Nura

In the outskirts of Earthly Transition Sect, Ryu stopped before entering the sect city and stored his sword, entering the city by foot. It wasn't that there was a rule forbidding entry into the city flying or that he wanted to keep it a secret that he reached level 10, but that enter flying into a city can be considered rude in many ways.

According to the procedure, Ryu should go straight to the management hall and inform his return, but he was anxious to see Nura and ask the village.

Then he walked home, reached before one house that was a perfect copy of all the others, and used his token to unlock the formations on the door.

When Ryu entered home, he found all the furniture pushed to the sides, and Nura was seated cross-legged in the middle of the room, with his eyes closed cultivating, encircling him, a dozen round stones in a circular pattern.

For a moment, Ryu paused at the front door to watch the other cultivating. When he raised his concentration to see the atmosphere qi, he saw a faint stream of qi flowing, heading to Nura, and recognized the rocks as beast cores.

Ryu closed the door and walked to the couch at one side of the room, where we waited seated when Nura absorbed the essence contained whiting each of the rocks. He didn't know how the other obtained so many cores, but it explained how he acquired enough qi to reach level 19 in such a short time.

Barely half an hour later, all the rocks turned into dust when the flow of qi finished, and Nura opened his eyes. At first, Nura took a jolt in a scare when he saw a man sitting on his couch watching him, but he quickly noticed it was Ryu, and raised smiling, greeting him.

"How was your training with your master?" at some point, Nura asked.

But, before Ryu could answer, he recollected all the suffering and psychological abuse his master submitted him, and his face turned sullen, "I prefer if we don't talk about this.".

"It was that bad them. I was worried since we met him in that quarry. He looked really, how can I say ... rude." Nura said.

"Rude doesn't even start describing, but tell me how was in the village." Ryu shifted the topic.

"There were no problems there. Thanks to you, most of the lizards changed directions, and Luise, with Cahya, injured the remaining lizards coming for the village. When they finally arrived, we were already prepared to deal with them." Nura then explained how he fought the lizards.

"Thank you for saving them, Nura. I am in debt with you." Ryu said.

"Stop with that. We are friends. And besides, I've profited greatly from that adventure, thanks to you. But tell me, what happened in the quarry, and how did you found that master." Nura said.

"I wasn't expecting that the leader could cover that distance jumping, but it did." Ryu explained his fight with the lizard and how he woke in a cave with an unknown man who self-declared his master.

"What? I didn't know you didn't know him. Otherwise, I would have sent help from the sect. He was so convincing, dammit." Nura said.

"It's fine, but it reminds me of something. Are you still on to using a club as a weapon?" Ryu asked.

"I am still thinking about it, and I am inclined to do so. It is a tough decision because I can't waste my precious essence points, but why do you ask?" Nura asked.

"Even with that amount of beast cores? You should have used a large amount of these, and it looks that you still have a fair amount." Ryu commented.

"No, this is just an allowance I made in the family vault before leaving. They should help me reach a decent level, but not enough to compensate for our lack of affinity. Besides, my family won't share more of those with me." Nura said.

"This 'allowance' you said. Did you stole the cores?" Ryu asked.

"No, you don't understand, it's complicated. Those cores should be mine to begin." Nura said defensively.

"Okay, I don't want to know about complicated things right now. I asked about it because I've prepared a gift for you." Ryu said, picking the club from his ring and throwing it for Nura.

Nura Picked the club midair and inspected the weapon from all sides, then his eyes started to shine, and his body swang with emotion. After looking at the weapon carefully, Nura went to the runes, inspecting every single one of them like a jeweler making a ring.

"These inscriptions are awesome. I don't even know what they do, but I can tell that the one who made them is a true master, look at these carvings. You don't know yet, but I've picked inscriptionist as a profession recently." Nura said.

After looking at each rune individually, Nura grabbed the club by the hilt and started to swing the weapon testing its balance, which caused Ryu to remember something.

Until in one of the swings, the club went too far and ended up touching a table at one of the sides, producing a low sound. When Ryu and Nura looked at the table, worried about having damaged it.

And a single moment later, the table exploded on the spot that Nura hit it with the club, making pieces of wood fly everywhere. With a loud sound of a small explosion, the two jumped scared while wood barbs damaged the furniture.

"Wow, what was that?" Nura asked.

"I remember now. Master said you should take care with this club." Ryu said.

"Shouldn't you have warned me when you handed me the club?" Nura asked.

"Anyway, that was very cool. Your club has an explosion effect with a slight delay. Can you imagine the uses?" Ryu said.

Nura's smile turned even bigger, holding the club with extreme care, he couldn't even start saying how much he liked the weapon and the uses he was planing for it.

"By the way, do you know where Luise is? I have something I want her to inspect." Ryu asked.

"Luise? Yes, she should be with Cahya. They have become very close. We can go to her house if you want to." Nura said, waking from a trance, excited with his weapon, but then he paused and seemed to have remembered something "Oh no, better we don't go there.".

"What's up?" Ryu asked.

"It happens that we met your friends at the village." Nura said.

"But why this is a problem, they are nice, and ..." Ryu started to say, but when a possibility surged in his mind, he froze and asked, afraid of the answer, "Did she met Anne?"

"For your safety, I recommend caution when you approach Cahya." Nura said.

"Is it that bad?" Ryu asked.

"Yes." Nura's answer came straight, shattering all of Ryu's hopes.

But when Ryu was afraid to go and face his destiny, a loud bang started knocking on the door. Someone was hitting it frenetically.

*Bang, Bang, Bang...*

Ryu and Nura looked at each other with their eyes wide open.