Chapter 82 -- That's your answer 

Carter motioned for his horse to slow down as he approached the village. He dreaded the eventuality of having to explain that he didn't find anything to wake up Owen.

To make matters worse, when Carter was about One hundred meters from the village center, he saw the village 'scouts' running in the direction of the hall. The kids were probably given the task of informing the adults as soon as Carter appeared.

Owen was still in the village hall, Olivia had refused for anyone to move him. She didn't want to take the risk of injuring her husband further. 

Before Carter even arrived, about half of the villagers moved to the hall. All of them were worried about Owen and they wanted to see if the medicine Carter brought would wake him up.

Carter slowly dismounted his horse which his son quickly took back to their farm. Taking a deep breath, Carter opened the village hall door to see a passageway leading to Owen's body.

The villagers had made two lines from the door to Owen, creating the passageway which collapsed as Carter made his way to Olivia. Carter's heart broke even more after seeing Olivia.

"D….did you find it?" Olivia asked. Her tears which had stopped for the last week were on the verge of showing themselves again.

Carter struggled to speak as he glanced at everyone in the room. All of them were staring at him with hopeful eyes, how was he going to tell them that he failed?.

'I should have begged for that mage to help me' he internally said. Thinking about the hunter he met at the tavern in Willow city, he seemed like a good person.

"I…I well you see..the" Carter stammered.

"Carter did you find the medicine to wake up Owen?" Asked Gia, who was beside Olivia this entire time.

"Yes" Carter lied.

"Yes?, you found it!?" Olivia stood up. Finally something good was happening in her life.

"I found it but the mage who sold it to me said depending on the injury, it only has a 20 percent success rate" Carter said.

"What does that mean?" Olivia asked.

Carter sighed "It means he has a one in five chance of waking up"

"What!?" Olivia still didn't understand.

It was normal not to understand this stuff though, she wasn't educated after all. These things Carter was speaking also reminded her of her firstborn son.

"This medicine is not guaranteed to wake him up" Carter explained again.

"Leaning on?" Gia asked.

"Leaning on him not waking up at all, im sorry" Carter lowered his head in shame. Mostly because he knew that the medicine he was about to give Owen definitely wasn't going to wake him up.

"He will wake up, I know it" Olivia consoled herself as she opened way for Carter to approach Owen. Carter sighed as he took out a bottle from his pouch, It was black in color.

The tonic Inside that bottle was actually a normal healing tonic. Carter had just put it into another bottle. He knew for a fact that no one will be busy looking at the bottle anyway.

This was Carter's plan, he couldn't tell them that he failed to find the medicine so he lied. Even though the villagers and especially Olivia would be disappointed in him. At least to them, he would have tried.

Olivia quickly knelt beside Owen and gently pressed the sides of his mouth and his lips separated.

"Prop up his head" Carter instructed.

Gia promptly did as Carter said and used her leg as a pillow for Owen's head. Carter then slowly poured the green liquid into Owen's mouth.

"...…"

"How long is it supposed to take?" Olivia asked, her voice starting to break.

"The Mage said just a few minutes"

Five minutes later and Owen had still yet to wake up, that's when Olivia started the waterworks once more. The villagers all sighed in sadness as they left the hall.

It didn't take long for the hall to be empty, except for Owen, Olivia, Gia, Elizabeth, Carter and surprisingly William.

"I'm sorry" Carter said as he stood up.

That was when Owen's eyelids quivered before opening slowly.

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Willow city, Chris and Zane's residence.

"Yo what's up?" Zane said as he entered the house to find Chris sitting alone in the dark...well it was dark for Chris and everyone else with a working pair of eyes.

"You lied to me Zane" Chris said.

"Lied about what" Zane was a little nervous that Chris had found out about his training. Although it wouldn't be too bad if he knew it was best he doesn't.

Old man had told Zane to tell only the people he trusted about it and Zane didn't know if he trusted Chris. The other problem which might arise if Chris gets to know about it is that he obviously would also want to join, which wasn't possible anymore.

"You said you need one more week to absorb those cores, but then I asked Adam how long it takes to break through and he said not even an hour."

"Then I asked how long it takes to absorb a mana core and he said a few hours. That was before I even remembered you absorbing a mana core In a couple of seconds. Remember back then when you tied me to a tree?"

"Now answer me this Zane my good man. Last week you got more than enough cores to breakthrough, so why the fuck am I still mortal!?" Chris shouted. He couldn't believe that Zane would do this to him.

Zane sighed as he sat down, he had planned to breakthrough as soon as the tournament ended in about a week. He had also hoped that Chris wouldn't find out he was delaying.

"Chris it's just that I can't breakthrough yet" Zane said.

"Fuck that!!, that's your fucken problem it doesn't have anything to do with me!" Chris grew livid. Zane didn't want to become a mage!?, Bullshit!.

"We had a deal Zane and I kept up my end of it, you should do the same" Chris demanded.

"Fine"

"Fine what?" Chris asked.

"I will make you a mage….. tomorrow" Zane conceded.

"Why tomorrow?" Chris furrowed his brows.

"Because I'm tired today, let's do it first thing tomorrow morning before I leave okay" Zane offered. Since he didn't have a choice anymore, he would make Chris a mage.

"Ohh before you go train at that old man's house?" Chris said, greatly surprising Zane, he had no idea that Chris knew.

"How long have you known?" Zane asked.

"You are really a good friend Zane, the best actually" Chris said, he sounded hurt.

"Chris…"

"Save it for someone who gives a fuck" Chris turned and walked towards his room. Then he stopped by the door.

"You know Zane, I thought we were about to become actual friends, but you knew how important becoming a mage was to me and you denied me that because of your own selfish reasons."

"Then you get invited to a place that can raise your power and you shut me out. Remember that day of the white ape mission, you asked me what I would do when I enter the mage realm"

"That time I gave you one of my signature idiotic answers, that was because I didn't even imagine that you would think I will try and kill you. Now though I know what your question really meant, so I will answer it."

"I obviously wouldn't try to kill someone I consider a friend, or who considers me a friend. Who am I to you Zane?. That's your answer" Chris then slammed the door after saying his peace.