The Kind Death God - Chapter 3

Ah Dai was aggrieved, "You... you didn't ask me to go out! Didn't you say that I have to listen to everything you say?"

Gelidi turned around and walked back into the room. He let out a long breath and opened the windows to let some fresh air in to lessen the stinky smell in the room. He honestly felt that he has been defeated by this foolish boy, taking another deep breath of the fresh air, he said in the direction of the toilet, "Wipe your butt and come out."

After putting his clothes back on, Ah Dai walked out of the toilet, he suddenly felt like a new person, his body felt unimaginably fresh, as if he had just gotten rid of an extremely heavy burden. His whole body felt light, even his muddy mind felt clearer, his whole body filled with energy. "Teacher, what did you let me eat just now?"

Gelisi impatiently said, "Nine Metamorphosis Essence Pill."

"Nine Metamorphosis Essence Pill? What is that?"

"Don't ask so much, sit down." Gelisi pointed at the bench on a side. "I would like to ask you a few questions, after that I'll take you to get some food."

At the mention of food Ah Dai was suddenly filled with excitement, he obediently sat down on the bench to wait for Gelisi's questioning.

"Ah Dai, do you have any other name? Are you of the Sunset People or the Prosperous People?"

Ah Dai shook his head, "No, I do not have any other name. What is Sunset people and Prosperous People?"

Gelisi explained, "Sunset and Prosperous are two other Empires on the Continent, looking at your dark hair and dark eyes, you are likely to be a descent of one of the two countries."

"Ok, I do not know which people I am. Sunset and Prosperous, these two empires, I think I have heard of them, but I don't have much of an impression anymore."

Gelisi once again sat down on the bed, eyeing Ah Dai whose face was now rosier, "Do you know your parents?"

Ah Dai was at a loss, "I only remember being on the streets and asking for food, keep asking for food. One day Uncle Li came and told me that he would give me food, so I followed him."

"Then how old are you?"

Ah Dai thought about it, "Twelve, oh, no, probably thirteen." He really wasn't too sure about his age, the kids Uncle Li kept that were around his height were all roughly twelve or thirteen, that's why he felt that he should be around that age.

Twelve, thirteen, yes, this is quite appropriate, Gelisi continued asking, "Do you know the year and month you were born?" At that, he regretted it, the silly boy in front of him didn't even know how old he was, how would he know his birth day and month.

However, contrary to expectations, Ah Dai smoothly replied, "The 21st day of the 3rd month, Year 977 of the Holy Calendar." After finishing, even he was shocked by his own reply.

A cold glimmer flashed in Gelisi's eyes, "Didn't you say you don't know how old you are? How could you respond?"

 Ah Dai stuttered, "I... I don't know either, it's just that I suddenly thought of this date, and said it."

Gelisi frowned, silently thinking, now it's the 4th Month, Year 988 of the Holy Calendar, that means that Ah Dai should be 11 years old. However, Ah Dai's actions just now felt odd, he coldly said, "Boy, don't play with me."

Ah Dai curled in upon himself, "No... I wouldn't!"

"Come here," Gelisi waved Ah Dai over.

Ah Dai unwillingly walked to face Gelisi. Gelisi placed a hand on Ah Dai's shoulders, and quietly chanted a few words, a rush of warmth spread from Ah Dai's shoulders to fill his body. Initially, it felt quite comfortable, but after a while, the flow of heat got stronger and stronger and started to become unbearable. Ah Dai thought of struggling, but he found that he couldn't control his own body, the extremely hot flow of heat that seemed to be able to melt his insides continued to flow around in his body. Ah Dai's boned started to creak, and a sharp pain caused him to cry out.

"Ahhhhhhh.... Teacher, I can't take it anymore, spare me please, it hurts, it hurts!"

Gelisi frowned and raised a hand, a green light enfolded Ah Dai, cutting off the sounds he was making.

After a long while, after Ah Dai's body went a little limp, Gelisi finally loosened his hold and let out a long breath, saying to himself, "I didn't think that this silly boy would have such great bone foundations, suitable to be trained in both sorcery and alchemy. Not a waste of my Nine Metamorphosis Essence Pill, this is even better, when that time comes..." At that, he suddenly stopped and carefully looked at Ah Dai. Shaking his head, Gelisi said, "Sadly, his head seems to have gone through some serious damage, even the effects of the Nine Metamorphosis Essence Pill don't seem to be able to clear up the dark energy that accumulated. However, it's still good that it won't affect my experiment."

The hot flow finally receded, Ah Dai felt weak and fell to the ground, he didn't know why Gelisi would treat him like this, tears involuntarily fell down his cheeks.

Gelisi hauled Ah Dai up with one hand, coldly saying, "No crying, I was trying to see if you have the capabilities to help me, do you understand? It's not beating you. Water that is gentle, gather in my hands, nourish the life before my eyes." A blue light emanated from Gelisi's hands, trickling into Ah Dai's body like a small stream. This was the most basic healing arts of the water class, Gelisi rarely used it, but in order to make sure that Ah Dai would have no dark memories, he couldn't not help him recover his strength.

Ah Dai could feel a fresh, cool sensation that felt like water flow from Gelisi's hands. Slowly, his strength started returning to him and the pain caused by the heat completely disappeared. He couldn't help but believe what Gelisi just said.

Gelisi placed Ah Dai on the bench and turned around. With his back facing Ah Dai, he said, "You must remember, only the strong can live better, the weak will only be bullied by others. Tears cannot solve problems."

Ah Dai felt as if he has heard Gelisi's words somewhere before, it unexpectedly caused an echo of a thought in his mind. He wiped the tear streaks from his face, and timidly said, "Yes Teacher, I understand."

Gelisi nodded, "Good, then tell me, what do you like to eat most? What do you want to do most?"

Ah Dai honestly replied, "I love eating mantou the most, and... and chicken drumsticks. What I want to do most? I.... I don't know either."

Gelisi scolded in his heart, truly such a silly boy, but this is also good, it is better for his own future plans. "Okay then, from now on, you will keep following me, I guarantee that you will be able to be full everyday. If you leave on your own, remember the table that day? That will be your end."

Gelisi's threat didn't seem to work on Ah Dai, he blankly replied, "As long as you allow me to eat till I am full, why would I run away? But... but?"

"But what?" Gelisi abruptly turned around.

Ah Dai looked at Gelisi's aged appearance, and mumbled, "But... if you die, what would I eat?" He clearly remembered that Ya Tou once said that her grandma died of old age, after her grandma die, then only did Ya Tou end up asking for food in the streets.

At Ah Dai's words, Gelisi started shaking from anger, he raised his hand a few times, but ended up lowering it each time. At the thought of his grand plans, he decided, tolerate! He unhappily replied, "Don't worry, even if you die, I won't die. Let's go, I'll take you to to get some food."

"Okay! Teacher, you are really so great!"

"Humph! How can you understand my greatness?"

Two days later, after Gelisi felt that Ah Dai's body was much better, they left Ninuo City. Today's weather was abnormally sunny, seemingly indicating that Ah Dai would be entering a new phase in life.

"Teacher, can I come back again next time?" Ah Dai gazed at the town behind him, a town that he lived in for more than 10 years.

Gelise looked at Ah Dai, "Perhaps, if you have the chance next time. Why? Are you concerned about anything else?"

Ah Dai shook his head, "No, nothing." This was the first time he lied to Gelisi, actually, he was thinking in his heart, Ya Tou will come to look for him in the future. However, he didn't voice it. Although Gelisi treated him well these few days, allowing him to eat till he was full each meal, even letting him try delicious food he never had the chance to taste last time, but Ah Dai vaguely felt that compared to Uncle Li, this Teacher Gelisi seemed more dangerous.

Gelisi didn't bother too much about what Ah Dai said, leading him forward.

After walking for more than an hour, they reached the port not far from Ninuo City. Ah Dai had been there a few times, he likes the ocean, the feel of something unfolding on a grand scale. Gazing at the horizon, listening to the sound of the waves lapping on the reefs, Ah Dai couldn't help but stand still.

"Hurry up, we must catch this ship." Gelisi turned around to tell Ah Dai who was staring at the sea.

Ah Dai was stunned, "Ship? Teacher, are you saying we are taking a ship?" His voiced sounded a little excited, who know how many times have he imagined himself being a fisherfolk, sitting in a wooden boat, floating on the ocean, that feeling is one that Ah Dai looked forward to.

"Yes, we are going to Valian Province, a ship is much faster." Gelisi lightly replied.

"That's amazing, that's great, I am about to go on a ship!" Ah Dai excitedly jumped around.

Gelisi frowned, "Keep calm, if you want to go on a ship, walk faster."

The two of them quickly walked to the harbor, when Ah Dai saw the enormous passenger ship that was more than 100 meters long and 20 meters wide, his jaw dropped, dazedly saying, "This... this is the ship we will be taking? It's huge!" Those fishermen boats were nothing compared to the large white ship in front of him.

Gelisi humphed, "Is it large? I still think it's small, time to get onto the ship."

 

Through the broad boarding plank, Ah Dai followed up Gliss and boarded this so called Worship God boat. Gliss rented the upper room of the ship, spacious enough for two people. Gliss felt great discomfort all over his body, he told Ah Dai that the main reason he disliked ships was mainly because he gets seasick. If he wasn’t in a rush, mainly because he wanted to head back as early as possible to prepare for his plan, he would have never chosen to go by ship.

Ah Dai excitedly walked inside the ship, looking out through the glass windows from time to time. After a short while, a broad canvas sail was raised on a tall and sturdy beam. the ship started to move slowly, gradually increasing its speed. as there were glaciers in this deap sea, this Worship God travel ship started it’s voyage close to the shoreline. After reaching the warmer waters, only then did the ship dare to venture in the deeper parts of the sea to reach faster speed.

“It’s moving, it’s moving, teacher, the ship moved!”

Gliss grabbed Ah Dai and pulled him in front of him, with a glare, he asked him: “Do you remember what i taught you yesterday?”

Ah Dai blinked his eyes and said with some shame: “Forgot it”. In the past two days, Gliss has always been teaching Ah Dai to learn some alchemy related knowledge, but sadly, Ah Dai’s brain processing speed was way too slow. he can’t even remember the simplest alchemical terminology.

“I knew you forgot it. Nevermind, I know just by looking at you that you can’t remember anything, go take a lotus pose on the bed.”

Ah Dai responded with a sound, and sat down per the instructions of Gliss. Gliss stood next to him, saying with a low voice : “Alchemical terms can await until we return to my place before you can delve further into the subject. During our time on this ship, i will assist you in feeling magic. this so called magic  is in fact submerging you own consciousness within the elements and letting you soul communicate with the elements nurtured by the Heavens and the Earth, thus allowing you to use your awareness to move the elementals as you wish. I don’t expect you to understand this right now, in a moment, i will thread some of my own own magic into your body, you simply need to close your eyes and feel, tell me what you felt afterwards.”

Ah Dai nodded his head and closed his eyes.

Gliss said: “I require of you, at the very least, to learn the simple fireball and flames within three months, otherwise, no food for you. Okay, now gather your thoughts and use your heart to feel the energy i am transmitting to you.” After speaking, he extended his right hand, and pressed on Ah Dai’s shoulders, then proceeded to chant a few magical incantations/phrases.

Ah Dai felt his shoulders warming up, and thought of the pain he endured within the restaurant, his whole body shook.

“Get rid of all distracting thoughts.” Gliss said with a soft voice.

The heat flowed from his shoulders into his body, but it showed no signs of worsening, only it circulated within his body. Ah Dai  puts his worries away, and due to the lack of distracting thoughts within his head, he fell asleep  in the comfort of the heat created by Gliss’s magic.

Gliss originally thought that Ah Dai was in a deep trance feeling the magic elements around them, but half a day later, he almost never felt any movement from Ah Dai This method of passing one’s own magic force to another person is very exhausting  due to the fact there is no way to move the elements around them for usage, so even someone on Gliss’s level felt weariness. he slowly retracted his right hand and asked: “What did you see? Ah Dai. Ah Dai… ah, you brat, you actually fell asleep, completely wasting all my hard efforts, are you trying to infuriate me to death?”

A small water ball exploded on Ah Dai’s face, causing him to awaken from his sweet dreams with a small shiver, “Snow, It’s snowing.”

[Jerry: so cute :3]

Gliss angrily smacked Ah Dai on on his head and said: “Snowing your head, what did i just ask of you? But what did you do instead?

Ah Dai just realized where he was, and thought of what just happened. He lowered his head and muttered: “Teacher, sorry, just then… just then it was too comfortable, so i fell asleep”

Gliss barely suppressed his anger within himself, and said coldly: Tell me, what did you just see? Don’t say you don’t know, if you really don’t know, then your dinner is gone.”

Once the issue of food was mention Once the issue of food was mentioned, Ah Dai immediately became more attentive, scratched his own head and thought : “ but I really didn’t see anything! How do I answer.” Ah Dai thought for a bit and decided to tell the wonderful dream he just had, and see if he can pass with that. After organizing his thoughts, he looked at the serious faced Gliss and said : “I… I felt just then my whole body heat up, then i became confused. afterwards, i saw a lot of small kids that came to play with me. they all had small red Mantous in their hands, trying to give it to me, I took and took, but no matter what i tried, I couldn’t accept them. I also wanted to give them something, but i didn’t have anything to give, so i could only let it be. Then you woke me up.”

Gliss was shocked by what he just heard, how could he not understand that what Ah Dai described was a dream. Although Ah Dai slept, but from his description, it actually was related to fire elements. those kids who were playing with him was all part of his dream, but those small red mantou were definitely fire elemental power! Why would the fire elements be attracted toward him? Unless he was born with a pure fire aptitude body, but he wasn’t.  When he was tested before, the results were clear. Thinking back, even when Gliss himself studied fire element magic, he could only meagerly feel the presence of the fire elements around him

Ah Dai uneasily looked at Gliss, wondering whether his lie to use his dream to replace his perception will allow him to get a meal.

Gliss extended his right hand and said: “Follow my lead and chant this: Fire elements filling the heavens and earth! please bestow upon me your warm strength, become a ball, appear in my hand.” Puchi! A 10 centimeters wide fireball appeared above Gliss’s hand, causing the surrounding air to suddenly heat up.

Although Ah Dai doesn’t understand what Gliss meant, but he still remembered the part belonging to incantation, so he followed along and said: “Follow… Ah, I don’t need to repeat this part right. Fire elements  Fire elements filling the heavens and earth! Please bestow upon me your warm strength, become a ball, appear in my hand.” Just as he finished saying the chant, Ah Dai suddenly felt something around him suddenly rush towards the center of his palm, Puchi! His hand flashed, and a small fireball, only one centimeter in diameter, appeared above his palm. it gave Ah Dai a small fright, he lept in fear of burning himself with the fire. As soon as he lost his concentration, the fireball instantly disappeared.

 

Gliss looked at Ah Dai with a stumped expression, only after quite a while did he recover from his stupor. A slight hint of murderous intent flashed within his eyes, he could have never thought that this idiotic boy in front of him had such a great natural aptitude for magic. When Gliss chanted this fireball spell for the first time, all he got as a result was some heat within the center of his palm. Even so, his master gave him a praise of the highest evaluation, but this average looking brat with below average intelligence actually succeeded in making a fireball, this is too unbelievable.

Ah Dai still didn’t understand why would a fireball appear above his own hand, so he looked at his own palm with a dumb expression.The two just stared spacing off in the room like that.

Quite some time later, Gliss snuffed out the fireball on his own hand and said: “Okay, let’s stop here for today, i need to rest for a bit, you go and memorize that spell. Your own fireball will float atop your hand so it won’t harm you, when you have time, just sit on the bed and think about those small red balls, understand?”

Ah Dai nodded his head, and tried his best to remember the spell chant he had just heard. With less interest to look at the sea for now, because to him, a barely 11 year old child, the interest of a fireball brings way exceeds that of the ocean.

Gliss stopped noticing Ah Dai and lay on his own bed meditating. Good thing that the weather was good for the day, the winds were nice and calm on the sea, the boat didn’t shake too much, so it lessened his seasickness symptoms. He thought that if another magician saw Ah Dai’s performance just then, they would definitely take Ah Dai as their disciple right away. Ah Dai’s aptitude is really too good, and he is getting older too, isn’t it time to consider letting Ah Dai study and inherit  his own legacy. Gliss shook his head vigorously, no, how can he break his own plan just because of a brat with better than average talents? He only need to undergo the final experiment, and this child will die, no matter how much the child learns, what use is there?

Ah Dai sat on the bed sheets with his eyes closed, playing with those small red mantous with joy, Gliss suddenly woke him up.

“Master.”

“En, repeat the chant i taught you yesterday.”

“Okay, Fire elements filling the heavens and earth! please bestow, please bestow. ouch.” Ah Dai could only recall the first sentence.

Gliss took back his hand that just hit Ah Dai, this idiot’s memorization skills is really the worst, “I’ll tell you again for the last time, if you still cannot remember, then don’t even think about eating again before getting off this ship. Fire elements filling the heavens and earth! please bestow upon me your warm strength, become a ball, appear in my hand.”

Eating to Ah Dai is the best thing for threats, he tried his hardest to memorize each word, “ Warm strength….. Become a ball,….. Appear in my hand.” he worked extra hard efforts to memorize the part that he wasn’t familiar with, sitting on his bed, repeating to himself non-stop, again and again. This simple chant, a normal person only needs a small amount of time before remembering it completely, but Ah Dai used an entire half a day before he can barely promise that he won’t forget.

　“Master, Teacher, I, I remembered it.” Ah Dai woke up Gliss by shaking him, giving no regards to the time.

Today’s waves were larger than the ones from yesterday, Gliss originally wanted to sleep a bit more to lessen the effects of his seasickness, and after finally falling asleep, he was woken up. He angrily said : “WHAT?”

Ah Dai was scared into taking a step backwards, stammered : “I, I memorized that spell chant.”

Gliss grunted once and said: “You’re one of the dumbest person i’ve met, actually using half a day to memorize a simple spell chant, what is there to brag about, let’s hear it.”

(Naervan: Ah Dai’s hard gathered confidence received a killing blow from Gliss, Ah Dai’s confidence fainted, choose a new pokemon…)

The confidence that Ah Dai gathered with great difficulty suddenly received a heavy blow from Gliss and shattered into a billion pieces, he lowered his head and extended his right hand and chanted in a small voice: “Fire elements filling the heavens and earth! please bestow upon me your warm strength, become a ball, appear in my hand.” Just as he finished the chant, he felt that unknown force gather again, also, compared to last time it was much stronger. Puchi, a diameter of at least 3 cm fireball appeared above his palm. Having experience from last time, Ah Dai kept calm this time and examined that red ball of flame carefully, the feeling was warm atop his hand, not blazing hot. Ah Dai brought the fireball in front of him and looked carefully, a slight lack of concentration on his part, the hair on his forehead caught on fire, “AH!” in his cry of alarm, Ah Dai’s concentration broke completely, and the fireball on his hand disappeared, a smelly wave of burnt hair  filled the cabin. Ah Dai beat his own hair for his life before finally smothering the fire out, his tragic half short black hair now missed yet another piece/section.

　looking at Ah Dai’s haggard appearance, Gliss couldn’t help but let out a slight smile, “Water and fire are emotionless, if it’s on your hand it’s fine, but it doesn’t mean that it is also harmless to other things. That was a real fireball, what you just did right now is called lighting yourself on fire. Next time be a little more careful. Open the door and let some fresh air in.”

Ah Dai continuously panted, although the previous incident just then made him battered and exhausted, but the fireball’s appearance gave his child’s heart a great happiness. The first time that he truly felt respect towards Gliss, “Teach.., Teacher, sorry, i am too stupid. I can’t even cast such a small magic perfectly.”

Gliss inwardly cursed, then aren’t i even more dumb. he have never seen anyone who can practice for just two days and cast a fireball that size. “Okay, no need to keep dawdling on this, just be more careful later on, and don’t forget the spell chant.”

Ah Dai nodded his head and said with determination: “I… I will definitely not forget, teach.” The fireball was Ah Dai’s first magic, and he already loved that little red fireball in the depth of his heart. he sat to the side and continued to repeat the already familiar spell chant to himself.

After two more days, the journey entered its last leg, Gliss did not take one step out of the room, fearing that the sight of the endless sea will make him vomit. All the food and drink was brought into the room by Ah Dai, every meal almost always have 90 percent of its content entering Ah Dai’s stomach. Ah Dai was a very good and obedient kid, these past three days, other than determinedly practicing and memorizing the fireball spell, he would meditate on the bed. The so called hard work to replace talent, just in three days time, he already can control fireball to an astonishing degree, the fireball that appears has already reached a diameter of 5 centimeters. gliss would occasionally give him a few pointers on how to use the fireball, such as how to raise the ball’s temperature, how to make the fireball’s size increase, how to control the fireball’s flight in the air…etc. unexpectedly, the always dimwitted Ah Dai, learned these methods fairly quickly and was fluent in their use very quickly.

Ah Dai controlled the fireball to circle around his body, he thought to himself that even if teacher dies later, he won’t have to fear the cold anymore, The warmth provided by the fireball felt really great. Good thing Gliss doesn’t know mindreading magic in his repertoire, or else he would definitely be so angry that blood would come out of all 7 orifices on his face.  

“Teacher, I want to go outside to take a breather.” after a few days’ worth of interacting with each others, Ah Dai is no longer that afraid of Gliss, after all, Gliss have yet to hit him, and he always let him eat until he was full during every meal.

　Gliss glared at him and said : “Put up your fireball, just stay around the entrance, don’t go too far.”

Ah Dai excitedly replied : “Yes teacher.”afterwards, he waved his hand to snuff out the fireball in the air, before excitedly opening the door to head outside. Standing on the outer walkway of the boat, Ah Dai held onto the rails and let the warm sunlight massage his skin, he deeply inhaled a breath of the moist sea air, and looked towards the horizon where the sea and the sky meets, sinking into revelment.

“Huh? what is that? “ Just as the Ah Dai was sinking in to revelment, he discovered that there was a black dot approaching them at a fast pace, the black dot grew gradually bigger.

After a while, the black dot’s silhouette can be seen, that was also a ship, the ship’s body was black colored, the size on par with the boat they were on, there was only one layer of deck. the huge black flag had a huge white skull on it, underneath the white skull was two white cross bones. Ah Dai thought, why is that boat’s color so different from their own?

He watched as the black ship approached theirs.