Chapter 986: Tears Of The Sun

The boy was ashamed by the fact that his act of subterfuge had been detected and he did not listen deeply to what his mother had said, he bowed his head wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him whole, but he was distracted by the actions of the man before him, it also helps that Romion was very shameless, and a tiny tyrant.

Rowan took the small piece of golden fruit, and with a tap of his fingers, he understood its composition. His three chambers—Knowledge Well, Astrolabe, and Hollow Forge had integrated with his entire body during the evolution of his Primordial Ouroboros bloodline, and with a simple touch, he could utilize it in the manner that he required.

He discovered that this fruit was not that special, at least to the present Rowan who had access to much better resources, it just contained a dense amount of disorderly Essence drawn from different sources with no order or harmony.

This fruit must have been a treasure born from a potent source that had gathered various energies over the years, but its creator did not have a firm understanding of Essence management, it had simply gathered all the available energies around and placed it in a potent shell that could contain all of them, but it was still a concentrated source of power that could boost one's bloodline.

It was so powerful that the boy with his extremely powerful physique had been gnawing on this fruit for months and had barely eaten half of it. This fruit was meant for powerful immortals, and Romion's act of consuming this much of it in so little time was astonishing.

A mage would refine this energy with Alchemy, purifying the chaotic energy and extracting only what was useful. Romion here could simply consume the fruit whole and his body would use every bit of the energy with little to no waste, although he would have to slowly consume it because he could not handle the potent Essence contained in the golden fruit, he was using all this Essence to grow stronger.

The child looked at Rowan's fingers in puzzlement as he tapped the piece of the fruit with his fingers, looking up and seeing his curious stares, Rowan smiled at him, before saying,

"Hey kid, do you want to see something amazing?"

The look of curiosity on the face of the boy instantly transformed into one of suspicion, and Rowan suddenly had a weird feeling in his heart, 'Surely, this little boy does not think I am some kind of pervert. What sort of look is that?'

Still maintaining his smile not to push away the child, the boy slowly nodded with caution after glancing at his mother and noticing she was smiling, before looking back at Rowan.

Even if Romion was suspicious and afraid of this stranger, Rowan still had a potent weapon that was able to break down all of his defenses and that was his beauty.

If Rowan's beauty was already potent enough to affect the minds of gods, and to an extent higher dimensional beings like Elura and Old Man Seed when he revealed his true appearance, then a five-year-old child, no matter how talented would not be able to resist him for long, it was already amazing that Romion could put up this level of defenses against his charms and still questioned his intentions.

Rowan placed the piece of the golden fruits between his two palms, and a light began to glow in between the gaps in his hands, drawing an astonished gasp from Romion. The child had seen more potent feats of power, but the light emerging from Rowan's palm was strange because it carried a color the boy had never seen before.

It was the light from Hollow Forge that had continuously evolved as Rowan grew stronger.

Noticing his attention, Rowan decided to add more flair to his creation, producing mystical sounds, errant breeze, and shifting lighting that had the child cheering and forgetting his fear of the strange man. Reaching the end of his demonstration, Rowan opened his palms, and hovering above them were seven golden fruits.

These were clearly more powerful than the half-eaten golden fruit in the boy's hands, containing more energy, and surrounding the skin of the fruits were mystical patterns that entranced the senses, coupled with a mouth-watering scent.

The sensation coming from the fruit was also vastly different, if the half-eaten fruit in Romion's hand contained massive and uncontrolled power, the seven fruits here were nothing but power, but controlled power! The boy knew that no matter how much of this fruit he consumed he would receive an endless gentle wave of nourishing Essence that would not overwhelm him.

With a gesture, Rowan pushed the fruits towards the boy who already opened his hands to receive them as if he was hypnotized, before coming to his senses and widening his eyes in astonishment,

Rowan nodded, "They are for you."

The boy's eyes were wild with desire, for a terrifying foodie like him, this was like delivering heaven to his lap, and he wanted to turn towards his mother before he paused, his little body shaking with a severe internal conflict, and then he sighed with regret, he looked longingly at each of the fruits and his eyes went a bit wet,

"Thank you mister, but I cannot accept it, I have done nothing to deserve such a gift."

Rowan cocked his head to the side, "The very nature of gifts means that one does not have to do something to be deserving of it. I wished to give you these fruits as a gift, and you should consider it as such."

The child seemed to think for a while, but he still shook his head, and before he could speak, Rowan interrupted him,

"When you greeted me, you said something, can you repeat it back to me?"

"Sure... I guess. I said; Good day mister, and may the good tidings and fortune that brought you to our home follow you to whatever road you take after leaving. Please take this token of our welcome. This is a standard traditional greeting of our forest. I learned it by heart after I was two weeks old." the body struck out his chest proudly.

Rowan nodded, "What is the name of the fruit you gave me?"

"Tears of the sun."

"Oh, that is an interesting name for a fruit, do you know the reason it is called that?"

Romion scratched his head, his eyes squeezed in thought, presenting a very adorable image,

"I don't know, but if I am to guess, maybe is because the light from the fruit shines as bright as the sun, then it must mean it came from the sun, perhaps one of its tears, which I still do not understand how that is possible, because I plucked this fruit from a gigantic tree that was been guarded by a dragon and if it is truly a tear from the sun, then I should have found it at the top of a mountain or falling from the sky, does the sun even cry, maybe because it is so lonesome up there without any companions, he should be jealous of the moons, but who needs all that moon..."

The boy wanted to continue rambling before he stopped himself with a force of will and the suspicion that had been slowly erased as he watched Rowan's performance began to return, "Why are you asking me this question mister?"