บท 95: In Your Dreams

"Hahahahaha!!!" A crazy yet lively laugh sounded out in a basement full of alchemical tools.

Gavin took out a pill from the furnace and placed it on top of a metal plate. He let it cool down for a while until it wasn't smoking anymore.

The pill looked larger than ordinary pills, and even appeared slightly lumpy. However, its most striking appeal was it seemed to have a layer.

"Finally, after many years. I successfully created a layered pill! Hahahaha!", Gavin laughed heartily again while he carefully placed a cover over the pill.

It was a layered pill. Not made through Pill Merging but through other means, that's why it looked like it had small bumps.

"A few days from now I'm going to show this to the alchemist community. It might be a bit deformed, but it's still a layered pill." He sighed in exhaustion and sat down on a chair.

"This is just the first step, I still have to perfect my layering method. The next step is to make a revolutionary technique in alchemy. I'll surpass you! I'll finally surpass you!" Gavin pulled out a recording gem from his pockets and activated it.

On the recorded image that was being shown, a group of old people were congratulating a young boy with an indifferent expression.

"I was always behind you; now, I'm going to surpass you and leave you behind, Allen Morgan.", Gavin gritted his teeth while stating the name.

Mixed emotions washed over him as he watched the record. His feelings diversely changed among sadness, anger, shame, and even guilt.

He looked at the recorded image with red veins piercing throughout his eyes. Which he accumulated for not sleeping for many days.

***

"In your dreams.", Allen crossed his arms. He looked down at Edwin who was on his knees.

The two of them already returned to the villa from the library when Edwin suddenly requested to go harvesting for spiritual fruits. Allen refused at first but the boy went to his knees and begged.

Edwin tightly grasped Allen's pants and said for the fifth time, "Can we please go hunt for spiritual fruits?"

"No.", Allen asked.

However, Edwin didn't answer the questions and only kept begging.

"Nevermind, there's still a few days before the auction, we can go hunt for some." Allen was the first to give up and granted his request.

"Haha, thank you!", Edwin's tone instantly turned lively; then, the former hastily went back to his room without even greeting the latter a goodnight.

'He didn't tell me the reason.', Allen thought. He would've agreed immediately if he knew Edwin's goal. Afterwards, he remembered about the girl they met earlier.

'Did he really fall in love with that Alice? He probably obtained brain damage, but where did he really got it from?' He inwardly asked himself. It could possibly be from love, or from something else.

When Edwin entered his room he locked the door, closed the curtains and immediately took out the Mortal Plane's Codex.

Earlier, when he and Allen traveled around the city the mark on his right hand started to react which prompted him to secretly take out the codex then it communicated to him through the mark.

"Search around the Ryon City for a spiritual fruit. But which fruit is it?", Edwin muttered the words that the codex sent to him.

"Where in the world is it around here? And what kind of fruit is it?", Edwin asked to the book, but it didn't reply.

"I know you have consciousness! Don't you dare act like a dead compiled pieces of paper!" Edwin snorted.

Nevertheless, the codex still didn't answer back.

"Hais, it's up to myself to find out what kind of fruit do you want then." Edwin shrugged in frustration.

On one hand he wanted not to do it because there seemed to be no penalty for dodging it; on the other hand, there might really be a punishment for not doing so, plus, more pages of the book could be unlocked if he did it.

...

The next day, the two of them set off early again. Arriving at a spot somewhere away from the city they inspected the luscious green grasslands along with plant hunters picking up valuable materials growing from the ground.

There were some occassional fights around them, but they were orderly and done in a neat way. Fights were frequent during hunts, resulting in an unspoken rule between the hunters.

"Now that I thought about it, hunting for valuable ingredients for alchemy is better than buying one from the market.", Allen said.

Unlike straightly buying from the market, which would be slightly unreliable because the plant bought could be fake or of low quality; personally searching for the needed ingredient was better. Athough it would take a lot longer, one would be sure to find the exact quality of the plant he needed for for free in exchange for time.

"It's best that we split up, pick up these ingredients for me and once you found them, immediately hide them in the satchel to prevent yourself from getting into trouble.", Allen passed a short list to Edwin.

"I will.", Edwin nodded.

"And before you go, in case you battle against somebody here you should hide your full strength at first. If you are feeling like you are going to lose a fight, forfeit the challenged plant so you won't be beaten up half to death. If you won a fight, you can either choose to take any of the loser's picked plant or not, if you're the one who was challenged.", Allen reminded the boy.

"Alright.", Edwin replied.

"Don't kill anybody here. Don't steal. Fighting in this location is legal, but killing is not. Also, it's your choice if you want to fight honorably or not.", Allen finished his reminders and started walking off with his hands behind his back.

From afar, Edwin saw a man challenging Allen as soon as he went near him; the former couldn't help but pity whoever that guy was, but he didn't watch the fight and just started to walk off to a different direction.

"What kind of plant does the codex want? It's probably very extravagant and precious.", Edwin muttered to himself.

The more he thought of what kind of a plant was it, the more he shivered at the possibility what kind of people would he face just to fight for it.

"Whatever that is, this is also a good location to hone my battling skills." Edwin stretched his joints he walked.

Not all the people who were in that place weren't just there to find valuable materials for alchemy and such, but also because it's a great spot where one could enhance their skills in battle.

"Is this a Dew Knife grass?", Edwin plucked the grass out of the ground and closely examined it.

The Dew Knife grass that Edwin picked looked healthier and taller than what Allen used on creating Healing Dew Knife pills.

"Hiyahhhh!", a voice came from behind Edwin, seemingly getting closer and closer.

Edwin sidestepped and dodged a man's arm chop on his head. He looked at the muscular man dressed in light armor who was preparing to attack again.

The boy reacted at once and made an uppercut to the man's chin; when the latter was hit by the former's attack, he stumbled backwards due to dizziness but recomposed himself instantly. He wasn't even using his internal energy to punch.

"Not fighting honorably, eh?", Edwin eyed the other person. He assessed that the true power of the opposite side was weaker than him.

But Edwin was still cautious as almost everybody in the place hide their true strength in case they would battle in the future.

An opponent's strength wasn't always equal to their levels. For example, if one was a mid-stage adept his or her strength could either a low-stage adept, or a high-stage adept which were the minority.

The light-armored man attacked again by trying to swiftly kick Edwin from his side. However, the latter easily blocked it with one of his arms without feeling any pain; afterwards, he got hold of the leg and pulled the enemy closer to him.

As soon as the enemy was pulled closer, the man let out fast punches which made Edwin let go of the leg to evade the attacks the other sent out, letting the latter retreat some distance away.

Edwin didn't let this chance come to pass and continuously closed in to the man. Suddenly, the fist of the enemy glowed and he directly sent it out towards the boy.

The punch was two times faster than the ones released earlier!

Feeling the danger emanating from the fist, Edwin made a sharp dock to avoid the strike. He got hold of the other's arm and elbowed it with a hard force causing the man to shout in pain.

Backing off while clutching his pained arm, a look of surprise came from the man's face when he saw the boy how he easily dodged and counterattacked.

"Finally using all your strength?", Edwin took a small step back, initiated Burst Steps and speedily rushed towards the man.

In the man's eyes, Edwin was so fast he couldn't keep his sight on him; however, he still punched out while his hand slightly glowed.

-bam-

Edwin stopped right in front of the man and caught the glowing hand with his own. The other side was astonished that somebody who only looked like a teenager easily intercepted his full-powered attack.

Making use of the enemy's shock, the boy also sent his fist towards the chest of the former. The punch easily penetrated the light armor and it hit the body.

A few drips of blood flowed out of the man's mouth and he stumbled back several steps until he tripped to the ground.

Few seconds later, he still couldn't stand up from the ground.

"You lost.", Edwin stepped one foot on the man's body.

"I surrender!" The man said with a slight force on his tone. The front part of his body was aching from Edwin's punch, making him feel pain with every words he uttered out.

"I think I might have inserted too much power.", Edwin replied in a sorry manner. He was trying to hold back his strength, but it was still too much in the end.

"Do you need help? I have some healing pills on me.", Edwin consoled.

"No, I have my own.", the man reached out a small bottle of pills on his belt. He popped out a few and consumed it.

The man sat up on a stiff manner and asked, "So what kind of plant do you want? I have Silver Thorn branch, Paleflower, Dew Knife grass, Burning Goo bud. I was the one who first attacked, but I feel I should compensate."

Although the man stated the plants that he had, there was still no certainty if that was all of his harvest.

"Can you take them out?", Edwin requested. The man nodded and took out the mentioned plants from a spatial storage.

Edwin eagerly checked them one by one, but in the end, he was disappointed because the codex didn't react on any of these plants.

Noticing the displeasure on the boy's face, the other side asked if there was anything wrong.

"No, there's nothing wrong. It's just that I can't find the plant I need.", Edwin clarified. Not only the codex didn't react, but those plants that the man presented also wasn't in Allen's list.

"Nevermind, I won't take anything. But you can have my Dew Knife grass, I don't even need it.", Edwin gave the grass to the other person. The man gleefully accepted it and after a few more words the both of them parted ways.

'Kids these days, so powerful. Good thing a lot of them are also respectful.' The man inwardly felt at ease.