Kapitel 4: UUUGGGGHH!

"They're still in the tree?"

Havel wondered why only Alojzia and Vanda descended to evaluate him.

"Yes. She's resting while she can."

Alojzia offered no more information and Havel didn't feel like bothering to ask about her. As long as the kid still had her legs and eyes to walk and see, everything was fine.

"So, tell me about this 'cultivation'. Back where I'm from, such a thing doesn't exist."

Since seeing the kids fall five meters and land as if the fall was only half a meter, Havel burned with curiosity towards how they did it. After all, he was born from the United States of America and grew up watching mighty super heroes and spell-casting wizards on television. It wasn't too much of an exaggeration to say that most people from Earth would part with their most precious belongings if it meant gaining some kind of superpower like those depicted in fiction.

"He really doesn't know…" Vanda whispered to himself with a remnant of surprise left over from when Havel asked about the "first pace".

"If he's to be our guardian, he needs to know at least this much…" Alojzia sighed to herself.

"Listen carefully, Mr. Havel, because repeating myself would be troublesome…"—Alojzia swept her long red hair over her shoulder—"You know about the spiritual energy in the air? Well, did you ever think about how you could potentially absorb that?"

Alojzia was clearly sour about Havel having to ask about cultivation.

"Wait,"—Havel sat down on the grass cross-legged—"what's 'spiritual energy'?"

A gentle wind brushed past, letting Havel know that despite the children freezing in place again, that time still flowed.

""UUUGGGGGGHH!"" This time, both children reacted the same way in unison, releasing exasperated groans and clutching their heads with both hands in a dramatic fashion.

*This doesn't look good for my chances of practicing magic.*

Havel was, just moments before, eager and full of anticipation for this "cultivation" stuff, but after seeing how the kids reacted to his question, began feeling other, more violent, emotions.

"Is it really that bad?"

Havel was not good at holding in his temper, as evidenced by his fit with Catherine, and being looked at as though he was stupid was not something he usually took kindly. However, he knew that he could not do anything to the little squirts in front of him, both because they seemed to be stronger than him, and his mission was to bring them across a desert "safely".

"Yes, it is really that bad! Mr. Havel, even if they can't sense it, everyone knows about spiritual energy! For you not to know…never mind. It doesn't matter if you know about it or not, because if you have talent, we'll know within a month."

Alojzia's patience was similarly at its limit. She hated explaining common knowledge to people. Even more so to someone that was said to be there to protect her! She was greatly frustrated with the fact that the Heavens seemed to be playing tricks on her! They claim to send a guardian, yet a clueless kid not much older than herself appeared instead! She still referred to him with "Mr" out of respect to the Heavens, but was sorely disappointed in their selection.

Havel watched as Alojzia turned around and easily scaled the five meter distance to the tree-cave.

"Uhh, I guess Elder Sister doesn't feel like talking anymore…" Vanda was also frustrated at Havel's incompetence, but did not share the same impatience.

"Mr. Havel, I apologize in Elder Sister's stead. It's just that she's very frustrated at our supposed 'guardian' turning out to be a mortal without any knowledge of cultivation."

Vanda's words came out a bit rude, but that wasn't what he intended. He simply spoke bluntly when in a bad mood.

"Regarding what she said about figuring out within a month if you have talent to cultivate, she was talking about Helge Desert… Are you aware of it?"

Vanda could predict the answer, but asked to make sure.

"I'm not."

A silent sigh escaped through Vanda's nose.

"Well, Mr. Havel, we are heading to Helge Desert. Legends say that it was at some point the site of a war between world-shaking experts, making the place inhospitable not long after it ended. Although inhospitable and life-threateningly dangerous, the war also transformed it in some special ways. To begin with, spiritual energy is much easier to sense and much more difficult to absorb and refine."

Havel took a few moments to process the new information before asking, "We'll find out in a month if I have talent for cultivation because the spiritual energy is easier to sense than usual? Thus, allowing even a mortal like myself with no knowledge of cultivation to sense it?"

Inwardly celebrating that Havel paid attention, Vanda replied, "Indeed."

He continued.

"Helge Desert is famous for producing powerful cultivators that took their chances and delved deep inside. With how the spiritual energy is so difficult to absorb, those who cultivated within the desert are stronger than those who cultivated outside of it. Depending on where in the desert you are, of course. The outer edges of the desert are mild and will not pose too much of a threat to low-level cultivators, such as myself and Elder Sister, but the deeper one goes, the worse the conditions."

"I assume we're not crossing the entire thing?"

The question prompted a dry chuckle from Vanda.

"Of course not. It's so vast that even if we ran our entire lives, we would not be anywhere near the center. Where we're going through is a tiny section that juts out and into other biomes. It'll still be very dangerous, but on the other side is land ruled by the closest nation to ours: Reidar."

In Vanda's eyes could be seen a ray of hope. As for what he hoped for, Havel had a few clues. So, he asked about it by laying bare his concerns.

"You're running from something. If not, why would you risk your lives to cross such a dangerous place just to reach the neighboring country? You looked as though this is your only chance at survival. "

Despite being in possession of quite a nasty personality, Havel's intellect was outstanding. Back on Earth, he had used his intelligence to get away with many crimes, including harassment, plagiarism, trespassing, and thievery. If he couldn't figure out that the kids were escaping from something, then he would have been caught by the police long ago.

This time, Vanda did not bother attempting to hide his sigh.

"Yes, I was getting to that, Mr. Havel. We are actually…being pursued."

Now it was Havel's turn to clutch his head and loudly groan.

"Don't tell me that you guys are fugitives or something!"

Havel was originally accepting of the mission he was forcefully given because of the benefit of practicing what he thought to be magic. Then, he was told that he probably didn't even have talent in it. That was fine because the kids only said he "might" not, and a definite answer had yet to be determined. But now…the kids he's forced to protect, which are stronger than him, are being chased?! And, the people giving chase are so powerful that the kids were resigned to crossing an incredibly dangerous desert to escape them?!

"Well, I suppose we are…"

Havel finished his dramatic fit and turned back to Vanda with some very specifically chosen words, when he noticed a change in expression. His eyes and nose were reddening and his face was slightly scrunched up. Combined with how spaced out he looked…Vanda was close to crying!

Havel froze for a second before deciding against yelling his frustrations. It wasn't that he was soft. No, just the opposite: he hated when people cried! He felt a bit of disgust inside of him whenever he saw someone crying. Havel was staunch about his belief that people need to be strong and never break down! He admired those who could look tragedy dead in the eye and tell it to do its worst.

He knew that if he yelled at Vanda, he could accidentally trigger a cascade of tears that would annoy the living hell out of him.

"That's right…Vanda, can you explain to me why I felt so miserable and then passed out on my way to you guys? That was definitely mag- some kind of special technique, right?"

Crossing his fingers hoping he was tactful enough, Havel changed the subject. In response, Vanda seemed to return to reality.

"Ah, yeah, we didn't explain that to you yet."

Obviously still dejected, Vanda sat down in front of Havel and pulled a small object from out of a fold in his robes.

"If you don't know anything about cultivation, you won't know anything about this, I guess."

In his hand laid a small wooden disk that appeared to have some sort of letters etched into it.

"This is a formation core. It controls the formation that Elder Sister and I set up around our temporary shelter. Elder Sister and I both have a core."

Before Havel could even open his mouth to ask, Vanda answered.

"Think of formations as special structures that channel and consume energy to produce effects like those from cultivators' techniques. Ours is a simple one that implants confusion in weak creatures within its borders. At first, Elder Sister and I thought you were put unconscious by the Heavens instead of by our weak formation… Ah, but don't worry. We made it so the formation won't target you from now on."

Again, Havel felt some not-nice words rising up his throat which he wanted to spew…but ended up unpleasantly swallowing them back down.