Chapter 13: That’s it?

Riven’s gut tightened then. The people she was trailing were likely those green-robed bastards—Vaelith and his Brotherhood of the Unholy Night.

He had heard them say something about finding a catacomb.

But he was more surprised that her master would let her follow them. Unless they were of the same rank? Shouldn’t masters be protective of their disciples? At least, that’s what the stories say.

So he asked her about her rank, and she told him she was rank three, which raised her in his eyes. His village head was a low Auracrest, and yet he was sure Kivara would handle him.

Was it because of her master?

And then she asked a question of her own—one that Riven had been expecting. “Why are you so weak? You are not even a rank one.”

“I just activated my Sigil.”

She raised her brows. It was something that he expected. Activation of a Sigil was something that should happen when a person was a kid. It wasn’t something that happened to people who had long passed their coming of age at sixteen.

“No wonder you were so weak,” she muttered, shaking her head. “You’re basically useless to me in this forest. Ah, well, I’ll drop you off at the edge of the Shadowwood once I’m fully healed. That should count for something.”

Riven clenched his jaw. This again? Useless? He wanted to lash out at her angrily, but then he thought about it. She was right. He was basically useless, and he knew next to nothing about Sigils and their powers. And dropping him at the edge of the Shadowwood would indeed count for a lot.

The only reason he wasn’t dead yet was because of his passive ability. He took a deep breath and made his face relax, reminding himself of what he wanted—to train and gain power, to reach a peak high enough to save his sister.

He locked eyes with her and nodded. He couldn’t help the curiosity that crept into his voice as he leaned forward. “Very well. Tell me information then, about Sigils.”

Kivara nodded, then sniffed the air. She pointed at his shirt that was between the roots. It was where he had kept the meat he had cut the night before. He stood to retrieve it, and by the time he returned, she had already gathered dry wood to be used as fire.

“Are you a fire practitioner?” she asked as she arranged the dry wood.

“No,” he answered as he spread the meat on the ground.

She grunted in reply, then began to rub one piece of wood against another so fast that smoke came out, and it caught fire. She used a pointed stick to arrange the meat, positioning it over the fire.

Riven copied her move, but he pointed at the smoke. “Won’t that draw people?”

She shook her head. “With the big trees around, they shouldn’t be able to see it. If they are able to see the smoke, then they are near enough to sense us. And don’t worry about the smell.”

Riven sniffed the air and found that he couldn’t smell anything. Even when the smoke spread his way, it was as if he was just breathing in the forest air.

Before he could ask any questions, she began speaking. “Right. I should tell you about Sigils and what an aura practitioner is. First, I want to know what you already know so I can figure out what to complement.”

Riven did know some things. Although he couldn’t cultivate Aura, he was allowed to listen to the lessons.

Kivara took a bite out of the meat, hot and all. “Well, you know a lot already. But let me just start at the beginning. Everyone is born with a Sigil, and they cultivate Aura their whole life to make it evolve. Each time it evolves, they gain a rank, and their control over how the Sigil relates to the world deepens.

“But not everyone is born with the same kind of Sigil. Some are born with an already evolved Sigil, meaning they are born at rank two and will gain the rank upon activation and forming the four stars.”

That was news to Riven. All he knew was that everyone was born with a Sigil—he had never heard that people could be born with an evolved one before.

She saw the look in his eyes and shrugged. “It’s mostly caused by the genes of the family, and sometimes it just happens. But the level of evolution one is born with is also different and classified. To start with, we have the Faint Sigil, which is the most common, and almost everyone in the world is born with this.

“Sigils like fire, earth, water, healing, and such are classified under Faint Sigils. Of course, with different Paths, they can evolve, but it’s difficult to cultivate.

“Next, we have the Glowing Sigil. It is rare to have this, and those who do will have faster growth in cultivation, with the potential to reach higher than their peers.

“Next is Radiant. Having this Sigil guarantees reaching the peak. Their cultivation speed is insane, and they start their advancement from rank two. It also comes with a passive ability—they can cultivate Aura faster than others.

“It’s extremely rare, but it also comes with a drawback. Since the Sigil has already evolved in such an advanced way, it’s difficult to find a Path for it unless one is extremely lucky.”

She stopped speaking and continued eating her food.

Riven frowned, his heart beating fast. Going by what she explained, his own Sigil lay in the Glowing Sigil category. Undead monsters or death aura were not difficult. The only reason he hadn’t been able to activate it was because he had thought he had a normal Sigil.

He thought to himself, So I have the potential to reach higher than my peers of the same rank. Not bad. Not bad at all.

But out loud, he asked her. “That’s it? All of it?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep