Chương 44: The First Ideal

"Dareth—" came from behind him.

"Fuck," Adolin cursed. That hurt. He looked down at his chest. A blade protruded from it. Then he looked at the corrupted commander. The creature was grinning, its face stained green with its own blood. Its second blade was already descending toward his head. Strength. Ice Hand. Adolin cast the spells as his hand shot forward and wrapped around the commander's wrist. Sharp cold erupted from his palm, freezing the commander's arm solid. He tightened his grip with all his strength.

The commander grimaced as its arm froze solid. Adolin cast Blast, adjusting the mana so the spell would erupt in only one direction instead of all around him. The concentrated shockwave burst from his body, blasting the corrupted commander away. Its frozen hand shattered off at the wrist as the creature was hurled across the hall, crashing into the stone floor meters away. Adolin adjusted his grip on the frozen wrist and pulled the blade out of his chest. He groaned, grimacing from the pain. Illusion.

An image of him drinking a potion appeared while he quietly cast Body Heal. Warmth spread through his body as the spell closed the wound and repaired the damage the blade had done to his insides. Moments later, the pain was gone. Edrin was already clashing with the corrupted commander again. This time, he wasn't struggling nearly as much. The corrupted still fought fiercely, but from four arms and four blades, it had been reduced to one. Its fighting style had fallen apart.

It was only left with the will to live, trying its best to defend against Edrin's attacks. The battle would end soon. Adolin glanced over his shoulder. Revel took a step toward him, her hands shaking as she stared at the spot where the blade had pierced through him. Her eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted.

"Are you okay?" Revel asked.

"Yeah, don't worry," he said with a smirk.

"I—" This is troublesome. He hadn't intended to make her feel guilty. Or whatever it was she was feeling right now. He had only wanted to cheat his way into recovering his First Ideal, and it had worked. However, Revel was clearly misunderstanding the situation. Oh well. At least the corruption's influence on her had weakened. Maybe it had even disappeared completely. Right. He had technically helped her overcome it. The spell freezing her in place had disappeared the moment he got stabbed.

"All good," he said before turning back toward the fight. Edrin was pushing the corrupted into the corner of the hall. The corrupted was riddled with dozens of new injuries, and its speed had slowed considerably. Edrin wasn't doing much better either, but most of his wounds had only worsened from continuing to fight in his condition. There were no new ones. The killing intent in the room had weakened as well, both fighters exhausted and heavily injured.

The soldiers and Clay were already moving toward William, while the latter still watched the battle without moving from where he stood. Adolin turned back toward the fight. Edrin attacked relentlessly while the corrupted only defended. Its smile was gone, replaced by dread. Even if it wanted to detonate its core, it no longer had the chance. The slightest delay while activating the process would be enough for Edrin to take his life. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent.

Report sightings. Edrin launched an arc of sword intent while his blade descended toward the corrupted. The creature avoided the arc by a hair's breadth, but the blade still bit into its shoulder. The next strike followed before it could properly defend. The blade sliced through its neck. Its head fell to the ground. Silence returned to the hall. Edrin chuckled, then fell onto his back. Everyone rushed toward him. Adolin didn't move from where he stood. He was lost in thought.

He had recovered his First Ideal: Stand in front of danger to protect innocent bystanders. It still felt like cheating. For one, Revel wasn't exactly an innocent bystander. And he could have protected her in dozens of other ways without either of them getting hurt. It was the First Ideal he had discovered as a child. Even back then, it had felt like cheating. He had stood in front of his friend while the boy's father was about to beat him. Adolin got slapped for interfering.

Then his friend received the beating anyway. Probably an even worse one because Adolin had gotten involved. He shrugged. It was enough while he was on vacation. His First Ideal was childish anyway. The real world didn't work the way he thought it did back then. He felt a hand touch his back, right where he had been stabbed through earlier. He didn't turn around.

"Is he okay?" Adolin asked as he walked toward them. He heard Revel follow behind him. He stopped beside Edrin. His breathing was uneven, and the spark in his eyes was slowly dimming. He was far from mortal danger. His constitution, Adolin guessed. The wounds on the man would have killed almost anyone else, but Edrin only seemed exhausted. If one ignored the countless blade wounds covering his body. A few deep cuts were still bleeding, but most were flesh wounds.

"Anyone got a potion?" William asked. No one reacted. It seemed Adolin was the only one who had managed to get one from the treasure chests. He really didn't want to part with his precious potion, and he wasn't sure whether Edrin would notice if he used a spell instead. He needed to sell the illusion properly if he wanted it to work. Revel kept glancing at him, but he ignored her.

Now, how was he supposed to make the illusion realistic enough that even someone as experienced and high leveled as Edrin wouldn't notice? That would require making at least half the process real and only faking the liquid itself. He crouched beside Edrin and pulled the potion from his inventory. Everyone stared at it, but no one said anything. Now came the hard part. Selling the illusion. He moved his hand toward the cork and cast Illusion.

The spell made it appear as though the cork had popped free, even reproducing the sound. Pop. Then he quietly cast a water spell and mixed it with Warm, heating the water as it flowed from the bottle. The illusion turned the water red as it poured into Edrin's mouth. Now that the illusion was done, he needed a healing spell that would feel similar to an actual potion. There were a few options for that.

But this was the highest purity potion he had ever seen, so the effects should've been different from a normal one. Or maybe the purity would remove most of the side effects entirely, leaving behind only the warmth and healing. He wasn't certain, but he guessed it was the latter. In his experience, the higher the purity of a potion, the stronger its secondary effects became. At least until the purity reached around eighty-five percent.

After that, the side effects started diminishing as the potion approached perfect purity. He had crafted potions close to ninety percent purity himself, so he was fairly confident in that conclusion. He wasn't sure why that happened, but it did. He had a few theories, but this wasn't the time to let his thoughts wander. The best spell for the situation was Healing Touch. It consumed a large amount of mana, but had almost no sensation attached to it. The spell simply healed the wounds.

He touched Edrin's shoulder and cast Healing Touch. Almost immediately, the wounds across Edrin's body closed. The illusion made the bottle appear empty as Adolin put it back into his inventory. He stood and stepped back. A hand touched his shoulder. Adolin turned and found Revel standing behind him. She gestured for him to follow her, and he quietly followed behind. They moved far enough away from the others to speak privately.

"Thanks," Revel said.

"Again." Adolin just smiled. He didn't really deserve praise for what he had done. At least not for the way he had done it. He could have protected her normally, without taking a blade through the chest and making the situation seem more dramatic than it actually was. Spending time around conscious people was becoming increasingly troublesome, so avoiding unnecessary conversations felt like the better option. Revel didn't seem to mind his silence.

"Did you really waste the potion?" He wasn't sure if lying was the right choice. She already knew he could heal, and Lissandra was probably responsible for that. Besides, Revel seemed trustworthy enough.

"No."

"Good," Revel said.

"They're worth far too much to waste like that. My family could buy them from you." Adolin had no intention of selling his potions, no matter how valuable they were.

"I'll think about it."

"Good." She nodded, her gaze lowering to the floor as she played lightly with her hair before looking back at him. She parted her lips slightly, her gaze lingering on him for a moment—"Rel!" Clay called out from behind them. She glanced back.

"Let's go." They walked toward the others together. Edrin was already back on his feet. He gave Adolin a nod.

"You'll get paid for the potion when we return to the village." Gold!