“Ren,” Julius interrupted again. “We’ve established that I can detect your lies. Why don’t you tell me the truth?”
There was another moment of tense silence before Ren finally sighed.
“There was a mana vein,” he admitted. “A special one. That I wanted to use for my cultivation…”
“And that’s when you found the hydra?”
Ren nodded slowly.
“Show me.”
“What?”
The prince opened his robe, revealing dozens of small vials secured inside. “Medicine for mana poisoning. Enough to keep you safe even at that depth.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed while considering his situation…
“Well?” the prince arched an eyebrow. “Will you show me the way? Or would you prefer we continue this game of half-truths?”
Ren looked at the medicine vials, then at the prince, and finally toward the depths he knew so well.
“The vein is relatively easy to find,” he began slowly.
“Perfect,” Julius took out a vial and offered it to Ren. “Guide me.”
♢♢♢♢
The mushrooms in Ren’s hair pulsed restlessly while he guided the prince through the tunnels. His mind kept circling back to the mantis core he had left dangling and accumulating mana.
‘It shouldn’t be an egg yet,’ he thought as they descended. ‘According to the knowledge… Mana levels indicate it still needs almost 20,000 points to complete the process.’
But the prince was the problem. How would he explain that?
The mushrooms detected a subtle change in mana patterns.
“Everything alright?” the prince noticed his hesitation.
“Yes, your highness,” Ren responded automatically. “Just verifying the safest path.”
‘Although maybe…’ his mushrooms pulsed while considering the possibilities. ‘It wasn’t such a bad situation, if he could use the prince and his potions to collect the core already… Then the mana points saved in medicine and preparations could be injected into the core to finish the process and…’
The prince observed him with interest while they navigated another tunnel crossing. Ren could feel the weight of his evaluating gaze.
‘The core should still be safe… With no monsters having hatching behavior at this depth, the core should maintain its nature. But since that hydra had made it up here… Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to collect a bit earlier if possible.’
Suddenly, the mushrooms pulsed with alarm. Ren stopped dead.
“What’s wrong?” Julius asked, his hand transforming into claws instantly.
“A Deep Assassin,” Ren whispered. “Moving through the side tunnel. If we wait a moment, it will pass without…”
The prince stepped forward, an enigmatic smile on his lips. “No need to wait.”
A golden light emanated from his body while he manifested his beast.
The creature that materialized was something Ren had only seen in books. A sleek and elegant body covered in scales that shone like polished jade. Its horn, long and spiral, emitted an aura of pure power that made Ren’s mushrooms reduce their glow.
A Qilin.
The sacred beast’s aura expanded through the tunnel. Ren felt how the Assassin, a creature that normally feared nothing at this depth, retreated in panic. Its presence quickly vanished in the distance, fleeing from the power that had just manifested.
“Assassins are cowardly creatures,” the prince commented casually while his Qilin remained manifested, its light illuminating the tunnel with a glow greater than Ren’s mushrooms. “So sure of their position in the food chain… until they find something truly superior.”
Ren couldn’t take his eyes off the sacred beast. The mushrooms trying to process the unique mana patterns emanating from the Qilin. But most information concerning a gold beast was beyond their knowledge.
Perhaps the Assassin wasn’t cowardly… maybe it was intelligent.
“It’s…” Ren stopped, searching for the right words.
“First time seeing one?” Julius smiled at his amazement. “Not surprising. Qilin are… the symbol of royalty.”
The mana patterns around the Qilin were different from anything Ren had seen before.
“Let’s continue,” the prince indicated, his Qilin illuminating the way with its golden radiance. “I suspect we won’t have any more interruptions. Beasts tend to avoid me.”
Ren nodded, his mind divided between awe at the beast and concern for his core. At least now they would have a clear path to the vein… though that meant he wouldn’t have excuses to delay the inevitable.
‘I just hope,’ he thought as they resumed their descent, ‘the prince is more interested in the mana vein flow than in any unusual core we might find.’
♢♢♢♢
“What do you know about crown lizards from the western desert?” Julius asked as they advanced, his Qilin still illuminating the way.
“Oh, they’re fascinating,” Ren’s mushrooms pulsed giving him the knowledge enthusiastically. “They have a unique life cycle, they run in circles that they use to create hot air currents. The currents trap insects that…”
The prince observed how the boy described with micrometric precision the habits of a beast he had probably never seen. It was the kind of knowledge you’d only find in specialized texts.
He asked more about iron, bronze, and silver beasts until…
“And the celestial spirit flames of the eastern islands?”
“Liu told me he read a book recently that says they glow with their own light and can levitate using mana currents, although…” Ren hesitated for some reason, “they actually don’t use currents, they project themselves wherever the mana is because they’re pure energy…”
‘Interesting,’ thought Julius. ‘Extensive knowledge but with some weird confusions.’
The prince had thought Ren was wrong when in reality the book Liu had read was the one that was wrong and the boy’s correction was the truth.
The prince, of course… believed the version from the book he had also read.
Zhao had mentioned something similar, how during the expedition, Ren seemed to know too much about some things… But added small outlandish things to the general knowledge.
“What about phoenixes?”
“Ah…” Ren seemed to shrink slightly. “I only know the basics. Gold rank or higher beasts, very powerful, use fire and…”
“And platinum Wyverns?”
“Sorry, your highness. I know even less about those.”
Julius frowned. The contrast was marked, encyclopedic knowledge of common and rare beasts of silver rank and below, but almost nothing about the more powerful gold ones and above.
‘As if someone had poured hundreds of books of lower rank creatures into his head,’ thought the prince. ‘But that doesn’t make sense…’
Records showed Ren came from a modest family. Limited wealth wouldn’t allow the kind of library needed to accumulate such knowledge. And although the academy had an impressive library, the boy hadn’t been there even half a year…
Was he really some kind of genius or…?