Dagger

"Gavin!" A young lady called out from behind him.

Gavin turned around and saw a girl running towards him, "Dorothy?"

As she arrived in front of him, he approached her and checked on her.

"Why are you running here? Aren"t there people a.s.signed in your quarters? You"re our guest! You should have requested your servants to call for me instead." Gavin said.

Dorothy came from Ikkleshan, an autonomous city-state in the central region led by a confederation of natives.

In pre-establishment of the kingdom during the chaotic warlord times after the dissolution of the Pertheon Empire, the band of natives in between a river and a former cliffside founded a confederation to defend themselves from the aggressive warlords that wanted to annex them.

The city was beside a destroyed cliffside and a river called Gertun, literally meaning "King"s River" in their tongues.

The natives later on, helped the Grand Magician and the future first king of the Trigurniburg Kingdom to establish order all over the now official kingdom.

"I wanted to talk personally with you. It"s important." She replied while slightly catching her breath.

"What do you want to talk about?" Gavin asked.

Hearing Gavin"s question, a reluctant expression appeared on her deadpan face.

"She"s cute." Gavin inwardly commented.

"What"s with that shyness? Come on, just say it, you"re a guest here." Gavin urged.

"Well you see, I..." Even after Gavin"s urges, she was still a bit hesitant over what she was about to say.

As Gavin was about to say something again, Dorothy swallowed a mouthful unnoticedly and interjected, "I want to talk to yo-, I-, Alche- I mean Allen Morgan."

Gavin"s jaw dropped by the other"s statement, he thought, "It"s not what I think it is, right?"

He was still as a statue for a few seconds until he was able to recompose himself, "Ohh... I get it, you want me to introduce you to my Junior brother!"

"I can"t believe with that kind of indifferent face; somebody would get attracted to him." He then sighed in glee, "I am so very, very proud of him." Although the "feelings" weren"t directed to him, he became euphoric as if he would cry out of joy.

"Don"t worry, I can do that by tomorrow morning." He nodded in response and added, "I need to go now, my master made me go on an important errand. I"m sorry I won"t be able to accommodate longer!" He sprinted off at once, leaving behind Dorothy.

"Uhm..." Dorothy was dumbfounded by how fast Gavin talked. She never even got to reply back.

"But actually..." Dorothy wanted to say something else, but because Gavin wasn"t present anymore, she sighed it off and left the area.

***

The pages in the black book were answered one by one. Going through different illusions, fighting the beasts referenced from the plants and herbs that they had to answer.

Many contestants fell and lost on the way due to the extreme conditions and circ.u.mstances that became harder and more complicated as pages were turned.

In the end, only two people managed to turn to the last page.

…

Allen reappeared in a square with a protection orb on top of the fountain in the middle. Looking to the sides, rows of buildings made up the side of the streets that stretched out from the square.

In spite of all the standing structures, no people could be seen using them.

It was utterly quiet.

Eerily quiet.

"h.e.l.lo." A calm voice greeted from behind.

Turning around, Allen spotted a familiar woman.

A slight change on the woman"s eyes was noticed by Allen. It was an expression of startlement.

"Allen Morgan." The woman said.

"Dorothy." Allen said.

It was a silent afterwards.

"You still have that eyepatch of yours. I thought Gavin was helping you cure your blindness." She continued the conversation.

"You know what happened. He won"t believe anything." Allen replied.

"Let"s not talk about it anymore then." Dorothy changed the topic, "What was the plant? The last one already had all its definition written, but I didn"t see the name."

"It"s Visergoroth Eater." Allen answered.

Dorothy: "S***."

"We need to find a place where we could concoct pills and elixirs to battle that kind of a monster." Dorothy said in a monotonous one like Allen would do.

"At least, we are safe in here for now." Dorothy looked over and saw a ball of energy over the fountain"s statue. It was emitting a protective aura; of course, it was the same type of energy that Allen encountered when he battled against the Blizzard Crown Lotus monster.

In actuality, Allen and the other contestants also came upon such objects when he fought against other monsters in the illusions.

"Come on, let"s find the alchemy shop in this town." Allen started walking off towards a street branching out of the square.

Dorothy caught up with him.

Near complete silence rose afterwards, the only sound they could hear were their footsteps.

"Do you believe I did that?", Allen suddenly asked, shattering the noiseless atmosphere.

"I know you won"t be able to do such a thing." Dorothy replied back with a slight raising of her tone.

Allen made a short glance at her, "You are lying."

Dorothy huffed out hot air and said, "It"s just that... it"s really believable, plus, Gavin doesn"t lie, specially if it"s about that."

"You know, you should really smile for once, it might help you." Dorothy tried to change the topic again, "To be honest, I never see you smile nor even frown for once."

"I also don"t believe your emotion was taken away." She suddenly added.

As Allen was about to say something, she interjected, "How did I know?" She said while glancing around the buildings on her side, "Airein told me."

"She doesn"t believe in the first place." Allen replied.

"Don"t mind if she doesn"t believe you, I"m not Airein, plus in my opinion, I think that"s not the case for you." She narrowed her eyes on a signage of one of the buildings, but shook her head in dismay as it wasn"t an alchemy shop, "It"s not the emotion that was taken away, it was your ability to feel it."

"So, what if it was taken away by a devil or whatnot? If it was, then you should"ve turn into a senseless animal." She said, "Because emotions make us, us! Us humans have wisdom, and with it, we have emotions. While weaker beasts and some people are ignorant or imprudent or both, those people will still be categorized as humans because they have the characteristics that make them a level higher than animals."

"I am not saying it because of disdain of those lower beings, I"m saying it because it"s the truth." Dorothy clarified with a bit of sarcastic tone at the beginning then she looked towards her side, but Allen was nowhere to be found.

[beep]

She looked around her and saw Allen looking towards a certain building.

"Were you even listening?" She murmured under her breath. "He"s still annoying."

Allen beckoned her to come closer. When Dorothy went back at the side of Allen, the latter pointed at the signage of the structure.

"You found an alchemy shop." She realized what it was, "Great. We need to hurry up and concoct some pills and potions before that orb runs out of energy." As she was about to enter, Allen tapped her shoulder.

"What is it?" She asked.

"We"re battling a Visergoroth Eater, our current clothes won"t last long against it." Allen said.

Dorothy looked at her own attire, which was the same old-fashioned alchemy robes and a thick shirt and pants. Nodding in agreement she asked, "So, what do you suggest we do?"

"I"ll get us some proper clothing from the other shops here in this town, while you concoct everything we need." Allen said, "There"s a plant and herb shop across the street, so the needed ingredients will probably more or less complete." He pointed at the said building.

"If you say so, okay." She saw an eye to eyes with Allen"s suggestion. She was a famous battle-concocter, and along with her reputation was her experience in simultaneously handling the creation many pills and elixirs at the same time, so her alone making them would actually be equivalent to five people also concocting at the same time.

Right after she agreed with his request, Allen also requested to make some of the pills and potions he exclusively needed to fight against the Visergoroth Eater; then the two of them temporarily separated to fulfill their agreed upon responsibilities.

***

Earlier, right after the contestants entered the portal...

After Esmund declared the start of the compet.i.tion and sat back on his seat, Theqias whispered to him, "I need to go soon."

With a startled countenance, Esmund asked, "Why sir? But you just got here, Great Sir!"

"His Majesty sent me to this place for something else, but don"t worry, somebody would be in my place." Theqias replied, "Only for this day, but I will return in the next round."

"If it"s a must, then by all means, I will not hinder your exit." Esmund most politely said.

"Good." Theqias made a nod and added with a grim tone, "Also, don"t underestimate whoever was sent in my place." His line of sight then turned towards near the farthest right seat where somebody was looking towards him. The person that was gazing at him made a single nod.

"Alright, good luck in your hosting, Mister Esmund." Theqias sat up and walked out of the platform.

Just at the moment he exited, somebody who was wearing the same type of clothes that of Theqias, albeit less eye-catching, walked up the platform and sat at the middle seat.

When Esmund inspected the replacement for Theqias, he raised one of his eyebrows in astonishment as the person was young, in fact, even younger than Dianne.

"He"s so young, and a bit familiar too, did I see his face somewhere before?" He inwardly wondered.

"Greetings, I am Esmund, the branch chief of the Alchemist Union in this area, which is also the main host for this event. May I know young sir"s name?" Like how he greeted Theqias, Esmund made a very polite sentence and sent out his hand in a bid for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Sir Esmund." The young man replied back with a polite pleasantry that inwardly pleased Esmund. After which, the boy accepted the handshake.

"This young man isn"t so overbearing unlike most of his superiors are." Esmund was all-smiles in front him.

Almost forgetting that he had to introduce himself, the young man immediately did so after he remembered, "My first name is William and my surname is Morgan, again it"s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Esmund."