Chapter 12: Becoming Mist Users

"Wait... !" Zax screamed when he awaked. For a few second his heart was pounding in an accelerating rate and his mind was disoriented. Without knowing what it was, a deep anxiety enveloped Zax's soul. A disgusting sensation which made him vomit as he repeated again, in the midst of forgetting toward who, what or where. "Wait-"

"Zax!"

A voice entered through his ears and rang in his head. Zax did not recognize who it was. His body bent by a reflex when he felt the surge of fluids coming up from his stomach, and though his eyes were wide open, his vision was too blurry to even count the shadows surrounding him.

"Not again-" Zax cried in his mind. The taste of the digested candy bar that he ate earlier was way too abusive to his taste buds as it came out, enough to never want to eat another sour chocolate candy bar again in his life. What Zax did not know was that most of what he tasted, and was reluctant to taste again, was a side effect of the nutrition tablets that was meant to leave his body in the conventional way...

"Are you fine now?"

This time the voice was clearer and recognizable, yet Zax was not confident that it was the same one from before. It was Merly, and according to his voice he stood two meters to his left, with his back turned to him and a sickly expression on his face. Zax did not hold Merly's distant attitude against him since he came to learn, during their last school year, that he has a weak stomach. Zax appreciated Merly's effort to ask how he was.

"Yes". Zax answered and straightened up. In the first place, apart from the candy bar, Zax did not eat anything since the evening before the search.

Seeing his friends surrounding him and Merly coming over with eyes up, it took Zax a moment to examine their facial expressions and where they were. Their faces had a contrasting mixture of worry, satisfaction, nausea – the only one which Zax could understand – and excitement. Zax eventually could not figure what his friends were and he did not want to make any assumption since he did remember that they currently participate in the Great Earth's Core Pursuit. However, they now were near tunnel three hundred and twelve, which led back to cave one hundred and thirty nine, and on the ground around them was a big pile of small rocks. There were also many other participants also appeared in the vicinity, talking to each other, waiting or returning from the search.

A silent groan left Zax's mouth when he stood up and dizziness struck his head.

"Drink water". Weysey, who was the tallest of the all group and sturdiest among the eight, apart from Zax, supported Zax as he drank from the bottle while the group walked away from the smelly puddle.

"Why are we back?" Zax asked.

The other seven members of the group behaved discreetly and withdrawn. They picked a remote place to talk, a hundred meter from the tunnel, where others could still see them, but not hear, and it seemed that this was what they wanted.

"Before we tell you, you should also eat something". Zushi said.

"I'm not hungry". Zax frowned. Not because it could be seen that he still was not feeling well, but because of the thought of putting food in his mouth.

"You should eat anyway". Zushi insisted and the others tried to push they left over snacks to Zax.

Forced by his friends and without the strength to resist, given that all the muscles in his body were sore, Zax picked the fruity jelly beetles that Mi offered him.

"Now can you tell me why we are back? How much time we have till the end of the event?" Since he could answer the latter question, Zax looked at his time bracelet and was astonished to discover that there were less than fifteen minutes for them to spend before having to go back through the tunnel.

"How can it be?! We just were searching in the river!" Zax called in disbelief.

"You don't remember?" Dane asked. "That's because you've done it again, did you, Zax?"

"Done what?" Zax asked baffled.

"You used big sister Zetsa's trick to find Earth's Core and it made you go crazy, again". Serah answered.

"Big sis's trick... ?" Zax asked himself and finally recalled. I dawned on him what possibly happened, though, once more, he was not sure why. "I picked up the Earth's Core in the river, my Soul Sense did not detected anything odd about it or the environmental essence. Then why? Why I don't remember anything that happened afterwards and why..." The one question which boggled him the most, the one that was related to the distress that was in his voice when he woke up and called the word "Wait", Zax could not make up the words to express. At most, he found a way to rephrased it. "Why I want ... No! Need to go back?!"

"Let him see, Zushi, let him see". The voice of Merly pressing Zushi to show him something brought Zax back from his pondering state.

"Don't shove me, Merly. Fine, I'll show him. Don't be impatient!" Zushi shoved Merly back and turned his head to the others. "Let's make it look like we are eating snacks. I'll show Zax and all of you act normal".

As if it was decided in advance, Serah, Dane, Anet, Mi, Merly and Weysey, each opened up one of his or her snacks and tried to hide Zushi and Zax without looking suspicious.

Zushi handed Zax his backpack that he carried for him when the move from where they previously were. "Open it up". He grinned and told Zax.

Doing as Zushi said, Zax took back his backpack and saw what was inside it that everyone wanted him to see.

"An Earth's Core?" Zax said quietly and raised an eyebrow.

"Bet Miss Zetsa did not teach you that..." The grin on Zushi's face spread to a wide smile. "You can't assess the quality of an Earth's Core, hehehe..."

"Of course I can't. Only Mist Masters or stronger can assess the quality of an Earth's Core". Zax responded defensively. What his friends thought him to be? As a Mist Master, his big sister could definitely tell the quality of an Earth's Core, but he barely was qualified to be called an F level Mist User and even that, only from the neck up.

"They think big sis taught a method to find out the quality of an Earth's Core because I lied about my Soul Sense..." Zax understood.

As if to reaffirm his conjecture, Zushi continued. "No. If you were able to do that, then the rest of us should really be ashamed of our uselessness". Though he said it as a joke, if Zax was old enough and wiser he could tell that the ten years old Zushi was content with such words.

"Is this the Earth's Core that I picked in the river?"

"One of them".

"One of... !"

Zushi's hand moved quickly and covered Zax's mouth. His smile appeared more genuine than a moment ago. "Unfortunately, among the seventeen that you found – including the three in the forest – this one was the only medium quality E level Earth's Core".

Feeling his body shaking and his eyes bulging out from their sockets, Zax did not believe that Zushi could lie over such a sensitive subject in such a sensitive time. Not even for an incy wincy joke!

"An E level Earth's Core". Zax gulped. "H ... Ho..."

'How?" Zushi helped him and in return Zax only nodded.

Zushi closed Zax's backpack for him and the others relaxed their "Normal" postures.

"Fourteen from the seventeen Earth's Cores that you found were of high quality. How you managed to find so many great Earth's Cores ... ask the Supreme Rulers". Zushi leaned on the cave's well, started eating his own snack and delved deeper in the explanation. "I'm assuming you don't remember running like a crazy person in the river, picking up small rocks and Earth's Core and piling them in your backpack?"

In response, Zax shook his head.

"Thought so ... I also didn't see how it started, since I joined Anet to see if she really found an Earth's Core right after you found one. Dane told us that when you reached down for the Earth's Core you suddenly began to panic, ran and jump around. By then, not only me, Anet, Serah and Mi noticed. All the other participated watched you and said that you went crazy because of the event's pressure. We, on the other hand, saw you act weird before and could connect your behavior to the technique that Miss Zetsa taught you".

Zushi went on, telling Zax how they chased after him, met the event's Guardian who at first Zax tried to hit, but then he knocked him out and rebuked the rest of them and in the end and unpredictably – after showing them the features of the time bracelets with a three dimensional device – allowed them to search near the unsafe zone for an hour. He then continued telling how the event's Guardian came back with none other than Miss Zetsa to carry them back with the help of a mysterious technique, which they performed together, that made them float behind the event's Guardian and Miss Zetsa as they rushed through the cave to the entrance.

"When we got here Miss Zetsa was the one who noticed your packed backpack, though Weysey was the one who carried it". Zushi finally reached the part about the Earth's Cores and there was not a lot of time till they had to go back to cave one hundred and thirty nine. "Can you imagine her face – our faces – when she emptied your backpack from the rocks that you picked up and then revealed to us a batch of fourteen Earth's Cores? No to mention us seven, even Miss Zetsa was dumbstruck. Luckily, the event's Guardian left before Miss Zetsa found the Earth's Cores, or that at least was what Miss Zetsa said without explaining why. She just told us not to tell anyone about the amount of Earth's Cores that you found or how you found them".