Chapter 51 - Leon's Friend

Like with the previous gemstone, my hand held it up close to the floating crystal, but there was no reaction.

My mind stopped the pulsating from the crystal.

After putting away the gemstone, my figure slipped back into the shadows.

...

My head peeked over a tree to see a clearing and with a village inside it.

My intention wasn't to go into the village but use it as a basis to find the ice pool with the pedestal.

Simply because it was faster, I walked into the clearing and approached the village.

After my foot was set on the clearing, there was a sudden rumbling.

Remembering the spell that Leon cast before, my heart tightened.

My eyes scanned the village for a pillar, while my legs began to sprint.

But... there was no pillar.

My steps started to slow as my eyes blinked a few times.

Was... this real?

A huge section of Earth came out from the village, making a huge arch whose end was rapidly approaching me.

At the tip of that arch was a young man with white robes, a staff, and long brown hair.

He landed hard on the ground next to me, while his arch continued down in the ground. It was like a snake that was burrowing back into the ground.

Ah, Leon...

Though Leon's landing caused cracks in the earth below him, his knees did not even buckle.

Leon gave me a once over.

"Hello, there. I am the Earth Emperor. May I know who you are?"

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Oh, I'm Jay."

Leon's face twitched.

"...Ah yes, my name is Leon. Hello Jay."

A small smile emerged on my face.

"Hey, Leon."

Leon cleared his throat.

"What brings you to my village?"

My shoulders shrugged.

"Oh, just passing by."

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"You are so free that you simply wander the lands?"

My hands were raised and shook.

"No, I am just trying to become more powerful."

Leon sighed.

"Do you really need power when the world is at peace?"

My head shook.

"The Demon King died, now the demons are attacking people. In fact, there are demons over there that are probably about to attack this village."

Leon rubbed his chin.

"I see. Hold on one moment."

The ground below us suddenly rose.

I stumbled but soon regained my footing.

My eyes watched as the ground below grew further and further away.

Our ascent slowed and Leon closed his eyes.

The sky darkened and countless meteors fell from the sky.

My eyes watched in admiration as a giant meteor passed right by us into the ground below.

I was standing side by side with Leon feeling the tremors of the earth and watching the earth turn over.

"Oh, by the way, the demons have some gemstone thing that you can absorb mana from."

Leon nodded.

After a few more moments of rumbling, everything was silent again.

The ground under us lowered. When we reached the ground there was an assortment of gemstones on the floor in front of us.

Leon took one of the biggest gemstones and the rest sunk into the earth.

The translucent gemstone in Leon's hand lightly trembled.

A small dark brown vortex formed inside the gemstone.

The vortex gradually became bigger, before the gemstone cracked.

Cracks continued forming until the entire gemstone was covered with spider web cracks.

The gemstone suddenly shattered into pieces, scattering on the ground.

Leon dropped the remaining shards still in his hand.

"Hmm... it's a mana generator, but if you draw mana too fast the gemstone will shatter completely."

My eyes gravitated to the shattered piece on the ground.

"Ah, good to know."

Leon waved his hand dismissively.

"Anyways, could you tell me where you are going? If you don't mind, of course."

My finger pointed towards the general direction of the ice pool.

"There is this weird pool of ice that has a pedestal when you step in it. The pedestal has a weird indent in it and I wanted to see if the crystal by me would do anything."

Both of Leon's eyebrows raised.

"That sounds interesting, mind if I tag along?"

Well, having a super powerful mage with me is probably a good thing.

"Sure, why not."

A small smile formed on Leon's face.

"Thank you. Should we set off now?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, we can go now."

Leon walked with me back into the forest.

My mind was replaying the way Leon used such an exaggerated way of moving. It felt a little strange to be leisurely walking through the snow with him.

Leon turned to face me.

"Say, how did you get that crown?"

My eyes shifted upwards in thought.

"Uh... there was this weird cave with no mana in it with this giant lizard. After I killed it the crown that was on that lizard's head just bore into my head without hesitation."

Leon nodded a few times.

"Sounds like you went through quite the journey, how were you able to kill it?"

My finger scratched my hair.

"Uhh... There were these peppers that I encased in ice. The peppers would produce crazy amounts of heat if it was not encased in ice and touched something. By throwing the peppers in the giant lizard's mouth it eventually died."

Leon blinked a few times. His face was basically saying, 'What?'.

"Oh... how powerful was the lizard?"

One of my eyes squinted.

"It was maybe fifteen meters tall? The only way my strength was enough to even survive its attacks was this black grass. Basically, there were a lot of lizards that defended patches of grass. After acquiring the grass and eating it, my strength increased. Speaking of-"

My hand untied the cloth holding the black fruits and handed one to Leon.

"This was one of the plants that the lizard king ate. I would recommend eating a small amount at a time."

Leon reached out for the fruit when I suddenly pulled it back.

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have a request?"

My head shook.

"No, no... I just remembered that I know almost nothing about these fruits. There might be some side effects I haven't figured out yet."

Leon nodded.

"Ah, that's fine. I can tell what the effects of most plants are."

My hand held the fruit out again.

"Ah, ok."

Leon delicately picked up the fruit. He turned the fruit over in his hand and looked at it closely.

"This is quite potent. It greatly increases strength, power of the mind, and improves one's spatial awareness."

Leon was nodding, then took a bite from the fruit.

Leon closed his eyes as his body heated up.

After a few moments the heat calmed down and Leon opened his eyes.

"Thanks for the fruit."

A small smile formed on my face.

"No problem."

Leon put away the fruit.

My face turned away from Leon.

"By the way, how did you get so powerful?"

Leon laughed.

"It is a bit of a complicated story, but I will try to simplify it for you."

Leon cleared his throat while holding a fist in front of his mouth.

"When I was a child, I had become great friends with another. She had long blonde hair like the wheat fields and azure eyes that always shone brightly."

Leon sighed.

"When we were tested for our talents, she only had a small talent in ice magic. She had to become a constitution mage. Yet, when I was tested, great talent in earth magic had befallen on me."

A frown slowly emerged on Leon's face.

"Great talent is nothing special, only a bit above rare. There have been many people with great talent, yet stagnate in the path of magic. However, it meant that my teachers and parents wished for me to become a collector mage."

Leon smiled bitterly.

"But... My friend thought I was going to leave her. She ran away from me and I had to desperately run to catch up to her."

...How long is the complicated version if this was simplified?

Nonetheless, I did not interrupt and let Leon continue.

"She eventually gave up on running and sat by the river. I joined her, trying my best to console my good friend. I decided to become a constitution mage with her."

Leon laughed.

"In hindsight, she may have felt guilty because of that. My parents and teachers were not happy about my decision and tried all sorts of punishments, but my decision did not change."

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"Choosing this path was far from easy, and the pain can easily break one down. But... my heart wished to prove to my friend that a constitution mage could still be strong. We worked hard together down this path that had pitfalls every step of the way."

Leon smirked.

"Ironically enough, becoming a constitution mage let me become closer with the earth. It helped me understand how to become part of the world around me."

Leon sighed.

"The power of the earth is held within itself. It is filled with raging magma, ready to burst. Only by gathering mana in my body could I replicate that. I had avoided an insurmountable bottleneck just like that."

There was a bright smile on Leon's face.

It seems he was a good person.