Wretched Seeker of the Absolute

The mist had gotten thicker as he ventured deeper into the island. The green, ordinary forest scenery changed into a mysterious but peaceful one. What is unknown is feared, yet this island was different. The thick fog almost rendered Balendon blind to everything ahead of him except some shining flora. There were different colors shining towards different directions: red, blue, green, orange, purple, white, and a few other colors. Balendon liked blue, so he leaned towards it, yet he felt inexpressible disgust as he got closer. He wanted to push his limits yet gave up after vomiting and fell back. He was at the spot where he could see all the color paths again.

He tried green but stopped immediately after feeling even the slightest bit of disgust. He went towards red for the third time and felt a sense of comfort. Before proceeding through, he tried all the other colors just to be sure, but red was the only one giving him pleasant feelings. Meanwhile, he was 'understanding' how this mist was working. It wasn't made by natural causes or mana; world force was used in creating it. Unlike mana, which is constantly undone by nature, world force was accepted as nature, just like flames when he conjured them. Surprised by the possibility of other world force users existing after the great devastation, he focused more on this craft.

He continued following the red shining flora, which seemed to be leading to something. He did not care since he started to enjoy the addictive and comfortable feeling. Suddenly, an ear-shattering voice echoed in the mist and said, "Those who chose the path of comfort are not worthy of this island!" A line of red light of some sort appeared out of nowhere and cut Balendon from the shoulder. He heard the "plop" of his shoulder and his arm still attached to it hitting the ground. He was bleeding fast but regenerating faster. He could bear the pain since he had endured worse. He could try to assess the situation and try to fight back, but the mist blocked all his senses, even the world force sensing abilities.

Since he heard someone speaking, he could assume 'someone' was actually attacking him and that someone would not expect anyone to survive this type of cut. He stopped his bleeding and fell to the ground playing dead, trying to conceal his mana and world force while adjusting himself to this mist. He did a half-assed job, which was better than nothing considering his situation. And he was right! Trying to fight an unknown enemy under an ambush was a bad idea. He started feeling his surroundings with the little world force he could not conceal.

The caster of the fog must have stopped casting the fog actively, so he could hear several different voices of four people approaching him. One was a woman and said, "Master Stan, you should not push yourself like this! Let us help with the array too!" The man called 'Stan' sounded like a middle-aged man. Balendon could not see them but could sense the world force in them as they were also world essence users like him. "This is going to be tough," he thought.

One of the women approached Balendon and said, "Too much blood! I bet he dried up before dying. We can't squeeze out any to continue testing blood essence abilities." The man replied with an exhausted voice, "Respect the dead, Frela. Bury him at the outskirts and give him a proper funeral, even though he does not deserve it." The last few words snapped something in Balendon's mind. Yet again he was treated as a piece of trash! How dare they! Who decides who deserves what?!

He started absorbing insane amounts of world force instantly. As this woman called 'Frela' approached within his arm's range, the guy named Stan shouted, "Frela, get back!" But it was too late. Since Balendon regenerated his lost arm in a second in a position where he could hold the woman's ankle. It was as if an arm holding her ankle appeared from nowhere. The woman got surprised and tried to step back instinctively, but before she could comprehend what was going on, she was set ablaze. Then Balendon leaped towards the other woman holding the man, from the ground like a frog, and drew his sword mid-air.

Before he could reach his sword to the woman's neck, he heard a shout from the guy, which bounced him back a few meters away. Balendon stood up. Two parties stared towards each other briefly while Frela was screaming ablaze. The next second, Balendon leaped again to be stopped by the third woman as the second woman healed Frela. Stan spat some blood. Apparently, he was the strongest yet was overexerting himself, so Balendon thought he could have a chance. It was strange that someone who could use world force would have setbacks. Would Balendon also get setbacks if he overused it? Now was not the time to think about that.

His sword shattered after a brief time of clashing with the third woman, and she cut his arm again. They were not even using skills yet. He leaped back and regenerated his arm. He had lost everything due to the storm except the swords on his belt, one of which was lost now as well. After a quick planning session, he prepared to leap again to avoid the second woman and aim for Frela and the woman who was healing her, but Stan shouted, "Stop!"

Balendon shouted back angrily, "Now you want to stop after you tried to dispose of me like a piece of trash?!" and continued his attack. This time he made a second and third leap to distract his opponent and headed straight for Frela, who was almost healed. He drew his second sword, cut her arm, and went for the healer immediately. As he swung his sword towards the healer like a savage beast, the healer got into a position to bounce back his sword. Balendon saw this during his fight against wildlings in the north. It was a defensive skill. Then the healer shouted at Balendon to paralyze him.

In that brief moment, the fighter woman caught up with Balendon and sliced both of his legs. Balendon tried to leap backward with his arms while healing his legs, but he got impaled by spear-shaped mana spikes, which appeared from the ground. He healed his legs but was unable to move. Stan said, "Don't kill him!" Balendon started feeling mana chains wrapping around his body. Frela came up to him, touching his head with hateful rage.

Balendon started feeling sleepy and lost consciousness. The next thing he sensed was being chained, impaled, and underground somewhere in darkness. As he tried to escape the chains, he made a sound which triggered some steps in front of him behind a wall or something. He tried to spit out fire to get some light, but whenever he wanted to utilize the world force, the chains sucked away his powers and he started bleeding. It would be a good idea to keep the world force inside the body away from the chains wrapping and the spears impaling him.

After a moment, some amount of rock in front of him disappeared and became a door. Light was coming in, and it blinded him. Then the rock reappeared, and the light was gone. In this pitch-black room, Balendon could sense Stan. "I will forgive you for hurting my apprentices if you forgive me for mistreating you, friend," he said.

Balendon could only hear and speak. There was no other sense he could feel. He could not even feel the space he was in. "That is not how you apologize, 'friend'," he replied. This guy did not kill him this time. He wanted to learn the reason, but he was just annoying him.

Stan, also sounding annoyed, said, "I could just kill you and stop wasting my time. You should know the situation you are in."

Balendon just shouted a simple "Fuck you." After Balendon's response, Stan continued calmly, "I misunderstood you at first, trying to seek the power in this island and put you into trial. It seemed unnecessary since you already have the power of this island. I'm sure you know what I mean. Since we are fellow people who have touched the secrets of the world, we need not any hostility between us. I apologize for treating you like a normal person. My name is Stan Crowfed. I am a former disciple of the goddess of life and dimensions, Aelin, and this is the Island of Rebirth. I would like us to be friends."

Hearing Aelin's name softened Balendon, as it would happen with any Elisyson. He sure had the title to be arrogant yet now he was humble. There was no reason to continue being uncivilized, Balendon thought, since Aelin was the most revered goddess for Elisysons among the ten divines. It is said that she gave her life to save the people of the north by opening a portal to guide them to the southern islands. Just by saying her name, one could gain the attention of any Elisyson and get them to listen to what they said.

"My name is Balendon. I don't have a surname since I was born as an orphan in Galenar," Balendon calmed down. This guy was important. He continued, "I apologize for my behavior also. I am the trespasser here. I can't blame you for being hostile."

As he finished his sentence, the spears disappeared and the chains retreated. A soothing and refreshing feeling flowed through Balendon, which made him think of a reward and punishment system. He could behave and get his answers the easy way, but at what cost? He wondered.

The room they were in opened as the walls disappeared. They were still in the same spot they had fought at. Balendon could still see his arm and legs on the ground as well as Frela's. The brief seconds of their fight looked like a savage bloodbath. There were tens of women with almost identical clothing except for differences in small details.

Stan continued, "Friend, may I ask whose disciple you are? How did you obtain such comprehension of world essence to utilize its force in that way?"

Frela spoke before Balendon could answer, saying, "He looks like a follower of Minana. Who else could throw arms and legs that fast?"

Minana was the goddess of vitality and healing, and her followers were often sex-driven people, so Frela's assumption, which she made to mock Balendon, was accurate but ultimately wrong.

Balendon chose to be honest this time and said the truth starting from his 'descend' to the spring. Stan was terrified by this revelation. Stunned and shocked, he called out to the women on the island, "My apostles! Erase your memory of this moment for your own good!"

Balendon was surprised by Stan's behavior as he focused on everyone else's world force utilization to confirm if they erased their memories or not. Then Stan dismissed all his apostles to have a private talk with Balendon.

"Do not tell this to anyone else—not even the deities themselves, which you might meet sooner than expected. This is very important, my friend. You cannot be dragged into the conflict they have since you yourself have the potential to become one of them... No, you can even be stronger given time since their comprehension is limited.

"As Aelin told me once, they had soul shards of their predecessors filled with knowledge and profession that would give them immense power at once, yet they could not learn any other professions. If what you said is true, if you can sense world essence in the air, your comprehension is unbound! You only need time and correct knowledge to improve yourself."

Stan explained how world force worked from his perspective. Gods and goddesses could utilize world force and create things under their knowledge and have unlimited sources like Balendon, yet they could not comprehend one another's professions since the shards they took also shaped their souls according to their profession. Their disciples, such as Stan, could only learn skills and utilize them with world force instead of mana.

Balendon, on the other hand, could sense world force, shape it into his imagination, and possibly have unlimited access to it. He just needed to know how to do so. This was both the biggest power-up and worst handicap to an illiterate colony bumpkin like him.

"Am I not superpowered then?" Balendon got excited like a small child who was tricked by his parents into thinking he could throw people with the flick of a finger.

"You sound too confident for a person who was at my mercy a moment ago," Stan said to humble him. He was right. Balendon needed time. Stan promised to help him stay under the radar and teach him what he knew.

"The problem is, I have no knowledge shards, so you have to learn through long training sessions."

Balendon did not find the idea enticing. However, as part of him sought the easy way, he asked, "What is a knowledge shard?"

Stan was not surprised at his level of ignorance and replied patiently to every one of his questions. A knowledge shard was an item containing the purest form of someone's knowledge, experience, and memory on a matter. The great devastation caused the loss of this wisdom, so people turned to skill scrolls as substitutes. They were efficient but not nearly as effective as knowledge shards.

Balendon could still find them in ancient ruins where they were run by ancient technology, some even still intact. It was how the ten deities found the spring of the world after they raided an ancient library and stumbled upon its location.

Balendon still had many questions but no time. He learned whatever he could from Stan. Since there wasn't a knowledge shard, he could only learn history and regrets the hard way—by listening!

The times before the great devastation were pure chaos. Hostile to each other, city-states with their unique civilizations would lock themselves in against unending, constant invasions of monsters led by disciples of ancient gods, even older than the ten divines, and fight each other at every chance to steal each other's technology to gain an edge in everything.

Balendon was surprised that Lumenans were unknown during Stan's time and that the ten gods and goddesses were actually enemies to each other who met on the battlefield and then teamed up to end the chaotic times. After they got their powers, internal strife began again, which led to the great devastation.

Stan, after seeing a Lumenan sword, felt disgust as Balendon did, yet he admitted that in some ways, it was better than their swords from back in time. For example, Lumenan swords were lighter and sharper but less durable and slightly worse in energy conductivity than Stan's sword.

Balendon's eyes shined like a puppy wanting a bone, yet Stan killed that expectation fast by saying, "I don't know how to forge a sword. Yet maybe if you go to the ruins of Castanar, you might find some knowledge shards."

Balendon needed to find these knowledge shards to get stronger. Stan described to Balendon how to find the ruins of Castanar, and Balendon put it on his list to visit. "After a quick detour to the south, of course," he thought. The journey was already becoming fruitful.

He had to learn the core of the current civilization before venturing further north, towards history's backward secrets. He had a clear goal now and several other goals to follow one after another.