Avon looked at Laia with wide and blank eyes. No thought passed behind his eyes for at a few solid seconds.
Hearing her say that....it felt surreal. Meanwhile, she continued.
"I know I am much older than you in age but...I have realised my true feelings for you. You are like the ideal lover I had in mind....I..really love yo-"
While she was speaking Avon was trying make sense of what had just happened. Once the realisation struck him, he knew what to do.
Avon held her hand mid-sentence and she stopped abruptly. He just looked down on her hand while rubbing his finger on the back of her palm.
His gaze shifted to her face, in a gentle manner.
He had this innocent and kind and sweet and slightly notorious smile on his face.
He just looked at her and said,
"I know what you mean....I always tried to not think of you in such a way because I considered myself too small for you but...truthfully, you are my ideal lover too...this might be one of the best days of my life!"
His tone was laced with excitement which was building up inside him. Laia was relieved too.
Then Avon remembered something and his expression became complex. He remembered about his current situation. He was now a dual cultivator.
"Umm...I have become something called a dual cultivator...you should know about that before proce-"
"I know", Laia interrupted,
"I saw it in your memories and I don't care. I know you are not like that."
He felt slightly relieved but was curious as to what extent she read his memories,
"So....did you read all of my memories? How does it work?"
Laia' expressioj changed immediately, she felt a bit shameful, she spoke with her eyes down,
"Actually...memories are a branching structure and we start from the latest and clearest one, then slowly read the memories related to it, like that each one is connected to many others..."
She didn't answer as to how much of his memories she had read.
"I see, so you how do you know which branch to choose? And do too many branches give any trouble?"
He asked,
"Yes, at one point it becomes difficult to comprehend the memories. But it depends on one's mental strength. Also we don't know which branch to choose so we must check and eliminate unwanted branches. The branches don't extend infinitely, they end at memories of dreams because those are the most blurry memories a person has."
"I see, so till where did you read mine?"
He pressed on,
She answered meekly while looking at him,
"Till your dreams..."
"So you saw all my memories? Like all? Including the..."
His thoughts trailed off to when he saw Aveline naked and the odd intimate time with her...
"Your time with the woman Aveline? Yes...."
Laia had guessed what he wanted to know.
He was embarrassed at this point.
" So even master saw that..."
He spoke in despair.
"No, I don't think, eliminating branches is difficult for beginners so I ended up reading all your memories....master definitely didn't."
"I see..."
He was relieved slightly.
He then wondered how Laia was fine with what she saw. He asked her ,
"What you saw...does it bother you?"
"I...don't know, I know there was no romance but I obviously how she behaved with you was abnormal...maybe she likes you? I personally...I think I just want to focus on our relationship for now and think about your dual cultivation later...but...
She looked into his eyes as she said that. Her tone was completely that of hesitation.
He nodded as it obvious.
"Is it not unfair to you if I get another lover...not like I will have one but...that is why I'm telling you think about it...maybe out there in the vast expanse you'll find someone better.... because I...I know it is hypocritical but I don't want my lover to think of anyone besides me...."
He spoke reluctantly, his eyes sinking and voice shaking slightly.
She just shook her head and said,
" I want to be with you, I don't care about how wide the world is or how much is unknown, it must be you. I know you are serious about your relations so I know you won't just go chasing women....but I want to know, is there anyone else you love...right now?"
He shook his head,
"Only you. These past few seconds have awakened new feelings in me and I know they're all only for you."
She smiled a little and then said,
"How about, we focus on ourselves right now. Only you and me. We'll deal with the complicated stuff when the time comes but for now, just you and me."
There was possessiveness in her tone and in her eyes. He liked it.
They both just looked in each other's eyes for sometime. Then *creak* the door opened and Reveria entered the room.
Laia and Avon were quick to separated their hands but they would never be quick enough before Reveria.
She noticed the blush on both their faces and the atmosphere between the two. She decided to ignore it.
Pretending to not have seen anything she approached Avon non-chalantly and gave him the healing pill.
He took it and within a few minutes he was completely fine.
He was able to move his body without any pain and his mind was back to normal too. Though he was still baffled because of what happened earlier, he tried to pretend he was fine.
"Shall we pay a visit to your parents, you must want to meet them after having been through such an ordeal."
Avon and Laia obviously wanted to meet their parents. Soon they were in the warm embrace of their parents. They didn't speak anything about the recent events. It was Reveria's suggestion.
After a day had passed, the three were together sitting in a restaurant. They were celebrating the victory and Avon's safe return.
"I look forward to how the food here tastes."
Reveria spoke.
Avon and Laia spoke highly of the food on the planet so Reveria looks forward to it.
They had a great meal and spoke about plenty of things. Avon was thoroughly interrogated regarding his travel even though they had read his memories.
The three were back in the forest where they trained. It was time for Reveria to continue teaching about cultivation and answer the lingering questions regarding the recent events.
She began,
"As you know, there three types of mana particles. Each type when absorbed helps in one of three ways: mind cultivation, body cultivation and magic incrementation.
There are stages involved in each of those. Also know that there is yet a limit to be discovered to the cultivation stages.
First is body cultivation, it is one of the oldest known cultivation methods and is the one practiced vastly across galaxies. It is the tempering of the body and the soul. Basically, it strengthens one's very existence in reality.
It is divided into,
Body evolution, where the body is strengthened to its peak.
Soul evolution, the presence of the soul and its opacity, or existence is strengthened.
Awakening stage, here the ability to use affinities one has is awakened. It is done through skillfull execution using mana.
Master stage, where one has a completes hold over their abilities and their current self is at their maximum current potential.
Manipulator stage, here, after a life threatening breakthrough process, one obtains the ability to manipulate the world and it's properties."
Avon was surprised when he heard about the manipulator stage.
"These major stages have many minor stages between them, three for body and soul evolution each and five for awakening, seven for master and eleven known for manipulator stage.
The intensity of breakthrough depends on the foundation, you both have succeeded at developing good foundation and that is why your body cultivation breakthroughs were so painful."
Avon and Laia looked at each other, it seemed she too had her body almost disintegrated.
"Next, mind cultivation is a new method of cultivation discovered just a few centuries ago. It strengthens the intuition and reasoning of a person. The is simply divided into levels and is not practiced widely. It originated in Steela.
Lastly Magic, it is the ability to make various phenomena take place based on one's will alone. It also has various stages,
Basic caster
Advanced caster
Intermediate caster
Basic Accessor
Intermediate accessor
Advanced accessor
Mind caster
Mana control stage
Chantless caster
These are the known stages. The minor stages present here depend upon the magic core of a person. It varies person to person but again, a good foundation is all that is needed."
Reveria looked at Avon and Laia to see if they understood properly. They both had no confusion in their eyes.
"Now since there are these different ways to strengthen oneself, people usually practice one of these three, but in reality practicing all three at once is possible. It is the complete way of cultivation."
Avon remembered how almost everyone he met on his adventure had been following only one of these and only master Silea was practicing multiple.
He suspected that even Aveline was practicing body cultivation along with mind cultivation.
"I am at master stage. The heretics who attacked were at master stage too except the last man, he was a manipulator."
Laia then questioned,
"Then why were you able to win against him?"
"Because of my strong foundation and his weak foundation. I have reached the master stage without any shortcuts but he used supplements which damage the soul,mind and body to advance. This leads to a weak foundation. Though a difference in major stage is not something that can be overcome, I could win because of my artifacts and because I have advanced in all three forms of cultivation. I am an intermediate caster in magic and a level 40 mind cultivator."
Avon was surprised to hear all this, he knew she was strong but to think she was so advanced in everything. Laia didn't seem surprised to hear this.
Looking at Avon's reaction Laia spoke,
"Master already explained all this to me in the artefact."
"Oh.."
"Yes, this is specially for you Avon."
Reveria spoke.
Then she told them about different planets that follow different cultivation levels and how body cultivation is primary focus of most culttivors.
"Master...why were heretics here, on our planet?"
Avon asked.
"It seems that they had a long term plan to kill all life on the planet. Many centuries ago someone must have found this place and then they injected the aggressive mist into the core. That must have been when they flattened the mountain. After that they sealed the planet to make sure no mana reaches it so that it would never awaken.