Death... and me

As the sound of dirt and stones reverberated through the underground area, Celis pulled out something that looked like a blue crystal.

"Such rich Water Element..." Luan murmured as soon as the crystal came out.

"Water Element?" Rean looked at the crystal. "It's a little similar to a Divine Stone. I can feel a huge amount of Divine Energy in it."

[Hey, look at that. That's an Elemental Stone. That's some good stuff.] Sister Orb immediately called their attention.

"Elemental Stone?" Naturally, they had to ask back.

[Yes. Depending on the location, you might be able to find one of those. Sometimes there's more than one, but it's very rare. Rean, Roan, you two have the purest type of Dark and Light Element, right? This thing is the same as you two. The Water Element inside is as pure as it gets. For it to form, you need huge amounts of Divine Energy and a place rich in a specific element. This is the bottom of the ocean, and we have a good Divine Stone mine. I guess it makes sense for this thing to take form. Also, there's one more point to take note of.]

[Any Elemental Stone is the same as a Rank Six Divine Stone when it comes to Divine Energy alone. This is truly a good find since this mine only has Rank Four Divine Stones. Well, no one would use an Elemental Stone because of Divine Energy, though. It's all about the Water Element inside.]

Havek obviously became very interested in it after that. "Can I have it? This Water Element would be of great use for me."

[You better not try to absorb it right now, though.] Sister Orb warned Havek.

"Why not? I think I can even reach the Space Bending Realm with this little guy." Havek obviously didn't like to hear that.

[I don't doubt you can either. However, you would explode before that.]

"What?!" Immediately, Havek gave up on the idea of trying to absorb it.

Sister Orb then continued. [Luan has probably noticed it already. The amount of Water Element inside this thing, especially with the Divine Energy mixed with it, is just too great. Let alone Void Tempering Realm, Havek. You wouldn't be able to absorb its power without killing yourself even if you were in the Space Bending Realm. Of course, if you don't believe me, you can go ahead and try.]

"Ahem..." Naturally, Havek wasn't very willing to do that. "Let's play it safe, shall we?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders after that. "Well, we can keep it for later. Havek, it's most useful for you, so you can have it."

Havek wouldn't refuse that. After all, he didn't intend to stop at the Void Tempering Realm or the Space Bending Realm. "Thanks."

However, Roan stopped them right there. "Forget it. Leave this stone aside and finish mining the Divine Stones. We won't take it away with us."

Roan's words took everyone aback, prompting them to ask, "Why would we do that?"

Roan snorted in response. "Hmph! Because I said so."

Rean finally began to get annoyed with Roan's behavior. He was being a lot more unreasonable than he usually acted for a while now. "Just what the hell is wrong with you? Are you tired of traveling with us? If that's the case, I don't mind separating right here and then."

Celis, Havek, Kentucky, and even Luan had to admit Roan was especially hard to deal with since the end of the incident involving the devil's soul. "Rean is right. Just what is wrong with you?"

Roan, seeing that everyone was looking at him, narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Alright then. Have you noticed it already? We keep falling into these crazy huge schemes nonstop. Rean had mentioned it before. Why do we keep getting dragged into all of this? Recently, I started to think the same thing."

Roan continued, "Well, I'll tell you what. I'M FUCKING TIRED! Can we just stop for a little? Look at this now. Out of nowhere, we found an Elemental Stone that's supposed to be much rarer than this Divine Stone mine. Why am I the only one hearing alarms going off in my head when I look at it? Do you think I'm crazy to think that as soon as we deal with one calamity, another one is about to happen for some crazy reason?"

Rean couldn't help but comment, "I thought you were the type who liked dangerous situations so that we could evolve faster."

"I am!" Roan said as he scratched his head before continuing, "But I can't wipe out the feeling that if we continue throwing ourselves into these situations nonstop, we won't even get to Jhiod."

Everyone went silent after that. They couldn't even remember if they had ever seen Roan look so irritated like that before. Well, he was always irritated, but it was even more so now.

However, Rean was now brought back to that day when he mentioned the same words. About how they were always dragged into some crazy situation that could potentially change the destiny of millions of living beings. Not only that, they almost always got the most dangerous positions during those events. "So are you saying we shouldn't do anything else anymore?"

Roan shook his head, saying, "I'm just annoyed that we can't simply travel without being pulled into those problems. After all, I also want to find Calina as soon as possible."

Roan then sat on the ground after that. "Sigh... you might find it weird... but I truly feel burned out."

"Dad..." Luan didn't really understand everything very well. After all, he was thirteen years old, but his mind stopped when he was eight. "Can I help?"

Roan looked at him and gave a very rare pat on the head, telling him, "It's fine. I guess I'm just too tired."

Rean then sat on the ground. Not only him but Kentucky as well. Havek and Celis couldn't really sit since one was in his cedar form while the other was just a floating ball of energy.

Rean then offered, "We took a few days off back in Utari City, but it turned out that those few days off connected us to Salt Canyon City. Should we just ignore everything from now on? Like, not getting involved with anything at all during the next few years of travel?"

Kentucky and the others nodded in response. "Sounds like a good plan."

*Pin!*

It was then that the system's sound echoed in the twins' minds.

"OH, COME ON! You can't be fucking serious!"