I believed that for the longest time, and life has only proven to me that it's a fact. There are no innocents, no matter how meek and weak they may look.

Kai's jaw dropped as he heard the prayer, unable to believe that Lumiera allowed people to suck up to her so much. Well… she does seem to be the type, I guess. He chuckled to himself, still recovering from the shock. After the prayer finished, the man dismissed everyone. They gave Kai a curious glance as they passed him, with some children walking up to pull Onyx's tail.

The room emptied fast, as people went on to do their own thing, until there was only the man, Kai and Lumiera's eternal presence literally watching over them. Giving Kai a curious look, the man slowly walked toward him holding a thick book with a brown leather cover and a snap-in security.

"Well, hello there Son," the man said with a smile on his face, holding out a hand for Kai to shake. Not wanting to refuse the kind gesture, Kai looked at him, trying to form a natural smile using the runes, hoping that it didn't end up as a crime against humanity. "I'm Father Arbukel. I haven't seen you around, may I know your name?" He continued, not bothered by Kai's lack of enthusiasmand weird facial expression.

"I'm… Ichor." He said after thinking for a moment.

"Well, that's a peculiar name for sure, haha." He said, the kind smile never once leving his lips. "What did you think of the service?"

Kai didn't reply immediately, trying to recall the sunday schools he went to before and comparing them to this one. "Best one I've attended so far." He said honestly, lacking any sort of enthusiasm.

"Well I am pleased to hear that." Arbukel said, turningh is head to look at Lumiera's statue. "She's glorious, isn't she?" His eyes shone with reverence as he asked Kai.

The boy refused to answers, instead giving a neutral grunt as he studied the statue. It looked eerily similar to what Lumiera looked like, both when he first saw her and after she showed herself to Kai underneath that very church.

"Have you ever seen her?"

"Oh, Goodness no," The priest replayed with a chuckle. "That would be something else. No, she doesn't show herself to us, low ranked priests, and rarely does to the high ranking Popes. The only times we were able to see her was when she warned us of several dangers millenia ago."

Kai nodded, straigthening his back. "And you were able to build such statues just from those records?"

"Yeah, they were pretty detailed and even included paintings. We had millenia old statues, some we still use, some are preserved. But uhm," Arbukel turned to Kai with a curious gaze. "What has brought you here today, if you don't mind me asking?"

Kai shook his head as he blinked. "I don't know myself, Father. I just had a… a calling, I suppose."

"A calling?" The man coked his head. "Well isn't that peculiar. Maybe we two were meant to meet, then."

"Maybe," Kai replied drily, still trying to think of a reason as to why he felt so compelled to come here. "I was here, last year. I think spring was starting, or maybe it was summer. I don't remember exactly."

"Oh, and what happened?"

"Well," Kai sighed. "A friend of mine dragged me in here and… well it wasn't pleasant. I guess I just wanted to confirm that nothing bad was going to happen."

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, Son. I wish I had known. I've been a priest here for many, many years."

"Don't worry Father, it wasn't your fault. I guess I had some… unfinished business with myself. I suppose Lumiera's holy power allowed me to fight my demons, or at least repel them for a short while."

"I see, I understand. I'm glad Lumiera's Light helped guide you."

A moment of silence fell over the two, as they both looked at the statue. "Hey, Father. Do you not find it weird, that she has a name?"

"Hmm? Why, not at all."

"Why reveal her name?" Kai asked. "Why give her name to mortals… She could just go by Goddes, or God, but she chose to reveal her name."

"Well," Father Arbukel sighed and stared off into space, trying to juggle his memory. He then opened his book and rapidly flipped through the pages, bookmark after bookmark of various colors flashing by. "Ah, here it is!" He exclaimed.

«I bestow upon you my name, so you may call upon me in your time of need. Remember it well, for it is the Light, the way to your eternal freedom, it is Salvation. My name… is Lumiera.»

He cited a paragraph from what Kai could only assume to be the bible's equivalent, then prompty closed it. "You see? It's all for our benefit in the end. She's a kind Goddess whose helped humanity through many a ordeal."

Kai felt a bit shook that she would have a citation as well, but he figured that it was normal. However the way she nonchalantly proclaimed herself as 'Salvation' put a bitter taste in his mouth, considering the small clues he picked up from the first time he saw her.

"Does this… Opressor, have a name as well?"

"He did, yes." Arbukel nodded. "But we've long since forgotten it. We weren't allowed to speak of his name and so it gradually faded. Goddess Lumiera said names gave them powers, and so she forced us to forget it. However we must not forget what he did to us, to the humans and other countless races on the continent."

Kai listened attentively, getting a good image of this 'Opressor' guy, biting his lower lip at the thought of who it may be. "But wouldn't mentioning him by a nickname give him power still?"

"Well, he's dead now, long since vanished. He has no more power now."

"What if he wasn't dead? How can you be sure he's dead? It's been so long after all. What if you are giving him power by remembering him?"

"Then…" Father Arbukel shook his head. "We would be the fools."

"Father," Kai asked, turning to look the man in the eye. "What happens to our souls, to us, after we die?"

Arbukel sighed and avoided the boy's glance. "Our body turns to dust, that's no mistery. As for our souls… they move on to the after life. To be judged by the Archangels and blessed by Lumiera before moving on to the Great Garden or banished, to be serve a sentence in the Hollow until we can be redeemed."

"Then… Do you believe in reincarnation, Father?" Kai asked lethargically, seeking an honest answer from what he had gathered to be an honest man.

The question clearly shook the man, as he looked toward the sky after hearing it. However he wasn't immediately opposed to it, not showing any signs of rejection of the idea. "Maybe, who knows what the highest plans are? Maybe the Great Garden is a place for us to cleanse ourselves and start anew."

Kai nodded, appreciating that the man before him was more accepting of foreign ideas than most priests on earth. "Thank you, Father." Kai said as he got up, prompting Onyx to get out from under the seats.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Did you find what you were looking for, Son?" Father Arbukel asked to the parting Kai.

"I don't know." He shook his head and dragged his feet outside, the strings pulling his heart having disappeared. I thought you didn't want to see me anymore…

…

After leaving the church, Kai quickly found his way to the inn and booked a room for a few nights. He still had unfinished business in Lustra, and wanted to get ready before raiding the gobelin's hideout. With the medicinal plants I purchased, I should be able to rank up at least once. I don't want to overdo it, just in case I won't be able to control my mana properly when the time comes to fight.

The room he rented was a fairly expensive one, coming up at 5 silver per night, however he had the money to spare. An warm orange hue from a crackling fireplace greeted him as the door opened without a sound. He let out a light sigh and took off the cloak, mask, armor and clothes, storing them into his ring and putting on something more comfortable. He didn't want to get them dirty either, at least not yet, and definetely didn't want Onyx's fur all over them.

"Come here boy." He called for Onyx as he sat down on the soft bed, a red, fluffy blanket spread over it. The Obborik dragged his feet toward Onyx as he yawned, his fure still as white as snow. "Sit."

He sat in front of Kai and coked his head, his large ears pointed outward. "The old craftsman said he put a disguise rune in your collar. Try to use it."

"Arf!"

Onyx blinked, his brows furrowing as he focused on the runes. The collar shone with a soft light, and his fur turned from the snow white to a raven black, just like Kai's own disguise, and his eyes turned from yellow to gray. "Amazing! This is great! Good job!" Kai praised Onyx with a wide smile, and pulled out a few pieces of still steaming meat, feeding them to the Obborik. "You can use that disguise when we go out now… Wait, can I disguise you too?"

"Arf?"

The Obborik swallowed and wanted to back away, however it was far too late, as Kai caught him by the scruff. "No, let me try. I promise I won't make you look weird."

"Awoo…" Onyx yelped, feeling wronged. His fur changed color, fromt he raven black to a mix of brown, black and white. He looked like a german sheperd from Kai's old world.

"Pfft…" He chuckled, then changed his fur color to resemble a husky. "This is awesome, you look like a dog now!"

"Woof!" Onyx protested, saying he was most definetely not a dog.

"I know, I know. Fine, turn whatever color you want." Kai said, giving him another few pieces of meat as compensation for the torture. "I'm going to train now, you make sure nobody bothers me alright?"

Onyx nodded as his fur changed to what he first wanted, then to his original color. He kept playing with it as he walked to the door, putting himself in front of it and giving any maid or butler a hard time opening it if they ever wanted to do so.

"You know I locked it, right?" Kai asked with a chuckle. Onyx didn't seem to care though, as he kept playing with the fur color like he was trying on a new character creator.

The boy rolled his eyes and walked next to the fireplace. In front of it was a very soft carpet with a couch not that far away. A small shelf with books and other miscelanious items stood to its left, though Kai paid them no attention.

He sat down crosslegged and stared at the burning food for a few moments, then waved his wand. A myriad of plants appeared before him, all of different shapes and sizes, colors and mana level. Kai had so many he couldn't count them, but knew that he only had the best quality plants available within the region. There were also the potions, sitting comfortably in his ring, though he didn't want to test them out just yet.

First, Kai took a handful of plants from the pile and sealed them within a mana bubble, then used the technique he and Brahm, mostly Brahm, created to refine them. Like usual, he separated the mana from the plants until they shriveled. He threw the into the fire, adding a certain aroma to the air. It wasn't unpleasant, though Kai preffered the simple smell of burning wood.

After separating the mana from the plants, he then further separated as many impurities as he could from the mana, then stored them into vials. Remembering how useful they were last time around, Kai didn't want to waste anything that could save his life at some point.

When he was doine with that as well, he commanded his cores to absorb the mana, which they did with as much greed as a merchant selling for profit.

Being at the Large Core rank now, Kai knew that increasing it would take a large amount of mana and effort. Given that he couldn't use the mana surrounding him to break through, his level would stagnate until he used plants. He wasn't sure if he could use other mana-rich items, like potions, but he was ready to test that theory soon.

After absorbing all the mana from the plants, Kai took a deep breath, then sighed. I was at 33% before, now I'm at 40%, however I can already feel the returns diminishing. I'm just glad I bought so many plants…

However, lamenting about it did nothing much to help him improve, so he immediately go to work refinining the next batch of plants. The one he took before barely looked to have made a dent in the pile, and this one didn't do much either.

43%

Kai took another handful of plants, threw the dregs into the fire and stored the impurities in vials. Sadly though, he couldn't separate all of the impurities, and he wasn't even sure of the total amount. However as long as his cores had a little bit less work to do, he was happy.

47%

Handful after handful, dreg after dreg, Kai's refinement percentage slowly increased. Each time more of his core was available to store mana, and his star grabbed whatever it could to fill itself up.

51%

Soon, the mana within the star began to compress, a fact which made Kai happy, knowing that he would need all the help when it was time to breakthrough.

56%

The pile of plants began to show signs of decreasing, though Kai wasn't worried about that, as he had way more plants ready to be turned into mana.

61%

At some point he stopped counting how many plants he'd used, as he simply grabbed them one after the other, the smell of their burning dregs filling the room.

66%

The pile disappeared in larger and larger bulks, Kai's confidence in his control increasing with each new batch he absorbed. The mana bubbles he created were now thrice as large, with mana so condesed it began to drip into pure liquid.

72%

The impurities he extracted increased in volume as well, and Kai's supply of containers slowly dwindled, until he was forced to store them straight into the rings.

79%

After the first pile he took out completely disappeared, Kai took out another two. The amount of impurities within his ring began to compress and condense, at which point Kai got an idea. He tried to will them into a ball-like shape, which worked for a moment, but they exploded as soon as Kai released them.

82%

Not wanting to give up, Kai tried again and again, given tha the had an almost infinite supply of the stuff. He took smaller portions and decided to mix some mana within them. Unfortunately even with that, they still broke apart, unable to hold themselves together.

87%

Kai decided to take a page out of his own book, and follow the advice he gave to Aina. Using a bit of mana, he coated the ball shaped impurity with it, creating a strong shell for the extremel compressed substance. Much to his delight, it held together really well. Now I have one more weapon I can use.

94%

He created a few hundred of them, failing and trying again as he refined his control over mana as well. The exercise of abosrbing and creating at the same time increased his proficiency by a great margin, which put a smile on his face.

96%

Another pile was absorbed, and another few added.

97%

Each small percentage increase costed Kai a lot more plants than the previous, which gave him a bout of anxiety after looking at what was left of his supply. Damn, these cores eat a lot of mana!

98%

However he didn't dare stop, and ended up dumping all the plants he had left, even the ones that gave very little returns. Onyx's ears twitched upon hearing the large amounts of plants hitting the floor, and he raised his head with curiosity and concern.

99%

The large pile he made slowly disappeared over the course of thirty minutes, one large fragment at a time. Kai wasn't sure when exactly the need for more mana stopped, but he felt that his breakthrough to a Two Star Mage Hybrid would be soon.

Minutes passed as he absorbed more and more, consuming everything like a famished monster who hadn't seen any meat for the better part of a month.

Soon, the entire pile disappeared, yet Kai didn't feel any closer to completely filling the core. Normally, he would have stopped there, or used the mana inside the star to finish the process. However, he bit his lower lip and took out the mana potions from his ring. He didn't bother to check their grade, however he took a few careful sips. The mixture was sweet and bitter at the same time, and after seeing that his body didn't explode, he took larger and larger gulps.

A vast amount of mana - equivalent to about half the plants he had consumed up until then flooded his body. However disappointement soon appeared on his face as he noticed that his core couldn't absorb even 20% of that.

However that was apparently enough as… Kai's core reached 100% refinement. He didn't stop there, though, and took another potion of the same grade and downed it all in one go, triggering the breakthrough process after his core fully absorbed it.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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