The house was miserably quiet, the loss of Sam had affected everyone. Despite the fact the captain said that there was a possibility Sam could still be alive, Malcon doubted it now. Even if Sam had survived from the first demon he encountered, Malcon didn't see him surviving from the park of beasts that chased after him and the captain.
The early morning sun cast upon malcon's face, he used his hand to cover the Sun rays as he stood up. The room was empty, and the house was still quiet.
Malcon took his bath and wore his black uniform before going downstairs. Everyone was seated in the dining hall, their faces pale, yet mournful. Malcon sat beside bane, but he didn't seem to notice malcon's presence.
The captain and the vice came down to the dining hall, their face indifference from the rest of them.
"We all mourn for the loss of our dear one…Sam." the Captain said, and a few people broke down in tears.
"Tears won't solve anything, it won't bring back your dead villagers, and it certainly won't bring back Sam from the dead" the Captain shouted. Malcon had never seen his voice this emotional, his voice reflected the grief he wore.
"the only thing we can do is to get stronger, strong enough to avoid this awful reality from repeating itself, strong enough to protect all our loved once"
He seemed to have poured out his heart to them, as for a moment he stood there.
"Enough of the crying, turn those tears into weapons and utilize them…the king will be coming here tomorrow. And he would like to see how far you have gone in your training so far, so prepare yourselves, there will be a duel." He finally said leaving.
The speech seemed to have enlightened everyone a little. They had to get strong fast.
After their breakfast, most of them went down to the training ground, the captain did not restrict them from cultivating, and since there would be a duel, they all wanted to train themselves personally.
"Are you going down to the training ground?" Malcon asked bane.
"Yeah… I have been wanting to cultivate for a long time now" he answered." aren't you coming?"
"No, I am a little bit tired," Macon answered, going up to the boys' room.
Malcon fell to his bed on entering the room, the thought of his blood flooded village and Sam's death seemed to have clouded his mind.
****
"What exactly happened to you?"
"Commander!" he stood up saluting, as a tall, dark, muscular man with bald hair walked into the hospital.
"At ease soldier" the Commander said, and the young man dropped his hand.
"Boy, when was the last time you had a proper sleep?" the captain asked, noticing his dull eyes.
"How can I sleep sir, take a look at my sister, she is dying" the soldier lamented, pointing at his sister who was lying down on the hospital bed.
Her skin was as pale as a demon, there were dark circles around her eyes, as though she hadn't slept for a long time. The doctor slowly brought down the wight cloth that was covering her body, and the commander's eyes widened in surprise. He had never seen anything like this. It looked like black veins spreading all over her body, just by looking at it, he could see the vein slowly traveling up to her neck.
"it has been spreading fast lately…I have never crossed part with such an anomaly in my life" the doctor said, placing his hand on the girl's body.
"Excuse us doctor… I would like to talk to the soldier alone" the commander requested.
"of course…if you will excuse me then" he said, leaving.
"What exactly happened at Diagon?" he asked.
The soldier looked taken aback in remembering what transpired in Diagon.
"when looking for survivors" he began" I felt a sudden death intent…a wild desire for blood thirst, and it was emitting from the room my sister had entered" the soldier said as he broke down in tears.
"Brace yourself, soldier," the Captain motivated.
"No…if I had gone with her this wouldn't have happened" he cried the more.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened to your sister…was it a beast?" the commander asked.
"No…it was a boy" the soldier answered, cleaning the tears off his eyes. "He attacked her with a small black pin," the soldier explained.
"What ability did he use?" the commander asked.
"Shadow," he answered instantly.
"Shadow?" the commander repeated.
"Yes sir"
"Are you sure of this?" the commander asked.
"Positive"
Then his an Eden, the Captain muttered under his breath.
******
Malcon opened his blood-red eye, the room was dark, but that wasn't a problem since his ability allowed him to see well at night. Instead of training, he had slept for a whole day, and the king was said to be coming tomorrow.
"You slept all day," Bane said, as Malcon came down to the dining hall.
"yeah… I was tired," Malcon said, smiling." But I want to train now…do you want to join me?" Malcon asked.
"nope, I've had my fill with training" he said laughing.
Malcon went down to the training ground, everyone was already done with their training and probably sleeping, that means he had to be quiet, so as not to wake anyone up. At first, he wanted to train himself on his martial skill but thought otherwise, for a complete year he had been training his body, and now he wants to cultivate.
He sat down on a lotus, crossing his legs, taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. He could see the yellow mana core floating in midair, and he started absorbing mana into it.
A mage powers are graded into six stages, and as you advance in power, the color of your mana core changes.
Any mage at the rank of a novice, his mana core should be green, and advancing in power is the greatest achievement of anyone, most people didn't even get to enter the novice stage throughout their life. After years of proper cultivation with beast crystals or mana, if the mage is lucky, his mana core would turn yellow, putting him at the rank of a specialist. At the rank of a specialist, you will have little or no problem with attacking or defending yourself from beasts. The next stage is the veteran, at this stage your mana core turns blue. Veterans are considered so strong as they could even hide the aura from their body, making it hard for one to sense their rank. After the veteran the next stage is the expert rank, at the expert rank your mana core turns red. The next rank after the expert is the master stage, at the master stage your mana core turns black, only very few people evolve from the master stage to the elite rank. In the elite rank your mana core turns white, people at the elite rank are rare and are regarded as the strongest mages. And finally when a person's mana core turns gold, Malcon had never heard of anyone who has achieved such power, having a golden Mana core places you at the rank of a legend.
Malcon knew he wouldn't be able to advance from the specialist stage to the veteran before tomorrow's duel. Opening his eyes, he saw ivy standing in front of the training ground, staring at him.
"You scared me" Malcon said, standing up.
"sorry" she apologized, smiling.
With the warm smile, she appeared even more beautiful, her pink long hair was parked in a ponytail and she wore a loosened white gown.
"You're already a specialist," she said, looking at Malcon.
"Yeah"
Looking at her, Malcon could see the green aura emitting from her body.
"aren't you feeling sleepy?" Malcon finally asked.
"couldn't sleep" she confessed,
"why…what happened?" Malcon asked.
"I mean…the king's duel is tomorrow and I wanted to train"
Malcon was normally not the person to interfere with other people's problems, and she seemed to have noticed malcon's slow attempt to leave her.
"Could you help me train?" she asked politely.
For a while, Malcon thought of the best way to tell her no.
"please!" she pleaded, with her puppy dog eyes.
"fine… I will give you a few tips," Malcon finally agreed. She jumped up excitedly, and her gown followed suit.
"But first…change your cloth" Malcon said.
And that was when she realized what she was wearing, her cheek turned rose-red, and she ran back to the house.
Few minutes later she came out wearing her black uniform, she went to the store and brought two wooden swords.
At first Malcon wanted to teach her how best to defend herself with a sword. Over an hour had passed and she was picking up really fast. After about two hours, Malcon taught her the best way to attack someone, making sure she understood the fact that tricking your opponent was one of the wisest things to do.
Over three hours passed, and he could tell ivy was tired, so he decided to call it a day. And they went back to their rooms.