Artemis lay on the vast stone table for quite some time, his gaze fixed on the empty sky above.
His body was still, but his mind churned with thoughts of the future. He was already past the normal age of awakening the Cosmo, and he knew well what that meant. If things continued like this, if he failed to awaken his cosmo, then his life's worth would be reduced to nothing more than a stepping stone for others to trample over.
From as far back as he could remember, Artemis had only ever carried one dream: to awaken his Cosmo, to climb the Sacred Realms, and to become the greatest champion the Arthdel Kingdom had ever seen.
That dream had been the fire in his chest, the reason he trained, endured, and never wavered. Yet now, at sixteen, the dream seemed further than ever.
If I can't even take the first step onto the path of cultivation… then all of it will remain nothing but a dream.
The thought weighed on him like a mountain.
Forget about awakening your Cosmo. You can just live as a normal man, start a family, live happily, and die without regrets. If you keep pushing the impossible, you might give birth to a heart demon.
Those were his uncle's words, repeated to him many times over the years. Artemis had always dismissed them, but today, lying there defeated, they echoed in his mind with frightening clarity.
Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Oh, shit!" he muttered aloud, sitting upright. "Uncle gave me an errand to run…"
Without wasting another second, Artemis pushed himself off the stone table and strode toward the forge adjacent to the courtyard.
Inside, the air was heavy with the scent of steel and charcoal. Lined up neatly were four large wooden boxes, each one his uncle had instructed him to deliver to the Moonstone Blade Academy.
Artemis Cassano, an orphan, had grown up with no one but his uncle. For as long as he could remember, it had always been just the two of them. His uncle was unmarried, and Artemis had no memory of any other relatives. Whenever he asked, Maverick Cassano would avoid the topic entirely, his expression hardening like stone.
Over time, Artemis learned not to press the matter. Relatives were a forbidden subject.
Maverick Cassano was no ordinary man. He was both a blacksmith and an alchemist, a craftsman whose reputation extended across the Kora City.
He forged weapons, refined pills, and fulfilled commissions for countless academies. Yet most of the time, he was absent. Maverick would vanish for months at a time, traveling far and wide in search of rare herbs, roots, leaves, flowers, and fruits for his craft.
During those absences, Artemis was left alone in the large Cassano residence, save for a few loyal guards and maids who handled daily necessities like cooking, cleaning, and washing.
Artemis had grown accustomed to it. Solitude had become his norm.
He stepped toward the boxes, each one carved from thick oak and sealed tight. Without hesitation, he began to load them onto a heavy wooden carrying frame. He lifted them carefully, one after another, his muscles tightening with practiced ease.
Once all four boxes were secured, he strapped the frame to his back, straightened himself, and prepared for the delivery.
It wasn't as if the Cassano family couldn't afford to hire porters. On the contrary, with their thriving trade in weapons and pills, they ranked among the five richest families in Kora City. Wealth was never their problem.
But this errand wasn't about money. Artemis had long grown used to running such deliveries himself.
To him, it was a form of training, a way to temper his already monstrous physical strength. These "simple-looking" wooden boxes were anything but light. Each contained weapons weighing no less than a hundred kilograms. With four boxes combined, the total load reached nearly four hundred kilograms.
Yet Artemis bore the weight with steady steps. His back was straight, his breathing calm. To him, this was not a burden but a routine exercise.
The destination, Moonstone Blade Academy, lay several hundred meters away. For an ordinary man, such a task would have been impossible. For Artemis Cassano, it was merely another day.