Chapter 1306 (2/2)

Basically, they were free to do as they pleased for the rest of the day. Which was why Tim was so nervous that he suddenly had been approached by an older kid he didn’t really know.

I mean, I wanted to talk to someone, but for it to be like this-

Kevin jerked his head behind him. “The boss wants to speak with you. Follow me.”

It was only after Kevin had turned and quickly walked a few meters away that Tim’s body jerked back to life. With sweating palms, he hurried after Kevin. But to his surprise, they didn’t head toward the central pavilion where the teachers were chatting. No, Kevin led Tim to a grove of trees along the edge of the park that appeared deserted.

As they moved toward the trees, the sounds of shrieking children behind them faded. And once they were hidden underneath the branches, Kevin directed Tim past the low branches of the trees to a hole that had been ripped open in the chain-link fence around the park and urged him to head through. Unsure of what was going on, Tim just let himself be propelled forward.

Once they were out of the park, Kevin broke into a surprisingly quick jog as they suddenly found themselves in the farming area, forcing Tim to exhaust himself keeping up. Although he had spent some of his free Stats on physical ones, most went to his Mental Stats to empower his Earthsinger abilities. So by the time they had crossed the entirety of the flower and herb fields to the West edge of Kharon, Tim was having trouble staying on his feet.

Kevin gave him an annoyed look, but at least he didn’t say anything. Tim plopped down a meter or so away from the edge of Kharon, already a little nervous to be so close to the edge. After taking a few seconds to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he asked Kevin, “I… where are we going…?”

Kevin ignored the question and produced a small piece of wood. He offered it to Tim. “Make yourself a platform. We are going down. We’ve already taken longer than I thought.”

“What…?” Tim was so alarmed that he stopped panting for a few seconds and just stared at Kevin.

Kevin frowned. “Oh, I forgot you were new to Kharon. Here, can you draw? Push Mana into your finger and draw this symbol onto the board.” After fishing around in his pocket for a moment, Kevin produced a crumpled piece of paper and offered it to Tim. “Hope you can control Mana well, though. Otherwise, you are probably going to crash pretty. The Mana has to be evenly distributed through the symbol for it to function well.”

Hesitant but unwilling to back down after Kevin had questioned his ability to manipulate Mana, Tim snatched the piece of paper and studied its contents. To his surprise, it was a relatively simple symbol of looping lines. After watching Kevin start to draw his own symbol on a similar board, Tim got to work on his own.

Although he relied heavily on the paper to check his work, he finished in only five minutes and was relatively proud of the accuracy of the result. And to his delight, he received a notification when he finished the drawing.

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Language of Kharon’s Moss Spirits (R) Lvl 1!

Language of Kharon’s Moss Spirits (R): Create runes of power to communicate clearly with the Moss Spirits of Kharon. Runes dissipate after a single-use, but can give Moss Spirits several abilities to interact with the physical world that they don’t normally possess. Power of runes increases with Skill Level. Mana cost slightly decreases with Skill Level.

Congratulations! Your Skill Language of Kharon’s Moss Spirits (R) has grown to Level 2!

“Is this… like Engraving?” Tim asked excitedly as he looked down at the symbol he carved on the board. Already some of the moss spirits that floated around him flooded into the gleaming lines, filling it with emerald light. The board began to float playfully in front of Tim.

“Not at all. Do you think we could hide that we could do this from adults if the markings stayed on objects long term?” Kevin shook his head. “Annoying that we have to draw them fresh every time, but better than getting in trouble. But anyway, get on your board, we are going down.”

Although Tim was still a little nervous about heading down the almost thirty-meter drop, the excitement over his new Skill did a lot to alleviate his fears. Although the board wobbled dangerously when he first got on top of it, Tim shifted until he sat on it like it was a swing and held onto the edges with his hands. Kevin hopped onto his like it was a skateboard and went immediately over the edge.

Tim took a deep breath and shuffled forward to follow.

The way down wasn’t nearly as bad as Tim had feared. They quickly got to the ground near the edge of the forest that ran along the valley in which Kharon sat. There they ditched their boards and hurried into the forest. After another ten minute jog that once more exhausted Tim and earned him two Skill Levels in Physical Fitness, they arrived at… a shabby looking wooden castle, propped up in the middle of a forest.

“This is our base,” Kevin added rather unnecessarily, then when up to the wooden door and knocked three times. The door was quickly pulled open by an older and even taller boy, who nodded at Kevin, glanced at Tim, then shifted out of the way. Tim followed Kevin through to the inner area.

Although the outside was rather impressive, the inside just seemed like a bunch of random logs stacked on top of each other. And very quickly, Tim could recognize who the ‘boss’ of this place was.

A little girl, probably not even six, was standing on top of the tallest log. When she saw him come into the fort, she put her hands on her hips and grinned over at him. “Hey! You are the new kid, right? Jeez, they didn’t lie, the moss spirits really love you. Want to have some fun with us today? We want to break into the Ghosthound’s birthday party.”

Then she hopped down off the log and walked toward Tim. She was almost a foot shorter than him. She offered him her hand with that sa wide grin on her face. “What’s your name? I’m Delilah.”