It had taken Maxi and Tengen about three hours to finally reach the gate, which only just began to speak of the greatness and grandeur of Bastria.
As Maxi's carriage passed through the gates of Bastria, he couldn't help but feel a sliver of longing.
He had lived in that vast capital for all of his new life, and yet he only knew one part of its beauty. He had only ever seen a single piece of the puzzle, and to glimpse even more of what the puzzle might hold was quite the tease for Maxi's explorative mind.
Maxi sighed as he whispered, "One day."
He then turned to Tengen, who was still studying the map. Tengen's eyes darted over it as if it were foreign territory. Then, suddenly, recognition fell back into his gaze — like a telescope locking onto the planet it had been searching for.
Tengen grinned. "Found it."
He leaned out of the carriage and shouted,
"Hey, rider! Pull up after the next one million or so giant trees!"
The rider, dressed in a full black suit and a tall hat, tipped his hat — the rider's sign of compliance.
Tengen fell back onto his seat with a satisfied grin. "So, you ready?"
Maxi nodded. "As ready as I can be, I guess."
"That's the spirit," Tengen said.
Maxi sighed. "Anyways, what are we going to do during this trip?"
Tengen smiled. "I'm glad you asked. We're going to do some survival training — you know, so you'll be ready for whatever, or whoever, tries to kill you. And trust me, there will be a lot. You're a BloodHeart. Plenty of people don't like BloodHearts."
Maxi sighed. "Yeah… and I know why."
Tengen nodded with a smirk. "Hey, at least you know why people would want to kill you. Some folks don't even get that luxury."
Maxi nodded, pondering Tengen's words, before a thought struck him.
"Hey, Tengen."
Tengen raised his head slightly. "Yeah?"
"What's our first lesson going to be on?" Maxi asked.
Tengen shrugged with a smile. "We'll just have to wait and see. I'm improvising as we go."
Maxi froze, shocked for a second, before sighing and face-palming.
(Why did I get my hopes up and expect more?)
A moment later, the carriage stopped.
Maxi blinked, baffled, and looked around. "Wait… didn't you say the driver should stop after the one millionth giant tree?"
Tengen stood and nodded. "And he did."
Maxi raised an eyebrow. "How big are these trees?"
Tapping his foot in a faint rhythm, Tengen answered, "About… eh, two to three of these carriages stacked wide."
Maxi's eyes widened slightly. "What!?"
He popped his head out of the carriage to look at the so-called giant trees.
And sure enough, Tengen was right — the trees were enormous.
In the midst of Maxi's shock, he didn't notice Tengen unloading their belongings from the carriage.
"You coming or what?" Tengen shouted.
Maxi turned to him. "Oh yeah… wait, when the hell did you get out?"
Tengen laughed, shaking his head. "Just shut your yapping and get over here."
Maxi sighed and stepped out of the carriage.
Tengen waved to the driver. "Driver, you're good to go."
The driver raised his hat slightly — a sign of farewell.
Maxi turned to thank him. "Than—"
But when Maxi looked back, the driver was already gone.
His mouth opened slightly. "What the…?"
Tengen ignored Maxi's shock and strode into the giant forest. "Come on, Master Maxi. We've got some surviving to do."
Exhausted from all the surprises, Maxi sighed.
Slowly, he turned to follow. "Coming…"
Maxi stepped off the stone path of the road and into the tall grass of the forest, which rose all the way to his neck.
The trees towered over both him and Tengen, their dark and light leaves interwoven in such a way that the deeper they went, the less sunlight broke through. The giant trees were spaced far apart, but their massive roots filled most of the empty space between.
As they pressed deeper into the forest, they eventually came upon a clearing where the oversized grass had been eroded away—whether by natural or unnatural means, Maxi could not tell.
Tengen grinned and patted the ground. "This is a great place for us to settle down and make camp."
Maxi sighed. "I guess… so, what should we do first?"
"Well," Tengen said, "first we'd have to kill the beast that probably lives here. But the safer option is gathering wood before it gets dark, so I guess we'll deal with that problem later."
Maxi blinked. "Wait… a beast lives here?"
Tengen chuckled. "Yeah, didn't you see all the signs?"
Maxi shook his head. "No… I wasn't paying attention."
Tengen raised a brow with a smirk. "Didn't you unlock some kind of note-taking passive blessing ability? Why didn't you use that?"
Maxi blinked. "Oh, that? That's not how it works. I only take notice of things I want to notice. And usually, what I want to notice narrows down greatly when it's a single opponent. I've never really used it passively while I wasn't paying attention."
Tengen shook his head, chuckling. "It's a passive blessing using it passively is whats it for its in the name. Just teach yourself to use it passively first—then you narrow things down, so you only pick up what's important."
Maxi held his chin, nodding slowly. "I get the concept. I just have no idea how to do what you said… because I barely understood what you said."
Tengen smiled and shrugged. "If you get the concept, that's all you need. Just take it, roll with it, edit it—eventually you'll get the version that suits you best. That's how I learned everything, even my strongest attacks."
"You don't tend to listen, do you?" Maxi asked with a smile.
Tengen shrugged. "It's more like… I zone out, then fill in the gaps myself."
Maxi chuckled. "Noted."
"And Maxi…"
"Huh?"
Tengen looked at him smugly. "You totally got that ability from me."
Maxi blinked. "What? Noted?"
Tengen puffed out his chest proudly. "yeah On the 1000 Spiraling Hells, 1000th Door, you got that from me."
Maxi shook his head. "No. What makes you think that?"
"Oh, come on. You've gotta admit it. Remember what I said to Techxin during our fight?"
Maxi scrubbed through his memories until he found it—Tengen calling Techxin a mama's boy, and after Techxin threatened him, Tengen smugly said, "Noted."
Maxi froze, then slowly looked at Tengen. His eyes were filled with nothing but smugness and pride.
(Fu—!!!!) Maxi screamed internally. Now Tengen could brag that he was the one who inspired Maxi's passive blessing.
Maxi sighed. There was no point in fighting it. "Fine… but I'm changing the name. I was going to call it 'Noted,' but now I'll call it 'Taking Notes.'"
Tengen shrugged. "Makes no difference to me. I still get the credit for being a good teacher."
Maxi groaned internally. (I already hate this…)
Tengen yawned. "Anyway, let's grab some firewood before it gets late. I'll deal with the beast later."
Maxi nodded as Tengen put their things down.
"We should probably split up. Please don't die or get lost while we're apart," Tengen said.
"How weak and dumb do you think I am?" Maxi asked flatly.
Tengen shrugged. "Not dumb—just weak."
"Thanks, I guess." Maxi sighed.
"You're welcome. And again—don't die." Tengen grinned before disappearing back into the tall grass.
After a few minutes, Maxi decided to enter the grass as well.
As he walked, he pondered what Tengen had said about making his passive blessing more… passive.
(More passive? What does that even mean…)
He knew what it meant—he just hadn't thought it was so obvious until now.
(Or maybe it really is that obvious…)
Maxi began to take note of everything: the grass, the sound it made when the wind blew, the patterns of the trees, the crunch of the soil beneath his feet. Every little thing, he tried to record.
"Okay… but what do I do with all these notes?" he muttered.
He remembered Tengen's words.
(Narrow it down. Only what's important.)
For a while, Maxi tested the idea, noting wet branches and dismissing them because they were useless for firewood.
But then a thought struck him. (That won't work for me well—not the way Tengen means it…)
Tengen's method would be to take note of everything, then discard what wasn't important, leaving only the crucial pieces. But to do that properly, Maxi would have to repeat the process endlessly, over and over, like a sonar—note, un-note, repeat.
It wasn't a bad system. But it wasn't his system.
(How about this… I build a map with all my notes.)
Maxi imagined painting a picture in his mind with each detail he recorded. If something appeared that didn't fit into that picture, he'd be instantly alerted. Not only that—depending on the shape of the picture, he could even tell what type of creatures lived in the area.
Excited, Maxi put the thought into practice. With every note, his mental map grew clearer.
That's when he realized—the branches of the giant trees grew short and close to the trunk. Which meant…
(If that's the case, the best branches will be near the trees themselves.)
Sure enough, after searching, Maxi found several dry branches—along with some wet ones he ignored.
Minutes later, he returned to camp with his load. Thanks to his new mental map, finding the place again was surprisingly easy.
Tengen wasn't back yet, so Maxi sat down and began laying out the branches as best as he remembered from his past life.
He had never really gone camping before, but… he did vaguely—no, vividly—remember either hiding or sleeping in a forest once. He couldn't recall which, or why.
As he pondered this memory, he heard a sound he now recognized well: grass brushing against a body, and the heavy tread of footsteps.
Tengen appeared, carrying enormous branches. "Hy, Master Maxi! Glad to see you're not dead."
Maxi sighed. "And glad to see you're still as prideful as ever."
Tengen chuckled. "Nice one. Anyway, let's get this fire started."
He raised his right hand, a red star flaring into existence.
"Wait." Maxi interrupted.
Tengen tilted his head. "What?"
Maxi smiled awkwardly. "Can I try? Since Colen taught me magic, I might as well get used to using it."
Tengen shrugged. "Alright, go ahead." He knelt, breaking some branches and arranging and fixing Maxi's makeshift fire.
Maxi breathed deeply, opening the key to his core. A flood of sensation rushed over him—every sense amplified at once.
He remembered the day Colen first taught him magic.
"Why fire? It's so… generic," Maxi had whined.
Colen's cold voice replied, "Because fire causes pain. And pain is the perfect entryway into magic."
"I don't like pain," Maxi had muttered.
"Too bad. No one likes pain. But as Techxin says: if there is no pain, there is no gain. Pain is temporary. Are you really going to let something temporary stop you from gaining something permanent?"
Maxi had swallowed. "…No."
Colen had nodded. "Good. Then let's begin."