Chương 44: Chapter 39

Eren leaped up in anger, at first. He stared daggers at Hakon, regarding him like a predator regarded a hare he was about to tear into shreds. But as promising as his outburst was, it didn't last long. He deflated, shoulders slumped, and back down on the creaky, wooden chair.

"Lightcaller." He scoffed.

"My family exiled me. My brothers and sisters still laugh at me when I see them." The blazing fire that used to burn in Eren's eyes was replaced by a wick of sadness.

"Even Rootkeeper deserve more honor." He spat, which was yet another issue Hakon would have to resolve. Rootkeepers were indispensable, yet the tribes did not consider them nearly as well as they should. Because they could not learn as powerful Power-based Skills that would allow them to fight monsters. Still, without them, Tribe Taskur would never have survived the winter ten cycles ago. They would have died of starvation. As for Lightcaller, they were… unfortunate. Hakon conceded on that.

Pyrocaller or Earthcaller were not praiseworthy Ancient Powers either, yet young warriors would have an easier time gaining recognition for it. Pyrocaller, wielders of fire, could wreak havoc and burn entire stripes of land to the ground if necessary. The Barbarians would have a hard time ignoring such power. But Lightcaller… Hakon watched Eren, who stared down at the sparkling lights materializing in his hand in pure, unfiltered hatred.

"Did the Ancestors recognize your [Spear Mastery]?" Hakon rubbed his chin.

"Yes, and I went out to hunt. It worked, but [Spear Mastery] did not improve. I tried – hard." Eren sighed, the hatred in his eyes intensifying, " This is what I got for trying hard." The sparks in his hand glowed brighter and began to move, slithering around his fingers in an oddly intimate manner. He didn't even notice the pair of curious eyes studying the conjured light intensely.

"How much can you control them?" Hakon asked, the back of his mind stirring. Thinking back to the Battle of Generation where Astrid had called him Lightcaller for playing with the lights, a smile played his lips. A smile that grew wider as Enhanced Comprehension filled him with a sense of wrongness.

It was the first time Enhanced Comprehension activated to fill him with wrongness about things he'd done in the past, but using [Sensory Expansion] and [Flow Observation] as he studied the conjured lights only intensified the sensation. Hakon could not help but feel like the sense of wrongness was screaming at him as Eren's lights glowed brighter before dimming down. More sparks popped up, joining the small stream revolving around his hands. Interesting.

"Keep up your Skill." Hakon ordered, ignoring the looks thrown his way as he reached out to the stream of glowing sparks. His hand phased through the sparks, which rippled and nearly collapsed. Several sparks faded and Eren cursed under his breath, but that too was pointedly ignored. Hakon's hand glided through the lights, his Skills maintained while [Mana Sense] and [Circulation] followed shortly.

[Circulation] may not have been necessary but by empowering his body, it augmented his senses as well, albeit only a little. As soon as [Mana Sense] activated, Hakon sensed so much more than he did before. He hadn't been sure earlier, yet as his mana was being rapidly consumed, clarity flooded him. Mana flooded the sparks. No. He shook his head. The sparks were mana: mana Eren somehow altered to create and emit warmth and light at the same time.

The warmth was comfortable, but it was not what Hakon was after when he followed up with [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Shaping]. A small azure ball of mana conjured in his empty hand. Someone beside him exclaimed, while another groaned, but Hakon was too focused on his practice to care about either. Beads of sweat poured down his temples from all the Skills he was forced to maintain.

[Split Focus] guided his research of Eren's sparks while maintaining the small ball hovering above his palm, yet even [Split Focus] had its limits. The bad headache creeping up the back of his mind was no surprise, but Hakon considered it a boon. Pain only meant that he was going somewhere. That he was moving in the right direction – probably. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Eyes squinted, he tried to etch the sensation he got from the glowing sparks into his mind, to imprint it into his own conjuration. That turned out more difficult than he could have hoped for. Still, after what felt like an eternity of sweating buckets and draining his mana reserve, Hakon made progress. Until Eren's sparks dispersed.

"What are you doing? Keep them up." Hakon grunted, his head snapping up to see the Lightcaller pale as chalk. [Mana Sense] showed what Hakon suspected. Eren was completely spent. Zask stepped toward the young Barbarian and lifted him. Watching the butcher carry Eren to the bed without a word was not exactly what anyone would expect from them. If anyone, Hakon would have expected Zask's wife to tend to Eren and tug him in, yet it was Zask who wiped the young Barbarian's sweat-drenched face tenderly.

Truthfully, everything about their relationship felt twisted. The more Hakon thought about it, the more confused he got. The most confusing, by a stretch, was that neither of the involved parties seemed to have the upper hand in their relationship. It would have made sense if Zask was at the lead, since he did not kill Eren for bonding with his wife, but that didn't happen. Studying the trio and how they looked at each other, longingly or with worry, Hakon's understanding of the situation dropped further.

As long as–no, that's their own problem to take care of, he thought, ready to leave.

"H-Hakon." Eren called out, making him stop.

"You… How did you win the Battle of Generation?" Hakon raised an eyebrow. Right, how did he win the Battle of Generation? If everyone's words were to be trusted, he should have never won. He wouldn't even have made it past the first fight, yet he did.

"I tried hard," he shrugged, "and I didn't allow anyone to judge me for my Ancient Power. The Ancestors chose The Mind for me for a reason, just like they chose Lightcaller for you. I trust them, and I believe they planned something big for me. That the Mind is a gift, one I need to master fully to help myself and my tribe.""'Your' tribe?" Eren scrambled to sit upright.

"It might not be mine yet, but it will be," Hakon said, his voice laced with determination. These weren't empty words. They were a promise. Eren could sense that as much as Zask and his wife could.

"You really believe that," Eren mouthed.

"I do, because I know it will happen." Hakon thought about it for a second but spoke his mind anyway.

"And to do so, I need a Lightcaller's power as well. I might not be a Bloodbearer, Blessed, or the wielder of a legendary Ancient Power, but I don't have to be. The Battle of Generation showed that much, and I'd be a fool to give up now. This is but the start of my Saga." Even if his words weren't enough to convince Eren that his Ancient Power was useful, Hakon caught a glimmer of something in his eyes.

"I don't know much about your Power, and it would be a lie if I were to promise you that you can grow strong enough to defeat legendary warriors as long as you try hard enough, but you can become a warrior. You can ascend like everyone else. However, your path will be hard. Probably harder than others, because you are alone with your Ancient Power. The Ancestors can guide you, and maybe I can as well in the future, but you have to tread your own path.

One that does not necessarily involve constant hunting or sparring to improve your combat Skills."

"You… You really think I can fight Bloodbearers? That I can be strong enough to defeat them?" The fire in Eren's eyes burned a little brighter, but it was not yet set ablaze.

"Maybe," Hakon said. He couldn't be certain.

"But you will never find out if you don't try. If you give up now, everyone will remember you as a failure. Do you want that? To be remembered as a failure, to loathe the Ancestors for the power they granted you, to never feast with them, to wither away in the tribe without ever trying to take ahold of your destiny and change it. Is that what you want?"

"No." Eren grunted, clenching his fists tightly. He was still pale, his mana reserves empty, but he got up, the fire burning in his eyes just like Hakon remembered it.

"I need to grow stronger." Eren let out a deep growl, looking up to meet Hakon's eyes.

"Help me."

While Eren recovered, he told Hakon all he could do. That, as it turned out, was not all that much. Eren hadn't wanted to divert too much from the Barbarians' image, so he learned [Spear Mastery], [Natural Regeneration], [Running], [Slash], and [Stab]. The last two were Skills Hakon had yet to learn, but he wasn't sure if he even wanted to learn them. Enhanced Comprehension didn't apply to them. Instead, the Ancient Power wanted him to incorporate mana when fighting.

Maybe acquiring and upgrading [Slash] or [Stab] would produce whatever Enhanced Comprehension was trying to guide him toward. Anyway, Eren needed more than those Skills. He had to learn more about the Skills his Ancient Power could grant him.

"Make a light that resembles a pyre torch's glow," he ordered.

"A light without any heat. A bright, stable glow." He did, or tried to. Conjuring and maintaining a single glowing spark was not difficult, but the same could not be said about modifying it. Creating more sparks greatly increased Eren's mana expenditure, which was why he did not conjure more than one.

"There's still some heat to it," Hakon said sharply when Eren successfully created a bright, stable glow, resembling a pyre torch. The Lightcaller let out a groan but went back to work. In the meantime, Enhanced Comprehension helped Hakon understand more about the glowing spark. With every passing heartbeat, his understanding increased slightly, and it was only a matter of time before he, too, conjured a speck of dimly glowing mana. It was nothing special.

The mana was unstable, the glow dull and fading even though he could recreate it successfully, and it consumed a horrendous amount of mana. But it worked, and Hakon could replicate it. As expected, the Ancestors rewarded him. [Skill [Mote of Light] has been learned.]