Running

Days passed as Minos's family kept escaping through the forest, Minos occasionally taking breaks to check on Tinka, who had unfortunately not yet awoken from her unconsciousness.

Her entire body was slowly losing strength, and Minos's anxiety couldn't help but build as he realized it wouldn't be long before this accursed power took her away forever.

Yet as capable as Minos was, Aptus's were far beyond his current paygrade, and he could only do his best to keep his wife comfortable in hopes it would help maintain her deteriorating state.

"Dad, how's mom doing?" Rinka asked in an exhausted voice, the two of them having gotten next to no rest these past few days.

Rinka's initial anxiety and fear had turned into numbness, and by now all she could think about was how her mother was doing.

"She's fine, just in a deep sleep, she'll be better soon." Minos lied through his teeth, not wanting to burden his daughter any further.

"Are you sure? She's already been asleep so long…" Rinka asked, not quite believing her father.

"I'm positive, just give it a few more days and I promise she will wake up." Minos said, smiling towards his daughter reassuringly.

Seeing her fathers smile, and remembering the fact that he had never failed to keep a promise, Rinka relaxed slightly, finally accepting her fathers words.

With Rinka no longer pestering him, Minos picked up his speed even more, his mind already set on their next destination.

…

With Minos's recent breakthrough, coupled with his latest ability to fly, the two traveled at an incredible speed, and after only a week of travel they had nearly reached the coastline.

But rather than heading straight for the Salt Breathing Tribe, Minos redirected himself, instead moving toward the cave where they had first met the faeries.

It was only after the two nearly arrived did Rinka finally realize where they were, her brow raising inquisitively as she wondered why they had come here.

"Dad, what are we doing here? I thought we were going back to the tribe?"

Not replying right away, Minos instead dissipated the flying disc underneath him, slowly walking towards the cave in silence.

"Why aren't you answering me?" Rinka asked anxiously, no longer sure what her father was planning.

Still not replying, Minos instead called out to the faeries in their language, causing a group of them to fly out in curiosity.

"Mister Minos! I was wondering who was speaking faery! What are you here for?" One faery asked as she floated around his head.

"Go tell your elder that I'm here to fix the teleportation formation." Minos replied succinctly.

"Really! No lies! We're going home, we're finally going home!" The faery cheered joyously, the others soon hearing her loud voice.

"What's that, we're going home?"

"That's right! Mister Minos can fix the formation, we're all going home!"

"Yayyy!"

"Quick, someone go tell the elder!"

With so much excitement, it didn't take much time for the news to spread to the elder's ears, causing her to fly out with a rare smile on her face.

"Is it true what my girls have been saying? Can you really fix the formation?" She asked.

"Yes, but before that, I want you to look at my wife." Minos answered, gently laying his wife down on the cave floor.

"Hmm, let me see here." She said, flying down onto Tinka's body to have a closer inspection.

After only a moment, she flew back up while shaking her head, Minos's heart dropping as he saw her response.

"I'm guessing it's an Aptus that caused this?"

"You're right…"

"I thought as much… Unfortunately Aptus's are a mystery that only a few supreme cultivators truly understand." She sighed.

"I already know that much, but is there nothing else I can do?" Minos asked, his voice low.

"Well, there are a few things. First you could try and find someone with an Aptus that counteracts this one, and secondly you could help Tinka breakthrough to the Inner Heaven Realm, which may just give her enough strength to beat this curse."

"The first one is unlikely, as for the second, she's completely unconscious, how is she meant to breakthrough now?" Minos uttered weakly.

"Well actually, I do have something that may help you with your second problem." The faery elder suddenly said, causing Minos to get up ecstatically.

"Really! What is it?" Minos shouted, his emotions out of control in a rare moment of exuberance.

"Calm down, let me explain first before you get too excited."

"My mistake, go ahead."

"Well it's a special technique that the faeries use to cultivate called the Faery Flower-Pollinate technique. Just like how bees help pollinate flowers, this method is where one faery uses her own strength to help improve others." The elder explained before continuing.

"However this technique has two main problems, first of all, it uses a lot of lifeforce, especially so if you want to use it on a major breakthrough."

"Secondly, it wasn't developed with humans in mind, so you're going to have to alter the technique itself before it has any chance of working."

"In the case you do manage to get it to work for humans, the amount of lifespan needed to help one reach the Inner Heaven Realm… Well, based on my calculations, you won't have much life left afterwards…"

"It's okay, if it's for Tinka, what does that matter?" Minos smiled, looking down at his wife as he gently cleared her hair from her face.

Sighing, the elder didn't say anything, just looking towards Minos for a moment as she shook her head, though whether she was against Minos's sacrifice or just merely frustrated by life itself was unknown.

After taking a moment with his wife, Minos looked back up towards the faery elder, still not completely done with his demands.

"I just have one more request…"

"Go ahead, as long as you fix the formation, us faeries will forever be indebted to you, so one does one request count for?"

"It's my daughter, I want you to take her with you and protect her, at least until she can protect herself…" Minos said, having long since thought this through ever since he first started running.

"Are you sure? That world of ours is completely different from this one. To be frank, the cultivators over here are worthless in comparison, and even the Inner Heaven Realm is just another ant."

"I'm sure, I believe in Rinka's potential, and I believe she can make her way through the world, no matter how tough things get. Besides, this world no longer has much to offer her." Minos said, turning towards his daughter with a smile as he roughly tussled her hair.

Up until this point Rinka had just been sitting in silence as she listened in on the language she understood nothing of, but her father's sudden smile and tussle caused her heart to drop.

While she had no idea what they had been talking about, she was smart enough to realize that it wasn't anything good.

"No matter what you just talked about, I refuse!" Rinka suddenly shouted, stepping out of reach from her fathers hand.

"You'll understand in time Rinka, and until then, please don't blame me, I only ever did what I thought was best for you…" Minos sighed, his head lowered as he couldn't find the strength to directly look at his daughter.

Before Rinka could fully react, Minos suddenly appeared behind her, a quick strike to her neck knocking her completely unconscious.

Grabbing her limp body, Minos laid her gently beside her mother before walking deeper into the grand cave, soon arriving by the destroyed formation.

With his Omniscient Eyes active, Minos scanned the formation down into his mind as he compared it to all the formation knowledge he had mastered as Mister Rovo.

Wealth didn't just give access to resources, but even more importantly, it gave access to knowledge, which Minos never failed to take advantage of.

Whether it was formations, weapons, alchemy, or anything else, Minos went to every guild and obtained all their knowledge reserves, no matter how niche or private.

By now he was akin to a walking library, the wisdom contained with his mind being unmatched.

However, arguably more terrifying than these reserves were his Omniscient Eyes, which allowed him to make use of all this knowledge with 100% efficiency, able to instantly access and use the information he needed.

For normal people, even if they memorized something, it didn't mean they understood it, and even if they understood it, it didn't necessarily mean they could apply it, but for Minos, all three things were the same.

If he memorized something, he understood it, and if he understood it, he could apply it, allowing him to instantly jump to the final stage of knowledge acquisition, which was utilization.