The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Sunlight faintly rose and fluttered through the curtains, rising inch by inch in line with the two suns until it showered the entire room in its gentle warmth. Oscar slowly cracked his eyes open against the gentle sunlight and saw he was smothered in Avril's soft embrace, resting on her chest as her hand stroked his head gently. For some reason, nine times out of ten, he always woke up in his position, lying in her bosom like a child.

"Are you up?" Avril said softly before groaning in distress. "I feel sick. My head is pounding."

Raising his head and readjusting to see her eye-to-eye, Oscar rubbed her forehead and lightly pinched her cheek as a punishment. "You're the one who accidentally drank some wine. I swear. You need to be more careful." He rose from the bed, carried her over to the couch, and had her drink an entire cup of water. "I guess you can't go over to the Alchemist Guild today. I'll let them know you're sick."

"I'm fine. She feels much better after drinking water and points him in the chest." Avril sounded tough but stumbled over, resting limply on his body.

"What will I do with you?" Oscar sighed and ordered some fresh stew from the kitchen. Slowly, he fed her one spoonful at a time until she couldn't eat anymore and shook her head in refusal. Laying the spoon down, Oscar got Avril's attention and said, "There's something I need to tell you. It's very important." He explained everything Hector had told him about the increasing cases of missing visitors and temporary residents.

"Dangerous. How dangerous." Avril stated, her golden eyes focusing on Oscar, losing the sluggishness from earlier. "I never heard about it. Does that mean we're in danger?"

"Possibly. Erden is going to accompany you from now on. If anything happens to either of us, our shared connection can let the other know. For now, let's play it safe." Oscar tied her hair into a braided bun.

"There's still the enemies from your home here as well. She frowns but knows they can't ignore them." Avril rubbed her temples with a sigh.

"Ambushing them after they take the portal out is also quite impossible. I can imagine they'll have others waiting on the other side. I already apologized earlier, but I have to act here. We might be jumping into danger soon." His warm embrace prompted Avril to give him a soft kiss and stroke his head with a knowing gaze that accepted his decisions. He felt he was the luckiest man in all of Talos to marry her and hugged her tightly. "I'll be heading off to the Fabricator Guild today. I'll forge the elemental armaments for us."

"Hector is a nice person to allow you to keep everything. She tugs at Oscar's clothes and asks if she can come with him." Avril's bright eyes were so dazzling, beaming straight at him.

"Aren't you sick?" Oscar worried about her condition.

"It's just a hangover!" Avril pouted, then returned to her bright smile. "I like watching you work. You're so handsome when creating an armament."

All rejections and retorts vanished from his mind, all because of her one statement. Oscar couldn't win against her earnest and loving expression and words and decided to take her along. But as a form of petty revenge, he left with her still in his arms out in public. Her dismayed, embarrassed, and red face was enough eye candy for him. Along the way, some gave them strange gazes, which forced Avril to rest deeper in his embrace, turning her head away from the people. Faint whispers turned her ears red as she hit Oscar's chest with fists full of Reis.

"Hey. Hey. Hey! Are you flaunting your love to the rest of us? You brought an alchemist to our guild." Inside the Fabricator Guild, the others didn't fail to hound Oscar about Avril, teasing and poking fun at his expense. "Bah, I'm going to get sick from eating too much sugar. Get away."

"They're a rough crowd, but they're all good people." Oscar separated from the joking fabricators and entered a private workshop, locking it shut. He lowered Avril onto a stool in the corner. She appeared to have died of embarrassment, her furiously red face and fierce eyes inciting Oscar to flick her forehead. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

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"That's too much!" Avril shouted, sweat already dripping down her forehead from the heat of the furnace.

"Says the one who unabashedly pushed to do it in the sky-tier suite." Oscar laughed at how her hands covered her face in sheer embarrassment. Turning away, he changed his demeanor and focused on the task ahead. He changed into his fabricator uniform and took out the Diabond ore, Oaksteel ore, his buckler, Avril's staff, several beast cores, and bones.

Glancing back, he smiled at Avril's entranced look as she rested her head against the wall. He remembered seeing that sort of look on Mom whenever she saw Dad work on the field with his hearty smile. A tug of longing and melancholy itched his heart and made him pause.

'Just a few more days.' Oscar started the process and broke apart the beast's bones. In each hammer strike, he repeated it to himself, falling into a rhythm, each strike echoing his heartbeat.

For his armament, he used the hard shell of a grade-three beast, refined the Diabond ore to a pleasing 90 purity, and added in his old buckler. After several grueling sessions of failed Reis-forging, he finally succeeded. He finished it off with an intricate formation, using the defensive section of the beast's core formation for the base. After quenching the entire armament and pulling it out, he raised it high for Avril to see, feeling happy from her applause and cheers. It was a grade-three shield shaped like a diamond, slightly skewed not to be a perfect square. Five diamond-like gems shined along its surface in perfect symmetry, catching the light of the flames to produce vibrant colors.

Oscar felt it was a shame that elemental armaments couldn't be made for Elite Exalts. Perhaps the battles in Ashen Grove would have been different. Alas, elemental ores only existed in grades three and above and were rare.

Snapping his mind away from regrets, Oscar carried his momentum over to the next one, Avril's armament. He used a spine, taking a page from Hector's book, to allow her staff to have great flexibility, refined the Oaksteel to 91 purity, and used parts of her old staff. Reis-forging was truly a harsh wall to overcome. Oscar barely managed to finish after a few hours of retries. He finished the armament off with the same concept he used for the wind element spear and smiled at his finished creation.

"Here you are, my dear wife." Oscar held the staff toward her, the gold gem lodged in its tip.

Avril smiled with tender love, removed his helmet, and kissed him. "Thank you, my loving husband. But you really smell bad now. You need a bath."

He whisked her away back to the Hilrest Tower, where Erden was left behind, keeping watch for any intruders. Without skipping a step, they hurried into the bath together and washed each other clean after a long, thorough session of passionate love. However, Oscar and Avril couldn't resist and made love again, forcing them to restart the bath.

"Are you two a pair of rabbits?" Erden scolded the two of them after they washed up and dressed up. "Every moment of freedom the two of you get, you can't help yourselves. Shape up and focus on what we have to do here."

"Sorry." Oscar and Avril said together. Avril took out another pair of transforming elixirs, and Oscar downed the entire vial, his eyes and hair changing from black and black to gold and white. By his side, Avril shifted to pink hair and blue eyes.

"Then. Let's head out. Remember our objective for today." Oscar helped Avril up and hid Erden under his coat as best as he could. Today was not the day to be fancy. They wore more casual wear to mingle with the crowd.

Outside, in the central district of Convecia City, large crowds gathered in this late afternoon, excitement and eagerness painted in their expressions. Many stalls were set up, shouting about the odds for the outcomes, selling tickets like hotcakes as people blurted out their bets. Indeed today was the day for everyone, not just those allowed into the auction.

Today was the start of the competition between the six factions of the Rusk Continent, where the young generation would show their prowess and dominance over their competitors. It was an important event for everyone since it signified their home's blossoming future and was one of the city's greatest gambling events.

Oscar ignored the stalls and last calls for bets, walking with Avril in their disguises toward the large coliseum where many crowds of people waited to get in. Holding up a pass that he got from Hector, Oscar was allowed entry into the earth-tier seats, a sprawling section of wide chairs lined along a large table that stretched across the entire circumference of the coliseum. Hector offered to give him a sky-tier suite as before for the auction, but he had another purpose here. Walking with Avril hand-in-hand, Oscar approached a certain group and asked, "Are these seats taken?"

They glanced at Oscar and chuckled, "Feel free." Earth Core Academy, Thousand Storm Palace, and Undying Flame Sect. These men welcomed him without much thought.

Oscar smiled and clenched his free hand. "I hope it'll be a good fight."

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