Chapter 42: The Storm

  Deep inside a large building filled with scattered books and scrolls, Damon continued to slowly organize the mess. He had managed to clean up around a quarter of the second floor, but his progress was limited, as a portion of the tidied area would always be in disarray by the next time he arrived.

  Is it Hall Leader Tidus? Or are people discovering that there is now a bit of sense to this part of the Legacy Hall and coming to read or borrow the books? I’m wasting a lot of time just to clean up an area I already tidied up every day. I should contact Senior Tidus and ask him about it. I have the copies of The Art of Light prepared to exchange for merit points as well.

  Damon withdrew his communication orb and contacted Tidus through the mark he had left behind. After leaving the message, he got back to tidying the Legacy Hall. Besides the continuous setbacks, he also took a long time to categorize and organize the books, as he was too engrossed in reading any interesting texts that he chanced upon, rather than focusing on the cleanup.

  After several hours had passed, and Damon was preparing to finish up for the day, he heard some footsteps. He walked toward the noise and realized it was coming from upstairs, which likely indicated Tidus was coming down to see him. He immediately walked over to the table next to the stairs and cleared the dust that had settled atop it. He then brought out a tea set and began to brew some tea leaves he had obtained recently.

  The falling steps finally reached the spiral staircase, and an old man appeared as he descended to the second floor. The scruffy old man with long flowing white hair and beard, wearing dusty cotton clothing, made his way over and sat down at the table. It was Tidus. He looked even more unkempt and disheveled than the previous time Damon had seen him.

  “Greetings, Hall Leader Tidus.” Damon bowed respectfully toward the old man. Though he looked like any old grandpa you could find in a rural village, Damon was careful not to make the smallest slight towards a mysterious Adept.

  Ahem. Tidus cleared his throat. “You’ve been doing a good job, boy. I’ve definitely noticed the progress you’ve made. Just a few more years… No, a few more months and maybe you’ll be able to finish it all up. You said you had some copies from the list to hand in?”

  Damon stared at Tidus speechlessly for a while before withdrawing a stack of 10 books and placing them on top of the table. This old scammer definitely said a few more years. I could finish the organization much faster than that if it didn’t continuously get disordered again. He undoubtedly knows what’s happening.

  “Here are the 10 copies of The Art of Light, as requested. I believe that should be 50 merit points in total. How are merit points processed?”

  Tidus glanced away shiftily before looking back at Damon with an apologetic smile. “Young friend, just so you know… The mission stated it was 5 merit points per book… Not per copy. I requested 10 copies of each book, but it remains as one. So you’ll be receiving 5 points in total, not 50…”

  Damon’s mind blanked out. He stared at Tidus dumbfoundedly, his gaze zeroing in on the small smile on the old man’s face. The corner of his own mouth began to twitch uncontrollably.

  “Hall Leader Tidus… This… How is this fair?” Damon could no longer hold back his tongue and almost shouted at the old man. His body wanted to yell, yet his mind reminded him not to offend the Senior. His abdominal muscles contracted as he began to shout, yet his throat also squeezed shut to prevent the sound from being too loud. In the end, he managed to stifle his voice, and the opposing forces colliding caused his words to come out as a squeak instead. “This is too much…”

  Tidus felt bad for the kid. Even though he had purposely set the duplicitous mission, it did not mean he was an emotionless human being. Seeing Damon’s face grow red and hearing the final squeaky outburst, he decided to come clean.

  “My apologies, child. I can’t afford to give out so many merit points for the mission. I’ll give you 10 merit points per book instead. How’s that? That’s the absolute best I can do.”

  Tidus had no merit points. He had received a huge loan from the Academy to trade for a special elixir that would help him in his next breakthrough, and had been left with nothing. Even now, he was struggling to pay back the Academy, having to give them random materials and resources he had gathered throughout his many years.

  “That… Is acceptable. Thank you for your consideration, Hall Leader Tidus. I have a question, though… My attempts to clean up the Hall have been met with resistance. Do you know who is responsible for that?” Damon graciously accepted Tidus’s offer. This benefit had come out of the blue and wasn’t even the reward of an intentional scam. This reinforced his belief that Tidus was a decent person in his mind.

  “Oh, that? My apologies, that is partially my fault. During one of my outings from the City, I discovered a peculiar creature. A baby mimic. It can only copy the form of inanimate objects, so it seemed quite adorable when I first picked it up.” Tidus smiled warmly as he recalled the cute creature that had initially been copying the form of a stone. Then his smile faded as he became heated and his beard bristled.

  “However, when I returned… The mimic managed to escape from its confinement and entered the Hall. Due to the arcane restrictions preventing anyone without permission from ascending past the second floor, it is definitely hiding somewhere around here, most likely as a book. That silly mimic is most likely the culprit behind that.”

  Damon was surprised to hear about the existence of such a creature. He had studied about Demi-humans since hearing of them from Claire, but he had yet to research extensively about much else.

  “A mimic? Is that a type of essence beast? Its ability does sound very interesting. However, is there really no way of finding it? Even for someone as mysterious and mighty as you, Senior?”

  When Tidus heard Damon’s praise, his cheeks rose into a smile as he stroked his long white beard. “The mimic is not an essence beast, and is, in fact, a mystical creature. I won’t bore you with the differences between the two. Unfortunately, this means that its ability to hide is innate in nature, instead of being an arcane ability. Therefore, even with arcane sight, there is nothing I can do.”

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  Haa… Damon sighed. If we can’t catch this mimic, how am I supposed to finish organizing the Hall? How did this Hall even become like this? Surely it’s not the work of the mimic?

  “Hall Leader Tidus, how did the Legacy Hall end up in this state? Was the mimic behind it all? Surely you would have been able to catch it if the mess wasn’t already like this.”

  Immediately, Tidus’s smile disappeared, and his white brows furrowed in anger. His beard quivered as he yelled, “This Hall was perfectly organized and was in pristine condition until just five years ago! But that silly lass had to come in here to play! Her innate abilities caused a massive ruckus and mixed up the entire first and second floors, scattering all the contents here and there! If I get my hands on her, I’ll give her a beating even if I anger Lord Dumont! I’m not scared of him!”

  Spittle flew out of his mouth, and his face turned crimson as he continued to hurl curses at the culprit. Tidus was obviously very angry at a certain someone. Damon immediately caught on to who it was.

  So, that’s why Claire is scared of coming here… To think she was the one who caused this mess. Actually, that kind of makes sense…

  “Senior Tidus, could you tell me a bit more about Claire? I’ve grown quite close to her, but I just realized I don’t know much about her, aside from her silly personality.”

  Although he currently looked like the embodiment of rage, Tidus stopped fuming and calmed down very quickly, as though he had never been angry. Between his wrinkled crow's feet, his eyes twinkled with a kind and endearing light.

  “That girl… She was quite an awkward and shy child when she was just a tiny little girl. She was nothing like what she is today.” Tidus began.

  Damon’s mouth opened wide as he stared at Tidus. Claire? Awkward and shy?

  Tidus noticed Damon’s expression and chuckled. “Yes, that’s right. You would never know that about her, unless you had seen it yourself. Her family, especially her older brother, was ferociously determined to get her to open up and become more excitable. However, nothing they did succeeded.”

  “Older brother? She never mentioned having one. If they didn’t succeed, what caused her to change?” Damon asked, deeply curious about someone else for the first time in his life.

  Tidus withdrew a long pipe and filled it with some type of grassy substance before lighting it with a flame from his fingertip. He took a few puffs before exhaling a large cloud of white smoke. It contained a mixture of smells: the spiciness of peppers, the coolness of mint, and the smokiness of tobacco.

  “When she was 10 years old, her older brother Raymond took her out for an adventure, to try to excite her. Some vermin had somehow found out about the outing and ambushed them, killing their guards and attempting to kidnap them. Before they were able to do so, Raymond used a secret technique that was passed down from Lord Dumont, which allowed him to attack with the power of a Warden. He managed to take the would-be kidnappers down, but doing so required him to sacrifice his life. Poor little Claire had witnessed the entire scene with her young eyes.”

  Tidus stopped the story to take another drag from his pipe, his eyes squinting as he remembered the tragic scene. He had been one of the first to arrive at the scene and had to drag Claire away from Raymond’s body. Her incoherent babbling and crying had shaken him back then, along with the unprecedented fury of her grandfather. Damon sat silently opposite Tidus, rapt with focus as he waited patiently for the next part of the story.

  “It was actually discovered that Raymond had not perished on the spot, and had instead entered a comatose state. His body was fine, but his mind was destroyed. It was incurable, and his physical body withered away not long after.”

  Upon hearing these words, Damon sank into deep thought. Did the backlash from the secret technique damage his Mind Node? That must be why Claire is trying to create a potion to heal mental injuries…

  While Damon was lost in thought, Tidus continued to talk about the past after a heavy sigh.

  “For two years after that, she was locked away in her room at the castle on the central island. I have no idea what happened during that time, but when she exited her seclusion and entered the Academy, she had already transformed into the person she is now. However, even though she has the exterior shell of enthusiasm and playfulness, if you look closely, you can easily tell she is distrusting of strangers and does not get attached very easily. Honestly, it’s surprising that you managed to befriend her.”

  Damon listened intently until the very end, before responding to Tidus. “I had no idea about any of that. Honestly, I didn’t know about Claire’s background until much later as well. I always just treated her as though she were just like anyone else. In fact, I was very curt with her at the start because I found her annoying. If she weren’t the one to insist on befriending me, I probably wouldn’t have ever talked to her. I’m not a very sociable person, and I don’t like becoming close to many people.”

  “That makes sense. She is a very observant girl, and she is very good at determining the true hearts of people. If she trusts someone, I’d be inclined to trust them too.” Tidus smiled gently at Damon, now completely certain that the boy was a kind soul.

  “Oh, by the way, Senior Tidus, could you tell me a bit more about her Featherstride Physique? I knew it made her steps lighter, but her control over the wind element is astonishing. Her combat prowess is also incredible. I can’t see any weaknesses.” Damon decided to take this opportunity to learn more about his rival.

  “Her Featherstride Physique does indeed make her steps lighter, but it gives her innate command over the air in the surroundings. This doesn’t mean that she has complete control, though. A cultivator who is just as strong as her, or stronger, will be able to cast wind element spells at her without a problem. It would be unbecoming of me to spell out her weaknesses to her potential rival, so I’ll only give you a small hint.”

  Tidus threw a knowing glance at Damon, having seen through his intentions. His face reddened. Even the tips of his ears turned hot as he looked down at his feet.

  “There is no such thing as an all-powerful ability. Everything in this world has advantages and disadvantages. Some are obvious, some are not. In Claire’s case, the hint is that… No element is completely immune to all others. When two elemental powers of the same strength clash, certain ones will come out on top. Which ones are better against the wind is for you to figure out. Also, weaknesses don’t only come in the form of combat strength. Remember, humans are not inherently perfect.”

  Damon inwardly noted down every word Tidus had spoken, especially the last bit. Humans are not inherently perfect… Does he mean that every individual has weaknesses and strengths tied to their personalities or character? What a profound thought.

  The two people, one young and one old, harmoniously continued to discuss various topics as though they were lifelong friends. Eventually, Tidus ran out of time and escorted Damon to the exit of the Hall, as he had other business to attend to. He watched as Damon walked away into the distance.

  Just as Tidus turned around to reenter the building, he swiftly turned around, looking far off into the distance with purple light shining from his eyes. Crackling purple lightning could be seen emerging from his eyes, flowing along the skin of his face and in his long white hair.

  “It can’t be!” Tidus yelled furiously, as lightning exploded all over his body, inundating him in bright purple light. He resembled a bolt of lightning as he rapidly flew toward the area he had been observing.

  Almost as if in response to Tidus’s roar, the dark clouds in the sky suddenly boomed with a resounding thunderclap as bright lightning lit up the heavens above. The storm had arrived at the Academy.

  Claire's past! Did you expect that? Her personality isn't because of her Featherstride physique. It just matches very well.

  The storm has finally arrived! What do you think is happening?