Meeting 'her'

The wind softened, caressing his face and neck suggestively. It felt like a hand was busy stroking him without any physical presence.

Surrdon's eyelids split open, fury burning in eyeballs dangerously.

   He quickly slid off the rock and examined his surroundings, his hands in tight balls.

      "Come out before I hurt you!"

His voice boomed, emitting a trace of mana around his body without his knowledge.

  He couldn't see a thing in the shadows, and that was worse than coming face-to-face with an enemy.

   From the forest, a figure emerged floating in the air without using any sword or cloud. A white glowing silk stole was fluttering around her shoulders and behind her head gracefully. She drifted about swiftly just like the wind. Her long black hair remained intact despite the motion through the air from years of practice.

   Surrdon's frown dissipated upon setting his eyes on the girl.

Her skin was fair as the happy clouds, her eyes spaced just right to accommodate the charming button nose. The pink color of her lips seemed natural and attractive.

    She set her bare feet on the ground before Surrdon and the golden light from the lamp hanging by the post illuminated her features better than before.

  He was left speechless for the first time since he came to Agrerea.

The young woman standing in front of him had a special aura, but a much special appearance. He had seen a lot of stunning women before from both lives, but the mischief radiating from her blue eyes made his heart tug. A feeling that was completely new to him.

     "Uh...um...who-ahem!"

The girl giggled amused by the shy confusion glimmering in his eyes.

   She stood on her toes and reached out, gently clearing the white hair strands from the right side of his face.

    "You must be the new defiant disciple."

"It was you?" He questioned recollecting his courage and dominant demeanor.

    "My name is Nuo."

Unlike most of the disciples Surrdon had met, he could not sense Nuo's power or any hostility. From the wind encounter, he could feel she was a bundle of mischief walking around the sect.

  "What are you doing on this side? It's so late."

He didn't want any trouble from the strict rules in the sect, especially being accused of fooling around with a girl. He knew he had to get rid of her as soon as possible before any of his senior brothers heard her.

    "Nothing. I was walking around for air."

His brow rose suspiciously, "And you happened to come to this area, and undress-"

   She shot up on her toes again and pressed her palm on his mouth as her cheeks started turning pink from embarrassment.

   Her eyes remained on his chest, till Surrdon grasped her wrist and pushed her away from him.

Nuo stretched her open right palm and a small green bottle appeared. "I brought you this. I heard some disciples gossip about you," she admitted in a shaking voice.

Surrdon stared down at the curved bottle and then at her flushed face.

    He might have been a virgin, but her reaction to the moment was a little too intense.

    "What is this and why do you give it to me? We have never met before."

  Nuo looked to the side, heat corrupting her face. This was the first time she had been nice to a man, and it made her stomach flood with anxiety.

   "You...these are condensation pills. And I'm helping you because...because you're good-looking!" She blurted and tossed the bottle at him.

   As he raised his hands to catch the delicate porcelain bottle, Nuo quickly took off, flying away speedily without any goodbye.

He studied the cool bottle, then at the direction she had flown to and a half smile appeared on his lips. Being attractive would be a little beneficial if he could get such offerings. But looks without power still meant...nothing.

      Surrdon went back to the rock and sat cross-legged. He eyed the phoenix that he had named, Bluey from its color and diverted his focus on the bottle in hand.

Pop!

He pulled the wooden cap to peek.

  A strong energizing scent rose in the air, infiltrating his nostrils till it reached his sigils. They reacted too suddenly, emitting a warm hungry sensation that made his entire body crave whatever was in the bottle.

    He turned the bottle upside down, spilling the five pills on his open palm. They were perfectly spherical, green in color with a single black line circumnavigating each of them.

'Am I supposed to swallow them? Should I even consume them right no-'

  Homph!

Bluey snatched two pills and devoured them with raw greed.

  It was about to eat the rest but Surrdon moved his hand in time frowning at the bird.

   He grabbed it harshly.

"Spit them out right now!"

It stopped chewing and swallowed under his bitter glare.

   Burp!

"Argh!" He tossed it on the other side of the rock to fan his nose, "Disgusting... You'll pay for that later you little freeloader."

Bluey answered with another burp, and closed her eyes without any worry.

Surrdon muttered a curse and chose to deal with it once he figured out how to absorb the pills. His eyes shut and then opened, the demonic sight slipping in.

It aided him in seeing the spilling aura from the pills, urging him to eat them that instant least he implode from the spiritual hunger flowing through him.

Clearing the doubts from his mind, Surrdon threw all three pills in his mouth and gulped swallowing them.

A bitter taste was left on his tongue, making him grimace. He hated sour things, they always made him want to vomit his entire digestive system.

The air around him changed, he could now sense the raw energy from deep beneath the ground, from the atmosphere, from the trees and mountains far away. He relaxed and invited the energy in, and it obeyed his call. It began flowing towards him, before penetrating his body, his veins and his, sigils.

His first sigil formed below him, rotating at a slow pace. Ten glowing chains appeared from it to wind around his body. Four of them snapped breaking, indicating that he was halfway to unlocking the sigil to reap the benefits left behind by his predecessor.

A wide smile appeared, feeling satisfied with the little progress he had made despite his level remaining a mere, one. But, he did not mind that people would look down on him because of the false level, after all, he hadn't joined the sect to please the humans.

After a while month, he had made a small breakthrough. The pride filling his heart made him shout a "Yes!" to the sleeping world.

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