Celestie Temple

"Goddamn, how can a half-breed human be this clueless? Whatever, it's not shameful to not know—it's shameful not to learn. First, let me tell you about the elf races: Moonlight Elves, Sunfire Elves, Water Elves, Earth Elves, Storm Elves, and High Elves. Those are the six elf races, but sadly, the High Elves' lineage was wiped out in the Great War. We Moonlight Elves use illusion magic, so we focus more on martial arts. Our strength over other races is that we become incredibly powerful under a full moon since we draw our power from moonlight. High Elves had spirit eyes and found it extremely difficult to have children. The spirit eyes I mentioned let them see mana and souls. Elves, being bound to a single source from birth, use spirit magic to compensate for their weaknesses. You probably don't even know what spirit magic is," he said, glancing at Theodoras.

"What's spirit magic?" Theodoras asked, and Keykhosrev jumped in. "Spirit magic is controlling the souls within objects to shape them. It has various branches, but for now, knowing this much is more than enough for you. High Elves were a race far superior to even dragons in wielding spirit magic," Keykhosrev explained, while Theodoras listened in awe.

Thanks to Keykhosrev, Theodoras had learned a bit more about himself, which sparked a sense of gratitude toward Keykhosrev. As a young mind eager to learn, Theodoras asked more questions. "So, how can I learn spirit magic?"

Keykhosrev felt pleased hearing Theodoras' response because, as someone who loved curious people and teaching, the chance to train a young individual with strange abilities and the heritage of different races was a rare opportunity. A sly smile spread across Keykhosrev's face. "Alright, I'll teach you a few things later, but first, go catch us some fish," Keykhosrev said, turning to Theodoras.

Meanwhile, Lily was still grieving Amy's death and was also furious. She believed Aleria had orchestrated everything, and she wasn't wrong. Even if Amy wasn't truly dead, she was officially considered dead, leaving the stage to Aleria. The tears in Lily's eyes carried both sorrow and rage.

"Mr. Keykhosrev, I've never fished before. I don't know how to fish," Theodoras admitted hesitantly, as he both wanted Keykhosrev to teach him and felt like a burden.

"No problem, half-breed, you'll learn. Don't be so timid. To learn something, you need to be a bit bold—though 'bold' isn't quite the right word, it's easier to describe it that way. And just call me Keykhosrev; I don't like unnecessary respectful titles," Keykhosrev said. His words managed to ease Theodoras' nerves a little, but calling him Keykhosrev directly felt impossible. After all, Keykhosrev was much older and incredibly powerful. "Mr. Keykhosrev, that would be disrespectful," Theodoras replied.

"Suit yourself," Keykhosrev said.

The trio— Theodoras, Lily, and Keykhosrev—walked for a while until they reached a lake. Lily hadn't spoken the entire way, silently wiping her tears as she walked. Theodoras was worried but didn't know how to comfort her and felt it wasn't his place to interfere.

Keykhosrev raised his hand, and suddenly the air by the lake's edge began to shimmer and ripple. Following the vibration in the air, a massive structure appeared. It was one of Celestie's ancient temples. In the city of Celestie, this lake, called Aduax, had once held sacred significance because it reflected the light of Aduax. Built long before even the Great War, the structure was mentioned in some archaeology books, but people had failed to locate a temple in this region. The area was also home to numerous monsters, so research efforts had been abandoned. The structure rose along the lake's shore, its reflection stretching across the water. It consisted of tiered terraces, each like a different biome, adorned with various hanging plants. The entrance was grand and faced the opposite direction of the river. In front of the entrance stood ten pairs of ten-meter-high stone pillars, arranged symmetrically. The ground was decorated with intricate stone patterns, and the pillars were inscribed with strange runes. The structure was massive and ancient, yet it stood perfectly intact.

Theodoras and Lily could only stare in shock at the enormous structure that had appeared out of nowhere. It was Theodoras' first time witnessing illusion magic, and even Lily had never seen such a large-scale illusion spell. In Celestie, mages typically trained with the sun as their source, so spells related to the moonlight source, the opposite of the sun, were rarely used except by some jesters for show.

Theodoras' eyes widened. "This is my first time seeing illusion magic. Magic is truly incredible."

Lily's reaction wasn't much different; she too stared in amazement. "I knew you were an incredibly skilled martial artist, but I didn't know you were this proficient in both martial arts and magic," she said, looking at Keykhosrev. Though Lily had thought of Keykhosrev as narcissistic, selfish, and carefree, and thus didn't respect him, as a mage, she now felt respect for him.

"This is nothing but a drop in the ocean for me, youngsters. Don't make a big deal out of it," Keykhosrev said. Lily narrowed her eyes in disappointment; his attitude was getting on her nerves.

Theodoras, with an eager tone, asked, "Mr. Keykhosrev, when will you teach me how to fish?"

Keykhosrev looked at Theodoras as if he'd said something absurd, finding his question foolish. "What, teach you how to fish? Figure it out yourself, half-breed. If you can't handle something like this, forget about learning spirit magic."

The purple stone on the ring on Keykhosrev's right index finger glowed, and a metal bucket and a worn, simple fishing rod appeared in the air before falling to the ground. Theodoras had never seen a dimensional ring before, and despite being shocked multiple times that day, he couldn't help but be amazed again. "Mr. Keykhosrev, I've never heard of a spell like this. What is it?" he asked.

Keykhosrev was growing tired of Theodoras' questions. Though he had told Theodoras that striving to learn was a good thing, the barrage of questions was starting to wear him out. Still, talking to other people after so long felt good to him. "You foolish half-breed, are you sure you're a High Elf? You might be the most ignorant and clueless High Elf I've ever seen. This is a dimensional ring. The spell sealed in the ring's stone allows you to use an advanced dimensional pocket spell with minimal mana, but it's quite an expensive item." Keykhosrev flashed his usual sly grin.

Theodoras, despite Keykhosrev explaining basic knowledge that everyone knew, looked at him with admiration and praised him. Lily watched them in disgust, shocked, but said nothing, her mood still low. She sat by the lake's edge and stared at the water.

Theodoras picked up the wooden fishing rod and bucket, sat a little distance from Lily by the lake, and cast the line into the water without bait. "Lily, how does this thing work?" he asked.

Lily looked up at Theodoras. "You need to put bait on the hook and then wait until a fish bites."

Theodoras had no idea what fish ate. "What do fish eat?" he asked.

Despite her low spirits, Lily always tried to be kind and avoid hurting others. "Hmm, it depends on the fish. For carnivorous fish, you can use bloodworms on the hook. For herbivorous fish, you need vegetables, like lettuce or carrots. Actually, you could use mana to catch a water monster instead of bait, but that rod wouldn't withstand it."

Theodoras was thoroughly confused. He couldn't find vegetables in the middle of the forest, so he'd have to look for bloodworms, but he had no idea how to do that. "Lily, how can I catch bloodworms?" he asked.

"It's a bit hard to find them in this area, but there's a chance. I think they live nearby, but this lake is so clean that finding them will be tough. If you do find some, you can put them in a container and breed them to multiply," Lily said.

Theodoras was amazed at how knowledgeable Lily was about everything. "Thanks, Lily, you're amazing. How do you know so much?"

Lily suddenly grinned shyly. "Well, being a noble lady is tough. Most of my days were spent with lessons." Realizing she was acting like Keykhosrev, she quickly composed herself, cleared her throat, and, understanding how Keykhosrev must feel, muttered under her breath, "I'm starting to see Mr. Jafar-i's point now."

It was hard to hear what she said, and even harder to understand. Theodoras, completely clueless about her words, asked, "Lily, did you say something?"

"Oh, no, nothing," Lily said, smiling awkwardly.

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I haven't been able to post a new chapter for a long time. I apologize to everyone who reads it. I was always late for chapters, maybe a day or two, but this one was delayed a lot.I have been away for more than two weeks, please excuse me, in the meantime I wish a happy Easter to all our Christian brothers and sisters.