The nights and days shifted as the week passed by. One week had passed after his registration into Sun Academy. With intense training and practice, he had already mastered all the basics of swordsmanship and had learned to love it whole heartedly.

The whooshing sounds of air being sliced could be heard in the air. Sungjong was lightly practicing his swordsmanship skills. With every swing of the sword, Sungjong, slowly but steadily, learned from his mistakes and improved bit by bit. He had already bought a sword which was easy to carry around in his pocket.

It may look your ordinary pen, but once you push the button at the back of it, a sword would be formed. Its blade’s made by the toughest and the sharpest material in the world, a crystal that can only be found in the depths of the lakes of Water Land. The blade could slice easily through anything.

After a few hours of training, Sungjong finally sat down as he was tired. He stuck his sword into the ground and took his flask to have drink.

Suddenly, he heard rustling sounds from the green bushes behind him. He immediately stopped drinking and slowly turned his head round. Nothing was moving. He could’ve sworn that he heard the bushes rustling. He turned back and made a confused look. At the moment he thought that it was only an illusion, the rustling sound came back, but this time, louder.

A mixture of blue and yellow light was shining from his chest. Sungjong, eyes widened, took his necklace out from his shirt. The blue sapphire and the yellow topaz were shining brightly as if the gems were trying to tell him something. Sungjong turned his head around and found nothing.

As he turned back his head back his furrowed brows on his face, a tall figure was hovering in front of him. Sungjong immediately shot up and backed away.

“Y-You’re t-the g-guy w-who...” Sungjong started to stutter in shock at what he saw.

*Yes I’m the guy who tried to kill you.* Sungjong heard him thinking. How did he know that he can read minds?

“You know?” Sungjong asked as he continued backing away.

*I know. Well, thanks to my father.* the guy thought and hovered closer and closer to Sungjong. He raised his hand in the air and a sword appeared into his palm.

With one swift move, the man hovered towards Sungjong and attacked him. Sungjong screamed in pain as his left arm was slashed by the tip of the blade. He covered his left arm from oozing out too much blood and tried his best to dodge all of the man’s attacks. With each dodge, he would inch closer to his sword that was still stuck in the ground.

One last dodge and he can reach his sword. The man gave a fast swing of the blade at him. With one dodge from the assault, Sungjong quickly grabbed hold of the sword’s handle with his right hand and blocked another incoming attack from the man.

~¤~

Their swords clashed in the air as they exchanged attacks with each other. Both of them were panting hard and beads of perspiration trickled down their faces.

Finally, Sungjong finally hit the man and caused his chest to ooze out blood. The man winced and fell to the ground, trying to hold in the pain. Sungjong walked towards the man and pointed his sword at him.

“You’re really good kid,” the man said as he held his chest, “You really want the gem, eh?”

Sungjong paused for awhile and thought about it.

“Yes. I want it. I need it to finish and fulfil my father’s wish.” Sungjong said boldly.

“Okay. If that’s what you really want,” the man said as he broke off his necklace that had the ruby hanging on it, “It was nice fighting with you. Take this and please don’t kill me.” He handed the necklace to Sungjong and smiled. Sungjong took it and looked at him in confusion.

The man got up with Sungjong’s help and the wound he that was on his chest suddenly healed magically. He brushed off the leaves on his clothing and held out his hand.

“By the way, the name’s Nam Woohyun, healer.” He suddenly introduced himself to Sungjong.

Sungjong hesitated in shaking his hand.

*Come on, I won’t kill you.* Woohyun thought to reassure Sungjong.

Sungjong shook his hand and introduced himself.

“Lee Sungjong, mind reader.” He said shortly.

“I’m guessing you’re asking why the heck I just gave the ruby to you,” Woohyun said as he sat down and invited Sungjong to sit too, “Well, for starters, I really don’t want to get killed. I seriously love my life.” He said and raised his hands which caused Sungjong to giggle.

“Anyway, besides that point, I see that you were good enough to knock down a guy as big as me with that puny body of yours,” he poked Sungjong’s small arm and tried to differentiate the difference in size of their body. “So, I think it’s best for me to back down and let the probably ‘stronger’ ones step up.” He briefly explained.

“Oh.” Sungjong said, trying to understand what Woohyun tried to explain. So, this Woohyun guy just gave him the ruby because he doesn’t want his life to end and he assumed that he was better than Woohyun. That was kind of nice of him to say that.

“Anyway,” Sungjong spoke up in his soft voice, “Do you have any extra information about the quest or about the gems and the mirror?” He asked curiously.

~¤~

“Myungsoo! Myungsoo! Wake up, Kim Myungsoo!” Sungjong shouted as he bounced up and down on Myungsoo’s bed.

Myungsoo was still reluctant to open his eyes. He eventually grew extremely irritated and pushed Sungjong off the bed. He quickly took his blanket and covered his whole body, not wanting any disturbance.

Sungjong blew a raspberry and pouted cutely

“So, you want to play hard, Kim Myungsoo?” Sungjong talked to himself slowly before he went out of the room with an evil smirk plastered on his innocent little face.

Myungsoo opened one of his eyes at the sudden quietness. Finally, he had peace to sleep again. Unfortunately, the door opened again as he was about to fall asleep. At the sound of the door opening, Myungsoo quickly shut his eyes and pretended to go to sleep. He seriously felt extremely lazy today. Today just had to be the day Sungjong would wake him up like a crazy little kid.

Suddenly, a whole lot of water came hitting from above. Myungsoo, teeth chattering, slowly lifted his head up. Sungjong was holding a bucket of water above him.

“Finally, the great holy king of laziness, Kim Myungsoo, has awakened from the dead!” Sungjong shouted and raised his hands in the air as if praising the sky. Oh, how he loved to tease Myungsoo.

Myungsoo got up on his feet and wiped his wet face.

“Sungjong, you’d better run now.” Myungsoo warned Sungjong and smirked.

Sungjong immediately dropped the bucket and dashed away as Myungsoo followed suit. They ran all around the room as Myungsoo chased after the sneaky Sungjong.

“I got you!” Myungsoo shouted as he grabbed hold of Sungjong’s arm. With the look Myungsoo was giving, Sungjong knew what he was going to do to him.

Myungsoo grinned and began tickling Sungjong’s tummy. He knew Sungjong was extremely sensitive to tickling.

“Hahaha! Stop it! Stop it!” Sungjong pleaded as Myungsoo kept on tickling him on the ground. After a while, Sungjong finally could catch his breath as Myungsoo stopped tickling him. He realized that his clothes were also wet as a result from Myungsoo’s wet clothes and hair.

They both lied down on the floor and looked at the yellow lamp that hung above them. Silence filled the air.

“So,” Myungsoo broke the silence, “What did you want to tell me that was so important that you had to wake me up? You do know that today is my lazy day?” Myungsoo asked as he raised one eyebrow.

Sungjong sat up and hugged his legs together. He started telling Myungsoo about the guy that tried to kill him. Myungsoo’s eyes widened when Sungjong said that this Woohyun guy was a healer. From how Sungjong described the looks of this guy, Myungsoo didn’t think that he could be a healer.

What shocked Myungsoo more was that each gem can provide the holder to possess powers. Each of the gems had different powers. The topaz had the super-sonic hearing, the sapphire had the power of speed, the ruby had levitation, the jade had earth-related powers, the emerald had the night-vision power, the diamond contained the power of invisibility, the fuchsia had psychic powers and the amethyst had the power of shape-shifting.

Each of these powers will help in overcoming the obstacles in the quest. They will also help in finding the enchanted mirror that was secretly hidden somewhere deep in their world.

Myungsoo nodded his head, trying to process all the information given. Myungsoo took his notebook out and jotted down all the information in it.

“This quest gets harder and harder by the second we know more about it.” Myungsoo said to himself as he closed his book and placed it in his bag. A long silence filled the air between the two teenagers as their thoughts lingered to different places.

Sungjong’s sneeze suddenly came into hearing. He snuffled his nose and realized that it was pretty cold with his wet clothes on. He looked at Myungsoo and saw him handing him a towel. Myungsoo tossed the towel at him.

“Go take a shower,” Myungsoo said and grinned, “You seriously reek right now.”

“Hey!” Sungjong shouted and started to chase the laughing Kim Myungsoo around the room.