Chapter 48: Greed for knowledge can kill too!

Chapter 48: Greed for knowledge can kill too! Luke, Noah and Ames were sitting around a round table in comfortable cushion chairs, in one of the private rooms of the famous restaurant of the city, ’Deliciso’. There were a lots of dishes in front of them, ranging from the famous cokatrish meat, swamp comodor eggs to the famous ’fiery heaven wine’ in their glasses. On the note of a successful completion of his research, Ames was treating them to this lavish dinner. "Thanks a lot, brothers! I can’t tell you how thankful I am to you two, especially you Luke, without you, I would have roamed the forest for years without any result, but you made my journey here successful!" "It was all you, I just helped you with the book and nothing else, you figured out everything!" Luke said. "Obviously not, that was the only reason I could complete the spell! The credit lies with you only!" Luke just smiled and didn’t argue anymore. "Right! I forgot the important thing in my excitement!" Ames pulled out a pouch from his dimensional ring. The pouch floated towards Noah and dropped on his hands as he caught it. "I know no matter how much I pay you, it won’t be enough for what you’ve done for me! Still, it’s just a token of gratitude from my side." Ames humbly said. Noah opened the pouch and was shocked to see it filled to the brim with gold coins. There were far more coins than they should get as the mission payment. "Along with the payment for five days, I’ve added a bit extra and totaled it to two thousand coins." "What!" Noah yelled out in surprise. "Can you pay us directly? I mean since we took the mission from the guild, we should be receiving it from the guild itself!" Luke asked. "I didn’t post any official mission to the guild. The guildmaster knew me and skipped the formalities! It’s like I hired you two directly, not through the guild, so that’s why I’m not paying you through the guild!" Luke and Noah nodded in realization. "I wanted to ask you this Luke. How did you know about the book and the prana? And the most troubling question right now is why did the book changed after going into your hands?" Ames asked. "Well...I don’t know if I should tell you this, but..." Luke hesitated in telling him at first. But then he sighed and started speaking. "I practice a different cultivation that doesn’t use the circles in the heart, and I think you can guess already that the energy I accumulate is not mana but prana!" Even Noah was surprised hearing Luke. He knew that Luke used a different cultivation method, but he never imagined that the energy he cultivated was not mana. "But why use this method, when there’s numerous mana cultivation method out there?" Ames asked curiously. "Because I can’t! I was born with a shattered circle in my heart, so I couldn’t cast magic or cultivate mana, I couldn’t even awaken!" Luke then told Ames everything about how he met his ancestor and he got the book, and the conditions given by his ancestor. He also clarifies that the one with mana circle couldn’t cultivate prana using this method upon Ames’s questioning. "I told you only because you also have a book similar to mine!" Luke hid the fact that he knew about the books of samsara and respected the words of his senior. "Hmm! Well...I won’t lie but I’m quite tempted to look at the book, but since you have a runic vow with your ancestor, nothing can be done." Ames sighed in disappointment. "I don’t!" Luke said. "What?" Ames asked, confused. "Wait a minute!" Luke’s eyes went wide in realization. "I never made a runic vow! I just promised with words...I mean, how can I when I couldn’t use mana! What a moron I am! I wouldn’t have been called a liar if..." Luke chuckled at his own foolishness and didn’t continue ahead. "Then...can you show me the book?" Ames look expectantly like a child. "You trusted me and showed me the book, so I’ll do the same!" Luke said with a smile and pulled out his book of matter and passed it to Ames. When Ames held the book in his hand, he felt a grand and mysterious feeling coming from it. He couldn’t describe, but he was sucked in the mysticism it held. He traced his hand over the black cover and the number engraved on it and slowly opened it. As he started reading, he understood the concept of chakra and prana and how it was different from mana and the reason his spells failed always. Just then his eyes fell on the mantra in bold letters on the page. He eyes scanned the words and he opened his mouth unconsciously as the words of the chant murmured out of his mouth. "I am for a matter, dust from the vast cosmos, for my soul is th..." Ames stopped suddenly, he felt something clutching at his heart, his chest tightened and an intense pang of pain rushed from his chest. Before he could react and understand anything, Ames vomited out blood. The blood dyed his robe and the table, falling all over the food. Luke and Noah jumped up from their seats and rushed to his side. They were shocked at him suddenly throwing up blood. The book fell from his hand on the floor and he clutched his chest because of the pain. Luke picked his book up and placed it back in his dimensional ring. He then held Ames trying to prevent him from falling on the ground as he kept shaking because of the pain. "Noah! Get ruby!" Luke yelled at Noah as he nodded and was about to move out when Ames shouted out. "No! I-I’ll be a-alright!" he somehow squeezed the words out amid the pain. After some time, Ames finally felt better. Luke passed him a piece of cloth which he used to wipe the blood off his lips and chin. He then pulled out a high grade healing potion and gulped it down. His face twisted from the ferrous taste of blood passed down along with the potion. "Tch! That’s what you get for being greedy!" Ames clicked his tongue as he chuckled. "Was it because of the.." "Yes! Your ancestor was right! those having a circle in their heart can’t cultivate the chakra method. Just speaking a few words of the mantra out loud would have killed me, or destroyed my circle at least!" "Haha! I got lucky there! Guess being greedy for knowledge can kill you too!!" Ames laughed at himself, a trace of fear in his eyes as he stared at the empty potion glass vile in his hand.