Spirit Soul

Confusion and pain were apparent in her voice.

Her lips trembled lightly as Selene nodded her head.

"Yes, we do know her. In fact, we helped each other a lot, Mrs. Jar…" At that moment Kyle pinched Selene, making her stop abruptly.

She shrieked in astonishment and corrected herself.

"I mean...teacher.."

Mell felt that the events were just too much of a coincidence.

But, instead of commenting further, she simply replied,

"Alright…you guys can leave...just don't forget to purchase everything on the list…"

Instead of asking more about Gaby and how they knew her, Mell simply turned around. Kyle could hear a loud sigh before she left the room.

Selene and Kyle merely looked at each other before Kyle shrugged his shoulders.

Having nothing else to do, they left the small wooden house.

She was still confused about Mell's behavior, but the naive young Lohar was slowly beginning to understand things.

Selene was transforming into a quick-witted girl who could piece things together.

Her intel was less than what Kyle had been able to procure.

Yet, she kept thinking hard about the possibilities.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even realize that they had reached the Guildhall.

Something clicked in her mind and she suddenly stopped, nearly bumping into Kyle.

"Wait a minute! Haven't I heard that the teacher had a child? A boy...maybe Gaby is…?"

Kyle nodded his head as he completed her line.

"I think it was her husband."

Sayin' so, he grasped Selene's arm before he dragged her inside the Guild.

His eyes fell on Gaby who was walking down the stairs.

But, she wasn't alone.

There was a tall, and beautiful red-haired Lohar who was staring at the young receptionist.

Kyle assumed the Lohar to be Laila, the Guildmaster of Vila town, Gaby had been talking about the day before.

Laila had long legs, and her red hair highlighted her fiery temper.

Her presence could be perceived through the entire room.

Owing to his perception, Kyle estimated that she was much stronger than Gaby, but that was not surprising.

He was not interested in knowing more about Laila.

Thus, Kyle took out the list as he approached Gaby's counter.

While she reached her desk and took her seat, he noticed that her mood wasn't good.

Placing the list in addition to the spatial ring on the counter, he smiled at the former guard captain before stating,

"I need everything written on the list, and if possible, a second hunting trip on your next day off!"

Hearing Kyle's confident voice made Gaby look at him in doubt.

She was confused about the spatial ring that he had placed on the counter.

If she recalled correctly, he didn't have one a day before.

Furthermore, his eyes were gleaming lightly as if he wanted to show off something interesting.

​ Kyle seemed to await a reaction from her, at least, if she was reading his expressions and body language correctly.

Yet, her eyes went wide as she read through the long list of items he wished to purchase.

She looked at Kyle with surprise and asked in an astonished voice.

"Blue blaze charcoal….Taaeru sulfur....Fire demon ore?? Why would you need those materials...they're usually used by Rank-2 blacksmiths to create fire-resistant or affine equipment…"

There were only a few beasts with a fire affinity residing in the Sadorla forest.

As such it was useless to create an armor made of the fire demon ore.

Furthermore, neither Kyle nor Selene had a fire affinity seed.

This was weird enough, but when Gaby accessed the spatial ring, her eyes widened in shock.

"Even if I leave out the question of how you obtained this spatial ring...where are the Pryr stones coming from? Are you a secretive young lord who wanted to play around for some time?!?

Kyle found Gaby's assumptions amusing.

But instead of laughing, he turned serious as he answered truthfully,

"Those are the items Gard Jar needs. I've become his apprentice."

Before Gaby could recover from this shocking statement, Kyle delivered another piece of shocking news.

"And Selene has become Mell Jar's apprentice!"

Gaby had already heard about the Jar couple's return, which was the reason for her foul mood.

But thinking that Kyle and Selene had a teacher-apprentice relationship with them astonished Gaby.

"I thought they would never accept an apprentice if it's not La-...."

The moment she blurted out these words, Gaby knew that she had run straight into Kyle's trap.

She had stopped abruptly after realizing what she had inadvertently mentioned.

Kyle's eyes held a glint that told her he was close to figuring out the truth.

However, instead of probing her further which was what the former guard captain expected, Kyle asked something completely different.

"Why have they been thrown out of the Guild?"

His question threw her off-guard as she hadn't expected him to ask this.

Fortunately, she quickly regained her composure and answered without thinking too much.

"Oh..they wanted to kill the guard who gave out wrong information to Dirk during the Blood Nasga's attack. Well...they wanted to kill Dirk too for blindly believing said guard, as well as not listening to Gaby's words, but that's a different matter…"

'So their son was really her husband? Can this even be considered a coincidence or is that fate?' With all the information he received at once, Kyle was able to confirm his theory.

And he had achieved that without directly asking anything.

This had prevented him from hurting lots of people as well as fueling unwanted hatred and agony.

"Just don't let Mell know that we are acquaintances, she hates me for her son's death…" Gaby whispered softly. She then turned around to go to the warehouse where the rare items were stored.

'Sorry, but they already know now!' Kyle mumbled to himself.

Beside him, he saw Selene bubbling with excitement as she was about to start gossiping.

However, before she could do that, Kyle had already covered her mouth with his hand.

"Don't do that, okay? I know you've figured it out, but it's not necessary to talk behind others' backs."

Smiling lightly, he lifted his hand before patting her head.

He could sense someone's gaze on him so he turned around to see who it was.

To his surprise, Vila town's Guildmaster was staring at him.

Meanwhile, Selene whispered in his ears.

"She has been staring at me for the whole time...I don't like her…"

Selene felt intimidated by the fiery Guildmaster's gaze that was boring down on him, seemingly trying to burn his soul.

However, instead of looking away, Kyle kept staring at her.

He gently activated his Nurture ability with a single soul particle.

"Fire affinity seed, but only one cultivation vein?"

It was already astonishing to see a Lohar with an affinity seed, but Laila had only one cultivation vein.

Yet, at the same time, it was evident that she could control the fire affinity seed.

This would mean that Laila's cultivation vein belonged to the path of mana!

'Is she a mutated Lohar without a Pryr cultivation path?'

Kyle was confused, but before he could think further, Gaby had already returned.

"You can find everything on the list inside the spatial ring. I deducted the goods' price already, but you can cross-check if you want."

After placing the spatial ring on the counter, she retracted her hand.

But something overcame her as Kyle grasped the spatial ring.

She placed her hand on the ring and fumbled.

Looking into her eyes, he could see her hesitation.

"Can you...maybe tell the Jars that I'm…..no nevermind…"

Shaking her head, Gaby added before biting her lower lip.

"Forget what I said."

It seemed as if the former guard captain was having an internal debate.

Her face that bore the expressions of worry and despair proved that fact.

Kyle was in no rush to make her reveal the truth if she wasn't comfortable yet.

He knew that sooner or later, she would open up. Hence, he tried to divert her attention to another important topic.

"What about our hunting trip? When do you have time?"

She had momentarily forgotten about their arrangement and visibly calmed down after hearing him.

Nevertheless, she didn't feel like answering him immediately.

Gaby seemed to give it some thought before replying,

"I think I have some time off in two weeks or so…"

Nodding his head, Kyle smiled at Gaby before he bid her farewell, only to add in a whisper.

"Cheer up!" which Selene repeated as well with a bright smile.

**

Two weeks had passed since that day. Now, it was almost time for the second hunting trip with Gaby!

Many things had changed in the span of two weeks.

Overall, Kyle was pleased with himself and Selene.

Both were overjoyed to improve their knowledge every single day.

Instead of going out to hunt beasts and amass soul particles, he and Selene had other things to do.

Nurturing the horned azure fox's potential path could wait.

Thus, they spent most of their time studying.

The two had been a bit annoyed to read through things that seemed to have little to do with auxiliary occupations.

But both their teachers insisted that they should keep learning it, telling them that it was important.

Other than that, they were also learning how to cultivate properly.

This was easier said than done, but Kyle struggled a lot compared to Selene.

He had no guide to help him through the difficulties of cultivating all three cultivation paths at once.

Selene was a little worried too because she was only adept at cultivating with primordial energy.

As such, it was a big change for her to try cultivating with mana.

She had barely learned to use primordial energy a few weeks ago.

Thus, given her current circumstances, it was impossible for her to cultivate with both mana and primordial energy at once.

Initially, Selene was discouraged because of that, but the Jars tried to give her some confidence.

They had been shocked about the truth of her cultivation veins but they had quickly recovered from it.

They were still unsure what exactly Kyle's cultivation path was.

But as long as he was not injured it was fine, even if they couldn't help.

It was different to Selene who they could actually guide and help.

Both Mell and Gard had already reached the Maest Vitae stage at a young age.

Hence, they knew the likely obstacles and the possible ways she could overcome them.

Despite their help, Selene felt more comfortable cultivating the path of Pryr.

It was only obvious because it was difficult to break a habit and come out of one's comfort zone.

Other than cultivating and studying, the two adventurers had also started to learn some techniques.

This included the neutral basic martial art techniques Swift Steps and Deadly assault both of which had a master imprint.

And, both of them gave their utmost efforts to learn the said techniques.

In the end, it was more difficult than they had expected.

Kyle and Selene had been a little disappointed when the 'life-changing' results they had expected to receive never came.

Yet, contrary to their expectations, Mell and Gard were astonished about their high comprehension.

Their teachers informed them that their proficiency was already close to the common proficiency.

However, Kyle couldn't find anything good about that.

He was aware that the ranking of a martial art technique's proficiency started with common.

Thus, he didn't find it to be an extraordinary achievement.

As such, they hadn't even reached the first threshold.

Realizing this caused Selene to feel disappointed as she sighed deeply.

"At least we will go out to hunt with Gaby soon...I don't want to study anymore…"

Selene had expected that she would immediately start learning how to inscribe from day one.

However,  learning things that were completely irrelevant for the auxiliary occupation had made her frown.

Because of that, her mood had slowly plummeted. But, it hit rock bottom on the 14th day since they had agreed to become the Jars' apprentices!

**

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