Darkness reigned everywhere!
It obstructed his senses. All his senses. No matter how hard he tried, none of his senses relayed any information to his brain. His struggle too ca from his physical awareness not from his mind.
He remained clad in darkness till his senses picked the first buzz. It was faint. Involuntarily, being prickled by the first sound, his ears twitched. The buzz turned sharper and sharper, till his mind recognized sothing.
"...wake up..."
The sound was far yet close. Sohow it increased his heartbeat.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The muffled beating of his heart fell on his ear. His body strained itself more.
Sothing sweet entered his nose. His nostrils flared wide open on itself, inhaling it completely. The high note in the fragrance prickled but reminded him of the sumr flowers in the valleys of the Endless Mountains.
Gradually, his senses returned. Hex never knew that air had a taste but the mont his tongue ’touched’ the air, an indescribable sensation appeared. It was sweet yet sour.
But the enjoynt didn’t last because the next sense to return was the sense of feeling. And he felt everything at once. He felt it completely. The pain, the overwhelming pain nearly knocked him out again. The pain was everywhere. He couldn’t even scream. The instant his lips parted, a burning sensation appeared in his throat. It was comparable to having swallowed embers.
The imnse pain pushed his eyes wide open. The first thing he saw was the back of a figure clad in soft leathery armor disappear through the flap of a tent. Bearing the pain, he tried to move but to Hex’s horror, nothing happened. He didn’t move even a single centiter.
’I can’t feel my body.’
He knew his body existed. The grueling pain in each part proved that. But the lack of control over his nerves disheartened him yet he didn’t panic. He gritted through the pain as bits and pieces from the past returned to his mind.
His eyes road around, observing the things in his view, studying the patches of dirt and dried blood on the once-white flaps of the tent. For the most part, the tent seed empty, except for a small chair and table with so empty glasses and dirty dishes.
’I wonder what they fed ?’ He thought about random things and then grinned. ’What does it matter? I am alive, aren’t I? And I doubt they found sothing worse than those sewer rats I ate barely cooked.’
He must have dozed off at so point because a glass’ shattering roused him out of his sleep. Looking around, he saw Paula putting the dirty dishes on a tray and replacing them with a few dishes that slled mouthwatering.
Grumble.
His stomach grumbled, attracting a look from Paula.
"Y-You are awake?" Paula’s broad smile put Hex in a good mood. It was only now he noticed the pain subsided substantially. And even so control over his muscles returned. The twitch in his fingers and toes filled him with joy.
’There is still so hope.’
Paula noticed the twitch. She stared slackjawed at Hex, eliciting a raised brow from him.
"What happened?" Hex wondered whether sothing else twitched, which was perhaps not covered. ’Well, based on stories he heard from people like Vitor and Greg, his thing seed well above average. For a mont, he even wished that thing reacted, hoping to see how Paula would react. But Paula didn’t even look at his middle.
"Your fingers...moved." She stamred. "But...how?"
Seeing her reaction, Hex had a bad premonition.
"According to the healers every nerve, muscle, bone, and blood vessel in your body was damaged. Your survival alone was a miracle beyond their understanding. I can’t imagine how they will react when they see you move."
"That bad?" Hex asked calmly. Hearing Paula, his mind triggered the mory of him blasting the Calamity with Quid’s tool.
"Worse. When the Commander brought you, you were barely alive. The healers used almost every nature-filled crystal on you. Only when you stabilized after three weeks of continuous healing, did the healers leave."
’Three weeks?’ Hex’s eyes widened but he didn’t ask anything. ’That is a long ti but like she said, I should appreciate surviving the ordeal.’
"By the way, congratulations," Paula bead at him. Seeing his confused expression, she laughed. "You are ranked first. Elsa and Tarquin are even a thousand points behind you."
"I got lucky...in more than one aspect." Hex was surprised that his reckless act rewarded points on the list. It was a good chance for the second prince to pull him out of the ranking with so superficial rewards.
Paula excused herself to notify the healers. Hex heard her mutter things like this isn’t what I saw and fate strings but the sight of his inner space distracted him to pay much heed to those ramblings.
A thick plasma-like blob filled his inner space. The space stood devoid of colors and elents. He looked at his monolith, which humd softly as it tried to refine the plasma. Each speck it sucked out from the plasma seed to put a strain on the monolith.
’So thick?’
Based on his experience, Hex noticed an increase in density and volatility with each increase in stage. The chaotic energy inside a Disaster’s crystal was many tis higher and more volatile than a Demon or Fiend crystal but was only a large speck before a Calamity’s energy.
’I wonder if this energy entered my inner space during the explosion. The others should be pissed off after their efforts turned to dust.’
Hex pitied the three Refined Knights from the three largest factions. They battled the Calamity, putting everything on the line, only to end up with nothing. Hex didn’t think they knew it entered his inner space or they would have done sothing while he was knocked out.
Seeing the monolith refine the speck, Hex wished to observe how many drops of energy he could get out of one speck. He also wished to asure the ti it took to refine it. After all, it should take longer to refine such a dense energy.
As he waited for it to finish his mind wandered to the battles against Disasters and even the Calamity.
’The importance of elents becos clearer in battles at higher levels. Up to the Knight level Techniques and amount of energy play a significant role in determining the winner. But against Disasters and higher stages, the variability elents bring to the battle is far more important.’
Against Disasters, his ice elent helped enormously. And the black swirl brought even more destruction than he anticipated.
’The baron told it would help with going berserk and increase in attack powers. It seems it isn’t limited to . It can also let energies go berserk with increased attack power.’
That was the only explanation he could co up with about the way the swirl affected the chaotic energy. Although he needed to test his conjecture, he was almost certain it was the right explanation.
All his experiences so far helped him increase his understanding of the elents and the role they played in a battle. For example, if the currently barren land in his inner space were lush and filled with nature’s elents, his recuperation would accelerate with leaps and bounds.
He lanted the loss of elents in the crystals during the refinent. He focussed only on increasing the amount of energy, not paying much attention to the elents.
’It seems I need to increase my skills in refinent and study the elents more.’
The Knight’s Path instructed to gain full mastery over an elent before forming an elent circle but due to his limited experience, he failed to comprehend the importance of doing so. But it wasn’t too late.
Buzz.
A soft tremor in his inner space roused him from his thoughts.
’It’s finished?’
Observing the amount of energy ford, he noticed an increase of fifteen drops. It did take a bit longer than he spent on a Disaster’s crystal but he was already satisfied with the result.
’With the amount filled inside, I can gain at least three thousand more drops of energy!’ Even if he didn’t hunt creatures, he was assured of obtaining a total of over four thousand drops of energy. With his passive increase, he could reach the peak before the age of twenty.
Hex, of course, wouldn’t sit idly. But at this mont, he didn’t regret the limited mobility. He could spend the ti on refining as much as possible.
The process did make him weary. His eyes almost drooped when he heard the flap of the tent move.
"How are you?"
Althea’s beautiful face filled his sight as he opened his eyes. Her scrunched brows, coupled with the strands of hair falling over his face and her big clear eyes always increased the speed of his heartbeat. Even the refinent increased slightly.
"Now I feel much better," he replied, looking straight at her. She bit her lips but didn’t avert her gaze.
"Good. Rest well. You are the best sparring partner I have."
Hex smiled. His smile turned broader when he noticed the soft leathery armor on her.
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