Chapter 7: Meeting again, and choices for life

Chapter 7: Meeting again, and choices for life

After a long day, dusk slowly came. The sun slowly set as three boys from different directions were strolling the streets. Yuki, Apollo, and Spectre were heading for the tree grove between the buildings where the magic shop was just less than a day ago. As they saw one another Yuki and Spectre sped up until they ran into each other, while Apollo was shuffling towards them with a happy grin on his face too.

"Hey!"

"Hey man!"

"unh!" said Apollo in a dead tired tone. They could see he was bent out of shape and hobbling, they ran over to him and propped him up with their arms.

"Hey why the long face?" Yuki asked looking at him covered in dirt.

"munh meh mnih" he spoke out with a hoarse voice.

"Bro they really tore into you didn't they"

"Unh" He replied with difficulty.

"Here drink this' Yuki pulled out a little bottle from his ring. It was emerald in color and smelled of mint, waking the mind up just from the aroma.

Apollo looked at it strangely before complying, knowing his brother wouldn't harm him. He took big gulps, his eyes shooting open wide.

"wohh! What is this stuff" he exclaimed out loud with a gasp of cool air.

"It's a vigorous momentum potion, it can't heal cuts or bad wounds. It can heal bruises, and give energy lost. Such as the name Vigorous momentum potion" Said Yuki confidently like a bookworm.

Spectre looked over to him inquisitively, "How much did it cost..."

"I made it silly!"

"What?" Spectre and Apollo after experiencing the potion blurted out.

"I swear I swear, I'm kind 'Ove a well-known alchemist now. My job is amazing, I made potions all day today, learned of so many different plants you wouldn't believe!" He said with the same fascination he held walking into the Glass building earlier this morning.

"Could you make me more of those? It sure would help with the training" Apollo told them of the arduous limit training he experienced and now the two understood his haggard looks and hard to speak vocal cords.

"You are such a trooper" Yuki laughed, "Here take the other two I made" handing over two more bottles Apollo thanked him before sitting down and leaning against a tree to take in the potion fully he drank earlier. He watched the bruises slowly fade away on his skin with fascination.

"What about you Spectre?" Yuki looked over wondering how smithing had gone.

''heh… let me tell you. It went amazingly. Watch this…" He pulled out a small bead from his ring he had kept, and held it on his palm. They looked at it and laughed.

"You finally smithed a bead? You're right bro you sure did do amazing!" They laughed gleefully. But next…

"Fine if you don't want to see it!" He slowly lowered his hand…except…the bead hung in the air unmoving as if his hand was still there. The laughter subsided, after a while of watching it spin their mouths were left agape.

"Holy shit!" They said in unison, the same perfect thought coming to mind to say.

"Oh, now you wanna see? Hahaha" Laughing at the turn in events, he soaked it in and enjoyed it with pride. "From what I found out I have the first affinity that's shown to be metal. My Boss say's the higher the affinity you have the faster it will develop. Most kids find it out by 9 years of age, a cosmic rule for power development is right at that age. If you don't have anything show by the age of ten, you have no affinities. Which in most cases a vast majority of people do not, with the other large portion having only a diluted affinity because of time and 'generation duration' as he calls it. Even then 'No affinity' just means too low of one, but everyone in existence has a least a little."

Yuki pondered for a moment before saying, "Is this why she sent us off now? On our 6th birthday? How could she possibly know we had high affinities…" Spectre had realized this too as his boss explained genetic affinity. "I don't think she did, however the way we came under her tutelage… the person that gave us to her must've told her, they must've known after testing us at birth. They then told her to let us go to the jobs specific to training with our affinities."

Even Apollo could understand the meaning and reasoning for doing this. Even their personalities seem to fit the jobs too, so that they would strive while they trained but also enjoy it.

Apollo looked down at his hands, "If yours started to come in today, when do you think ours will?" Apollo asked.

Spectre thought back to what he was told, "Well, for spirit vessel people when they start puberty is when they begin to show there development. If they have a high and strong spirit, then it will come as early as it would for a mind or body vessel. Since you have both a spirit and a body vessel, it would seem yours will come within the year…" This may be a pondering, but Spectre actually had a good guess at when it would happen. Yuki would without a doubt start showing his affinities within the month, since he had an equal amount to them like Spectre did.

Yuki thought for a moment too before speaking, "When I read books at the botany house about the rarity of plants. It would seem mine stems from an ultra-legendary plant spirit." He began to tell that statistics for such occurrences at what he learned of plants recently. Spectre told him of what he learned of forging whereas Apollo told them about what routines the three should start doing on their walk here every morning to strengthen the muscular and circulatory systems.

The stronger the body the easier it was to contain magic or energy, so this would be important to the trio later if they started now.

However, he would definitely sleep deep tonight to consolidate himself after an arduous day. Spectre could understand this; Yuki brought out a book and began to read it over. It was a book on potion formula, Spectre read the spine of the book and couldn't help but ask, "What are you being payed?" Yuki had completely forgotten and made a hefty bag appear from his ring. As he opened it and the two other boys peered into it, they were amazed! It was packed with gold!

"How did you get so much?"

"Well…my boss was sleeping all day, so when I got orders for potions. I decided to do them myself and split the money into two bags, one for him and one for me. This is my half, I actually seem to be pretty adept at alchemy. I love to mix things! The plants, the smells, ahhh it's such a good feeling to make something just right." A look of pride washed over his face, even though he only worked for a day, this hobby could last a lifetime.

"I'm so proud of you Yuki." "Well done bro"

"Thanks guys" Yuki said with a cheeky grin, "We can get some items from other shops that we could use to cultivate and practice magic. Let's save money for future adventuring!"

"Yeah! " The other two exclaimed as they looked up at the far away sky full of possibilities.

"I think…I think we should leave Helga's house…if we make enough money, why would we have to stay there anymore? We already decided she wasn't our blood mother, and she doesn't help us in the least. If we come back with gold she will only take that too!" Apollo said with furrowed eyebrows.

"You're right…" Spectre said confirming his thoughts, "Then where shall we stay?"

Yuki looked around before smiling, "Wellllll…..why not right here! If the Nimbus guy ever comes back we can thank him. If he doesn't I don't think it will be a bother to the other two buildings if three boys are here. Right?"

"That is a perfect idea Yuki, we will have to wait and maybe after a while we can buy some thin wood and I'll make another fortress for us not made out of sticks this time. It'll be just like home!"

The three put their hands together, "Let's do it!" They all exclaimed in unison.

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That night, they went and got thee blankets from a close by clothe shop. They went back to the forest grove between the buildings, and Apollo was the first to pass out. Yuki brought out his tool, for reading, and flipped it over. It created magical Sunlight and he held it a certain way so that it didn't over dry the pages since it was meant for deep heat for plants. It also kept them warm as the night descended. Spectre couldn't help but twirl the super tiny metal bearing in his hand, he may not be able to manipulate a lot now like a bricks worth of metal, but this bead was litterly…..child's play.