Heir Of The Supreme-Chapter 36: Intruding on Foreign Soil (8)

After waking up, Blaine was greeted by the bright glow of the afternoon sun.

Given the extensive trek that took them through the night and into the early morning, it was already past noon by the time they woke up.

Blaine checked his digital wristwatch.

[1:28 PM]

No wonder he felt peckish.

Pulling his head off the backpack he used as a makeshift pillow, he glanced at his surroundings.

Most of his companions were still fast asleep.

Even Cecelia was sprawled out in a less-than-elegant manner, with a hint of drool slipping out of her mouth.

"It's not proper to stare at a lady."

Blaine turned to the source of the voice, meeting Lyn's gaze.

She was sitting cross-legged with her back to one of the cave walls.

"I'm surprised you got up so quickly. Our night shift didn't end that long ago."

The two of them had their shift of night-watch duty earlier, so it wasn't their turn right now.

Yet Lyn was somehow standing guard yet again.

Blaine's eyebrow twitched slightly.

Noticing this, Lyn answered.

"I don't sleep much, so I let them sleep instead."

Despite Blaine never asking, she could sense the boy's question through his emotionless mask.

After spending a couple of days with the auburn-haired youth, she was starting to notice the subtle differences in his expression.

Lyn was quite good at reading people, after all.

Whenever Blaine's eyebrow twitched, it was probably because he was confused.

Just like how it did moments prior.

Finding out that the statue-like youth still had some semblance of emotions felt humanizing for Lyn.

She had seen quite a few people Blaine's age that could hide their thoughts, but none as skilled as him.

Though the youth didn't come close to her own level just yet.

Lyn beckoned Blaine with her eyes to sit next to her, to which he complied.

They silently sat next to each other, listening to the silent breaths of their sleeping companions.

Due to their profession, snoring could be a liability, especially on overnight missions.

After all, the sound could give away their location.

For this reason, army combatants would train in various techniques to sleep silently.

The army had a lot of procedures for things most people wouldn't even spare a second thought.

Apparently, even Cecelia wasn't an exemption from this, given that she was sent on a dangerous mission despite her position.

After several minutes, Lyn finally broke the silence.

"Is your mana core close to completion?"

Blaine nodded his head.

It was so close he could practically taste it.

Lyn's lips curved up slightly.

"It's quite the achievement, you know... You might be the youngest person in history to fully fill his mana core. Even Sir Alford only filled his up at the age of twenty, breaking the previous record of twenty-four at the time."

Despite the revelation that he would surpass his father's records, something that would have once been a source of endless joy to Blaine in the past, it barely elicited a reaction from him.

Blaine focused on his Mana Core, looking at his black-coloured core that contained a singular white star.

However, unlike the typical orb-like structure that was present in every other Mana Core he'd seen, his own core was a little different.

It looked like a shard of broken obsidian glass.

Instead of being flat, it was three-dimensional, with one of its ends being rounded.

Like it was a shattered fragment of an orb-like crystal.

While its shape was quite unique for a Mana Core, its overall size was proportional to a regular core and functioned just like one.

Even his absolute limit was proportional to that of a typical core.

Even though he did worry about it when he first saw it, after close to eight years with it, Blaine stopped paying much attention to it.

It was something completely normal to him now.

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

Though... The amount of people who knew about Blaine's strange core could be counted on one hand.

It was pretty much just his father, the vice-captain of the Royal Guard, and the King himself.

There wasn't really much that the revelation of Blaine's odd core would change, but just in case, they still decided to keep Blaine's secret under wraps.

As Blaine was observing his core, sounds from his surroundings snapped him back to reality.

It seemed that the others were getting up.

The first to get up were Lorie and Delsie.

Stretching lightly, Delsie threw Lyn a look of Gratitude.

"Thanks for covering my shift."

Lyn silently nodded in response.

Lorie threw Delsie a dumbfounded look.

"Did Rick and you get a free pass for your shift?"

An embarrassed smile formed on Delsie's lips.

"Both of us were exhausted after straining our mana reserves yesterday, so Lyn offered to take our turn."

Lorie sighed lightly before shaking her head.

Delsie's words weren't wrong after all.

The chocolate-skinned woman had been using her Mana Art seemingly non-stop the day prior.

Meanwhile, Rick slaved away on a daily basis to make them their shelters and emergency cover during a fight.

If any pair deserved more rest, it was them.

As if noticing they were talking about him, Rick yawned and groggily rubbed his eyes.

Ginny and even Cecelia weren't far behind either, and soon everyone was awake preparing their breakfast MREs.

As they consumed their breakfast, Cecelia pulled out her smart tablet and handed it to Lyn.

Taking a small portion of her mana, the middle-aged woman charged the device's battery.

While it was possible to use batteries pre-charged with mana, having someone infuse the device with mana was still equally valid.

This was extremely useful when finding more pre-charged batteries wasn't possible.

That was the beauty of Magitech.

"Thank you."

Receiving her tablet back, Cecelia opened the device's map application and zoomed in on their current location.

A small smile formed on her tired lips.

Lifting her device, she showed it to the other sitting near her.

"Based on our current pace, we should reach our destination by nightfall."