Kapitel 6: Water in the Desert

"What can you tell about your past?" Alvin asked, having waited for the Wisp to tell more about himself.

"Well, you could say I was quite lucky," Linfel began to explain. "From where I came from, Wisps are actively hunted nonstop because of the primordial energy in our bodies. It is very pure, so pretty much all races like to use us to train. Naturally, once our energy is used, we cease to exist. However..."

Linfel continued. Back then, he was born on a lush planet mainly occupied by nonintelligent creatures. Nonetheless, pretty much all beings used Primordial Energy to get stronger, so even if the beasts around weren't intelligent, they at least knew that swallowing a wisp was a great boost to their power.

Linfel just so happened to take shape in a rather concealed place. Naturally, he had no knowledge about anything. Every single sight was a new one. It took him over a week to be able to learn how to use his core's Primordial Energy to float and move around. Until that moment, he simply looked like a sphere of primordial energy fallen to the floor.

That alone already put Linfel within the top 1% luckiest wisps in the Universe. A ball of concentrated primordial energy wasn't exactly something hard to perceive, especially since it would always stay put in the same place until the wisp learned how to use it to move.

A particular characteristic of the wisps, though, was their memory. Pretty much all intelligent races in the Universe only started to create permanent memories a few years after being born. Yet, wisps already had the capability of creating such permanent memories from the very first minute. It highly contributed to the fact that Linfel already had an adult mind by the age of five.

Once Linfel came out of his hiding place, he found himself in a dense forest where the sounds of primordial beasts echoed everywhere. Yet, the wisp knew nothing, so such sounds only made it more curious. It didn't take longer than an hour for the wisp to be facing a primordial beast. The beast, seeing the great meal in front of it, obviously attacked.

"Was it luck or instinct, I don't know," Linfel recalled of that day. "But when that beast attacked, the first thing I thought to do was to run. I knew nothing and didn't even know the meaning of being attacked, but I felt the danger. The primordial beast itself was quite slow, though. And the fact I could float, even if just a few meters from the ground, already helped me to run from it."

"However, I was very poor at absorbing the environment's primordial energy, and floating while moving at full speed spent a lot of my own reserves. After thirty or so minutes of pursuit, I was finally about to run out of energy. It was then that it happened."

From the sky, a ball of fire made its way down to the forest. All beasts in the place looked in this direction, feeling the danger it presented. Even the beast pursuing Linfel immediately understood that its life was at risk and turned around, running for its life.

Linfel, on the other hand, didn't know what it meant, so he just looked at that thing coming down. Yet, it was also thanks to that that he saw something different. As the ball of fire came down, a very small part of it detached.

"Was it curiosity? Was it destiny? Did something call to me? It didn't really matter," said Linfel. "I just thought that I should go after that small thing that came out of the ball of fire. The giant ball of fire passed above me and went further in the back while the small part fell somewhere a few kilometers away. I just ignored the giant ball of fire and went after the part that fell nearby. You have no idea just how correct that decision was, even if it wasn't exactly a conscious one."

When Linfel arrived at the fallen place of that small part of the ball of fire, he saw something like a capsule, very similar to the one he was put inside on this planet. The capsule was opened, and inside, there was a purple-skinned humanoid being. He approached with curiosity and soon got into the capsule with that being.

*Cough, cough...*

The being was of a race known as the Dajoras. He was unconscious and losing blood nonstop. Of course, the wisp had no idea that the man was in bad shape or anything; he just found the sight peculiar.

*Boom!*

Suddenly, an explosion happened far away. The sky turned red as a wave of powerful primordial energy swept through the forest, killing everything in its path. It only took a few seconds to reach the capsule, and it definitely would have killed Linfel and the Dajoras man inside.

However, the capsule was still active, and when the danger reached its sensors, it immediately closed again, trapping the wisp inside. The wave of destruction arrived in the next moment, blasting the capsule away together with the man and the wisp inside. Anywhere in the nearly thousand kilometers was a death zone, so it wasn't wrong to say the wisp was saved by its curiosity and lack of knowledge.

The capsule hit the ground tens of kilometers away again and kicked nonstop as the power of the explosion kept blasting everything in its path. The Dajoras man's body was being protected by some kind of foam, but the several impacts definitely didn't help with his condition. As for Linfel, he found himself trapped within the same foam that appeared to protect the man.

It wasn't before fifteen or so minutes later and hundreds of kilometers of distance that the sweeping force finally calmed down, allowing the capsule to land in some messed corner and stay there.

"I remember that capsule kept itself closed. Now that I think about it, the capsule seemed to know that it couldn't be opened at that moment. The pushing force of the explosion was over, but the environment outside was anything but hospitable," Linfel commented.

With the capsule now fixed on a place, the foam around the purple man and Linfel disappeared. "My old friend looked terrible, although I wasn't aware of what being injured meant. All I could tell was that I couldn't leave the capsule and had to wait there. It was then that I noticed that his body was absorbing the primordial energy of the surroundings even while unconscious."

The wisp sighed... or at least showed a movement that indicated it. He didn't really have lungs for such a thing. "I didn't know that having my Primordial Energy absorbed was a bad thing, and seeing the man absorbing energy similar to what I had in my core, I decided to give mine to him."

"Why?" Felia couldn't help but ask.

Yet, Linfel shook his head. "I don't know... I just felt that was the right thing to do."

Sure enough, the released Primordial Energy from the wisp was absorbed by the Dajoras Man, like water being thrown into the desert. Not before long, the wisp was almost empty, and it wouldn't take much more for him to die without even knowing why.

However, his actions truly were the salvation of the Dajoras Man. The guy finally opened his eyes, struggling to sit up in the capsule. He held his hand against the head, complaining about the pain. "Fuck! They almost got me! Just you wait! I, Horan, shall have my revenge!"

Only then did he notice that he wasn't alone in the capsule. "Hum? A Wisp?"

The wisp was very feeble, having almost no energy left. And yet, it kept releasing its primordial energy, which the Dajoras Man's body absorbed automatically. That definitely took the man aback. "This..."

He then touched a few runes inside the capsule and closed his eyes. After a few moments, he seemed to understand what had happened. "That's quite weird... I have absorbed the Primordial Energy of many wisps in the past, but it is the first time I see one giving me its Primordial Energy of its own volution."

For a moment, the man thought about simply taking the wisp and absorbing the rest of the wisp's energy in one go. He was just like any other race, not thinking much about the wisps other than a good source of primordial energy. And yet, he immediately decided against that idea. "Hmph! I definitely don't like the idea of being saved by someone else, but here we are. Consider yourself luck."

He then touched another part of the capsule, and a lid opened. Inside, there were many rainbow-colored stones brimming with pure Primordial Energy. He tossed one of the stones to the floating wisp. "Here, take it. Absorb the Primordial Energy inside before you die."

However, the wisp didn't answer, nor did it seem to stop releasing its primordial energy. Seeing the lack of response from the wisp, Horan narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to suicide?"

The wisp floated around, completely confused. Only then did Horan understand what was happening. "Wait... are you a recently born wisp?"

The wisp continued to float there, still no answer coming from it.

"As I thought," Horan nodded while absorbing the Primordial Energy of the other stones. "What a joke, saved by a wisp that doesn't even know what he is doing. No wonder they are such a piece of shit race."

Back in the present, Felia couldn't help but curse. "What is wrong with this guy?! You had just saved his life, and you did that unconsciously! He should be kneeling on the floor to thank you! He is the piece of shit! His entire family are pieces of shit!"

"Hahaha!" Linfel laughed in response. "It's okay. Trust me, behind that shell, he was truly someone worthy of respect. From that day onwards, he never touched a single other wisp again. If anything, he saved thousands of them in the very few years we lived together. Anyway, let me continue."

In the capsule, Horan smashed one of the Primordial Stones, which quickly filled the insides with rich Primordial Energy. The wisp finally seemed to have understood that his Primordial Energy wasn't necessary anymore, so Linfel began to absorb the Primordial Energy from the surroundings instead. Little did he know he was a hair's way of dying out of energy.

"And that's how I got my first interaction with my old friend, Horan. From there on, he brought me everywhere with him, and it was always just the two of us," Linfel explained. "He was the one to teach me how to speak as a wisp, the one to give me knowledge of the universe, to basically make who I am today. One day, he asked me to enter a cold box that had many runes inside. I trusted him, so I didn't ask why. The next thing I knew, I was in the ocean, and Lucau found me a few minutes later. Just where the hell did that guy go to?"

Lucau couldn't help but sigh. "That's quite the story..." He then looked at his son, who definitely knew much more about the Universe than him. "Alvin, have you heard about any race called Dojaras?"

Alvin shook his head. "Not really. First of all, from what I learned in the academy, our planet is found in a quite remote corner of the Universe, so we rarely get visited by any other races. Truth be told, our planet is quite shit when it comes to its reserves of Magic Energy, so the powerful races don't even consider getting close to this place."

Lucau was surprised. "I didn't know the Universe saw us in such a way."

Alvin shook his head. "It's not like the government would go around reciting how poor the Universe thinks our planet to be, you know?"

"I guess that makes sense..." Lucau sighed. He didn't quite like that his home was seen in such a way, so it was the right thing for such perspective not to be wantonly revealed. It wasn't hard to find out about it, though. Anyone more connected to the affairs of the planet and the outside would be aware of it.

"By the way," Felia changed the topic as it was too gloomy. "You keep talking about primordial energy, primordial energy, primordial energy... Just what is primordial energy?"

Lucau turned to Alvin. "Have you heard about it in the academy?"

Alvin shook his head. "I have never heard about it. But then again, it is not like I went out there to look for this information either. Once I return to the academy, I can try to learn more about it."

Linfel pondered a bit before speaking. "Primordial Energy, according to my old friend Horan, is the energy that created our Universe. Whether it is true or not, I don't know. However, what I can tell for sure is that Primordial Energy is far above this Magical Energy of yours. In fact..."

Linfel concentrated on the Magical Energy inside his core. "I feel like Magic Energy and Primordial Energy are connected. How can I say... It feels like Magic Energy is a transformation of Primordial Energy. The Primordial Energy I had in my core easily changed into Magical Energy when I absorbed Lucau's Magic Stones, so I'm probably right there."

"Can you create more Primordial Energy?" Alvin asked, curious.

However, the wisp shook his head. "No. Wisps only gather Primordial Energy and store it. We don't create it. Now that it is gone, I have no way to recover more."

"Is it better than Magical Energy?" Felia was the one to ask now.

Linfel compared the two and couldn't give a definitive answer. "I wouldn't say it is better. Both seem to have their own advantages. Your Magical Energy, for example, is countless times easier to manipulate than Primordial Energy, that's for sure. Primordial Energy, on the other hand, is a lot more powerful. However, it is also very chaotic. Even from where I'm from, training with it has always been very dangerous. Those who died because of it were too many to count."

"Alright, I spoke a lot of me and my past," Linfel finally decided to ask the obvious. "Now, tell me more about Maguses. What are they?"