Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

"It finally ended," Inari said, letting out a breath of relief. 

The swirling clouds unfolded as the starry sky appeared above their head as if the storm they survived was nothing but an illusion. Elior came up onto the boat with his wet shorts and t-shirt. The shorts were in good condition, but the casual t-shirt was torn to the point of unrecognisable. Seriously, it was a terrible choice of wardrobe in this place.

"It was my third favourite t-shirt," Elior grumbled as the gust of wind hit his body and swayed the torn shirt off his body as he let it.

"You should have thought about it before going to battle wearing those," Inari commented. The sea had turned silent, and it was far more timid than even it appeared during the day. She found that she could not see the surrounding ship, though they did not seem to have covered that much distance. All of their destinations were the same, the egg-shaped island in the north. If the ship covered that distance already, shouldn't she at least see it?

"I actually forgot about that," he said and released a slow wave of mana out of his body, releasing all the water from his skin and shorts.

Though there was no indication of serious injuries in his body, he looked terribly exhausted. The skin somehow looked discoloured, but it could just be the light. Well, he did not look terrible, still with the niceties. 

He came directly to the storage equipment, while transparent windows appeared before their eyes, congratulating them on the completion of the quest. 

[Congratulations Apprentice Elior and Apprentice Inari on surviving the first ordeal of nightmare sea.]

[Contribution: Elior: 96%, Inari: 4%]

[You have been rewarded with 47 monster origin cores, 2 grade-2 recovery potions, and a mysterious tiffin box.] 

Inari frowned, looking at the rewards dropping on the boat. She found Elior was already in another t-shirt with the same design from before, a weird masked man in a black cape, flying. He didn't even bat an eye on the rewards as wore a leather jacket above it, before sitting down.

"Why was the reward not assigned according to the contribution?" she asked, trying to read his expression.

Elior sat freely, leg over the side of the boat, leaning against the other end. He gave the rewards a glance and shook his head. "What do you think is the reason?" he asked, genuinely wanting to know what she thought.

"Why do I feel like you already know the answer?" Inari asked.

"Well, it was not that hard to understand, is it?" he said, checking the context. "What do you suppose the reason is?"

Inari frowned. Though she did not have much experience in teaming up and fighting in partying, she knew the basics. Other than some specific rewards like that mysterious box, everything else was supposed to be awarded according to the contribution. Now, why would it be different here? Was it because it was a trial? The chat room doesn't work, could this mean the rewards system was broken too?

Elior had reached the items after checking once while he was to bring some beverages out of his storage equipment one after another. 

"How did you manage to get your spatial bag here?" she asked with curiosity.

"It is one of the privileges I got from the other Trial," Elior answered, sucking the straw of the energy drink. "Want one?"

"Another trial?" Inari asked while Elior tossed her an energy drink can. She caught it and looked at it curiously. It was not actually any product of alchemy or anything, but appeared like a drink. More importantly, she does not know what to do with it.

"Well, otherworlders got to take another trial before the actual thing," Elior said and looked at her with a smug face, trying to figure out what to do with the can. He chuckled, "You have no idea how to open it, do you?"

"I have never seen something like this before," Inari said, flustering a bit.

Elior continued to laugh, and she felt like shoving it into his mouth. After a bit, he stopped laughing and leaned forward to ask for the can. She gave it to him and he looked at her seriously. 

"Keep your attention focused," he said and touched the key like a thing. "Only do it in presence of an adult." Then he turned it over as a small hole opened up. 

Inari snorted and took the can. She removed her mask and smelt it first, but did not get a clear idea about its taste even with her enhanced perception organs. Sucking in a breath, she poured some of it on her mouth, though some amount of it got its way off her lips. She ignored that and found it to be something odd. It was not all sweat, sour, bitter, but all of them. It was neither an intoxication drink nor was it something she would like to drink again.

"It tasted . . . odd," she said.

"You will get used to it. I have dozens of them stored up," Elior said and finished his drink first. "So you got an answer to my question?"

"I don't know," Inari said as her eyes drifted towards the rewards again. "It does not seem like a mistake, so it's intentional. And why would they be sent all like that?"

Their eyes met at the same moment and Elior grinned at her, finding she found the answer. 

"To sow discord," she said, sucking in a breath. 

"The trial is not just a trial of our battle power or anything related to mana," Elior said. "It's a trial of our character as well. They filter out anyone petty through these kinds of processes. After all, petty people do not go very far in the long run." 

Inari nodded. "Since you did all the things, you can keep all the things," she said with no hesitation. 

"Good," Elior laughed jokingly. "It seemed my speech about petty people worked."

Inari gave him a flat look. Sometimes she just wants to know if he was joking or serious. "Sometimes I just wanted to hit you."

"Well, you can just not face." He continued to laugh. 

Inari clicked her tongue and thought about other things. "You are on the verge of advancing to the next order, right?" she asked. 

"Well, I met the requirement for the class I wanted, only need to collect the ingredients for the ritual now," Elior said as he picked up the tiffin carrier. "I think you will probably advance before me." 

Inari said nothing as Elior opened the mysterious box. What he brought out of the box was actually appeared to be some kind of mushroom. "Good stuff," he said and tossed her a couple of pieces. 

Inari failed to catch it as it fell on her lap. She held it up to find some mysterious mushrooms with blue patches in them. More importantly, the shape of the mushrooms is weird, and that was why she failed to catch it in the first place. 

[Mysterious Mushroom: Consumable. 

-each one of the mushrooms will have increased the training speed in mana application by 200% under advance level for the next 12 hours.] 

"It's a really useful thing," Inari said, "but I can't use it for some days, so you should use it all." She tossed it towards him.

"Well, I am keeping the origin core. It was one of the reasons I have not gone off to the island yet," Eliior said and tossed it back. "We can share the other things since you are not a petty person. Besides, it would look bad if I did not give you anything after my dashing exploit of rescuing you."

"DIdn't you hear about the part of me being injured," she said again, tossing it back. 

"You should still keep it." Elior gave it back to her again as if it was a hot potato.

There was no way Inari will ever eat this mushroom in presence of someone else, much less this strange, weird guy who seemed to take every fun at what he got. Even though the boast the mushroom gave was surprisingly good, she will never consider eating it, just for the way it shaped it.

"Why are you being persistence?" she said and gave it back. "And what did you mention about not going to the island?"

"I think you are in much need of this item." Elior tossed back the weirdly shaped mushroom again, trying very hard to burst into laughter.

Inari gritted her teeth and threw it back.

"Slow down lady, there was no need to be worked up just for these mushrooms," Elior said, and burst into laughter.

Inari blushed hard and tried to hide it. "I really want to hit you," she said.

"Anywhere but my handsome face." before Elior finished his phrase, she hit him hard on the chest.

"Aww, that hurts." Elior rubbed his chest slowly looking at the weirdly shaped mushroom. "Fine, you don't have to eat it.. I thought you would train a little with this so that you need to sleep. Right sleep, if you can, please try to not feel asleep before the sunrise if you can, alright?"