Journey Of A Legend

"What is happening here?"

Lowering his hand which held the fruit, Wayne looked quite confused and tried to figure out the current happenings.

Russ turned his gaze toward Wayne, and the moment he saw the heart-shaped fruit in his hand he became instantly dead silent.

"What?", asked Wayne with a frown, but when he saw the remaining fruits on the table and Greg's figure on the ground he suddenly realized something.

"Oh..."

Russ seeing Wayne's enlightened expression, shook his head helplessly and looked back at Greg.

Watching as the black smoke around his body started to cover his whole figure slowly, Russ squinted his eyes and said calmly, "It seems one of his Soul Creature's ability activated on its own because of the poison. Can it cure him? Let's hope the best."

Because he knew he couldn't make the antidote in time now, Russ stepped closer to Greg's body and started to inspect the smoke from closer.

As he did, everything before his eyes become much clearer.

Below the black smoke, what Russ could see was that the smoke started to penetrate with a small string like appearance into Greg's body, and slowly it started to consume the poison from his body.

It was like several thin pipings entered his body through his skin and started to suck out the purplish poison, but with the only difference that the pipes were made out of the Soul Creature's black smoke.

It was quite a strange sight, but the most important thing currently was that it was working. 

Seeing as Greg's image started to ameliorate, Russ sighed with relief and said to Wayne, "Go and find me a Chameleon Leaf. I will make him a detoxifying pill."

"Sure.", answered Wayne with a slight nod but before turning around he looked at the fruit in his hand and asked, "Um. Do y-"

"..."

But before he could have finished what he wanted to ask, suddenly Russ turned his ice-cold expression toward him and looked at Wayne without saying a single word.

Knowing what kind of person Russ could become if he turns angry, Wayne gulped down his saliva and after putting down the fruit onto the table he said, "I will go right away."

With that Wayne turned around and without any further hesitation, he ran out of the house, leaving the silent Russ with Greg.

Time went by faster than anticipated, and half an hour later Wayne finally came back with a huge yellow leaf in his hand.

"Here."

Handing over the leaf to Russ, Wayne looked at Greg's figure on the ground still covered with black smoke and asked, "How is he doing?"

While Russ listened to Wayne's question he took out a thin object with a similar shape that of a pill and put it on the table.

"He is doing fine. It seems his Soul Creature can annihilate poison from his body, but it takes some time."

As he said this, Russ grabbed the leaf and with a swift move, he smashed it into hundreds of small and thin pieces.

However unexpectedly, when he did that, the leaf's color that was yellow a second ago now the moment they turned into several small pieces changed color.

Each piece had different color from black through red till white. But for some reason, Russ only started to pick out the blue colored ones and put them into the pill.

While he did this he started to talk, "Because of my recklessness Greg's life was put in danger. If he didn't have that Soul Creature to save his life, I would have done the same mis..."

Wayne hearing that Russ stopped talking, shook his head and said, "It was not your fault. Not that time and not this time. It was my fault to swap the fruit. I should have informed you."

As Russ listened to what Wayne was saying, he put the last piece of blue colored leaf in the pill, so without any hesitation, he sealed the gap and looked at it.

"Done.", said Russ with an expressionless face and stood up.

Walking closer to Greg, he raised his head, and with a gentle motion, he put the pill into his mouth.

"This should help him a bit."

As he said this, he made Greg to swallow the pill and stepped back.

Minutes went by in silence when suddenly the black smoke around Greg's body started to show movement again.

Exactly with the same motion as it covered his body, the black smoke swirled back slowly around Greg's palm, and after taking the shape of a glove it vanished, making Greg to open his eyes slowly.

"Arghh... What... Happened?"

Seeing that Greg sat up while holding his head in pain, Russ sighed in relief and said to Wayne, "Please bring us some water."

"Sure."

While Wayne walked away, Russ turned his gaze toward Greg and asked calmly, "How do you feel? Anything strange?"

Hearing the question Greg shook his head gently and said, "Except for the strange sensation in my muscles, there is nothing wrong. I just need to rest I think."

"I see.", said Russ and after walking before Greg to help him up he said, "I'm sorry. I was too careless. If it weren't for your Soul Creature you would have died."

Standing up by Russ's help, Greg looked at Russ but didn't say a word.

"Well... I didn't die, so there is no problem. Also, it's not like you did that on purpose. We are humans, so we make mistakes, be it small or big."

"..."

Russ listening to what Greg said to him, didn't know how to react at all. It was a total surprise for him.

What would a normal person do if they find out they could have died because of an incident? Well, almost all of them would go insanely mad, no matter if the one who caused the accident did it on purpose or not.

So this was the reason why Russ was surprised. Before him, a kid that was only at the age of 17, behaved like a real adult. Knowing that everyone can make mistakes, he forgave him and let the happenings into the past.

As Russ thought about this, he wanted to cry and thank Greg for his kindness, but before he could do so, suddenly Greg smiled and said, "But this doesn't mean I will forget what happened. So as a compensation that you put my life on the line, give me 5 Intermediate Healing Potion."

"..."

Looking at that smile, Russ instantly regretted thinking that Greg was a kind kid.

5 Intermediate Healing Potion? Are you kidding? Making those are not hard at all, for someone like him, who was a professional Pharmacist, but it was another story when it came to finding the materials for it.

Finding a special Spirit Grass which was the basis of the Intermediate Healing Potion was as hard as taming a wild Soul Creature. You needed great luck to find even 1, so let's not talk about 5! It was a total joke!

"Can you please think this over again? You can ask anything else but 5 Intermediate Healing Potions is a bit...", said Russ with a wry smile, asking Greg to change his mind.

Seeing Russ like that, Greg stopped smiling and started to think. Only after a while did his eyes brightened and said, "Sure."

Hearing this Russ sighed with relief and said, "Thank you. Then what is th-"

"Then make me one of that Healing Potion you talked about once. Which is greater than the Intermediate one and has the ability to regenerate even the lost limb.", said Greg with a wide smile.

"..."

Turning toward Wayne, who was coming back with a pair of cups filled with water, Russ said calmly, "Hey... Come with me. Help me search for Spirit Grasses."

***

Days after days passed by and Greg spent almost all of his time learning to create new potions with Russ's help.

However, even like this, he didn't forget about his main goal which was to break through with his remaining two elements, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

It wasn't because he couldn't figure out the usage of his two elements or because he didn't have time, but instead because he couldn't find any crystals with the affinity of those elements.

He asked Russ where he could find one, but the answer was totally l unexpected.

"Huh? Where you can find an energy crystal with the affinity of darkness and light?", asked Russ with surprise as he put down the cards onto the table.

"Yes.", said Greg with a nod and looked at Russ and Wayne playing the same game that they always do.

Turning his gaze at Wayne, Russ stayed quiet for a while and said, "Kid, I don't want to destroy your mood, but I need to disappoint you."

"?"

Listening to this Greg frowned, but before he could ask why did Russ say this Russ continued to talk.

"Energy crystals with the affinity of darkness and light are not so hard to find, but the creatures that possess those crystals are. And let's not talk about just how terrific they are."

Turning his gaze at Greg Russ shook his head and said, "Creatures in the shadow and light system is much scarier opponents than you can think. Especially here in the Forbidden Lands. They are not only much powerful then other creatures on the same rank, but they coexist together. Where a Shadow Creature is there will definitely be a Light Creature. So if you meet with them, you need to be prepared for the worst outcome."