"You've been waiting here this whole time? I only said to leave me an address."
Lynn was a little surprised, smiling as he asked Giggs.
With old grudges settled and a hefty sum now in his pocket, he was in high spirits, his steps noticeably lighter.
"Haha, I didn't have anything better to do, so I figured I'd wait a bit longer," Giggs replied with a grin. He stepped forward to give Lynn a quick hug, then stepped back to size him up, raising an eyebrow. "Looks like you've been doing well lately, Lynn."
"I can't complain," Lynn nodded with a smile, also giving Giggs a once-over. The other boy, too, had shed his former air of defeat, looking much more spirited.
After a brief exchange of greetings, the sense of distance from their long separation faded considerably.
"You know…"
"You know…"
They both started speaking at the same time, then paused.
"You first," said Lynn.
Giggs nodded, took a moment to gather his thoughts, and said, "Actually, I've got you to thank for this, Lynn.
"These days, I make a living catching white-shadow mushrooms.
"At first, I tried what you suggested, seeing if I could turn a profit by reselling goods, but it was just too hard. Later, I remembered something.
"Remember that time we ate white-shadow mushrooms, and I went to ask the instructor about them? He told me they sense danger through smell… so if you just mask your scent, you can get close to them easily.
"Thanks to that bit of knowledge, I've been doing pretty well."
Lynn raised an eyebrow, half-joking, half-serious.
"That's some valuable information, just telling me outright like that?"
"You're making a living selling crystal spell-plates," Giggs said with a chuckle, "you're not going to risk coming to Emerald Shadow Forest to compete with me."
"But I could sell that information to someone else," Lynn replied.
Giggs' smile froze. "Lynn, we grew up together…"
Lynn laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Relax, I'm just teasing."
After a brief pause, his tone turned more serious.
"The Emerald Shadow Forest isn't exactly safe. I've recently come across a business opportunity. Do you want to help me out? I guarantee it pays no less than what you're making now."
Giggs blinked, then slowly shook his head.
"No thanks, Lynn. I'm doing fine for myself right now, and it feels good to be earning my way."
His voice was soft, but his eyes were firm.
Lynn recalled the time Giggs had left without a word.
Back then, the boy had other options; he could have begged for Lynn's help, or even tried to take his wealth by force.
But Giggs hadn't. He'd walked away in silence, preserving the last of his dignity.
In the face of death and desperation, many lose their humanity, but there will always be those who hold fast to their principles.
With a touch of emotion in his heart, Lynn tried once more to explain the white-shadow mushroom business to him and extended the invitation again.
Giggs was shocked by the offer, but after some thought, he still refused.
Lynn didn't press the matter, only telling him that if he changed his mind, he could come find him anytime.
Kersey might be dead now, but the white-shadow mushroom trade wasn't going anywhere.
That was a fortune he couldn't afford to miss.
But before taking over that business, he needed greater strength.
Only with enough power could he run it securely.
Bidding farewell to Giggs, Lynn quickened his pace toward his shack.
He could hardly wait to test the flash of insight he'd had earlier.
...
After Lynn left, Giggs also began heading back to his place.
To make it easier to reach the Emerald Shadow Forest and catch white-shadow mushrooms, he had rented another shack nearby.
But as he passed a narrow alley, a voice suddenly rang out behind him without warning.
"Giggs, I hear you're quite good at catching white-shadow mushrooms…"
Without the slightest hesitation and without even looking back, Giggs broke into a fast stride, trying to get away.
But before he could escape, a figure emerged at the far end of the alley, someone he never expected to see.
"…Ant," Giggs said in shock.
Instinctively, he turned his head and saw another familiar face, Dor.
He didn't have time to wonder why Ant would be together with Dor.
Because in that instant, his gaze locked with Dor's.
Giggs had no words to describe those eyes or the intoxicating green light within them.
It was as if his consciousness was being pulled into some unfathomable abyss.
Slowly, flecks of green began to appear in Giggs' own eyes.
And then he saw it, a vast consciousness network, sprawling like a swarm of ants.
The network was made up of countless nodes, most of them far away and therefore faint.
Yet Giggs could still vaguely sense that at the center of this network lurked a magnificent emerald presence that shook his very soul.
He dared only a single glance before instinctively and fearfully looking away.
Around that great emerald shadow were several even larger consciousnesses, and beside them, several slightly smaller ones.
One of those smaller consciousnesses was Dor.
And orbiting Dor were several even tinier presences, one of them was Ant.
But it didn't stop there. Giggs could sense that below Ant, there was at least one more layer of even lesser consciousnesses…
What… what is this…?
The green in Giggs' eyes deepened, and his awareness sank further.
Bit by bit, he learned more.
To his shock, he realized the network before him wasn't just a complex web of multiple minds.
It was a single, complete consciousness, a single, unified being.
And he was becoming part of it.
The feeling of his self-awareness dissolving jolted Giggs awake.
The green faded rapidly from his eyes, and his stiff body began to respond again.
At the same time, the information he had just absorbed vanished like morning dew under the rising sun.
In a heartbeat, he could no longer recall what he had just seen.
It was as if those memories had been housed in that green light, and when the green vanished, so did they.
All that remained in Giggs' heart was a trace of fear, and he began to struggle instinctively.
But Dor seemed to have anticipated this, catching hold of both his arms.
"Get off me! Let me go!" Giggs fought desperately.
Dor's arms, deceptively slender, held an inhuman strength. Giggs might as well have been trying to move a mountain.
Still too far from the Great One… with my strength alone, I can't complete the baptism…
Dor sighed, then suddenly noticed something was off. Turning to Ant with a frown, he asked,
"Ant, what are you standing there for?"
They were part of the same whole within a certain range; their thoughts and senses were shared, so there was no real need to speak aloud.
But Ant had inexplicably "lagged" for a moment, and that was why Dor voiced the command.
Ant snapped back to normal, his expression blank as he stepped forward to firmly bind Giggs.
"Ant…"
Giggs stared at him, as if trying to find some trace of the boy he knew behind that cold, unfamiliar face.
What happened to you, Ant…?
Maybe it was just his imagination, but Giggs thought he saw a flicker in Ant's eyes.
"Let's go. We'll collect the new white-shadow mushrooms and check on the growth of the Great One's food supply while we're at it."
Ant seemed to "lag" again, and Dor's frown deepened as he urged him on.
The two of them dragged Giggs forward.
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