Jareth remained lost in his thoughts when Liana's voice jolted him back.
"You look wrecked, Alven."
"He always takes the beating," Nadia added.
Raising his head, Jareth saw Nathan and Alven approaching. Alven limped, with blood smeared against his cheek. Upon reaching them, Alven dropped to the ground with a grunt, leaning back against a tree opposite Jareth.
"How was your first hunt?" Alven's question came out of nowhere.
"Me?" Jareth pointed at his own chest, surprised. He'd assumed the two boys still held a grudge over his joining them.
"Who else?" Alven managed a pained grin. "If you lost your memories, it's technically your first. So, how was it?"
Jareth became silent for a second.
A chuckle escaped his lips. "Not bad. A slap from it almost sent me to heaven."
Alven smiled widely.
"How are you sure it wasn't hell?"
Alven's wide smile vanished into a groan as Nadia poked his injured face. "Hey! What kind of healing technique is that?"
"Since you can talk, I thought you were fine," she said, her tone flat.
"What do you mean by 'fine'?" he frowned, but she was already ignoring him, her hands beginning to glow.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jareth caught Nathan watching him while observing their surroundings.
"Shame on you, Nathan. My long-lost brother was needed and he delivered, as he is a genius that has a talent that can barely rival me," Liana held her head high as she spoke proudly.
Jareth shook his head with a small smile.
Nathan turned to stare at her for a few seconds before three bodies of Rank 1 rock trolls dropped on the floor.
"You and Jareth should share your kill. Nadia can have these three rock trolls. Alven and I have shared ours," Nathan said calmly.
Liana harrumphed and turned to Jareth.
"You can have the core while I take the body. You better absorb it when we get back as your meager mana must have almost been empty after this short battle."
Jareth nodded as he felt his mana remaining very small. He estimated he could only make one compressed long spear before emptying his core.
Picking up his sword that dropped after the attack from the rock troll, he walked up to the charred corpse. He used it to open the head. The corpse was dry, with no blood inside.
'We really roasted it.'
Jareth quickly extracted the crystal core from inside the head and stored it in his arcanist badge.
Just as he stood up, Liana came to him.
"Ugh… This is why I love battling with a sword. This burnt thing will reduce the money to peanuts!" She kicked the corpse before squatting down to place her hand on it.
It vanished when she touched it.
"If you guys are done, we better leave before the previous battle attracts what we can't fight," Nathan called out.
Nathan quickly led them from the area to another place, where they sat down and rested to recover their lost mana.
"What next?" Liana asked Nathan from the branch of the tree on which she sat.
"Search wide for beasts," answered Nathan.
"But there are many beasts in the ruin estate. Why don't we go there? There are many Rank 1 beasts wandering freely there," Liana argued.
"And the death rate is very high, even for Elite arcanists, talk more of us, who are merely Awakened arcanists. Unlike here where we can lure the beast, we can't do that there. Even your fire spells will be restricted due to the loudness," Alven spoke this time with a stern expression.
Liana fell silent.
An hour later, they were well rested. They quickly left to search for more beasts. They walked for a few hours but found nothing, only bumping into a few teenagers, some of whom greeted them while others ignored them.
The sun was high up now in the clear blue sky, filtering through the leaves.
"Screw the college! Many Rank 1 and Rank 2 beasts used to populate this outskirts, making people scared of venturing here, but now? Oversaturation has wiped them out," Liana whined.
"You're just worried about Zelda getting ahead of you." Nadia chuckled.
"Who cares about that short thing?" Liana retorted, while anxiously looking around.
Jareth just quietly listened, as he had nothing to add, but more to learn.
'If I leave them tomorrow, where should I search?' he mused.
"Why don't we go back?" Alven suggested.
Nathan paused before nodding.
Liana made a short fuss about it but still followed.
They returned to Terminis Dominion and took a taxi to their house.
When they got home, Jareth took off and cleaned his equipment before having a refreshing bath and returning to his room.
After changing into casual clothes, he sat on the edge of his bed. His burgundy hair, still damp, clung to his skin. He fastened the shock bracelet around his wrist and turned his attention to the core in his hand. Shutting his eyes, he concentrated on drawing the mana from the core.
Like the last time, he couldn't stop the oblivium from entering the mana. Fortunately, he didn't go mad.
Jareth laid down on the bed, feeling a bit tired. Using mana and spells in battle was tiresome. While Nadia had healed his wounds, the healing didn't erase the fatigue.
He closed his eyes and began reviewing his battle.
'My control was on point, but I unfortunately went offline during that intense moment. I would have died if it weren't for the fact that the rock troll was dead. There were many ways to avert the crisis:
'First, I could have used my sword. Yeah, there was a sword in my other hand. Secondly, I could have ducked instead of taking the long route of swerving aside. Thirdly, even if I couldn't do anything, I had the [Grieving Echo] spell. Just a thought and I could have activated it, but I went offline during that important moment that determined my life and death. This shows I haven't mastered my spells. That was embarrassing...'
Jareth berated himself for a while before he sat up.
He mumbled, "If there are no beasts in the wood, we might go to the ruin estate tomorrow. I better do some resear—"
A knock interrupted him.
Jareth stood up and walked to the door.
He found Liana when he opened it, dressed in her training kit.
"Someone is looking for you."
"Me?" Jareth questioned in surprise, as he didn't know anyone.
Liana nodded. "He is in the sitting room. A very powerful and cold man. He's one of the commanders in this city."
Then she walked away.
'Who can be looking for me? I don't think I know him… This body might know people. And Liana said he's very powerful! Did they discover something?'
Jareth's pupils contracted.
'Will he discover that I'm different from the original Jareth? This is a magical world of arcanists!'