Alysse, the brunette in blue cloak, just finished healing Fabby near the sea shore. Fabby was purposely made unconscious. After Alysse was done, she got back onto her huge white swan.
“Senior, are you leaving without saying a word?” asked Dusul.
“Congratulations on becoming the patriarch,” saying that she left without even looking.
Dusul breathing became a bit heavier as he watched her leave.
Some time later.
Fabby woke up to find herself resting on the shore. Edgar was right beside her, still unconscious, but his complexion looked a bit better.
Dusul was standing at a distance, seemingly looking at the waves and what lay beyond.
After traveling a couple of miles in the direction Dusul pointed, Fabby arrived at a hut. However, it was already occupied by a senile man, who didn’t let her in for free. The deal was she had to cut wood for as long as she stayed, and she also had to make her own food.Though she agreed, the real pain of cutting tough trees that grew near a pond was later greatly felt. They were so big and sturdy, and her inexperience only made things difficult. She got blisters on her hands on the first day, but she was still forced to work on the second day; however, now she wrapped a cloth over her hands.The old man was watching her even though it didn’t seem like it. “At least she’s not thick in the head,” he thought.It took hours to cut a single tree. And every tree moaned as it fell. Carrying l
Edgar and Fabby were seated at the eastern shore of the peninsula, with him throwing sand into the incoming waves. “Didn’t you agree to leave the sect? I can’t believe a few words was all it took to change your mind.” “Eddie, listen…” she tried to explain, ‘we’ll give it another chance, that’s all.” “Another chance? For what? To see more people like the elder trample laws underfoot?” “But that elder got punished, didn’t he?” “Yeah, but not just because of us but because he probably had been doing similar crap for God knows how long!” “Everyone won’t be like him.” “Yeah, some will be even worse,” Edgar was seething with anger at this point. “Some foot disciples especially wer
As the siblings were leaving, they left some fruits and vegetables inside the hut for the old man. After covering about three miles on foot, Edgar realized that something wasn’t right. “Why are we taking a long route instead of going straight?” “There’s a couple of troublesome beasts in that way,” Fabby said, thinking back on the time she first met those beasts, “that’s why.” “Are you sure we can’t handle them?” “Yep. They live in a giant cave-like house. The kangaroo and the penguin.” Edgar remembered their pictures from his childhood books. “And why are they living together?” “The old guy told me that they’re guarding a martial art book, and he warned me to not mess with t
Even after taking explosive fist attacks, both the kangaroo and the penguin were still standing and yawning. “This has to be a joke,” Edgar couldn’t digest what was happening. His attacks didn’t even prick those ordinary-looking beasts enough to bring them out of their drowsiness? For them to still be yawning, this was a big slap to Edgar’s pride. Adding to the insult, the kangaroo was standing with its arms folded. They weren’t even looking at the siblings. “Let’s see how long you can keep that attitude,” Edgar poured a lot more Drive into his right fist. Reddish vapors leaked out from that hand. “Take this punch head-on if you dare!” he lunged and swirled in midair once and unleashed a hissing punch. “Whirling Monkey Fist!” Fabby immediately recognized that move. I
Fabby woke up and found herself resting under a tree shade. “What am I doing here?” After looking around, she suddenly remembered something. “Eddie!’ she quickly ran toward the cave, her heart ringing in her ears as she worried about her brother. “Nothing will happen to him,” she told herself repeatedly. She quickly got there, but there was no one outside. “Where’s he?” she didn’t stop or hesitate and rushed into the cave. After going in for over a hundred meters, she was stunned by what she saw. The kangaroo and the penguin were doing something unimaginable. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Edgar was sitting on a rock, and the kangaroo was massaging his shoulders standing on the back, whereas the penguin was massaging his legs. Fabby’s jaw slackened. “What
Fabby collected many fruits and vegetables, whereas Edgar was fighting decently strong beasts enroute to the Great Joint, where outer disciples lived. Even though he couldn’t use lightning, he scared away simple beasts with his screams, but he had to defeat the capable ones so he could collect their cores and bodies separately and stored them in his ring. The things Fabby collected were also stored in his ring as her storage ring was still with the discipline hall. Still, not all beasts were easy prey. They had to avoid or hide from some beasts and run away from some others. Overall, the trip wasn’t simple. It took them a week’s journey from the Great Right Wing to reach the Great Wash and then another day to get to the Great Smile. They directly went to a branch of
The foot disciples were not part of a sect. They were more like the official workers of a sect, who could farm in the lands owned by the sect, or work in the mines, or gather firewood to sell, and do different other kinds of labor for the sect and at the same time earn decent money. The reason they chose to work in the sect was because it provided more safety than outside and guaranteed better earnings, too, along with a little bit of fame. Generally, the children who had lost their parents and were forced to look after themselves would be allowed to directly become the foot disciples without even having to take the entrance test. Every foot disciple had ten years of time to become an outer disciple, and those who failed to become an outer disciple would be kicked out of the sect. In case if a child was born to a foot disciple, then the child would be given twenty years of time to become an outer disciple.
Edgar and Fabby had just arrived at the mines, and they were already being given cold looks. If Fabby wasn’t an outer disciple, many would have already run more than just their mouths.“I thought they were dead. Why are they still alive?”“We should consider it lucky. Because now we can mess with them ourselves.’The siblings, however, ignored their ramblings.Fabby was given ten acres of region to watch over. Edgar was also there to help her. It was quite muddy everywhere, and there was no avoiding the mud. But Fabby had gotten her ring back, so both the siblings were wearing their old set of clothes that they wore when they first entered Orseya.Though ordinary miners didn’t dare mess wit
Edgar woke up, only to find himself in a pool of mud. He could feel that he was being healed by fish that were swimming in the mud and were nibbling at his skin.At first sight, it might look like they were eating him, but they were actually taking away the negative energy from his body, though he was not able to feel that.Edgar tried to grab one of those fishes, but they turned into pure mud, pleasantly surprising him.He looked at Fabby who was sitting in the distance, by the cliff. “What are these fishes, sis?”“Elder Gavin made them with his drive. He said they can suck away impurities from your body and make you stronger,” Fabby explained. “He said even your drive will get smoother and faster afterward. Also, the negative effect the beast cores have on our bodies can also be reversed, or so he said.”“Such a thing is possible with drive?” Edgar was both surprised and doubtful. “These fish are biting me, but I don’t feel any pain.”“Yeah. Just stay there until all those fish are
The eagle brought the siblings to a mountain range and dropped them next to Gavin who was weaving gloves with drive.He wasn’t surprised to see the position the siblings were in.“Here,” Gavin handed the gloves to the eagle, and it put the gloves on its feet and then screeched in happiness.“Haha, you like them, huh,” Gavin smiled. “They are durable as I knit them with my drive. So, don’t lose them.”Scree~!The eagle replied in a confident voice and then began to walk around happily in its new footwear.“They look like gloves, but they should be called socks, I guess?” Gavin wondered. “Ah, well, whatever…”Gavin then looked at the siblings, out of whom only Fabby was still conscious. She was trying to sit up, and it was taking her a while.“You don’t seem to have any external injuries. You are probably tired from using too much energy,” Gavin said. He sent a bullet of energy into her forehead, which didn’t hurt her but went straight into her brain and melted into it. This suddenly ga
“Surfing Strike!’ Edgar’s foot viciously struck Ryu’s face and sent him flying high like a rotating paper fan. Any normal person would have had their head separated from their shoulders from that kick, but Ryu’s neck was flexible as well as sturdy as rubber.Ryu grabbed his head and stopped it from spinning before somersaulting and landing in the distance.“Huh?” Fabby was quite shocked by it. “Why is he not dead? Is he even human?”“His body is a bit special, you see,” Anarga smirked and then looked at Ryu. “But, hey, how could you get hit by that brat like that? You should be glad that there isn’t anyone else around, or it would have brought such shame.”Blood leaked from Ryu’s ruptured upper lip. He licked it and faintly smiled. “It’s been a while since I tasted my own blood.” His eyes turned red.“Oh, crap…” Anarga skipped backward. “You guys brought a disaster on yourself. When he goes into that frenzy mode, he’s unstoppable. Even I wouldn’t dare stand next to him because he can
Anarga squeezed Edgar’s chest down, but when Edgar saw Ryu step toward his sister, he uttered, “Thunder Knight…”The ground beneath them cracked, and the air around them crackled. The very cliff itself vibrated in resonance with Edgar’s heartbeat.Anarga lost her balance just for a second. A double-edged lightning spear appeared in Edgar’s hand, and he thrust it right through her abdomen.She thought it would leave a hole in her, but it didn’t. However, it then electrocuted her to the point her clothes were half-burnt, and she looked like a semi-roasted grizzly bear.Ryu immediately clawed through the middle section of the spear and then took Anarga and jumped a few feet away. “How could you be so careless?”Anarga fell on one of her knees. Blood leaked from both corners of her mouth, even though she tried not to leak any blood.“Does it hurt that much?” Ryu asked.She gave him a glare.“I see…” Ryu then looked at Edgar, who was rising off the ground without the use of his hands, as th
Anarga’s body went into the rock, causing cracks all around her to spread for over thirty feet.Ryu’s feet were still locked by the earthen boots that Fabby had created, but he forcefully broke through them and whipped his leg at Edgar. “Dragon Knock!”“Ngh!” Edgar raised his left arm and blocked the kick with his forearm.Ryu’s foot forced its way through Edgar’s flame drive and struck his forearm and hit a nerve, sending a jolt of shock through to Edgar’s brain. On top of that, Edgar’s forearm got dislocated near the elbow.Ryu’s kick still sent a gust of energy over into the distance, which ended up blasting away a part of the cliff, shocking Fabby and Edgar.Fabby’s heart shook at that moment because if Edgar hadn’t deflected that kick, he wouldn’t have just got his arm dislocated. It was Edgar’s hunter-like instinct of parrying the kick at the last second was what saved him from experiencing a crushing defeat.Ryu didn’t even use drive. Whether he could even use drive or not, Edg
“Is this the best you can do?” Ryu said disappointedly. “I know you can do better, bald brat.” He treated Edgar as nothing more than a kid because he was much older than him. “Why don’t you show me what you got, or I’ll kill this bald girl.”Edgar, who was bleeding profusely from the chest, felt his soul stirring madly after hearing Ryu’s words.“Don’t listen to him,” Fabby said in a low voice. “We are not their match. Fighting them will only put us at a disadvantage. And there’s no one else here to stop the fight in case things go bad. It doesn’t benefit us in any way no matter how I look at it. Moreover, you are already badly injured.”Fabby’s words made total sense, but there was one thing that she didn’t consider. Edgar just couldn’t digest let alone accept the fact that Anarga Utsav had used her wind attack and pushed Fabby off the cliff. What if Fabby died from that?Edgar utterly disliked Anarga as well as Ryu. He didn’t want them to leave with a sense of victory.“Sis,” Edgar
“AHHH!” The siblings cried out in horror, mostly because of the pure shock value. Their eyes sprang out of the sockets. They totally didn’t expect that the eagle would do such a thing.Edgar was about to use his skill, but Fabby quickly said, “No, wait.”“Huh? Wait for what?” Edgar asked her back as winds viciously whipped at their faces.“Just wait,” she replied. As both of them kept getting closer to the ground, Edgar’s heart raced fast. “Screw this. I’m-” he was saying, but then the eagle suddenly came swooping down and caught both of them when they were about 100ft close to the ground and took them away with him.Edgar and Fabby held onto its talons so they wouldn’t fall.The eagle stopped by another mountain top and acted as if everything was okay.“You think I’ll thank you for saving our asses, you shitty bird!” Fabby punched the eagle hard in the face. “I thought I was going to die! You were the cause for scaring me near to death.”Even Edgar looked angry. His heart jumped in
Coming back to the present.The eagle had no idea who Edgar was, so Fabby had to do all the work except for flying. “Where is he?”She was worried for many reasons.The eagle even flew over the colosseum grounds, and she shouted for him, “Are you there, Eddie?”“Who’s that?” some masters and disciples wondered as she wasn’t clearly visible from below. “How rude of her to be flying over this place when the competition is still going on?”“He’s not here, either,” Fabby told the eagle to keep flying.As she kept looking around, she noticed someone bathing in an open pond. Just when she looked at him, he also looked up. She remembered his face mask. This was the same guy she met in a cave not long ago.Numo was not wearing a shirt right now, and his body was pristine white. It wasn’t muscular, but it still looked athletic and toned. It was very attractive, especially because he was a tall man.“Ahem,” Fabby looked away.After the eagle flew out of his sight, Numo continued rubbing his body
Months turned to years.Even though working in the fields had become a daily habit, so did the body pains. If not feet, then legs; if not legs, then back; if not back, then something else in the body took the turn. And by the time they got home, they were pretty tired, yet they wouldn’t be able to eat what they had produced or found.They were only given a limited amount of food such as corn or grains so they could make soup and live with it. The same plain soup with no vegetables in them whatsoever waited for them every night. And they were not paid anything else for their labor, for they were forced to work for the rest of their lives. There was no contract. Nothing. They were pretty much treated like cattle, or maybe even worse, with the only difference being their ability to talk. No matter how they were treated, they still worked hard, for most of them had reasons, be it their children and families.Fabby had Edgar, and Edgar had Fabby. Everyone had someone else they were willing