Alive & Promises

It took a couple hours to get back, the closer they got to the outskirts the faster they were.

Due to the weaker beasts being unable to resist much against Kaylee's abilities or Ryder's sword they didn't have many problems.

Both of them just talked and laughed with each other as they finally crossed the border into the safe zone.

"It's good that you are finally ba- what is in your head?"

Caleb noticed something odd the moment he got closer to Ryder. It was as if he was seeing through Ryder's body and looking directly through all his secrets.

'What do I do!? Do I try to keep it a secret? But Caleb could help me right? Is it a good idea to tell him that my emotions have been all over the place recently…?'

At this moment he was slightly panicking! He didn't want others to think of him as untrustworthy. He was planning on slowly fixing himself with the herbs but now it seemed like all those who were around knew something was up.

"In his head? Teacher how can you even see inside his head to know something is there? Wait! Ryder are you hiding something? Wait! Since you didn't tell me… does that mean you don't trust me enough!?"

She looked like she was on the verge of crying after overthinking the situation. The thought of Ryder not trusting her hurt especially after being useless the last time they went to hunt together.

"What!? No! That's not… I just wanted to handle the problem myself… it's not that I don't trust you it's just… I felt this was something I needed to fix myself"

She still looked a little worried but for the moment her tears didn't fall.

"Then what is it? It's… odd. Honestly I don't even know how someone did this! The runes involved and the mental power containing whatever is inside is horrible!? The person who did this obviously doesn't know much about runes but is powerful enough to use their pure mental power to restrain your mind to a degree…"

Ryder immediately began to wave his hand in the air the moment he heard Caleb start to speak again. Instantly a silence bubble appeared around them keeping their conversation private for now.

"S-sorry teacher… I just didn't want everyone else to know about this"

After listening to Caleb's little speech he began to tell him what happened during his adventure. He made sure to leave out the vampires and the basins sticking more towards what happened with the seal.

"So you are saying you saw your mother in your head and she used her mental power to seal your emotions to protect you?"

"Yes"

"Sorry to say this but that is the dumbest solution I can think of. She's basically cutting you off from your emotions, the longer this lasts the more empty you will feel. For now you are fine but as time passes the longer the seal stays the more you'll grow distant from others becoming nothing more then a emotionless husk of your previous self"

"No! We can't let that happen! Ryder we have to break the seal! I don't want you to become like that!"

Kaylee yelled out as she grabbed Ryder by the hands as she looked into her eyes clearly worried now even more then earlier.

"I-I didn't want to worry you… my mom told me to find a couple herbs that will aid me in balancing out my emotions again… I was planning to ask about them but it seems like I'll tell you about them now"

He quickly went over the herbs he needed before Caleb interrupted with a sudden lunge towards Ryder!

He quickly grabbed ahold of his shoulders before getting down onto his level.

"The [Tranquil Mind Array]!? You are trying to find the materials for the [Tranquil Mind Array]!"

"W-what is that?"

"It's a powerful array used by many in ancient times to take a shortcut basically… they used to use the array to nourish their mental power letting it grow the longer the array is active…

However the array should theoretically never turn off due to it being directly inscribed on the Soul Realm itself! Though it will help make your mental power stronger it won't let you break through with ease… it's just overall a helpful array for any rune crafter.

Nowadays it is an array that is on the decline sadly, due to the materials being horded by the Sanctus Kingdom, not many can make use of the array. Even those barbarians from the kingdom wouldn't even know where to start!"

Caleb seemed to say those words with some spite, it was obvious that he didn't like the kingdom. His words felt like they could go on and on about how horrible the Sanctus Kingdom actually is.

"Sorry, I got ahead of myself. Back to the topic at hand, this array can definitely help you. It seems like your mother wants to give you the biggest boost she can, though I don't know where she could be but for a mental image of her to show up means she has to still be alive. If she wasn't alive then the mental power would have long since disappeared"

Ryder was in shock, he didn't want to give himself hope. After seeing his father die he assumed they would kill his mother as well. This is why he never thought to search for her yet now he was being told she might still be alive!?

He could feel the seal suddenly tighten giving him a massive headache seconds after he felt his emotions start to slip from his grasp again.

"Aggghhhhh!? I-it hurts so much! Ahh!"

He was holding his head in pain as he tries to pull his emotions back just so he can think straight again. Unfortunately each time he regained his thought process the thought of his mother came back giving him another squeeze!

"Ryder! What's going on!? Teacher Caleb why is he in so much pain!?"

Kaylee was growing more worried as time went on only to see Caleb reach one hand out touching the boys head as a soothing baby blue energy slowly seeped into his head.

"Take deep breaths Ryder… slowly relax, listen only to the sound of my voice as you clear your mind of all thoughts"

Ryder could feel the energy slowly moving around the seal. It seemed to pull at it loosening it's tightened grip on the boys mind as he slowly guides him to recover.

"Good, that's it. Don't let your emotions control you, you are in control."

Caleb whispered to Ryder as he finally calms down after an hour of guidance.

"How about we change the subject? Show me all the beasts you have gathered I hope I won't be disappointed"

Hearing this and seeing that Ryder was doing better Kaylee handed over her ring before Ryder did the same moments later.

"Hmmm… 159 points in total huh? Not bad at all, since you have a gold rank beast I'll be sure to keep up my end of the deal"

Caleb instantly transferred the beast bodies to his personal ring before handing the rings back with the rest of the items untouched.

"Your team has officially passed this trail, for now go back to your team and inform them of the good news. Ryder, we will have a talk about the herbs later. I can't have my student become a emotionless doll or a merciless killing machine can I!"

He laughed to himself obviously making light of the situation but this laugh was reassuring. It made Ryder feel like everything would be ok as long as Caleb was here.

'He is very reliable huh?'

'You just now noticed this? He is a powerful rune crafter! If he wasn't reliable then he wouldn't have even been able to get to this point'

Ryder seemed to ignore Cain as he walked back to his teams tents wanting to share the good news.

'Something feels off…'

Ryder had finally gotten to the tent but everyone he passed seemed to give off a weird feeling.

It felt like everyone he passed was watching him specifically. It didn't feel like the gazes of the past when he walked around with Kaylee. Instead it felt targeted.

As he looked around he noticed many classmates wearing different symbols on their apex uniforms. Some had the symbol of a snake while others had a sloth. Some even had a phoenix while the other was a brown bear.

It felt like there was a tension in the air that only appeared when Kaylee and Ryder walked into camp.

The people wearing different emblems cautiously looked at each other as if waiting for something to happen.

"What are we waiting for Ryder? Let's go inside!"

Kaylee opened the tent to find two familiar faces casually talking with each other.

Ryder quickly put the weird moment behind him as he entered the tent smiling as he looked at Jacob who had finally woken up.

"It's good to see that you are finally awake"

"Yeah… it's to bad I won't be able to compete with you during exams this year though…"

"So what? You'll just have to try harder next year. Don't think just because you are being held back for now that I'm just going to stop being your rival. Who else could push me to fight harder besides you?"

At first Jacob didn't know what to say, he feared being left behind but now he looked at everyone's faces. Not one of them seemed to have given up on him.

Instead they didn't feel any different then the normal friendly atmosphere the group had. Each of them had truly grown to become friends over the couple of weeks they have been together.

"… You guys are way to friendly you know that…"

He let out a sigh of acceptance as he looked to Ryder with a smile.

"Then you better be ready next year! Even if I can't train now I'll still learn all I can just to prepare myself to kick your ass next time we fight!"

"We shall see about that! I'll also be trying my best!"

Kaylee and Daki could only laugh a little seeing the scene before them as the four of them all sit around a table talking about what happened in the past 2 days.