Unaware of what was happening outside, about an hour after the dimensional field activated, Charles’s eyelashes trembled when he heard some faint noises.
His eyes fluttered open, and he turned toward the noise with a dazed expression, momentarily forgetting what had happened before he fainted. His heart nearly stopped when he saw the sight before him.
He was lying at the edge of a cliff with nothing but dark clouds below. Just an inch more ahead, and he would have plummeted down, never to open his eyes again. With a pounding heart, he moved back.
Charles sighed and wiped his forehead when he was far away from the cliff. The memory of what had happened before he fainted rushed back to him, and he stood up to absorb everything.
Above him was a clear sky with three suns, and behind him loomed a dense coniferous forest. It appeared he was standing at the boundary of the orange crystal where the dimensional field had transported him.
This place was different from Eldoria, where only one sun rose and set.
The dimensions and realms inside the crystals in Eldoria were typically not vast and consisted only of sections of the other worlds they were connected to, surrounded by boundaries that could be cliffs, seas, walls, or anything without an end.
"How am I going to leave this place...?"
He spoke with a defeated expression because, as someone who held no value within his family, unlike his half-brother, he didn’t possess a storage ring, much less an expensive weapon to protect himself.
Charles bit his nails and would have continued to do so if he hadn’t heard the faint noise that woke him up again. It was coming from below the cliff. He hesitantly moved closer to the edge and peered down, only to gasp when he saw Skyler clinging to the sloped surface like a lizard.
One of the ash-brown-haired boy’s feet rested on a protruding rock while the other dangled awkwardly. Gripping a nearby rock tightly with one hand, he was doing his best to reach a gleaming crystal-like red-purple flower that was growing on another jutting rock on the cliffside with his other hand.
Sensing his shadow, Skyler looked up. Charles’s dark eyes trembled. He felt fear instead of the youth dangling in a place where, if he fell, he would die! He quickly extended his hand to pull him up.
"Are you out of your mind?? What the hell are you doing down there?? Come up! The cliff has no end in sight! There’s nothing but darkness and white clouds below! It’s the boundary of this dimension! If you fall, death is the least of your worries!"
Sweat rolled down Skyler’s forehead as he glanced at the hand extended toward him.
"Hmm, could you pass me a tree branch first? I need to get the pretty flower..."
Charles’s mouth fell open.
His eyes traveled to the flower.
"You’re really crazy, aren’t you? Is that flower more important than your life?"
Skyler blinked at him. He had woken up before Charles. They were teleported to the same place since they were together when the field activated, but when he awoke and looked around, he discovered the flower.
He tried his best; he truly did, he swore. However, the flower was calling to him, luring him with its crystal-like radiance. So, despite his efforts to suppress his desire, he somehow found himself reaching for it.
"Will you believe me if I say this is different from what you are seeing? This flower has enchanting properties that controlled me!"
Of course, he was trying to bullshit his way out. But Charles wasn’t 505. How could he be so easily fooled? He deadpanned.
"I will not."
Skyler chuckled nervously. Now that someone had loudly pointed out how dangerous his situation was, he finally realized he shouldn’t have done what he did. He looked down and felt scared.
His eyes snapped toward Charles.
"Help me up, okay?"
"You can take this flower."
Charles’s dark eyes flickered with amusement, and he chuckled. He knew he shouldn’t feel that way, especially not when someone was hanging on death’s door.
He usually remained composed, but this youth had caused him to lose his calm so many times in just a single day.
He bent down and stared at Skyler.
"Okay, get me that flower then."
Skyler’s eyes widened.
"Are you crazy?? How can I...."
He shut his mouth when he realized it was he who had gone ahead and put himself in this situation. Who was he to call someone else crazy when he was the crazy one?
Charles extended his hand again.
"Come up, idiot. I was joking."
Skyler quickly grabbed his hand, and Charles used his wind elemental power to push him from below and pull him up. Both of them collapsed to the ground, panting once he was finally back up the cliff.
Charles stared at the clear sky.
"At least I’m not alone here."
Skyler didn’t focus on his words; he was glancing down the cliff at the flower.
"Should we try again?"
He was met with a glare and could only cast one last reluctant glance at the flower, as if he were parting with a lover.
Charles laughed at his antics; he hadn’t laughed this much in a long time.
"You are freaking weird."
They both stood up, dusted off their clothes, and glanced at the forest. Skyler extended his hand toward Charles.
"I didn’t introduce myself properly before. My name is Skyler Ironhart. I turned 18 this year. An initial 4-star Light elementist. Let’s work together to get out of here."
Charles glanced at his hand.
"Are you asking to be friends?"
Skyler rolled his eyes. Hadn’t he already made it clear with his actions that he wanted peace between them?
He replied sarcastically.
"No, I’m asking you to be my employee."
Charles’s eyebrows twitched. He didn’t like making friends, especially because people who learned about his background and life always looked at him with pity.
"That’s actually better than being a friend. You have to pay me, though."
He shook Skyler’s hand.
"Charles Mahson. I am 20, an initial 5-star Wind, Earth, Fire, and Lightning elementist. But I can only use the Wind element since I haven’t formed the crystals for the rest."
Skyler’s eyes widened.
"A quadruple elementist?? Then hiring you is gonna be costly. Tsk."
He suddenly looked him up and down.
"You are 20? Two years older than me. So, why are you the same height as me?"
A vein throbbed on Charles’s forehead.
This bastard, he was short himself, and he was calling others short??
"You have a problem?"
"No, I actually don’t."