Astral Plane

'Ugh. W-Where am I?'

I could hear the sound of grasses move swiftly by the wind, birds chirp, the water flow down the stream in rhythmic waves.

I slowly opened my eyes. I was met with the clear blue skies and that means I was lying down faced up.

But I couldn't see clearly, everything was blurry.

'Ti-ting'

A smooth notification sound was heard, It felt soothing to the ear since it was calm and pleasant; not like its original counterpart.

[You have entered the Astral Plane: Time Rift]

[You can only maintain soul form for 2 minutes]

[Time Left: 02:00]

"I'm surprised. You came here this early."

I heard a youthful male voice that sounded so familiar but unfamiliar at the same time.

The individual approached me but with my blurred eyes I couldn't make out his body and face, only his frame.

"Listen to what I have to tell you since you don't have time. Son."

'Ah... Yes. It's just Dad.' My body, my reasoning, my emotions didn't work here. But,

'It's Dad!!' I couldn't easily forget someone I treated wrongly.

I tried to call and shout his name to ask him why he didn't fight back at those guys, but my voice didn't seem to leave my head. Although I knew I shouted, I also knew it didn't come out from my mouth.

"Listen attentively, Danton. I'm sure you know who I really am, and I know you know what you are." His voice sounded so serious for the first time.

"There is someone that is looking for us and won't stop at any means until he finds us." He continued.

"My father, King Arthur, disappeared because of it and I got ambushed by the same person's plot." King Arthur is his father? I even thought we were descendants.

"Her real identity is still unknown so be wary of whom you tread with and follow the path I've set out for you; it is to show you things I can't explain here."

[Time Left: 00:05]

"And be good to your mother."

'4...3...2...1…0...'

I suddenly felt sleepy once again and slowly closed my eyes.

***

BEN GRAY

'No! No! No! This is unacceptable!'

I thought while constantly redoing the basic fighting skills Danny taught me.

'How could I not protect him when I needed to!'

I was in the forest I took them to. I've been training non-stop ever since I heard the beast Danny was talking about was an evolved beat that gave him life-threatening injuries.

'I need to grow stronger.'

I pondered on the thought and remembered when Elise said Danton just appeared in front of her using magic.

'I will learn magic.'

I only know one spell, and it is wind magic; it's the one I used to reduce my speed, so it won't seem I'm too fast, and because of that Danton has never seen me run at my fastest.

*Bush ruffles*

Since I am half-dragon I have very keen hearing, sense of smell and feel of my surroundings.

"How long will you hide?" I asked the air and faced the direction of where I felt a presence hide.

"Haha... Kids these days." The voice sounded old and female.

The person that is behind the bush I am looking at stood up. It's the librarian.

"Librarian?!" I said in shock, wondering why she was stalking me.

"Ah! Just call me Vivian and pardon me for stalking you, it's just that I know you have a special latent power inside you." She started walking towards me intently.

"I really don't think I do." I have to feign ignorance because Kreiss told me to keep the fact that I am half-dragon a secret. He said researchers and scientists will give anything to have their hands on me.

"I can teach you some magic spells, if you don't mind." Vivian said, kindly.

"Thank you, but I know that magic can't be taught." I rejected her offer. She's a librarian, and I'm sure she knows that too.

"I am also a wizard, so I know how to give you pointers." She refuted my rejection in her kind tone.

I wonder why she wants to help me this much.

"So shall we begin?" She asked.

"Y-Yeah." I don't feel safe with this woman. She looks like she's putting up a facade.

She brought out a magic stone made through alchemy, to check the magic type my magic is aligned to. The magic stone doesn't show your magic type, it only shows its path it follows among the five basic magic types.

The stone just stores the mana you put in and shows you it's colour. If I was a fire type mage and I infuse my mana it is going to have a shade of red; but if I am magma it will have a shade of green, signifying earth type-magic and red.

Fire is red, Water is blue, Earth is green, Air is yellow, and Abstract is white.

As I held the magic stone it dragged mana out from my body, which made me feel uneasy. Soon enough I could see a leaf shape made of yellow and of white separated evenly.

"You have the magic type of wind and an abstract element. Congratulations you are a dual-elemental mage." The old woman congratulated me and said that dual-magic type mages are only 200 out of 1000 in the world currently.

She started giving me pointers on spell casting and telling me what I should do to get a certain desired effect from my spells.

Soon enough I learnt how to throw a ball of wind, but it dissipates after moving one metre.

I continued under her guidance and I learnt how to shape the wind into anything I want.

The day is already about to go dark, but I still didn't want to stop. Vivian forced me to go home by saying that magic can't function well if the body isn't rested.

I bid her goodbye and headed home feeling happy that I can now broaden my skill sets, and even infuse magic into my fighting skills to make me faster and to add more damage.

I got back home and met Elise there for some reason.

"Welcome back Ben." She greeted me, but I couldn't keep my cool like Danny does in front of girls.

"H-How is Danny doing?" I asked her and unknowingly blushed when my eyes met hers.

"He is fine. He said he needed some rest, so we left the room." She spoke in her ever cute and caring tone.

"W-Why are you still here?" I couldn't help but ask because it's awkward for her to be here this late.

"I-I am taking care of Danny." She blushes just by calling his name, this girl.

"D-Don't worry I can take it from he--" I wasn't even allowed to finish my sentence.

"Ben! When did you get back?" Danny's mother asked like she was scared I ran away or someone.

"I just arrived earl--" Before I could finish answering her question she hugged me and was crying.

"Please Ben. Don't get yourself killed. The world is dangerous. Always choose the safe method." She spoke like the ever caring and loving mother she is.

For the first time in my life I felt what a mother's love is. I was so happy.

"I won't get myself killed. I promise." I reassured her.

She stood up straight and wiped her tears then looked at Elise.

"Elise, thank you for all your help today. I really appreciate you saving my son."

"Actually ma'am it's the other way around." Elise said in her ever caring and loving tone, it made her look so... beautiful.

No! No! No! What are you doing Ben? You're supposed to get stronger not chase girls.

"I will be taking my leave now. I will come by tomorrow to check up on Danny." Elise already started walking toward to the exit.

"I will e-escort you!" Sincerely, I couldn't believe I just said that.

"Ok. Thank you." Elise bid Danny's mother goodbye again then we started our journey.

The first few metres we walked no one spoke, until.

"How long have you two known each other?" Elise asked me, trying to bring up a conversation.

"Six years now." I didn't look at her face to answer, and I spoke with a stoic expression on my face.

"How did you two meet?"

"His father brought me in after my parents died." Her cheerful expression crumbled as I answered her.

"His father must be great. Where is he now?"

"He's dead. He died last week. A few hours before we came to the library." I limited the amount of information I let her know but as I finished she had a tearful expression on her face.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. It must've been hard for you." That last part made me dumbfounded, no one consoled me when he died and yet this girl in front of me cares about what I felt. But another person deserved such treatment better.

"You should have seen Danton. He became crazy." She made the same expression like before as we walked.

We chatted some more till we reached her house.

"Thank you, Ben. You're a nice person." She entered her gigantic house after speaking.

I-I'm a nice person! I seriously couldn't believe someone who has barely known me for more than a week told me I was a nice person.

I went back home feeling joyful, but as I entered the house I became awe struck because I couldn't believe my eyes. Danton was already fine despite all the injuries.