Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

Seeing Korin's slick smile as he stood in front of his door made Illyan curse in his mind.

'There is so much happening in the town because of you, but you are smiling?'

He almost snorted in disdain as he looked at the man in front of him.

"Mr. Korin, what brings you here?" However, he couldn't just shed all goodwill between each other, as there would be even more problems if he did that.

"Kaoran, I am glad to see you recovering properly. I brought you some gifts for recovery," Korin said with a smile but didn't move afterward.

Illyan could understand the hint to invite him and smiled back.

"I see, that is very generous of you. I don't think I deserve anything just because of this. After all, it was my fault to foolishly leave the confines of safety to pursue these studies without proper preparation."

He quickly invited him inside as he tried to refuse any gift that Korin brought him with humility.

However, when he saw Korin's face, he felt it was a mistake.

Korin, who was always the epitome of a calm and confident gentleman, was frowning at him.

'Well, he looked horrified in that cave, so I guess it was not "always",' Illyan snickered in his heart as he waited for what Korin would say.

He could already imagine he would use this as an opportunity to trick him somehow.

"Kaoran… You should not say that." As expected, Korin shook his head as he looked at Illyan with a frown that caused the wrinkles on his face to deepen.

"It was my responsibility to keep you safe. It was also a mistake on my part to withhold a lot of information about what we were doing and how dangerous it was." Korin shook his head with self-deprecation.

Hearing this, Illyan became interested in what he would say next.

"You mean the acolytes and academics attacking us?" To keep the act, he probed about what really happened there, even though he was already aware of the 'truth.'

"You should already understand, but that inheritance is something that everyone who yearns for greatness would want. Originally, it is something way beyond our strength to obtain. The only reason why we even have an opportunity like this is because it is in the Vanaras Peninsula. This makes the thing unobtainable to the ones outside, but it also makes everyone inside even more ravenous to get it. Power and eternal life are at stake, after all."

Korin sighed as he looked sorrowful for a moment, but Illyan grinned in his mind.

'Playing a victim after being the one who caused this is really some masterful manipulation, Korin. I will keep this lesson in my heart for the rest of my life.' Illyan thought scornfully.

"Because of that, we clashed several times and fought for the right to get the inheritance. However, it was never this severe."

The way he portrayed it made Illyan almost feel a little bit of doubt about what really happened. It was truly as if acolytes and academics went out of control as the greed blinded their eyes and veiled their minds.

Unfortunately for Korin, Illyan never trusted him. Even if he truly didn't know what happened, he would take Korin's words with a pinch of salt.

"It was a total failure on our side when it came to safety. Not to mention the casualties that happened... If possible, we want to anonymously reward the families of the deceased. We can't even do it in our names since we had to hide our identities after this."

As Korin said, since they already feigned their death—or rather disappeared—the moment the 'truth' came to the surface, they couldn't move around without any disguise.

Illyan didn't have to pretend to not know since Vanda already told him after her visits during the journey back.

However, there was still something that made him curious.

Why, or rather, why did they not get discovered in the library? Their group was using the library quite a lot. Especially Korin, who was one of the best academics inside the institute.

However, the academics didn't have any reason to suspect anything, since they were in fact innocent in this case and were not considering any kind of conflict.

On the other hand, acolytes also didn't know anything, since Korin's team were normal people.

Vanda was smart and only met them inside the workshop that Illyan visited once and never made her entrance into the library.

At least not in a conspicuous way.

Vanda wasn't someone who could be considered famous, as she was still weak in the larger scope of things, but since she acted as the entrance guardian to the Vanaras for decades, most acolytes that entered the kingdom knew about her, but not many people were aware of her appearance, since she didn't show up unless something serious happened.

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As such, her subordinates managed to infiltrate the academic institute.

For what reason was still a mystery to Illyan, though.

He was sure there were a lot of good books that could help them, but the amount of time they spent inside the library was excessive.

That made Illyan a bit suspicious.

However, now was not the right time to think about it, as Korin was still sitting in front of him with a sorrowful expression while waiting for Illyan's reaction.

'I won't waste your efforts, Korin. Your talent in acting definitely deserves it,' Illyan thought as his outside appearance made a sad yet thankful expression.

Just as he wanted to express his gratitude to them for being such great people, Korin took out a simple but elegant wooden box.

"As I said before, we failed quite horribly in this mission. As one of the victims, we want to reward you properly."

As he said that, he pushed the box across the table, where it stopped in front of Illyan.

"I can't possibly…" Illyan shook his head, but Korin lifted his hand and interrupted him.

"First, open it. Then we can discuss it." Korin smirked, as he believed that there was no way that Illyan would refuse it.

Seeing this, Illyan hesitated.

'Is this a trap?' At first, he was suspicious, but considering Vanda's obsession with him so far, he didn't believe they would try to hurt him.

'I will need to risk it,' he thought seriously as he reached for the box.

If there was something suspicious, he would jump aside even if he needed to reveal his prowess to Korin, whom he would need to eliminate shortly after.

Click

With a light movement, he opened it as he looked inside.

"Hmm..?" The trap he feared wasn't there.

Instead, several objects were inside.

Illyan narrowed his eyes when he saw them.

Some of them were unknown things to him, but otherwise, there were things he already knew about.

The first thing that his sight fell onto was a small vial.

'Is that what I think it is?' He was quite surprised to see the vial, but the real question was if the content was what he expected.

Korin, who saw this, smiled proudly.

"This is a healing potion that the acolytes use. It is extremely potent and can help you in recovering your injuries. The real name of it is [Minor Recovery Tonic], and it is the most staple kind of potion in the entire continent. But don't be mistaken! Its effects are miraculous and can save a mortal's life in most situations."

Korin explained the origin of the content within the vial with passion while Illyan opened his eyes wide.

'Ooh, I actually guessed this is a staple since almost every single acolyte had at least one, but it was just a minor potion? Fascinating. What kind of effect would the better versions have?'

His eyes glittered as he stared at the vial before he uncorked it and took a sniff.

"Hm…" He was disappointed immediately after.

'It is definitely the same potion that the acolytes use. However, the smell faded a lot. They probably diluted it so that they don't need to use too much on me.' Illyan sighed in exasperation.

After all, his 'injuries' would heal too quickly if he drank the entire tonic, which would make it a less impactful show of their support.

'They want me to be grateful and to completely turn on their side. All I can say is that I underestimated my worth in their eyes.' Illyan almost grinned when he thought about their plan.

"I am very grateful, but isn't this too much? I know for a fact that it is extremely hard to get. There is a reason why so few acolytes have more than one." He made a difficult expression as if thinking this was too much, but Korin immediately cut him off with a smile.

"If there is someone who both needs it and deserves it, then it is definitely Kaoran."

"Ahh… In that case, I will gratefully take it." Illyan sighed as he held the vial in his hands and bowed his head to Korin.

He put the vial into the pouch, as he didn't want to use it at this moment. The effect it would have on him would be quite noticeable, and he would needlessly suppress his regeneration so that it would correspond to the dosage in the vial.

And that was quite difficult, since he couldn't guess how much of the real potion was diluted.

Korin also didn't say anything.

After all, it was the scholar's instinct to take and learn as much as possible.

The [Minor Recovery Tonic] was, in fact, something that a normal person would never get his hands on, and considering its miraculous effects, it would be no wonder that every single physician would fight for it to experiment with it and even possibly reverse-engineer it.

'Of course, that is impossible since it is completely different from normal medicine,' Illyan thought as he watched Korin's confident gaze.

It was almost impossible for him to derive anything from it in the end, especially since it was diluted somehow.

But Illyan didn't mind. He didn't really plan to use it like that. He already had the vials full of undiluted tonic from the acolytes.

However, that wasn't something Korin knew about.

"Fufu… You don't need to be so surprised. That is only a fraction of the gift. Please look at the rest of the content in the box. You will definitely be shocked."

Korin laughed as he goaded Illyan to take a look at the other stuff inside of it.

"If this is just a fraction, then what could the next be?" This was a genuine question, as he couldn't think of what they would give him.

However, he was a little confused when he saw the other items inside. Then, the shock came.

"T-this is…!"

There was a small and ordinary pouch, which he didn't know the content of, a small and simple pendant that seemed to be of an unknown mineral shining in a beautiful light blue hue, a book, several scrolls, and some dried-up herbs.

He didn't know what most of it was, but the scrolls were very similar to magic scrolls, while the herbs were the kind that he had never seen before, and even with his limited talent, he could feel the energy pulsating within them without even trying.

Anticipation built up within his chest as he lifted his head at Korin with shocked eyes.

Korin smirked smugly.

"This is the least we could do for you after that fiasco. Take a closer look at this."

Korin pointed at the dried-up herbs.

"As you already noticed, these are herbs from the outside of the Vanaras Kingdom. They are dried up, so they can't be processed and can only be eaten raw, but there will be many pleasant effects that you will feel once you eat them. If it wasn't because of the environment's circumstances, we could give you fresh ones or even seeds, but they simply won't grow here. Even these dried-up herbs need to be consumed as soon as possible."

Korin said seriously. However, there was still a playful glint in his eyes.

Illyan didn't even notice his gaze as he stared intently at these herbs. A strange smell was coming out of them as his mouth watered. There was an instinctual desire to devour them as his greed spiked up.

Unfortunately, Korin didn't consider his surprise as he continued introducing the items.

"The next is the pouch. Inside…"

Illyan's eyes twitched as he listened to Korin.

'What in the world are they planning by giving this to me?' He felt a chill when he listened to the smiling man in front of him…