to himself, in a scholarly manner. ‘If it ends up helping me, then that’s a good sign, if not, then, destruction is eminent.’ He thought with that neutral smiling expression on his face.

He gave one last look at that insulting orb once more, walked to it, tugged at the orb, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge. A frustrated expression crossed his face, but he quickly stops, takes a deep breath and calms down.

‘I better not see this thing destroying my foundation.’ He thought, exiting his meridians. He opened his eyes and see the light from inside the cottage illuminating the surroundings and see his parents and master enjoying tea.

‘Yay, they’re finished.’ He thought, putting his legs in a proper position when sitting, waiting for the people before him to open their eyes. ‘They look so into it, are they savoring the taste of the tea?’

Observing the facial expression on his parents and masters face, his scrunched up in realization.

“Yah! Are you messing with me right now?” he asked, the three people in the room, literally, like with no warning, blew the tea that they were drinking into the air, or at-least that’s what Alfred did, the three of them trying hard to stop themselves from laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, how funny.” the family of three bid their farewells to the master and went home, all the while engaging in conversations pertaining to their day.

Laughter and chatter was evident on the three as smiles and loud obnoxious sounds rang through the path with the three people continuing to tease one another, other people who come to witness such a scene smiled unconsciously at the trio walking under the rays of the setting sun.

A scene of joy despite the day to day hardships one encounters and continues to experience.

The next day, remembering that he had wanted to initiate a meeting with his friends, Ken hurriedly prepared himself, ate breakfast -just in a slow manner as to not agitate his stomach-, and almost dashed through the path towards the training field.

He wants to keep a look out on his targets and proceed accordingly to his plan, that was just made up right now.

As expected, the first to arrive are Allen, Princess Lang, Saber, and Lila. He jumped down from the tree he was hiding just near the entrance, and hurriedly approached the group in a cheerful manner.

“Hey guys! Good Morning!” the four whom were conversing with one another turned to the newcomer.

“Morning.” Lila smiled.

“Hey.” said Saber casually.

“Good Morning.” said Princess Lang. The other tall teen gave him a scrutinizing gaze before replying, expression softening, but that look on his eyes was still there.

“Good Morning.” Ken knows that look, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Aww, don’t give me that look.” but Allen was still looking at him as so.

“What do you want this time?” the guy asked.

“Am I really that obvious?” said Ken, feeling wronged.

“Yes, now get on with what you want.” the teen started walking, with the intention of taking a stroll. Ken sighed helplessly, it’s getting a lot harder to hide his intentions from the male, but he smiled nonetheless, catching up to his tall male friend.

He wants to mention that because he’s a little bit envious of the other as well as admire Allen for being tall despite their age, yes, two mixed emotions, that somehow hasn’t made our protagonist burst from its clashing some times.

The other three stared at the two, gave each other’s a look and started following after. Minutes later Ken suddenly turned around, and the three watched as Allen floated in the air and flew to whatever direction.

“Uhh, what happened?” asked Lila just as Ken reached them.

“Quick, we have to gather the others, we only have a handful amount of time before he comes back.” said the boy suddenly pulling them back, the three staggering along Ken’s eagerness.

“What for?” asked Princess Lang, their steps normalizing as they matched their pacing to Ken’s hurried ones.

“We’re going to prepare for Allen’s birthday.” replied the boy with that cheeky smile, the princess gave him a questioning look.

“When is it?” she asked.

“At the end of the month.” now she’s more confused, don’t you prepare for someone’s birthday the day or two days before the intended date of the person’s birth?

Ken reading the look on her face, he smiled once again, that cheeky smile widening.

“That’s why I have a plan to commence and it involves everyone of us, come, there’s much to discuss” he pulled the three people along to the direction of town while activating both glow and surgical sweep to find his friends.

The sudden burst of wind from surgical sweep smothered his friends in the face, but he simply didn’t mind and used magic to tidy them up.

Meanwhile, the person in discussion softly arrived at the edge of the barrier where Ken had instructed him to.

He gazed at the civilization before him despite being at the top of the mountain, different structures entered his view, but he wasn’t shocked or awed by them since he’s seen those structures before in one of his trips with his father.

Wonder where could they be going next, considering his father, it would be somewhere unpredictable once again. He felt the wind caress his form and thought to himself what it would be like to have his hair lengthen.

He sees his friend and father enjoying it very much, so he can’t help but feel a little indulgent. Shaking the thought out of his mind, he sought out what Ken asked him here to do.

Clean up some kind of rubbish beside the mountain.

He focused once again on the trail Ken created out of magic, in his mind the trail formed once again, and when he opened his eyes, the trail seemed to be going downwards.

Walking further, he noticed that this seems to be a cliff, and below him, he could see trees attached to the cliff, one particular tree was larger than the rest, and that’s where the trail continued.

Flying over, the tree came to view and what presented itself to him was what looked like a little settlement, enough for just one person, ropes knotted here and there forming some kind of makeshift flooring for the person who made it.

Little trinkets scattered around, must be tools the person left, or made up tools since they look unprofessionally done. Further back Allen saw more things.

‘So this is what he wants me to clean up, should I just throw them away or do I bring them back?’ as thus his thought process went with him entering the said settlement.

——-