Chapter 35 - A master?

As Merlin got used to fend for himself, the days became weeks and the weeks, months. Soon three months had already passed since his arrival to that mysterious place, but he still hadn’t met the original owner of the cave, making him wonder if the cave had been abandoned for good or its owner had met his end at the mercy of the strange creatures inhabiting the forest below. He was lucky and found spring, a day after running out of water, which he appreciated much more after a whole day of thirst. 

He had failed to notice, though, that ever since his arrival, there had been someone observing his every move… and analyzing his every action. That person was currently standing on the top of an oak, on the mountain opposite to the one Merlin’s cave was in, observing Merlin prepare a soup with the herbs and water he had picked in the morning, and was sneering at him.

???: “Hmm, I’ll give him another week to see if he changes his attitude… So far, he has been a great disappointment. To think that the rightful inheritor of the knowledge and abilities of the original Merlin Pendragon has turned out to be like this… If he doesn’t change his disposition in the next week, I’ll drop him into a hell that he will never ever forget!”

Unaware that, in one week, he was going to regret not having died, Merlin continued making his soup. During the last few weeks, he had found more strange animals in the forest: Two-horned snakes, winged spiders, five-clawed lynxes, three-tailed foxes, four-winged crows… Animals he had never heard of before, most of them looking like variants or mutants of the species he knew. 

Strangely enough, he hadn’t encountered any monster since his arrival, and it almost looked like there weren’t any on that forest… or he just hadn’t entered their territory yet. However, Merlin’s lack of courage to even engage on combat with any of the strange animals, surviving only on the provisions left in the cave and the plants and fruits he could collect when he went out of the cave, had thoroughly disappointed the person observing him. 

Not meeting Merlin in the two months since his arrival had been a sort of a test of character, one which Merlin didn’t pass. Proceeding with caution is the smart thing to do, but when caution transforms into cowardice, the warrior loses his worth… and that was, in the eyes of the person observing him, Merlin’s current situation. 

Merlin ignored the exact details concerning the strange animals, so acting with caution and not engaging them without having more information was the smart thing to do… but in the opinion of the person who was observing him, Merlin should at least have tried to observe them in order to get some useful information on them, which would have allowed him to hunt them better, contrary to what he had done until the moment: running away from them and hide in the cave.

Another week passed, and the person who was secretly watching Merlin finally decided to show himself to him.

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??? POV:

This child definitely relied too much on his magic. It is really disappointing that after having all his magic sealed, he was unable of even hunting some small animals for his own survival. It is almost like he was a real 6-year-old, one would think that with the experience of his previous life, he would be able to do at least that much… I never imagined he would turn out to be such a coward without his magic. Well, the week of grace I gave to him has already passed, so it’s time to meet him in person.

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Merlin was asleep over some pelts in the cave, when a kick to his side woke him up. He didn’t sober up quickly enough, though, making it impossible for him to cushion in any way his crash against one of the oaks below the cave. After falling to the ground, Merlin tried to see who had hit him, but all he was able to see was another kick landing on his body. After being beaten up to the brink of death, Merlin saw a hand in front of him, offering him a vial, its contents Merlin recognized as being made from herbs, but he couldn’t recognize the formula.

When he looked up, Merlin saw a man who seemed to be in his forties, wearing a black dougi, looking at him with disdain, while offering the vial to him. *Is this the original owner of the cave?* If that was the case, Merlin understood this reaction, but why was he offering him a vial? *Is he trying to poison me? No, with his skill, if he wanted me dead, he could kill me at any time, he doesn’t have any reason to resort to trickery…*

Merlin: “Who are you?”

???: “You’ve got guts! Asking me who I am… when is precisely you borrowing my power without permission what has gotten us both in this mess!”

Merlin: “I don’t understand what you mean, I have never borrowed power as you say… Wait, don’t tell me… are you talking about that power boost?”

???: “‘Power boost’ he says… He uses my power without the permission of the Grimm, going against the ‘Covenant of the Heavens’, and he calls it ‘power boost’… unbelievable!”

Merlin: “Huh? What are you talking about?”

???: “I’m Lokiseth. Does that name ring a bell?”

Merlin: “Lokiseth… Like in the guardian god of my family?”

Lokiseth: “Not ‘like in’, I’m exactly that one, idiot! Now, take the vial and drink it. Don’t worry, it’s just a recovery potion.”

Merlin took the vial, but he didn’t drink it. He was considering the possible scenarios, but he still couldn’t understand why the person before him had harmed him and given him a recovery potion afterward. *This doesn’t make any sense…* 

Merlin: “Why would you first harm me to then cure me?”

Lokiseth: “Oh, that? That was just a light punishment for your idiocy! One would have thought that after wasting your entire mana pool fighting some horned rabbits, and after Grani’s warning, you would have learned to control your emotions during a battle, being calm and collected, allowing you to assert the situation and control the flow of the battle…”

Merlin: “How-how do you know about that? And what does controlling my emotions have to do with anything?”

Lokiseth: “I know everything that has happened to you because I’ve been inside you the whole time… As for controlling your emotions, it was to avoid the current situation.”

Merlin: “Which is?”

Lokiseth: “You really don’t know, do you?”

Merlin: “Would I have asked you if I did?”

Lokiseth: “Fair enough. My whole existence is sealed inside you, but you shouldn’t have any access to my power unless the Grimm gave you permission to do so, during the fight against the hexad and their minions, as stated in the ‘Covenant of the Heavens’. However, in my case, you can also forcefully draw my power out if an emotion is strong enough to bypass the security measures integrated in the seal.”

Merlin: “Ok, I used your power without permission, so what’s the problem? It looks like a one-time deal to me. Why would that be so bad? It’s not like I’m dead…”

Lokiseth: “No, you are not, but you almost did! I had to use all of your mana to create this realm inside your body, because that was the only way you could survive. Once you drew out my divine power, there was no way of putting it back, and by the ‘Covenant of the Heavens’, unless the person has received permission from the Grimm to use the divine power, nobody in the mortal realm can contain it. You certainly have no idea of how close you came to explode from the inside out, taking with you everything in a thousand mile radius. Anyhow, here we are, in this realm with no magic… and I’m going to thoroughly train you until you become a true Pendragon man!”

Merlin: “What do you mean, train me? I can train by myself just fine! I even learned 3 different martial arts by myself!”

Lokiseth: “If I knew you were going to be so conceited about that, I wouldn’t have given you a hand… Why are you making that face? Did you really think that just by reading some martial arts manuals and emulating the moves of battle scenes from movies while watching them frame by frame, you were able to master the moves? As if something like that could ever happen! I transferred to you the muscle memory of your predecessors, allowing you to easily master most of the moves, because your body already knew how to perform them! However, now you will learn from zero, and even your previous fighting experience will be useless here.”

Merlin: “You… what do you mean?”

Lokiseth: “Well, there is no experience like the one you gained by yourself… in addition, cowardice is not a trait a Pendragon should have, starting today, I’ll shape you into a true Pendragon man, as I said before. You will start by hunting the animals around here, and learning how to cook them, how to make a fire without fire… basically, you will fully awake the legacy your ancestors passed down in your blood, by doing the same things they did in their lives.”

Merlin: “I guess I don’t have a choice in the matter…”

Lokiseth: “No, you don’t.”

Merlin: “Is it safe consuming those animals… I mean, they’re mutants, won’t they give me radiation poisoning or something?”

Lokiseth: “They are not mutants, these species are currently extinct in Klantea, but they existed there before the humans did. This realm was based on a mix of the things you know and the things I know, for example the orange uniform I left in the cave for you, was based on one of the anime you liked so much, and this forest… There aren’t any oaks in Klantea, their creation was also based in your previous world.”

Merlin: “The poisoned spring too? Or you just thought that a spring with blue toxic water was cool?”

Lokiseth: “…” *Ups, that one was a mistake, but there is no way in hell I’m going to admit that!* “That one was done on purpose, it’s for when you will learn to make natural poisons, without using alchemy!”

Merlin: “Are you sure? I would swear you doubted a little there before giving the explanation.”

Lokiseth: “Yes, I’m sure. Now let’s get on with your training! You will be training under me for a year, in that time, I plan to drill into you all the teachings that were part of your legacy as a Pendragon, but were lost due to the decline of the clan!” *Please, let it go… Now that I think about it, he can really use it when learning about the fabrication of natural poisons, so it is not a complete lie… Ok, it is, but as long as he doesn’t realize that, then all is good.*

Merlin: “Whatever! Let’s get started, the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll be done with it!”

Merlin wasn’t eager to start at all, but given that he had no idea of how to get out of that place, “the realm” Lokiseth said to have made inside his body, he decided that, for the time being, he didn’t lose anything by training under Lokiseth, he might even would be able to learn a trick or two from him.

What Merlin didn’t know at the time was that the time flow inside that realm was 5 times faster than in the outside world, and when Lokiseth said he would be training under him for a year, he didn’t mean a year inside the realm, but a year in the outside world. Another thing Merlin also ignored, was that while things like injuries and scars wouldn’t appear in his real body, his body changes such as muscle growth would. A big surprise was waiting for him when he woke up!

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