The Grand Weave

Two days went by, and besides a brawl between two merchants, the travel to Helio was a peaceful and boring affair. The brawl was the only highlight of the journey, with drama spawned from jealousy, romance, and a love triangle. It was too bad the actual fight lasted barely more than two minutes. As much as I enjoyed time spent at nights relaxing with Broken Tower, the entire days-long journey was so incredibly dull. Back on Earth, I at least had a cellphone or tablet to watch movies, but as far as I knew, that sort of technology was absent in this world.

When we stopped for the night, I got out and stretched my legs. With a quick glance at the newest addition to the side of the road, I walked past the mages and kept my head down. While I received an apology for the confrontation and intrusive scan, there was still heavy tension whenever they saw me. On more than one occasion, whenever the mage woman saw me, she scurried away in fear to hide behind her colleagues.

Teddy and Celanae were kind enough to answer my questions. As it turns out, I accidentally struck a sore spot when I asked my question about needing three mages to make a single building. Apparently, my mana pool was considered monstrous by normal skill users. And low mana pools usually meant the person had a low amount of slots for skills. And so I not only outed the three people as not being true ascenders, I accidentally sounded like I was looking down on them.

Another question I had answered was why they were called earth mages. I called all skills magic in my head, but obviously, there was a distinction. Igas was the one to answer that question. They were called earth mages because they were part of the mages guild—people who specialize in mana-intensive skills that usually specialize in a single element.

It took all three of them most of their mana pools because they were using an elemental manipulation skill. Rather than use mana to conjure a temporary construct, they pulled all the stone out of the surrounding area to create these rest stops. And since they didn't want to impact the road or surrounding area, they had to carefully pull the stone from deep below the earth and far from the road as possible, all the while using their skills to shift and mold the stone to form perfectly structured buildings.

After the lecture, I had a lot more respect for the three. What they did sounded impressive but exhausting. I could only imagine the extensive training they'd have to undergo to do their job right. And despite Zharia's protests of how easy it would be for me to do something similar, I decided to do the woman a favour and avoid antagonizing them as they worked. Even if the process was fascinating to watch, they didn't need my presence to add further stress.

As I approached the campfire with Teddy, Arturous, and Eodyne relaxing around it, I summoned Zharia and watched her fly into the roaring flames. Eodyne looked at me with imposing stormy eyes, and Teddy waved me over. He quickly patted the ground next to Arturous' belly.

"Cyrus! Come and sit. I promise, Arturous makes a great cushion," Teddy called out warmly.

I accepted his offer and sat down on the ground with my legs splayed out. As I leaned back into the massive bear's stomach, I had to admit, Arturous was indeed a great cushion.

While I settled in, Eodyne never took her eyes off me, and when I raised an eyebrow, she turned to Teddy. "Are you sure it's safe to get too close to him? He's god touched, and by one we don't even know." When she spoke, I noticed she had a faint accent to her speech.

Teddy's face scrunched, and a frown creased his lips. "Uncle Brelten asked us personally. And we've already agreed to take him along with us. There's no point questioning it now. And even if he is important to an unknown god, that doesn't change anything," Teddy replied. His words carried the same hint of an accent that Eodyne spoke.

"Not everyone agreed. You know Isaac was against it."

Teddy winced but didn't give in. "And he was outvoted. Look. All I'm asking is that we help him. Obviously, something is going on with his emotions, and that's dangerous. You're right; he is dangerous, but not because of some god. With his amnesia, it's only been made worse. We should help him, to guide him. At least nudge him in the right direction. Or do I need to remind you of what you were like when we were kids? You were worse than Isaac, and that's saying something."

Eodyne's eyes narrowed even more, but then she sighed and looked away. I wasn't entirely sure why the two would openly talk while I was present, but I had my suspicions. My auto-translation function was probably kicking in, which meant that they were speaking another language. One that they assumed I wouldn't be able to understand. Not wanting to reveal that I understood them, I schooled my face and pretended to act confused, which was easy enough to do.

"Uhhh, anyone wants to fill me in on what's going on? I don't want to assume you guys were talking about me, but you gestured my way a few times," I said innocently.

Eodyne glanced at Teddy one last time before turning to face me and speaking. "We should arrive at Helios by sundown. Tomorrow we were hoping you wouldn't mind joining me as I scout around the caravan. It would be good training for you, and you can learn a few things before we reach the city."

I pretended to ponder her question, but in my head, I already mentally accepted. Free training was free training, even if she was suspicious of me. Not that I blamed her.

My acting must have been convincing enough because Teddy gestured to Eodyne with a reassuring smile on his face. "If it helps any, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. She's one of the best hunters I know. We've all been trained by Uncle Brelten, so if you trust him, you can be sure she's as good as I say."

I stopped pretending to be reluctant and shrugged my shoulders. "Alright. I won't say no to free advice. Apologies in advance. Beyond what Brelten drilled into me; I'm pretty untrained. I highly doubt I'll be able to keep up with you."

"Don't worry about that. The roads have been peaceful so far. I only had to put down two beasts that strayed too close. We can afford to take it easy for this last leg."

With that discussion out of the way, I summoned the last of the food I appropriated from the rift and handed it out. When the others joined, they thanked me for the meal, and we relaxed for the night. This time it was Celanae's time to tell a story from their childhood. And the next hour and a half was filled with hearty laughs and dramatic recounting of some of the pranks they played.

“Let’s start with how you walk. I already have a good idea of things, but walking on a clean stone road is vastly different from walking through a heavy forest. Keep up with me until I say stop. We'll move on from there,” Eodyne ordered.

I silently agreed and followed her through the trees. While I tried my best to be sneaky and avoid obvious obstacles, I struggled to keep up. Eodyne was fast and silent. She moved across the forest floor like a wraith, never making a sound and never leaving signs of her passing. It was impressive.

My pride took a hit when I noticed her slow down even more for me. Although Eodyne outranked me by two tiers, I had a feeling that she was a naturally fast person. It was no surprise that she was outside the wagon scouting all the time, especially since she stalked her way forward.

Five minutes later, after the winding half-jog, we came to a stop. Eodyne leaned against a tree and crossed her arms. "Not the worst, but not good. You lean too heavily when you walk, and you fail to avoid certain things like small twigs that snap when stepped on. Still, for someone untrained and untiered, you did well enough. This time, try to follow where I step. Match my movements and try to keep up," she explained.

We set off again. This time, I was her shadow, a clumsy shadow. But I managed to stay within a few meters behind her. As we jogged, I paid close attention to where she planted her feet and how she moved. When her foot would come down, it would be in a place either clear of debris or, at the least, dense clusters of leaves. Each step was a press of her toes that rolled to the heel of her foot. Ten minutes later, I was confident enough to start speeding up. That was a mistake on my part.

"If you are confident enough to speed up, then we will continue moving for the next thirty minutes. Don't fall behind," she said seriously.

I underestimated her speed as she increased her pace to a fast jog. Trying to keep up, I made more errors and nearly collided with a tree while watching her feet. Although I was in decent shape due to my new lifestyle and body, prolonged running took a toll on my muscles and stamina. Despite this, I wasn't about to complain.

After nearly tripping on a hidden root and landing heavily on my foot, I decided to cheat. A quick flex of my mana activated my skill, and Áine appeared. Before she could get a fix on her surroundings, I snapped her into my arms. With my arms full, I was starting to lose my form, so I threw on my hood and placed her inside.

"Master? Danger?" Áine asked.

Not wanting to waste my breath on speaking out loud, I stuck to answering her mentally. "Hey Áine, I need your help. If you don't mind, can you please heal me? Every three minutes, repeat the heal and focus on my legs and feet."

"Okay."

I sent over a series of compliments to the little fairy, thanking her. As her mana started to flow through the top of my head and work its way down, I felt my muscles relax and the burning sensation lessen. With the damage taken care of, I picked up my pace and followed Eodyne. She never looked back and never slowed for even a second. It made me wonder if she would actually leave me behind if I failed the challenge.

By the time she did stop, we were near the edge of the road. The caravan was a few minutes behind, so I leaned against a trunk and caught my breath. Thanks to Áine's administration, I was less tired than I should have been, but it still felt good to stop and relax.

"You did a good job. It was smart of you to summon your familiar. I forgot you had a healing skill, so I didn't think of it. You managed to keep up, and you weren't nearly as loud as before," Eodyne commented.

I gave her a tired smile and held up a thumbs-up. "Thanks. I'm still nowhere near as graceful as you are. Is it a movement skill? Otherwise, I'm unsure how you leave no footprints as you run."

She grinned at me and shook her head. "It's not because of a skill. I disabled my passive movement skill before we started. The hunters of my village trained me at the age of four. You must learn to be silent if you ever want food in your stomach."

"You can disable a passive skill? Never mind, of course, you can. So then tell me how you do it."

"I'll teach you different ways to walk. Be prepared to have your form corrected continuously. And if you can manage that, I'll try to teach you the trick to leaving no trace of your passage. Just make sure you have enough mana by the end of the day," she said before she started to walk away.

I briefly glanced back at the first wagon longingly. Even if I were excited to learn, I'd rather not be as useless as a bowl of soup by the time we get to the big city. I tore my gaze away from the promise of comfort in the form of a wooden wagon and followed Eodyne.