Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

              Wrik released a deep breath self-consciously and tried to sit comfortably cross-legged, though he did not know why he felt a somewhat discomfort in his heart. 

            "What are you worried about?" Ryat asked. Anton was also sitting beside the bald man in the chair with a complacent expression.

            Wrik shook his head and sighed. He brought out the tiny vial holding translucent liquid inside. It was the light element awakener that Ryat had gifted him, and now he was trying to use it.

            "You don't have to look at it like that," the bald man said. "Just take a deep breath and gulp down everything."

            Wrik followed and breathed in. He did not waste a moment further, opened the vial and put all of the liquid inside his mouth. He could not tell the taste of it, but it was not sweet, sour, bitter or any of it for certain. It numbed his tongue and his throat as it went down his throat. Wrik swirled his mana to synthesize the liquid with it. At least, that was the theory. Let the catalyst accelerate the awakening.

            In theory, the light element catalyst was supposed to trigger the conversion of maha mana to light element. At least help in the conversion, but here Wrik was not sure what the hell was going on.

            Now a new feeling came from the liquid. It was hot and nothing. He felt like he drank the hottest soup, though this was mind-numbing. Without finding any solution, Wrik revolved his mana the fastest he could. The fire in his body rose, and he felt like burning. Gritting his teeth, he continued as Ryat already told him about all these.

            The [Eye of Insights] awakened and a glittering light appeared in his eyes, and even though his eyelids were closed, the two viewers could notice it as the blood vessels were pulsing in the overflow. The light rose further and then continued to lessen. So did the burning feeling inside his body.

            After a couple of seconds, everything turned to normal. Wrik opened his eyes with a clear confusion in them. He had no idea what the catalyst did. Whatever it did, appeared to have failed. He could not hold the disappointment in his heart, as his lips convulsed and his face turned ugly.

            "Did it not work?" Anton asked.

            Wrik shook his head and looked towards Ryat, who had an arch on his brows. For some reason, Wrik thought if this shady merchant made a fool out of him. He surely has no idea whatever the liquid he gulped down a moment before. But his pondering did not last long as he felt a little goosebumps.

            He saw the bald man bring out a palm-sized pistol from his waist. He was about to ask what was that for, but before he could even utter a word, Ryat had aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger.

            "HEY!" Wrik yelled. He instinctively swirled the maha point in his shoulder and a constructive, defensive armament formed there. The bullet hit and broke the wall of defence. It did not cause any serious injury, but it still hurt like hell.

            Wrik gritted his teeth and shouted, "What the hell are you doing?"

            "Looks like it really failed," Ryat said, sighing. He left the pistol where it was before and elaborated, "In some unusual cases, a Mahasayer has no idea after the awakening of the element. This was just a test. I was trying to see if you could use light instinctively when I attacked without a sigh. Sometimes the mahasayers were able to awaken their element in such situations when their emotions were heightened and are in danger."

            "It appeared to have failed," Wrik said with a pessimistic smile.

            "Or the attack was not unexpected or dangerous enough for you," Anton added with a glimmer in his eyes.

            "Exactly." Ryat nodded, agreeing. "You went for the armament reinforcement first when you faced the unexpected dilemma. Surely it was not enough for you."

            Wrik had a bad hunch about this, finding his good brother smiling to his ears. "Ton, I'm telling you, don't try to pull something outrageous to frighten me," he said.

            "Huh, what are you saying?" Anton asked as if he knew nothing. "Am I so childish to do that?"

            "I know you too well to trust you," he snorted and looked at Ryat. Now, he needed to discuss a more important topic. "Ryat, it should be about you telling us more about your plan."

            "That was why I'm here," he said and gestured to Wrik to take a seat.

            Wrik did and saw the bald man bringing out his omega cube. After fidgeting for a little while, a map appeared above the table. Wrik looked at it carefully to find it was the map of Gala. To be exact, a small portion of it. Ryat zoomed in more until he got his desired result and showed it to the two of them.

            "This is the mining site of the House Rudyard," Ryat said. "And our operation will take place here as well. As I said before, we will steal something from House Rudyard. Fortunately, it was outside of the dome, so we can pull it with only our number."

            "Tell me more," Wrik said.       

            Ryat nodded and a 3D model hologram of a structure appeared over the table. He zoomed in again and showed a chamber on the ground floor in red. "This is the vault where the item is."

            "By the way, what is the item?" Anton asked, eyes at the hologram. "All you said before is that it's a precious item."

            "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure myself, nor are House Rudyard. Even after researching it for months, they had not found out what it is."

            "Then how can you say it's precious?" Anton raised an eyebrow.

            "There are other ways to find that out," Ryat said. "All I can say is that this thing is ancient, and probably ten thousand years old. Surely, nobody of that time would have minded to pull a frank for the later generations."

            "And if they did?" Anton asked. To his concern, there were very many chances of that.

            "If that is true?" Ryat pondered for a second and said, "Then it's a tragedy."

            "For us?" Wrik asked.

            Ryat nodded. "And more to House Rudyard."

            "Why is that?" Anton asked, though both held the curiosity.

            "Did I not mention it?" Ryat continued. "The lord of the house Rudyard had been asked to present the item before the council after this fall, though Lord Rudyard was avoiding it for a while with the grace from one of the high council members. Just consider what would happen if House Rudyard lost the item even before they could deliver it.

            "They would lose the trust of the council with a lot of backlashes while their good backer would leave them as well."

            "So this is your plan from the beginning," Wrik said, narrowing his eyes. "Stealing the item is just a side business. You just want house Rudyard to fall and rise to a rebellion."

            "It's a revolution. Rebellion is a cheap word." Ryat smiled. "This will be the beginning, and only this will not be enough. We need to bring more tension between the nobles and make them fight between themselves, which they usually do though we needed something more; Something more violent. But you two don't have to worry about it. There are us for that. All you have to do is train your abilities and prepare for the time when we will need it."

            Ryat stood up after that and was about to leave.  He looked back at them and said, "We will discuss the plan thoroughly in the evening when everyone is present. Only Maha knows where those two stay all day."

            Ryat left after that and Wrik rose up. As Ryat said, they needed to prepare their strength, and he was going to do just that.

            "Are you certain about your decision now?" Anton asked, looking at him go.

            "Don't know, but we have to be prepared for everything."

            "Well, if you are going to train now, then count me in," Anton said. "I never knew this place had such advanced training equipment. "

            Wrik nodded and the two of them were about to move to the upper floors when they heard his name-calling from the ground floor. It was Balat, and it appeared he was in a hurry. 

            The two of them exchange glances and decided to move to the ground floor first to check what was going on.

            The moment they appeared below, Balat asked them at once, gesturing towards a direction. "Tell me quickly if you two know this girl or not?" 

            Wrik looked and found a short girl in her late teenage years was standing there with an uncomfortable expression. Her expression brightened a little, finding him here. Other than that, there was a halo of barriers surrounding her, restricting any movement from the girl. 

            "Byul, why are you here?"