Unsealing Emptiness

“As I have already said, it is not a question about what we want in return. Listen here lady; we are not going to join your whatever sect! Find someone else.” Blaze spat with annoyance towards the middle-aged lady sitting across him.

“You don’t understand what is good for you yet. Once you-”

Before the lady could finish her words, Raven and Blaze stood up when they noticed Ozul.

“You both made friends?” Ozul asked, looking towards the middle-aged man and the woman sitting at the table. Blaze smiled wryly at his obvious sarcasm.

Raven was just happy that Ozul had returned as she softly smiled. Her serious face disappeared along with her aura that rejected almost everything that wanted to approach her.

Looking at this sudden change in her attitude, the woman at the table had a knowing smile on her face.

.....

“We are from the Nine Petals Sect, kid.” The woman said as she stood up with the man from their seats.

‘Nine Petals Sect? I think I have heard... Oh, it is the sect that Raymond told me that his Ashin Family is allied with.’ Ozul remembered Raymond giving a brief introduction of the two sects that were their allies.

Ozul realized that both the man and the woman were Initial Stage and End-Stage of Rank-8, respectively.

An End-Stage Rank-8 Mage was rare even in the Neutral Lands.

He shot a curious look towards Raven, who explained, “They are apparently the Elders from that sect. That woman wants to take both of us as her disciples.”

“Oh?” This actually amused Ozul.

The woman noticed how both Raven and Blaze seemed to be tame around this new person. However, she could not find any reason for them to do so as she sensed no Mana from this man.

“You can call me Elder Michiko, and he is Elder Sawada,” the woman introduced them before the two approached him.

“You see, as we just met coincidentally here when I noticed that man had an exceptional talent in Ice Element. At first, I just wanted to recruit him. However, when we got to talking, I realized that this girl does not actually lose out to him. Both of them are peak Rank-6 and have not even turned 25!” Elder Michiko said.

“It is in their own interest that they join the Nine Petals Sect. Although it is a ruthless place, people with talent are given privileges above even some elders,” Michiko continued to persuade.

This time, she counted the benefits of the duo joining them to Ozul as she believed that he might actually hear her.

Raven and Blaze looked back at them with a smirk at this point. They were aware that Ozul was always blatant with his words, so they awaited the harsh rejection that the woman would hear from him.

“That’s a nice idea,” Ozul said with a clear enough voice.

The woman smiled, but Raven and Blaze’s faces froze upon hearing his words.

Did they hear it wrong!? The duo turned their head mechanically towards Ozul, who ignored their obvious changing complexion.

“Yes. It will be a great idea if you both cultivate there in the meantime.” Ozul said.

He was already having trouble thinking of what they should do when he is away. The best he could think of was making them join the Order of Dusk under Raymond’s care.

However, joining a sect would be much better since there would probably be many more activities than just going around to kill people for money.

For now, Raven and Blaze needed interaction with more people. Although they had promised not to be arrogant because of his presence, a lesson was best learned with experience.

He was confident that they would not have any problem in taking care of themselves, but they severely lacked human interaction.

Ozul himself was just like that, but he could feel other people’s emotions. So it was different for him. He did not have to know how people behaved in different situations and how he could just know what they truly felt.

On the other hand, the duo not only did not have the emotion-sensing ability; they were as dense as one could be about this.

Raven was aware of his ability. She was capable and knew the basics because of Count Oliver teaching her.

Anyway, even if that wasn’t the case. Ozul was having too much of an impression on them. Relying so much on someone was just as bad as slowly crippling oneself.

“In the meantime?” Blaze asked.

“Yes. I will be away for some time. And face it, both of you are not strong enough to be of any use. I don’t have any use for the weak.” Ozul said the harsh truth.

He had to since if he said anything else, both of them would probably want to argue over it.

Listening to his words, the duo bowed their heads in shame. This was a sore point for them. For being even a little help to him, they needed to be at least Rank-8 and they were nowhere near it.

Unlike Blaze, Raven was even aware that Ozul wanted people to do stuff for him. However, she was already doing the best one could do.

Actually, it wasn’t even their fault. Compared to every other human, their growth was monstrous, to say the least. One could not really just become a Rank-8 Mage in one month.

Even Ozul knew this fact, but he was sure that saying anything else would not work.

From the side, both the Elders were stunned. No use for the weak?! How does this person, as an ordinary human, have no use of two peak Rank-6 Mages with talent that showed only once in a thousand years?!

Before Elder Michiko could say anything, Ozul took the Spatial pouch in his hand and began to take out the Frozen Mana Crystals.

Since it took so much time, he turned the pouch upside down and started to shake it violently. Under a few seconds, all the crystals were on the ground.

Everyone, be it Raven, Blaze, the Elders, or the people on that floor; all of them stared at the pile of bluish crystals with astonishment.

Those who knew about the crystals were even more amazed than the others.

Ozul had bought these crystals for Raven and Blaze actually. Even though these crystals were used for formations, there was still a huge amount of Mana stored in it.

The Mages could not directly absorb the Mana, but it was a different case for Raven and Blaze since they had the Elemental Seeds.

This would probably be enough for them to breakthrough the next rank as far as Ozul knew.

Raven was the first to get out of her stupor as she waved her hand and the crystals disappeared in her Spatial Ring.

“What are those?” Blaze asked.

“Divide it among yourselves later. They would help you.” Ozul did not explain and only instructed them briefly.

‘This person is really not as simple as he appears to be,’ Elder Michiko thought as she stared intently at the man with the pitch-black conical hat covering his face.

“You have a Spatial tool as well!” Raven exclaimed excitedly. She cannot contain her childishness when it comes to Ozul.

Although she was happy that she was a help to him for storing things, Raven never stopped thinking about how it was unfair to Ozul that he could not use a Spatial Ring.

It was also her who had searched through Count Oliver’s library nights in and out and learned about the Spatial Pouches used before the other tools.

“Yes, so don’t worry about that anymore,” Although Ozul never liked people interfering with his business, he had gotten used to Raven’s constant worries over him like Grandma Carol.

“Oh, and take good care of them. Okay? When I come back and don’t like what I see, then you wouldn’t like what happens next,” Ozul said as he turned towards Elder Michiko.

The target for his question, Elder Michiko, suddenly started to shake. Sweat quickly formed on her forehead as she immediately nodded her head.

‘Just what is happening to me?!’

Elder Michiko could not understand how the words from a person who had no Mana exerted so much pressure on her.

Seeing her nod her head repeatedly, Ozul turned his head towards Raven and Blaze. Elder Michiko sighed in relief as she realized that this person was way above her level.

“What happened, Elder Michiko?” The man behind asked in a concerned voice. He had a feeling that something was wrong with her.

“...We... will talk later about it,” Elder Michiko replied with a little pause. Her lips were still trembling a little.

Ozul patted Raven’s head before he was going to leave.

Turning his head over to Blaze, he said, “Don’t die training. I have no use for dead people either.”

He reminded them as these two sometimes took his words in a much more serious way. If they started to cultivate like madmen, it would render their base useless and also cause trouble.

The worst-case scenario meant certain death.

After this bit of time together, he certainly did not want to come back to see their dead bodies.

Blaze smiled as he ‘realized’ that it was probably Ozul’s way of showing his concern. Meanwhile, Raven was enjoying the head pat as much as she could. She just hadn’t started purring at this point.

After that, Ozul turned around and walked away with quick steps. If he stayed together with them any longer, he was sure that something else would come up.

Seeing his back, the duo had to control the tears from leaving their eyes. The Elders on the side looked at these two with their eyes twitching.

‘What are you?! Some children seeing their father leave?!’ The two Elders thought, making them wonder if they were too hasty in their decision to recruit this duo.