Soul of the Warrior

Child Soldier

Kyfe

Mango Media LLC

Copyright © Kyfe 2025 produced by Mango Media LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher at admin@mangomediapublishing.com.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Book cover by Ben Moran. Typesetting by Miblart.

Dedication

To my wife, Holly, who has supported my writing from day one.

Contents

Prologue - Dreams in the Void

1. Awakening

2. A Normal Family

3. Down with the System

4. Step by Step

5. A Swing and a Miss

6. Peaceful Village

7. Adventure!

8. The Struggle Is Real

9. Classical Accident

10. Rabble Rabble

11. Regular Guy

12. Advancing

13. Hazy Assimilation

14. Sunny Day

15. Promising Prospects

16. We Don’t Need Roads

17. Whistle While You Work

18. Home on the Range

19. Cooped Up

20. Turn and Meet

21. Aide and Attendance

22. Down into…

23. A Ring of Fire

24. Cult of Personality

25. Smooth Transition

26. Looking Forward

27. Table Manors

28. Ambition

29. Family History

30. On the Horizon

31. Movers and Shakers

32. Leavetaking

33. Arrival

34. Dungeon Town

35. Might and Magic

36. Magical Mashup

37. The Dark Damp

38. Hollow Escapade

39. The Dungerums

40. A Day in the Life

41. Coming to the Light

Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix

42. Classist

43. High Muckamuck

44. Desperation

45. Agony

46. Return

47. Lucky Draw

48. Too Easy

49. Solo Run Get!

50. Brave, Brave Sir Reivyn

51. He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled

52. The Calm Before

53. The Storm

54. It’s Darkest Before

55. The Dawn

56. After Action

57. Dance, Dance Revolution

58. The Party

Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix, Part 2

59. Tier 2, Too

60. Mama Bear

61. True Power

Epilogue

Thank You

Prologue - Dreams in the Void

There was nothing. It wasn’t black. It wasn’t white. It wasn’t even blank. There was literally nothing.

Eons passed in instantaneous points of time. There was no flow of time. One moment of eternity was simply, suddenly another moment of eternity.

Then there was something. An attraction. A movement so subtle that if there had not been absolute nothingness, it would have been impossible to perceive. The movement neither accelerated nor decelerated. The movement didn’t move in any direction. It just was.

There was something more. A whisper of an echo. A glimpse of awareness. Recollections just at the edge of perception. There was no straining to catch this glimpse. There was no thought or action. It was just there, passive.

Suddenly, a jarring crash of discordance shook all of existence. A tsunami of cataclysmic proportions shook the whisper of an echo into a ripple. Another whisper of an echo in an infinite nothingness had gently come into contact with the first. New recollections appeared at the edge of perception. This time they threatened to spill into focus, yet they still remained outside.

More crashes of dissonance turned the ripples into mighty waves, surging violently back and forth. The new motes of infinite nothingness, in turn, formed their own titanic waves. The waves swirled around each other from all directions and none simultaneously until they began to overlap. A vortex of twisted whirlpools formed as the motes overlapped with each other and became one.

A spark of true awareness came into being. A sense of self was formed. The recollections at the edge of awareness came into focus. At first there were simple concepts: I am me, and I am not other. The concepts slowly got more complex until the first emotion was realized.

The Self was content. A feeling of rightness permeated the Self. Everything was as it should be. The vortex that had formed, while out of the ordinary, was nothing to be concerned with. In fact, it was that very vortex that had allowed the Self to realize itself.

Concepts and emotions slowly morphed into fuzzy images. Muted colors and shapes formed. The shapes consisted of a multitude of simple and complex patterns. Some shapes started to move around in strange, unpredictable ways. Over time these movements became more natural-looking: Of course, that shape would move that way. It’s only natural. This vague, unrealized thought did not surprise the Self, and it continued to exist in contentment.

Slowly, after ages of blissfully observing these blurry shapes, new concepts emerged and beget even more concepts: people, family. A sudden realization caused the vortex to fluctuate as the blurry shapes became recognizable as people. The Self realized that he was experiencing memories of his family. A perspective of looking down at its own body, sitting atop another’s…

“What are those called?” The first articulated thought surprised the Self, almost causing it to become distracted. “Oh, right! Shoulders! I’m sitting on that other person’s shoulders! That person is… is… Dad. That’s my father!”

A new emotion encompassed the Self as joy suffused its being. The perspective continued as it remembered riding (another new concept!) on its father’s shoulders. Different scenes played out of it interacting with its father. Some brought great joy and bliss, while others introduced yet more new emotions. It felt regret and anxiety at some of the scenes.

“I wish that that had never happened. I wish that I had behaved in a different way.” More and more scenes played out for the Self to observe, solidifying its awareness. Scenes of its mother. Scenes of its brother. Scenes of… his life. Everything remained blurry, like he was watching the memories through smoke. The people were faceless like mannequins.

With the further development of the Self into Himself, more and more memories flooded his awareness. But there was something… not quite right, anymore. Something was off. There was another father. And then another father. More families. Many more people were more indistinct than his first remembrance of his family.

“I only have two parents and a brother. Why do I remember all of these other people and families?” He was confused. He started looking around himself, and realization dawned on him. “These are the memories of the others who collided with me and formed the vortex! But none of them have become aware like me. I have absorbed them.”

He wasn’t too concerned with the memories of the others, and with a flex of willpower, he regulated these thoughts to the periphery of his existence. He could still see them clearly, or as clear as any blurry image can be, but they were no longer taking up his focus.

New memories came and went. He found himself surrounded by many other people in a long room, everyone wearing green. Four other men, wearing the same green, but with wide-brimmed hats, covers, were running around, screaming and shouting at the other men. There were many scenes with these men, one after another. Sometimes they were doing physical exercises; sometimes they were just standing there getting screamed at; sometimes they were walking together in another shape, marching in formation. There were a lot of these scenes. Bootcamp has a profound effect on anyone.

More scenes, similar but with different men all wearing the same green, zoomed past his focus like a kaleidoscope. Until suddenly he was looking down at another man in green. Bright lights were flickering in the distance, and lines of light flew overhead at impossibly quick speeds, some of which flew past very close. There were loud noises coming from the distance and snapping sounds all around, like something punching through paper at a high velocity. There was a new color on this man. The new man was being cradled in his arms, and there was red everywhere. Every moment more and more red appeared, unending. Another new concept: blood. Death. He was filled with sorrow as the other man stopped moving. More scenes: explosions, gunfire, blood, body parts strewn about. Combat. War.

He watched his memories of men performing acts of heroism and sacrifice. Complex and paradoxical emotions threatened to overwhelm him. Joy at being alive. Guilt at being alive. Sorrow and terror. He was just one of many, and slowly the memories showed him transitioning from being a follower to being a leader. More memories of lining up with other men in green and getting screamed at by a group of four others, though they didn’t wear the campaign covers in this new memory. When these memories finally ended, he was no longer standing as one of many in the group but was instead standing in front of the group, commanding.

Something tugged at his awareness, and there was discord again. He glanced about himself, but he couldn’t put his finger on what caused the sensation. He turned back to his memories, anticipation filling him. He had a sense that something profound was going to happen like he already knew what it was going to be beforehand. And then she was there.

A young woman, in crystal clear focus. No blurry images obstructing his view. No blank faces attached to human shapes. A sweet, innocent smile. Sparkling, mischievous eyes. He didn’t even have to experience the memories with her. Everything came to him in a flash. The courtship filled with romance and love, the wedding ceremony with his brothers-in-arms and family in attendance. He looked down and into the gaze of his two children, one boy, and one girl. The ups and downs of marriage and raising a family. The car acci—NO! We’ll leave it here. He spent an eternity staring into her gaze, the family of four together forever in his memories.

“Wait… Something is there. I just experienced it. What was it?” He stopped all other thoughts, trying to recall something that was eluding him. It came to him. “Death. I’m dead. I’m reliving my life after death.” One was supposed to be sad upon such a revelation, but there was no sadness in him. He looked at his wife and children expectantly, nothing but a smile on his face.

That feeling of discord rang through his being once again. Something was terribly wrong. He looked around once again. There were his memories, and the memories of that other self, but nothing else. What could be the cause of the disturbance?

Abject fear consumed him as he recognized what the problem was. One other set of memories. Just moments ago, there were over a dozen. He watched in horror as what appeared to be a curtain of mist encroached on his center. Everything it touched melted away into nothingness again. While the vast expanse once occupied by the others still existed, it was only him and his own memories now. The mist continued its inexorable tide toward the center of his being as the memories that he had just experienced began disappearing and slipping away, to be forgotten forever.

He looked at his wife and children with panic and unwillingness. This was his family! His memory! He was not going to lose them again! With an unknown power, he marshaled his will and ripped his memory of his family from the swirling vortex. It was a jagged tear, and many of the memories of his time as a War Fighter remained tethered and went with him. He pulled his being into himself and encapsulated the memories he refused to lose within.

The curtain of mist finally reached the center of his being, and he felt it trying to tug at the last refuge of his mind, but he refused to compromise one single step, throwing every last bit of willpower he could muster into the task. Everything went dark again, and he felt as if he was being sucked and pushed simultaneously into a tornado, as almost all of his being was wiped clean.

…

Almost all.

Chapter one

Awakening

He had never been more comfortable in his life. A warm embrace encompassed his entire body as he lazily stretched and shifted about. He was in that strange state between asleep and awake. He was vaguely aware of his environment and the fact that he was dreaming, but he wasn’t experiencing a lucid dream. He just let his thoughts wander.

He had slight recollections of existing as a mote of nothingness in an infinite void for an eternity, but despite his current situation being somewhat similar, things were vastly different. For one he could somewhat wiggle his toes and fingers, and he could sense that he had an actual flesh-and-blood body once again. This difference alone was magnitudes of levels of improvement over his previous situation. Being in a half-dream state, he wasn’t able to fully utilize his new form, and the peaceful environment soon drew him back to his inner mind.

His dreams consisted of a pretty woman and two children. He had no idea who they were, or why they would be in his dreams, but he got a vague sense of peace and happiness with them around. Every now and then, the dream would shift to startling scenes of incomprehensible terror. He had no idea what was going on in those dreams, but he had an instinctual understanding of danger. In those moments, his body would tremble, and his limbs would flail about. No matter how hard he tried, though, he was unable to rouse himself from his sleep, and he could only wait until the more peaceful scenery returned. Luckily, these particular dreams were much less prominent.

He had no idea how long he remained in that state. He was perfectly content with remaining that way for as long as possible, despite the fear of the nightmares. But all things must come to an end. Suddenly his entire world shook around him. The vague state of half-asleep, half-awake was broken, and he became fully awake. He felt himself getting tossed and turned in his little habitat, and muffled, confusing sounds could be heard coming from afar. No matter how he struggled, though, he was unable to open his eyes. There was something else there, just out of his ability to focus. on that was another stark difference, but what it was eluded him.

The rough tossing and turning eventually turned into a rhythmic bouncing up and down, and despite the tempo of movement being much quicker than anything previously, the consistent motion threatened to lull him back into slumber. Something caught his eye. The difference that he couldn’t quite identify came into perfect clarity, as even with his eyes closed, he could see something for the first time in so long.

At first, he couldn’t quite make sense of what he was seeing. A mild blue light was blinking in the periphery of his mind’s eye. This simple little blue flashing light was more sensation than his mind had experienced in what felt like millennia, and it briefly threatened to overwhelm him.

He was finally able, after a small struggle, to bring his full attention to bear on the blinking light, and it suddenly shifted, no longer blinking and filling his vision entirely. He couldn’t put into words what he was seeing and experiencing. Mainly because he couldn’t put anything into words right now. This would have been worrying if he was able to realize it should have been worrying.

The blue light transformed into a transparent box with words filling it. Despite not being able to think in words currently, and having never seen any of the characters or symbols making up the words, he could perfectly understand what it was saying as if it was written in an instinctual, universal language.

Akashic Record detected
Scanning…
Detected premature awareness. System initializing…
Abnormalities detected. Scanning…
Combat initiated. Scanning temporarily halted.
Due to perfect dependence, involuntarily joined Party.
Party Members:
Class:
Status:
(Leader) Unknown Unknown Unknown
Unknown Unknown Unknown
Due to being unable to participate, experience gained is set to 0.
Defeated opponent. Experience gained 0
Defeated opponent. Experience gained 0
…
Combat resolved. Experience gained 1000.
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 0/500
Error! No Class detected. Abnormalities detected. Scanning resumed…

He read through the messages that had obviously appeared during the event that woke him up. The blue box had stopped updating on that last message, and as his attention shifted away from reading the messages, the blue box faded away and returned to being a little blue light in the periphery of his vision, though it no longer blinked.

He could perfectly understand what the words said, but that didn’t mean he knew what it meant. He had vivid dreams and vague memories, but he was mostly a blank slate, and all of the context for the memories was missing. He barely understood that there was a correlation between the message “Combat initiated” and the terrifying dreams with the flashing lights and vibrant colors of green and red.

He had every intention of contemplating what he had just seen in his mind’s eye, but now that there was nothing taking up his attention, the rhythmic motions finally lulled him back to the state of half-dreaming.

He floated in the warm comfort for an indeterminate amount of time. Occasionally he would be slightly roused due to the movements and muffled noises that would sometimes interrupt his dreams, but he was never able to come fully awake again. He was resting comfortably like he always did, when something started to bother him. Something had changed, and it was drawing his awareness from the deep trance he was in. A blinking blue light finally invaded his focus and brought him once more into full wakefulness.

Scanning complete.
Order of operations: Resolve experience and Level gains.
No Class detected. Level forcibly remains at 0.
No precedent exists.
Seeking solution…
Bloodline detected. Experience siphoned to Bloodline.
New Ability Unlocked! Able to permanently siphon experience to enrich Bloodline. Experience cannot be siphoned enough to reduce Level.
Bloodline (Name: Unknown. Tier: Unknown): 1000/10,000,000 Exp

He didn’t understand the numbers involved, but from the context, he could grasp the disparity involved. This was an absolutely ludicrous amount of experience required to affect his bloodline.

All Stats +3
[Strength: 3 * Intelligence: 13]
[Vitality: 4 * Magic: 18]
[Dexterity: 3 * Clarity: 11]
[Charisma: 3 * Perception: 9]
[Luck: 3]
Experience and Level gains resolved.
Order of Operations: Abnormalities detected.
Past Experience detected.
Premature awareness in effect. Skills are acquired. Skills are set to 0. Skill Levels will accumulate faster until muscle memory matches past experience.
New Skills Unlocked! *English (0), *Reading {English} (0), Penmanship (0), *Mathematics {Arabic Numerals} (0), *Economics (0), Piano (0), Drawing (0), Map Making (0), Running (0), Swimming (0), Athleticism (0), Balance (0), Acrobatics (0), Eavesdropping (1), Hiding (1), Sneaking (0), Stealth (1), *Rifles (0), Staves (0), *Bayonets (0), *Fencing (0), Pugilist (0), Evasion (0), Command (0), Inspire (0), *Tactics {Small Unit; Rifles} (0), *Strategy {Rifles; Combined Arms} (0), Dreams of the Past (10), Pain Resistance (0), Mental Fortitude (1)

The changes were subtle, but because of his unique situation, they were noticeable. As soon as this last message finished, he gained a certain instinctual understanding of what each of the skills represented. Not only that, the few skills that actually had a number had an immediate effect. He could detect slightly more muffled sounds coming from… somewhere, and he felt as if he integrated into his surrounding warmth more fluidly. Some of the memories from his vague dreams became more focused, and he was able to better maintain his focus ever so slightly. He would examine the memories some other time, as there were still more messages requiring his attention.

Past Experience resolved.
Abnormalities detected. Scanning…
Incompatible Skills detected. Modifying…
New Skills Unlocked! English (0) and Reading {English} (0) have become Linguistics (0), Mathematics {Arabic Numerals} (0) and Economics (0) have become Number Concepts (0), Rifles (0) has become Aim (0), Bayonets (0) has become Daggers (0), Fencing (0) has become Swords (0), Tactics {Small Unit; Rifles} (0) has become Tactics (0), Strategy {Rifles; Combined Arms} (0) has become Strategy (0).
Incompatible Skills resolved.
System Initialized.
Akashic Record (1) Skill Level too low. Most functions disabled. Please reference Skill: Akashic Record (1) for more information.

With his new instincts activated, he became aware that he was able to interact with these blue boxes. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, or how he was supposed to go about doing so. He kept his focus on the blue box, knowing from his previous experience that it would disappear and he would inevitably fall asleep before he could do or think about anything more.

With zero prompts and no knowledge of what he was doing, he did the only thing he could. He zeroed his focus in on different parts of the box to try to discern anything useful. Nothing happened, though, except that he became intimately familiar with what it looked like. He changed tactics and started focusing on individual words listed. He moved his focus methodically from top to bottom, and once he finally reached the bottom and his inner gaze focused on the word “System,” something new finally happened.

The message box he was looking at folded up on itself and moved back to being a tiny dot in his periphery. If he didn’t go looking for it, he would never notice it without it signaling him by blinking. A new blue box popped up in his awareness.

System
Status
Class
Mana

The new box was simple, and of the new words presented, both “Class” and “Mana” were grayed out. Shifting his focus to these two words didn’t do anything, so he focused on “Status.” Once again, something new popped up.

[Status]
[Name: <None> Class: <None> Age: <None>]
[Health: 40/40 Stamina: 70/70 Mana: 155/155]
[Level: 0]
[Experience 0/100]
[Physical Stats * Mind Stats]
[Strength (STR) 3 * Intelligence (INT) 13]
[Vitality (VIT) 4 * Magic (MAG) 18]
[Dexterity (DEX) 3 * Clarity (CLA) 11]
[Charisma (CHA) 3 * Perception (PER) 9]
[Luck (LUK) 3]
Primary Class Skills: None
None
None
None
None
Secondary Class Skills: None
None
None
Tertiary Class Skills: None
None
Skills
Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Balance (0), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (10), Eavesdropping (1), Evasion (0), Hiding (1), Inspire (0), Linguistics (0), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (1), Number Concepts (0), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (0), Running (0), Sneaking (0), Staves (0), Stealth (1), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)

This new box appeared to be a summary of all of the information he had previously seen while reading through the messages. It was all neatly packaged together in a convenient way, and if his guess was correct, could be accessed at any time. He wasn’t quite ready to confirm his suspicions, though, because if he was wrong, then he would probably fall asleep before he could figure it out.

He continued with his methodical scan of this new Status page. He didn’t leave any nook or cranny from his direct, intent focus. As he scanned over the last word in his Skills section, the blue dot reemerged on its own with a brand-new message.

New Skill Unlocked!
Observation (1)

He felt his ability to focus ever so slightly enhance, though there wasn’t much functionality toward this at the present moment. He instinctively understood that his current circumstances wouldn’t last forever, but he had no idea when it would change, or even how he knew that. He was confident this new skill, along with all of the others, would play a role at that time.

After he dismissed the message box back to its hiding spot, he contemplated the last message before opening his Status. His thoughts turned toward the Akashic Record, and he attempted to glean more information from it. Nothing happened over a long period of time staring at the words. He needed to try something different. It took a mental struggle, but he eventually sent a force of will to the skill, almost like saying the word in his head, but without actually articulating the word, as that feat was still beyond him. Plus, he didn’t know the actual words. He only had available the instinctual, universal language, but it was beyond mortal comprehension how to speak it.

Once he performed the mental equivalent of whispering, a new box appeared before him.

Skill: Akashic Record (1)
Tier: 6 (Unable to Level through traditional methods)
Provides more information directly through the System Interface, and occasionally provides Helpful Hints
Details…
Helpful Hint: The presence of the Akashic Record and full awareness are the only reasons the System was able to be accessed ahead of time. It is also why information on what the System was doing was being provided. Typically all System functions are performed without knowledge.

That was interesting. So he would have been jarred awake because of the commotion no matter what, but if he didn’t have the Akashic Record, then nothing else would have happened, and he would have immediately gone back to sleep and remained that way. He used his willpower to focus on “Details.”

Details:
The Akashic Record is formed from Ascended beings, and is made available to those who have a connection with them. A higher Skill Level is required to access more information. Due to being a generated Skill, unable to increase Level through traditional means.

He wasn’t entirely sure what that information meant, but he was pretty confident he wasn’t going to find out anytime soon. He continued his previous observations of his Status window, but this time with the intention of delving deeper into each part that he could. It provided him with a long list of information to digest.

[Name: The name of the one using the System Interface. Set to <None>, as no name has been provided. A higher Skill Level is required.

[Class: The class the one using the System Interface has acquired. Set to <None>, as no class has been acquired. A higher Skill Level is required.]

[Age: The age, based on the date of birth, of the one using the System Interface. Set to <None>, as there is no date of birth.]

That was interesting. He had yet to be born, which made a lot of things make more sense to him.

Health: Derivative of Vitality. A higher Skill Level is required.

Stamina: Derivative of Strength and Vitality. A higher Skill Level is required.

Mana: Derivative of Intelligence and Magic. A higher Skill Level is required.

Level: The accumulation of experience reaching certain thresholds. A higher Skill Level is required.

Experience: A numerical value associated with energy. A higher Skill Level is required.

Strength (STR): A numerical representation of how strong one is. A higher Skill Level is required.

Vitality (VIT): A numerical representation of how healthy one is. A higher Skill Level is required.

Dexterity (DEX): A numerical representation of how nimble, coordinated, and quick one is. A higher Skill Level is required.

Charisma (CHA): A numerical representation of how good one appears or comes across as to others. A higher Skill Level is required.

Intelligence (INT): A higher Skill Level is required.

Helpful Hint: INT does not necessarily represent how smart someone is, though it also doesn’t necessarily not not represent how smart someone is.

That hint wasn’t helpful at all.

Magic (MAG): A higher Skill Level is required.

Helpful Hint: Spooky action at a distance!

…

Clarity (CLA): A numerical representation of computation speed. A higher Skill Level is required.

Perception (PER): A numerical representation of how aware someone is. A higher Skill Level is required.

Luck (LUK): You’re Lucky to have this. A higher Skill Level is required.

Helpful Hint: A low LUK Stat does not mean one is unlucky.

Class Skills: Active Skills provided by a Class that are otherwise unobtainable. A higher Skill Level is required.

He now felt he had as much of an understanding of the System as he was currently able to have without any outside instruction. One good thing about being so meticulous:

Skill Level Up! Observation (1 -> 2)

Helpful Hint: Providing a notification of a Skill Level Up is a function of the Akashic Record. One can turn this notification on and off at will.

Correction: Now he was as understanding as he was going to be able to get. He decided to not mess with the Akashic Record functionality at this time. His mind was over-stressed from all of the new information he acquired, as well as the previous new bevy of skills. He dismissed all of the blue boxes with a thought, and he let himself drift toward sleep once more. As he was drifting off, another new prompt momentarily caught his attention, and he felt his mind refresh just enough that he could read it before descending into blissful dreams.

Skill Level Up!
Mental Fortitude (1 -> 2)

Something was tickling him. No, that wasn’t the right word for it. Something was making him itch. That wasn’t right either. There was something touching him, giving him a new sensation he had never personally experienced, nor dreamed about. He surfaced from his dream state, but there wasn’t anything anymore. It definitely wasn’t from the dream; the sensation had been too strange. Too alien.

He couldn’t grasp that feeling again, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe he needed to do something different again. What was the opposite of intensely searching for something? He tried to relax his mind as much as possible without falling asleep. It seemed like nothing was going to happen, as his awareness slowly started to fade, but then suddenly the sensation was back. He tried to latch on to it, but it slipped through his proverbial fingers and disappeared again. He decided to be more patient next time.

Again, when his awareness started to transition into sleep, that feeling came back once again. Instead of trying to grasp ahold, mentally speaking, of the sensation, he remained relaxed and simply switched his focus to the sensation. It was like a small animal, being startled at the slightest hint of movement, once again disappearing. Feeling a little frustrated, he had nothing to do but try again.

And again.

And again.

Slowly, he started getting more sensitive to the sensation, but just as he felt like he was going to make a breakthrough and discover what it was, the sensation stopped entirely. Muffled sounds could be heard once again. Accompanying these sounds was the sensation of vibration. Putting two and two together, he figured that the accompanying vibrations meant it was his mother talking. He could almost make out some syllables. After the conversation ended, he retracted his focus. He checked his notifications before once again drifting off.

Skill Level Up! Observation (2 -> 3)
Skill Level Up! Eavesdropping (1 -> 2)

It wasn’t long before the sensation was back again. Almost no time had seemed to pass as far as he could tell. Instead of becoming fully awake to wrestle with this sensation again, he instead kept his focus on himself and attempted to pay attention to the sensation indirectly from within himself. He observed how it moved in a pattern down his body. It was like waves of rings starting from the crown of his head and moving all the way down his body to the soles of his feet.

It feels like a rainbow sliding across my skin. And with that thought, a new notification popped up.

New Skill Unlocked!
Sense Mana (1)

The notification brought him into wakefulness, and with the new skill unlocked, he could maintain his awareness of the sensation. He could sense a very strong current of mana coursing all around him like it was traveling through pipes in a complex pattern. When the mana traveled through his domain inside the uterus, it was like one of the pipes had a leak, and a small, infinitesimal drop would drip down and splash on top of his head. It didn’t do anything to him other than travel along the outer bounds of his body.

Since this mana was inside his mother, he wondered if he could ingest this small drop, too. He didn’t really know how he was going to achieve such a feat, but he decided on a course of action and decisively carried it out. When a mana drop rolled down his head, he inhaled it as it crossed his face. Inhale isn’t exactly the right word to use, but that’s basically what he did to the mana.

An explosion of energy rippled through him. He started shaking uncontrollably. It wasn’t painful or even uncomfortable. It was just incredibly more energy than he’d ever had access to, and he had nothing to do with it. He was more wide awake than he had ever been. More so even than any of his memories that were filled with adrenaline and caffeine. Granted, he had a much smaller body, but still.

The intense feeling of uncontainable energy quickly fled as the mana drop seemed to melt into nothingness. As soon as it was gone, a notification popped up. Heh, got it in one this time.

[New Skill Unlocked! Mana Absorption (1)]
[Exp +1]
[Experience 1/100]

That was new. So far unlocking and leveling up skills didn’t provide any experience. The only experience he had obtained to date was from surviving a combat situation he was entirely passive through.

So is experience a manifestation of mana? But then where did the 1,000 Exp come from during the combat?

More revelations led to more questions. He decided to practice his Mana Absorption a few more times while he was still awake. The feeling of energy remained the same, but it became easier to handle it without his body going into mini convulsions, and when the energy was gone, he didn’t come down from it; he remained at his baseline. Mental fatigue was still accumulating normally, however, and he eventually needed to go back to sleep.

Skill Level Up! Sense Mana (1 -> 2)
Skill Level Up! Mana Absorption (1 -> 2)
Skill Level Up! Mental Fortitude (2 ->3)
Skill Level Up! Stealth (1 ->2)
Exp +3
Experience 4/100

The last thought that passed through his mind before dreams encroached was, Huh? Stealth? and then his awareness left him.

The cycle continued. He would sleep and dream of a past life, certain details becoming clearer the more he dreamed. Sometimes he would thrash about as his dreams turned into nightmares of hellscapes filled with death and dismemberment. Many of them started out innocuous until death rained down from somewhere, oftentimes without even being able to see who was attacking him. Then the mana would come, and he would watch it and practice absorbing it, all while listening for any sounds to pick up from the outside.

His skills continued to increase in level, and with those increases, he noticed subtle increases in their efficiency. The increases started to take longer and longer to acquire, but it was the only thing he had to do when he was awake, and it was entertaining enough in its own right. There was something about seeing a notification of a skill leveling up after working at it that was just so satisfying. He could get addicted to the feeling.

He had absolutely no idea how long he was in his mother’s womb from when he first became aware. He didn’t know what stage of development he was at, but it felt like a significant portion of time had elapsed. It appeared that the time was finally upon him for him to re-enter the world. There were many changes to his environment, lately. His mother seemed to be going through something, and her body was changing around him.

Gravity seemed to reverse as he found himself upside down. The pressure in the womb had significantly changed, and mana was coalescing above him, obviously under the control of his mother. He took one final look at his most recent messages while he had the chance, his heartbeat increasing as anticipation for the future filled him.

Skills Leveled Up! Sense Mana (2 -> 6)
Mana Absorption (2 -> 6)
Mental Fortitude (3 -> 4)
Stealth (2 -> 3)
Observation (3 -> 5)
Eavesdropping (2 -> 3)
Dreams of the Past (10 -> 11)
Exp +16
Experience 20/100

He didn’t know how long he hung upside down, but suddenly the mana coalescing above him descended and wrapped him up in a tight cocoon. It provided protection from the great amount of pressure that descended upon him to force him toward a never-before-seen exit. As he passed through the birth canal, the mana that had enveloped him remained within his mother, peeling off like a glove. It set about to heal the damage to his mother caused by his passage.

Large hands grasped him and cradled his head and neck while assisting in pulling him forth. The new sensation of the lack of warmth, the light, ambient air and wind, and the cacophony of noises overwhelmed his senses, and his body reacted all on its own, doing the one thing that came naturally to all babies. He started to wail.

Great, big screams completely unexpected from such a tiny creature, filled the room. He couldn’t even open his eyes, but he felt himself getting washed off and toweled dry, which was extremely uncomfortable to his sensitive skin. But he soon found himself surrounded by that familiar warmth, as arms cradled him in their embrace with “shushing” noises coming from above. He was finally able to regain a little bit of control, but gaining that control ended his tantrum, and when his tantrum was over, exhaustion set in. He got a quick glimpse at the woman who had carried him to term and birthed him, and then there was darkness. No dreams or nightmares invaded his mind, as he descended straight past half-awake, half-asleep, and entered into a truly deep sleep for the first time.

He was alive.

Chapter two

A Normal Family

Ameliyn lay back and relaxed against the fastened-together cushions. There weren’t a lot of furnishings available in the caravan for a woman going through labor, so they had to cobble together whatever they could. She was almost healed back to full health and stamina after giving birth to her son, already. She and her husband had been filled with anxiety leading up to the delivery. It had been one of the strangest pregnancies she had ever heard of, but despite all of the signs pointing to a complicated birth, it was incredibly routine.

Not having access to a midwife was originally a huge worry for the young couple, and they had been trying everything they could to speed up the caravan to make it to the next city, but she had gone into labor a day away from any civilization. Ironically the labor was most likely induced by the stress from worrying about not being able to make it to the next city in time.

It turned out that only having her husband to help her along was a blessing in disguise, as she could freely utilize the methods taught to her by her mother of using her mana as a conduit and lubrication, then double back to hasten the recovery process, and all the time training Pain Resistance helped a lot as well. This was a common method used by women of status who had excessive mana, but for various reasons, they had to hide that fact from those around them.

During the pregnancy, her little one had constantly caused her trouble. Never mind the heartburn, the nausea, the mood swings, or the Braxton Hicks that every woman experiences to some varying degree. No, those symptoms were quite mild for her. Instead, it had been the wild fluctuations of mana and excessive energy-induced bouts of mania. A lot of the instances of her mana acting out occurred while she was in the midst of exercising Mana Circulation and immediately after.

Mana Circulation was not only supposed to be safe for pregnancies but was even supposed to be able to help nourish the fetus. She had never heard of a situation like hers.

She looked down at the little bundle of joy that was sleeping soundly in her arms. He had screamed loud enough to wake the dead the whole time Refix was cleaning him up and swaddling him. The mixture of panic and pleading on his face was both endearing and hilarious. If she hadn’t been so out of it from literally just giving birth, she would have laughed her head off at his predicament. He had acted like any tiny movement on his part would have shattered their child. He was likely right.

She looked up at her husband, who was standing over them watching his newborn son sleep in his mother’s arms. He reached down and touched the top of her head in affection.

“Do you have everything you need? I need to inform the caravan master we’re good to go,” he asked with a smile, never taking his eyes off his son.

“Yes, Ref, I’ll be fine. Go, go!” She shooed him away. He took one last glance as he exited the covered wagon they had appropriated for the occasion. She could hear people asking questions and his voice answering that everything was fine. Being the only woman, not just the only pregnant woman, in the caravan afforded her the luxury of privacy at this time, as no man not related was brave enough to venture into the lair of a birthing room.

Shortly after Ref left, the wagon started moving again, and the sounds of conversation moved away, back to the wagons and horses those people were traveling on. Ref came back in and managed to take their son into his arms without waking him, allowing her to wash the sweat and other fluids off of herself. By this time, she was already back to full health and stamina. The wonders of mana.

After she was appropriately dressed again, she moved over to her husband, and she placed her hand on his shoulder as she leaned into him to look down at their boy together.

“Have you thought of any names, yet?” she asked. “I’m terrible at coming up with names.”

“I have,” he replied. “I’ll let you know my thoughts soon. Don’t want to invite any unlucky karma by rushing things.”

They stood in companionable silence, just looking. Their son was… ugly. There was no other way to put it. His skin was dark, almost purple. He had no hair on his head, and his skin was all wrinkly. She didn’t care if she had just birthed a tiny mutant, though. That was her son, and she already loved him.

It was strange. Before giving birth, she intellectually understood that she was going to give birth to a new human, and he or she was going to be a new permanent part of their family, but she viewed it as kind of an abstract thing. Literally, as soon as he was out, her mentality did a complete shift. That was her baby, and she loved him! There were no more abstract thoughts. She already couldn’t picture her life moving forward without him.

She eventually had to stop just looking. Her husband would be expected to take a shift guarding the convoy, as that was part of their agreement in getting a ride with them. She tidied up the space and disposed of the blood-covered cloth, but she remained within the wagon. Nobody would be expecting a fully healed mother to pop out right after delivery, so she had to act the part and remain cooped up for the next couple of days. Maybe she would practice waddling. The thought made her giggle.

She took her son back from Ref, who then strapped back on his plain sword in its plain scabbard. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to use it again anytime soon, but she was confident in his abilities if he had to.

They had been on the road for a long time, and now with the new addition in the family, it was time to finally settle down somewhere permanently. She was finally looking forward to this new phase of her life.

A familiar half-sleep, half-awake state among a familiar warmth surrounded him. Despite things feeling similar, they were not the same. He was still incredibly tired, but new sensations assaulted him all the time.

First, there was the sound. Maybe it had been a mistake to actively level Eavesdropping, as he picked up more sounds from farther away, and they were ultimately just distracting. Then there was the light. No longer was he subsumed in complete darkness. Often, even while asleep, there was still a sort of glow that permeated his inner vision during the daylight hours.

Finally, there was the hunger. He never knew he could be so hungry. The first time the hunger hit him, it was like another void had opened itself up within him and it would never be filled. He cried out involuntarily. He felt himself get lifted up, and soothing sounds were made toward him, but he ignored those as he sensed the source of his nourishment nearby. He opened his mouth and rooted around in front of himself until he came into contact with it, and he latched on instinctively and consumed the sweet nectar that represented life. He could hear the sounds of amused chuckling from above.

The hunger led to yet another new sensation. He felt an incredible pressure building up inside him. He felt like he was going to pop if this pressure didn’t get released, and just as it reached a crescendo, his face scrunched up into a smile all on its own as a release valve was triggered and the pressure disappeared in sweet relief.

Now, though, he felt wet and gross on his bottom, and he couldn’t stand the way it felt. He squirmed about to try to alleviate the situation, but nothing worked. He cried out in exasperation, and that seemed to be the solution, as his mother quickly grasped the meaning, and she awkwardly removed the source of discomfort and changed him.

That was his life. He didn’t keep count of the times of feeding and changing, and he didn’t keep count of the days that passed by. He was peripherally aware of these things, but his purpose in life was to get some rest! Despite doing nothing for what seemed like trillions of years, according to the dreams, he could not seem to get enough sleep.

That was slowly changing, though. At first, there was constant motion, as it seemed like his family was always going somewhere. He only ever got glimpses of an interior of what appeared to be a moving tent. Every now and then, he would catch a glimpse of a great, big, open environment, with the sky covering the world, and trees and fields interspersed along the route they were traveling on.

Eventually, the constant motion ceased, and the cloth canopy above was replaced with a solid ceiling. He and his mother didn’t move from this place for a long time, but he often awoke with his father not there, though he would always be back every night.

He was able to stay awake longer and longer over this period of time, and the state of half-asleep, half-awake had completely left him. He was now just awake or asleep.

In all this time, he still practiced his few skills he was able to: He would relax and focus on the sensations of mana caressing his skin, which had become much more subtle now that he was out of the womb. He would attempt to inhale motes of mana as they passed his face, but with the loss of the mana highway in the form of his mother’s meridians, it was a paltry thing that no longer yielded experience, though his skill did improve over time. He would fight against sleep each time he was awake to practice his Mental Fortitude. His instincts told him this wasn’t the most efficient method, but it was all he had at his disposal. He would strain to listen to every sound coming from outside the walls of their little house or conversations his parents had when they thought he was asleep.

There was no overarching purpose or goal in training his skills. He just really liked the sense of accomplishment it gave him each time a blue box appeared to tell him he had improved again. And his persistence was yielding results. His lack of mobility was precluding him from practicing the vast majority of his skills, but that was slowly changing as well.

Skills Leveled Up!
Sense Mana (9 ->10)
Mana Absorption (7 ->8)
Mental Fortitude (4 ->5)
Observation (6 ->7)
Eavesdropping (3 ->5)

With a flick of his thoughts, he swiped the box away. He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, as he contemplated his most recent gains. He was in a little crib at the side of his parents’ bed. It lacked the warmth of his mother’s embrace, but it was comfortable enough, all things considered. He was getting intimately familiar with his little box, as well as the beams of the ceiling. Not being able to move his head around really limited the options of scenery.

There were so many more skills available for him to practice, and if the Akashic Record could be believed, it wouldn’t be too hard at first. Getting over this hurdle of not being able to move was his first bottleneck.

He listened to his parents’ steady breathing in the bed next to him. It was currently the middle of the night. He was able to stay awake without getting fatigued much longer now, but his sleep schedule was all over the place. He blamed Mental Fortitude, both the effect and the practice of it. His parents weren’t going to wake up anytime soon.

He still didn’t have control over his limbs, but repeated attempts at moving them under his own cognizance were propelling him in the right direction. He sent a pulse of will down his leg, and it jerked forward, almost like a kick. He had the Pugilist skill (granted, at Level 0), but that was anything but a coordinated kick. It was more a flail. He paid attention to the feeling of it, and he caught a glimpse of what it should feel like to move it under control. Nothing to do but keep at it.

His legs eventually got tired, so he did the same thing with his arms. He didn’t faux punch out in front of himself. More a jerk up and to the side than anything. His arm moved like a wet noodle, starting at the shoulder, bending at the elbow, and ending with his hands flicking out. He alternated between each arm, and then between the legs and arms in turn. If anyone was watching him, they would think he was just a weird baby, doing normal baby things, but in a weird way.

Eventually, he got tired enough that he didn’t have the energy to continue his practice, but he could feel that he was making progress in mastering his own body. He was getting sleepy, too, so while concentrating on not letting himself fall asleep, he practiced his Sense Mana and Mana Absorption skills. His Mana Absorption no longer gave him giddy energy, and he could barely tell that he was even absorbing any mana. If he didn’t get the occasional notifications that his skill had leveled up, he would think he was just breathing intensely.

Without realizing it, like it normally happens, he fell asleep.

“<unintelligible> my <unintelligible>” He awoke to his mother peeking down at him, a ray of sunshine beaming from the window, and a smile on her face. She reached down and scooped him up, walking out of the bedroom into the main living area, holding him in the crook of her arm. He was getting bigger, and she would have to figure out a different way to carry him around soon. Not because she wasn’t strong enough. He had never seen her struggle to lift anything, but simply because it would be unwieldy.

He settled in as she carried him around while performing her chores. His father was already gone for the day, and she was fully dressed. Remnants of breakfast had already been put away. He noticed that she wasn’t particularly adept at cleaning things. He wasn’t sure if that was because she just wasn’t that good at it, or if it was because she refused to set him down while she did everything one-handed. Probably the latter.

The living area they found themselves in was fairly simple. A central seating area with a small table and a loom in the corner, with bits and pieces of different cloths and fabrics tidied away. The entrance to the abode was set in the middle of the room, separating the living area with the small kitchenette on the other side. There was a full-sized table set with two chairs, a countertop area with some cupboards beneath, and a fireplace on the opposite wall to the living area. There was a total of four rooms attached to this central living area, presumably bedrooms, with his parents’ room being one of them. He didn’t understand why they needed so much room.

His mother kept up a litany of conversation as she alternated cooing at him and explaining his small world and what she was doing in it. She eventually finished her chores, and she laid him down in a little basket by her side as she took her place up at the loom. She worked the loom most of the day each day, and she kept the words flowing whenever he was awake.

He listened to his mother talk to him, and he started catching words that he recognized being repeated. “Your father…” was often repeated, and from context, he was finally able to grasp the meaning. “Reivyn…” was another word that was repeated more than the rest of them, and he realized that it was his name.

He finally knew what his name was! He had memories of being a faceless, bodiless entity for forever, and he had been a floating baby, completely unknown to the world, for months, but now he could move forward with a true identity.

He started wiggling around and trying to contort his facial muscles into a smile while he made “goo” noises while trying to laugh. His mother noticed his excitement and tickled him while repeating his name interspersed with other words, all with her own smile and happiness showing on her face.

When she turned back to the loom, he pulled up his Status to happily look it over, now that such a change had occurred.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: <None> Age: 2/16 mo.]
[Health: 50/50 Stamina: 80/80 Mana: 170/170]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 3 * INT: 14]
[VIT: 5 * MAG: 18]
[DEX: 3 * CLA: 11]
[CHA 3 * PER: 9]
[LUK: 3]
Skills:
Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Balance (0), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (5), Evasion (0), Hiding (1), Inspire (0), Linguistics (0), Mana Absorption (8), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (5), Number Concepts (0), Observation (7), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (0), Running (0), Sense Mana (10), Sneaking (0), Staves (0), Stealth (1), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)

He crawled about on all fours, trying to move as fast as he could to escape the monster. There was no escape, however. She was going to catch him. And when she did, she was going to…

“Tickle, tickle, tickle!” His mother playfully caught him as he tried and failed to evade her grasping fingers. He squealed in delight, not only at the tickling sensation but at an unexpected gain.

Skill Level Up!
Evasion (0 ->1)

He had failed spectacularly to get away from his mother, but apparently, the attempt counted.

It had been a little over four months since they had settled into their house. The word “home” had made it into his lexicon. In that time, he had gained the ability to make his limbs do what he wanted, and just recently he had succeeded in finally mobilizing himself with the expert move known as crawling.

Reivyn’s mother eventually relented and let him catch his breath. Her little break was over, and she deposited him back into his spot next to the loom. His parents had cordoned off a section to allow him to crawl around that morning, removing the little box he had been lying in and simply putting the blankets that had lined it down on the ground so he had somewhere to rest when he got tired.

He sat there and watched his mother work for a time. He noticed that the air was steadily getting heavier. It felt like humidity, but without the humidity. The feeling coalesced around his mother, and he came to the realization that it was the ambient mana gathering toward his mother.

Suddenly, a bright flash popped in the loom, and Reivyn gasped as the gathered mana that hadn’t reached his mother seemed to burst forth. He instinctively inhaled, and he absorbed a larger concentration of mana than usual.

His mother’s head whipped around at lightning speed, her gaze focused on her child. Her eyes narrowed, and her brows drew down. She cocked her head and said something to him, but he didn’t quite understand her meaning, so he just looked up at her with innocent eyes. Her sight lingered on him for a moment before she gently shook her head and returned her attention to the loom.

There was something different about the piece she was working on. He couldn’t see what was different, but he could feel it.

Skills Leveled Up!
Mana Absorption (17 ->18)
Sense Mana (20 ->21)

After his mother looked away, he checked his notification and was pleasantly surprised. He had quickly reached Level 20 in Sense Mana, but it had stagnated recently. It didn’t feel like it was locked in place at Level 20, just more like it needed a lot more work. Apparently, the feat of noticing the mana shift in the fabric that his mother was working on had finally tipped him over to the next level.

He was sitting up watching his mother, and he surreptitiously made a fist in excitement. A thought entered his head, and he decisively carried it out. He threw his fists out in a one-two punch.

Skill Level Up!
Pugilist (0 ->1)

When it rains it pours. Happiness blanketed him, and while he was on a roll, he promptly threw out a couple more punches, these ones being ever so slightly more coordinated. But in his enthusiasm, he hadn’t paid attention to one thing… He promptly fell over onto his face.

The surprise shocked him, and he let out a startled yelp. His mother quickly abandoned her work and scooped him up to comfort him. She made cooing noises at him, and when she noticed he was fine, she started laughing. Her laughter was infectious, and the situation was pretty funny, so Reivyn started giggling along with his mother.

His father chose that time to walk through the door. He saw his wife and child happily laughing together, so after unbuckling his sword and placing it to the side, he joined them with a smile on his face.

“What are we laughing at?” he asked.

“Your son took a tumble.”

New Skill Unlocked! Haman (1)
Skill Level Up! Linguistics (0 ->1)

Reivyn was momentarily surprised, but then he started giggling even harder than before, causing his father to also give a little chuckle as he reached out and tickled his belly for a moment. This is the best day ever! Reivyn thought to himself.

The skill Haman was obviously a language skill, as he could understand what his parents said much more clearly than ever before. And the System just about outright told him with the leveling of his Linguistics skill. He wasn’t aware of the context, but the name of the language sounded eerily similar to the word “human” from his dreams, despite the word for “human” in the Haman language sounding nothing like it. It was definitely something to contemplate, but preferably when he was older and better educated.

His mother set him down, and he scurried off to explore things, with supervision, while his parents had their mini-reunion for the day. He finally saw an opportunity to level another skill while his parents were slightly distracted. He got down all the way on his belly and shimmied himself under the couch in the central living space as quietly as he could. Once in position, he regulated his breathing to be more shallow and waited.

“Where’s Reivyn?” his mother asked, a light lilt of worry in her voice.

“He was just right there. He couldn’t have gotten far,” Refix replied to his wife. “See?” Reivyn heard his father’s nonchalant words while the couch above him was tilted aside. He looked up to see a look of reproach on his mother’s face, clearly not amused at his antics, while his father simply laughed and scooped him up before setting the couch back down.

Skill Level Up!
Sneaking (0 ->1)

Reivyn had hoped to level his Hiding skill, completely forgetting about Sneaking, but he had failed at hiding at all from his father, apparently. Though, as a consolation prize, he still got a skill level up.

Best day ever.

Another four months had passed, and Reivyn stood at the precipice of his biggest obstacle yet. He literally stood, a hand against the wall to maintain his balance. A distance away from him, his father squatted down with his hands out.

“Come on, Reivyn. You can do it! Walk to Daddy,” his father said with a big grin on his face.

Reivyn scrunched up his face in concentration and placed one foot in front of the other, his hand still on the wall. With determination, he let go of the wall and took an unsteady step toward his father. He placed his foot on the floor, the world threatening to tilt around him, but he managed to maintain his footing. He took another step forward, expectation filling him… and he promptly fell on his butt.

His dad chuckled as he stood up straight, wanting to come over and help his son reset himself. Reivyn ignored his father as he placed his hands on the ground, got his feet under him, and stood up without the assistance of the wall. He fell over, again, right away. Undeterred he stood up once more, and this time he kept his balance.

Skill Level Up!
Balance (0 ->1)

The world was suddenly steady as he dismissed the notification with practiced ease. He looked at his father, who had squatted back down with his arms outstretched. He laughed as he took a lumbering step toward his father. Then another one. Then another one. His pace increased with his confidence until he was moving too fast to keep himself steady any longer, and he ended up crashing face-first… into his father’s embrace.

He had done it! He had walked across the room all on his own!

Skill Level Up!
Balance (1 ->2)

Jubilation filled him as his father picked him up and twirled him around, both of them giggling like children. His father pulled him into a position where he was sitting upright on his bicep as he turned to his wife with that same goofy grin on his face. He was about to say something to Ameliyn, but with sudden inspiration, Reivyn beat him to it.

“Mommy, Mommy! Did you see what I did?”

<GONG!>

As soon as the words left his mouth, a huge gong sound shattered the tranquility. It rang in his head with an echo, and it was the loudest thing he had ever heard. It didn’t hurt his ears, though, as the sound had come from within his own head.

He shook his head, and then a notification box popped up in front of him. This one wasn’t transparent and demanded his immediate attention.

Helpful Hint: People who have the Akashic Record typically unlock their System after their first utterance of a complete sentence, as this is indicative of full awareness as deemed by the System. You’re welcome in helping in your subterfuge.

Skill Level Up!
Stealth (3 ->4)

There was that Stealth skill again. He wasn’t even hiding. How did I level up Stealth?

A gentle cough brought him back to the present from his thoughts, and he dismissed the window in front of him. His father was standing there, holding him in stunned silence, and his mother was looking at him with a gentle smile on her face.

“Honey, did you just unlock your System?”

Chapter three

Down with the System

“System?” Reivyn asked. He looked at his mom with wondering eyes. He had learned the language and even gained a few more levels in it since its acquisition, but he still couldn’t articulate anything complicated. He would just prompt his mother along the lines of any questions he had and expect her to answer them to the best of her ability.

“That’s right. Did a <unintelligible> box pop up in front of you?”

“Mhm,” he nodded in reply.

"Fascinating..." Ameliyn trailed off as she looked over at Refix. "Have you ever heard of anyone unlocking the System at such a young age?"

"Nope," Refix shook his head. "Though us having the Akashic Record does mean we unlock it earlier than everyone else who has to wait until they're five."

"Should we go ahead and teach him about the System?" Ameliyn asked with a skeptical look.

"Just the bare bones," Refix replied. "He can't hurt anything messing about with it, so we should just give him a simple rundown and let him explore on his own, at his own pace. That's what people usually do for their kids, right?"

"Yeah, but most kids get the explanation first, not second."

Refix shrugged.

"Meh, shouldn't matter, really. There's not much he can do as a child without a Class. Even with a Class, the System is 99% information that we can't mess with."

"That's true," Ameliyn looked off to the side as she contemplated the issue.

Reivyn was beginning to get bored with his parents not paying attention to him, so his gaze had wandered off, though the window stayed in the center of his vision, having not been dismissed. Ameliyn brought his attention back to her, though, as she addressed him. "Alright, my little munchkin, your momma's gonna tell you what that blue box thingy is."

"It floats!" Reivyn exclaimed, bouncing his head up and down as he looked all around. The Notification Window remained in his vision as he shifted his gaze about.

"Uh-huh, but only you can see it," Ameliyn bopped him on the nose, her hand phasing through the blue box suddenly. "Everyone has their own System, and we can only see what others share. Well, there's more than that, but that'll be for later. You don't need to know about it right now.

"Anyway, The System, for you, is basically just a ." Ameliyn paused and looked at Reiyn expectantly. Reivyn just stared back at her. "Do you know what that is?" Ameliyn cocked an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Nu uh," Reivyn shook his head. He repeated the phonetic sounds of the word back to her as best he could, but he didn't know what it meant.

"Right," Ameliyn nodded her head. "A 'record' is just keeping track of knowledge. Your status is a record of your body and mind, and the things you can do and how well you can do them: your skills."

"skills," Reivyn repeated the word.

"Mhm. You should already have one or two skills if you've unlocked your Status. Even without being able to read, yet, you should be able to understand the System. Do you know how many skills you already have?"

"He doesn't know how to count, dear," Refix chimed in.

"And this is a good time to introduce him to it," Ameliyn waved her husband off.

Reivyn focused his attention on the blue box. Like his mother said, he just knew what was what, and he focused on the skills tab. The list of his skills popped up in front of him.

Skills:
Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Balance (2), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (7), Evasion (2), Haman (4), Hiding (2), Inspire (0), Linguistics (4), Mana Absorption (21), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (6), Number Concepts (0), Observation (9), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (6), Running (0), Sense Mana (23), Sneaking (3), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)

His eyes scrunched up at the large number of skills listed. He instinctively raised his hands and started numbering them off with his fingers. Ameliyn counted off the numbers, informing him what they were, as he went. He filed the information away as he counted.

He quickly reached his last finger. He looked back and forth between the blue box and his hands, not knowing what to do next. He looked to his mother for guidance. Ameliyn had a weird expression on her face that he couldn't place.

"You have ten fingers, honey," she explained. "Are you telling me you have ten skills?"

Reivyn shook his head.

"Not enough," he said.

"Not enough skills?"

"Not enough fingers."

"Oh..." Ameliyn glanced at Refix for help, but he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly. "Well, just start over with your fingers, and mommy will count for you."

Reivyn did as he was told, and Ameliyn continued to count out loud, teaching her young son the numbers in the process. Reivyn finally stopped after repeating the process just over three times.

"Thirty-three..." Ameliyn sat back in shock. "Okay. Well, there should be a number next to each skill telling you how well you can do each skill. The System should give you the knowledge, but can you try and use the numbers mommy just taught you to tell me?"

Reivyn focused on his new task. He understood what each number in his Status represented, and after some careful thought, he was able to put some of the lower numbers to their proper word. He frowned, though, as most of the skills had an unfamiliar symbol next to it that didn't correlate with anything his mother taught him. Ameliyn caught the look.

"What's the matter, honey?" She asked.

"Something different. Didn't tell me."

"And what's that? Can you tell me what it looks like?"

Reivyn held his hand up, curling his fingers around to touch his thumb in an "O" shape.

"Ahh, I see. That's the number zero," Ameliyn explained. "It basically means there's no number at all."

With that explanation, a new Notification popped up in front of Reivyn. He quickly scanned it's contents.

Skill Level Up! Numbers Concepts (0 ->1)

Ameliyn and Refix shared a look at Reivyn's revelation. Reivyn reeled back a bit in shock, his understanding of the number system suddenly making much more sense to him.

"What's the matter, sweetie? What happened?" Ameliyn asked, turning her attention back to her son.

"Skill went from zero to one," Reivyn said. He wasn't able to articulate it was a skill level Up Notification, but his mother would understand what he meant.

"That's good! That's good..." Ameliyn trailed off. She turned and put her head together with Refix, whispering, but not low enough for Reivyn not to hear. "Have you ever heard of having a skill level of zero before?"

Refix shook his head.

"That is truly unprecedented," he whispered back. "As far as I know, skills don't show up until they reach Level one." Refix glanced at his son. "He's too young to understand such things. We'll have to ask him if he knows anything about it when he gets a bit older. If he remembers."

"Heck, if we remember to ask him," Ameliyn chuckled. "It's like he came preloaded with skills." She turned back to Reivyn. "Alright, sweetie, it's nice that you have so many skills, but don't tell anyone, okay? It'll be our little secret."

Reivyn nodded his head enthusiastically. He didn't know what a secret was, but doing something that was just between him and his parents sounded like fun.

Ameliyn placed Reivyn down on the ground next to another child a little bit older than himself. After being cooped up in their own home for so long, Ameliyn had decided that it made more sense to make friends with the neighbors and for Reivyn to explore more of the world around them. Luckily, the next door neighbors had a child close to Reivyn in age.

"Hi. I'm Teilon," the little boy said to Reivyn with a wide grin on his face.

Reivyn stared at the little boy for a second before pointing to himself.

"I'm Reivyn," he replied. It was the first time he had introduced himself to someone new. He just copied the way the other child did it, hoping it was the appropriate response.

Ameliyn left Reivyn where he was and walked to a table setup in the outside. They were at their neighbor's house, in the backyard as the weather was pleasant. Teilon's mother smiled at Ameliyn and the two began talking about whatever mothers talked about.

"Do you want to play a game?" Teilon asked, bouncing up and down in excitement. Reivyn quickly allowed himself to be pulled along in the other boy's enthusiasm, and playing games sounded just fine to him. He reciprocated the bouncing, adding it to his head as he nodded with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, yeah. Game, game," he said.

Teilon giggled.

"Do you have a favorite game?" He asked.

Reivyn tilted his head to the side to think about the question. The games he played with his parents were typically him asking to be tickled and then trying to fend off said tickles, but he didn't think that's what Teilon meant. Teilon was another child. How was he supposed to know the proper methods of the tickle game?

"No," was his simple reply.

"The different levels of rarity are pretty straightforward: You have Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. There are rumors that there's another level of rarity above Mythic, but even the Mythic level is unheard of, much less a higher rarity.

"Okay. My favorite game is hide and seek. I'll teach you. Come with me."

Teilon stood up, Reivyn following suit. Reivyn had gained quite the proficiency in balancing and walking over the past several days, so he easily followed the larger boy. Teilon walked to a tree just a little ways away and pointed to the backside.

"This is the simplest place to hide," he explained. "If I was 'it,' then I would have to cover my eyes while you hid. You could hide behind this tree, where I couldn't see you, and then I would have to look for you. Once I find you, the game is over, and we switch places. Then you would have to find me while I hide."

Reivyn nodded his head, grasping the rules of the game. He looked around to spot any other hiding spots available. There were a few trees, some bushes, a stack of firewood, but not much else. He gave Teilon a skeptical look.

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like much, but there's always something you can do to add a bit of change. You just have to think of it."

Reivyn didn't really know what he meant, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to play. The two returned to the little spot next to the table where their mothers continued to converse, and Teilon took the first turn as "it."

Despite having very little to work with, Reivyn was a small child. He didn't need a whole lot to entertain him, and Tielon seemed perfectly happy to just be playing the game at all. The two giggled at each other as they took turns hiding and searching, and they quickly ran out of places to hide. Reivyn began to wonder if this was where Teilon would introduce the changes he spoke about.

"Now that you know how the game is played, it's time for the real fun," Teilon leaned in and whispered to Reivyn. Reivyn liked the sound of getting to "real" fun, so he nodded his head. "The real goal isn't to hide from each other. That was just teaching you the game. Now we have to hide from our moms."

Reivyn gave Teilon a skeptical look. There was a glint of mischief in the other boy's eye.

"But they're not playing?" Reivyn asked more than stated.

"That's the best part!" Teilon said. "Just follow along with me."

The conversation with Liera was pleasant. She and Weimyn, her husband, were retired Adventurers. It had been a while since Ameliyn had spoken with another woman around her age about nothing of importance. There was always something going on with her and Refix, but now wasn't the time to think about that. She was just having a conversation as one mother to another.

As a new mother, she finally understood the enthusiasm for speaking about one's child. When she was younger, she had always grown bored around her own mother, aunt,, and older sisters when they got together for conversation. It was always about the kids, and once she was no longer part of that crowd, but not quite in with the older ladies, she had nothing to contribute.

Being able to talk about one of her most cherished family members, though, changed the conversation completely. All the little resentment she used to hold for her older female family members and their friends evaporated out the window, at least in context of this topic.

She missed them. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she felt the beginnings of tears trying to well in her eyes. She quickly suppressed the emotions, though. She was just a new mother making a new friend. It would be strange to burst into tears randomly in the middle of a conversation about their babies.

"...I don't know where he gets it, but he's constantly getting up to no good one way or another," Liera sighed. She had obviously seen the slight change in Ameliyn's demeanor, but she expertly ignored it and continued on with her talk about Teilon, her little boy. "Every chance he gets, he's either getting into something he shouldn't, or disappearing on us."

Ameliyn's mouth twitched toward a smile, but she held it in, as she "watched" the two boys with her Perception. She was accustomed to always being on the lookout no matter the circumstances, even when she had been a young teenager talking with her friends and family, but Liera didn't seem to have the same ingrained habit. It made sense her Perception didn't pick up what Ameliyn's was, or more accurately, Liera didn't pay attention to what her Perception was picking up.

While Liera was talking about her son constantly pulling a disappearing act on her, the two little rascals had snuck up behind the poor woman and hid under her chair."

"Well then, it makes sense little Teilon is teaching Reivyn how to play hide and seek," Ameliyn replied with a small smirk.

Liera caught the expression and looked to where the two boys had recently just been playing. There was nobody there, and there was no sound giving away their location. Liera leapt to her feet, the blood draining from her face as she realized her boy was nowhere to be seen. She put her hands on her head as she scanned the backyard.

"Ah, where'd they go?!" She exclaimed, panic lacing her voice.

"Liera," Ameliyn called to the other woman. Liera ignored Ameliyn as she started toward the empty backyard. "Liera!" Ameliyn put some steel into her voice, causing the other woman to stop and glance at her. "Calm down, girl. They haven't gone anywhere."

Liera looked all around at the empty yard. She gestured with her hand around herself.

"They haven't gone anywhere?! How can you be so calm, Ameliyn?!"

Ameliyn chuckled.

"I've had my eye on them the whole time," she replied. "Remember, you were just talking about how Teilon loves to pull disappearing acts..."

Liera finally calmed down at Ameliyn's reassurance.

"Of course. He loves to play hide and seek. Just let me think..." Liera glanced all around, though Ameliyn noticed she absentmindedly ignored the table and chairs, turning her search outward. This Teilon kid seems to be a natural at figuring out where his mother won't look for him right away, Ameliyn noted with amusement. Liera suddenly stopped and turned toward Ameliyn. "Wait, you said you've kept your eye on them this whole time..."

Liera's gaze glanced toward where she had been sitting, the location Ameliyn had "kept her eyes" during their conversation. Teilon seemed to sense the inevitable discovery as he chose that moment to shoot out from beneath the chair, giggling uncontrollably. Reivyn came out at a more sedate pace, looking to his mother to see how she was reacting. Ameliyn grinned at him, eliciting a laugh from her son.

"Come back here you little munchkin," Liera called out, though there was a hint of laughter in her voice as she chased after her son. She wasn't trying all that hard, though, as there was no way Teilon should be able to escape her grasp if she truly wanted to snag him up.

"Waaah, free~dom!" Teilon called out as Liera finally scooped him up.

Reivyn lifted his arms up in the toddler universal sign language for "pick me up." Ameliyn chuckled as she picked her little boy up and held him up for a quick kiss on the forehead. She scooted him over to hold him against her side with one arm, his head even with her shoulder. As she was still looking at her son, she noticed his gaze wander about in a strange looping motion before he reached his hand out to the empty air.

"Pretty," he randomly said.

Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at the strange behavior, but the memory of her son mentioning he had over thirty skills triggered something in her. She shifted her vision with her Mana Sensing skill, and a blue mote of Water Mana appeared at the tip of Reivyn's finger. Ameliyn's eyes shot up in surprise.

After calming down, she manipulated her Mana to take control of the ambient mote and made it flutter about in front of them, once more landing on her own outstretched finger.

"You can see this?" She indicated the mote.

Reivyn nodded.

"Mhm. Pretty," he said.

He can Sense Mana, and if I'm not mistaken, he either has the Mana Sight skill or is already on the way to unlocking it...

The surprises just kept coming.

"Liera, I think we'll go ahead and head back to the house for now," Ameliyn called out to her new friend. "I know it was short, but we can meet up again whenever you feel like it."

"Oh, sure," Liera looked up from her own tickling session with her little boy. "And we can invite some of the other young moms around, too. There are a couple young families living at the end of the street with some boys around the same age."

"That sounds excellent," Ameliyn replied. "Good day."

"Good day."

Ameliyn carried her son around the house and across the street back to their own home. She took care to keep the little mote of Water Mana on her finger as she didn't know if Reivyn would be able to see another one. As far as she knew, it was the only ambient Mana mote her son had actually seen with his vision.

"Do you know what this little thing is?" She asked rhetorically, holding her finger out to Reivyn after she sat him down.

"It's blue!" Reivyn announced, pleased with getting the answer right.

"Well, yes, but that's not what I meant," Ameliyn chuckled. "Great job recognizing the color, though!" She didn't forget to praise him. "This is Mana. Can you say 'Mana?'"

"Man-ah," Reivyn repeated.

"Uh huh, Mana," Ameliyn said once more. "This is something your mother is intimately familiar with, so you'll be sure to learn a lot about it, but you're too young for that right now. Let's just say its the building block of everything. Do you know what I mean by building block?"

Reivyn shook his head vigorously. Ameliyn pointed to the walls of the house.

"Do you see the blocks in the wall?" She pointed out the indentations representing where different pieces were joined together. "These 'build' our home. Well, Mana 'builds' the world. Remember how I told you not to tell anyone about your skills?" Reivyn nodded his head. "Well, the same thing applies to Mana.

"Reivyn, you're a special little boy. Don't tell anyone you can see Mana. Don't talk about any Mana that you do see. Of course you can talk about it with your father and I, but only when we're home alone. Do you understand?"

Reivyn nodded his head.

"Oh, I love you so much!" Ameliyn lifted Reivyn up into a tight hug. She set him back down. "You're a special boy," she repeated. "Most people can't see Mana, and those that can don't see it at such a young age. I'll be here to teach you about the different Mana skills as you grow older. Things like Mana Absorption and Mana Circulation." Reivyn perked up at the mention of Mana Absorption. "Hmm, did one of those sound familiar to you?"

"Man-ah Apsorp-shun," Reivyn nodded his head. "skill."

"You already have that skill?!"

Reivyn nodded his head. He held up two fingers on one hand and one on the other.

"Twenty-one!" He exclaimed with a smile.

"Your skill level in Mana Absorption is 21?!" Ameliyn sat back with wide eyes. Memories of her Mana going out of control while carrying Reivyn came to mind.

That would mean he was Absorbing Mana inside the womb! Ameliyn realized. She guffawed. That brings a whole new meaning to the saying, "have to have practiced while in the womb." It might actually be true for my little boy, but what does that mean?

Ameliyn started as she returned her focus to her son. Reivyn was eyeing her with suspicion as she had suddenly gone quiet for a moment. She smiled once more at Reivyn.

"That's amazing! We won't have to Teach you how to unlock these Skills in the future, and you're already well on your way to the first threshold. You're my special little boy, and we're going to have lots of fun playing with Mana in the future."

"Yay! Fun playing!" Reivyn repeated, focusing on the most important parts of the sentence.

Chapter four

Step by Step

It had been three months since his mother had first explained the System to him, and he had just surpassed one of the first milestones in his life. He had turned one year old. Or, in accordance with his new standard, 16 months. Nothing really noteworthy happened on his birthday. There was no celebration, and he wouldn’t have even noticed its passing if his age on his Status page hadn’t changed from 15/16 to 1.

He had had a few other discussions with his parents about the System. They had clarified some things and described some of the minutiae in greater detail, but that first conversation had been everything he really needed to know at this stage in his life.

The one interesting thing was what his mother had revealed about the Akashic Record.

“The Akashic Record, like it says about itself, is formed when a powerful being ascends to a higher realm. The System scans their Status page and sifts through their life experiences, and it records what it finds into what is known as the Akashic Record. The System grants access to the Akashic Record to everyone born of that being’s lineage, but the level of access diminishes the further removed one is from the source; however, everyone who has access to the skill gets the full access to all of the information accumulated from all of the Ascended beings.

“It has been thousands of years since the last recorded Ascension, and everyone in the world today, regardless of their lineage, only has a skill level of one. As far as anyone knows, that is.”

“If it’s been thousands of years, and there have been multiple Ascensions, shouldn’t most people alive today have the skill?” Refix asked. He knew that his son was way too young for such leaps in logic, so he helpfully supplied a question to his wife for his son’s benefit.

“What an excellent question,” Ameliyn responded, with a quick smile to her husband. “When I say there have been multiple Ascensions contributing to the Akashic Record, history has recorded less than ten. Several of them weren’t humans, and the type of beings that Ascended, for the most part, didn’t have any children. In order to accrue the level of power necessary to ascend, one must be entirely driven and focus on getting stronger, to the detriment of everything else.

“People don’t advertise that they have the Akashic Record outside of their family, but if I had to guess, outside of royalty and nobility, which also isn’t a given, there are probably between thirty to fifty families on the continent that have the skill.”

Reivyn returned his focus to the present. He was currently trying to count all of the divots and grooves in the wood of the beams on the ceiling. Sometimes training a skill, in this case, Observation, was incredibly boring. The upside always made itself known, eventually, though, when he got that blue box telling him he had improved.

His task of wood viewing seemed to have tapped out any additional skill gains, though, as his skill had not leveled for a long time, despite his intense focus and new discoveries among the many grains on the beam. Maybe he needed to try a different tack.

He started mentally listing all of the different things he knew about the beam while he stared at it. This is a support beam for the ceiling. It is cherry wood from a nearby grove, according to small talk from my father. It has multiple patterns in the grain… He listed every little detail he could think of, even the number of nails used. When he started struggling to come up with anything new to list, after one last thoughtful addition, he finally received that long-awaited notification.

New Skill Unlocked!
Identify {Mundane} (1)

The notification was a pleasant surprise. He hadn’t expected to get an entirely new skill out of his exercise. If my guess is correct, Observation is about noticing things, and Identify is about knowing things. That raises the question: Where does the knowledge come from if I haven’t studied the subject myself? More questions for my parents.

All in all, a fruitful endeavor.

Reivyn peeked around the armoire as he held his breath. He was currently in one of the different rooms attached to the living area. He had been told that this was going to be his room. He could hear his father moving about quietly in yet another attached room, one that was currently being used for storage. They didn’t have a whole lot of things to store at the moment, but his parents had purchased some things to put in there deliberately.

He could feel his heartbeat accelerate ever so slightly as his father moved about the house. He was methodically searching for his son, and it would be all over if he found him.

It had been another four months of repetitive actions to slowly increase his skills. One of the things he enjoyed was thinking up new ways to exercise his skills, and he had found that playing hide and seek with his parents was a truly entertaining way to level up multiple skills.

First, he had to sneak quietly into the house in order to get anywhere undetected. His parents had far higher stats and skill levels than he did, so they applied a handicap by blocking their ears as well as closing their eyes while they counted. Then he would need to hide from the searching eyes of whichever parent was playing with him. This involved much more than just getting small and remaining still. He also had to regulate his breathing and try to remain calm so his heartbeat wouldn’t accelerate too much. He had found, to his dismay, that these two things were powerful identifiers to his location for people with a much higher perception stat. If he successfully evaded detection, he would occasionally receive a level-up in Stealth, too.

I’ve finally figured out what Stealth is. Hiding is remaining in place undetected, Sneaking is moving about undetected, and Stealth is accomplishing a task undetected. Apparently successfully evading detection counted as accomplishing a task. The previous instances of him gaining skill level-ups now made perfect sense to him.

He contemplated some of the new things he had learned about skills when he asked his mother about Identify.

“Where do skills come from, Mommy?” he had asked.

“What do you mean, honey?” his mom asked back.

“What a skill knows. How does a skill know it?”

“Oh, I understand,” Ameliyn replied. “Well, as I said about the Akashic Record, the System itself knows it. In regard to that particular skill, it is very specific knowledge that is only from the understanding and life experience of the Ascended involved. All other skills apply a boost from the System based on the amalgamation of everyone in the world who has, or who has had, a modicum of expertise in that skill. The System examines, in real-time, your personal level of expertise and the level of expertise everyone else has with the same skill Level and provides the appropriate boost. Learning new things from using the boost provided by the System counts toward increasing your level of personal expertise; thus you can gain skill experience through using the System skill. This might seem like a self-perpetuating skill leveling function, but that’s not the case because there are diminishing returns on how the boost from the System counts toward your personal expertise. But you don’t have to worry about that for a long time. It’s typically around Skill Level 70 for low-tier skills.”

“Got you!” His father popped his head out on the other side of the armoire. He had lost focus on the game he was playing while he was thinking about what he had learned. He shrieked in delight while he reflexively jumped from being startled.

When he came down from his little hop, the rug under Reivyn’s foot slipped out from under him. He cartwheeled his arms about to try to utilize his Balance skill to remain standing, but he realized it was a futile effort, so he decisively abandoned that tactic. He tucked his head into his shoulder as he turned his flailing fall into a roll, and he managed to use his momentum to propel himself back into a standing position.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he looked about with wild eyes. His father was halfway to him with his arm outstretched to grab him when he finally came to a stop.

Skill Level Up!
Acrobatics (0 ->1)

“I think that’s enough playtime for now, buddy,” Refix said to him. He must have thought Reivyn was in a daze because of his close call just now. In reality, Reivyn was thinking about his new skill and what he could be doing to exercise it.

“Sure, Daddy,” he replied. He would need his energy for all the rolling around he was going to be doing from now on.

Another six months had gone by, and Reivyn was learning to incorporate his rolls, cartwheels, and jumps into his running around. As such another, different kind of upgrade had occurred. Hide and seek had been leveled up to tag. With the increase in his physical stature and mobility, the outside world had opened up to him. Slightly.

Their house was situated in a cul-de-sac on the edge of the town they had settled down in. The place they had decided to call home was too small to properly be called a city but too large to be a village. His mother had told him that most of the population considered themselves to be dwellers of a city, however, because their Tier 1 class was Citizen and not Villager. There was no effective difference between the two, but it gave them a sense of superiority over the smaller communities that dotted the landscape surrounding them. The fact that this town, Haluville, was itself a smaller community, one of many, surrounding an actual city didn’t get in the way of their thinking.

Their home had a decent-sized backyard with a couple of trees that Reivyn would use to alter his momentum with centrifugal force while zipping around. He had quickly leveled up his Running skill playing tag in the backyard with his parents.

Running (8)

“Come on, Mommy,” he said as he attempted to pull his mother off the couch. He wanted to run around outside.

“No, honey. Mommy’s not going to play with you right now.” His mother remained seated on the couch, easily fending off his attempts to move her.

“You haven’t played tag with me in forever,” Reivyn dramatically exclaimed. He eyed his mother critically. Something had been bothering him recently. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, and he hadn’t really paid too much attention to it, but now that it was potentially the source of interfering with him having fun while exercising his skills, it was a problem.

He used his Observation skill to see if he could glean any useful information, while Ameliyn placidly gazed back at him. There was no new information to discover with this method. There was definitely something off; he could feel it. His thought process did a mental flip, and he started using Sense Mana to gauge any changes in his mother.

Bingo! The mana in his mother was acting strangely. There appeared to be a void in her core where he had never noticed one before. He tapped his finger against his lips as he was lost in contemplation, trying to figure out what it could mean. It looked like it was wrapped around something. Like a cocoon.

Realization dawned on him, and he pointed at his mother while he excitedly exclaimed, “You have a baby in your belly!”

Ameliyn’s eyes got huge, and she quickly leaned forward to cover his mouth with her hand while shushing him.

“What was that?” He heard his father’s voice coming from outside where he was doing maintenance on his gear. Sometimes he forgot that other people had Eavesdropping, too, along with a higher perception stat to fuel it. The door banged open as Refix strode into the house with purpose. “What is this I hear about a baby?” he demanded.

Ameliyn threw her hands up in exasperation and gave Reivyn the stink-eye. “I wasn’t sure yet, so I didn’t want to say anything. But I missed my most recent flow, and a lot of the other signs are there”

“This is fantastic news!” Refix exclaimed after a moment of shock. He had a wide grin threatening to split his face in two.

“Not so fast. As I said, I’m not sure yet, and this isn’t the first time my body has thrown us for a loop,” Ameliyn rebutted. “It’s fine to be happy, but I don’t want anyone to get their hopes up prematurely.”

“Sure, sure,” Refix replied. Her admonishment had obviously gone in one ear and out the other.

Ameliyn rolled her eyes at her husband and then looked sideways at Reivyn, who had slinked off to the side. “Sometimes you’re too clever for your own good, brat.”

What?! My sibling isn’t even confirmed yet, and I’m already relegated to brat?! He narrowed his eyes as he looked at his mother’s stomach. We’ll see how I tidy you up, later.

Ameliyn reached out and gently cuffed the back of his head. “What are you thinking? I know that look.” Reivyn chuckled sheepishly.

“Well, Buddy, it looks like you’ll have to find some other way to entertain yourself while I’m busy.” Refix turned his attention to his son. Reivyn already had his brows screwed up trying to troubleshoot a solution when his mother brightened up.

“I have just the thing.” She reached over to her loom and straightened back up with something in her hands. “Here.”

She handed Reivyn a sheet of parchment and a charcoal stick.

Sweat dripped down his brow as he concentrated. His tongue was unknowingly stuck out as he concentrated on the parchment in front of him. At first, when his mother gave him the parchment and charcoal, he had just drawn simple pictures, mainly consisting of little representations of his family. That had quickly turned into his mother teaching him how to read and write.

Sure, it was very early for someone his age to be learning how to read and write, but he had always been more mature for his age and a fast learner. Plus his mother relegated her teachings so far to just practicing the alphabet and numbers. His Penmanship skill had improved quite a bit over the past six months. I would have used to say half a year, but six months doesn’t quite make it anymore.

Right now he wasn’t actually practicing his penmanship. He had just come in from completing a round of calisthenics, and he needed a short while to recharge his mental capacity. It was no longer all fun and games, as he had started to actively try to train his stats with helpful hints from his father. Now it’s fun and work. He quite enjoyed the process of tempering his body, though as a young three-year-old, there wasn’t a lot that his father let him do just yet. After all, can’t let my advantage go to waste.

No, he was marshaling all of the levels he had gained in Drawing to work on his magnum opus. It had taken him nearly an hour of concentration, and a few failed starts, to get the proportions just right. As he finished the last line on his “masterpiece,” a blue notification box popped up.

Skill Level Up!
Map Making (0 ->1)

He had drawn a map of the area surrounding his house. The trouble had come from getting the scale consistent. He was intimately aware of the cul-de-sac his house was on, the other properties, the road, and even the wooden palisade that was a bit of a distance off. He had spent several days measuring steps and practicing getting the scale right by starting small and slowly expanding out. The map he had just finished contained all of that, plus the interior of his house. It was quite detailed and definitely not something to expect from a three-year-old child.

Ameliyn leaned over his shoulder to check out his map, and she made an exclamation of surprise. “That’s very good, honey,” she said as she affectionately patted him on the shoulder. He looked over at his mother and her swelling belly. The local healer had confirmed the pregnancy at the two-month mark, and she was now seven months along. Her tummy was considerably larger than he had expected, but the monthly check-ups with the healer showed that everything was fine.

“Now that your little pet project is complete, it’s time to work on your letters again.” His mother was ruthless.

“Mommmmy,” he whined. “I’ve been working on my letters for months now. Can’t I do something else?” He looked up at her with hope in his eyes.

Ameliyn gave him a flat look. It was that look that all mothers had that spoke an entire sentence all on its own. It said: I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work on me, so get back to work. The glimmer of hope in his eyes dimmed. “You’re going to need a lot more than a mere few months before I’m satisfied with your penmanship. But you’re right.” His hope was rekindled, and a smile crept across his face. “We’ll work on arithmetic.” His smile vanished as hope died.

Yep, ruthless.

Reivyn could hear the sounds of controlled breathing coming from one of the spare rooms. With their experience from the first birth, they didn’t want to ruin any of their good sheets with the blood involved during childbirth, so they had set up a separate, temporary little room for his mother’s labor.

“You’re doing fine, darling,” he heard his father say. “Are you in pain? Do you need anything?”

“Of course, I’m in pain,” his mother snapped back. She continued in a calmer tone, apparently getting control of her emotions. “I have Pain Resistance, but it’s still uncomfortable. There’s an incredible pressure that has nothing to do with pain, and the only thing I need right now is for this baby to decide to get out of me!”

Reivyn could hear the impatience in his mother’s voice. She had been in labor for several hours now. He looked toward the room where his parents had set up shop and contemplated whether or not it was wise to go see if they needed his help with anything. No, no. They’ve got this handled. No need for my involvement.

With nothing better to do, Reivyn pulled up his Status to peruse it.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: <None> Age: 3]
[Health: 100/100 Stamina: 170/170 Mana: 190/190]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 7 * INT: 18]
[VIT: 10 * MAG: 20]
[DEX: 7 * CLA: 13]
[CHA: 3 * PER: 10]
[LUK: 3]
Skills:
Acrobatics (7), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (2), Balance (13), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (4), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (11), Evasion (4), Haman (9), Hiding (10), Identify {Mundane} (3) Inspire (0), Linguistics (6), Mana Absorption (23), Map Making (1), Mathematics (3), Mental Fortitude (6), Number Concepts (3), Observation (15), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (4), Piano (0), Pugilist (9), Running (8), Sense Mana (25), Sneaking (5), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)

He looked over his stats and skills with satisfaction. There had been consistent, steady gains in both categories, which resulted in huge changes to his Status page. He didn’t know what a typical three-year-old’s stats looked like, but he was confident they didn’t look like his. If they could even see it, that is. He chuckled to himself.

The sounds of groaning coming from the other room brought him out of his contemplation. It appeared that his mother had finally begun the process of giving birth to his little brother or sister, as he could also hear a steady litany of words of encouragement from his dad.

He walked over to the other room and peeked his head inside. The bed was angled in a way that he didn’t have a direct view of the goings-on down there, but he could see his father in a position to receive the new baby while simultaneously trying to comfort his wife. He witnessed the strain on his mother’s face and the bulging of the veins in her neck as she pushed with all of her strength.

Suddenly, there was a startling cry, and his father straightened up. A new baby, still covered in after birth, was held in his hands. He had temporarily forgotten the presence of Ameliyn as he looked at the new addition to the family.

“It’s a girl!” he shouted out in glee. He busied himself with cleaning her up, but Reivyn noticed that something wasn’t quite right. His mother hadn’t relaxed at all, yet.

“Refix,” his mother called. His father didn’t seem to hear her. “Refix,” she repeated, her voice now more demanding.

“Hmm?” he responded, still busying himself with his new daughter.

“REFIX!” his mother screeched. He finally looked up at her in surprise. “Get your ass back over here,” she said through gritted teeth. She panted between sentences. “We’re not done. There’s another one.”

Refix was rooted to the spot as he blankly looked at Ameliyn. He looked down at the baby girl he was cleaning up, then back up at Ameliyn, then back down again. Finally, he looked toward the door and spotted Reivyn.

“Reivyn, come over here.” He motioned for his son to enter the room. “Hurry, hurry. I need your help. Gently clean up your sister while I help your mother.” He spoke incredibly quickly and rushed Reivyn to take over his duties. Reivyn ran over and took the cloth being used from his father.

“Hnnnnn…” <Pant> <Pant> “Hnnnnn…” <Pant> His mother continued pushing. She had started again before Refix was even fully in place, not being able to hold on any longer. When a baby decides it’s time to come, it’s time to come now.

Reivyn adroitly tended to bathing his newborn sister. She didn’t look at all like he had expected. Doubts filled his mind as he cleaned her. Another set of wailing lungs shortly accompanied the first one, and with a glance, Reivyn saw that his mother had finally relaxed. Despite their concerns, there really wasn’t a whole lot of blood, as he could sense the same phenomenon of mana being used as when he was born.

Refix joined him back in his spot with another cloth and pail of water. They were silent as they quickly got the two girls cleaned up. Just because they were silent, though, did not mean it was quiet in the room. The two newborns continued to exclaim their discontent with the world.

“Bring me my babies.” His mother’s steady voice reached him. He let his father take over all of the work, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to carry the sister he had cleaned with his three-year-old body, despite the stats on his Status page. His mother was recovering quickly, if a bit slower than she had done with him. His father gently placed the two girls into the crook of either arm of Ameliyn. The two girls quickly quieted down as they fell asleep amidst the familiar warmth.

Reivyn fidgeted a bit as he watched the wholesome scene, but he finally could no longer repress his doubts.

“Why are they so ugly?” he asked. His parents shared a look before they burst into unified laughter. He didn’t understand the joke.

“Pshh, what do you know,” his father retorted. “That’s what all babies look like when they’re newly born.” He was immensely confident in his knowledge of newborns, having experienced it once before.

“Hah! Says you,” his mother countered. “With Reivyn’s purple and wrinkly skin, you thought I had given birth to a mutant.” Refix jumped in startlement and quickly pressed his fingers to his wife’s mouth to silence her.

“Shh, shh. You need your rest, dear,” he said, in attempt to salvage his dignity in front of his son. Ameliyn just rolled her eyes and then bit his finger. “Ouch!” he yelped. “Well, I was right, anyway. Look at him.” Refix gestured toward Reivyn before sharing another laugh with his wife.

Reivyn frowned at the words, but then he shrugged. Eh, he’s got a point.

Chapter five

A Swing and a Miss

The smell of blood and soot was suffocating. The clash of battle could be heard all around her as she huddled in her room. Refix, like a bulwark in his gleaming armor, stood as a bastion of safety in the doorway. Anything that got close was quickly dispatched, but he was already covered in blood, and his stamina wouldn’t last forever.

The first powerful enemy emerged to pose an actual challenge to Refix, and his stamina was dangerously depleted. The grotesque enemy, indistinct and out of focus from her vantage, finally collapsed to the ground, adding another body to the pile surrounding Refix. He planted his exquisite sword in the ground and leaned upon it, panting and trying to recover as much stamina as he could.

It was a losing battle, and they knew they were just delaying the inevitable.

A grizzled veteran wielding a bloody halberd and attired in fancy armor led a troop of younger soldiers in a sortie to provide relief to their position. The old veteran had a solemn look on his face, and the younger men he led had eyes wild with fear. The commander’s presence and skills staved off panic, but even with his calming aura, it was clear it was only a matter of time.

After all of the local enemies had been dispatched, the older man turned to Ref. “You have to get out of here. You can only make it with one. You’ll have to leave the rest behind.” Refix wanted to argue. He placed his head in the palm of his free hand and shook his head back and forth, warring with what he knew to be the truth. The commander placed a hand on his shoulder with surprising gentleness. “We’ll try to get the others out, but you have to go. Now.”

Ref looked back at Ameliyn with love and fear written on his face. He quickly made his decision and strode toward her with a grim look set on his face. He grabbed Ameliyn and ripped her away from the arms holding on to her for dear life and started dragging her out of the room.

“No, no, no, no,” Ameliyn pleaded as she tried to remain with the outstretched arms trying to cling to her, but Refix was resolute in his decision, and they left everyone else behind as they fled into the night.

Despite the late hour, it was almost as bright as day. There was an orange tint to everything as the sky itself burned. The cries and pleadings of those left behind echoed in her mind.

Ameliyn sat up in bed with a yelp. Her heartbeat was out of control, and she was covered in sweat. A weight on her chest threatened to drive her racing mind into panic as she felt constricted, but she immediately calmed down after she looked down and realized it was just her daughters sleeping soundly, attached to their mother.

Refix awoke next to her, and seeing the sweat and distress on her face, he quickly embraced her and hugged her head into his chest, mindful of the two babies.

“Shhhh, it’s okay. It was just another nightmare,” he gently coaxed her. They eventually parted after she had calmed down enough. They sat there and looked at each other for a moment before Refix quietly said, “I’m sure some of them made it.”

Ameliyn gave a weak smile in reply. They both knew it was unlikely.

“I can hope.”

Life was beautiful and carefree for young Reivyn. With his father working his job, and his mother working hers while caring for two infants, he suddenly found himself with a lot more freedom to choose how he spent his time. He spent an entire year overindulging in play time, and he neglected his practice in writing and mathematics.

I’m only a child, he justified to himself.

But then something that shouldn’t have been unexpected happened. The dreams that he had vividly experienced while in the womb came back. They had an obvious slant in their meaning, as he dreamed about duty and responsibility. It was almost like his subconscious was trying to tell him something.

He tried to ignore it at first. He didn’t completely disregard the message from himself, but despite the approving nod from his mother when he resumed his writing, the dreams changed in intensity. No longer did he dream about examples of duty and responsibility. He had nightmares of the consequences of ignoring it.

Blood and death were the rewards to the men in his dreams with lackadaisical attitudes, their ill-preparedness resulting in not being able to cope with different situations.

Reivyn looked at his skills page.

Skills:
Acrobatics (16), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (9), Balance (20), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (7), Dreams of the Past (12), Eavesdropping (13), Evasion (5), Haman (13), Hiding (11), Identify {Mundane} (6) Inspire (0), Linguistics (8), Mana Absorption (24), Map Making (1), Mathematics (4), Mental Fortitude (6), Number Concepts (4), Observation (17), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (5), Piano (0), Pugilist (17), Running (14), Sense Mana (28), Sneaking (9), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)

He made great progress in his physical skills. Horsing around with his dad and friends had seen his Pugilist Skill skyrocket ahead of the others, while his mentally focused skills had virtually fallen by the wayside. Starting to work on those skills again hadn’t been the right solution, though. He bowed his head as he thought about the problem, and if finally came to him.

Look at all of those zeros. I’ve had these skills unlocked for years now, but over ten of them haven’t been used even once. I have an expert in several of these skills right there, just waiting for me to utilize them, and I haven’t said a word to him.

A new determination filled him.

That night at the dinner table, Reivyn picked at the food on his plate. His mother was teasing his two sisters while only halfway focusing on her own meal, and his father was shoveling the food down his gullet with gusto.

“I have something to confess,” he declared, to the surprise of his parents. They looked at each other, mouths full of unchewed food. His father resumed chewing as he looked back to Reivyn and pointed at him with his fork.

“Out with it, then,” he said. Reivyn took a deep breath and kept his gaze on the table in front of him.

“I didn’t have only sixteen skills when I first told you about them. In fact, I didn’t unlock my System at that time. The System has been unlocked for me for as far back as I can remember, in this life,” That last line was tossed in there almost as an afterthought. “I have several other skills unlocked, but their level is at zero.”

Reivyn looked up in time to see a large, leafy green fall out of his father’s mouth to plop onto his plate. Refix had resumed eating as Reivyn started his revelation, but he quickly stopped eating as he stared at his son, mouth agape. The soft plinking sound of vegetables hitting ceramic woke him from his state of shock.

“What exactly are you saying, son?” he queried.

“I want to practice with weapons,” Reivyn blurted out. “I have Swords, Daggers, and Staves unlocked but sitting at zero,” he quickly supplied as he saw his father frown at the declaration.

“You have Swords, Daggers, and Staves unlocked,” Refix replied in a deadpan matter. Ameliyn sat to the side, staring at her son. Her two daughters clamoring for her attention were momentarily ignored. Reivyn nervously glanced back and forth between his parents.

“Umm, yes? Among other things?” The statement came out more of a question.

“Among other things,” his father again deadpanned. Refix slowly, deliberately set his fork down, never taking his eyes off his son. “What exactly do you have unlocked?” Reivyn sighed as he resigned himself. He opened his skills page and listed off the ones at zero.

“Aim, Command, Daggers, Inspire, Pain Resistance, Piano, Staves, Strategy, Swimming, Swords, and Tactics,” he listed off. Refix leaned forward with his eyes narrowed, and he placed his weight on his elbow on the table.

“You have Command and Inspire unlocked? Do you have any idea how hard… No, of course, you don’t.” Refix thunk-ed his head down on the table. “What have I been doing with my life… And the System just gave them to you!” He devolved into mumbling to himself. Reivyn was pretty sure he heard the word “mutant.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Reivyn asked in trepidation. His mother quickly reached out and held his hand.

“No, honey. This is a good thing. It’s just… I don’t even have the words for it.” His mother didn’t do a very good job of comforting him for once. Refix suddenly sat up and threw his hands in the air.

“Just gave it to him!” He stood up, scooped up his plate and utensil, and took his meal with him to finish outside. Ameliyn patted Reivyn’s hand.

“Don’t worry about him. Let him wallow in his self-pity,” she instructed her son. “He spent years unlocking those two skills. It must have been a pretty strong blow when you told him you already have them unlocked.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Reivyn tried to explain.

“I know, I know,” Ameliyn responded. “It’s just weird. If I didn’t know you, and if those skills weren’t at zero, I would think you had a noble’s education. Heck, even nobles don’t always have an easy time unlocking those two particular skills. Now finish your dinner. Your father might seem like he’s upset, but I guarantee he’s already devising plans to help you achieve your goals.”

Reivyn finished his meal in silence as his mother finally returned most of her attention back to his two sisters. They were surprisingly well behaved for babies being ignored by their mother, all things considered. While they were loud and making a minor nuisance, they never screamed or cried. They weren’t unusually mature like he had been, but more like the comfort of each other kept them grounded.

He could still hear the sounds of his father puttering about outside when they left the dinner table, and he could only imagine what sort of training regimen a vengeful father could come up with.

“Stand up straight. Feet shoulder-width apart. Maintain your balance, and stand on the balls of your feet with your knees slightly bent.” Refix hadn’t wallowed in self-pity for very long. Reivyn even had a sinking suspicion it had all been theatrics.

They were currently in the backyard on one of Refix’s days off. Refix was pacing back and forth with a wooden rod. He was holding it in one hand while absentmindedly smacking the other end into his other palm. The words “Rod of Love” had been carved into it.

Reivyn was holding a small wooden sword with a bit of lead inside of it to provide the proper weight and balance. It was designed for a child his size with his approximate stats, and his father had just happened to have it.

He had showed up with an entire armload of wooden armaments, a puzzled look on his face and a confused declaration of having no idea where they had come from or why they had them. He had just found them already in one of the storage rooms by happenstance.

Definitely theatrics.

Reivyn looked down at the wooden sword in his hand and then at the pile of weapons. He then looked up at his father.

“Dad, I don’t have most of these weapon skills unlocked,” he said. His father struck a pose with his finger pointing in the air.

“Yet!” he confidently exclaimed, a bright smile on his face. Reivyn was still nonplussed.

“Won’t I be spreading myself too thin like this?” He hadn’t learned only to be prepared from his dreams. He also had gained an understanding of biting off more than he could chew.

“Normally, I would say yes. But with you, I’m not so sure. I’ve had an idea ever since I was young, and I wanted to try it out with you. I would never recommend this to anyone else, but rest assured, I’m only going to have you train to Skill Level 10 in each of the weapons you don’t already have unlocked,” his father patiently explained. “Now focus. I’m going to demonstrate the basic moves, and you’re going to follow along. Once you get the basic gist of it down, I’ll correct you, and that’s how we’re going to train. Follow my example.”

Refix simply used the rod he was carrying to demonstrate the movements, grip, and stance used for each weapon. He didn’t have the skill unlocked for all of the weapons in the pile, but he had been in a combat class through and through from day one, and he had enough experience in seeing others using the weapons to get his son started on the right path. Once the skill was unlocked, the System itself would help him develop more properly. The goal wasn’t for him to master all of those weapons, but instead to have a simple understanding.

The two of them worked all morning on just doing simple movements with each of the weapons. This wasn’t enough to unlock all of the weapons, and they hadn’t expected it to be, though Reivyn did level up each of the ones he had unlocked and gained a couple that were tangential.

Skills Leveled Up!
Aim (0 ->1)
Daggers (0 ->1)
Staves (0 ->1)
Swords (0 ->1)

New Skills Unlocked!
Bows (1)
Katars (1)
Spears (1)

Reivyn worked up a sweat and saw his stamina dip further than it ever had before. This was the first time he had had to pant for breath that he could remember since being born. They worked up quite an appetite, and after a quick, hearty lunch with some words of encouragement from the baby-tending Ameliyn, they kept at it into the afternoon.

“Now we’re moving on to the next phase. You have a basic understanding of the movements, grips, and stances. You will continue to perform the actions with each weapon in turn, and I will correct you.” Refix resumed the position he had had at the start, smacking his hand with the rod.

Reivyn got into position with his sword, prepared to continue the movement to train his skill.

WHACK!

Reivyn cried out in pain and dropped the wooden sword, rubbing the back of his hand. He looked up at his father to witness his expression change from stern to worried instantly. His father tossed the rod aside and quickly went to his side.

“I’m so sorry! Are you hurt? Did I hit you too hard?” His father was extremely remorseful and concerned, so much so that Reivyn couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

“Dad, I’m fine. I was just surprised. I didn’t expect it.” Now Reivyn was trying to console his father. His father tilted his head to the side in confusion.

“What did you think ‘correct you’ meant? I’m even standing here with a rod typically used for correcting flaws,” Refix said.

“Umm… I thought verbal correction?” Reivyn stammered out. Refix paused for a moment and looked at his son.

“Sometimes I forget how young you are, despite how small you are.” His dad sighed to himself.

“I’m not small! I’m taller than the other kids my age,” Reivyn defended himself. He was a healthy four-and-a-half-year-old. That would have been nearly six in his dreams. He already came up to slightly above his father’s waist.

“You know what I mean.” Refix rolled his eyes at his son. “Okay, no more dilly-dallying! Back to work!”

And so he did. He spent the rest of the afternoon getting whacked around by his father. I mean, corrected in my skill practice.

His suffering didn’t go without its reward.

Skills Leveled Up!
Aim (1 ->2)
Daggers (1 ->2)
Pain Resistance (0 ->3)
Swords (1 ->2)

New Skills Unlocked!
Axes (1)
Cestus (1)
Glaives (1)
Great Swords (1)
Hatchets (1)
Slings (1)

Reivyn huffed and puffed as he sprinted along the wooden palisade, a pack quarter-filled with rocks strapped to his back. Sweat was dripping down his face and stinging his eyes. The occasional passerby would stare at him as he ran past. The other kids his age were still playing tag and hide and seek. He had graduated from that over a year and a half ago, now.

Temporarily graduated, he corrected himself. Those games are still fun, and Dad says I should be close to what he hopes for, though he still hasn’t told me what.

Kailey and Riley, his two little sisters, were three now, almost old enough to begin playing those games themselves, and Reivyn had made a couple of friends in the neighborhood. He didn’t only train all the time. He was still a kid. But he did take leveling his skills and stats very seriously.

His dad had insisted on him doing his calisthenics and stat training before his skill training, and it was always a grueling experience.

“You need to be tired when you practice your skills, and then you have to practice them perfectly. That way when you’re in a situation where your stamina is running out, you’ll maintain your proper form automatically, because that’s what your body has ingrained into itself. Sure, the System can assist with the boost, and relying on the System while training slowly makes the knowledge of the skill truly yours. There are little tips and tricks that most people don’t know about, and they wouldn’t tell you even if they did.

“The most important thing to know about the System skill boost is that it only applies in perfect conditions. As in, the System assists you to perform properly as you would in an ideal condition. If you haven’t trained in adversity, your body will still be affected by the loss of stamina. Your focus will be off, your stance will be wobbly, and your grip will be slippery from sweat. None of those things are accounted for by the System. Training in that situation will not only give you better efficiency overall, it will allow you to perform peak performance long after your opponents have lost the ability to put up a fight. Trust me, I know.”

There was another hidden benefit: Skill training while tired after physical exercise continued to put a strain on the muscles in various ways, and it continued to contribute toward stat training. If one performed skill training in peak condition, the movements were easy and not tiring for the most part, and people took breaks to practice their skill longer to get more skill gains at a time. This type of thinking was perfectly logical, but as deemed by an expert, his father, it was actually counterintuitive and was doubly hurtful in that it did noticeably increase skill gain over training while tired, but it also actually diminished the amount of stat training one could accomplish in the same amount of time.

Knowing, and agreeing with, the perfectly reasonable explanation for training in this method didn’t make it any easier. Reivyn’s starting point was exhaustion. His stats had increased enough that just running wouldn’t tire him out enough to the point he needed for his skill training, hence the pack filled with rocks.

Reivyn trudged into the backyard of his house, and without any breaks immediately dropped down to the ground to do push-ups. He smoothly transitioned from push-ups, to sit-ups, to burpees, to push-ups again in a cycle, until his various muscles were burning and near the point of not being able to continue. He kept the pack on throughout the entire ordeal.

He finally unslung his pack for his weapons practice. His father told him that he would eventually need to practice while burdened with different things, but his skill levels weren’t high enough yet for it to be necessary.

One of the other benefits of training with such high intensity was how short it was. He didn’t train until sundown or anything like that. He spent ten minutes on each weapon and then, whether he wanted to or not, he collapsed into a heap on the ground. His body had slight tremors run through it as he lay there panting. His stamina showed that it was under 10.

While it was possible to go until hitting 0 in stamina, it was dangerous. People usually only paid attention to their health when it came to considering life or death, but a complete 0 in stamina ran the risks of heart failure, even in a child. It was the biggest warning his father had given him when he started the high-intensity training.

He eventually recovered enough stamina to get back up. He had to wait until it was over halfway full before he could. The strange thing about stamina, was that if it was depleted below a certain threshold around, 20%, the level of energy one had per point of stamina was less on the way back up to recovery than it was on the way down. This was another hidden aspect of the System that could be trained, and the only way to do it was to consistently push past that threshold over and over, over a period of time. Reivyn had already reduced it to around the 18-19% range.

He made his way to the bathhouse, a small room attached to the main building out back, and settled in for a cold bath. He could take the time to warm the water up, but he preferred it to be cold on hot summer days. If the water was even a little warm, he would end up sweating immediately after getting out from the body heat generated from his workout.

He leaned back and relaxed in the water as he checked his Status.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: <None> Age: 6]
[Health: 140/140 Stamina: 260/260 Mana: 195/195]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 12 * INT: 19]
[VIT: 14 * MAG: 20]
[DEX: 13 * CLA: 14]
[CHA: 3 * PER: 12]
[LUK: 3]
Skills:
Acrobatics (16), Aim (10), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (16), Axes (10) Balance (22), Bows (10) Cestus (10) Command (0), Daggers (13), Drawing (7), Dreams of the Past (12), Eavesdropping (14), Evasion (10), Fans (7), Glaives (10), Great Swords (10), Haman (20 MAX), Hatchets (10), Hiding (11), Identify {Mundane} (8) Inspire (0), Katars (11) Linguistics (8), Mana Absorption (26), Map Making (1), Mathematics (9), Mental Fortitude (13), Number Concepts (5), Observation (20), Pain Resistance (11), Penmanship (10), Piano (0), Pugilist (21), Running (22), Sense Mana (30), Slings (10), Sneaking (9), Spears (10) Staves (12), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (18), Tactics (0), Throwing (10), Whip (10)

There were some new additions to his skills page over the past year and a half. Fans were by far the hardest skill he’d had to train among all of the weapons skills. His father insisted he practice it up to level 10, but it had taken him over a year just to unlock it to begin with. It must be a mental block of some sort because he just couldn’t wrap his head around how it could be an effective weapon for the longest time. Apparently, the dreams that had helped him so much so far also had negative consequences in coloring his vision sometimes. Once he got the hang of it, the fan was a very interesting hidden weapon, and he would definitely train it up past 10.

Ameliyn smiled to herself as she watched her son make faces at his sisters from across the dinner table. Despite how he constantly trained his physical skills after that stunning revelation, he was still a goofy kid in his heart. He still loved to play, and he insisted that weapons skills training, while exhausting, was immense fun for him. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

Kailey and Riley were already three years old, and they were quite a handful. Luckily Reivyn had taken it upon himself to pass down his legacy of playing hide and seek and tag. He even occasionally let them win. His playing with the girls had the added benefit of allowing her some alone time with her man.

Reivyn had been incredibly easy to get to sleep on his own. They had just put a bed in his room and told him he was sleeping there from now on, and that was it. The twins weren’t so accommodating. They still had to have Mommy nearby or they would cry. As such she actually had to tuck Reivyn into bed before the younger girls.

“Goodnight, sweet prince,” she whispered to her son. She affectionately combed his hair and then gave him a kiss on the forehead.

“Night, Mommy,” he sleepily replied. He was out before she made it to the door.

Her husband was standing there, waiting for her, as she came out. He looked at her for a moment without saying anything until she closed the door.

“You really shouldn’t call him that,” he said. He wasn’t stern or overbearing in the way he said it, but something about it still infuriated her. Her mouth made a thin line as she huffed.

“It’s a term of endearment. A lot of mothers call their sons that.” He didn’t argue with her. He didn’t explain anything to her. He didn’t even get a look on his face. He just stood there with a sad smile. All of the anger in her over the little thing left as quickly as it came, and she hugged her husband. “You’re right.”

Reivyn was truly asleep. He didn’t notice the little interlude between his parents.

Chapter six

Peaceful Village

Haluville was the quintessential “peaceful village” on the frontier. It was a frontier village in a frontier county in a frontier kingdom. It didn’t get any closer to the edge of civilization than this. Sure, there were hamlets and farming communities a bit further away, but they were tethered to Haluville. It was the local hegemon. If the residents packed up and traveled for just a day further, they would enter the “Dead Zone.”

The Dead Zone had no ambient mana to speak of. There might be an errant spark here or there, but it was so small and sparse as to be functionally zero. It was a vacuum of mana. People didn’t live in dead zones because it literally sapped the mana out of their bodies. One had to have enough natural mana in their bodies and control over it to be able to clamp down on it and hold it in place.

It was paradoxical, in a sense.

Low-tier individuals lived in low-tier regions, but one had to be approaching a high-tier class to be able to resist the effects of a dead zone, which could technically be referred to as Tier 0.

That didn’t mean life didn’t exist in dead zones. It wasn’t a wasteland. It was just sparse and filled with extremely weak flora and fauna. The same species of plants and animals could be found in the dead zones as compared to the Tier 1 regions they bordered, but they lacked the mana of their cousins.

To the untrained eye, there was no difference. Their growth wasn’t stunted, and they weren’t sickly or anything, but there was a fundamental difference to their biology. If they were transplanted to a Tier 1 region, the mana infusion would overwhelm them, leading to sickness and eventually death, and the reverse was true of sending Tier 1 creatures and plants to a dead zone.

The vacuum of mana literally pulled mana out of living things too weak to resist.

Humans that couldn’t maintain control over their natural mana couldn’t survive for very long in a dead zone. It was an artificial wall to civilization’s expansion.

Luckily, dead zones didn’t exist everywhere, and they took up a minuscule fraction of the land. Haluville, though, was one such village that lived close to a dead zone. The populace ignored the existence of the Dead Zone for the most part, but they knew not to travel too far in a certain direction, lest they find themselves in trouble.

There were other villages located along the edge of the Dead Zone, and more that wrapped around where the Dead Zone ended. While it was located at the edge of the Tier 1 region it was in, the region curved around the Dead Zone, turning it more into a pocket than a hard line at the end. Every now and then, a group of stragglers would come through the Dead Zone, exhausted at the ordeal they had underestimated when they tried for a short cut.

Haluville was built like any other village in the Tier 1 region it belonged to. It had wooden walls for fortification against random goblin incursions and small beast tides, though the local monsters and beasts were hardly a threat to the City Guards and retired adventurers that lived within its walls.

There was a building close to the center of the village that acted as a home for the mayor as well as headquarters for the local administration. There wasn’t a whole lot to do for the administration of a small village, but it also included the offices of the City Guard.

The headquarters building faced an open area many called “the market,” though it wasn’t anything fancy. There were some stands and tents lining the edges of the open “square” that was actually a circle. There was a small fountain in the very center. The market wasn’t usually manned by people, only opening during certain festivals or market days throughout the year.

There were never enough people out and about to make the area feel crowded, though it definitely felt “lived in.” There were always pedestrians at all times of the day, but there was never any crowding like could be found in the larger cities. Everyone greeted each other with smiles on their faces, and nobody had to worry about homelessness or rampant crime.

There was the occasional pickpocket, but it almost always turned out to be a local teenager just messing about. Even if they succeeded in getting away with someone’s property or money, they usually returned it to them right away. Such things weren’t necessarily frowned upon, especially if the goods and money were returned promptly.

Away from the central market was a ring of taverns and various shops, like bakeries and blacksmiths. The people who owned and operated these establishments weren’t fancy or high level, though they were still competent and provided the necessary services to keep the village running. They were the upper crust of their little society, and most of the people who had a trade typically sold to one of the shops to be sold to the rest of the populace.

Ameliyn’s own weaving work was sold to one of the local shops for the majority of her craft, though she did keep some for the rare market day. Participating in the market day had its own little excitement, and she got to keep a larger share of the profits. Refix would occasionally secure a spot in a caravan leaving the village for Magron, too.

Farther out were the residential neighborhoods. The shop owners often lived closer to the central square, while their employees and apprentices lived farther out. The fringe housing was home to the younger retired adventurers and those who sold their crafts to the shop owners. Ameliyn and Refix had enough money to afford a home closer to the center of the village, but ability didn’t mean availability or want. They were perfectly happy living in their little corner of the village with similar young families nearby.

The roads and streets of the village were neatly paved with tiles. There were no high-tier architects or masons in the village, though. None of the houses were anything fancy. They were typically two-story wooden buildings with stone foundations in the center, and single-story homes on the edges.

There were no mansions to be found in the village. The largest residence was the mayor’s home, but that also had a function as the local government administration. It wasn’t just a house for the mayor. Most of the building wasn’t residential, despite being a home.

The residents of the village were content with what they had. Nobody was pushing to get a larger piece of land to build anything extravagant. Anyone with ambition would simply join a caravan and head to Magron or farther on toward a duchy or the Capital.

The City Guard had their own barracks located close to the northern wall of the village, the entrance that led toward Magron and saw the most traffic. The City Guard wasn’t much of a military organization, and the village wasn’t large enough to require much of a police force, either. They handled both functions, but they hardly ever saw any real action.

Travel between Haluville and the closest major city, Magron, was usually safe, too. Sometimes roving bands of goblins or aggressive beasts would harass travelers, though, so merchants still hired guards to protect them on their trips.

The people of Haluville lived a quiet, peaceful life without having to worry about the threat of violence or the machinations of political maneuvering. Some would wonder why adventurers would retire to such an out of the way place, but some people just didn’t want to be bothered, whether by political tension or the threat of raids.

Ameliyn felt herself growing more and more complacent by the day, never having to worry about anything. Her husband, Refix, still supported their family through the force of his arms, but that wasn’t the same thing. For years she and Refix hadn’t lived in such peaceful times. There was always something to consider or be wary of.

Unlike the retiring adventurers, Ameliyn and Refix hadn’t planned on settling down in a frontier village like this. It just kind of happened with the arrival of Reivyn. He was too young to be traveling about, and then she got pregnant again with the twins. That would lock them down to the place for another several years, at minimum.

Sure, they could pack up and move on even, with the young children, but that was a last ditch option. First, they hadn’t accomplished their initial goal, their reason for traveling all the way out here to begin with, so there was no hurry to leave anytime soon, and second, she wanted her kids to have a stable upbringing amongst friends.

The little boy Teilon across the street was a perfect partner in crime for little Reivyn, and he had introduced Reivyn to a couple of other kids in similar circumstances that lived a bit farther down the street: Simmon and Will. Teilon was the oldest by several months, with Simmon and Will falling somewhere in the middle, though they were closer in age to Reivyn.

Other than the penmanship and mathematics lessons she taught him, she and Refix didn’t impose a set schedule on Reivyn. His training sessions were determined all on his own. It had been his own idea to buckle down and train his skills so much.

Refix was absolutely delighted in Reivyn’s drive. Ameliyn worried that he wasn’t having as much of a childhood as his friends. The other three kids didn’t do any kind of training that she could see. Their parents let them be kids while they were kids, and Ameliyn would have been perfectly happy to do the same. Even Refix would have been happy with it.

Refix, though, was a training junky. He had been for as long as Ameliyn had known him. He had always stood out as the diligent one, even when they were teenagers. Having a son that was just as interested in training as he was was like a dream come true for her husband. The other kids would be running up and down the street, laughing and playing some silly game or another, and Reivyn would be in the backyard, sweating and suffering under his father’s tutelage.

That didn’t mean Reivyn didn’t play with his friends. Far from it. He played with them every day. He just made sure to always take care of his training first. He never missed a day, except for the weekends. Even Refix had to tell him that everyone needed a break, or he would have trained every single day of the week.

When Ameliyn brought up her concerns about Reivyn’s childhood, Refix just pointed out that it was what Reivyn himself chose for his childhood. He didn’t have a lack of friends or goofing off; he just didn’t indulge in it as much as the other children. He was happy, and that’s what should matter to them.

It was a convincing argument. Reivyn was happy, and he seemed to relish the skill gains he acquired through his hard work. Ameliyn knew the same feeling her son felt seeing the numbers go up, and everyone usually eventually entered a period of time where they advanced their skills for advancement’s sake, but that was usually done during or after an apprenticeship in one’s teens. Little kids typically get fascinated with skill gains.

Then again, Reivyn has never been a typical child.

Life in Haluville was peaceful for its residents, and it was peaceful for Ameliyn and her family. She enjoyed the time she got to spend with her little ones, and she wouldn’t change anything for the world.

Chapter seven

Adventure!

Reivyn looked over the open fan at his father. His father stood across from him, wielding the rod he used for correction as if it were a sword. His father moved slowly, but deliberately, in a thrust toward his midsection. Reivyn snapped the fan closed and used it to guide the trajectory of the rod off the mark while moving to the side to avoid the blow. He also moved slowly but deliberately.

They continued to exchange moves, one with the rod and one with the fan, until Reivyn noticed his father overextend in a thrust. It was obviously done intentionally. His father would make mistakes on purpose to simulate someone with a lower skill level, and to create opportunities for Reivyn to properly practice. It had taken a bit of time before Reivyn had trained enough to notice these mistakes, and it had taken even longer before he was confident enough to use them to his advantage. At this time, he seized the opportunity, and instead of simply dodging and disengaging, he slid his fan along the rod and rapped it against his father’s knuckles. In an exaggerated manner, Refix dropped the rod and shook his hand in faux pain.

Skill Leveled Up!
Fans (10)

Reivyn threw his hands up in triumph and loudly exclaimed, “Finally! That took forever.”

His father gave him an amused smile before replying, “Of course, it took a long time. What you’re holding there isn’t a weapon. It’s just a traditional fan. A real war fan is reinforced and might even have blades in it.”

Reivyn looked down at the fan in his hand, and then he looked back up and gave his father a blank stare.

“What’s that look for?” Refix asked. “In your hands, it still works, doesn’t it? Here.” He bent over and picked up a stick. It was neither too thin nor too thick, and it was about three feet in length. It was flexible and wobbled slightly as it was moved around. He handed the stick to his son. “This is a sword. Defend yourself.”

Reivyn had doubt written all over his face, but he got into a stance anyway. They resumed their earlier slow but deliberate movements, and Reivyn struggled to use the stick efficiently, but as he was sure there was a lesson in this exercise somewhere, he didn’t just scoff and slack off. Eventually, he got the knack for using it to parry the thrusts and slashes directed at him by his father.

“It’s now a spear.”

Reivyn adjusted his grip and held it in both of his hands, taking up the appropriate stance for spear-wielding. It came much quicker to him, now that he had already gotten some practice with it, to effectively use the stick as a spear.

“It’s a javelin,” Refix took several steps back to create room between them.

Reivyn did a mental flip as he physically flipped the stick into a javelin throw pose, and without hesitation threw it with precision at his father. The flexible nature of the stick caused it to wobble in the air, but it still flew true. His dad casually snatched it out of the air. He snapped it in half, and then he threw one half to Reivyn.

“Dagger.”

They re-engaged their spar, and the stick was instantly a dagger in his hands.

“Throwing knife.”

Reivyn leapt back and instantly launched the stick in his hands at his father once again. The weight and balance were all wrong to accurately use the stick in any way, shape, or form of a throwing knife, but his mentality and the System automatically adjusted his grip, stance, and throwing form. The stick traveled through the air, tossing end over end until it smacked right against Refix’s forehead. He could have dodged easily, but he allowed the blow to land.

GONG!

Achievement!
You have learned a wide array of weapon skills, and you have learned that many things can be used as a variety of said weapons. You have learned that it is not the weapon itself that is important, but instead it is you yourself that is the weapon.

New Skill Unlocked!
Skills Axes, Bows, Cestus, Daggers, Fans, Glaives, Great Swords, Hatchets, Katars, Pugilist, Slings, Spears, Staves, Swords, Throwing, and Whips have combined into the Tier 6 Skill: Weapons Master (11)

Reivyn was momentarily stunned by the loud gong sound that reverberated in his head. He read the new notification message and then looked up at his dad with wide eyes.

“Quickly, what happened?” his father said with excitement.

“It says I got an achievement. All of my weapons skills combined into one.” Reivyn read off the notification for his father.

Refix pumped his fist and shouted. “Yes! It was true.”

Reivyn frowned as he remarked, “You mean you didn’t know?”

Refix glanced at his son out of the corner of his eye. “Of course, I didn’t know. I told you at the beginning that I had an idea, and that we would work on it for a time, but only to a point. There are myths and legends about extremely powerful skills being born from combining skills, and from ancient texts that I’ve inadvertently been able to glance through in the past, Weapons Master was one of the ones listed. It said it was possible to combine ten weapons skills of level ten or higher into the skill, but more weapons skills and higher levels increased the likelihood. So I only had you work many skills to level ten while you kept working at the ones you had previously unlocked. It is much faster to get several more skills to ten than it is to get only ten skills to, say, level twenty. And it worked!”

Reivyn pointed at the text on his notification. “It says it’s already Level 11.”

“Hmm, let me think for a second.” Refix tapped his chin in thought. “If my guess is correct, you technically had a skill level of ten before you unlocked it because of all of the weapons skills you had at Level 10, but it was inactive and still locked. Then when you had your epiphany, it simultaneously unlocked and gained a level. So Level 11 for this skill is the same as level one for regular skills. This is a Tier 6 skill, after all. Tier 6 is mythic.”

Reivyn raised his eyebrows in surprise. “So does this mean I only have to train one or two weapons skills to increase the level of all of the ones that were combined?”

“It’s more than that,” Refix smirked. “According to the texts, it applies to all weapons. Even ones you haven’t seen before. This is the System we’re talking about. And notice the language of the achievement: The weapon doesn’t matter, it is you that is the weapon. You have gained full control over your body, so you’ll instinctively know how to act with any sort of weapon, or no weapons at all, in your hands. Even mundane items that aren’t weapons can be utilized as such, but probably at a discounted skill level. I don’t know. I don’t have the skill.”

“Well, what do I do now that I have the skill?” Reivyn questioned. He had been working so hard for so long on so many different things; the happiness of success had him lost on what to do.

“I guess… go play!”

“Reivyn! Let’s go on an adventure!”

Reivyn heard the shout of one of his friends from outside. He looked up at his breakfast at his mom, his eyebrows raised in question.

“Go ahead,” Ameliyn said with a smile. “I’ll tidy up your plate for you.” His mom was very accommodating when it came to playing with his friends. Probably because he had spent so much time focused on skills and had only marginally interacted with his peers until recently.

Reivyn stuffed his mouth with the last bit of bread from his plate, and he took off running outside. His friend, Teilon, was standing there hopping from foot to foot with pent-up energy. His other friends, Simmon and Will, were standing behind him. They each lived in the same neighborhood, so they naturally gravitated toward each other as they had similar ages. Teilon was the oldest at eight, and Reivyn shared the same age with the other two at seven.

“C’mon, c’mon, it’s time for adventure!” Teilon yelled out as he took off running down the street, the other three boys quickly keeping up. They took off down the road toward the center of the town. The buildings around the outskirts of the town were houses of various sizes. Most people’s situation was living in a family unit. It was rare for people in this community to be single without children, and when the children moved out, unless they moved to a whole new city or chose a profession requiring travel, they typically lived next to their parents. Communities on the outskirts, like Reivyn’s family and his friends, were typically people who had moved into the town from outside.

As they got closer to the commercial district, the houses got closer and taller, and more and more pedestrians could be found walking about. Reivyn’s eye was captured by a platoon of men in leather and chain armor carrying spears as they marched in formation down the main thoroughfare. Typically guard patrols were groups of three to five men in leather armor carrying batons with a gladius-style short sword at their hip. This was something different, but before he could really think about it, they disappeared behind some buildings as the group of kids continued their dash to whatever mischief Teilon had stumbled upon.

They finally came to a halt on the far end of the commercial district, ducking into an alleyway. Dust from the hard-packed dirt path settled about them as the kids crouched down and panted for breath. Haluville wasn’t quite prosperous enough to warrant stone-paved roads, but that didn’t mean the roads they did have were in disrepair. They were perfectly serviceable roads, if a bit muddy when the weather turned.

Reivyn, Simmon, and Will stood bent over with their hands on their knees as they looked at Teilon, who was squatting down with a stick he had produced from somewhere.

“Boys, we’re hunting for treasure today! I got tipped off by one of the older kids round Westend that there’s a group of houses in Northend, just over yonder, that is home to one of the most coveted of prizes.” Teilon began selling his scheme, letting the suspense build for his grand reveal. “If everything goes according to plan, the four of us will be polishing off one of the famous delicacies of humble ’ole Haluville.”

Teilon stopped talking and looked up at his three friends expectantly. Reivyn shook his head in exasperation. He’s even more theatrical than Dad. Simmon couldn’t hold it in, and he was the first to break by blurting, “Well, what is it?”

“Tut-tut,” Teilon admonished. “Guys, look around. What are we next to?” Reivyn looked around, but all he could see were the same-looking buildings and storefronts populating the area. Then it hit him. The smell.

“The bakers,” he replied.

Teilon gave him a thumbs-up. “Bingo! You don’t think they spend their whole lives leveling up their cooking and baking skills and don’t have amazing food for themselves? I’m talking about pies! Blueberry pies, to be exact. That’s what Torhn said, anyway.” Torhn must have been the older kid who “tipped him off,” as he put it.

“Really, Teilon? Pies?” Simmon was nonplussed. He rolled his eyes and kicked an imaginary rock.

Teilon smacked his own head as he replied, “Think! Do either of your parents have high level, and I’m talking high level, cooking skills? I didn’t think so. And, according to Torhn, the bakers’ wives, or husbands I don’t know, bake pies every other couple of days, and they just leave them out. If a pie or two goes missing, I’m sure they’ll assume a bird got to it or something. C’mon man, live a little.” Teilon was really trying to sell this idea.

Simmon cocked his head to the side and smirked. “You just want pie.”

“And you don’t call that living?!” Teilon leaned back against the brick wall behind him and threw his hands up in shock.

Will shrugged his shoulders as he looked up. “I mean, I could go for some pie.”

“That’s the spirit.” Teilon apparently took Will’s tepid approval as the go-ahead for the “grand adventure” he had planned. He leaned forward again and started drawing in the dirt with his stick. “Alright, there’s four of us, and, let’s face it, we’re kids, so one pie. Two people on either end as lookouts, two people to snag the pie. One can watch for the baker’s family or run interference, if necessary, while I grab the pie.” Teilon’s true motives were showing as he smacked his lips in anticipation. “Volunteers…”

“Not it!” Will and Simmon exclaimed in unison.

“I haven’t even explained what you’re volunteering for! Ahh, forget it, you two are lookouts. Reivyn and I will get the pie.”

The four boys quickly split up and headed toward Northend. Each section of town was referred to by its cardinal direction by the local inhabitants, and this group of four hailed from the southern point of Eastend. Will went down a side street across the main way so as to be less conspicuous when they arrived at the baker’s house, and Reivyn and Teilon let Simmon get ahead of them before sauntering out themselves.

Teilon was rubbing his hands together in greed with a silly grin on his face. It was obvious that he had been looking forward to almost nothing but getting some blueberry pie ever since he’d heard about it. Reivyn walked alongside him with his hands clasped together behind his head with his elbows out in a carefree manner.

“So, an adventure, huh?” Reivyn posed the question in a skeptical manner.

“That’s right,” Teilon easily replied. “Let me tell you, adventurers have got to do all sorts of stuff. Sneakin’ around, pilferin’, eatin’.” <cough> “I mean, fightin’. And you gotta eat to fight,” Teilon declared authoritatively as he pointed at Reivyn. “My daddy says you always gotta eat what you can when you can, ’cause sometimes you don’t know if you can.”

Teilon’s words might have sounded like silly banter from an eight-year-old, but there was a kernel of truth to what he said. Teilon’s father had apparently been a high-level adventurer, himself, and was enjoying the fruits of semi-retirement from a lucky break his party had stumbled upon. Well, high level for this area, according to Father.

From what Refix had told him, higher-level concentrations of mana bred higher levels of beasts and monsters, along with higher tiers of treasures and resources. Haluville and the surrounding area weren’t even considered Tier 1.

The two boys finally made it out of the more concentrated commercial district and headed off-road into the grassy area that led behind the community, where several of the bakers congregated. It wasn’t so surprising that they would mostly gravitate to the same neighborhood, as these ones were apparently all family.

Simmon was leaning against a wall nearby. His head was on a swivel, and he looked exactly like a kid up to no good who was trying excessively hard to appear to not be up to no good. Despite his failed attempts at being nonchalant, nobody was paying attention to him anyway. They had their own things to be up to.

As the duo passed by Simmon, Teilon looked over at Reivyn and placed his finger against his lips to indicate silence. Teilon was making much more noise just walking around than anything Reivyn was doing, but he nodded his head with a serious expression anyway. If you didn’t take your fun seriously, then you wouldn’t have any fun.

As they approached their destination, Will taking up position in the distance, the sweet smell of freshly baked pie was carried to them on the breeze. Reivyn spotted a pie just sitting on a windowsill, steam wafting from it denoting its freshness. He wasn’t lying. That pie is just sitting there, and nobody is paying attention at all. He could see a young lady, presumably Mrs. Baker’s Wife, puttering about in the kitchen on the other side of the dwelling. Something seemed off about the scene, but he couldn’t put his finger on it, and his friend didn’t give him time to think about it.

Teilon’s eyes were fixated on the pie, and there was drool leaking out of his mouth as he abandoned any attempt at subtlety and walked straight for the pie. Reivyn rolled his eyes as he grabbed his friend by the shoulders and pulled him out of the line of sight of the window for their approach. He ducked down under the window so he could see the blind spot as Teilon reached up and gently appropriated the pie from its resting spot. He practically hugged it to himself as they first made their way to the side of the building where there was no window before beating a hasty retreat.

Once they were a decent distance from the house, they broke into a run down a back alley, Teilon cackling with glee. Simmon and Will had already moved toward the meet-up location after they saw their two friends were going to successfully get away. As soon as he was sure nobody was going to pursue them, and they had gotten away clean, a notification popped up in Reivyn’s window, almost causing him to stumble with its contents.

New Skill Unlocked!
Stealing (1)

That… didn’t look good. There was no point in worrying about it now. He already had the skill.

The four were quickly reunited where they had started off, and Teilon pulled out a dull bread knife from somewhere and deftly cut the pie into four parts.

“One for you.” The older boy handed a quarter piece to Will. “One for you.” One went to Simmon. “One for you.” Reivyn got his cut. “And one for me!” He happily squealed. Reivyn glanced at the four pieces. There was a noticeable deviation in the cuts, and Teilon had obviously given himself a bit more than the other three. Reivyn didn’t say anything. Other things were on his mind.

“Pleasure doing business with you, boys,” Teilon exclaimed. “But that’s all on the agenda for now, and it might be best if we’re not seen together for a short while. We’ll catch up some other time.” He gave them all a little two-finger salute and headed off toward his house. The other three boys looked at each other and shrugged in unison.

“Alright, see you, I guess,” Will said before he too turned and walked off.

“Later,” Simmon called out.

Reivyn just nodded his head in acknowledgment. Despite his silence, he wasn’t upset with his friends or anything. They probably didn’t even recognize that what they had done was stealing, and from their reactions, it didn’t appear that any of them had gotten the skill like he had.

Reivyn made his way home in silent contemplation. As he approached his house, he looked at the slice of pie in his hands. He still didn’t know what to think about it, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to eat it or not. It didn’t quite sit right with him.

He walked into his house. His mother was working on the loom, and his twin sisters were playing a game of cat’s cradle, probably put to it by their mother in a surreptitious way of getting them the Weaving skill. It was probably going to work. He turned away from them and set the pie down on the counter. Next to the pie was a smattering of copper coins.

He looked at the coins for a moment before coming to a decision. He swiped a small handful, and seeing that nothing was amiss, he walked right back outside.

Skill Leveled Up!
Stealing (1 ->2)

Reivyn rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I’ll have to tell my parents about this. He really wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but he wasn’t in the habit of keeping secrets from them. And he felt he had a duty to do the right thing.

He quickly found himself standing outside the door to the baker’s house, palms sweaty from nervousness. He clutched the copper coins in his hands and lifted the other to knock on the door. Before he could put flesh to wood, it swung open with Mrs. Baker’s Wife standing there looking at him.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Reivyn bowed down ninety degrees and held the coins out in his hands. “I’m very sorry. I took your pie. I don’t know how much it costs, but here.”

He stood there like that for several seconds, but there was no sound or movement in front of him. He lifted his head as he slowly straightened up, and the woman was looking at him with a stunned expression on her face.

After a couple of moments of uncomfortable silence between them, a sly smile appeared on her face. “Come in, come in.” She stood aside and waved him in.

With trepidation he walked into her house, looking all around for the sudden attack he knew was coming. She chuckled at his antics and waved him to the kitchen where she motioned for him to sit down.

Reivyn took a seat, his face a mask of confusion. He put the coins down on the table and said, “Here.”

The woman motioned dismissively at the coins as she replied, “No, you keep that. I’m guessing from your behavior that nobody ever told you.” It was more of a question than a statement as she looked at him expectantly. With a shake of his head, she continued. “Those pies are for you.”

Reivyn frowned at her answer. For me? Why would they be for me? More importantly, how would she know to put it there for me?

She chuckled again at the look on his face. “It’s not for you, for you. It’s for any child to take. Nobody remembers why, exactly, but it’s been a tradition forever for a baker’s family to place freshly baked pies on the windowsill and then leave them unattended for youngsters like you to take. Those pies are specifically there to be pilfered. So you see, you don’t have to pay for it. I already knew you took it. Think about it.”

She gave him a moment to scrutinize the situation. His thoughts turned to the skill unlock notification, and he guessed he understood the overall purpose of it, but there was still something that was nagging at his mind that he couldn’t quite grasp.

“I opened the door before you knocked,” she prompted. His eyes opened wide in realization. “I knew you kids were there long before you walked up to the window. You weren’t being nearly as sneaky as you thought you were. I mean, the pie was set in a window on the other side of the house, as far away from the kitchen as it could get.” She chuckled. That finally lifted the wool completely from his eyes, and he understood what had initially bothered him.

“Oh, well, thank you for the pie, I guess?” He stood up and bowed to her again, this time a short bend forward in thanks instead of the ninety degrees of apology.

“Any time, dear,” she easily replied. “Just make sure it’s not always you and your friends taking it. Gotta give the others their chance, you know.” He nodded his head in agreement.

Reivyn walked into his house to witness his mother standing over the counter looking at the coins in confusion. He sheepishly walked up and placed the rest of the coins back where he had gotten them from. Ameliyn cocked her head at her son.

“Want to tell me what you were doing with those coins?” she asked. She wasn’t asking in a confrontational manner. She didn’t care if her son wanted to take some coins to spend on something. She was just curious.

“I went to pay for some pie.” Reivyn looked away as he answered. Ameliyn looked at the slice of pie on the counter.

“You already have the pie…” She trailed off.

Reivyn remained with his head down for a moment before speaking up. “I got a new skill today,” he said. He looked up at his mother when he didn’t hear a response. She gestured for him to continue. “Stealing.”

“STEALING!” she yelled. Refix chose that exact moment to walk through the door, because of course he did.

“Stealing? Who’s stealing?” His eyes landed on his son standing with his head bowed. “Alright, alright. Out with it.”

Reivyn sighed and then explained the entire situation, start to finish. When he was done, his parents were again silent. He looked up at them, and got the last reaction he had ever expected.

Refix threw his head back and roared with laughter.

Chapter eight

The Struggle Is Real

CLACK!

CLACK clack CLACK!

Sounds of wooden one-handed swords smashing together could be heard reverberating across the backyard of a certain abode in Haluville. An older male was pressing a much younger male with a striking resemblance to him in a clash of wooden swords. A cheer squad consisting of an older female and two identical little girls was whooping and hollering off to the side.

Reivyn had complained about the noise distraction caused by the women in his life, but Refix had quickly pointed out that combat was often a loud, distraction-filled affair. Reivyn had stopped complaining out loud, but he was never really distracted in the first place. He was simply embarrassed to have an audience. He was wise beyond his years to not allow that sentiment to escape his lips, lest his father use it as fuel to tease him mercilessly.

Sweat stung his eyes as it poured down his face, but after years of training, he had become immune to the feeling. Well, not entirely immune. It still sucks. The little thought caused a hiccup in his defense, and instead of a loud clack of wooden sword on wooden sword, a heavy thunk of wooden sword on flesh followed. Pain Resistance showed its worth, as Reivyn allowed the sensation to wash over him but not dictate his following actions.

Refix smirked at his son, likely enjoying some schadenfreude at his son’s situation. He was perfectly aware of what it was like to get your butt handed to you, all while girls watched from the side and your body was sending nothing but signals to make it stop to your brain. He never even paused in his assault, much less considered giving Reivyn a reprieve.

Over the past year, ever since Reivyn had unlocked the mythic skill, which was quickly followed by a considerable slowdown in stat growth, Refix had changed the style of training from one of an exercise in form to one of actual combat practice. He had started slow, just above an appropriate skill level to pose a not-too-difficult challenge to his son, but every time Reivyn had made improvements, either in his skill level or his utilization of the skill, he had kept pace, and Reivyn had not once stood a chance of “winning” against his father. A lesson in humility for his extremely talented son would go a long way in the real world.

Reivyn, despite an admirable job of recovering, was never able to get his stance fully corrected, and he was quickly routed by the more experienced swordsman. With a quick flurry of exchanges, Refix performed an envelopment, and Reivyn’s sword went spinning off into the distance. The older man didn’t add insult to injury by striking his vulnerable son, and he ended with his sword expertly controlled, pointed at Reivyn’s throat a hair’s breadth away.

“I think you’re ready to move on to the next stage,” Refix said with a smile.

“I was trounced,” Reivyn called back over his shoulder as he jogged to retrieve his discarded practice weapon.

“I was using an approximate skill level of 26-28. That’s Journeyman level,” his dad replied. He counted off on his fingers as he explained, “There’s Basic, which is skill level 1-25; Journeyman, which is 26-50; Expert, which is 51-75; Master, 76-100; and anything above 100… gets complicated to explain. You’re not likely to meet someone of that caliber anywhere around here, and if you make it there one day, you’ll already understand by then. You’re performing solidly in the low Journeyman skill level, which, quite frankly, is astounding. What level did you say Weapons Master was at?”

“Twenty,” Reivyn said. He quickly returned to his father’s side, and, recognizing that the training session had moved on to verbal instruction, he stowed away his and his father’s wooden swords. His mother ushered his two sisters inside along with loud complaints that their entertainment was over.

“So it appears that Weapons Master doesn’t just allow you to perform equally with all weapons, but it also accelerates your actual mastery if not the skill leveling speed. If you acquire classes that focus on weapon skills and have a decent growth bonus to them, it is very likely that you will, in fact, reach skill level 100, and possibly beyond.” His father clapped him on the shoulder, a look of pride on his face. “Let’s go get cleaned up.”

Reivyn glanced at his father’s pristine appearance, shook his head, and then made his way to the bathhouse to cool off and wipe the sweat and grime from his body. He didn’t even break a sweat. We sparred for an hour…

Reivyn leaned back in the cold water, his arms out to the side and his head back against the tile. He allowed himself to relax every part of his mind and body as he entered into a state of meditation.

He had been incredibly dumb, in his own opinion, in just how long it took him to figure out how to unlock the skill. It turned out that the secret to getting the skill was actually incredibly simple. He asked his mom for help.

“Meditation is both easy and hard to unlock,” Ameliyn had patiently explained. “Most people assume you just have to relax your mind and body and clear your thoughts. While these steps are necessary, there is one crucial step that most people don’t pay attention to. Let me ask you, what happens when you absorb too much mana when using the skill Mana Absorption?”

“A burst of energy.” Reivyn didn’t have to think about this question at all. He was intimately aware of the results.

“And what do you think all of the mana intrinsic to yourself is doing inside of you?” she queried. Realization dawned on Reivyn. With a quick internal check, he noticed the mana in his core send out an almost imperceptible pulse of energy. It wasn’t enough to actively distract him, but it was definitely enough to interfere with the process of clearing his thoughts, even if only subconsciously.

“But then what’s the solution?” he inquired.

“The solution is to release the mana from your core, and either spread it evenly throughout your body so that it’s not concentrated or, if you have too much mana, to expend it before working on unlocking the skill. Once it’s unlocked, your mastery of it, and the boost from the System, will mitigate that necessity.”

It had been a quick affair that night to unlock the skill, and Reivyn had added another task to his daily training schedule. Luckily for him, Meditation not only fit perfectly in his timetable after his sparring matches, but it allowed him to assimilate the lessons learned at a quicker pace.

The cold water surrounding Reivyn started to steam as its temperature slowly increased. After cooling off for an appropriate period of time, Reivyn started cycling through the different elements of mana being absorbed. He always started off with the skill Fire Affinity, moved to Water Affinity to help disperse the heat into the bath, used Air Affinity to whisk the heat off the surface, treating the bath like a giant heat sink, and then ended with grounding the heat with Earth Affinity. His mother hadn’t only taught him how to unlock the Meditation skill.

“Mom, what’s that bright light and pop of mana I see sometimes when you’re weaving?” Reivyn had asked. His mother sat up straight with her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“So I hadn’t been imagining things, after all!” Ameliyn exclaimed. “That, my dear, is light mana. It is an element. Different elements have different effects on objects in the world. Typically, if you imbue your mana into an object, it will hold on to the surface before slowly dissipating away.

“Your mother is a Light Weaver, and, due to a peculiarity of the System, if one imbues their elemental mana into a craft throughout the process of making it, even if all of the materials involved are themselves finished products, the completed item will permanently hold that mana. Imbuing mana into craftsmanship like this isn’t the same as Enchanting, but it still has a small role to play. When I imbue light mana, it acts as a sort of subconscious illusion, making the ones who look at it have a higher likelihood of a favorable impression toward it.”

“Can you teach me?” Reivyn pleaded with a hopeful look on his face.

“I could teach you…” Ameliyn said while thoughtfully tapping her chin. She quickly shook her head, though. “But you can’t learn it.”

“What?! Why?” Reivyn almost whined. This was the first time he had ever been told he couldn’t learn something.

“Two reasons.” His mother held up two fingers. “You don’t meet the prerequisite mana affinity skills of fire, water, wind, and earth, and you don’t meet the prerequisite of acquiring those mana affinity skills, which is Mana Sight. Or do you?” She narrowed her eyes at her son. He quickly shook his head. “Okay, yeah, I didn’t think you had that one yet. I can teach you that, though,” she said offhandedly. He quickly nodded his head enthusiastically.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, come here.” She directed him to sit in front of the fireplace. “Close your eyes, open your Sense Mana, and enter into Meditation. Feel the mana around you. Notice the warmth of the fire. Fire mana spits out of the heart of the flame to dance in the air like tiny sparks. They travel about, here and there, without purpose. See in your mind’s eye the little red motes dancing before you.

“A breeze comes through, and wind mana detaches from the breeze to scatter the flame motes, and the red of the fire mixes with the green of the wind to carry it ever farther from the blaze.

“As the wind mana transports the fire mana farther and farther away, the temperature in the air gets cooler as it is filled with moisture, and little drops of blue mana lazily float about and suck the energy out of the embers. The water mana gets heavier from the burden of the excess energy, and they slowly fall until they, at last, come into contact with the brown mountains of earth mana.

“Open your eyes,” Ameliyn whispered.

Reivyn opened his eyes to a new world. It was far from the intricate tale of dancing mana that his mother spoke of. Different, muted colors crashed together and created a strange tableau of interwoven energy. The scene quickly faded from his vision. It had been similar to looking at a bright source of light and then quickly looking away. He shook his head and looked up at his mother.

“I couldn’t tell anything from that. It was just a huge, fleeting jumble of confusing colors,” he complained.

She playfully swatted him on the back of his head. “Of course, not,” she replied. “That was your first time. I’m surprised you saw anything at all, honestly. Continue.”

Ameliyn spent the next hour or so patiently concocting various tales of improbable activities being performed by the various motes of mana. She weaved her words as intricately as one of her pieces on the loom. Reivyn felt incredibly grateful that his mother would go to such lengths to assist him when she clearly had so many other things to be doing.

New Skill Unlocked!
Mana Sight (1)

After approximately an hour and a half of alternating between listening to strange tales of odd behavior and quickly opening his eyes to see for himself, Reivyn was finally awarded with the notification. He smiled up at his mother.

“Thanks, Mom! I just got it,” he happily said. Ameliyn was momentarily surprised before she guffawed and chuckled awkwardly.

“More and more, I see what your father meant,” she said. “I spent two weeks—two weeks!—unlocking that skill, and the System practically gave it to you.” She threw her hands up dramatically in mock imitation of her husband. “Just gave it to you!”

Reivyn smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. His mother rolled her eyes at him and shooed him away with her hands.

“Go on, get. I don’t want to look at you, right now,” she huffed as she stalked back to her loom. Reivyn knew she was just playing around, so he didn’t take it to heart, but he wasn’t quite finished. He still had another question for his mom.

“But what now?” he had called out to her.

“You level it to around 15 or 20. Then you come back to me.” She had smiled as she replied, letting him know, as only a mother could, that everything was fine, and that she loved him and was proud of him, all in one quick look.

Reivyn toweled himself dry as he exited the pool of water. He had worked diligently at the Mana Sense skill for over a year until he had finally been able to make heads or tails of the mana around him. His mother had then instructed him on how to unlock his affinities. The key had been to identify each individual element, and then absorb that one element exclusively through Mana Absorption until he unlocked the skill. That had been pretty simple, but he had had one last point that had bothered him.

“But why is affinity a skill?” He had put the question to Ameliyn.

“It’s only halfway a skill,” was the reply from his mother. “It’s a little complicated, but basically you have the skill you can train, and you have your inherent affinity for each element. No matter how hard you train, and no matter how much time you invest, your skill level in these affinities is capped at a different level for each individual. It depends on your talent how far and how fast you can take the skills.”

All four of the basic affinities had leveled up at the same speed for Reivyn. It wasn’t slow, but the skills didn’t level up as fast as many of his other skills did. He had no idea what any of that meant for his talents. He shook his head as he made his way out of the bath to practice his literary skills. He wouldn’t worry about it too much.

The wind whipped through his hair as Reivyn and his three friends ran along the rooftops in the commercial district. It was rare, these days, that all four of them could be together. With Teilon turning nine, and the other three right behind him at eight, the other three boys had started the proverbial sprint toward Class Unlock, and they had finally gotten serious about trying to train up some of their stats before it got harder.

Reivyn had been amused at the thought that he and his friends had approached life in exactly opposite ways. While he had spent his early to mid childhood frantically training his skills and stats, his friends had focused on almost exclusively gallivanting and horsing around. He was sure they had gotten some skill levels and stats, what with the amount of effort they had put into playing, but they had been living a carefree life. Now that he had reached the point of diminishing returns on training stats, he was now the one enjoying a life of leisure as his friends had to buckle down.

He came back to the present as they scrambled to traverse the differing heights of the buildings and leapt across chasms made of alleyways in turn. It didn’t do him any good to get lost in thought while a couple of stories off the ground.

One day, several months ago, Teilon had been daydreaming with his head in the clouds as the troupe had meandered around town. He had suddenly come to a halt, Will almost walking into him, and he had a thoughtful look on his face.

“I wonder what it would be like to fly above the town, like a bird, without having to take all of these twisting back roads to get anywhere,” he suddenly opined. Reivyn glanced at him before using his Acrobatics skill to jump from wall to wall in the narrow alleyway and shimmy himself up to a lower rooftop.

“I don’t know about flying, but this is probably the next best thing,” he called out to his friends. When he didn’t get a response, he leaned over the ledge to find the three other boys staring at him in slack-jawed silence.

“H-h-how did you do that?” Teilon stammered, pointing up at Reivyn as if he had just spotted something he couldn’t believe.

“It was easy,” Reivyn said with a slight frown on his face. “Just use your Acrobatics skill.”

“What do you mean, ‘Just use your Acrobatics skill?’” Teilon rolled his eyes so hard his whole head twirled around his neck. Will and Simmon looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement.

“You don’t have Acrobatics?” Reivyn asked, incredulous. “What have you been doing with your life?”

“Hanging out with you!” Teilon shrugged while gesturing toward Reivyn, as if to say obviously.

“Well, it’s an easy solution. Just unlock the Acrobatics skill and practice it by jumping up these walls,” Reivyn retorted.

Teilon looked at his friend as if he had grown a second head. “‘Just unlock the Acrobatics skill,’ he says,” he mumbled. “What the f—. You know what. I can’t even with you, right now.”

Reivyn easily scrambled back down to ground level. He approached his friends and said, “C’mon. It’ll be easy. I’ll help you.”

The next hour had been spent with Reivyn assisting the other boys in performing various high-level movement techniques such as the tuck-and-roll, the cartwheel, and the popular fall-on-your-face-while-trying-to-flip. A breakthrough had been made when Reivyn had had Teilon step into his hands with one foot and then get launched into a backflip. It wasn’t pretty at first, but the other boys could finally start to feel something different, and with a little extra effort, they all eventually unlocked the skill.

“That was pretty fun, actually,” Teilon said with an almost confused look on his face. “And pretty fast, too.” Reivyn just stood to the side with an expression of I told you so on his face.

“Fastest skill I ever unlocked,” Simmon piped up.

“Yeah,” Will agreed.

The four boys looked at each other and grinned before they launched themselves to the rooftops. It turned out that, while not a skill itself, the activity of parkour worked wonders for quickly leveling up Acrobatics and Balance.

The rooftop had served as their personal highway ever since. A good thing, too, with all of the new people coming and going from Haluville.

The boys took a break to gaze down at the town center. Where once it had been a bevy of people walking from point A to point B and occasionally haggling in some personal bartering outside of the storefronts, now a small marketplace of tents, stands, carts and blankets had formed. The foot traffic had recently shot through the roof, and luckily, so had the boys.

“Bad business that,” Teilon said with an uncharacteristic serious expression on his face.

“What’s bad about it?” Reivyn asked. Will and Simmon looked also looked toward Teilon, waiting on his explanation.

“Not that.” Teilon gestured down toward the impromptu market. “That’s fine. That’s whatever. No, those are all adventurers. Hadn’t you noticed?” He scrutinized the other boys’ faces. Teilon could be surprisingly insightful at times.

“Yeah, Torhn and his crew say there’s some work in the city,” Simmon ventured.

Teilon gently cuffed his friend on the back of the head. “This is the city,” he said while pointing down to emphasize his point.

“You know what I mean,” Simmon retorted with an eye roll.

“Yeah, I do, but Torhn is likely to smack you across the mouth instead of the back of the head if he hears you implying otherwise. You know how the locals are.” Teilon had placed his hand on Simmon’s shoulder as he gently chastised him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Simmon said, scratching his head in slight embarrassment for the lapse in speech.

“Anyway,” Teilon continued. “My daddy says it’s government work. You all know how they feel about adventurers.” The three other boys nodded in unison.

Several months ago, emboldened by their success at repeated pilfering of pies over time, Teilon had gotten daring and started trying to unlock Pickpocket. He wasn’t a thief, so all he would do is reach in, grab something, usually coins or lint, and then let go. There were a couple of close calls, but he had successfully gained the skill. He had convinced the others to join him in his antics, and while still reluctant to have anything to do with those types of skills, Reivyn had agreed.

His mother had not been too happy with the pie episode. She had lectured him on thinking before acting for a good hour, but she had still been at least a little proud of him for deciding to do the right thing in the end. Refix had had a completely different take on the event.

“Tell me, is a skill evil?” Refix asked his son as they were sitting at the dining table.

“I don’t see how it could be,” Reivyn had replied after some careful thought.

“That’s right. No skill is inherently evil. It’s what you do with the skill that matters.” Refix poked his finger into Reivyn’s chest to get his point across. “Now, tell me, who is the best at spotting a thief?”

“The guards?” Reivyn ventured a guess. From the context of the conversation, he was pretty sure it was a trick question, but he honestly didn’t know a better answer. Refix just chuckled as he shook his head.

“No, another thief is the best at spotting a thief,” Refix answered. “If you level your skill properly, it can be used for good, so don’t ever look down on a skill.”

That lesson had heavily influenced Reivyn’s decision to follow through with his best buds. Things had gone extremely well from there. The quartet had leveled their skill and kept a clean conscience by not ever actually stealing anything.

Everything had gone wrong, though, when Teilon had gotten a little too bold for his britches. The damn fool had tried to pick the pocket of a City Guard, of all people. Sure he had targeted a rookie, but his teammates weren’t rookies.

An armored hand had clamped down on the offending arm as Teilon had his hand in the rookie’s pocket. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, you little runt.” Teilon got spun right into the face of a great big bear of a man with a full beard and mean eyes.

“I wasn’t doin’ nothin’! I swear! I was just practicing, is all,” Teilon blurted out as fast as he could. Reivyn, Simmon, and Will had run up upon noticing the trouble, but the other guards stood in their way, separating them from their friend. They were in a small side alley, and none of the other pedestrians even spared a glance their way.

Big Bear spat in disgust right at Teilon’s feet. “Damn adventurers and damn adventurers’ kids. Ain’t got a lick of sense,” he said. He shoved Teilon into the wall, hard, and he crumpled to the ground. “Keep your filthy paws to yourself.” The man landed a few kicks to Teilon’s midsection with the intention to cause pain. If he had wanted to actually hurt Teilon, it would have been an easy thing with his stats and class.

Reivyn frowned at the display of petty power. “What? Got somethin’ to say, adventurers’ kid?” the guard in front of him provoked.

“My parents aren’t adventurers,” Reivyn replied, the frown never leaving his face. He had had no idea these kinds of sentiments existed in the small town.

“High-level combat class comes in from out of town. Either a deserter or an adventurer.” The guard spat at Reivyn’s feet. “Basically the same thing, in my book.”

The guards shoved all of the kids, Reivyn included, to the ground as they finished displaying their authority and sauntered off.

“Yeah, they’re right a-holes,” Will said as he spat on the rooftop.

Reivyn reached over and gently cuffed him without thinking. “Don’t be spitting like them. It’s disgusting,” he admonished. Will ducked his head with a sheepish look on his face.

“Yeah, well. Ain’t got nothin’ to do with us,” Teilon declared after a moment. “C’mon, let’s go.”

The four friends ran off in search of some more “adventure.”

Chapter nine

Classical Accident

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Refix asked his wife. They were having a family conversation at the dinner table.

“Yes, yes. I’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine,” Ameliyn reassured her husband.

“I know. It’s just that I worry.” Refix clasped Ameliyn’s hand in his own. “This will be the first time in years that we’re separated, and I’ll be gone for several months.”

“It’s fine. Reivyn’s mature enough to look after the girls if I need him to.” She looked toward her son. He had his fingers in his mouth, pulling his lips wide while sticking his tongue out at his sister, making them giggle. He heard his name and froze with his mouth wide open and eyes wide. He calmly removed his fingers and placed his hands neatly on top of each other on the table in front of himself.

“What was that? Yes, I’m responsible,” Reivyn said as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. It was true. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to tease his sisters and make them laugh.

Ameliyn rolled her eyes at his antics. “On second thought,” she continued, “we’re good on money, and I could just take a break from weaving for a bit.”

Reivyn gasped. He placed his hand on his chest and twisted a bit in his seat to pose in mock outrage. “Hey! I am offended,” he said with a slight shake of his head.

“I’m sure you are,” his mother replied. “We’ll be fine. Go with a clear conscience.” Refix nodded his head, and the family resumed their usually carefree banter as they finished their dinner.

“Stay behind for a moment, Reivyn,” Refix called to his son as he was putting his plate away. He looked toward his mom, who just smiled and nodded as she ushered the two twins away. He sat back down across from his dad.

“Mr. Einrin sprung this trip on me kind of suddenly, and I have to go with him. Which means I’ll be gone during most of the time right before your class unlocks. Usually, this is one of the last lessons on the System and classes that we give, but I’m going to go ahead and go over it now, as I won’t be here.”

That had gotten Reivyn’s full attention. He was always eager to learn more about the System and how this world worked. He sat straight, his attention fully on his father. Refix nodded and continued.

“I know that we mentioned Mana Circulation a long time ago, but we never went over any specifics with you,” he said. “Mana Circulation is more than just a skill. It is somewhat similar to mana affinities, but it isn’t determined by your natural aptitude and talent. Instead, Mana Circulation is determined by your class. Have you ever wondered where the stat increases and unassigned stat points come from when leveling up your class?”

Now that the question was posed to him, Reivyn realized he had always just taken it as a given. Your level increases, and much like a skill increase, you get slightly better. It seems there was more to it, and his father was going to shed some light on the matter.

“Mana Circulation is the act of circulating your mana through your meridians, and while your meridians exist inside you from day one, they are a simple, straightforward thing. When you acquire a class, the System refines the meridians in your body. An increase in tier expands and solidifies the meridians, and the rarity of the class determines the complexity. The type of class, lifestyle or combat, and the stats they improve upon leveling up also determine where the meridians are refined.

“A combat class can expect to have wider and more complicated meridians around his major muscle groups. Craftsmen typically have finer meridians around their extremities for a focus on dexterity. The wider array of stat increases equates to more locations with complicated meridian patterns.

“The System will directly imprint a method of Mana Circulation appropriate for your class. That does not mean it is the most efficient method. 99% of all classes in Tiers 1 through 3 are known, common classes, and by common, I’m not referring to the rarity of the class. Billions of people have unlocked classes in the realm for tens of thousands of years, and most of those people only ever reach Tier 3 in their lifetime.

“Extensive research has been done over the generations, and there are many, many variations of the different class Mana Circulation methods. There are also certain family lineages that have hereditary meridian pathways and unique Mana Circulation methods to incorporate into their pathways. Due to a quirk in the System, even the hereditary meridian lines aren’t unlocked until the first class is acquired at the age of ten. Nobody knows why, but that’s just how it is.

“Now pay attention, because our family has one of these unique pathways that you’ll need to incorporate into whatever class Mana Circulation method you get. I’ll draw a diagram for you to use as reference, but it’ll be much easier to grasp and remember if I instruct you directly, first.”

Refix spent the next hour or so patiently teaching Reivyn about the unique meridian pathway to their family lineage as well as the method of incorporation into a class method. Reivyn didn’t have any refined meridians, so he was unable to practice the actual skill, but he was still able to make a mental map and follow along with his mind’s eye.

“Alright, buddy.” Refix concluded his lesson. “Barring any unexpected surprise, I should be back before your tenth birthday, but it’s always better to be prepared, just in case.”

The next morning, the whole family lined up to give a hug and kiss to the patriarch of the household as he departed for work. Despite knowing Refix would be leaving on a many-months-long trip, it felt like any other normal morning.

“Gather round, children, as this elder imparts the wisdom of his years upon you,” Teilon said. He was standing with his palms together as if in prayer, his eyes were closed, and he was attempting to exhibit the serenity of an elder teaching the later generation. The gang of four, with the addition of Reivyn’s sisters, were hanging out in Reivyn’s backyard.

Kailey poked Reivyn in the side. “He’s talking about you,” she said to him with a serious expression.

“Yeah, you’re a child,” Riley contributed. The two then broke down into giggles. They held hands and started skipping around while chanting. “Chi ~ ild, chi ~ ild,” over and over again. Reivyn just snorted at their antics.

How am I the brother of those two, and not Teilon. I never realized how alike their personalities were until they were in the same space together.

Teilon had turned ten several months ago, unlocking his Tier 1 class, and he was constantly playing the part of the wise elder. I swear he’s going to unlock Actor for his Tier 2 class, Reivyn thought to himself.

“This esteemed self recently gained a couple of levels to his Citizen class, finally breaching 20 stats in vitality, and, in his most magnanimous way, has deigned to impart to you what it feels like to have faster stat growth than you are accustomed to,” Teilon opined. Will and Simmon snickered at the words. The previous week, Teilon had been in a hurry and not paying enough attention, and he had walked face-first into the side of a building.

Reivyn surreptitiously glanced at his Status page.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: <None> Age: 9]
[Health: 220/220 Stamina: 420/420 Mana: 260/260]
Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 20 * INT: 24]
[VIT: 22 * MAG: 28]
[DEX: 19 * CLA: 21]
[CHA: 3 * PER: 17]
[LUK: 3]
Skills:
Acrobatics (26), Aim (17), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (31), Balance (34), Command (0), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (22), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (18) Inspire (3), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Sight (14), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), Meditation (1) Mental Fortitude (20), Number Concepts (8), Observation (27), Pain Resistance (23), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (30), Sense Mana (42), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Tactics (1), Weapons Master (22)
Affinities:
Air (11), Earth (11), Fire (11), Water (11)

“You mock this one, but he is generous and forgiving, so he shall ignore this slight upon his honor,” he said. Will and Simmon had been practicing their Wrestling skills, a good way to train strength and dexterity in addition to training the skill and being a fun pastime all on its own. With the momentary distraction from laughing at Teilon’s soliloquy, Teilon spotted his opportunity and tackled the two of them to the ground.

The previous match devolved into a tangled mass of flailing limbs. It wasn’t helped by the twins abandoning their chanting to instead be cheering for one or another boy to pin his opposition. They had no loyalty, and they freely switched between who they cheered for based entirely on their whims.

Reivyn chuckled as he watched from the side. Ahh, this is the life.

Reivyn was sitting on the sofa, a book in his hand, and his position relaxed. Ameliyn was working on her loom, and the two girls were practicing with needles and thread by her side. Other than the repetitive sounds of the loom, it was quiet and peaceful in the house.

Reivyn turned the page in his book. It was a compendium of short stories about various people with different classes. It was a primer on the different common classes one could expect to unlock upon reaching adulthood and getting the Tier 2 class. Tier 1 class was regarded as going through puberty. The book coupled introducing different classes with simple moral lessons with the characters getting into all kinds of mundane and improbable situations. It was a children’s book, for the most part, but it was still quite entertaining.

DONG!

The sounds of the loom ceased as Ameliyn tilted her head up at the sound of the bell ringing loud and clear in the central square. If it was an emergency, it would have rung continuously, so there were no frantic movements accompanying the sound.

DONG!

Ameliyn looked at her children as she got up from her seat. One bell toll could mean many things but was typically just a notification that something noteworthy had happened. A second toll meant that there was a gathering at the Town Square, a misnomer considering it was circular. Reivyn put his index finger on his page as held his book down.

“Do you want us to go with you?” Reivyn asked his mother.

“That won’t be…”

DONG!

“…necessary. Never mind,” she quickly corrected herself. “Gather up, kids. Let’s go.” The family quickly stowed their things away and accompanied their mother out the door. They were greeted by their neighbors walking out onto the streets in the direction of the Town Square, and they easily paired up with their friends and acquaintances.

Two bell tolls signified a meeting in the Town Square. Three tolls meant it was mandatory.

“What do you think it is.” Teilon came bounding over. He was quickly joined by Will and Simmon. The mothers of the three, being friends with each other on account of their children, also grouped up together and spoke together as all of the families made their way.

“We’ll find out when we get there,” Reivyn replied to his friend.

More and more people spilled into the streets, and as the buildings got denser, so did the crowd. I never realized how many people actually live here. It is almost a small city. Reivyn thought as he scanned the heavily packed crowd.

It was immediately noticeable as to who had called the mandatory meeting. There was an open space cleared in the center next to the well. A man in armor sat on horseback, a company of spear-wielding soldiers standing at attention behind him.

Teilon’s mouth made a thin line as he surveyed the scene before him. “How many guesses that this is related to those adventurers?” he asked. The mothers of the boys had gone silent, and Teilon’s mother, especially, had become fidgety, with a frown on her face.

Reivyn and his group could guess the meaning behind the visit from the soldiers, and they whispered to each other as they waited for more and more residents to trickle into the square. The man on horseback waited patiently, neither moving nor looking around.

Finally, once it appeared no more residents were going to arrive, an adjutant approached the man on horseback and said something to him. The commander scanned the crowd all around him.

“There will be silence,” he said. He neither shouted nor raised his voice, yet it projected clearly to everyone in attendance. Is that a skill, or just his presence? Reivyn thought.

“I am Knight-Captain Reifold,” the man declared. “I am here under the directive of Count Ilpir of Magron. A levy decree has been issued.”

The crowd erupted into chatter upon the utterance of this news. Knight-Captain Reifold went silent as he gave the crowd a moment to process the information.

When the people didn’t stop talking, and instead actually started picking up in volume, a soldier stepped forward and bellowed, “SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTHS!”

Reifold cocked his head and stared at the soldier in annoyance. The man sheepishly ducked his head with a quick, “Sorry, milord.” It had had the intended effect, though, as the crowd instantly went silent again.

Reifold returned his attention to the populace. “All Tier 1’s with a vitality over 20 shall report to me.”

“Crap,” Teilon exclaimed, the blood draining from his face. His mother’s knees went weak, and she almost fainted on the spot. Teilon had just attained his class, and he was being enjoined to the levy.

Reivyn clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Stay strong, brother,” he said. Teilon gave him a grateful smile and nod.

He quickly put a brave face on the situation as he declared, “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be sure to write and send back any riches I acquire once I become a hero.” None of the other kids joked or snickered at his attempt at humor. This was a solemn event, and they realized they may not see their friend again after today.

Teilon’s mom grabbed him into a tight hug. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, disengaged, and then made his way to report. Reivyn watched him go, and he looked around at similar scenes happening all over the square. Many of the families had at least one, sometimes two, children who fit the criteria. Reivyn was curious about the stipulations, but he withheld his questions for now.

The crowd remained silent as the young men and women lined up in front of the troop of soldiers and men on horseback. There were several hundred of them.

Reifold again scanned the crowd, and when his gaze crossed Reivyn’s path, he paused. He leaned down to his adjutant and said something to him, his vision never leaving Reivyn’s direction. He didn’t know if it was a misconception or not, but he could feel the man’s gaze boring into him. The adjutant nodded, and then he signaled for a couple of men to make their way into the crowd.

They’re coming for me. Reivyn was convinced of it. He watched in trepidation as his fears were inevitably realized. The two soldiers appeared before Reivyn and his friends and family. One grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him forward.

“Come on, you,” the soldier said. These men were different from the City Guard. There was absolutely no resisting him with Reivyn’s current lack of class and low stats. The soldiers didn’t appear to hold Reivyn’s attempt at “dodging” the levy to heart. It was just routine for them, and they probably saw such scenes often and assumed this was the same thing.

Reivyn’s mother started forward. “No!” she exclaimed. “You can’t take him.” The other soldier impeded her path.

“Ma’am, yes we can,” he replied to her.

“You don’t understand. He doesn’t have his class yet,” she desperately pleaded.

The soldier shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. The Knight-Captain identified him as under Tier 2 with a vitality above 20. He’s coming.”

Reivyn sensed the mana in his mother’s body begin to coalesce. He absolutely could not allow her to do something she couldn’t recover from. She still had to take care of Kailey and Riley and tell his dad what had happened.

“Mom,” he called out to her, interrupting the mana circulating in her system. “It’s alright. I’ll be fine.” He was resigned. They couldn’t afford any kind of criminal charge, and he truly believed he would be fine. In fact, he would be able to keep an eye out for his friend and vice versa.

Ameliyn shook her head in denial with tears in her eyes, but she no longer summoned her mana or attempted to interfere.

Reivyn could feel the eyes of the other townsfolk on him as he was marched to the man on horseback.

“Non-classed. Thought it didn’t apply to him,” the soldier gripping his arm reported as he deposited him into the crowd of other children.

Knight-Captain Reifold looked at Reivyn with a stoic expression. “Understandable,” he surmised. “You will be forgiven for this infraction.” His voice didn’t carry to the entire crowd as he addressed Reivyn. Relief flooded Reivyn as a tension he didn’t realize he had from the expectation of being punished left him. He quickly found his way to stand next to Teilon, who was looking at him in incredulity.

“Guess I’m coming with,” Reivyn whispered to him. Teilon just squeezed his shoulder in support.

Reifold signaled to his adjutant. The man motioned some more soldiers forward who started passing a token out to all of the kids in the crowd. Reifold glanced back to the rest of the people.

“Disperse.” He was apparently a man of few words. “They will be given an hour to say their goodbyes and retrieve any effects.” The crowd slowly began to trickle out of the square. Many wanted to watch the fun, while the parents of those being levied were loath to leave their children even for a second earlier than necessary, but the crowd did slowly dwindle.

“This token is your identification,” Reifold continued to the young men and women. “Just hold it to your core for three seconds, and the token itself will do all the work of imprinting to you. It has a tracking function within a certain range. As you heard, you have an hour before you need to report back and be ready to move out. Anyone not back within exactly one hour will be tried as a deserter. The punishment for desertion in times of war is death. Think carefully about your actions.”

The soldiers were efficient, and Reivyn quickly received his token. It looked like a rectangular piece of copper with the emblem of House Ildur on its back and nothing on its face. He followed the instructions, and he placed the token against his core. It flashed briefly with a pale blue light.

You have been conscripted!
Class forcefully set to Peasant Levy
Error! Abnormalities detected. Scanning…
No Tier 1 Class unlocked. Precedent exists. Class System unlocked early.
Class forcefully set to Peasant Levy
Error! Abnormalities detected. Scanning…
Bloodline does not allow the designation of “Peasant.” Precedent exists. Class forcefully set to Conscript.
Error! Abnormality detected. Scanning…
Life experience of a Combat Class exists. No precedent exists. Searching for solutions…
Solution found.

Select a Class. You have 60 seconds to choose before Conscript is permanently set.

Classes

Citizen
Conscript
Militiaman
Mercenary
Bowman
Mage
Healer
Fighter
Air Mage
Earth Mage
Fire Mage
Water Mage

A series of notifications appeared before his eyes. He was momentarily stunned, but upon reading the last line of notifications, his attention quickly centered on the Class page opened before him. Most of the classes available were grayed out. With no prompts as to how to select a class, he simply scanned the list and willed his determination into the bottom class: Fighter. His mother’s words echoed in his mind.

“A higher rarity class is always superior.”

Instantly he could feel mana fill him. His internal structure was manipulated, and information flooded into his brain. He intrinsically understood his class and the skills associated with it. It was not an unpleasant experience, though it was sudden and unexpected.

Fighter Tier 1 (2) Epic (Rare)
Advancement:
6 Unassigned Stats/Lvl (Pseudo Tier 2, Epic)
[STR: +2 * INT: +1/3]
[VIT: +3 * MAG: +0]
[DEX: +2 * CLA: +0]
[CHA: +0 * PER: +1]
[LUK: +0]
Class Skills:
Devastating Strike (1): Deal 101% Damage
Cleave (1): Reset stance at an accelerated rate
Charge (1): Sprint toward the target at 111% absolute maximum speed
<Locked>
<Locked>
Available: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0), Quick-Draw (0)

His entire perspective shifted. A never-before attained permutation of Observation and Sense Mana combined with Balance, Evasion, and Sneaking to allow him to be aware of his surroundings more perfectly. He nimbly avoided the jostling of those around him as others headed off after attaining their tokens. It was like he was a rock in the rapids.

New Skill Unlocked!
Spatial Awareness (1)

With a shift in his mentality, he was able to subconsciously actuate his skills in a new, more efficient manner leading to the formation of an entirely different skill. While this one used a combination of his skills, it was not a complete fusing of them. He was instinctively aware that this new skill was a tier below his mythic skill. That still meant it was a legendary skill.

Not even ten years old and already have one legendary and technically two mythic skills. Not bad, he mused.

After what felt like an eternity of changes being wrought upon him by the System, he came back to the present. He located Teilon, and, with a nod to each other. they quickly made their way toward their waiting family and friends just outside of the Town Square.

There was a lot of crying and hugging in Reivyn’s household. He stood there enveloped by his mother, who refused to let go, with his sisters squeezing in on either side of him. The only thing lacking was his father smirking at him off to the side.

Ameliyn finally released her hold. She placed her hands on either side of his face and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. She no longer needed to bend down to accomplish the feat.

“I love you,” she told her son. “The most important thing is to come home alive. I don’t care about whatever it is the Count of Magron has decided to issue a levy for. I only care about your well-being.”

“I know, Mom,” he replied. “I know. I’ll definitely return. You know how hard I’ve trained my skills and stats. I would venture there isn’t a more well-prepared person for this to happen to than me, but now I have to go.” He bent down and planted a kiss on top of both of his sisters’ heads before peeling their arms off of him. They were reluctant to let go.

He didn’t have to prepare any gear. He didn’t have any, anyway, not expecting to need any for several more years yet to come. He had spotted a cart holding what suspiciously looked like packs and weapons off to the side of the square being watched over by a contingent of soldiers. He paused in the doorway for one last wave to his family before he stepped out.

It was time for the first true leg of his journey through life.

Chapter ten

Rabble Rabble

“Left, right, left, right…”

The uninspired marching cadence washed over him as Reivyn trudged along, lost in a sea of youths. Despite how incredibly easy it was to simply match the footfall to the call of left and right, only about half of the conscripts were consistently managing it. He would face-palm if he could.

How are they not able to do it? It takes effort to get this wrong.

The group of young men and women had spent all morning “marching” back and forth. When the Knight-Captain had said everyone had an hour to say goodbye and to be ready to move out as soon as exactly one hour had passed, he had assumed they were going to set off to Magron immediately. That had not been the case. They had moved a couple of miles out of town and then set up camp. There had been two explanations given: The rookies needed to acquire the March skill, and they were waiting for the contingents that had gone to the surrounding smaller villages to pick up more levies.

The farthest local village was three days’ walking distance. If they factored in a day of rest for that group, they would likely acquire the March skill on the way, and they had four days to practice. At the rate they were going, Reivyn didn’t have any confidence everyone would get the skill by then.

The group walked around, back and forth, until it was a little after noon. At that time, the one overseeing the marching called them to a halt and dispersed them for lunch, or “chow,” as he put it.

Reivyn quickly found Teilon among the group, and the two friends walked together toward the area designated as the “chow hall.” It was just a table with the food being served on it next to a tent. Everyone was expected to simply find a spot to plop down on the ground to eat.

Other than the group of fresh conscripts, the camp was surprisingly orderly. The soldiers had chopped some trees down, expanding the small clearing they had walked to, and built a small palisade with a ditch. Upon a question from one of the newbies, they learned it was standard procedure every time they set up camp, and it wasn’t unheard of for soldiers and levies to gain the skills of Woodworking and Construction {Labor}.

With dreams filled with ambushes and night raids, this practice made perfect sense to Reivyn.

The armored troops that had come to fetch them were clearly professionals, and ones who took their job seriously; however, there were only so many resources a count could sink into his military before he risked bankrupting himself. Thus the need to bolster their numbers with levies when the situation called for it. Whatever the situation was that called for it in this instance had not been communicated to them, and Reivyn wasn’t sure if it ever would. A noble didn’t have to explain himself to the rabble.

The chow was a hard biscuit, some gruel, and a single piece of jerky, The bread was so dense, Reivyn felt his Weapons Master skill kick in when he gripped it. Reivyn glanced around and saw most of the youngsters placing the wheat brick to the side, disdaining to break their teeth trying to consume the food. A quick glance at the professional showed the proper way to eat it was to water down the gruel and soak it up with the bread.

Those guys are gonna regret it, Reivyn thought to himself as he quickly copied the soldiers. He poked Teilon in the side and gestured at his tray. Teilon gave a thumbs-up and followed suit. The bread, water, and gruel mix, while not much to write home about individually, wasn’t too bad when all mixed together.

It made sense when he thought about it. The officers would want to provide as many calories as quickly as possible for the troops, and they would have a riot on their hands if the field rations, when not in a combat situation, were consistently, actually crap. Coupled with skill levels, even if the cooks weren’t classed to actually focus on cooking, a consistent practice would eventually lead to subpar ingredients tasting at least average. And there was nothing to say that the underlying ingredients were subpar. It was just that the recipe was atrocious.

The meal was quickly consumed, and the same soldier who had led them in marching returned with six others following him. He confirmed that everyone had finished eating and signaled for them to follow him and the other soldiers. The recruits quickly deposited their trays back on the table, and they made their way over to one of the wagons where the man in charge was waiting for them.

“You will address me as Sergeant Mok, or just Sergeant,” Sergeant Mok addressed the crowd. “First, we will distribute the gear. Step forward, take the form handed to you, place your token on the seal in the top right corner, hand the form back, and receive your gear. The token will automatically fill the form in for you. You will receive one pack and one spear, and the pack will contain everything you will need except armor. As Peasant Levies, you will only receive a gambeson and a leather helmet upon reaching the barracks in Magron.”

The soldiers were, like with everything else they had done up until now, quick and efficient. Two of them handed out forms, two of them handed out packs, two of them handed out spears, and the sergeant and one other ushered the young men and women to move faster, faster, faster.

After everyone had their gear, they were directed to assemble just outside the palisade. The group loosely formed a semicircle and sat down cross-legged.

“We will now have a brief period of classroom instruction, followed by weapons practice,” Sergeant Mok declared. “And when I say weapons, I mean Spear. That’s all you’ll need to know for the foreseeable future.”

Reivyn looked down at the spear he had been issued. It was slightly superior to a sturdy, pointed stick. It was seven feet long, and it was made entirely of wood. There was no metal reinforcement or tip. This was clearly a more dangerous training weapon and not a weapon of war. Many of the recruits came from backgrounds with parents who had lifestyle classes, and not knowing the difference, there was some excitement on their faces. They chattered with their friends and neighbors about the prospect of learning skills from a combat class, even if that class was only Peasant Levy.

“Quiet,” Sergeant Mok intoned. “I’m sure many of you are wondering why we conscripted you and not the Tier 2 classes who are already full adults. The answer to that is simple. The vast majority of you are more than halfway through your Tier 1 class, and thus almost considered a full adult yourself. I can spot a few that are an exception to this, but your stats should compensate for the difference, as we specifically only recruited those who had a vitality of 20 or higher. This is typically an indication of training, or, in some rare instances, one of extreme talent.

“The second reason is the fact that you all are only Tier 1. Peasant Levy is a Tier 2 common class. I’m sure that most of you have noticed by now in your Status page that you have not been prematurely upgraded to Tier 2, but that Peasant Levy has instead replaced your Citizen Tier 1 class, and that it is listed as uncommon. This is because it is a Tier 2 class, and in the instance that one is forcibly awarded a class a tier above them, the System considers it to be one rarity level higher.

“As far as anyone is aware, conscription is the only known method of forcibly awarding a Tier 2 class ahead of time.

“If we had conscripted Tier 2s, their original class would have been overwritten, and once their term is up, they would have to visit a priest to remove the class and start over at Level 1. We only do such a thing in an emergency.

“Your new uncommon class retroactively awards the unassigned stat points, and this is another reason we only conscript Tier 1’s. It allows for a slightly stronger Tier 2, once it is achieved, and it is a form of compensation. You will receive pay, as you are not slaves, but if you can receive an award at no cost to the noble in charge, why not? It’s good management.”

All of the questions that had been floating around in Reivyn’s head had been answered with the explanation. Considering the System shenanigans that had resulted in him receiving an epic rarity class at Tier 1, Reivyn could imagine that he would be significantly stronger than even he had anticipated.

“Now we will go over some rules and regulations,” Sergeant Mok continued. He quickly explained some of the rules that now applied to them. Most of them centered around the concept of if you were supposed to be somewhere at a certain time, you had better be there before that time. Many of the rules were familiar to him from his dreams, like properly greeting superiors and instant obedience to orders.

“Now, who here has the Spears skill?” Sergeant Mok had quickly finished going over the rules and moved on to the weapons training.

Reivyn, Teilon, and about forty other youths raised their hands. The number of people who had the skill didn’t surprise Reivyn. There were close to four hundred recruits, and it was reasonable that about 10% of them would be combat class–focused in their training. Most of the ones who trained toward a combat class had plans on entering either the City Guard or the military, and a small few had aspirations to become an adventurer.

“Right, you lot with Corporal Pale,” Sergeant Mok directed. “The rest of you break up into groups of approximately sixty. Each of us will take a group and instruct you in the Spears skill.”

Reivyn, Teilon, and the other forty or so quickly followed one of the soldiers, who waved them over. Reivyn was slightly surprised to see Torhn among the group. He knew that he was a couple of years older, and he had to have been very close to Level 30, the cutoff between Tier 1 and 2. He didn’t know if this was a blessing or a curse for the other young man.

“Alright, what’s your skill at?” The man pointed to one of the recruits and asked.

“Nine,” came the reply.

“Off to my right.” He pointed to his right. “Assume the stance and practice your forms until I sort through everyone. Next.”

“Seven,” a girl replied. With the System assisting in everyone’s development without discrimination, the recruit makeup was pretty close to 50/50. Nobody was surprised by this because with the System sex discrimination wasn’t even a concept for most of civilized society. Even in the most ancient of texts, it had always been that way.

Corporal Pale motioned to his right. “Next.”

“Eleven,” a boy answered. Corporal Pale gave him a small nod in acknowledgment. Typically reaching a skill level of ten in a weapons skill signaled at least a small modicum of competence. He motioned for him to move over to his left.

The group quickly separated into two groups with only six of the youngsters having a skill level of ten or higher. Teilon was not among that group, since even though he was combat class–focused in his upbringing, the Spear was not his forte.

Reivyn was the last one to give his answer, but before he could, the corporal turned to the group on his left.

“Alright, you six pair off and commence sparring,” he said. He then addressed the other group. “You lot line up and continue practicing your forms. I will provide correction in a moment.” He then turned to Reivyn, who, with his smaller-than-average stature, relative to the older kids at least, stood out. “Okay, little guy, what’s your skill at?”

Reivyn didn’t take offense or become indignant or anything at the casual remark. It was simply true. He quickly considered the remark his father had given about the Weapons Master skill providing a higher mastery level than the typical skill, so he felt it was alright to embellish the number to his actual level of competency.

“26,” he replied. The corporal’s eyebrows shot to the roof of his forehead. They threatened to sprout wings and fly away, but he quickly mastered his expression. He cocked his head and assumed a look of yeah, right.

“Prove it,” he said.

Reivyn shrugged and got into his stance, gripping the spear appropriately. The other kids stopped their practice to watch him square off against the older man.

Reivyn waited patiently for the corporal, who hadn’t planned on actually using a spear at this time because he was in charge of the group that already had the skill, to retrieve a weapon. As the corporal approached his sparring position, Reivyn noticed a particular glint in his eye and the beginnings of a smirk. He could guess what the man was planning to do, but he wasn’t going to let him.

As soon as the man was an appropriate distance away before he could even bring his weapon up into the proper stance, Reivyn darted forward and attacked. He launched a lightning-quick jab at the man’s waist. His opponent quickly took a step back and swung his spear in a hurried parry. Reivyn redirected his attack from a straight jab downward, and as the older man struggled to compensate with his defense, he smoothly transitioned into looping his spear around his opponent’s and thrust it toward his face.

Any sign of arrogance or condescension had quickly fallen off the corporal’s face, and he quickly jerked his head back. The motion caused him to raise his spear up horizontally in front of him to maintain his balance. Sweat trickled down the side of his face as the spear tip stopped within an inch of his face.

Reivyn was extended as far as he safely could, so he had to retract his spear to reset his momentum. Years of training against a superior opponent in his father had ingrained in him to never let up on any kind of advantage. While the man was off-balance, Reivyn lunged forward and shoulder-checked him, further knocking him off his center as Reivyn perfectly maintained his.

He performed a textbook spear thrust at the man’s midsection as he stumbled. Desperately the man attempted a maneuver that had likely worked countless times in the past, and he slammed his spear sideways into Reivyn’s with exaggerated strength so that he could borrow the momentum to spin around to simultaneously regain his balance and try to regain the initiative.

Reivyn mentally shook his head. Spinning moves might look fancy and work on an unskilled opponent, but it’s just a flashy way to get yourself killed against someone who knows what they’re doing. Reivyn simply used the same concept, and he borrowed the momentum from the hasty parry to loop his spear back around without even recovering his stance. He near-instantaneously moved his spear point to within an inch of the corporal’s expected eye location after his little combat twirl, as his father would call it.

When Corporal Pale turned back toward Reivyn, he instantly froze as his vision was greeted by the spear point, steady as a rock, waiting for him right in front of his face. His back broke out in cold sweat, and he wasn’t even able to bring his spear to bear in any kind of way. He was soundly defeated.

Reivyn remained in his stance with his spear point not wavering an inch. He waited for the other man to slowly lower his spear and then step back before he recovered his stance. The corporal scratched the back of his head.

“Well, I guess you proved it.” He gave out a weak chuckle. It wasn’t that Reivyn was considerably more skilled than him; it was because he had looked down on his opponent and hadn’t taken him seriously at all, Reivyn knew. He had assumed he had been lied to, and he was planning on embarrassing the offender while teaching him a lesson. The facts spoke for themselves, though.

“What other weapons skills do you have?” the corporal asked.

“What other weapons skills do you want to know about?” Reivyn retorted.

“Swords.”

“26.”

“Daggers.”

“26.”

“Bows.”

“26.”

“Pugilist.”

“26.”

The corporal’s face slowly went from conversational, as he tried to gauge what he was working with, to shock, and then existential crisis. He quickly glanced at his Skills page. Spears was his highest weapons Skill at 26, also. The others were anywhere in a range from 18 to 24.

He crossed his arms as he considered the predicament in front of him. He shrugged with one arm brought up in front of himself. “Wellll…” He dragged the word out. “I guess I’ll give you a rod, and you can help me correct the others practicing their forms?” It was more of a question than a statement, but Reivyn knew it wasn’t directed at him. “Yeah, that’s what we’ll do. Hold on.”

The man returned his training spear to where he had acquired it, and he quickly returned with two rods. They were exactly the same proportion as the rod his father used during their training. He felt a bit strange as he accepted the rod. This would be the first time he had ever used the implement himself.

The other levies resumed their practice. They cast furtive glances Reivyn’s way, the boys with respect and some of the girls with interest. They whispered to themselves while performing their moves. None of them complained about having a boy younger than them correcting them on their forms. They had all witnessed the exchange clearly for themselves.

The practice went on for about an hour. Most of the recruits only had a smattering of mastery with the weapon, and Reivyn found himself quite busy correcting and offering advice to the others. They all accepted with alacrity, and from the whispered comments, he could tell that a significant portion of those he had personally helped had already seen some skill growth.

“What are you doing?” A voice cut through his concentration as he helped another conscript. His body locked in the traditional position of Attention from his dreams, and he barked out a response without thinking about it.

“Correcting and instructing, sir!” He didn’t know if this was the proper way to behave in this situation, but his body had moved on instinct. The familiar military atmosphere brought out this trained response.

“I can explain, sir.” The corporal came running over. Upon glancing over, Reivyn noticed it was the adjutant that had come to inspect the goings-on. The man was a Knight-Lieutenant, which meant he was a commissioned officer. Corporal Pale gestured for Reivyn and the others to continue, and he walked off a short distance from the group. Reivyn’s Eavesdropping skill subconsciously activated, and he was able to hear the conversation.

“Sir, he has a Spears skill of 26, the same as mine. I didn’t believe him at first, but I personally tested him out, and he was telling the truth. If he’s to be believed, which, considering his performance, I’m inclined to say he is, he has all of the weapons skills I do, and they’re all higher. Frankly, sir, I have nothing to teach him, and instead of him standing around doing nothing, I figured the best use of his time was to help me correct and instruct those with a skill below 10.” Corporal Pale stood at attention and quickly summarized the events.

“Hmmm,” the adjutant frowned. “Noted. Carry on.” He briskly walked away, and Corporal Pale returned to his task.

The spear training continued for a couple more hours. It was followed by another hour of attempted marching and then dinner. After dinner, the cohort assembled once again to learn how to set up their tents. Their packs contained waterproof-treated canvas and some short rods that could be combined to turn into tent poles. They were designed in such a way, two sets could be combined together to form a tent large enough to hold four people sleeping side by side, head to foot.

They weren’t assigned any particular place, so Reivyn easily paired up with Teilon. While they both were casual acquaintances with several others, they were each other’s only real friends. They conversed a bit about their day before going to sleep, ending the busy day.

They could look forward to more of the same as they awaited the other groups from the surrounding villages to arrive.

Knight-Captain Reifold sat at his desk, reading and composing reports. As the commanding officer of the entire operation, he instructed those directly below him on what to accomplish, and then he supervised from a distance. The men were well trained, and they did not need his micromanaging. The recruits never saw him during the day, but he did interact a little with the rank and file of the professional troops under him when necessary.

So far nothing unexpected had happened, and that was how he liked it. Expected meant safe, and safe meant everyone went home after. As the commanding officer, after mission accomplishment, making sure his men lived was his highest priority. Some officers didn’t care so much about the casualty rate of the commoners they commanded, but that was a good way to win a battle but lose a campaign, in his expert opinion.

As he sifted through the papers, he heard his tent flap open as a man walked in. He didn’t have to look up to know it was the adjutant. The guards standing post outside would only allow one man in unannounced. Only one man dared to do so.

He finished reading the current page in front of him before looking up to address his number two. “Knight-Lieutenant.” The simple statement hung in the air. Those brief words said, I know you have something to say to me, and it better be important. Can’t you see that I’m busy?

“Sir, have you checked the System report on the conscription yet?” the adjutant asked.

“I have not. Why? Is there something unexpected?” he asked. He narrowed his eyes at the other man as he continued. “You know how I feel about… unexpected.”

The adjutant’s hair stood on end as he felt prickles all over his suddenly cold skin. “Uh, yes sir, it is unexpected. But I think it could be the good kind,” he hastily added.

“Hmph,” was the response from the Knight-Captain. He quickly opened his System page and mentally selected the Command tab. As a holder of a Leadership class directly under the authority of a System-recognized noble, he had access directly from the System itself to assist him. He flipped to the page concerning the conscription.

Unit Management: Recruitment
383 Individuals have been forcefully Conscripted
Peasant Levy 382
Fighter 1

Knight-Captain Reifold felt a small twitch in his eyebrows as an expression threatened to make an appearance on his face for the first time in years. He looked up at the man standing before him.

“Have you investigated this?” he queried.

“I noticed something unusual. One of the recruits was assisting an NCO in instruction instead of training with a spear. I don’t know the specifics. I just know that he apparently has several weapons skills at the Journeyman level of mastery,” the adjutant explained.

“Who is it? Is it that big, stocky fellow?” He was momentarily silent while he thought, maintaining his bearing. “Torhn, I believe his name is.”

“It’s the boy, sir,” The adjutant didn’t have to explain any further.

The Knight-Captain sat in contemplation for a moment, his hands clasped on the desk in front of him.

“Separate him from the conscripts. Place him with the regulars. We’ll formally adjust his token when we reach the city. Dismissed.” He returned to perusing his documents as the adjutant turned to exit. He briefly paused, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“If I may, sir, what does the System report say?” he asked.

Knight-Captain Reifold considered the question for a few seconds.

“It says he has an epic rarity Fighter class.”

Chapter eleven

Regular Guy

Reivyn was startled awake by the sound of a horn. He was momentarily confused at the unfamiliar surroundings. The fog of sleep impeded his ability to think about his situation as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. After a moment, the scenery triggered his memories of the previous day.

He could see dawn peeking up over the horizon through the opening at the end of the tent he had constructed with Teilon. His friend and the others were experiencing the same situation, as they stirred awake and were slowly looking around. Reivyn reached over and poked his buddy, helping to bring him to the present.

“Wakey, wakey,” he said. Teilon’s eyes widened in remembrance, and the two of them, followed shortly by the other two sharing the tent with them, scrambled to get dressed in the clothes provided in their packs. While the provided clothing did match, it would be a stretch to refer to it as a uniform. They were just simple brown linens. Reivyn noted the conspicuous absence of boots, and everyone continued to wear their own personal footwear.

Upon exiting the tent, they were greeted by several soldiers, who were already fully attired and apparently had been for some time, directing everyone to quickly get to the chow hall.

“Mmm, chow,” Reivyn muttered subconsciously.

Teilon gave him the side-eye as he remarked, “You’re acting weird, man.”

Reivyn momentarily froze as he realized what he had said. The effects his dreams were having on him had become more pronounced ever since entering the camp. Salivating over chow, regardless of the taste, was a sentiment from many of his dreams.

“Haha, just hungry.” He brushed it off. The two quickly got their fare, the same as the previous meals: a brick of bread, gruel, and a single piece of jerky.

“Woo-hoo, another day of ‘marching,’ as we wait for the slow of wit to learn how to walk,” Teilon quipped in a deadpan manner. He pointed to the piece of jerky in his hand and looked at Reivyn as he spoke around a bite of the meat. “Guarantee that bunch doesn’t get the skill until halfway to Magron. Did you see some of them that completely forgot how to walk? Instead of alternating their natural arm swing with their stride, they’re moving the same arm and leg forward and backward at the same time. It’s the most awkward thing I’ve ever seen. We’re just walking.”

“People are thinking about it too much,” Reivyn replied. “I’m sure once they’ve adapted to the situation and relaxed a bit, they’ll get it.” He shoveled the tasty mix of breaded brick and gruel into his mouth while conversing.

“If you say so. I’m not so sure.” Teilon sighed. “I lament for our chances of making it home alive with these guys as our allies. Speaking of…” Teilon waved to a passing soldier to get his attention. “Hey, sarge, what’s the chances of making it home?”

The passing soldier frowned at Teilon’s question. “I’m not a ‘sarge,’ as you put it. I’m a lance corporal, and you should get used to addressing us as our proper rank. Incorrectly calling us by a higher rank doesn’t flatter anyone. And as to your question, that’s something the actual trainers at the barracks could tell you.” He quickly continued on his way.

Teilon blankly looked in the direction of the departing soldier before turning back to Reivyn and rolling his eyes. “I didn’t even know lance corporal was a rank, much less how to tell the difference,” he complained.

“These guys aren’t like us. They’re professionals and do this for a living,” Reivyn responded.

“Yeah, yeah. Give me a break, though. I’ve been doing this for a day.” Teilon didn’t let it get to him and maintained a lighthearted attitude.

The two went silent as they quickly finished their food. They deposited their trays and made their way to the assembly location just outside of the palisade. They weren’t the first to arrive, but they were still earlier than most. As they walked to their position, Sergeant Mok spotted them, and he motioned toward Reivyn.

“Reivyn, front and center,” he called out.

Reivyn shared a glance with Teilon, and then he made his way to report to the sergeant. He quickly brought himself to attention in front of the older man.

“Return your practice spear to the cart and report to Corporal Decker. He can be found leading the morning physical training inside the palisade.” After delivering the simple instruction, Sergeant Mok turned his attention back toward the arriving recruits, clearly dismissing Reivyn.

Reivyn was a little confused, but he still carried out the order given to him, remembering the rule of instant obedience to orders. After depositing his wooden spear back into the cart that was still parked in its same position, he made his way back toward the palisade. He stopped by Teilon briefly to explain.

“I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I’m not with you guys for now,” Reivyn said. Some of the other recruits looked over at the two, having noticed the situation.

Teilon clapped him on the shoulder. “Alright, man, just be safe.” He glanced over at the others assembled. He gave Reivyn a meaningful look. “Pray for me.”

Reivyn chuckled as he jogged back into the palisade. It was obvious what Sergeant Mok had told him to find, as he spotted the majority of the soldiers in a loose formation doing basic warm-up and stretching calisthenics. A man was standing on a simple raised platform directing the exercises and performing along with them. He instantly spotted Reivyn approaching the men, and obviously anticipating his arrival, he simply pointed to the back of the formation.

Reivyn understood what he was supposed to do, and he lined up to participate in the exercises. The warm-ups and stretches being done were similar to the same ones his father had had him do. Not all of them were exactly the same, and there were a couple of different ones, but with the example of the man leading, he was able to easily integrate. The soldiers weren’t in their armor, and, instead, they dressed like Reivyn in simple linens to facilitate ease of movement.

“Line up!” the man, presumably Corporal Decker, called out to the men. The men ended their exercise and made their way to form up in a four-person column formation. The man closest to Reivyn grabbed him by the arm and motioned for him to follow him. Reivyn gave him a nod and a smile in gratitude.

Corporal Decker made his way to the front of the column, and with a shout of “Let’s go!” over his shoulder, he took off jogging, followed by the column of men behind him. The soldiers consisted of, at minimum, mid–Tier 2 uncommon combat classes, so while Reivyn wasn’t too far behind in his physical stats to some of them from his years of intense training, he still had the lowest physical stats in the group. The pace the corporal set wasn’t anything crazy, but it was definitely above what would be considered a jog for Reivyn.

The troops circled the palisade four times, and sweat was beginning to dampen his linens by the time they came to a halt. This wasn’t the end, though, as the men paired off to continue with the exercises. The man who had helped him earlier again motioned for him to pair up with him.

“I heard you have a Pugilist skill of 26. That’s about the same as mine, so stick with me,” the man said.

Reivyn could grasp what the continued exercise entailed with the context, and his suspicions were quickly confirmed with a shout from Corporal Decker.

“Grappling,” he commanded.

Reivyn squared off against his helper, and they began to wrestle. This wasn’t a competition, and they weren’t trying to necessarily best each other. It was a combination of physical exercise and technical practice. The troops wrestled in pairs for about ten minutes before receiving another call.

“Strikes.” The bellow came from the platform. Reivyn and the man, along with all of the other pairs, separated and assumed boxing stances. They bobbed and weaved while they pulled their punches to not risk causing any accidental damage. They still struck each other, as they were also practicing the Pain Resistance skill. The exercise was familiar to Reivyn as he had performed in the same manner countless times with his father. Another ten minutes passed with Reivyn finally starting to pant for breath.

“Free form.” The shout signaled another change. Reivyn wondered how much longer this was going to go on, but with the experience of training while tired, he maintained his proper form. The other man was slightly more skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but he wasn’t so much above him that he couldn’t put up a proper fight. They performed strikes, kicks, and grappling maneuvers, each seizing opportunities in turn, with Reivyn performing slightly below his training partner.

“Alright, that’s it,” Corporal Decker yelled. Everyone separated, most people also panting for breath like Reivyn, and the man across from him gave him an appraising look and a nod of respect.

He finally introduced himself. “The name’s Brace, Lance Corporal Brace.” He extended his hand, and the two grasped forearms in greeting.

“Reivyn. Just Reivyn,” Reivyn replied. The man chuckled.

“Not anymore. Now it’s Private Reivyn. C’mon, I’ll take you to Corporal Decker. We’re in the same squad,” he explained as he led him to the corporal in question. After hearing the words, the doubt he had had about whether he was just training or actually joining the professional soldiers was more than halfway to being answered. He was still confused about the reasons. It can’t just be my skill level.

Corporal Decker was surrounded by ten other men, all standing around waiting on him respectfully. Reivyn surmised that this was the squad he was being assigned to. Upon walking up to the waiting men, Corporal Decker spotted them, and he gave a nod to Brace before addressing everyone.

“It’s seven a.m. right now. You have forty minutes to clean up, get armored, and meet back up here. We’ll go over everyone’s tasks for the day at that time. Reivyn, you’re new, and in order to not waste everyone else’s time, you have twenty minutes to get back here. You don’t have any armor yet, so it’s not much of an imposition. Any questions?” He looked at each of his men. This was a rather routine occurrence, so asking if anyone had any questions at this time appeared to be symbolic. “Okay. Go,” he commanded.

“Don’t worry about breaking down your tent or getting your pack. Just leave it there. No point in relocating at this point. I’ll meet back up with you at the assembly point; just don’t be late. Cutting your time down by twenty minutes means the corporal cut his own time, too, so keep that in mind,” Brace gave him some quick instruction before heading off to take care of his own hygiene.

Reivyn quickly grabbed a change of clothes, the exact same linens he was currently wearing, a towel, and some soap, and he made his way to the washroom. Washroom was putting a pretty face to it, as it was simply an area cordoned off with canvas. There was a large open cistern of cold water with a bucket one could scoop the water out to dump over themselves.

Reivyn quickly cleaned himself by dumping some cold water over his body, scrubbing himself with his soap to wash off the sweat and grime, and then rinsing off with another bucket of cold water. It was a far cry from being able to lean back and relax in an actual bath, taking as much time to relax as he wanted. The cold water didn’t bother him too much, as he had preferred to use cold water to cool off after exercising for years. The sudden shock to the system did wonders to clear his mind.

After depositing his gear back at his tent and storing his soiled clothing in the provided webbed bag, Reivyn made his way back to the assembly point without delay. He had been given twenty minutes to get everything done and get back. He didn’t have to wait in line for anyone, and he guessed he only used about fifteen minutes, but Corporal Decker, decked out in proper armor and looking freshly washed, still managed to beat him back, as he was standing there waiting for him.

How in the world did he manage that? Can he use mana skills? Reivyn was slightly incredulous, but he managed to take it in stride as he jogged up and reported to his new squad leader.

“Private Reivyn, the proper way to report is to come in front of me, assume parade rest, and say, ‘Reporting, as ordered, corporal,’” Corporal Decker instructed.

Reivyn, knowing the proper stance from watching the other soldiers, assumed a stance of shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped behind his back, and said, “Private Reivyn reporting, as ordered, corporal.” Corporal Decker gave a slight nod of approval.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why you, and you alone, were moved over here and are not staying with the other levies,” the man started. “It’s quite simple, really. They’re all Peasant Levies. Every one of them. That’s no place for a Fighter class.”

Reivyn’s eyebrows attempted to join his hairline at this casual revelation. After being surprised, he frowned in contemplation of how his class had been leaked. He hadn’t told anyone.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Corporal Decker said with a chuckle. “The System itself informed the Knight-Captain as soon you were conscripted. The System isn’t just some magical interface to assist in personal growth. Nobody knows its origins, or what its actual purpose is, but there are many functions available to the right sort of people. Nobles and their officers, for example.

“As someone with an actual combat class, and not a conscription class, your enlistment will be with the regulars. You would have found out the specifics, anyway, once we reached Magron, so there’s no harm in disclosing some of that information now. The conscription will last for three years, or until the objective is realized, whichever is shorter. All of the conscripts who have the ability to level up to a proper Tier 2 or 3 combat class will have the option to transfer to the regular unit. Quite frankly 90% of them come from lifestyle backgrounds and don’t have the necessary foundations for that to be possible, so their next tier class will also be the equivalent of a Peasant Levy.

“You”—he jabbed his finger, lightly, into Reivyn’s chest—“don’t have the option. You already have a solid combat class, and we’ll not waste you with the rabble.” Reivyn, despite trying not to, got a small frown on his face at hearing his friend, Teilon, being referred to as “rabble.” He didn’t really care about all of the others, but he knew his friend’s worth. “You think it’s unfair I referred to them as rabble? Well, let them prove otherwise, then. I’m under no obligation to give anyone, especially young levies I don’t know anything about, the benefit of the doubt.” Reivyn couldn’t argue with that.

“Brace seems to have already taken you under his wing, so you’ll be with him after we dismiss for duty.

“Now, to answer another question you likely have, why you are with me and not someone else is for two reasons. Number one, I had an open slot in the squad. It really doesn’t matter in this situation, but there it is. Number two, and more importantly, we have the same class. My class wasn’t acquired ahead of tier, so it’s still only rare and not epic like yours, but the only difference there is the unassigned stats gained on leveling. I can give you advice on which class skills to use, how to effectively use them, how to efficiently gain experience outside of combat, and the proper Mana Circulation technique for your specific build.

“Speaking of, what weapons skills do you have, what are their levels, and which are your primary skills?”

Reivyn was taken aback momentarily at the brazen demand for some of his most private information. His parents had educated him not to disclose things on his Status page casually. He was facing a dilemma on what to say about his Weapons Master skill.

Noticing his hesitation, Corporal Decker continued. “One’s class and weapons skills, specifically, are not secrets in a military unit. Not only do your commanders need to know accurate information to provide proper training and how to use you, but your mates also need an understanding of what you’re capable of in life and death situations. This isn’t a game.”

Knowing the seriousness of the situation, Reivyn was still reluctant to reveal too much, so he made a decision. “No disrespect, corporal, but I feel that I need to speak to someone higher up on this particular issue.”

Reivyn braced for the fallout from what the other man could possibly take as an insult to his character, but after waiting several breaths’ time, nothing happened. Corporal Decker stared at him for a brief moment before nodding his head.

“Very well. You have that right,” came the simple reply. “Follow me. We don’t have much time left, so we gotta be quick.” The squad leader turned and ran off toward the center of the encampment. He wasn’t lying when he said they needed to be quick, as he set a much faster pace in order to get to his destination as soon as possible. Reivyn had to go nearly all-out to keep up.

They came to a halt in front of a larger, higher-quality tent. There was only one other tent that was of better quality, and coupled with the soldier standing guard over the entrance, Reivyn guessed this was the adjutant’s quarters.

Corporal Decker addressed the man guarding the tent. “Corporal Decker reporting to the Knight-Lieutenant in regard to Private Reivyn,” he simply stated.

“Wait one,” came the equally simple reply. The man ducked his head into the tent for a quick exchange with its occupant before straightening up. “Enter.”

The squad leader ducked into the tent. Reivyn didn’t really know what to do with himself in this situation, so he just stood off to the side. The other soldier, while not acting like a complete statue, seemed to ignore him as he stoically stood his post. Corporal Decker quickly returned from the confines of the temporary domicile/office.

“Okay, you go in and report. I’m going back to the assembly point. You tell him what you need to tell him, and he’ll tell me what he needs to tell me,” he explained. He then thrust his finger into Reivyn’s face. “Now I told you this was your right, but if the situation isn’t as warranted as you think it is, and you waste everyone’s time… there will be consequences. Understood?”

“Yes, corporal,” Reivyn replied. With that, Corporal Decker nodded and quickly strode off back where they had come. Reivyn took a deep breath and ducked into the tent. The furnishings were sparse, with a simple folding desk and chair set, an oil lamp, and a neatly rolled bedroll next to a chest in the corner. The adjutant sat at the folding desk writing something.

“Private Reivyn reporting, as ordered, to the Knight-Lieutenant.” Reivyn quickly assumed attention in front of the desk and gave his address. He was told to stand at parade rest when instructed earlier, but the man before him this time was a commissioned officer. That meant this man had some real authority.

The man quickly finished his writing and placed his writing utensil neatly to the side before looking up and nodding at Reivyn. “You learn quick. Now, Corporal Decker tells me you have some issues with revealing information about your Status. Information that is routinely shared between everyone in a military unit. Explain to me why you should be treated any differently.” The man did not couch his words.

Reivyn had already thought about the situation on the run over here, and he decided to simply go for broke. “Sir, I have the Weapons Master skill,” he stated.

The adjutant stared at him for a moment, and then his eyes went wide with realization. He leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on the desk with his fingers steepled in front of his face as he appraised Reivyn. He pointed his steepled fingers at the young man. “You have a mythic skill?”

“Yes, sir,” was his reply.

The man brought his hands to his face, opened them, and then rested his forehead on his palms as he sat in quiet thought. He abruptly sat up straight, acting as if he had always just sat there calmly, and said, “You were right to bring this to me and not disclose it. Corporal Decker, and the others, can be trusted, but this is a different thing entirely. Rest assured this will be handled appropriately. Dismissed.” And with that, he turned back to his papers.

Reivyn didn’t know what he had expected, but from the sounds of it, he had done the right thing. He quickly exited the tent and ran back to the assembly point. Unseen by Reivyn, immediately after he departed, the adjutant also left his tent, but he headed toward the Knight-Captain’s tent once more.

Despite the very brief encounter inside the tent, Corporal Decker was already done issuing the daily duties to his squad, and he stood there with Brace waiting for Reivyn’s return. Reivyn made to report in again, but Decker waved him off.

“You don’t need to report in so soon, again. If we were so caught up on reporting in, we’d never get any actual work done,” he said with a slight chuckle. “Brace will take you to the supply cart and get you some temporary gear. It won’t fit properly, but it’ll have to do until we get to Magron. Do you have the March skill, yet?”

“No, corporal,” Reivyn answered.

“Alright, after getting your gear, Brace will march around with you until you get the skill, and hopefully you can get it to ten before we depart for the city,” Decker said. “Don’t wear the boots except for when practicing to get the March skill. I don’t care how active you were before now, but your feet aren’t going to be used to all of the walking we’re going to be doing, so you need to build up some tolerance. A March skill of ten will greatly help with that on the way to the city, and you’ll be expected to be in full gear and kit during the trek up there. Any questions?” He gave the symbolic question. Neither Reivyn nor Brace had anything to say. “Dismissed.”

Brace, now also properly kitted out in his standard armor, quickly led Reivyn to a cart parked near the inside wall of the palisade. On the way, Reivyn posed some questions to the older man.

“What sort of duties do we typically have?”

“In an encampment like this, in a friendly area, it’s basically an in-barracks situation. There are all kinds of little things that need to get taken care of for the camp to run smoothly. Chow is a good example. The higher-ups pass down the responsibilities needed to be accounted for, the sergeants divvy them up to the squads, and the squads rotate the men around to the different tasks. Someone needs to cook the food, and we don’t have a dedicated chef. That doesn’t mean there aren’t men with higher skill levels than others, and the NCOs typically find a way to match competency to tasks when possible.

“Patrol is another duty. Even though we’re in friendly territory, one must always be vigilant. Never know what could be out there. Just because it’s a friendly, civilized area doesn’t mean all manner of things couldn’t pop up. Mainly, it would be some savage beasts prowling around, not knowing to stay far away. Patrol duty is done by the full squad, though.

“Here we are.” Brace interrupted himself. He had presented a form to one of the soldiers manning the supply area upon reaching the carts, and they had conversed as they waited for the gear to be brought forth.

“Standard issue splint-mail cuirass, helmet, greaves, boots, shield, spear, and sidearm,” the man listed out as each piece was deposited on a table for inspection. The cuirass, like all the others worn by the soldiers, was a long-sleeve leather top with varying-sized plates of metal riveted to it. There were smaller plates with slightly more space around the midsection, and the shoulders curved down to protect the upper arm while leaving the elbow area clear with bracers for the lower arm. Upon putting it on, despite it being slightly too big, Reivyn was surprised to find his range of motion wasn’t really affected too adversely.

Reivyn put the armor on, Brace showing him where to attach clasps and buckles when needed. The sidearm was a standard thirty-inch sword, and the shield was carried strapped to the back while wielding the spear. They cinched it down as tight as they could to prevent anything from sliding around, and, all in all, it appeared to work just fine. He went ahead and donned the boots, as they would immediately begin practicing for him to acquire the March skill.

“Do you have any armor skills, or a shield skill, for that matter?” Brace asked him.

Reivyn shook his head. “No armor skills, and I’m sure I could use the shield as a weapon, but not as a shield, as it were,” he replied.

Brace lifted an eyebrow at the response. “Okaaay,” he said. “We’ll be sure to get some sparring done while you’re wearing the armor to unlock the skill. Really helps with moving around and knowing where and when you can take a hit. For now, though, we work on March. I’ll walk next to you and call cadence, and you match my steps and pace. Due to a quirk in the System, it is impossible to unlock the March skill by yourself, even if I call cadence and you match the proper steps. You gotta actually march in formation, and for whatever reason, the System recognizes two people in step as in formation.”

The two men lined up to begin the skill acquisition. Before they started, though, Reivyn had one last question.

“Why are we in such a hurry? It seems like we’re rushing to get these skills. I know we’re about to march to Magron, but it doesn’t seem that dire? What about the training at the barracks?”

“Training at the barracks?” Brace threw his head back and laughed. “Kid, we’re here to pick up conscripts. There won’t be any training at the barracks. Those guys are gonna get as many levels in the March and Spears skills as they can get along the way, but after a day or two of rest in the city, they’re moving out. And us with them. Now let’s focus on the task at hand.”

Reivyn didn’t have time to really digest the words from the older man or contemplate their implications. He quickly got consumed with the practice.

Chapter twelve

Advancing

The sun bore down on him as Reivyn trudged along. The heat of the early summer was causing him to sweat, even if the physical exertion wasn’t too demanding. The trees to the sides of the road could be seen swaying with the wind, and the cool breeze was a welcome comfort.

Or, at least, it would have been if he weren’t surrounded by other men marching in formation, blocking all avenues for the wind to reach him. It would have been if he wasn’t attired in full kit and gear, helmet blocking any stray wind that managed to weave through the ranks to whisk sweat from his brow. As it was, the wind was nothing but taunting.

Reivyn had spent two of the expected five days on the journey toward Magron, “the city,” as it was referred to. He had acquired the skill March shortly after training in it on the second day, and now was putting it to good use in formation with the regulars. The beat of drums regulated the steps of the march, with the loud, deep strikes signaling when to place the left foot.

It turned out that Teilon was quite prophetic, and a small minority of the conscripts had, in fact, only just obtained the skill. There was a difference between structured training and actual, long hours of sustained activity with a purpose. The only ones who suffered from their lack of unlocking the skill in a timely manner were themselves, as nobody was going to wait on them. Suffering itself, it would seem, was quite the motivation.

The March skill didn’t make the troops walk any faster. The main difference that Reivyn noticed as his skill leveled up was fewer aches and pains in his back, legs, and feet.

The outfit had waited and trained for five days for the surrounding conscripts to all arrive, and then they had spent one more day of rest before setting out. The combined levies extracted from the surrounding villages were actually slightly less than the enlisted from Haluville alone. Reivyn easily unlocked the necessary Armor and Shield skills in the interim with Brace’s tutelage. Being able to use the shield and parts of the armor as active weapons had accelerated the growth in those skills, and even now, after two days of near-continuous marching, those two skills were higher than his March skill.

Skills:
Acrobatics (26), Aim (17), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (31), Balance (34), Command (0), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (22), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (18) Inspire (3), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Sight (14), Map Making (6), March (9), Mathematics (14), Meditation (8) Medium Armor (13), Mental Fortitude (20), Number Concepts (8), Observation (27), Pain Resistance (23), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (30), Sense Mana (42), Shields (15), Sneaking (19) Spatial Awareness (1), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Tactics (1), Weapons Master (22)

He glanced at his Skills tab, effortlessly multitasking by focusing on a blue box while maintaining his steps and positioning with the assistance of the skill.

I wonder if it’s possible to single out certain skills? Decker did say there was great utility in the interface of the System.

Corporal Decker had called him out to continue their one-on-one discussion after the evening training session that first day.

“The adjutant has explained to me that you are versatile and that I should expect an equal level of mastery in a wide variety of weaponry. So, with that in mind, what are your physical stat distributions?” Decker asked.

“24 strength, 24 dexterity, and 26 vitality,” replied Reivyn.

The older man’s eyebrows raised a bit at the revelation, having only known that he had a vitality score of at least 20. After a couple of seconds of thought, he remarked, “Good. You’re not an idiot. As someone versatile, it is more beneficial to maintain a balance between strength and dexterity. Dumping more points into vitality, when necessary to maintain that balance, is never a bad thing.

“It’s not always beneficial for a Fighter to maintain a balance, as it is largely dependent on the skills focus one has. The Fighter class is designated as a rare Tier 2 class, despite its fairly mundane name, because of its wide range of possibilities without losing any power for any of them. I, myself, focus more on the heavy weapons, but there are a couple of others who focus on the more dexterous weapons.

“Now, you might be asking yourself, ‘But, corporal, we all have spears and swords with shields.’ That is true, but it only applies to formation fighting. There are instances, such as individual squad patrol, where we can use our own personalized weapons. One of the things about you being versatile is that I, and our squadmates, can expect the same level of competency in both forms of action.

“The three different types of focus also have their own unique Mana Circulation pathways. As a heavy focus, my pathways center around the meridians located in the larger muscle groups. Dexterity focus centers around the meridians located in the smaller muscle groups and joints, and versatile Fighters… Well, after generations of extensive research, it has been found that, actually, the System-provided Mana Circulation pathways are the most efficient. There won’t always be secret methods that are superior to what the System provides.

“I’m sure you’re aware that everyone has mana, and exercising your Mana Circulation is important, so don’t slack off, and make sure you do it at least once every day feasible. Even those with a zero magic stat have some internal mana, and before you ask, no, you don’t have to disclose whether you have it or not.

“The System is vast and unfathomable, and there are many different things it is capable of. I, and almost everyone else in the unit, use it to maintain the time. Have you ever wondered how our unit is so punctual without any apparent instruments of timekeeping? Well, there you go.

“So, any questions for me at this time?” The corporal gave the symbolic gesture.

“Actually, yes,” Reivyn quickly interjected before the man could leave. The corporal, not put out, gestured for him to continue, and he simply asked, “Can you teach me the time thing?”

Decker gave a small chuckle. “It’s no secret. You just have to know the exact time, and accurately count out a minute in your head. That’s it. Here, I’ll help you.”

Reivyn’s thoughts came back to the present as he spotted the inconspicuous time stamp in the corner of his vision next to the blue notification dot. It had been easy to acquire, and he had quickly reciprocated by teaching his friend Teilon and the other two tentmates.

Reivyn mentally fiddled with his Status as they continued moving ever forward on the road. Suddenly, a new box popped up in his vision.

Recent Skills:
March (9)
Medium Armor (13)
Shields (15)

There it is. That’ll be more convenient in the future.

The troops came to a crisp halt as one of the scouts approached the Knight-Captain from his excursion. The levies performed a meandering, gradual stop more than anything resembling a halt. Not only were they not as skilled as their professional counterparts, but, quite frankly, they didn’t care nearly as much, either.

The commander was competent and had several men on horseback to keep vigil all around the formation. The Knight-Captain gave an order to the scout that Reivyn couldn’t hear, and as the man moved in the opposite direction he had come from, the commanding officer pulled out his token. Reivyn couldn’t get a good look at it, but it was definitely a different material and did something with his mana that Reivyn could just barely perceive.

“Contact, right.” The Knight-Captain’s calm voice spread over the entirety of the unit, professionals and levies alike. “Scouts report a small goblin tribe heading our direction. Sergeant Mok, take a platoon to reinforce the levies. Knight-Lieutenant Brand, you have command.”

This was actually the first time Reivyn had heard the adjutant’s name. The calmness with which the Knight-Captain commanded and the others obeyed helped to quell the rising butterflies in his stomach. This was the first time he was ever going to be in a true, life-and-death situation, and no matter how he had trained and had confidence in himself, he was still nervous.

“Align right,” came the command from the Knight-Lieutenant. The unit dispatched to retrieve the levies was a company made up of three platoons. With one platoon sent back to the recruits, the two remaining platoons faced the right and came together to form one long line. Reivyn found himself in the third rank after the shift.

“Just watch and learn as much as you can.” Brace leaned over slightly and whispered to him. “This ain’t gonna be nothin’, you’ll see.”

“Front rank, javelins.” At the command, the front rank retrieved their shields from their backs and shifted their stances a bit to allow them to bring them to bear more easily. They flipped their spears upside down to be held in the opposite grip so they could throw them on command. The spears weren’t technically designed to be used as javelins, but with the Throwing skill and the System, it was a simple matter to adapt, and it was apparently a common usage of the weapon.

“Second rank, ready spears.” A third command came down, and the second rank assumed a ready stance with their spears.

“We’ll rotate forward if either the first or second rank needs it.” Brace continued his whispered instructions. He slightly shook his head. “Probably won’t need it.”

“Fourth rank, assemble reserve.” At the last command, the two squads broke off from standing in ranks and assembled behind the troops, centered on their original platoon. They would be able to react to changes on the battlefield as needed.

“Now the fun part.” Brace glanced over with a small smile and a twinkle in his eye. “Waiting.”

The soldiers stood at the ready, eyes scanning the tree line approximately thirty or so feet in front of them. Other than the sounds of nature all around them, there was total silence as the men waited.

And waited.

And waited.

A swirl of differing emotions threatened to consume Reivyn as he stood in his place. Anticipation and butterflies tickling his stomach threatened to make him puke. Fear and confidence warred against each other for supremacy. Boredom and doubt threatened to distract him. He found it difficult to stand still and not bounce on his toes or fidget in other ways. He could hear his own accelerated heartbeat in his ears due to the total silence.

Huh, the birds stopped chirping.

No sooner had the thought popped into his head than, suddenly, a tide of green children came pouring out of the tree line, screaming like banshees. That was the only way Reivyn could describe the spectacle. At first glance, it looked like tiny, green human kids ran at him with clubs and makeshift stone hatchets. Upon closer look, he could make out the pointed ears and noses, as well as the wild, feral eyes.

“First rank, throw,” the Knight-Lieutenant commanded. The troops in the first rank smoothly hefted their spears and let fly. The goblins were attired in nothing but loincloths, and the spears easily penetrated the first row of the unarmored assailants. It looked like a scythe had reaped wheat as goblins tumbled to the ground, never to rise again.

“First rank, swords.” Another command was issued. The first rank calmly unsheathed their swords and formed a shield wall, swords held at the ready. The goblins never slowed down as they slammed into the waiting shields.

The men didn’t try to stand completely firm and allowed the goblins to push them slightly back to absorb some of the impact. Reivyn copied Brace, and the third and second rows supported the shield-bearers by helping them absorb the momentum, and then they assisted to shove back against the goblins, who were dazed from the collision.

Reivyn watched as the first rank took the opportunity to bring their swords to bear, dispatching the closest goblins and quickly resuming the shield-wall. Now that the initial charge was over, the shields were no longer held solidly up against each other, but instead, a small gap was left open. The second rank stood slightly off to the side of the first rank, and they used the small gap to jab their spears out at targets. Any goblin that thought it was smart and targeted the gap quickly found itself skewered in the neck or face.

There were probably several hundred goblins, and they advanced without regard to their safety. A cacophony of unintelligible grunts and screams coupled with the sounds of weapons and shields clashing shattered the formerly tranquil silence. The goblins were in a frenzy, but despite their manic behavior and displaced courage, they were utterly ineffective. The professional soldiers calmly and steadily annihilated the foes in front of them.

Reivyn watched in fascination. He didn’t need to learn how to perform the maneuvers. He needed to learn the commands and develop trust between himself and his allies.

He stole a quick glance over to the back. The officers were calm and composed. Knight-Lieutenant Brand was meticulously focused on the formation that he was commanding. Knight-Captain Reifold sat on horseback, watching the forest, his hands folded on the pommel of his saddle. Occasionally, he would nonchalantly tug on his gloves, looking entirely unconcerned.

The midst of a pitched battle was no place to be distracted, so Reivyn only glanced toward the officers for a brief second before resuming his vigil on the ranks before him.

If nothing unexpected happens, this’ll be over quickly, he thought to himself.

Suddenly, a deafening roar reverberated over the battlefield. A giant, hulking behemoth of a monster came trundling out of the tree line. It gripped an entire tree branch in its meaty fist like a club and stood at least ten feet tall. It scanned the conflict arrayed before it, then bellowed once more and launched itself at the formation, tree branch held aloft. It cared nothing for the goblins in its way as they were tossed about and smashed flat in turn. It was surprisingly fast for its bulk, and it wouldn’t take longer than a second or two to reach the first rank.

Reivyn felt his belly flip-flop at the appearance of the monster. He felt a sweat drop on the side of his face as he chastised himself for his errant thought. None of the troops in formation reacted, however, and they continued to perform their duties as if it didn’t exist. They had supreme confidence in their allies and commanders.

A flash of light, reminiscent of Reivyn’s dreams, passed overhead and through the beast. It took one more step before literally falling apart. The beam of light had neatly bisected the creature before it could even enter the fray.

Reivyn stole another glance in the direction the light had come from. Everything was exactly the same, but now Knight-Captain Reifold sat upon his horse with one hand holding his drawn sword. He had obviously just used a devastating class skill to solve the threat. His gaze never wavered from scanning the tree line, and if one didn’t know better, they would assume he was just casually sitting there, having done nothing at all.

Reivyn had a new understanding of the man.

The loss of their ace had finally shaken the small goblin horde. Their frenzied attacks became tepid as it was clear they were finally faltering.

“Advance.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand seized the opportunity to issue a new command. The first and second ranks never stopped blocking, slashing, and stabbing as they slowly started stepping forward into the waiting creatures. Reivyn quickly kept up in his position, and the advancing soldiers finally broke the morale of the tiny monsters.

Only about a hundred or so goblins were able to disengage and flee toward the tree line. At this opportune time, the scouts came bursting out of the forest on their horses and trampled the fleeing goblins. The little fiends hesitated at the sudden flanking maneuver, and it sealed their doom as they were trapped in a pincer attack.

“Mop up by squad,” the Knight-Lieutenant commanded.

Brace tapped Reivyn on the shoulder to get his attention and jerked his head toward the rest of the squad. “C’mon,” he said.

Reivyn joined his squad in quickly descending on the remaining few stragglers. The men from the third rank mainly focused on confirming downed goblins were actually dead, and a quick stab with their spear would make it so when any were found alive.

“Reivyn,” Corporal Decker called out to him. He looked up and saw his squad leader crooking his finger at him, and as he got closer, the man pointed down at the goblin lying at his feet. It was still alive. “Kill it.”

Reivyn looked down at the still-breathing goblin then back up at all of the other squad members who had gathered around. The butterflies were back, and he felt extremely nervous. He had never killed anything before. He had never intended or wanted to kill anything before. His weapons had only ever been used in practice.

He knew that there was no getting out of this experience, and the longer he took, the more respect he would lose. Before anything could happen, he took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and thrust his spear as hard and fast as he could toward the downed creature. He tried to convince himself that he was aiming to stab his spear into the ground behind it, and not to use it to extinguish a life.

The vision of bright-red life’s blood squirting up into the air seared itself into his mind, forever. The sound of the metal tip tearing through flesh was distinct, and the feel of boring through skin, sinew, and bone clearly traveled up the spear into his hands. He kept his eyes wide open, not to relish in the victory of killing an enemy, but so that he would never forget what taking a life was like.

As soon as the light went out of its eyes, a surge of energy swam through his veins. It felt like a cloud gave him a tender massage from the inside out, and all of the stress and anxiety that had built up evaporated with its passing.

He jerked his head up, wild-eyed, at Corporal Decker. “What was that?” he asked.

“That,” Decker responded, “was your first taste of Euphoria. It is the way the System protects the minds of people who fight and kill monsters. How do you think so many people can take up combat classes and not become gibbering lunatics from a lifetime of fighting and killing?

“This is an important lesson that everyone has to learn. Even the Adventurer’s Guild’s initial test is designed to introduce this to its newest members. Now here’s the important part: This only applies to monsters. This does not apply to animals or their higher-leveled cousins classified as beasts, and it certainly doesn’t apply to other people. In fact, if the System deems it, killing an innocent person would cause an equal, opposite reaction.

“It’s the main reason murder rates are so low, though there are psychopaths and people with skills and/or classes that mitigate it. Not sure why the System would have such a punishment in place to only help some prevent it, but what do we know about the System?” He shrugged.

“Alright, everyone, back to work,” he ordered. The squad continued its duty of exterminating the pests. It was standard procedure that everyone, even the city folk, understood that if given the opportunity, a goblin tribe needed to be slain to the very last one. They had a remarkable tendency to bounce back from devastating losses quickly, unfathomably, even if only one survived.

Reivyn no longer hesitated, and he personally slew two more goblins before they were recalled.

Upon returning to the road to resume the formation, Reivyn noticed that the levies hadn’t sustained any dead among them. The goblins had foolishly focused their attack on the armored professionals, and apparently, Sergeant Mok was well versed in leading conscripts. There were some injured, but the goblins, even if they had focused on the levies, were never really much of a threat, and the thing that Reivyn could only guess was an ogre, was quickly dispatched before it was ever a factor.

There wasn’t much to the after-action. The officers conducted a head count and then re-formed the marching formation to continue the trek. As they resumed their march, Reivyn pulled up the notification that was blinking in the corner of his vision.

Combat Initiated.
Member of a Military Formation
2nd Squad

Decker (Leader)
Status: Healthy

Rizler
Status: Healthy

Dromin
Status: Healthy

Tobin
Status: Healthy

Kyle
Status: Healthy

Yorbo
Status: Healthy

Steil
Status: Healthy

Cliff
Status: Healthy

Marik

Status: Healthy

Kran
Status: Healthy

Sile
Status: Healthy

Brace
Status: Healthy

Enemy Defeated x611
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Combat Resolved
Calculating…
Minor Contribution
Exp +10
Experience: 60/100

Reivyn snorted at the results. He got as much experience for finishing off each goblin as he did for the entirety of the combat. He guessed that the minor assistance with absorbing the momentum and pushing back against the horde at the beginning of the battle was his “minor contribution.”

He would need to take a more active role in combat in the future if he expected to get any amount of meaningful combat experience. It was probably squad patrols, with vastly reduced numbers of people involved, that saw the most individual gains in combat experience.

Not much opportunity for that for a while, considering we’re not going to be stopping over in Magron for any length of time.

Even while stationed in the barracks, the soldiers still had to form up their squads and go patrolling in the surrounding countryside. It wouldn’t be good to let a couple of these goblin tribes combine and descend on the city unannounced.

As he marched along, he suddenly got a chill down his spine as all of his hair stood on end.

What kind of combat situation could have possibly awarded me a thousand experience while I was still a baby in the womb?

The thought was disturbing.

Chapter thirteen

Hazy Assimilation

The troops finally made it to the city without further incident after the short battle against the goblins. Reivyn was able to see the tops of the walls looming in the distance over the heads of those marching in front of him long before they were anywhere close to arriving at the destination. They simply dwarfed the basic defenses afforded by the wooden palisade of Haluville, easily standing fifty feet tall.

Fortifications that were taken seriously all had to account for the possibility of high-level assailants in any siege, but similarly high-level masons increased the work and quality considerably. A seat of power such as Magron definitely had at least a few decently high-level craftsmen of the various lifestyle classes.

Ramshackle huts, tents, and lean-tos marred the vision, as there were more people seeking to live in the city than there was space available, and the poorest people were obviously the first ones squeezed out.

Reivyn spotted men in similar garb like the soldiers standing guard in front of the portcullis, and more men could be spotted patrolling the tops of the walls as they passed in and out of view from the crenellations.

Haluville liked to claim they were between a town and a city, but there were obviously gradations of a city. This was a proper city.

The foot traffic entering and exiting the city stood to the side as the soldiers marched through the city, having been waved away by the guards long before they had arrived. As the civilians watched the soldiers parade through, Reivyn, keeping his head straight, in turn watched them. There was an overall level of quality to the clothing and demeanor of the citizens of Magron that subtly spoke of a higher standard of living.

The formation made an immediate right turn after passing through the sally port. They didn’t enter the city proper but stayed on the outskirts next to the inner walls. The barracks were located in such a spot that they could quickly muster, but not so close to the main thoroughfare as to be a nuisance.

Reivyn mentally chuckled to himself as he realized the barracks were located in the relative exact same position as his home in Haluville: the southeast corner near the fortifications.

The barracks weren’t just living quarters for the soldiers. It was a military encampment all on its own. It was roughly styled after a castle fortification, though with much smaller walls. There was a stone headquarters located down the center line with a large parade/drill field taking up the center. There was everything expected to find in a location that housed and trained professional soldiers, and the actual barracks were just a small portion.

The soldiers and levies came to a halt on the parade deck. Even with nearly a thousand troops, the space wasn’t completely filled. A delegation of people in uniform, but not armor, came out to greet the officers, and they disappeared into the headquarters building while the sergeants delegated getting the squads settled to the corporals. Sergeant Mok met up with some more unarmored men and women to start processing the documents filled out when the conscription took place.

“Reivyn.” Corporal Decker beckoned him over. The drill field had devolved into controlled chaos as the administrative personnel took charge of the conscripts and broke them up into multiple groups handling various tasks simultaneously. As Reivyn approached his squad leader, the man told him, “In a moment we’ll go to the headquarters building to get your documents and token sorted out. Until then, stick with me.”

Reivyn followed Corporal Decker and the rest of the squad to the barracks where they were housed. After supervising his men to ensure they were properly maintaining and stowing their gear, Decker dismissed his squad for the day. After ending a long march, the men had some downtime allotted to them. They couldn’t leave the enclosure of the compound as a whole, but they could freely go about their own business.

His own duties as the supervisor seen to, Decker motioned for Reivyn to follow him and quickly strode toward the headquarters building. He was moving at a fast clip, his mind seemingly preoccupied, because the sooner he finally got done with Reivyn, the sooner he could enjoy his own relaxation time.

Reivyn kept his head on a swivel as he took in all the sights available to him. There was nothing much to the actual buildings and grounds themselves, but it was a sight to see the efficiency of the people who called the place home. In the short amount of time they had been inside of the barracks where their squad was housed, the administrative soldiers had already bivouacked the levies.

The conscripts had been segmented into smaller units and given some chow. A quarter of the drill field had been sectioned off for them, and they were taking the time to enjoy a meal and get some rest as an unfortunate few had been volun-told to participate in a work detail setting up their temporary lodging. The soldiers weren’t going to make them just stay out in the open, but there was definitely not room for them in the permanent structures.

The path that the duo took toward their destination led them past a group of men training in various methods. They all stopped to watch as Reivyn passed, and he could see many different expressions on their faces: surprise, amusement, deadpan, and scorn. He could almost feel the few unfriendly gazes eyeing him up and down.

The foyer of the headquarters building was spotlessly clean, and more elegant than Reivyn would have expected. There were some curved stairwells leading to an open balcony lined by a balustrade on the second floor that in turn led down the hallways on either side. Their destination was on the first floor, down the hallway on the right.

“We don’t ever use those stairs,” Decker said to him over his shoulder. “If we ever have business on the second floor, we use the stairs at the ends of the halls. Only the officers and messengers with emergency messages use the central stairs.”

Reivyn nodded at this information. He seemed to have a very specific dream about being lost in a maze of a building, looking for some way to get upstairs because of some nonsensical rule labeling the only obvious way as off-limits. Stupid, arbitrary rules seemed to permeate even the most efficient organizations.

Decker appropriated Reivyn’s token from him as they arrived at their destination, which was just a small room toward the end of the hall with some more administrative people. He approached a man, presented the form that Reivyn had filled out along with his token, and explained the situation to him.

There was no hassle or runaround. There was no, go here and get this signed by this person, then go across to another building, then hop on one leg shenanigans. It was quick and easy, and Reivyn was soon the holder of a brand-new, shinier token. He was no expert on metals or alloys, but he was pretty sure the conscription token had been tin, and this new one was made of bronze. He held it to his core to attune it, and then he was officially a regular.

Decker led him back out of the headquarters building, clapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Well, I know you’ve been with us for a while now, but, welcome aboard. Your bunk is the one next to Brace’s like we showed you. I got some things to do. I trust you can find your way back on your own?” At Reivyn’s nod, he gave a small smile and said, “Good man.”

Corporal Decker hurried off in another direction, leaving Reivyn to walk back across the drill field on his own. Nothing had changed in the short time they had been inside, and the environment was saturated with a military atmosphere.

“Well looky what we ’ave here, boys.” A mean-sounding voice interrupted Reivyn’s sight-seeing of the compound. He had been lost in the similarities between his current situation and many of the dreams he remembered, and he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going. He looked up and saw the group of men that had been training nearby when he had followed Corporal Decker to the headquarters. He recognized the tone of voice of the man who had spoken, and he sighed to himself.

“Looks like we got some fresh meat,” the man walking toward him called over his shoulder to his training mates. The other men chuckled gleefully at the expected good play they were about to witness. The man turned to face Reivyn, eyed him up and down with a smirk on his face, and said, “Does your mommy know you’re here?”

Reivyn looked at the man, then looked at the others who were also approaching, and he simply turned and walked away. A hand snatched out and grabbed him by the shoulder, holding him in place. His eyes followed the hand up the arm to the frowning face of the one who had approached him. He had thought he had enough time to keep the distance between them, but he had moved a lot faster than he had expected when he tried to get away.

“I’m talking to you, boy.” The man spit to the side, a familiar gesture that only served to cause Reivyn irritation. “Seems to me like you got no respect for your elders.” He reached his left hand out without looking, and another person handed him a training spear. “I’m a magnanimous person, so I’ll take it upon myself to teach you a few pointers.” The man let go of his shoulder and stepped back an appropriate distance for sparring with a spear.

Before he had realized it, Reivyn had been surrounded by the group of older soldiers. A spear came flying at him, horizontally so as not to actually hurt him, but it was fast enough that he had to scramble to catch it before it smashed into his face. He looked at the man standing before him and all-around at the others. All that met his eyes were mocking gazes of schadenfreude.

The man lunged forward with a proper spear thrust, and the one exchange caused Reivyn’s stomach to drop. The man had a higher level, higher stats, and clearly a higher skill level. There was no way to disengage from the confrontation in such a situation, and he could only hope to put in a good showing.

He expertly parried the thrust and assumed a proper stance. The man was slightly surprised at first, but he quickly focused wholeheartedly on the fight. He had no intention of going easy on the new guy.

Sweat began to trickle down Reivyn’s face as he fended off lightning-quick jabs, feints, loops, and sweeps from the more experienced combatant. The blunted tip of the practice spear would whistle past his head as he quickly jerked out of the way, but he never lost his balance or overextended.

A glint flashed in the man’s eye, and the spear in his hands thrust straight toward Reivyn’s eye. This wasn’t a simple sparring jab any longer. It was a killing move, and he had been instructed over and over to never actually perform such a maneuver during a sparring session because accidents invariably happened. The utter gall of the man to launch such a strike momentarily stunned Reivyn, and with a sinking feeling, he realized he had fallen for a trap.

The man quickly spun his spear out of the fatal strike, and solidly drove the butt of the pole into his unprotected midsection. Reivyn doubled over in pain, his mouth open and saliva spitting out as the wind was knocked from him. He sucked in a deep breath easily, but it was like the pressure was off-balance between his lungs and the outside air, and he could barely force the air back out.

He went to a knee, dropping the practice spear to hold his stomach and attempt to gasp much-needed oxygen into his lungs. He could vaguely sense feet shuffling around him, and then the man spoke to him.

“Tsk, tsk. Spears skill needs work,” he mockingly said. “On your feet. Let’s check out your Swords skill.” Reivyn finally mastered his breathing after a short moment of panic, and a man thrust a training sword upon him.

He assumed a proper fighting stance with his sword at guard, calling upon his years of intense training while exhausted and his Mental Fortitude skill.

The other man engaged in quick thrusts, slashes, feints, and parries once again. There were hardly any wasted movements, and his strikes landed heavily upon Reivyn’s training weapon, threatening to knock it off course repeatedly. He utilized his footwork to the best of his ability and danced around the encirclement of cheering and jeering men. He vaguely got the sense of a foot sticking slightly out in his path from his Spatial Awareness skill. He hadn’t had much opportunity to level it, so it was still very low and only provided him the barest hint of a sensation.

He made to step over the protruding foot as the other man relentlessly pressed him, but the foot followed his path up and tripped him anyway. He knew it was obviously intentional, but the other man had been watching and capitalized on his loss of balance. The man ruthlessly drove his sword horizontally into Reivyn’s side, overwhelming his Pain Resistance skill, and causing his upper body to involuntarily form a “C” shape as he gasped in pain.

The man shook his head as he evaluated Reivyn’s performance. “Swords skill… not very good.” He tossed his training weapon to the side and assumed an unarmed stance. “People don’t always have access to weapons, so maybe you have some training in hand-to-hand, hmm?” The man was clearly insulting him, as there was no way he couldn’t recognize that Reivyn was performing at the Journeyman mastery.

Reivyn glared at the man as he tossed his sword away and also assumed a fighting stance once more. His opponent didn’t wait for him to recover as he descended upon him in a flurry of fists, knees, elbows, and feet. He was clearly a very skilled fighter in all three forms of combat he had chosen. He was able to utilize most of his body as a weapon in some form or fashion.

The man suddenly ducked down and attempted a leg sweep, but Reivyn deftly avoided it. The man sprang back up into action without missing a beat from the failed maneuver. He threw out a feint with his left hand, and his right hand came swinging over in an exaggerated haymaker. Such an obvious attack was easily countered by Reivyn’s block, but the man suddenly dropped his elbow down and flipped his hand forward. His fingers splayed open, and a handful of dirt flew right into Reivyn’s face and eyes, blinding him.

Reivyn pulled back into a more defensive stance as he utilized every last scrap of his willpower to make Spatial Awareness function at a higher level. He took a few body shots, but he was able to successfully fend off the man’s barrage of fists and feet.

The man finally backed off as he couldn’t get a good hit in, and Reivyn heard him say in a petulant voice, “Fine! It seems you do have a little bit of skill in at least one thing.” The man sounded like he was personally offended that he couldn’t cause more justified pain to Reivyn.

Reivyn relaxed his stance and tried to wipe some of the dirt and grit out of his eye when a pair of arms suddenly snaked around him from behind, locking him in place.

He could hear the sneer as the man he had been fighting approached him again and said, “A little skill in hand-to-hand. Hardly an accomplishment for a military fighting unit. You appear to have been coddled all your life, so in final instruction, let me help you unlock the Pain Resistance skill.”

Reivyn didn’t have time, or any way, to prepare before a heavy blow landed in his rib cage quickly followed by another on the other side, causing him to grunt unintentionally. The man began to whale on Reivyn in an unhinged manner. Reivyn lost focus on everything going on around him as his Pain Resistance skill crumbled and he was consumed by the agony.

The beating only lasted for a few moments, but it felt like an eternity to Reivyn. Once the blows stopped, the arms holding him in place let go, and he collapsed to the ground on his knees. His vision was swimming with spots floating around obscuring what he could see. Tears and snot fell down his face as he felt a fist grip his hair and hold his head up. A slap came in from the side that he couldn’t see.

“This is what happens to little pissants who don’t show the proper respect,” a voice filled with vitriol whispered into his ear. The fist holding his head up threw it forward, causing his balance to go with it, and he sprawled on the ground, panting. “Stay down, boy.” Reivyn heard a few chuckles from those watching, but they sounded more nervous than anything now.

Reivyn was out of it. He had never been in such a state before, and his thoughts weren’t forming anything coherent. He just instinctively knew that he didn’t like lying down in the dirt. So he, ever so slowly, stood up.

The man who had initiated the altercation didn’t like that.

Brace threw out a card onto the small table he and a few other squadmates were using to play their game.

“Who do you think’s gonna try to ‘initiate’ Reivyn first?” he asked.

Tobin sat to his left holding his cards in one hand while he moved the other one back and forth in indecision over which to play. “I don’t know, but they’re probably in for a surprise, whoever it is.”

The men chuckled at the statement. While it wasn’t unusual for some new recruits to show up with a skill or two at the Journeyman mastery, Reivyn was a special case. They had each witnessed him perform at the same skill level in multiple weapons. Most of the regular troops had their weapons skills around the Level 20 range, with the more seasoned veterans having surpassed the threshold of Level 25.

The squad expected to hear a story of a young soldier who had never had the opportunity to lord it over anyone before biting off more than he could chew, and they were happily laughing and joking as they played their card game.

The door to their quarters slammed open, and someone could be heard rushing in. Yorbo came running up with wild eyes. “It’s bad, guys. Ren got ahold of Reivyn.”

The laughter immediately came to a dead stop. They all looked at each other, each thinking the same thing. They quickly scrambled to make sure they were all properly dressed as they ran out of their quarters.

Brace turned his head to Yorbo and asked, “Where’s Corporal Decker?” He didn’t stop rushing toward the drill field as he posed the question.

Yorbo threw his hands up and exclaimed, “We were gone for two weeks! Where do you think he is? He’s with his girl.”

Brace gave him the side-eye and said, “Well, go get him!”

If Ren was the one to spot Reivyn without anyone there to back him up, then there was no way it was going to be a happy ending.

Ren was a spoiled rich kid with connections in the Capital. He used his family connections to skirt the rules. This normally wouldn’t fly, but Ren also had real skill. The two factors combined meant he got away with acting like a complete dirtbag all the time. He would take anything that didn’t go exactly his way as a personal insult.

The worst thing, though, was that he was a corporal. His men would follow along with his antics because if they didn’t, they would be the target of his ire.

Brace and the squad quickly arrived on the scene to witness a disgruntled Ren punching a crawling Reivyn in the face.

“Why won’t you stay down!?” he screamed. He had completely lost his mind.

Reivyn was unresponsive. He was clearly disoriented, and he wasn’t even capable of defending himself. Brace stood in horror as he saw the blood and tears streaking his face. His left eye was already turning a dark purple.

Brace ran forward and interjected himself between Ren and Reivyn, the other squad members surrounding the two casting menacing gazes at the ones who had failed to put a stop to this fiasco. “Corporal Ren! Stop!” Brace yelled out with his hands held out in front of him.

Ren shoved his finger into Brace’s face. “Stay out of this, Lance Corporal.”

“No, you’ve gone too far,” Brace retorted. “Look at him! You’re killing him!”

Ren glowered at Brace, ready to go into a diatribe when a shout came from the distance.

“What in the hells?!” Corporal Decker came sprinting up. He had clearly been interrupted, as he was attired only in his pants, boots, and sidearm. The only reason he had the last was that it was still buckled to his pants when he hastily got dressed.

Corporal Decker took in the scene before him and shot a piercing gaze at Ren. Without thinking about the consequences, Decker drew his weapon and attacked Ren. This wasn’t a training weapon. He was aiming to seriously hurt his opponent.

Ren jumped back in shock. “What are you doing? You’re gonna attack a real man over this guy?” he exclaimed in disbelief with a gesture toward Reivyn, who had managed to attain his feet, albeit unsteadily.

“You’re damn right!” Corporal Decker attacked again.

Brace put his hands on either side of his head. Things had gotten completely out of control. He had no idea what to do. He kept glancing between his squad leader and Corporal Ren, blinking his eyes rapidly in panic.

Suddenly, between one blink and another, Knight-Captain Reifold had materialized out of thin air. He was holding Corporal Decker’s sword completely still, pinched between forefinger and thumb.

Everything went eerily still and quiet. Not even the breeze dared make a sound. Knight-Captain Reifold calmly looked at Ren, then he turned his head and calmly looked at Corporal Decker. Finally, his gaze landed on Reivyn, who was at risk of collapsing at any moment.

“What,” he began, as his gaze returned to Corporal Ren, “is happening here?” He casually let go of the sword, and Decker allowed the tip to fall to the ground.

Ren visibly swallowed, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Knight-Captain Reifold glanced around at everyone present before saying, “This is a serious breach of military discipline. I understand that some rough-housing takes place between the old and the new. It is perfectly fine, even appropriate, to do so. Everyone goes through it. You went through it. Even I went through it.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “However… explain to me what is appropriate about beating a nine-year-old who, if not for the unusual circumstances of conscription, would still be legally a child… What is appropriate about beating him to within 5 percent of his health?”

Everyone’s eyes went wide, and Ren’s face drained completely of blood. Brace looked at Reivyn in disbelief. People were at risk of going comatose at 5 percent health, yet the youth continued to stand.

It was common knowledge that one risked their heart stopping if they bottomed out on stamina, and it was equally common knowledge that one usually passed out unconscious around the 10 percent health mark. It was a myth that people could stay in a fight all the way to 1 percent health, as the body would have sustained so much damage by that point that it would shut down.

While everyone was still stunned at the revelation, Knight-Captain Reifold addressed Decker. “Corporal Decker. You were negligent in your duty. You allowed your personal reasons to cloud your judgment, and you failed to protect one of your own. You then compounded this mistake by attacking a fellow NCO with a deadly weapon. Five lashes of the punishment rod should wake you up.”

Brace sucked in a cold breath. The punishment rod was a magic item that completely bypassed the Pain Resistance skill. The only saving grace of such a punishment was that it didn’t cause any actual damage.

“As for Corporal Decker’s squad, I commend you for rushing to the aid of your fellow squad member, even confronting an NCO to do so; however, he’s new. At least one of you should have already been there to have his back,” Knight-Captain Reifold continued. “Corporal Ren’s squad, you lack the backbone to stand up to your superior when he is clearly in the wrong. You are relegated to exclusively latrine duty from now on. Maybe you can gain the Mental Fortitude skill while there.”

“Corporal Ren,” he finally addressed the culprit. “You. Are. An. Embarrassment.” He enunciated each word individually. Everyone was completely shocked at the statement. Knight-Captain Reifold was renowned for being hard but fair. He was strict in discipline, but never, not once ever, had anyone ever heard him insult somebody. “You are reduced to the rank of private.”

Ren’s eyes threatened to bug out, and before he could catch himself, he uttered, “Sir, you can’t…” He nearly choked on his words.

“I can’t what?” the commanding officer asked.

Ren mustered his courage, set his gaze, grit his teeth, and said, “My father will hear of this.”

Knight-Captain Reifold nodded. “I see. Well, if I ever hear the words ‘my father’ from you, directed at me, again… I’ll cut your tongue out,” he said with a completely straight face. “There is nobody, in this kingdom or the next, who can intimidate me. Especially not you, a man under my command, and especially not your father. Do you understand?”

Ren swallowed once again. He had no more blood to drain from his face, and his complexion was ghostly white. “Yes, sir,” he managed to stammer out.

“Dismissed,” Knight-Captain Reifold ordered. Everyone acted like they had grown another set of legs as they disappeared from the scene as fast as they had ever escaped a situation before.

Everyone except Brace. He wasn’t going to forget the lesson his commanding officer had just given their squad about not looking out for Reivyn.

The Knight-Captain nodded in approval. “I’ll carry him to the infirmary personally. You follow along.”

“Yes, sir,” Brace replied.

Chapter fourteen

Sunny Day

“C’mon, sir, it’s gonna be great. We’re going to have barbecue, beer, women, the game. We have a swimming pool. There’s gonna be women there.”

Marc sat at his desk attired in his utilities. There was a constant stream of paperwork and emails to be addressed while in garrison. He would prefer to be out in the field with his men, but he understood not every waking moment could be spent training. Currently, his XO, First Lieutenant Jackson, was talking his ear off about the plans he and the other lieutenants had made for the ball game over the weekend. He had spent all week trying to convince him to attend.

“Alright! If it’ll get you to shut up for a minute, I’ll go,” Marc finally relented. He looked up at his officer. “Happy?”

“Immensely, sir, immensely,” the other man had a wide grin on his face. “Now we got all the bases covered. Don’t worry about bringing anything. We got the food, we got the entertainment, we got the beer.”

“I said I was going! Stop trying to convince me already.” Marc rolled his eyes. “And I know what you and the other lieutenants call beer. I’ll bring my own, thanks.”

“Sure, sure, sir,” Jackson continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Now the final point, and this is crucial, sir, is that the proper uniform of the day is civilian attire. I’m sure that if you press it out properly, that even you could manage that.” He had a mirthful smile on his face as he teased his commanding officer.

Marc gave him a deadpan look. Jackson replied by mouthing the word “civilian” again. Marc pointed his finger menacingly at his subordinate. “Get out of here before I hop over this desk and kick you in the ass!”

“Right away, sir, right away.” Jackson turned and strode to the exit of the office. As he passed through the entryway and was about to close the door, he opened up the door just enough to stick his head back in to say, “Did I mention some of my wife’s single friends were going to be there?”

“Get out!” Marc yelled as he playfully threw his pen at the man. Jackson deftly ducked below the flying pen, and Marc could hear him laughing on his way down the hall, even after he had closed the door behind him. Marc returned his focus to the paperwork on his desk as he absentmindedly swatted his hand at some annoyance.

“Well, there he is.” Jackson answered the door. He eyed Marc up and down, taking in his khaki shorts with a neatly tucked-in collared polo shirt. He shook his head and tsked. “Just couldn’t help yourself, could you, sir? Well, B for effort.”

Marc reached over and cuffed the man on the shoulder as he chuckled. “I look great, and you know it,” he retorted.

“Well, come on in, sir. I see you did, in fact, bring your own beer. I am offended,” Jackson declared with his hand held over his heart.

He led Marc into his house and showed him where he could store his six-pack. He grabbed one of the beers and followed Jackson into the backyard, where there were already a lot of people socializing. The other lieutenants, with their wives, spotted his entrance and gave him a greeting as he made his way over to where they had congregated in conversation. Jackson or his wife had set up some strange blue banner nearby, but he didn’t pay it any attention.

Marc wasn’t typically one for social interactions. He wasn’t shy or not confident in himself or anything like that. He was just perfectly content with being alone. As he was the only bachelor, his lieutenants didn’t see it that way. They were constantly inviting him over to one’s house or another, trying to set him up with a “nice girl.” He had never found anyone that really caught his eye, however, and he figured today would be just like any other day: enjoyable, but otherwise not noteworthy.

He was wrong.

The moment she stepped through the sliding glass doors from the house, he was spellbound. She was dressed in a modest yellow sundress with flower patterns. Long auburn hair framed her face that had a constant sweet, yet mischievous, smile gracing it. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. The lieutenants shared a look between each other.

A cough brought Marc back to himself, and one of his lieutenants said, “What do you think, sir?”

The conversation had obviously been continuing around him without his participation, and he was slightly embarrassed to realize that even though he had been staring, this new girl had actually joined their circle and had been there for some time, and he just hadn’t noticed that fact at all.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” He turned to the grinning group.

“What I was saying,” one of the lieutenants began.

Marc cut him off. “What I think.” He looked at the girl. “What I think, is that I never knew why they were called sundresses, but I finally figured it out. The radiance is blinding.”

“Whoa!” the group exclaimed in surprise. Jackson had been in the middle of taking a drink from his bottle, and he choked on the beer and sprayed it out in a classic spit-take. Marc heard someone else say, “What happened to the captain, and who is this?”

He only had eyes for the girl, and he noted with mirth that she blushed a lovely shade when embarrassed from a compliment.

And that was all it took.

Many different scenes flashed through Reivyn’s mind, the first couple of dreams more crystal clear than they ever had been before. He was Marc, but there was always a nagging whisper in the back of his mind telling him this wasn’t so anymore. He struggled to maintain a semblance of his identity.

It finally came to a head when a final dream came into crystal-clear focus.

Marc was sitting on the couch watching the news. There were many hints of a happy family strewn about the room. Photos of Marc and Ashleigh, the girl he had met, together on the wall. Baby pictures of a boy and a girl. A clear cupboard filled with toys for toddlers.

He was expecting his wife to come in through the door with their two children in tow, but he wasn’t paying too much attention to how much time had actually passed, as he was engrossed in the current events.

A knock at the door brought his attention away from the pundits. He got up to answer it, slightly confused because he wasn’t expecting anyone else to be dropping by.

A police officer stood on the porch, his squad car parked in front of the driveway. He had a somber expression on his face, and when Marc opened the door, he said something that Marc couldn’t hear.

His vision was consumed by the giant blue box, inexplicably floating in the air with text on it. As soon as he focused on it, he was able to clearly remember seeing it in all of his other memories, but his subconscious had ignored it completely until now.

Helpful Hint!
You’re Dreaming.
WAKE UP!

Reivyn shot up in a bed. His heart pounded as adrenaline coursed through his system, and all of the range of emotions he had experienced in his sleep slammed into him all at once. He shut his eyes tight as a single, solitary tear rolled down his cheek.

“Whoa, whoa, there,” Brace called out to him from the side. “Stay calm. Stay calm. I’m here.” He reached out and gripped his shoulder in comfort.

Reivyn shook off the last vestiges of the dreams as he reasserted himself. I am Reivyn. He finally managed to open his eyes and look around the unfamiliar environment. He was in a room very similar to the open bunk barracks, but it was a smaller room, and there were no other people in it. He looked over at Brace and gave him a nod to indicate that he was okay.

“Do you know where you are?” Brace asked. Reivyn shook his head, and Brace continued, “You’re in the infirmary. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Reivyn paused for a moment to sift through his memories. He opened his mouth to say his house in Virginia, but he choked on the words as he clamped his mouth shut. That’s not right. He shook his head and was finally able to remember some things that seemed far away ago, now.

“The last thing… I got my new token, and I was heading out of the headquarters behind Corporal Decker,” he answered.

“Anything else?” Brace prompted.

Reivyn scratched his head and then shook it. “I have this weird feeling that things kept going after that, but my memories just sort of fade to black from there.”

Brace nodded. “Yeah, that’s understandable. You got caught up in a hazing incident. Everyone goes through it, and it’s usually not a problem. The older troops humble the new recruits and test out their abilities to make sure they can trust their back to them.

“That’s not what happened to you. You got accosted by a real piece of work. A guy by the name of Ren, and he has an ego a mile wide. I can guess that he was expecting to put you in your place quickly, but with your skills, you managed to put up a fight. If things don’t go exactly how he expects them to, he tends to take it as a personal insult.

“He beat the hell out of you, man,” Brace explained to him. “Things got really bad there for a moment, and I thought Corporal Decker was going to stab him. He sure tried to. Knight-Captain Reifold intervened at that point. He resolved the situation and brought you here, personally. That was an hour ago.”

Reivyn glanced down at his body, and then he opened his Status. He looked up at Brace with a confused look on his face. “I’m at full health. It couldn’t have been that bad?” It was more of a question than a statement.

Brace guffawed. “Of course, you’re at full health. You had a Tier 3 Physician take care of you. He had you at full health in ten minutes. You just took so long to wake up because your mind needed to catch up.

“Alright, take your time to get situated, and when you’re ready, we’ll head back to the barracks,” Brace said.

“I mean, I’m good to go now, but I have a notification from the System that really wants me to look at it, so I’ll just take a quick look and then we can go,” Reivyn said. The little blue light in the corner of his vision was making itself known more than was usual, so he brought it up.

Skills Leveled Up!
Weapons Master (26 ->27)
Evasion (22 ->23)
Spatial Awareness (1 ->6)
Pain Resistance (23 ->25)
Mental Fortitude (20 ->25)

New Skills Unlocked!
Blind Fighting (1 ->2)
Iron Will (1)
Vitality +1

Combat Initiated.
You have been defeated by your opponent.
+0 Exp
Combat Resolved
+50 Exp
Level Up! Fighter Level 2!
10/200 Experience

Reivyn sat there in stunned silence for a minute. He finally looked up at Brace and said, “I got combat experience. I’ve never gotten combat experience from sparring before.”

“Hmph! That’s because it wasn’t a spar, and even the System itself recognizes that. Typically, you only get combat experience if one of the parties involved has actual killing intent. That Ren’s a right bastard.” Brace made as if to spit, but he looked around at the clean infirmary, thought better of it, and swallowed.

Reivyn took that information in, and then he allocated his unassigned stat points evenly between strength and dexterity. He glanced at his Status page.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 2 Age: 9]
[Health: 300/300 Stamina: 590/590 Mana: 260/260]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 29 * INT: 24]
[VIT: 30 * MAG:28]
[DEX: 29 * CLA: 21]
[CHA: 3 * PER: 19]
[LUK: 3]
[Experience: 10/200]

“Alright, well, I’m ready when you are,” Reivyn said as he swung his legs over the bed and stood up. Brace sprang up and acted like he was going to have to catch him, but there were no problems, and he finally relaxed.

The two left the infirmary, which was located to the side of the drill field next to the headquarters building, and crossed the open area toward the barracks. There were still many people out and about attending to their duties, training, or relaxing in their own way, and the bivouacked area had been replaced with rows of large tents. The levies were currently being issued their gambesons and any other gear they would need.

“So how strong is Ren, exactly?” Reivyn asked as they walked along.

“He was a corporal before the Knight-Captain stripped him of his rank, if that tells you anything. Typically a Journeyman level in combat skills is the minimum requirement before one is considered for promotion, unless there are mitigating factors. Like Corporal Pale from before. He has the Teaching skill, so he was promoted to facilitate training others.

“Anyway, Ren was one of the top corporals. Comes from a good background and had lots of training before he joined. I’m not 100 percent on the specifics. You would have to ask one of his old squadmates, but I want to say his weakest main combat skill is around Level 30, and he’s a Knight, a Tier 2 rare class, around Level 20 or so.” Brace looked at Reivyn from the corner of his eye. “You never stood a chance in a real fight, and that’s where he took it.

“For comparison, Corporal Decker’s highest main combat skill is Swords at Level 28, and he’s a Level 16 Fighter.”

Reivyn considered that information as they made their way into the barracks. The squad all looked up at him and greeted him as they entered. They swarmed around him, asking if he was all right and seeing if he needed anything, and he felt genuine concern from his squadmates.

He spent the next ten minutes fending them off, letting them know that, yes, he was fine now. No, he didn’t need anything. The other squad members resumed their card game as Reivyn took out the armor he had previously placed aside near an empty bunk before heading to the admin. He needed to return it to supply to replace it with an actual form-fitting set of gear in the morning, so he needed to clean it and make sure it was properly maintained.

“Yeah, so Corporal Decker was punished with five lashes from the punishment rod. It wasn’t a public flogging, so he went straight to the Discipline Yard right after the altercation. He’s probably getting ‘comforted’ by his girl with tender love and care right about now.” Brace was talking about the punishments everyone had received.

Reivyn frowned at that information, and he felt a little guilty that he was part of the reason his corporal had been punished. He logically knew it wasn’t his fault and that there had been nothing he could have done about it, but he couldn’t help how he felt. Brace saw the look on his face and squeezed his shoulder.

“Don’t feel bad, Reivyn. He knew he shouldn’t have run off like that, so it’s all on him. He’s not going to blame you. Heck, one of us should have gone with you guys, just in case, and we were chastised for it as well. We got off easy because of how we reacted when we heard the news.

“Hah, and Ren’s teammates have been relegated to professional crap shovelers for the foreseeable future. They want to act like slimy, spineless cowards, then they can join their kind in the pits.

“Now, you might think that Ren got off easy by just getting demoted, but for anyone in the know, we understand it’s more than that. His uncle is some big shot in the Capital who’s attached himself to one of the dukes somehow. I don’t know a whole lot of the specifics, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s just some fat layabout with a silver tongue and too much money.” He paused to look over at Reivyn. “He’s probably not actually a fat layabout, but that’s how I think of him in my mind, because screw those guys.”

His statements were met with sounds of approval from all around. Ren and his family were obviously not popular, but the topic about him was, and everyone seemed to be in agreement on how he was a scumbag.

“Now Ren, apparently, is the best talent they’ve had in the combat classes for as far back as they can remember. I know because he constantly brags about it. They were apparently grooming him to get some achievements in the military out here where there was less competition in the Capital, get him ranked up to sergeant, which, honestly, could have happened in a year or so despite his personality, and then transfer him back with a commission as a lieutenant. They were going to use both political and military exploits to finally try to weasel a conferment of nobility.

“Now he has to start over. Not only does he have to start over, but instead of smooth sailing ahead, he has to overcome the black mark on his record this is going to leave. Knight-Captain Reifold isn’t one to meddle in politics, usually, but rumor has it that he’s been unhappy with the way Ren has been using his backing to skirt the rules and pressure others, so he took this opportunity to not only hurt him and his family but to also send a message. ‘You’re not nobles yet, and I can stop you any time I want.’

“Just as an aside, Knight-Captain Reifold isn’t technically a noble, but he is a landed knight, and a landed knight currently serving as a commander is afforded the rank and privileges somewhere between a baron and a count.”

Reivyn was listening as he worked. He was so engrossed in the conversation that he didn’t even realize he was done with his gear, and he had just been spinning it around over and over, looking for something to do with it. Brace finally waved him over to the little table of cards.

“Come over here. I’ll show you how to play,” Brace said. Reivyn smiled as he joined the others.

Knight-Captain Reifold sat at his desk going over paperwork. There was always a constant stream of paperwork and messages to be addressed while in garrison. He had just received the details on where he would be leading the troops and levies.

It was giving him a headache.

The mission didn’t appear, on the surface, to be too complicated: Move to the mountain range, clear out any threats, build road into said mountain range. But there were definitely more factors involved than the simple orders he had received.

First, there was an Orc encampment, according to the adventurers who had been hired in the past couple of years to scout the area, at the base of the mountains. They had occupied an old, abandoned prospecting town, and to date, they had behaved themselves, but everyone knew Orc encampments always eventually meant Orc raids. He had no idea how it had been overlooked for so long as to allow an actual camp to be built within the county.

Then, on top of it being an Orc encampment, they had a goblin slave army, because of course they did.

This was the “threat” so casually mentioned in the missive from the count. Luckily, the numbers were on his side.

Last, the mountain range was on the border of the county, and it had never been properly defined in accordance with the neighboring county. And the reason it had never been properly defined was because of the propensity of some seriously high-leveled ferocious beasts to take a stroll through said mountains. It was an ambiguous situation, and anything they did in the mountain range beyond the old prospector town could potentially be disputed by the neighboring count.

In Knight-Captain Reifold’s experience, anything that could happen, would happen, so he had that to take into consideration.

He had no doubts that he could accomplish the mission assigned to him, and it didn’t look like a particularly difficult one. It just had the potential to be an annoying one, and he was sure it definitely was going to be.

He sighed, his face still ever a stoic mask, and continued with his preliminary plans. He would hold a meeting with the officers the following day, and then the relevant information would be passed down through the chain of command to the rank and file.

Chapter fifteen

Promising Prospects

The countryside slowly but steadily passed by as the soldiers and conscripts marched down the road. Reivyn was much more comfortable in his new, form-fitting armor, as even though they had cinched the slightly too big set before, such a stopgap measure was never perfect, and he’d had to constantly adjust the straps and move in a marginally unnatural gait to prevent chafing.

The landscape outside of Magron was beautifully attired in the multicolored splendor of growing crops. The golden glint reflecting off wheat was the most prevalent, but other crops, and even some neat rows of orchards, could be found interspersed. The land immediately surrounding the city was ultimately owned by the count himself, but he had no time or inclination to oversee the production. Elaborate systems were in place to allow multiple people to skim benefits with the end result of low-level Tier 2 farmhands employed doing the majority of the manual labor under the supervision of the higher-level, more experienced farmers.

With skills, classes, and mana being factors in crop growth, seasons consisted of multiple planting and harvesting sessions, resulting in an abundance of produce. One would think this would saturate the market, but that was not so. It allowed for a varied diet for a healthy population, and certain foodstuffs, like the hard roll the military used, were designed in such a way as to cram as many nutrients into a small form as possible.

Large barges and smaller boats traveled up and down a wide river that the city had been built next to. The trade and transportation it allowed were one of the reasons Magron was such a prosperous city, but the river did not go in the direction of the destination of the troops. Otherwise, they would have just caught a ride on some transport boats.

The military unit snaked along the road for a considerable length. There was more to the regular battalion than Reivyn had originally realized. There were three companies in total, one company of cavalry and two of infantry. Only one company of infantry, the company Reivyn was attached to, and two platoons of cavalry, obviously accompanied by the levies, were deployed. The other infantry company remained in the city, and they were responsible for maintaining patrols outside of the city, and the platoon of cavalry that stayed behind was only technically part of the battalion, as they were the count’s personal bodyguards.

The makeup of the companies consisted of two medium infantry platoons that could seamlessly switch between being spearmen and swordsmen, as Reivyn had personally experienced, and one platoon of skirmishers, which consisted of archers and scouts. The cavalry company was one platoon of light, medium, and heavy each, with the heavy cavalry being the noble bodyguard unit.

The light cavalry unit had split off to perform scouting missions, even this close to the city, and the platoon of skirmishers led the formation. The 1st Platoon of infantry was next, Knight-Captain Reifold and his staff were directly behind them, and the 2nd Platoon, which included Reivyn’s squad, followed behind. The levies brought up the rear, being led by Sergeant Mok, and the company commander had the honor of leading the entire procession in the front.

As the day wore on, the formation passed through little farming communities that littered the countryside between slightly larger hamlets. There wasn’t a proper town for several days’ walks from Magron in any direction, but the people working the farms needed a place to live nearby where they tended to their farms, which led to the establishment of such communities and hamlets. It would be entirely too impractical for them to live in the city proper and have to make the journey to and from the farmlands every day.

This feature led to the phenomenon that the closest farms to the city were the choicest locations to work, and thus the highest leveled farmers oversaw the fields right outside the city walls. It created a noticeable change in the quality of the crops as one moved farther and farther away. That wasn’t to say that the quality of the crops ever got low, but Reivyn definitely noticed a lack of splendor the farther they marched along the road.

New Skill Unlocked!
Woodworking (1)

Reivyn had finally had to participate in the building of the temporary palisade, and with some guidance on how to effectively select and chop a tree and then build it into a defensive fortification, he had acquired the skill.

They had been on the road for six days, and they had passed the only township two days prior. Only a smattering of smaller villages could be found out this far, and the countryside was no longer endless fields of neatly tended crops. Instead, there were forests and empty fields interspersed with the farmlands, woodcutting lodges, and hunter camps dotting the wilderness. Every now and then, a group of people who were clearly adventurers, could be spotted doing some sort of adventuring activity or another, usually walking somewhere.

The duties assigned to each individual squad were varied enough that Reivyn had been busy each time they stopped, but he had only just now participated in the building of the encampment. It was actually the levies who were the most carefree. Now properly outfitted in their gambesons and helmets, they no longer looked like a peasant uprising, but as they were irregulars and not actually trained for the life of being a soldier, they had the least duties. They were basically only expected to do some manual labor and to show up for combat when needed.

As they finished erecting the wooden palisade, Corporal Decker approached the squad members. “The platoon sergeant has called everyone to gather up. He’s probably going to fill us in on what we’re doing out here.” They were soldiers, and so they went where they were ordered when they were ordered. As of yet, nobody had actually told the troops where they were going or what they were doing.

Reivyn could at least guess where they were headed. He looked up in the fading light and spotted a mountain range coming into view. It was an arm that stabbed down into the plains, branching off from a much larger cluster, and way off into the horizon so far that he couldn’t tell if it was mist or clouds playing tricks on him. It appeared that there were some truly, terrifyingly huge mountain peaks. If they weren’t an optical illusion, then the scale of this mountain range was mind-boggling. It would obviously span multiple countries if that was the case, but even then, this was just a small corner of the continent they resided on.

The squad tidied up their tools and headed toward the assembly location. Reivyn noticed other instances of troops forming up and getting information passed down to them. Everyone was going to understand what their mission was, even the levies. The 2nd Squad met up with the rest of the platoon and took a seat in front of their waiting platoon sergeant, a man Reivyn had never interacted with before but had seen issuing orders and instructions to the corporals.

“Everyone’s here, so I’ll begin,” he said. He had a portable writing board with a map of the local area on it, centered on a small town located at the foot of the mountain range they were approaching. “Our first destination is here, an old prospecting town. It doesn’t have a proper name, and it’s been abandoned for decades. Most of the original buildings don’t exist anymore, and only the foundations remain.

“This old town has recently been revitalized, however, as an Orc encampment has taken up ownership. As everyone knows, Orcs always, always turn into roving bands that raid villages and small towns. This encampment is a future threat to the surrounding people that must be eliminated.

“Preliminary scouting reports indicate about a hundred Orcs with about three hundred goblin slaves. They have been in place for well over a year, so we can expect them to be fully outfitted with crude iron weaponry. Goblins are typically not a threat to a military unit, but we have the Orcs to deal with, so the levies will be handling the goblins. We expect a casualty rate of about 10-20%, with a 5% mortality rate among the levies. We all know they have poor morale compared to professional troops, so we’ll have to be ready to pick up the slack if something unexpected happens and they rout for whatever reason. This is not a likely scenario, but it is a possible one.

“There are no indications of an Orc shaman, so long-range magic bombardment is not expected. They have one Orc chief, which is equivalent to mid–Tier 3. We’re not responsible for specifically engaging the Orc chief, but if he appears in our area of operations, listen and obey the commands, and you’ll defeat him. The rest of the Orcs are about the same strength level as us, equivalent to a low-to-mid–Tier 2, but they’re unruly berserkers, so they can’t bring to bear the same amount of combined force as we can.

“Orcs aren’t known to sit behind fortifications, so the plan for tomorrow is pretty simple. We’ll march all the way to the destination and form up just outside of line of sight, immediately. The skirmishers will go forward and launch a ranged assault on their position. Either they or their goblin slave army will pursue, and depending on which, or both, will determine who will first engage, but we’ll be adaptable to the situation. The medium cavalry will hit them from the flank after we’ve engaged, and the light cavalry will pick off any ranged units and stragglers, funneling them toward our formation. The commanders know what they’re doing, so always follow orders instantly. Any questions?”

Reivyn looked around and saw that nobody had any questions, but he was curious about something, so he raised his hand. “Sergeant, I’m just curious about two things. One, why go into so much detail for us, and two, why do we have so many people, almost double the four hundred enemies?”

The sergeant looked curiously at the speaker for a second before recognition dawned on his face. “That’s simple. The first point is toward the commander’s intent. If anything goes wrong, and the commanders can’t give orders, the men in the field need to know what the end goal is to be able to make the proper decisions in such a situation. As for having double the enemy, the only reason it’s going to work is because of how weak the goblins are. In a normal assault, the number is supposed to be three to one. So we’re technically short by four hundred troops, and we’re evenly matched in numbers of regulars versus the Orcs. We’re leaning on our superior military discipline to make up for the numbers.”

They broke up into their respective squads after that. The men spent most of the time in only mild silence as they maintained their gear, making sure everything was in tip-top shape for the coming action. Reivyn noticed that the levies were behaving in much the same way, though there was a much more solemn atmosphere in their part of the camp. Things had very quickly become all too real for them.

Reivyn was located in the second row of troops for this engagement. He stood, spear held relaxedly, behind the man from 1st Squad who would bear the brunt of the coming assault. They stood loosely at rest, the formation located about a quarter of a mile in the tree line completely out of sight of the encampment. No point in ordering the men to stand at attention and drain their energy, and they had taken a break to recover as much as they could from the march an hour before arriving in position.

The Orcs had cleared some of the trees around the prospecting town to create an open space between the forest and their camp. There had been some comment on this, because it wasn’t typical Orc behavior and indicated a smarter-than-average leader. They had shown that they didn’t fully grasp the concept of having a space cleared, though, as they didn’t capitalize on any of the advantages that it could provide. It was like they had been instructed on what to do but not why.

Reivyn wasn’t nearly as nervous this time around as he had been before his first real battle. He could still feel his heart beating in his chest in anticipation, but the nervous butterflies in his stomach were absent. Some of his confidence came from the relaxed nature of the older soldiers, and the fact that their formation was exactly the same as from the goblin attack down to the positioning of Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand.

There was one significant difference, though. The two officers wore gleaming plate mail. It wasn’t what one would think of as “full-plate,” as that was entirely too impractical. Where Reivyn’s and the others’ armor were segmented plates of metal riveted to a leather undershirt, the officers’ armor was solid bands of metal over chain.

Brace saw him eyeing the commander out of the corner of his eye and bent over to whisper, “The Knight-Captain is a Level 70 epic Tier 3 Paladin. If he didn’t have to worry about unexpected situations, he could probably wipe them out all on his own. Also, if he did that, he would cripple us, and we would never get a chance to level our skills and classes properly.”

Reivyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise. He had known the Knight-Captain was powerful, but he hadn’t realized he was only twenty levels away from reaching Tier 4. At his incredulous look, Brace smirked and said with a chuckle. “Yeah, he’s famous.”

The troops stood and waited, idly chatting in muted whispers. Suddenly, a bright flash shot up to the sky over the canopy in the distance.

“Signal,” Knight-Captain Reifold calmly intoned.

“Attention,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand commanded. All of the troops stopped resting and stood ready. Reivyn suddenly had sweaty palms, and he continuously had to adjust his grip.

Knight-Captain Reifold, upon seeing everyone at the ready, lifted his sword high above his head, and a bright glow radiated out from it. It expanded over all of the troops and then covered them like a blanket, settling into the men. Reivyn felt all of the travel fatigue melt away from him as it had never been there.

Divine Blessing!
Stamina consumption halved.
STR +20%
VIT +20%
DEX +20%
Duration: 1 Hour
Helpful Hint!
Divine Blessings have no backlash after the effects expire.

“Advance,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered. Reivyn only had time for a cursory glance at the notification, but that was enough to leave him speechless. No wonder nobody else is ever nervous when he’s in command, he thought to himself.

With the fatigue washed away and a new pep in their step, the formation quickly moved through the trees out into the open. Reivyn got his first look at the Orc berserkers as they chased after the skirmishers who were hightailing it toward the oncoming medium infantry. The goblin army was haphazardly trailing behind them, stretching out into an unorganized mess.

The skirmishers ran through the line of infantry that had given them enough space to pass through the ranks, and they reformed behind them as the spearmen closed ranks again.

“Javelins,” the familiar order came, and the front rank responded in good military order. “Throw. Swords. Skirmishers, column right. Sergeant Mok, send the levies with them.” The Adjutant sent out rapid-fire commands in multiple directions.

The front row threw their spears and assumed a pose with shields up and swords at the ready in a smooth motion. The makeshift javelins impaled themselves into the oncoming Orcs, further disrupting their already-loose line charging toward the men. Only a few of them went down, and most of the Orcs simply snapped the spears off and roared their displeasure as they didn’t even slow down.

The Orcs didn’t show any fear of being tricked into rushing headlong into an ambush, and they simply used the scent of their own blood and the aggression inherent in their species to work themselves up into a bloodlust.

The last thing Reivyn saw of the overall battlefield was the skirmishers getting into position on the right flank to target the goblins and draw them toward the levies that were quickly rushing to get into position behind the ranged unit.

The force of the charge from the Orcs was magnitudes more powerful than the one experienced with the goblins a week prior. The third row of soldiers, instead of giving assistance in absorbing the blow because they were available to, had to assist in order to prevent Reivyn and some of the other, lower leveled regulars from being sent flying.

The Orc before the man in the first row where Reivyn was located had planted its feet and was swinging a giant, double-bladed axe in wild, powerful swings at the man who could only brace with his shield. He didn’t have an opportunity after each exchange to retaliate with a sword blow. All up and down the line, the Orcs fought in a much more competent manner, some dodging and weaving the sword slashes and spear thrusts, others attacking wildly in a frenzy, never allowing an opportunity for the shield-bearer to recover. In some other places, the men already had the need of switching out to allow a wounded soldier to get to the back and apply first aid.

Pretty much any wound that wasn’t instantly fatal was recoverable with a skilled healer, and first aid techniques could stop the bleeding and facilitate early self-recovery to kick in to keep a man in the fight. The trick was to be able to easily and swiftly switch out combatants that received a decently powerful hit so that the wounds couldn’t accumulate and slowly drain them away. This was another factor of military discipline that the Orcs lacked.

The Orc in front of Reivyn’s location continued to batter the shield of the man holding him at bay, trying to displace it so he could reach the soft flesh behind it. It landed a particularly heavy blow that knocked the man off balance, and sensing victory at hand, it allowed its bloodlust to control it as it stretched its neck out and bellowed its rage at the teetering man, spit and phlegm flying out of its mouth.

Reivyn seized the opportunity, and even as the man was careening into him, he ever so slightly adjusted his stance to shift his right shoulder forward as his left absorbed the man’s momentum, and he expertly thrust his spear right through the mouth of the screaming Orc, the spear tip passing through and coming out the back of his neck, and then quickly retracted so as not to get stuck. The Orc froze, not quite dead yet, but stunned, and Reivyn pushed the shield-bearer with his left shoulder to help steady him, and the man capitalized on the momentum to finally slash his sword forward, disemboweling the Orc.

There was no time for anything like a quick thanks or even an acknowledgment as another Orc immediately took the first’s place. This one was dual-wielding tomahawks, and it descended on the defender with gusto. Its attacks weren’t nearly as powerful, but they were relentless, and they served to quickly drain the man’s stamina.

Reivyn stood behind the man, searching for an opportunity to strike. If he tried to attack when there wasn’t enough space, he would risk nicking his ally. He observed the Orc’s movements and picked up on a pattern, and when the Orc was, for a fraction of a second, standing in a pose with both of his arms wide apart as one was on the backswing and the other was launching forward, Reivyn thrust his spear straight toward its eyes. The Orc immediately adjusted his attacking arm to block the blow coming from the spear, but this allowed the swordsman to stab forward, underhanded, into the beast’s gut. Reivyn again took the pause in the Orc’s movements caused by the gut wound to stab his spear into its throat, ending its life.

Before the Orc fell, the man in front of Reivyn turned his head, and between panted breaths said, “Quick switch!” He was only about 40 percent down on his stamina from the sustained blows he had received from assailants, but one could recover faster if they didn’t allow their stamina to fall too far to begin with, and so they were trained to switch places before reaching 50 percent, if at all possible.

Reivyn dropped his spear, unslung his shield, and drew his sword as he and the man in the first rank maneuvered around each other. The other man deftly scooped up the fallen spear and took his place in the third rank to recover as the man who had been in the third rank replaced Reivyn’s spot in the second. The fourth ranks were again assembled behind them as a reserve unit.

Another Orc came screaming into their position, this one armed with a giant spiked club. It wildly attacked Reivyn, lifting its club straight up and bringing it straight down in a frenzy of uncomplicated but fierce blows. Reivyn wasn’t quite as skilled in Shields as the man before him, so he wasn’t as adept at absorbing and redirecting the energy transferred into the shield. His stats weren’t quite as high as the other man, either, who was a genuine Tier 2 combat class. Luckily, this third Orc was simpleminded and didn’t attempt to knock the shield away at all, but just smashed straight into it like a brute.

This was the first time Reivyn had ever been on the receiving end of such an attack, and his adrenaline was pumping furiously through his body. His vision was tunneled to what was going on right in front of him: The sounds of the battle all around were muted, and he only heard the continuous bashing noises from the club coming into contact with the shield. He could clearly see and hear the snarl on the face of the Orc in front of him. His world was reduced to his shield and the Orc in front of him.

Suddenly, on the backswing of the club, a spear rocketed out over Reivyn’s right shoulder and stabbed into the chest of the Orc. Learning the lesson from when he was the one wielding a spear, he quickly stabbed his sword forward into the soft belly of the Orc, and he twisted it sideways to spill intestines and other organs onto the ground. Blood splashed up onto his armor and face.

During the short reprieve afforded him while this Orc fell and another took its place, another sound finally made it through to his senses. A loud thundering of hooves entered his ears, and it was like a dam had broken as all of the previous sounds that had been automatically tuned out came crashing into focus once again. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the platoon of medium horsemen crash into the flank of the Orcs, and they cut through the Orc horde like a knife through butter, trampling all in front of their path. They continued on and circled around to resume another charge from the rear of the Orcs.

The Orcs were either fearless or stupid, as they paid absolutely no mind to the threat of the horsemen expertly flanking them. A huge roar sounded out, deafening Reivyn as it covered the entire battlefield, and a great, hulking specimen of an Orc made itself known. He had a headdress adorning his head, and he carried a weapon that looked much like a cleaver in his right hand and a short kite shield made of bones and leather in his left.

A bright light beam pierced through the crowd of Orcs between the chief and Knight-Captain Reifold as he launched an attack at the leader. The Orc chief managed to divert the attack with his shield, but it had served its purpose in throwing the normal Orcs into disarray, allowing Knight-Captain Reifold to charge through their numbers unhindered as he engaged the chief.

The horse wasn’t a high-level beast, and it could not withstand the attacks of two Tier 3 combatants clashing together. Knight-Captain Reifold knew this, so he launched himself from the saddle and confronted the bigger opponent on foot. He slashed, stabbed, parried, and shield-bashed the towering figure in a whirlwind assault, never letting up on the offensive. The giant Orc never had a chance as he was simply too outclassed by the Paladin.

After an exchange that lasted about thirty seconds, the Orc chief’s corpse lay at the feet of Knight-Captain Reifold, who calmly turned and resumed his place on his mount.

Reivyn hadn’t been watching the fight, even though he could vaguely sense that it had been going on, as he was still preoccupied acting as the first line in the formation. His stamina was beginning to reach the 60% mark, and he was preparing to switch out with the man behind him when he noticed a change in the Orc’s eyes. The red suffusing the sclera of the beast’s eyes faded, and a look of fear finally replaced the one of ferocity. All up and down the line, the frenzied assault of the Orcs suffered a stutter, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand was quick to notice.

“Advance!” he commanded in a loud, powerful voice.

The men on the frontline bashed their shields forward as one and started marching forward while maintaining their fighting stance. Reivyn, despite never having done such a maneuver, was able to utilize his Weapons Master skill to easily accomplish the task as well. Many Orcs fell across the line, and they finally broke and turned to run…

Straight into the oncoming levies, led by Sergeant Mok and a few other NCOs, who trapped them in a pincer move. The cavalry also continued to charge in and out of the sides of the horde, and being thoroughly surrounded and having given up on the fight, they were quickly dispatched to the last one. Normally, there wouldn’t be such a neat annihilation, but the apparently induced bloodlust had harmed the Orcs far more than helped them, having robbed them of their rationality and ability to flee when they still had a chance. The light cavalry could be seen running the fleeing remnants of the goblins down in the distance.

The men spontaneously raised their weapons into the air and cheered, Reivyn among them. He had performed a much more significant role in this battle, and he was eager to check his notifications.

But before that, they had to clean the battlefield, mop up the surviving beasts, and tend to the wounded. A quick glance around showed several regulars with serious injuries, and in the back, he could see some bodies lying on the ground.

The victory hadn’t come without its price.

Chapter sixteen

We Don’t Need Roads

Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +20
Exp +20 (190)
Combat Resolved.
Calculating…
Exp +350
Level Up! Fighter Lvl 3
Level Up! Fighter Lvl 4
Experience 40/400

Skills Leveled Up!
Balance (34 ->35)
March (9 ->12)
Medium Armor (13 ->15)
Observation (27 ->28)
Shields (15 ->18)
Spatial Awareness (6 ->7)
Tactics (1 ->5)
Weapons Master (27 ->28)

New Skill Unlocked!
Battlefield Awareness (1)

Brace wasn’t lying when he said they would be crippled if the Knight-Captain took care of everything by himself, Reivyn thought. This was the most explosive skill growth he had ever seen. He had gained his relatively high skill levels through constant, steady practice, and in one intense life and death battle, he had gained several levels in several different skills all at once. He didn’t know how the System calculated it, but it would appear it took his accumulation that hadn’t caused a level increase into account as well, because why else would March level up from the quarter-mile march to the battlefield?

Reivyn had mentally manipulated his notification screen to stop telling him when combat was initiated when he initiated it, and he got rid of the list of squad members. He didn’t have time to look through it during combat, and it was useless information to him out of combat when he could just look over and see that they were “healthy” as the System deemed, though he didn’t know what that was based on, because Cliff had his arm in a sling, but he was still deemed “healthy” by the System. Maybe it just means combat-ready?

The battle had been very fierce for Reivyn, so he hadn’t noticed it in the midst of combat, but once the mop-up had been taken care of and the adrenaline had finally stopped pumping, he took note of the fact that he hadn’t felt much of the Euphoria during combat. He had turned to Brace to ask him about it.

“There’s a couple of reasons for it,” Brace replied. “First and foremost, that goblin had been the first time you ever experienced it, and it was after the battle, so of course, it would have been particularly noticeable at that time. The other thing is that for some reason, and I don’t know why, I’m not a scholar, Orcs are only considered to be like half-monster or something according to the System. It might have to do with their level of sophistication and civilization, but who knows?” He ended the answer with a shrug.

Reivyn and Brace carried a dead Orc between them toward the mass grave that had been dug by the levies. Half the levies had dug a giant ditch while the other half grabbed the goblins they had fought and similarly tossed them in. Reivyn spotted Teilon leaning on a shovel in conversation with a few other levies waiting to fill the ditch back in, and Reivyn walked up to him and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, you made it!” Reivyn teased his best friend. They had had minimal interaction during the journey from the initial camp outside Haluville all the way here. That isn’t to say they hadn’t spoken at all; they had just been too busy with their own things, and it really hadn’t been that long, all things considered.

“Yeah, killed me six gobbies, too!” Teilon thumped his chest as he bragged. Considering the goblin to levy ratio, that was actually pretty impressive, and Reivyn smiled and nodded his head, acknowledging his friend’s feat. “And now that the excitement is over, we get to be ditch-diggers. Yay!” Teilon pumped his fist in excitement as if ditch-digging had been his ultimate goal in life.

Reivyn gave him a flat look. He took in his friend’s clean appearance, and then he looked down at his blood-coated armor. He looked up at Teilon with his head still down, a smirk on his face. He rubbed his chest with his hand where some of the blood was still wet. He had gloves on. No way would he do something like that with his bare hands.

“I know you were excited about being ‘a real soldier,’ so here, let me help you with that,” Reivyn reached out and smeared some blood on his friend’s gambeson, leaving a small streak of red across the armor. He stepped back and tilted his head as he admired his handiwork. “Now you look the part.”

Teilon stared at Reivyn slack-jawed before shaking his head and exclaiming, “Hey! I was gonna wear this to the dance tonight! We got all the girls over in our levy camp. You have fun hanging out with all the dudes over in the regulars.” He leaned forward and elbowed Reivyn in the side while wiggling his eyebrows up and down. “Reivyn, there’s this girl, Kimberly. She is so fine. I’m talking…” Teilon wiggled his hands in an ambiguous manner. He leaned back and lifted his chin up in an expression of practiced nonchalance. “Yeah… she’s into me.” The other levies finally cracked and guffawed at the statement. Teilon gave them a fierce glare.

Reivyn looked over at Brace in the lull of conversation. He stood there with a puzzled look on his face, and then Reivyn heard a mumbled, “Dance…?”

Reivyn rolled his eyes and smacked Brace on the shoulder with the back of his hand. “Don’t listen to his nonsense.” Reivyn turned his attention back to Teilon to find him in a heated debate with the other levies.

“I’m telling you, it’s the truth.” Teilon defended his earlier statement.

One of the levies smirked and shared a look with another. “Easy way to find out,” he said. Teilon looked at him questioningly. The man pointed over Teilon’s shoulder and said, “She’s right there. Hey! Kimberly!” The man cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted as Teilon tried to grab his arms and shush him.

Reivyn turned his head to look in the direction the man was pointing. Two girls were walking side by side not too far away, and one of them looked over at the shout. Well, she’s got a cute face… but she looks exactly like everyone else wearing a gambeson. Reivyn tilted one eyebrow as he glanced at Teilon sideways. Teilon had been trying to wave the other man off, but as soon as the girl, presumably Kimberly, turned her head, he put his hands down and looked off to the side like he hadn’t been doing anything.

The man gave a sly smile to Teilon as he noticed Kimberly’s attention on their group and continued. “My boy, Teilon, here says he wants to ask you to the dance.”

Kimberly was silent for a few seconds, and then she yelled back, “Who’s Teilon?”

Teilon hung his head down and tried to make himself small, but the other man clapped him on the shoulder and said, “This here’s Teilon.” Teilon gave him a fierce glare, but it only made the man chuckle more.

Kimberly again paused for a few seconds before she shrugged and then responded, “Tell him I said yes.” She and her friend turned and quickly left, back to their task.

Teilon threw his arms up in delight and then pointed at the man who was now standing in stunned silence. “Hah! In your face!” He cheered.

“Alright, alright, Teilon, we gotta get going.” Reivyn waved goodbye to his friend as he and Brace made their way back to the line of dead Orcs.

After a few steps in silence, Reivyn looked over at Brace, who still had a confused look on his face. “Dance…?” he mumbled to himself again. He shook his head and then looked over at Reivyn. “Well, the only dancing we’re going to be doing is with a pick and shovel. Word in the Lance Corporal Underground is that we have to build a road into them there mountains.” He nodded toward the mountain range.

Reivyn raised his eyebrow and asked, “How do you know that?”

Brace looked almost offended at the question. “What do you mean, how do I know? It’s the Lance Corporal Underground,” he said. He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “We know the Knight-Captain’s orders before he does.” He looked around as if to make sure nobody had heard him, and then he continued. “And if you stick around long enough to get promoted, you’ll know too.”

Reivyn shook his head as they continued their task of burying the corpses.

New Skill Unlocked!
Mining (1)

Reivyn received the notification among the swings of his pickaxe. Brace had been right. The sergeant had assembled the platoon again after the battle, and they had been informed that after a night’s rest, they would immediately begin the next task assigned to their unit: building a road into the mountains.

Apparently, according to some rumors circulating about by the lance corporals, some adventurers had stumbled across a newly formed dungeon a few miles into the mountain range. Dungeons that were located in or near a county’s borders were considered strategic resources. The count could send his own people in to plunder resources, and he could tax adventurers for the benefit of access.

The rumor of a dungeon, one in a low-level mana zone making it appropriate for Tiers 2 and 3, made Reivyn keenly aware of the fact that he was only temporarily conscripted, and the fact that he hadn’t really decided what he wanted to do with his life now that he was going to be faced with legal adult status earlier than anticipated. Reivyn had spotted Teilon with an excited look on his face at chow, and the two shared a knowing look.

Reivyn continued to slam his pickaxe into the stone located on the selected route for the road, noticing a considerable improvement in not only his movements, stance, and stamina consumption, but also the effect of the strike. He paused for a second as a thought struck him. He looked up and waved at Brace to get his attention.

“Hey, I’ve been so busy and distracted that I’ve completely forgotten to ask something important,” he said. Brace looked at him expectantly. “How do you use a class skill?”

Brace was silent for a moment, and then he threw his head back and laughed. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed, ending up doubled over, holding his stomach. He finally straightened up and wiped a tear from his eye.

“You mean to tell me, that this whole time, in spars and two, two battles, you’ve only been relying on your passive skills? No wonder you got thrashed by Ren.” Reivyn scratched his head sheepishly. “It’s no big secret or anything,” Brace continued. “You just have to invoke it. Mentally summoning the will to perform the skill will initiate it, and the System will pretty much take over for a moment and have you perform the action. For newbies like you, it helps to shout it out to get the feeling of invocation right, but it’s not necessary, and there are some people who never practice and have to use the shouting method as a crutch forever. There’s more than one person who will suck in a deep breath, gather their will, point to the sky, and heroically shout… ‘Big Step!’”

Brace chuckled at his own joke, but he wasn’t lying. Reivyn had heard exactly that on one occasion while still in garrison, but he hadn’t put much thought into it at the time.

Reivyn looked at the pickaxe in his hand then down at the stone ground. He adjusted his grip and stance, took a breath, steadied himself, and then whispered, “Devastating Strike,” as he lifted the tool above his head. He felt himself involuntarily shift his body ever so slightly into the appropriate stance and bring the pickaxe down in a swift strike at his intended target.

Clunk.

It had been… surprisingly lackluster.

Skill Leveled Up!
Devastating Strike (1 ->2)

Reivyn was taken aback at the sudden notification. That was easy, he thought. He glanced at his stamina in his Status page, and he noticed it had gone down a whole 10% from that one move. He pondered about it for a moment, and then he came to the decision to intersperse his class skills while working on the road as often as he could. No use in having skills he never used. He opened the skills page and checked the details of the skill.

Devastating Strike (2): Deal 102% Damage.

That explained the “clunk” earlier. It had been one whole percent more powerful. He chuckled ruefully to himself as he continued his work with renewed vigor.

“Brace, Reivyn,” Corporal Decker called to the two men as they trudged along working to build the foundations of a real road. They paused in their task and looked up at the squad leader. Reivyn wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm, leaving a streak of dust on his face. “You two have guard duty tonight around three a.m. The sun’s about to go down, so the two of you go ahead and stop now to get some chow and clean up. Get some rest so you’re good to go later.”

“Yes, corporal,” the two men answered. They packed up their gear and made their way down the mountain, back to the prospecting town where they had set up the encampment among the remaining foundations.

Each shift was broken down into two hours, and to facilitate maintained vigilance, the sentry duties would be rotated between standing sentry for one hour and walking patrol for one hour. The unit had already been hard at work laying the foundations for the road for a week, and this was the first time that Reivyn would have to perform this duty.

He and Brace grabbed a quick bite to eat, washed up, and went straight to sleep. Brace made it clear that while it was acceptable to relax and socialize for a short while, it was smarter to get as much sleep as they could.

Reivyn was startled awake by someone shaking his shoulders, and he was momentarily confused as to where he was. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as it slowly came back to him what he was supposed to be doing. He and Brace quickly got dressed in full gear and reported to the front of the palisade to perform the sentry change.

There were eight other men assuming guard duty along with Brace and Reivyn. They were all experienced veterans of this task, so they explained the pros and cons of choosing which duty to perform first.

“If you take standing sentry first, you’ll have to fight your body’s natural inclination to be bored and go back to sleep, even while standing, and with a sleepy brain, you might hallucinate some things in the darkness,” one man offered. “These hallucinations aren’t anything like detailed monsters or people. It won’t look like anything obvious. It’ll be vague flashes of movement that you’re not quite sure if it’s really there or not. Something I frequently experience is it seems like bats or some other winged creature fly past my head, and I just catch a glimpse of it.”

“Yeah, and always stand with the light source at your back,” another said. “You don’t want to mess up your night vision. If you have to look at the light for whatever reason, close your dominant eye first.” Reivyn nodded at the advice.

“Another downside to taking sentry first is that when it’s your turn to change shifts with the next batch of men, you’ll have just finished walking around, getting your blood flowing. It might wake you up and make it harder to fall back asleep,” Brace added to the conversation. “Conversely, if you take patrol duty first, you’ll wake up for sentry duty, and be ready to go back to sleep after, but you’ll be sluggish and slower to respond to any actual threats, and you’re much more likely to run into anything that is trying to infiltrate the camp than the sentries standing in the light.”

Reivyn thought about it for just a brief moment before he decided. “Well, I’m going to have to eventually do both, so might as well just pick one and do it. So I’ll start with sentry duty first.” The other men nodded, and they broke up into their two-man units.

The men hadn’t lied to Reivyn. He was bored. There was no talking. No laughing or joking. They stood still and kept their eyes on the surroundings. Reivyn had a slight advantage over the other men, though. This was his first time doing something like this, and as such, the anticipation of a new experience had woken him up, so he didn’t experience having to fight off sleep.

The seconds seemed to stretch forever, and Reivyn experienced, for the first time, the folly of having a perfect timepiece in the assistance of the System. He could practically see the seconds tick by, and they seemed to move slower and slower the more he concentrated on them. This had to have been the most bored he had ever been in his entire life.

It was inappropriate to distract himself by looking at his Status while standing guard, so he had to just deal with it, but the hour eventually expired, and two other men came to switch out duties with him and Brace.

The two squadmates shouldered their spears and began their patrol along the outside of the palisade walls. There were light sources set up on each corner and at the entrance, and remembering the advice, Reivyn kept his line of sight pointed outward, into the open fields. There was some cloud cover moving across the sky, and the brightness of the moon alternated between being dim and shining down on the grasslands. The trees in the distance took on an ominous look in the dark, shifting between visible and indistinct.

Even though there was just as much going on during the patrol, the fact that they were moving around and able to view the changing scenery as they passed from one side of the encampment to another meant that boredom never set in. It was amazing how much difference just moving around a little in a simple walk made versus standing still.

The clouds once more covered the moon and stars in the sky as the duo passed through the darkest point between the two corners of the palisade on the opposite side of the entrance. A small movement appeared in Reivyn’s senses from his Spatial Awareness skill. It was incredibly subtle, and if there hadn’t been nothing at all for so long, he wouldn’t have noticed it.

It appeared as just a point following him in his mind, and it slowly crept ever closer to him. When it reached the point of passing over his right shoulder, it exploded in acceleration and moved in front and down across his face, never becoming visible to his eyes. Reivyn, trusting his instincts, allowed his body to react without thought, and he jerked his left arm up in a guard stance just inside the point between it and his body. A fraction of a second later, a low metallic sound echoed out as a pressure assaulted his arm.

He was finally able to see what had triggered his Spatial Awareness. A dagger in a fist was attempting to slice his throat, and it had been blocked by his vambrace.

The assailant suddenly wrapped his arms around Reivyn in a bear hug once the person realized their stealth assassination attempt had been thwarted. Reivyn, utilizing every ounce of his Weapons Master skill, forcefully squatted down while throwing his shoulders up and elbows out to break the hold. From this position, he dropped his spear, as it would be too unwieldy to swing around when already in such close quarters, and he drew his sword as he spun around while yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Enemy attack!” he yelled. It had only taken a split-second for him to react from the bear hug to the spinning sword draw, but his sword clanged against a swift stab from a short sword. The attacker was extremely fast, and at that moment, he had switched his weapon from a dagger to a short sword and launched an attack, hoping to impale Reivyn in the back.

The man was dressed in all black with just his eyes visible, and he had timed the assault at the perfect moment. The clouds obscured the moonlight, and they were at the farthest place from any artificial source of light.

Reivyn fought for his life as swift slashes and stabs immediately pushed him on the back foot. The short sword glinted from the far-away light, but then it would snake around and attack from a different direction. The man was obviously doing it on purpose, as he used the shadows and light to his utmost advantage.

Sweat quickly poured down Reivyn’s face, his heart pounding. The man’s weapon was elusive and started getting close and closer to dealing some real damage to Reivyn as he fell further and further behind in his blocks. His vision was interfering with the information his Spatial Awareness was sending him, and he wasn’t used to receiving such contradictory sensory input.

Reivyn suffered a few shallow gashes on his unprotected arms and in the gaps between the metal plates on his stomach and legs. Bloodflow started accumulating, and he knew that if he didn’t do something different, he would die here.

The only thing he could think of was to stop the sensory overload, so he shut his eyes tight and allowed his Blind Fight skill to mesh with his Spatial Awareness as best he could. The effects were noticeable, but they weren’t enough. He was already too far behind in his reactions, and he was still getting further thrown off rhythm.

A spear came hurtling through the space of their duel, and it pierced right into the shadowed assailant. Elation quickly turned into alarm as the man’s body simply faded away. The spear had hit nothing. Finally, with a moment to catch his breath, Reivyn unslung his shield and put his back to the wall. He kept his head on a swivel as he scanned the surroundings for the man. Brace dropped his spear and assumed the same position to his right, covering him from that angle.

Now that the short, intense conflict was over, Reivyn realized it had only been a three-second long exchange. In those three seconds, he had exchanged what felt like a hundred blows, and he had been so panicked that he had completely forgotten about Brace accompanying him a short distance away. They hadn’t been walking exactly side by side but had allowed some room between them to better utilize the length of their spears if needed.

Brace had reacted immediately to the sounds of swords clashing and Reivyn’s yell, but it had felt like an eternity to Reivyn.

They stood in place, shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, panting as they looked all around. Adrenaline turned into confusion as no other attacks ever materialized. Anywhere. It slowly became clear that this wasn’t a diversion for another force attempting to infiltrate the camp. Reivyn and Brace seemed to have come to the same conclusion at the same time as they shared a look.

The other patrollers finally came running up as Reivyn could hear the activity of men being woken and quickly readying themselves for a battle that wasn’t likely to come.

The first patrollers arrived on the scene, and Reivyn and Brace finally relaxed and lowered their guard. Reivyn’s hair stood on end as his body was consumed by a chill running down his spine as his mind screamed of danger. He once again moved completely on instinct, and he ducked his head and raised his shield as fast as he could possibly move.

CLANG!

An arrow smashed into the shield so hard it knocked him off balance into the wall. Men started yelling and pointing, and Reivyn could hear some horses galloping out into the night to find the invader.

New Skill Unlocked!
Danger Sense (1)

Knight-Captain Reifold was suddenly beside Reivyn, and his body was finally able to relax as he had supreme confidence in his commander’s abilities.

“What happened here?” the commanding officer asked.

Reivyn glanced at Brace, who motioned for him to go ahead, and he answered, “Sir, Lance Corporal Brace and I were on patrol. Everything was routine, and nothing was out of the ordinary. As soon as we reached this center section of wall in the darkness and the cloud covered the moonlight, someone suddenly appeared behind me, got into position without either of us noticing, and attempted to cut my throat.”

Reivyn swallowed as he relived the harrowing experience of telling it. Knight-Captain Reifold didn’t hurry him, but he just stood there, patiently waiting.

“Umm… due to a skill, I was able to react out of instinct and managed to block the dagger. I yelled that an enemy was attacking, and engaged the man. He was completely shrouded in the dark and was skilled in misdirection by using the glint of his blade and the quickness of his movements. I wouldn’t have lasted five seconds if Lance Corporal Brace hadn’t reacted in time, but when he thrust his spear through the man, he just vanished as if he had never been there.

“We assumed a defensive stance and waited for reinforcements, and after they arrived, one final attack came my way.” Reivyn gestured toward the arrow on the ground.

Knight-Captain Reifold stood in quiet contemplation for a moment before simply saying, “I see.”

He located his adjutant arriving and beckoned him over. “Conduct changeover of the guard, but triple it for the rest of the night,” he ordered. He then leaned in and whispered, “Have Private Reivyn moved to a different tent without alerting anyone.”

The men all got their orders. The guards were switched out at the routine time, but in strength, and a detail of the light cavalry went searching the plains.

The attacker was never found. There were no footprints, scent, or any evidence that he had existed other than the cuts and blood on Reivyn and the arrow on the ground.

Chapter seventeen

Whistle While You Work

Reivyn woke up to his skin itching something fierce. He had attempted to mimic his mother’s use of mana to heal herself that he had witnessed both during his birth and that of his twin sisters, but there was some element of the operation that he was lacking. He didn’t know if it was a skill that he needed to unlock, or if he didn’t have the requisite affinity.

He still worked on improving his affinities occasionally if he had the free time, but it had recently taken a backseat to his other training endeavors. He had witnessed his mother using light mana, and she had told him the basics of how to unlock higher-tier affinities, but he wasn’t there, yet.

His wounds hadn’t been too serious, and his own natural healing ability had long since gotten him back to full health. He wasn’t sure of the mechanics behind it, but despite having full health, it didn’t mean his wounds had completely disappeared and been replaced with new skin. His wounds had only scabbed over, and that was causing the intense itching sensations.

He groaned as he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He contemplated the fight he had suddenly been thrust into the night prior. He had spoken with Brace and Corporal Decker briefly before going back to sleep.

“That guy was obviously after you,” Brace had said. “I’ve never heard of any skill that could let someone fade out of reality like that, so he was likely in possession of a powerful magical item. I know what you’re thinking, and I doubt it’s Ren’s family. It definitely wasn’t Ren, because not only does he have a solid alibi—I saw him with his squad myself—but he also doesn’t have the skill level that man displayed. Theoretically, his family has the ability to hire such an assassin, but it seems unlikely. They’re not that influential, yet, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. My gut tells me there’s something else involved.”

Reivyn had to agree with Brace’s analysis. Ren was the only enemy that he had ever made, but it didn’t seem to him that the level of enmity warranted hiring an assassin to kill him. Granted, he was looking at it from his own point of view.

“Regardless,” Corporal Decker interjected, “we’ll have to make sure you’re always paired up with someone. Standard procedure has always been to have you in a team with Brace, so there’s no reason to change that, but when it comes time for any fire watch duties, we’ll make sure you’re either teamed up in a group of three, or relegated to internal patrols, or both.” Decker added that last point as if it had just occurred to him. It wasn’t a bad idea. If he was only assigned to internal patrol, it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition to simply double up the teams.

Reivyn got up and got dressed. As they were currently doing the physical labor of laying the foundation for a road, they didn’t wear the armor, and they had only been carrying their sidearms with them to work. Reivyn decided to take his shield with him and leave it strapped to his back. With his recent level gains, his strength of 29 meant he didn’t feel any strain from carrying the added weight.

Reivyn checked the notification that he had ignored until now.

Combat Initiated.
Enemy has escaped combat.
Neither victory nor defeat.
+0 Exp
Combat Resolved.
Calculating…
+45 Exp
Experience: 85/400

That was interesting. So far he had gotten experience for winning a fight, getting defeated, and for simply surviving without determining victory or defeat. He had no idea how the experience was calculated, but anything was better than nothing.

He stepped out of the tent that he had randomly switched owners with and made his way through the din of others getting up and preparing for the day. He met up with Brace, who nodded in greeting, and they made their way to the chow area. He spotted a familiar figure eating sullenly by himself, and the duo joined him.

“I got attacked by an assassin last night and suffered numerous cuts, but how is it that you look worse than me?” Reivyn asked Teilon. His friend had a bruise on his face and a vacant look in his eyes.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” he mumbled around a mouthful of food.

Even though Teilon was sitting alone, the other levies that he was paired up with were sitting nearby, and Reivyn could hear them laughing at Teilon’s response. He looked between his friend and the others.

“What’s going on?” he asked the other men. He was concerned for his friend and wanted to make sure he was fine, but if it was something he could use to tease his friend, that would be even better.

“Turns out that Kimberly girl interpreted his invitation to ‘dance’ as an invitation to spar,” came the reply. “She beat the hell out of him, hahaha.”

“Yeah, yeah. I let her win,” Teilon grumbled.

“Uh-huh. More like you had no idea what to do. The best part was, as he scampered off like a beaten dog with his tail between his legs, she called out ‘same time tomorrow.’”

Teilon glanced at Reivyn with wide eyes. “I don’t know if it’s worth it,” he said. Reivyn just smiled and clapped him on the shoulder before tucking into his breakfast. They still had a lot of work to do. There were several miles left to go, uphill, to the dungeon that had been found. Then they would have to build the actual road after laying the foundation.

Skill Leveled Up!
Mining (9 ->10)

Reivyn and Brace quickly worked on digging out the foundation for the road. Their pace had noticeably quickened at each of the levels Reivyn gained in his Mining skill. The group of soldiers weren’t all together working forward as a unit but had been broken up into a long line snaking up the mountain to work on sections concurrently. The NCOs spent their time moving from section to section that their men were working on to ensure a uniform depth and width.

The levies had been tasked with procuring and cutting the stones to be used in the paving. A masonry expert had arrived with his team, and they had a skill that allowed the levies to perform an accurate enough square cut, and then the masonry team was free to only have to make small adjustments to make them uniform, to which the levies would then place the stones into their final resting spot.

Reivyn looked back as he stretched his back and noted the progress that had been made on the road. They had been working for a week and were nearly done. The final length of the road from the prospector town up to the dungeon had ended up being close to four miles. Not very far relative to the size of the mountain range, but still a decent distance.

After a moment’s rest, Reivyn’s stamina was topped up enough to continue with his work. He had been working on getting quieter and quieter on his activation of his class skill Devastating Strike, and he had finally gotten it down to simply mouthing the words without any sound. He hadn’t quite grasped being able to invoke the skill completely in his mind, but it was right around the corner with continued exercise.

He mouthed the activation and performed a powerful overhead strike into the rocky ground, and he watched with satisfaction as there was a considerably larger effect than the first few days he had used the skill.

Skill Leveled Up!
Devastating Strike (22 ->23)

He didn’t know why leveling his class skill was different, but it leveled up considerably faster than any of the other regular skills that he had. This left him optimistic about leveling his other class skills that he hadn’t had the right opportunity to level up once this mission was done and he could go back to determining his own schedule.

Reivyn buckled down to perform his manual labor. He subconsciously whistled, without any specific tune, as he and Brace progressed on their section of road. It wouldn’t be long before they were done.

Reivyn stood in formation in complete silence. A procession was passing through the camp as all of the soldiers and levies stood in solemnity. The fallen troops had been placed in magically sealed body bags that prevented decomposition. It was standard procedure, at least for this county, to return the deceased combatants to their family members.

The officers stood in the front of the formation and saluted the passing wagon. The visiting masons had given the perfect pretext to return the fallen ahead of time, as, along with their own security escort, a caravan was made with some of the cavalry acting as an honor guard.

The atmosphere was heavy as the officers held their salute until the passing deceased had completely left the palisade. Knight-Captain Reifold turned to face the men and women after to address them.

“Dismissed,” he said. There was no fancy speech or rousing demagoguery. The men had already been given the orders earlier that they were going to dismantle their current encampment and move up to the dungeon entrance, where another palisade had already been constructed. The men simply turned and got to work.

The men worked in silence, and the thoughts of mortality were prominent within Reivyn’s mind. He had the dreams of a past life, and he knew intellectually that that other life had ended. He didn’t have any remembrance of the passing, though. The recent attack, luckily with no duplicate instances, made him aware of the possibility that this life could come to an end, too.

He had been confident in his own training, but the “spar” with Ren and the attempted assassination had disabused him of his prowess relative to the wider world. He had only ever compared himself with his contemporaries, and his father. But that doesn’t count. Getting conscripted gave him the revelation that he wouldn’t be competing against his peers in age, but instead his peers in skill or level.

He had been confident in his epic class and stats, but his commanding officer was an epic class, a Tier 3 one at that. Witnessing that commander basically toying with another equivalent Tier 3 made him remember that he was only a Tier 1, and a fresh Tier 1 who hadn’t had time to grow yet.

He was a weak youngster who had been thrust upon a larger stage ahead of his time. Getting a head start in his class and levels didn’t mean he was going to be ahead of everyone else. It meant that until he had time to establish himself firmly, he was actually behind those he was interacting with.

Determination filled him as he worked. Determination to get stronger. He had heard many other young men, and he had done it himself, too, boast about becoming a powerful, high-level class. They had declared to their friends that they were going to do great things and become great people. Reivyn wasn’t determined to get stronger so that he could do great things and become a great person.

He was filled with determination to get stronger so that he wouldn’t get himself killed.

Reivyn watched as a group of unfamiliar men decked out in exotic armor came walking through the gate to the palisade. The new location was quite picturesque, as it afforded a stunning view in both directions. Down the direction they had come from, the vast plains and forests could be seen spreading out for miles and miles. In the other direction, snow-capped peaks and hints of valleys could be spotted in the endless-seeming mountain range that they could barely be considered to be upon.

It was a group of six men that walked through the gate. Their armor varied as much between themselves as it did with the military unit occupying the encampment, which was just a typical palisade and ditch, with the dungeon in the center. There were two men who were obviously swordsmen: one with a sword and a more flexible type of armor and another who carried a large kite shield and was attired for standing his ground. Two men were in leathers: one with a bow and short sword, and one who was practically shrouded in a dark cloak covering everything contained within, only offering occasionally glimpses of the leather and daggers strapped to his body. One man was wearing loose robes and carrying a staff and satchel, and the last man was also wearing light leathers, but he only had a dagger and a giant backpack strapped to his back.

They all came to a halt and assessed the situation all around them, never letting their gaze linger on one spot for too long. Even in their relaxed stances, Reivyn could recognize from his Weapons Master skill coiled strength ready to explode at a moment’s notice in their bodies. These men had seen battle, and they practically screamed “danger” in Reivyn’s mind.

Shortly after they entered the palisade, Knight-Lieutenant Brand came and greeted them. They exchanged a few words before the adjutant invited them further inside. Reivyn elbowed Brace and nodded at the men.

Brace looked at the passing men for a moment, observing them carefully, before turning back to Reivyn.

“Adventurers. I’m sure they’ve gotten wind of the newly discovered dungeon and have come to check things out. They look pretty experienced and well-funded, which means successful most of the time. We’d have to see them in action to gauge their actual combat ability and levels,” Brace explained. “Unless, of course, you had an appraisal skill geared toward people or were in charge of them in a way that the System provided that information, like with our officers.

“They have the standard Adventurer Party make-up: shield-bearer, two close combat, one ranged combat, one mage or healer, and a porter.” Brace turned and thrust his finger into Reivyn’s chest. “If, after you get out, you decide to become an adventurer yourself, don’t join any teams that deviate from this pattern, unless you absolutely know their abilities. If you get a bunch trying to recruit you, and they’re all dressed in plate with shields and swords, then you know they’re idiots. Stay clear.” Brace gave him a severe look to get his point across.

Reivyn nodded. “Sure thing.”

They had completed the mission of eliminating the Orc camp, building the road to the dungeon, and establishing a base. The last leg of their journey was to send out constant patrols to kill off any ferocious beasts in the area and then to keep doing it until the lower-level beasts were deterred from the area and retreated further into the mountain range.

A group of City Guard–style militia was being recruited and trained in the city, and they would eventually be moved out here to take over the duties of guarding the area. The route would enjoy more patrols from the regular military, and civilians. Adventurers and lifestyle classes both would eventually be drawn to the dungeon and most likely turn the area into another settlement. The resources available within the dungeon, as well as the surrounding mountain range, would ultimately determine how large and prosperous the settlement became.

Reivyn and Teilon had already talked about making plans to come back here after attaining Tier 2 to establish or join an adventurer team. With his added stats and the taste of explosive growth from the battle, Reivyn was contemplating whether or not he should come sooner. With his rare Fighter class upgraded to epic in Tier 1, he was well situated to take advantage of the opportunity.

The military base needed most of the personnel to remain in the encampment to act as a garrison in case of any unexpected events, so only one or two squads would go on patrol duty in the local area at a time. While in garrison at the camp, the days were spent mostly how they had been while camped outside of Haluville waiting for the other levies to converge.

In the mornings, they conducted physical exercise, led by an NCO on a rotating basis. Afterward, they would train with practice weapons, working on their weapons, armor, and shield skills respectively. Without the threat of death accompanying life-and-death situations, Reivyn’s explosive growth in his skills lessened to a more normal rate, but from the context of chatter from the other soldiers, he suspected it was still elevated compared to theirs. Especially the skills he had been born with at Level 0.

Finally, after weeks of practicing to acquire the skill properly, Reivyn made a breakthrough with his Mana Circulation.

As he did every night that he had the time available, which was every night he didn’t have any fire watch duties, Reivyn sat in his tent in a relaxed manner, his legs folded underneath him. He centered his mind and delved his awareness into himself and located the ball of energy floating in his core. He grabbed a strand of the energy and separated it from the nucleus. He visualized the route the System had shoved into his head when he gained his class and the one his father had taught him, and he guided the energy along the meridian lines.

It was a weird experience because before unlocking the skill, he could only vaguely grasp the feeling of the energy he grasped, but not the meridians they followed along. That wasn’t to say he was moving it around blindly and hoping that it followed the correct path. He simply couldn’t move the energy anywhere but along the meridians. It was like walking down a pitch-black hallway.

It was difficult to master the feeling of performing the action without the skill assisting him, as well. He had to maintain a balance between calm meditation and focused willpower. If he went too far in either direction, the mana ball would slip from his grasp, disperse into his body in an unconcentrated gas, and return to the nucleus.

To compound the matter, it left a prickling sensation along the path his mana followed. It felt like when one of his limbs would fall asleep from lying on it in an awkward position, but as if that sensation came from inside his body, radiating outward. It was incredibly strange, and it was incredibly distracting. He had spent three days of fumbling just to make the first full inner revolution.

In the beginning, there were multiple points along the path that warped the little ball of energy he was manipulating, and it caused it to flow through at an extremely slow pace. It was like the neck of a gourd, and it restricted the amount of energy that could flow through it.

When his mana encountered one of these points, he would “polish” it by rotating the mana along the walls like a whirlpool. This act would slowly expand the walls to allow for more mana to pass at once. He would only be able to maintain a few swirls of his mana before he felt a strain coming from the meridian. As he couldn’t actually feel the meridian lines themselves, the best description he could give it was like a tiny, pulsing bruise that he could only somewhat pinpoint.

It was a long and arduous process of polishing his meridians, so he had long since quit trying to keep track of the progress, and he just mindlessly performed the task.

Finally, on this particular night, he was unable to find any constrictions, and before he knew it, while searching for points to polish, his mana ball had unknowingly circulated throughout his entire body and returned to the nucleus of mana in his core. He was abruptly brought out of his trance by a notification.

New Skill Unlocked!
Mana Circulation (1)

He jumped up and exclaimed in excitement, forgetting that he wasn’t alone in his tent.

“Quiet down,” Brace called out as he threw a pillow at Reivyn’s head. Reivyn ducked and laughed with a silly grin on his face.

“Alright, alright,” he placated his squadmate. “I just finally unlocked the Mana Circulation skill after several weeks, and I got excited.”

“What?” Brace asked in confusion. “Just now? I would have thought you got the skill a couple of weeks ago with your diligence. As far as I know, Decker only took a week and a half.”

Reivyn shrugged, and Brace, not being one to pry, dropped in and rolled back over to go to sleep after Reivyn tossed him his pillow back. Reivyn wasn’t going to tell him, or anyone besides his family, for that matter, that he had an additional pathway attached to his class meridian pathway, and it was not only longer, but much more complicated and filled with several times more bottleneck points.

With elation, Reivyn resumed his seat to continue working on his Mana Circulation for a bit longer before going to sleep. He was still addicted to the feeling of getting skill gains and improving himself.

Chapter eighteen

Home on the Range

Monthly Experience
Calculating…
Relevant Skills Training: +300 Exp
Physical Exercise: +115 Exp
Sparring: +115 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +40 Exp
Life Experience: +600 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 1,170
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 355/600

Reivyn woke up to a new notification. He had known that people gained experience in their classes over time, but he hadn’t known exactly in what form that took place. Now he learned that the System did monthly calculations based on their activities and life experiences.

He noticed that life experience was more than double all of his other sources of experience combined. He surmised he had gotten such a large boost due to all of the new things he had done, combined with traveling and fighting for his life. He couldn’t always expect to get such a large boost to his monthly experience calculations.

Reivyn looked over his Status page, contemplating what stats to use his unassigned points on. He had just been increasing his strength and dexterity in equal measure, but he looked at his intelligence and magic stats and remembered that they were the highest stats that he was born with. He would gain points in his physical stats automatically per level gain no matter what, so he made a snap decision to go ahead and place some points in his mental stats.

It was important to focus on his physical stats at this point in time of his life because of his circumstances, but he didn’t want his advantages to completely fall by the wayside. With that mentality, he resolved to place a few points in his mental stats every few levels going forward in the future.

Reivyn donned his armor and grabbed his weapons as he headed out of the tent with Brace. He was excited for the day because it was the first time he was going on patrol in the mountainous wilderness with his squad.

Most of the other squads, including the ones from the cavalry unit, had already done a tour in the field, and each one of them had had to engage one or two ferocious beasts at least. The area surrounding their little mini fort was still not “off limits” to the local wildlife.

Reivyn and Brace met up with the rest of the squad members after grabbing a quick breakfast. Corporal Decker performed a head count and reported to their sergeant that they were good to go, and they set off into the sparse brush.

Corporal Decker had already explained the mission parameters the night before, and he didn’t want any delay when it was time to begin the excursion. The men lined up in two columns, roughly ten feet apart with a point-man leading the way.

Reivyn kept his eyes open, surveying the land around him as they moved out. Even though they were still in the immediate area of the palisade, it was a good habit to get into to always be alert.

The terrain was fairly rocky and open, but there were smatterings of tall grass, boulders, and some isolated clumps of trees that blocked the line of sight and provided concealment for anything lurking around. This close to the base camp, they didn’t need to inspect each area thoroughly so as to walk up to each individual one, but once they gained some distance, that was exactly what they would be doing. The purpose of the outing was to drive off and deter any beasts, and with no final destination or timetable, there was no rush to not do so.

Reivyn walked along with the others up the gentle slope. He looked out over the plains expanding outward before him to his left. It was a vast sea of green, and the sun reflected off a distant river that fed into a lake like a polished mirror. The blue sky with scattered clouds contrasting with the green below made for an idyllic scene.

The ridge that they were traveling along was extremely wide, and even though it was a spur of a much larger massif looming in the distance, Reivyn could see its own spurs darting off to the plains below on either side. On the right side of the ridge, the main line was a straight cliff into a forested valley, and the offshoot spurs were extremely steep. It would be a nightmare to navigate without proper gear and planning.

Reivyn could imagine that in a couple of years after the outpost had become a proper city, this would be one of the most coveted areas to live in. It was simply stunning.

The morning passed without incident, and the squad settled down for some lunch. They had yet to encounter anything that would be classified as a ferocious beast, though they had run some local predators off, mainly mountain foxes and other small fry.

“So normally a ridge would be considerably less wide than one attached to such a large mountain range as this one.” Brace leaned over to engage Reivyn in conversation. The squad wasn’t operating in total silence, as they weren’t performing any stealthy maneuvers or trying to remain undetected from an enemy.

“This ridge is very wide with a gentle slope, and it actually has more concealment from any watchers below in the center,” Brace continued. “On a smaller ridge, it would be more narrow and almost come to a point at the top. In such a situation, anyone walking along the top would stand out like a sore thumb to anyone looking from the bottom, as there would be nothing but sky behind them. We call that ‘skylining,’ and we would typically move downslope a way so as to avoid any prying eyes.”

“That makes sense,” replied Reivyn. “What about for anyone above you? Wouldn’t they be able to see you no matter what?”

“Yeah, that changes things,” answered Brace. “When confronting an enemy with a superior terrain position, cover and speed are much more important. Someone above is gonna spot you, but the key is to keep as many obstacles between you and them to prevent any archers or, in the case of a truly professional army, mages from having line of sight and to close the distance as fast as possible.”

Reivyn cocked his head to the side a little in confusion. “A ‘true’ professional army? I thought this was a professional army, though.”

“While it’s true that we’re professional soldiers, we are not a professional army. We’re structured similarly, and if the kingdom ever issues a conscription, a portion of our unit gets sent up the chain, just like any non-professional levy.

“Technically, we’re part of the lord’s retainers. Most people join our outfit not just for the superior training and resources, but also because of the superior land that can be granted after a successful stint of service, which is typically around a decade, but it can be longer, depending on the circumstances.

“The biggest difference between the professional army and the various retainers is access to the kingdom-controlled dungeons. They have the ability to send the men into various difficulty-level dungeons to gain combat experience and levels. Knight-Captain Reifold served as a junior officer, but he’s not the best person to gauge the effectiveness of the practice, because apparently, he was quite exceptional, even then.”

“Why would he leave such an opportunity to come to be a member of a lord’s retainers?” Reivyn was puzzled.

“I don’t know the details, but rumors are that, with anything involving nobles and benefits, there are some politics involved,” Brace concluded.

Reivyn nodded and finished eating his lunch. They still had a few minutes of break, so he got up to go off a bit of a distance to relieve himself. As he finished up, he felt a thud against his shin along with the ting of something hard striking metal.

He looked down at his leg to investigate what had caused the sensation, and he saw a three-foot snake coiled up, ready to strike again. After careful observation, he realized it wasn’t poisonous, just aggressive. A smirk crossed his face as he got an idea.

Reivyn turned to look over his shoulder and called out to Brace. “Heads up!” He scooped the snake up with the butt of his spear and launched it at the sitting man. He was only trying to play a prank on his friend, so he was careful to aim in such a way that it wouldn’t actually land anywhere close to him or become a danger.

“Ahhh! Sonuva-gah.” Brace toppled over at being startled to find a snake, fangs bared, flying through the air toward him. He gave out an eloquent rebuttal to the shenanigans his younger compatriot got up to, and the other squad members paused in their conversation to see what was going on. Upon realizing the situation, they just laughed and continued with what they were doing.

“Real funny,” Brace said as he got up, patting the dust off himself. He took his spear, and copying Reivyn earlier, scooped up the snake and sent it on its way.

Despite what some people assumed of military men, they weren’t bloodthirsty murderers. They didn’t just indiscriminately kill everything they encountered.

The rest of the break was spent tidying up and checking gear. Soon the squad was mobile again.

-ROAR!-

Reivyn darted in at the flank of a large black bear as it took a swipe at the man in front of it with his shield up. The man took the hit and allowed the force to drive him back as another man took his spot. Reivyn jumped back as another man with a shield covered for him as the bear turned its attention toward the attacker.

The men had stumbled upon the bear some minutes earlier. It wasn’t a ferocious beast, but bears were still deadly animals. They took turns rotating in defenders and attackers and harassed the bear. They weren’t attempting to kill it, as it could actually prove beneficial for keeping other animals and weak monsters in check.

They had their orders, though, and its home was within the radius that they were tasked with clearing out. The combatants harassed it for several long minutes until it finally must have realized it wasn’t getting anywhere, and it turned and fled farther up the mountain.

Reivyn lowered his spear and panted to catch his breath. Even though they took turns rotating out and not much stamina was spent overall, it had still been a physically demanding activity. He took out his water skin and took a swig. He wiped the sweat off his brow, popped his neck, and rolled his shoulders to relax his muscles.

As he was performing his little stretches, a glint off to the side near the cliff edge caught his eye. He frowned as he looked over and couldn’t quite make out what had caught his attention. It was around a couple of hundred yards to the side and farther up the slope, so he was surprised he had seen anything at all. He elbowed Brace to his side and nodded in that direction.

“I think I saw something over there. No idea what,” he told the man. Brace looked over in the direction and then walked up to Corporal Decker. He bent his head together with the corporal, and then Decker signaled the men to form up.

“Might be something unusual over by the cliff, so we’re going to walk over there and check it out as we continue on our way,” the squad leader commanded.

The men did a quick double-check of their gear, and then they resumed their patrol formation. As they walked along the path leading to the location, a group of unfamiliar people suddenly came hurrying out of the brush right next to their intended investigatory destination. They were attired like adventurers, though not like any of the several groups that had arrived at the palisade that Reivyn had seen.

The group of adventurers spotted the squad and came to an abrupt halt. They turned toward each other and gesticulated for a bit before a flurry of activity ended with them producing what looked like collapse-able kites out of their packs. They then did something very puzzling: They took a running head start and launched themselves off the cliffside. The contraptions were actually gliders, and Reivyn and the other squad members watched as they floated down into the forested valley below.

“I’ve got a bad feeling.” Corporal Decker had a frown on his face as he muttered to himself. Louder, he continued. “Let’s hurry and see what’s up there.”

The men broke into a jog and headed for the spot the strangers had jumped off the cliff from. They clearly hadn’t originally been planning on taking that route of descent, but the arrival of the squad had prompted them to abandon their plans for expediency. It was very suspicious.

Upon arriving at the edge, the men finally saw what had at first grasped Reivyn’s attention. A line of spikes was driven into the ground, and ropes attached to the spikes led down into the valley.

“Cut these ropes,” Corporal Decker ordered and pointed.

“What are these for?” one of the men asked as the squad drew their utility blades to sever the ropes. There had to be at least thirty, minimum.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” responded the corporal.

Reivyn ran to one of the ropes and bent down to grab it in his off hand. He steadied the thick rope as he sawed through it, his Weapons Master skill activating and speeding up the process. When he finished cutting the rope, he glanced down as he put his hand down to help push himself up into a standing position, and he paused.

Some of the loose gravel was shifting about, and as he bent down for a closer look at the puzzling phenomenon, he noticed larger and larger pebbles also start to bounce and dance around.

“Corporal!” he shouted as he quickly stood up. Corporal Decker held up a hand to acknowledge he had heard him but to wait. He was staring up at the brush line spotted with clumps of trees. The terrain formed a fairly solid break to line of sight.

A crashing sound came from the brush, followed shortly after by the sounds of a large animal grunting and whoofing. Suddenly, the black bear that they had run off moments before came charging out of the brush down the slope. It looked at the men as it ran by at an astonishing speed, but otherwise, it completely ignored them.

“Everyone, stop what you’re doing.” Corporal Decker waved his arm in an up and down motion to get his men to stop and be silent. Reivyn watched his expression as he looked at the running bear, the dancing pebbles on the ground, and then finally up at the brush line. Reivyn witnessed the blood completely drain from his face as he turned and yelled at the men.

“RUN!”

The men immediately stowed their utility blades and took off running at full tilt back down the slope. They had only managed to cut about half of the ropes. As soon as they entered a dead sprint, a giant shadow fell over the fleeing men as a huge flock of birds shot up into the sky, previously having been concealed by the brush line and other obstacles. With their shadow came the screeches of innumerable birds chirping and cawing at one another.

A cacophony of sound barraged Reivyn’s ears as he put every fiber of his being into running down the slope. A quick glance behind him showed a similar scene on the ground. A horde of wildlife, ferocious beasts and low-tiered monsters came surging out of the brush in an endless tide.

Reivyn’s eyes opened wide in panic, and he felt Mental Fortitude assert itself as he faced forward once again. He tucked his head down and silently chanted, Run, run, run, run… over and over again to himself.

While the squad had managed to travel a considerable distance during the day, they had snaked and meandered up the slope in order to investigate all of the little hidey-holes something could be lurking within. The absolute distance walked was a lot, but the relative distance away from the palisade wasn’t too far, all things considered. It could be seen as a tiny square off in the distance still.

“Emergency signal!” Corporal Decker yelled between breaths. He didn’t specify who should send one, so three of the squad members fired off a magically enhanced signal flare in the direction of the palisade. Because of the slope and distance they had traveled, instead of firing the signal flare straight into the air, they aimed more in front of themselves so as to allow the projectile to expend its acceleration moving toward the encampment.

Three flares shot out almost simultaneously nearly parallel to ground level. Mere moments later, large globes of extremely bright orange fire exploded into being, hopefully alerting the base below.

Reivyn felt nearly weightless as the men hurtled down the slope of the mountain. He felt like if he ran any faster, he would simply run out into the open air in front of him instead of down the ridge. If he didn’t have decently leveled Balance and Running skills, he wouldn’t have been able to handle such a pace without ending up tripping and rolling the rest of the way.

We can make it, Reivyn thought. His lungs were on fire, and his legs were growing weary, but he had hope as he could see their destination getting closer and closer while they maintained a lead on the beast tide.

But Reivyn had forgotten one thing: He shouldn’t give voice to these thoughts in his head.

A swarm of birds came plunging down on the men, careening into the fleeing squad as they made their escape. Reivyn felt rock-hard beaks and sharp claws crash into his head and upper back, causing him to stumble and barely catch himself. He and the others unstrapped their shields and ran with them held aloft to fend off as many of the avian assailants as they could.

The birds were extremely nimble, however, and many of them simply swooped down under the protection of the shield to scratch and peck at faces and upper bodies as they flew by. Reivyn knew that if this continued, the harassment would lead to a catastrophic loss in speed, resulting in them being submerged in the horde.

Working off instincts he didn’t know he had, Reivyn spun his internal mana through his body faster than he ever had before and pulled it in the palm of his right hand. He discarded his spear as a hindrance and lashed his hand out as fire mana synthesized into a long, thin strand that he wielded like a whip.

He struck out at the birds flying in above him and lassoed it out over his companions’ heads. Reivyn’s mana dropped precipitously as the maneuver burned through ten points per second. He could only maintain the assault for a total of thirty seconds.

The fire whip didn’t make physical contact so much as it simply passed through the birds. The flying beasts that were passed through with the whip caught on fire, causing them to lose their ability to fly as their feathers burned up. The other birds en route to perform their dive-bomb attacks quickly abandoned the thought of continuing to harass the men, and Reivyn released the technique.

He had used up just over one hundred mana and was down to two-thirds of his total pool.

There was no time for thanks or any kind of examination of what had just happened, and all of the men kept their heads down as they continued their sprint, their shields now pumping back and forth along with their arms.

Sweat poured down Reivyn’s head and face as his entire body was drenched from the exertion. The sweat stung as it fell into his eyes, and he could taste the salt as it landed on his tongue as he gulped down his breaths. He looked toward the base, and they were finally close enough that he could see a flurry of activity as the men still there were doing something on this side of the wall.

Despite the hiccup with the birds harassing them, he still maintained hope that they would somehow make it to safety, but one form of disaster never strikes alone.

Reivyn heard a muffled curse followed by the sounds of armor striking the ground from behind him. He turned and saw Corporal Decker rolling down the slope. Like a responsible leader, he had been bringing up the rear, keeping an eye on his men, but he had apparently been too focused on the others and had failed to spot a rock that caused him to roll his ankle and trip.

Reivyn had no conscious thought as his body moved on its own. He activated his class skill, Charge, in the direction of the corporal, and his momentum was immediately altered toward a full-on sprint in the opposite direction.

The active skills afforded by the classes were peculiar. With some experimentation, he had found that he could activate the skill in any direction from any situation. He could even enter a full charge while jumping in the air. The System worked in mysterious ways.

As Reivyn made his way toward his downed corporal, he spotted a duo of large wolves that were obviously on the cusp of being classified as beasts accelerate away from the front line of the horde. They had spotted prey and had seized the opportunity to pounce. Reivyn flung his shield away as he simultaneously entered a ready battle stance above his fallen comrade, grasped the sheath of his sword in his off hand, and drew the sword in a lightning-quick arc.

He felt resistance as his blade passed through the first wolf, completely decapitating it, but the weapon had lost enough momentum that it simply bashed the other wolf off trajectory with a deep cut on its neck. Deep, but not enough to be fatal. The surviving wolf managed to rake its claws across Reivyn’s unprotected midsection, tearing cloth, leather, and skin in a spray of blood.

Reivyn didn’t have time to care about the wolf or acknowledge the burning sensation in his side as he scooped up the corporal, sword still in hand, and started running back down the slope. He could practically feel the breath of the many beasts that were now hot on his heels. His recent stat gains and adrenaline coursing through his system allowed him to shoulder the other man with only minimal added effort.

“Put me down, and escape on your own!” Corporal Decker tried to convince Reivyn to save himself.

“No,” was the simple reply.

Blood was pouring down his side, and his stamina, and now health, were draining at unprecedented speeds as his vision was obscured by the sweat continuously pouring down his face. Any minute now he would be caught by a trailing tide of death.

His vision began to swim, and he could only focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

A strange sound entered his ears that he couldn’t focus on enough to think about, and it was followed by louder shrieks from the many creatures chasing after him. The weight of Corporal Decker on his shoulders suddenly disappeared, and his vision tilted to the side as he felt himself falling sideways.

No, that’s not right, Reivyn thought. I’m not falling, I’m flying.

He was completely spent and could hardly focus on what was happening to him, but he suddenly felt his weight return to him as he was securely placed onto something moving and jumping about.

“Don’t worry, I got you,” a voice calmly told him as his vision started going dark around the edges.

He had been picked up by a member of the cavalry.

They had made it.

Chapter nineteen

Cooped Up

Reivyn sat up in an unfamiliar tent. People were rushing about, tending to a steady stream of wounded people brought into the tent in various levels of distress. Some were being supported by their comrades as they limped in under their own strength, and some were being carried in on gurneys or slung over shoulders. He quickly realized that he was in the field infirmary.

Reivyn jumped up and, vaguely remembering a claw slash to his midsection, quickly checked himself over. His clothes and leathers were still tattered over his stomach, but there was no wound. He had managed to hang on to his sword, and someone had sheathed it for him. He checked his health and stamina and saw that he was fully healed and at about 90% stamina.

All of the medical personnel were busy doing much more important work than explaining things to him, so he joined a line of others who had been healed in exiting the large tent. As he stepped through the tent flap, he glanced back into the depths. He could see several bodies covered in sheets laid out on the ground.

Sounds of beasts roaring, men screaming, and the clashes of conflict washed over him as he emerged from the medical tent. Large birds of prey, some from the same species that had hounded him and his squad previously but combined with several new flocks, were flying overhead. They weren’t circling the battlefield but were instead involved in a larger migration that continued on past the palisade. They were just taking the passing chance to swoop down and assault the men below. They were aggressive, ferocious beasts that had been granted an opportunity, so they took it.

He and the others returning to the front lines ran with their heads ducked. Reivyn noticed the other men raising their shields to cover themselves, and he remembered that he had discarded his shield hundreds of yards up the slope. There was gear strewn about on the ground littering the compound: shields, spears, helmets, and he even saw a single, solitary boot. He snatched up a nicked shield and spear from the ground as he ran. Gear adrift is a gift, he justified.

The men ran to the northern wall of the compound where a gap had been cut to allow men to pass in and out. Upon emerging, he witnessed what had been the result of activity he couldn’t make out during his mad dash down the mountain.

The logs from the original palisade in the prospector town, which had been previously transported up to the new palisade but left discarded at the time, had been placed into a makeshift, inverted “V” wall. The men had reinforced it and were standing behind the wall using the gaps to thrust their spears through into the beast horde on the other side.

An NCO was waving people coming in toward the wall. “1st Platoon on the left. 2nd Platoon on the right. Find your squad later. Man the wall!” He repeated the orders over and over.

Reivyn ran toward a small gap in the men lining the wall on the right. He noticed that Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand were at the very tip of the inverted “V,” and they were working together to bear the brunt of the tide and redirect the horde’s momentum to the sides. The base was like a rock in the rapids, and the beasts were the water.

“Don’t try to kill them. Poke your spear through to make them retreat from the wall and keep the pressure off. Deterrence is key,” a seasoned veteran said to Reivyn while never missing a beat performing the actions himself.

Reivyn joined the long line of troops at the wall. The NCOs were simultaneously directing the troops and defending them from the birds overhead. He didn’t know if someone had mentioned his stunt with the fire mana whip, but the NCOs had procured chains from somewhere, and they were swinging them around over the top of the heads of men.

There were still gaps in the defenses from the flying threat, and Reivyn noticed that most of the injuries were sustained from a large bird making it past the chains to rake at the unprotected necks of the men. Some of the birds just barreled into the men beak first, not caring whether they did any damage or not. Despite an increased level of intelligence in many animals, especially those on the cusp of being, or were already, ferocious beasts, they were still beasts.

Thrust. Retract. Quick check of the skies. Thrust. Retract. Raise shield to block. Thrust. Retract…

The combat was actually pretty rote once Reivyn got into the rhythm of it. Every now and then, a small monster, like a wild goblin or Orc, would jump up on top of the log wall and swipe down at the men with crude weaponry. Sometimes they got lucky and bashed a head enough to knock a man down or got a lucky stab in before the defenders could pull their spears back from the gaps in the wall to handle the new threat. These instances made up the other minority of injuries sustained.

There was one thing that puzzled Reivyn, though. The levies. As he performed his duty of keeping the pressure off of the wall, he glanced back and saw them just standing in the center of the new fortification. Upon running in, he had assumed they would act as a reserve unit and take the place of any tired or wounded regulars, but that was not the case. They just stood there, not doing anything other than defending against the attacks of the birds. With a much larger concentration of men able to focus on the aerial adversaries, though, they didn’t suffer any damage.

He put the thought out of his mind and focused on his task. The commanders hadn’t made stupid decisions yet, so he was confident they were on standby for a reason.

“Archers! Archers! Anyone with a ranged combat skill of 15 or higher,” an NCO ran up and down the line calling out. “Report to the watchtowers to reinforce the skirmishers. Anyone with a ranged combat skill of 15 or higher…” The man’s voice was drowned out by the sounds of battle as he ran past.

Reivyn pulled his spear back and tapped the man to his side on the shoulder. He gestured back toward the palisade proper. “I’ve got a ranged combat skill. I’m heading out. Good luck.” The man acknowledged him with a nod.

Reivyn propped his spear up against the wall in case anyone on the line would need it, and he made his way back toward the opening in the wall of the palisade. He glanced up at the watchtowers and noticed the considerably more concentrated assault by the flying beasts. He gulped and berated himself as he ran. Why did I volunteer?! I’m already moving, so it’s too late now. Life lesson learned: Never volunteer for anything!

As he ran toward the watchtower located on the same side as his platoon, he felt a weird, subtle pulling toward the opposite tower. He decided to trust his gut and go toward the other tower. He hadn’t been instructed to go to any specific location, so he just decided on his own.

Reivyn stopped a man, blood running down his face along with several other wounds on his body obviously caused by claw and beak strikes, who was making his way toward the medical tent. He was holding a bow and had an empty quiver on him, so Reivyn knew he was one of the skirmishers. He stopped the man and held his hand out.

“Bow! I’m going up the tower,” he informed the man. The man tossed him his bow without a second thought and continued on his way. There were more important things to him at the moment than keeping a bow with no arrows that he could always replace later. Reivyn slung it over his shoulder as he climbed the ladder up the tower.

When he reached the top, he found an unexpected surprise. The first adventurer group he had seen come through the gates of the palisade were up there. The rogue and archer were using bows to attack targets down on the ground, the two frontline melee combatants were fully armored with the visors of their helmets down as they defended the others from the birds, and the mage was sitting in a corner, presumably recovering spent mana. The porter was nowhere to be seen, but several full quivers and stacks of arrows that wouldn’t fit were neatly piled to the side of the ranged combatants.

“Hey, kid!” the larger, burly armored man said. He had a kite shield in one hand and a large sword that would probably require Reivyn to use both of his hands to properly use in the other. “You’re lucky. You stick with us, and you don’t gotta worry about anything. We got you.” He was in high spirits, despite the intense situation and was quite jovial.

“What about the guy I just passed covered in blood?” Reivyn asked wryly as he assumed a position at the edge of the tower. There had originally been a roof overhead, but it had been shredded into splinters and offered no protection.

The big man paused for half a second at the rebuttal. “Learning experience! Learning experience. Won’t happen again. Trust us.”

Reivyn shrugged his shoulders as he nocked an arrow. He was going to have to, whether he wanted to or not.

“Don’t worry about most of the beasts down there,” the rogue called out to him as he continued to fire his bow. “Pick out larger beasts that seem to move with purpose or intelligence, if you can tell, and the monsters. Those are the only things down there that will actively attack.”

Reivyn took the advice to heart as he searched through the beasts. It wasn’t hard to spot the targets he was looking for, as most of them were either already close to or actively converging on the walls below.

Pull. Loose. Pull. Loose…

The battle continued. Same concept, different action. Reivyn’s proficiency with a bow was just as high as his ability with a spear, and it was augmented by the Aim skill, so he more or less hit the targets he was aiming for. The beasts and monsters weren’t actively trying to dodge his attacks, and their movements were mostly predictable in the situation.

Suddenly, a large fireball streaking through the sky caught Reivyn’s attention. It sailed from the back of the horde toward the point of the wall where the officers were still fighting. A light blue screen appeared before it and caused it to explode on impact. The fire splashed down into the beasts and monsters below, well outside the range of the troops. Many of the beasts caught on fire and went berserk, smashing into other beasts erratically and spreading more fire.

The magical attack had actually helped alleviate a lot of the pressure on the officers. Reivyn looked into the distance where the magic attack had originated from, and he spotted what he had been hoping to see for a long time: the end of the beast tide was in sight.

What followed at the heels of the beast tide was a unified tribe of goblins. They were bigger than any of the ones he had seen thus far. They were outfitted in wooden armor and riding mountain goats. If the situation weren’t so serious, it might have appeared comical. Several of the goblins were carrying gnarled staves and had elaborate headdresses worn on their heads. The fireball attack had come from one of them.

“Hobgoblins,” Reivyn heard the archer mention. “The other wild goblins are probably members of this tribe. Focus your attacks exclusively on them. This is the last hurdle.”

The flocks passed by, and the beasts dispersed as the endless ocean finally came to an end. There was a gap between the last of the animals and the hobgoblin tribe, and the latter lined up on their goat mounts. They numbered probably close to two hundred, and as they lined up, the hobgoblin with the most elaborate headdress raised his arms and staff aloft. The sun was finally approaching the horizon to the west, and it caused long, creepy shadows to extend out from the hobgoblins.

Reivyn activated his Mana Sight skill, and even though the distance was pretty far, he was still able to see large amounts of mana being sucked into the area around the apparent shaman where it mixed with its own mana being expelled in a controlled manner.

Huh, so a proper magic caster doesn’t just utilize their own mana, but can subordinate environmental mana as well, Reivyn thought to himself.

As the shaman coalesced his attack, Knight-Captain Reifold held out his hand. The adjutant placed a spear in the waiting appendage, and Knight-Captain Reifold immediately took up a javelin throwing stance and launched the spear through the air. The hobgoblin shaman was about fifty yards away, too far, Reivyn assumed, for the Paladin to use the same blade light move he had used on the ogre a couple of weeks ago.

The spear sailed straight and true, and it pierced right through the throat of the shaman, killing it instantly. The other hobgoblins went wild with rage and immediately charged the fortification, rage consuming any coherent thought such a monster possessed.

“Go,” the archer exclaimed as the hobgoblins entered into effective range. Reivyn and the other two men raised their bows to fire arrows into the last resistance. The three other men on top of the watchtower joined them along the edge to watch the last of the battle.

It was anticlimactic.

The hobgoblins were consumed with rage and didn’t make sound decisions. Any of them that made it on top of the log walls to get to men defending on the other side were immediately killed, and most of them were pushed back before they could even mount the wall. The continued barrage of arrows also devastated their ranks.

Fear finally overrode rage, and the hobgoblin shamans that remained regained control of the tribe and directed them to bypass the thorny encampment. At least a quarter of their number had been quickly wiped out.

The men broke out into cheers as the hobgoblins disappeared. It had been an extremely stressful day. The archer, along with several others from the skirmishers that had previously left to get his wounds tended to, returned to the top of the tower, and Reivyn passed the bow back to him with a thanks.

A long, low horn sounded, causing the celebrations to come to an immediate halt. Reivyn saw a long line of men emerge from the brush in the distance. They continued to march forth, most of them attired similarly to the levies down below with helmets, gambesons, and spears.

Once the formation of newcomers was fully out in the open, Reivyn sucked in a cold breath as he realized there were hundreds of them. There were possibly close to a thousand armed men with obviously hostile intentions.

An image of ropes staked into the ground atop a cliff face briefly entered Reivyn’s mind as he quickly made his way down the ladder. He needed to return to his squad.

“Hey, we’ll come with. Can’t get contribution points up here,” Reivyn heard the big, armored adventurer call out to him.

He had no time to think about the intentions of the other men as he hit the bottom of the ladder and sprinted back out into the new fortification. He frowned as he saw the men dismantling the makeshift walls and setting the logs to the side. He quickly spotted his squad and made his way to Corporal Decker.

“What’s going on? Why are we getting rid of the defenses?” Reivyn immediately voiced his question upon arriving at the scene.

“Oh, it’s not a big deal,” Corporal Decker replied. “By the way, where you been?” He didn’t have an accusatory tone in his voice. Reivyn pointed behind him, and Corporal Decker nodded his head as he followed his finger toward the watchtower. “Right, makes sense. Anyway, about these new guys. Like I said, not a big deal.

“Those guys are flying the pennant of Count Heliar from the county on the other side of this mountain. Basically, it’s politics. The lines of the counties are vague in the mountain, and he’s probably trying to enforce a claim on the new dungeon. The adventurers who discovered it probably sold the information to both sides to double their profit.

“In a situation like this, we don’t fight to the death. Both of the counts are part of the same duchy, and the duke would be furious if they had their people murdering each other. We’ll fight until our health gets to 50 percent and then voluntarily retreat from the conflict. If anyone dies, unless it’s from a fatal attack that shouldn’t have been made, then it’s considered on the idiot who refused to leave the field when he should have.

“Also, Knight-Captain Reifold is a genius. After I reported the situation we had stumbled upon, he ordered the levies to stand by and not participate in holding off the beast tide. They’re probably more fresh than the opponents that had to march all the way here.

“If we lose, we’ll just pack up and go home. It would suck for us to do all of the work only for someone else to get the benefits, but hey, that’s life. As to the beast tide that was obviously incited by them to wear us down beforehand, we don’t have any solid proof, so Knight-Captain Reifold can only inform Count Ilpir and have him handle it.”

Reivyn looked around and saw a relaxed atmosphere all around him. The levies had taken up position in formation outside of where the beast tide had suffered the most casualties so it wouldn’t be an obstacle under foot, and they were ready to square off against the enemy levies under Sergeant Mok’s supervision.

“C’mon, we need to form up,” Corporal Decker said. The men all grabbed their gear, did a once over, and then headed toward their position in the formation. Reivyn noticed the adventurers from the watchtower following them.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked them.

“Depends on what happens,” replied the big man. Self-appointed or not, he appeared to be the spokesman for the group. “Sometimes a battle isn’t enough to convince either side. They could appoint champions to fight it out, and that’s where we would be able to step in.”

Reivyn nodded at the man’s words and assumed his position in the building formation. As the men trickled in from various locations and distances away, Reivyn’s hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He could feel a gaze on him, and he turned to find the grinning face of Ren lined up in formation behind him.

The man reached up and placed a hand on Reivyn’s shoulder, leaving it resting there. “Hey, we can be considered to have fought side-by-side in life and death now. I don’t want anything else to jeopardize my career, and as a unit, we should be able to trust each other. So… water under the bridge?”

Reivyn looked into the other man’s eyes for a moment. His vision didn’t waver, and he appeared sincere on the surface. Reivyn thought about what he had heard about Ren’s family and their situation. He wasn’t well versed in politics and spotting lies or anything, but it made sense to Reivyn that Ren would have such an attitude.

“Sure,” Reivyn replied. “You leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone.”

Ren chuckled as he patted Reivyn’s shoulder before dropping his hand. “It’s more than that. Yeah, I won’t mess with you, but on the battlefield, I’ll do my duty and have your back.”

Reivyn turned back around after the brief exchange. He was perfectly happy to settle any kind of enmity the two of them might have. They would never be friends, but he could trust Ren to keep his word about doing his duty on the battlefield. It would definitely be career suicide to get up to mischief in such a situation.

Reivyn was in his usual spot in the second row of the formation, and everyone was able to get a breather as they watched the levies duke it out. He had no idea how the winner or loser was determined, but considering what he had been told, that didn’t really matter to him right now.

Corporal Decker had been right about the levies, though. The opponents, while having about a hundred more men, were flagging. The combatants didn’t have much in the way of armor, so people fell out of the formation quickly as they basically engaged in a large-scale, group sparring match. Reivyn spotted Teilon limping away from the battle, and a weight he hadn’t known had been on his shoulders lifted.

The levy battle was over pretty quickly. They were able to engage a lot of people all at once, so it wasn’t really much of a surprise to Reivyn. The final tally was the levy under Count Ilpir had twenty people still standing in formation when the last of the attackers gave up.

“Attention,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand called out. All of the men assumed a brisk, military stance.

“Forward.” The formation marched forward and engaged with the enemy regulars.

The combat tactics used were exactly the same as when engaging the Orcs, minus the javelin throw, and Reivyn found himself thrusting his spear from behind the shieldman in the front row at another similarly armored man.

The fourth-row members comprising the reserve unit wouldn’t take part in the beginning, nor would they act like a typical reserve unit in this instance. They would take the place of men who fell out of the formation when their health dropped below half.

Further behind the reserve unit, the adventurers waited. They remained grouped up with their own teams, but they freely milled about, laughing and joking with each other. The team that had been with Reivyn was no exception as they stood around talking to others directly behind Reivyn’s position.

Even though the unit tactics were the same, the fighting was very different. The opponents used the same tactics, and they were much more controlled and methodical. The frontline men exchanged sword swings and shield blocks while the second-row combatants searched for an opening to drain the health and stamina of the rival shieldmen. Reivyn found himself engaged in a sort of mock duel with another rival spearman as they also attempted to interfere with each other’s spear thrusts from behind.

It became a game of seeing who would last longer with their stamina, and the chess moves were more in line with switching out at the most efficient times to regulate the resources best. While the levy battle had been a quick affair, this portion of the competition was long and drawn out.

Reivyn didn’t keep count of how many times he switched between each position in the formation, and the recovery provided by being in the third rank was not nearly enough to maintain the battle indefinitely.

Reivyn found himself fighting on the front lines, and despite all the training he had done while exhausted, there would always be flaws when stamina dropped beyond a certain threshold. The men all up and down the line on both sides were finally seeing their health start to gradually dwindle. Reivyn was no exception.

The opposing man switched out with his counterpart, and Reivyn decided to capitalize on the very brief window of respite to do the same. He tilted his head to the side and called out behind him like he had done many times already.

“Switch.”

Reivyn waited for the movements that would indicate Ren was taking his place on the front line. He waited for a second, but the usual instant response from the man was absent. He looked back over his shoulder, and a chill went down his spine as he saw Ren smirking at him.

Reivyn whipped his head around to the front. The man who had taken the spot on the front line came into his view. He wore the same armor like everyone else, but there was a black veil concealing the bottom half of his face, and the familiar eyes of the assassin locked with his own.

A wind blew across Reivyn. A shadow came over his vision as the assassin thrust forward with lightning speed, and Reivyn felt the warmth of hot blood as it splashed across his body.

Chapter twenty

Turn and Meet

Reivyn looked down at the blade that was pressing into his stomach. It didn’t penetrate, as the momentum of the thrust had been interrupted by another man appearing and grabbing the blade, holding it steadily in place. The newcomer had casually slashed the assassin’s throat as he appeared like the wind. It wasn’t immediately fatal, and with his high vitality, if the assassin could escape and reach a medic in time, he could live.

The veiled man activated the same action, be it skill or magic item, that he had used to fade out of existence on their first encounter, and Reivyn felt frustration that he would have to continue to be on the lookout for random attacks, but he was hopeless to stop the man from escaping.

But just because Reivyn was hopeless, that didn’t mean everyone was. The newcomer casually reached out his hand and grasped the assassin by the shoulder. The escape technique was instantly shattered, and the man stumbled to one knee as he grasped his throat instinctively to try to stem the flow of blood. He looked up at the man who held him in place with wild, panicked eyes.

Reivyn turned his attention to his savior and finally got a good look at him. It was the sword-wielding adventurer whom he had just fought side by side with an hour or so ago. The man had his helmet’s visor down as he nonchalantly stood over the assassin watching him die. The dying man reached out for anything to hold in a desperate bid to grasp anything to retain his hold on life, but the adventurer just swatted his attempts to the side with his free hand.

The combat had stopped in the immediate vicinity of the incident, and the stillness slowly spread all around to encompass the entire field. Everyone who could see was staring at the man lying in a growing pool of blood, and they whispered back what they were witnessing to those whose view was obstructed.

The adventurer suddenly lifted his hand and reached over Reivyn’s shoulder. There was a sort of inevitability to the man’s movement. He moved neither slow nor fast, but Reivyn felt a sense that whatever his target was would not be able to flee his grasp no matter how hard they struggled. The man attained his goal, and Ren was unceremoniously dragged out into the forefront.

Ren was using both of his hands to grasp the forearm of the adventurer as he tried with all of his might to resist being pulled forward, all to no avail.

“What do you—ahhhh!” A flash of light passed through the space with no apparent movement from the adventurer, and Ren’s left hand flew into the air as it was severed. Ren released the man’s forearm to grasp at his amputated wrist and screamed in pain and disbelief. The swordsman casually caught the hand that was tumbling through the air, and then he bent down and rummaged through the assassin’s body.

Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand appeared on the scene, and they were accompanied by their apparent counterparts from the other army. They quickly assessed the situation, and the other army commander’s face grew beet red with fury at the sight of a slain soldier. He drew his sword and leveled it at the adventurer who was rummaging through the corpse.

“Halt, immediately, and surrender yourself for arrest,” the man screamed with rage. “Knight-Captain Reifold, what is the meaning of this?” The man’s sword never wavered as he slightly shifted his attention toward Reivyn’s commanding officer.

Knight-Captain Reifold was about to open his mouth, but he stopped and frowned instead. The adventurer had completely ignored the threat from the other officer, and he continued to search through the dead man’s pockets as if there was nothing else going on in the world around him.

The enemy commander returned his focus to the killer when he noticed the look on Knight-Captain Reifold’s face, and his anger finally got the best of him. Without any superfluous movements, the military officer thrust his sword forward toward the adventurer’s neck, but the man simply shifted his weight slightly and tilted his head just enough to let the sword pass harmlessly by. He found what he was looking for and stood up to face the officers who had appeared to confront him.

The man who had attacked stood frozen in place, his sword still outstretched, with a look of confusion and fear clearly visible on his face. Knight-Captain Reifold simply frowned as the two adjutants simultaneously drew their swords and took up a ready stance. The man casually glanced at them through his visor before tossing Ren’s hand and the object he had retrieved from the assassin to Knight-Captain Reifold.

Reifold caught the objects in his hand. The thing from the assassin turned out to be a monocle of some sort. He could feel faint strums of mana from it, indicating it was some kind of magic object.

“Look through it here,” the adventurer said as he gestured toward Ren’s severed hand. He then gestured at Reivyn’s left shoulder. “And here.”

Knight-Captain Reifold brought the monocle up to his eye as he infused some of his mana into it. The palm of the severed hand lit up with a conspicuous light when viewed through the lens. When he shifted his focus to the youngster’s shoulder, it also lit up with a bright handprint.

He cut off the connection with the magic item and placed it into his pocket. He turned to the adjutant and said, “Private Ren has colluded with the enemy to target one of our own. See to it that he receives the minimum necessary medical treatment for his hand, and then place him in irons. He will be held in the stockade until we return to Magron, where he will face court martial.”

Knight-Lieutenant Brand looked down at the still-blubbering Ren. He had finally stopped screaming, but he was curled up in a ball on the ground, cradling his broken wrist. The adjutant realized he still had his sword in hand, so he sheathed it and then brought his hands together and tapped his fingers together in a nervous gesture as he looked at his superior.

“What is it?” Knight-Captain Reifold asked with narrowed eyes.

“Umm, sir, we haven’t built a stockade…” The man trailed off as Knight-Captain Reifold just stared at him. “Ahh, right, sir.” He lifted his hand and signaled off into the distance. “Sergeant Mok, take a detail of levies and build a stockade. You”—he pointed at the squad leader of the third squad of second platoon—“he’s your man. You take him into custody.”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied to the order.

Reivyn was confused as to what had exactly happened. He realized that there was something tying everything together, but he didn’t know what it could be. He looked around. The adventurer was standing there also surveying the situation around himself constantly. The enemy officers had bent down to remove the veil covering the lower half of the assassin’s face. He abruptly stood back up, his mouth set into a thin line.

“Well, Jaron,” Knight-Captain Reifold prodded. “Do you know this man?”

“I do,” Jaron, the other military commander, answered. Everyone stood in silence for a moment, but he didn’t continue.

“Are you going to tell me who it is?” Reifold asked again with a stern tone.

“No, I am not.”

Knight-Captain Reifold stared at the man, his face an inscrutable mask. Nobody could tell what he was thinking.

“Very well,” was all he said. He turned to the waiting men and made a twirling motion with his fingers as he said, “Return to the palisade.”

The platoon sergeants quickly took charge of their men and had them exit the area back toward the fortifications in an orderly manner. The adventurers sauntered back, and as the man who had involved himself with Reivyn turned to also join his comrades, the enemy commander once again shouted out.

“Stop right there!” He pointed at the adventurer who had made it about ten feet or so away. “While this man has committed a crime, it is not your place as an outsider to interfere and mete out punishment. You’ll have to come with me to answer for your crimes.”

The Adventurer halted his steps and turned to face the enemy officer who was standing there pointing his finger, his face a scarlet red from anger. Reivyn could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. Reivyn rolled his eyes, that man clearly cannot control his temper.

The adventurer gave the man pointing at him an appraising look, and then he took a step forward… and he was suddenly right next to the man, his arm thrown over his shoulder like they were drinking buddies going out to the bar. He bent his head down and whispered something into his ear that Reivyn’s Eavesdropping skill couldn’t pick up.

The officer remained in his pose, now pointing into thin air, as the blood drained from his face. The adventurer reached across with his free arm and gently patted the man on the face in a mocking gesture before extricating his arm from around his shoulder and resuming his walk.

Jaron refused to give up, though, and he raised his voice once more toward Knight-Captain Reifold. “What about the claim? The battle was inconclusive. We need to appoint champions and settle this.”

The swordsman casually raised his hand and pointed into the air as he continued walking away without looking back. “My team has petitioned to be champions for Count Ilpir.”

Commander Jaron clenched his fists in front of himself with his head down. Reivyn could see him visibly shaking. The man suddenly threw his head back and yelled into the air.

“Dammit!” He spun around and ordered his adjutant to get the men retreating down the slope. He called out one final time to Knight-Captain Reifold as he moved away. “Even though I couldn’t succeed in pressing the claim, I will report to the count about your unfair use of these high-level adventurers as champions. He’ll have to give up some benefits.”

Knight-Captain Reifold came to a halt at the man’s words. He turned and placed his left hand on the pommel of his sword.

“Unfair?” he said. “Unfair?!” This was the first time Reivyn had ever heard him raise his voice. Even when addressing an entire crowd, it wasn’t necessary for him to speak louder. “After the several stunts you pulled today, I will make sure that the duke is informed. I might not have concrete evidence of your underhanded tactics, but you had better make sure your backside is wiped clean, because I’m coming for you.”

Jaron’s eyes had gone wide at the tone from Reifold, and he yelped and gave a little hop as he scurried away at his final words.

Reivyn was walking along with his squadmates when the sword-wielding adventurer showed up next to him. He clapped Reivyn on the shoulder.

“You got talent, kid. Maybe one day we can team up proper.” and then he was gone. He didn’t appear to hurry, but each of his steps was equivalent to ten of Reivyn’s, and he quickly rejoined his team.

Reivyn watched as the big, burly man threw his hands in the air and loudly exclaimed, “You scared ‘em off! I was going to be a Champion. A Champion. Now, what am I gonna do for fun?”

The swordsman eyed him askance, “You call bullying these weaklings fun?”

The bigger man looked between his other comrades who were studiously ignoring the exchange before looking back to the other man and saying, “Yes?”

Reivyn shook his head and returned his focus back to his own squad. That man was surrounded by two armies, confronted by two Tier 3’s, one of whom I know is a high-level Tier 3, and he acted as if they were all air, he thought. What level is he?

It had been a long and arduous day. The Stamina consumption, despite getting topped up in the medical tent, had accumulated a lot of fatigue in Reivyn’s body. All of the other squad members had been right there with him throughout the day, so they weren’t any better.

The group of tired men dragged themselves to the chow area for a quick dinner before being dismissed for the evening. They had been exempt from any fire watch duties for the night so they could get some proper rest after their harrowing day.

It had, after all, started much earlier for them than the rest of the troops.

Reivyn collapsed onto his sleeping bag as soon as he managed to get his body in its general vicinity. He looked through his notifications one last time.

Enemies Defeated x13
Exp +375
Combat Resolved.
Calculating…
Exp +160
Level Up!
Experience 290/700
Simulated Combat Initiated
Mock Battle (Experience x0.25)
Victory or Defeat Undetermined.
Calculating…
Exp + 124 X 0.25 = Exp + 31
Experience 321/700

Skills Levelled Up!
Aim (17 ->19)
Athleticism (32 ->33)
Balance (35 ->36)
Battlefield Awareness (1 ->3)
Evasion (25 ->26)
Inspire (4 ->5)
Iron Will (1 ->2)
Medium Armor (19 ->20)
Observation (29 ->30)
Pain Resistance (26 ->27)
Running (32 ->35)
Spatial Awareness (7 ->9)
Strategy (0 ->1)
Tactics (1 ->2)

New Skill Unlocked!
Mana Manipulation (0 ->3)

Reivyn smiled at the progress as he drifted off into oblivion.

Chapter twenty-one

Aide and Attendance

Reivyn stood in formation once again. The men had been told during morning chow that there was an all-hands formation where Knight-Captain Reifold would be addressing everyone. As was the case with every military formation called in the history of ever, the men were formed up early and had to wait past the appointed time for the officer to show up.

Evidence of the struggle from the previous day could be spotted everywhere. The strewn-about gear and bird bodies had long since been picked up, but there was shredded canvas and splintered wood all around.

After waiting around at the position of attention for no apparent reason for about ten minutes, Knight-Captain Reifold, followed by Knight-Lieutenant Brand, walked onto the open space in front of the men. The only people not in attendance were the cavalry units who had been sent out to disperse the beast tide after it had passed by so it wouldn’t converge on any villages in force farther away. The levies were milling about, not in any sort of military bearing, but they were silent.

Knight-Captain Reifold surveyed the men before him as he came to a halt, centered on the company. He looked at them for a couple of seconds before turning to his adjutant. He said in an exasperated voice, “Put them at ease.”

Knight-Lieutenant Brand adopted a sheepish look for a second before he stepped forward and ordered, “At ease.”

Reivyn and the other men adopted a loose imitation of the parade rest stance, their feet shoulder-width apart and arms folded in the small of their backs. Parade rest was a serious position requiring military precision and sharp angles. Standing at ease, they just had to kind of look like it.

“First and foremost, I am extremely proud of all of you,” Knight-Captain Reifold began. “Everyone performed their duties well. Orders were executed swiftly and without complaint. Most importantly, everyone acted with common sense.

“Sadly, we lost some more good men to the beast tide. They were our friends and compatriots. They were our brothers. We will honor them like they deserve when we return to Magron.

“And that brings me to the main purpose of this assembly. The beast tide and attempt at pressing a claim have a silver lining to it. We will be able to return much faster now. All of the beasts that we would have had to send out many patrols to root out were swept up in the tide and flushed down the mountain. Mission complete.

“The other count pressing his claim was also something that was inevitable, and we would have had to remain here until it came. So, also, mission complete.

“As such the only duty we have remaining is to simply occupy the area and wait for the new, specialized militia to come and take over. Standard military procedures shall remain in place, but the patrols and other duties will be much more in line with In Garrison, and because we can relax those duties, we will now allow squads to take turns exploring the dungeon.

“The levies are also allowed to form their own parties, but it is recommended for those not aiming for a combat Tier 2 class, or who have already tiered up and chosen a lifestyle class, to not participate. Dungeon running isn’t a game. You don’t have to explore it if you don’t want to, and if I find out any party coerced someone into going in order to make up the numbers, there will be consequences.”

Knight-Captain Reifold let the words hang in the air as he scanned the crowd to let everyone know how serious he was.

“Conversely, that does not apply to the regulars. Running the dungeon at least once a week will now be part of your obligatory duties.

“This dungeon, upon recon, is an infinitely instanced dungeon. For those who don’t know, that means as long as you are either solo or in a System-established party, you will be in your own sub-space, and the dungeon can handle an infinite number of them. The bottleneck for exploring the dungeon isn’t waiting for your turn, but it is instead the obligation of performing military duties.

“The final piece of news I have to pass on is that nobody was expected to have to deal with a beast tide. It was an artificial instigation, and, even though the levies didn’t fight, everyone was placed in much more danger than was estimated when this mission was planned.

“I will be petitioning the count for everyone to receive a combat bonus. None of you have to worry about whether or not he’ll decide to honor that decision, because I will be paying you all up front from my own personal coffers. I will simply hand the count a receipt, and we’ll see if he refuses to pay me.” Everyone gave a low chuckle at the mental image of the count being placed in such a predicament.

“A notice board has been put up detailing which squads have which availability to the dungeon, and the levies focused on combat classes can place their name in the same registry as the adventurers for preferred access,” Knight-Captain Reifold finished. He looked at the adjutant, gave him a nod, and then walked off.

“Attention,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand commanded as soon as the commander was out of sight. “Dismissed.”

Reivyn fell out of the formation with the rest of his squad, and they converged on Corporal Decker. Once everyone was gathered around, the squad leader addressed them.

“I’ve already looked at the notice board, and it’s set up as simple as possible,” he said. “It goes down the list for each platoon in order, so first squads are going today, second squads tomorrow, and so on. So everybody just needs to treat today as any other day.” The men nodded in acknowledgment and turned to go about their duties, but Corporal Decker called out once more. “Except for you, Reivyn. You are to report to Knight-Lieutenant Brand.”

Reivyn frowned and tilted his head. “Do you know why, corporal?”

“No idea. Just that you gotta go,” replied Decker. “So get goin’.” he made a shooing motion toward Reivyn. Reivyn turned and looked at Brace, his eyebrows raised in question.

“I guess… I’ll see you in a bit,” Reivyn said.

“Sure, sure.” Brace clapped him on the shoulder in a familiar gesture. “I’ll give you a primer on dungeons when we get a chance.”

Reivyn waved to the others and made his way to the section of tents reserved for the officers. The level of activity dropped precipitously as he crossed the invisible threshold. There were a couple of soldiers hurrying along, probably delivering reports or messages, and some standing sentry outside of the quarters/field offices of the officers.

Reivyn walked up to the adjutant’s tent, briefly recalling the last time he had had to do so with Corporal Decker. He had gone out on a limb to trust a semi-noble officer with his secret, and as far as he could tell, his secret had been maintained and handled with care. There were no rumors about his mythic skill circulating that he, or anyone he knew, had heard of.

“Private Reivyn reporting to the adjutant,” he said to the sentries as he approached. The sentries, clearly expecting him, did not seek permission for him to enter, and they simply waved him through. He walked in, centered himself on the desk that Knight-Lieutenant Brand was seated behind, and assumed the position of attention.

“Private Reivyn, reporting as ordered, sir,” he said.

Knight-Lieutenant Brand finished writing what he was working on and then gestured to his side with his pen.

“Sit,” he commanded.

Reivyn glanced over and saw a smaller desk perpendicular to the officers with a chair facing inward. There was a pen, a stamp, and a sheaf of papers set on it. He didn’t question the order he received out loud, and took a seat as he had been commanded. He sat there quietly and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Reivyn was starting to think that he had been completely forgotten as the officer went about his own duties. Eventually, though, the older man stopped and set his pen down on the table. He turned to look Reivyn up and down.

“Do you have the Penmanship skill?” he abruptly asked.

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn replied. He sat in silence for a moment as he and the officer just looked at each other. Knight-Lieutenant Brand finally wiped imaginary sweat from his brow.

“Okay, it is at this point that you would tell me the skill level. You don’t have to wait for me to prompt you,” he said with a chuckle.

“Yes, sir. It is at 21,” Reivyn informed him. He tried to maintain a neutral face, but he still had a slight frown, not understanding why the officer would ask him if he had such a basic skill.

“That’s… pretty high, actually. From the look on your face, I take it you don’t know that most people who can read and write don’t actually have the Penmanship skill. Being able to write legibly is the bare minimum to unlocking the skill. It is a skill, after all, and doing the bare minimum hardly expresses mastery.” Brand patiently educated the youngster.

Reivyn had a moment of epiphany. He had always assumed that practicing writing was standard for all children, but this revelation told him differently. The real question is: If I had never unlocked the skill, would my mother have made me work on it so hard? It was a question without an answer.

“What about Arithmetic?” Brand continued to question.

“No, sir, but I do have Mathematics at 14, and I have Number Concepts at 8,” Reivyn answered the asked and implied questions.

“Mathematics, you say? That’s unexpected. Arithmetic is a subset of Mathematics, and it is by far more common. Hmm.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand rubbed his chin in thought. “I’ve never actually heard of Number Concepts. But I’m no scholar, so whatever. Sounds like math theory. You won’t need it here. Do you have any other skills that might be put to use in an administrative role?” Reivyn glanced through his skills page at the question.

“I think… I have Linguistics at 10 and Strategy at 1?” he asked more than answered.

“Strategy? How did you unlock Strategy?” Brand leaned back in his chair and looked at Reivyn with a puzzled expression.

“I think I got it from observing the defensive measures implemented yesterday, sir,” Reivyn said.

“Huh. That’s… interesting. Typically one would have to devise a plan and successfully implement it to unlock the skill,” Brand mused. “Well…okay. Not much use for those two skills in your role… Wait, do you even know why you’re here?”

“No, sir. I was simply told to report to you,” Reivyn replied. Knight-Lieutenant Brand rested his forehead in the palm of his hand as he sighed.

“You know, you enlisted take the whole ‘instant obedience to orders’ thing a little too far, sometimes. I told the platoon sergeant why I was having you report to me. I’m sure the conversation between him and your squad leader went something like, ‘Send Reivyn to the adjutant,’ ‘Yes, sergeant.’” Knight-Lieutenant Brand chuckled. “We have this whole thing about commander’s intent, where we specifically explain the mission and why we’re making certain decisions so that everyone knows what’s going on, and yet, paradoxically, information about orders is routinely withheld for who knows why.

“You’ve been assigned to be my aide,” Brand answered. “Normally, for someone of my rank, a lieutenant or officer candidate would fill that position; however, our unit is not very big, and we don’t have that many officers or candidates to waste on such a role. Plus, I don’t actually need one, and my position doesn’t usually have one. Normally the commanding officer would have an aide, but, for various reasons, we deemed it, ugh, inappropriate to have you assigned to the Knight-Captain.” The man paused at this point and looked at Reivyn as if he was expecting a question.

“Then… why me?” Reivyn supplied the question.

“Aha.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand gestured with his finger. “We’ve been puzzled about what to do with you. It is extremely irregular for someone your age to fit the requirements for conscription, but, we have orders with specific parameters. After Knight-Captain Reifold discovered you, he would have technically been derelict in his duty if he didn’t bring you, and the System would have made note of it.

“So we have a nine-year-old, who mysteriously has a legitimate combat class from forced conscription, but he fits the minimum requirements for health and stamina, and his body has already started developing through puberty because of stat growth. What do we do with him?

“We initially wanted to assign you as an aide right away, but there were some problems with that. You didn’t understand how the unit worked, you didn’t understand how to be a soldier, and you didn’t understand the environment. So we assigned you to an, ugh, empathetic squad.

“And, trust me, someone had an eye on you in each battle. We’re not heartless monsters. If we had had any inkling that such a beast tide could have possibly been incited yesterday, you would have never gone out on that patrol, and you would have been assigned a logistical role during the battle. For that, and the situation with Ren, I, we, apologize.” The man bowed his head in contrition.

“And so now that you have learned those things, and the fact that your opportunities for gaining experience doing normal soldier things, yes, we did take that into account, have drastically reduced with the local fauna getting swept away, you’re here. Before you ask, you will still go with your squad into the dungeon if you want to. Your time as an ‘official’ regular is over. You will remain as my aide until the levies are discharged.”

Reivyn sat there and processed the information that had been revealed to him. It would have been nice to have known all of this before he had been thrown to the wolves, so to speak. Upon careful examination, though, Reivyn realized the officers hadn’t had much free time, nor responsibility, to devote so much attention to him.

Other than the beast tide and Ren, which nobody could have predicted and which Knight-Lieutenant Brand apologized for, all of the encounters had been in fairly tight control. Well, Ren betraying me in combat could have been predicted, but it was a hectic situation. The officers probably didn’t know that Ren had finagled his way into the position directly behind me.

“Okay. But, umm, sir, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do as an aide,” Reivyn finally said.

“Hahaha.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand laughed at the admission. “Trust me, I know. Luckily, as I said, I don’t need an aide. You’re basically going to be a glorified messenger. If a report comes in, you take it. You determine if I need to attend to it personally, or if I don’t, you use that stamp with my seal. If an order needs to go out, you take it. You will speak with my voice, hence the position usually taken by an officer or candidate, and everyone knows it. Which means you also have to watch what you say when you’re not in the dungeon with your squad. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn replied.

“Good. Don’t hesitate to ask if you’re not sure about something. I know perfectly well this is above your pay grade, but, hey, you can’t learn to swim if you don’t get in the water.”

Reivyn nodded and was about to get to work, but he noticed he didn’t actually have anything to do yet. Knight-Lieutenant Brand noticed him looking around, and he chuckled as he passed over a book.

“Here. When you don’t have anything to do, you can read this,” Brand said. “It’s meant for a lieutenant, and it will answer a lot of your questions and more.”

Reivyn accepted the tome and opened it to the table of contents. It was fairly thick, and there were a lot of entries and sub-entries listed. He spotted sections on formations and what their appropriate use was, sections on small unit tactics, sections on conduct, and a section on what was expected of aides. He flipped to that particular section first.

Reivyn read through the long list of things that a normal aide would be required to know and the duties they would have to perform. The gist of it was: Know what your superior wants before he wants it, and do it before he knows it needs to be done. That… didn’t seem like something he could do. He was relieved that he wasn’t expected to perform as an actual aide.

“Oh, sir, I have Map Making at 6,” he suddenly said after he read an entry on how he might be required to read maps.

“Excellent. That’s not exactly the same thing as being able to read a map, which isn’t a System-recognized skill, but it should definitely help you grasp the ability to do so much quicker. I’m probably not going to need you to do so, but it’s great that you can.”

Reivyn sat at the desk for the rest of the day with a short break for chow. He wasn’t on the same schedule as anyone from his squad, so he ate alone. He mainly read through the book that had been given to him, but he would occasionally accept a report that was brought to the adjutant’s tent.

There was a wide range of subjects contained within the reports, but it was mostly details of patrols from the infantry, the results from cavalry units, or requisitions for supplies. Reivyn stamped the reports containing “nothing unusual” or similar language and set them aside, but he passed along any reports that had actual details in them, such as the ones from the cavalry units dispersing the beast tide remnants.

There was a section in the book that contained typical numbers regarding supplies and requisitions, and Reivyn would use it as a reference to cross-examine the reports. If nothing was out of the ordinary, he would stamp such reports and set them in a pile to be passed back down. If he didn’t understand something or couldn’t find a ready reference, he would query the Knight-Lieutenant.

The Knight-Lieutenant would take the report, answer it appropriately, and then patiently explain it to Reivyn. He didn’t have to do that, but Reivyn was coming to know that the adjutant, when not on official duty, was actually extremely approachable.

One particular requisition was notable in how unusual it was. Someone was requesting to section off some land to start planting crops. Reivyn didn’t even know if they had any seeds available to plant. It was probably some of the levies who were going to focus on being farmers when they were discharged, so it actually made some sense, but he brought it to the attention of the adjutant just in case.

“Sir, there’s a requisition for land to plant crops…” Reivyn started.

“Are they asking for an official appointment or to do it on their own time?” Brand interrupted, his head down as he continued to write his own reports. Reivyn glanced back down at the form.

“It doesn’t say, sir,” he answered.

“Okay, make a note at the bottom: ‘Free Time Only - Permission Granted,’ and stamp it,” came the answer.

“Yes, sir.”

The day, surprisingly, went by pretty fast for Reivyn. He absorbed a lot of knowledge expected of a young leader, and he was very grateful for the attention the Knight-Lieutenant had shown him.

The sun started to get close to the horizon, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand stowed away all of his writing utensils and papers. He looked at Reivyn and gave him a nod.

“You did well for your first day. This is basically what you can expect on a day-to-day basis. If you want, I can throw you some of the other duties of an aide as you perform up to standard. We’ll take it as we go, but for now, it’s about time for chow with your squad, so you’re dismissed,” Brand ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn replied as he stood to attention. He then quickly left the tent and made his way to the chow area.

When he got to his destination, he saw his squadmates sitting together, laughing and joking as they ate. He grabbed a tray of food and joined them, sitting next to Brace as he typically did.

“There he is,” Brace said, gesturing with the hard roll in his hand. “We started to worry about you when you never came back. That is until Corporal Decker went and asked the platoon sergeant. The guy knew the whole time and never told anyone!” He threw his hands up in exasperation.

Reivyn laughed as he recalled what the Knight-Lieutenant had said about the situation.

“So you’re some big-shot aide now, huh? We gotta call you ‘sir’ or something now?” Brace teased as he elbowed Reivyn.

“Nah. In his own words, I’m a ‘glorified messenger,’” Reivyn replied with a smile. “But, hey, I learned something your Lance Corporal Underground probably doesn’t even know.” Reivyn leaned in conspiratorially. He paused for effect, and just when Brace started to glare at him and squirm, he spoke up. “Knight-Lieutenant Brand is very easygoing. Once he starts talking, he never shuts up,” he said with a laugh. Brace gave him a flat look.

“The adjutant. Is easygoing. Mr. ‘only ever shouts orders’ is easy going?” Brace lifted an eyebrow in disbelief. Reivyn nodded his head and gesticulated with his own hard roll.

“Yeah. He sat me down, explained to me why I was put where I was, told me they wouldn’t have had me go on patrol if they had known a beast tide was likely, and basically went on and on explaining things to me,” Reivyn confirmed. Brace sat there in silence for a moment.

“Huh. Who would have known? The adjutant is a chatterbox,” he snorted. “Maybe he’s lonely. What enlisted man is going to strike up a conversation with him? The only other person he really has to talk to is the Knight-Captain, and that’s probably like talking to a wall.” The two men shared a good-natured laugh.

“But hey!” Brace exclaimed. “We got more important things to talk about right now.” It was his turn to pause for effect, but, as he knew what he was about to say, he was clearly more excited than Reivyn and couldn’t hold it in for long. “Dungeons!”

“Speaking of dungeons,” Marik, who was sitting across from them, spoke up.

“Gah! You’re gonna interrupt me at the most crucial moment?!” Brace yelled in indignation.

“Ahh, shuddup. You can tell him all about dungeons in a minute,” Marik replied. “Anyway” —he paused to make sure Brace would let him speak—“we went snooping in the register for preferred access to find out who those adventurers were who helped you yesterday.” He took a bite to eat and swallowed it. He’s stalling on purpose. Drama queens, all of them. “Turns out they never signed up for preferential access to begin with. Nobody knows who they were or what they were doing here. On top of that, they left right after the battle yesterday.” Marik gave Reivyn a flat look. “At dusk.”

Reivyn raised his eyebrows and looked at Brace. The other man nodded his head in confirmation.

Questions on top of questions, Reivyn sighed.

Chapter twenty-two

Down into…

Reivyn’s heart pounded in his chest as his squad approached the dungeon in the center of the compound. The entrance to the dungeon was a cave set into a butte. Reivyn had only glanced at it in passing before a small barricade had gone up around the entrance, and he had seen that it wasn’t dark inside the cave. It looked like it passed through a tunnel that didn’t exist on the outside before opening back into the countryside.

The sentries at the front of the barricade checked Corporal Decker’s token and cross-referenced it with a list before waving the squad forward. The men followed the squad leader into the cave in two columns. Corporal Decker had created an official System-sanctioned party for the excursion, and they were each equipped with their standard-issue spear and shield. Each individual had a more personalized sidearm, though, as this was an independent squad activity. Reivyn didn’t have any personal weapons, so he, like a few others, simply used the sword as usual.

The cave was brightly lit from both directions, with shadows just beginning to form a dark pool in the center of the room before it was banished by more sunlight from the opposite end. It was dry and dusty, and roots could be seen hanging from the ceiling. It looked just like any normal cave that extended for about a hundred paces. The only thing that made it unsettling was the knowledge that there obviously wasn’t enough room to hold the passageway when looking at it from the outside.

Reivyn didn’t know what he expected. There were no boxes, dings, or notifications of any kind to signal that the squad had entered a dungeon, but he did feel the sort of dry humidity that one would feel when the mana density increased in a region. It felt like the air was heavier, and it almost felt like it should make the environment feel moist with a raised temperature, but there were none of the usual side effects of increased humidity.

“So like I was saying,” Brace spoke into the silence, breaking everyone from a semi-trance. They weren’t relegated to silence, yet, but nobody had been speaking because of the expectation of traveling into the unknown. “None of us have actually been in a dungeon before, so we don’t have any experience to educate you with. We do, however, have the knowledge that the Knight-Captain has passed down in his instructions.

“I won’t go into the hows or whys of dungeons, because, quite frankly, Knight-Captain Reifold never went over any of that. The basics of a dungeon are that they take on the characteristics of the local landscape, flora, and fauna. Typically, mundane animals have a lesser presence, and beasts and monsters are the norms.

“We can expect goblins, Orcs, dire wolves, bears, and iron-wings, the name of the birds that mostly harassed us the other day. We would know for sure, but the commander instructed everyone to explore on their own their first time without outside information for ‘training purposes,’” Brace said, making air quotes with his fingers. “We do know that it’s not dangerous, though, because nobody from the first squads yesterday came back injured.”

Reivyn nodded along, even though Brace had already told him all of this, almost verbatim, the night before. He supposed it was a mechanism the other man used to stave off nervousness, so he just acted like it was the first time he was hearing anything.

“Marik,” Corporal Decker called from the front. “Scout ahead. Standard procedures.” Marik propped his spear up against the cave wall at the entrance to the dungeon proper. It would only get in his way during scouting activities, but taking it into the dungeon would mean it was available if a situation required its retrieval. He was equipped with short bow and short sword. He wasn’t acting specifically as a ranged combatant, but the weaponry would give him a little leeway in how to handle any situation.

“Cliff, you have point,” Decker continued. Cliff moved to the front of the formation. He was equipped with a heftier shield and thicker leather armor under the plates in order to act as the first impact for any enemies they encountered.

As they stepped out into the open once again, Reivyn noticed that it looked like they had turned around and exited from where they entered. It was like they had traveled into a mirrored dimension. The only difference was that the distance was obscured by a hazy shimmer, and everything beyond was indistinct.

“That’s the boundary of the dungeon,” Brace said with a nod toward the shimmering barrier. “Doesn’t look like much, but it’s impervious to any damage and cannot be passed through no matter what you try to do.”

Reivyn looked into the distance and gauged that the shimmer was about a hundred yards or so down the ridge. It followed the contours of the ridge line as it moved up the giant spur. He spun around as his eyes followed it, and he was confused to see that the shimmer cut across the path leading up only about another two hundred yards or so.

“There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of space available,” Reivyn pointed out. Brace, and the other squad members, followed the direction Reivyn indicated with a nod. Corporal Decker frowned as he noticed it as well.

“We’ll wait for Marik to come back with a preliminary report,” he stated. “In the meantime, let’s head down and see if there’s anything hiding behind any of the rocks and trees while we wait.”

The men marched down the hill in the same loose formation they had adopted when on patrol. The skies were clear, and the environment was identical to the outside of the dungeon, with the exception of no palisade or company of soldiers occupying the space. A quick peek back into the cave showed a smooth transition and line of sight all the way back to the barricade. Reivyn couldn’t wrap his head around how it worked, so he didn’t even try.

The squad quickly reached the barrier. Each man had to walk up to it and inspect it personally just to see for themselves what it was all about. Reivyn walked up and put his hand against it. There was an obvious force preventing him from pushing any further, but it was smooth and frictionless. There was no feeling of a wall or anything, just an intangible force that pushed back against his hand. He had some fun for a moment, sliding his hand around like it was against a wall of ice.

Nothing was clearly visible on the other side, and the men quickly satisfied their curiosity. Corporal Decker had them move along its edge to circle around and head back up the hill.

They made it all the way back to the cave entrance without seeing so much as a feather. There was nothing here on the bottom half of the slope, so they pressed on. They walked for just a moment before Marik appeared out from a clump of trees.

“There’s nothing above ground, but I did see another cave a little ways farther up set into a protrusion,” Marik reported to Corporal Decker. “There were remnants of a campfire, but I didn’t see any creatures at the entrance. I scouted farther ahead, above ground, but the cave is really the only thing here.”

Corporal Decker nodded as he digested the information. He stood there and contemplated a bit, forming a plan in his mind.

“Alright,” Decker said. “First, go retrieve your spear. Keep your short bow on you just in case there happens to be a big underground cavern or something where it could be used, but it looks like it’s going to be mainly close quarters for anything we encounter.”

They had only walked up a couple of dozen yards away from the entrance, so Marik quickly obeyed orders and then was back in formation with his spear. They continued on up the slope before appearing at the protrusion that Marik had indicated. The cave was dark, but it had an ethereal glow about it that provided enough light to see about thirty feet deep. After that, it was a black maw swallowing the light.

“The tunnel is wide enough for two people to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with some space left over, so we’ll maintain the double column. Close the ranks a bit, but keep enough distance to be able to wield your spears. We’ll go with Cliff and Steil in the front. Reivyn, you and Brace take the middle spot. I know you’ve seen some combat already, but until we get some recon on what we’re facing, you’re not taking a vulnerable position.” He clapped Reivyn on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Once we know what we’re up against, we’ll do standard rotations, so you’ll get to participate.”

The men filed into the tunnel. This was a fundamentally different experience than traveling into the dungeon, as with no exit to the outside, there was no additional sunlight to chase the shadows away. The ethereal glow that suffused the area moved with them, though, and they were able to maintain visibility of a static thirty feet.

“Dungeon shenanigans,” Brace whispered to Reivyn as they made their way deeper into the mountain cave. The temperature cooled as they moved farther in, but Reivyn noticed a very subtle increase in the mana density in the air. If he wasn’t straining all of his senses to pick up every little detail he could, he would have never noticed this small detail.

“Corporal,” he called forward in a loud whisper. Decker looked back over his shoulder at Reivyn. “The mana density is ticking up ever so slightly,” Reivyn continued. Corporal Decker nodded. He didn’t have to pass the word along, as everyone could hear what he said in the quiet.

The ground they traversed began to descend, and there was a noticeable curve to the right as they walked. If Reivyn guessed correctly, this cave should spiral downward ever deeper underneath them.

Cliff held up a closed fist in the silent signal to halt movement as he detected something in the distance. It took a moment for Reivyn to pick it up, but a low murmur of high-pitched sounds could be heard getting louder, and the noise echoed off of the walls slightly. There were no more roots protruding from the plants on the surface to act as a noise muffler.

Cliff and Steil raised their shields in their off hands with their spears held forward at the ready as everyone took a ready stance. The slowly increasing murmurs suddenly came to a complete, silent stop, and then it was quickly followed by the loud screeching of a familiar tone that was clearly accelerating toward them at a fast pace.

“Goblins incoming,” Corporal Decker intoned. The men mentally relaxed a bit, even though they maintained their bodies in the ready state. A group of five goblins soon appeared within the visibility of the front men, and they rushed headlong into the waiting squad with no regard for their own safety at all.

Cliff and Steil allowed the goblins to crash into their shields, and using the same familiar maneuver, they shoved them back off balance with the assistance of the men behind them. They quickly stabbed forth with their spears, and two of the five enemies were already taken out of commission as they bled out on the ground.

The goblins shrieked in indignation and charged once more, living up to their reputation of “not being a threat.” The two front ranks of the squad used hardly any effort to dispatch the remaining three, and they all continued on their winding path deeper into the ground.

In only a few minutes of walking, the squad came to their first crossroad in the tunnel. The mainline clearly continued forward in a continuous, slow curve, but they had arrived at a T-section breaking off in the opposite direction of the curving slope.

Corporal Decker called the men to a halt and assessed the situation. The tunnel leading off into the distance was long enough that they couldn’t see beyond the visible glow.

“Kran, Sile,” he said, “the two of you remain here at the intersection. We’re going to go see what’s down this offshoot real quick. If it leads to more runoff tunnels, we’ll peek our heads down to assess the situation, but we’ll come on back. We don’t want to split up too much in such a situation as we’re in right now, but if it’s a straight shot, we’ll go to the end, unless it just takes forever.”

The two men singled out took up post in the intersection as the rest of the squad moved down the new tunnel. The downward slope had ceased, and they just walked down a straight line. After walking for about twenty feet, the ethereal glow revealed that the branch opened up into a large cavern.

A single goblin was sitting at the entrance to the open space, its head lolling on its chest in slumber. It was clearly a derelict sentry, and figuring that nothing ever happened, it had taken the opportunity to be lazy.

As the men silently approached, however, Reivyn noticed its nose twitch and its brow furrow. It suddenly lifted its head and gazed at the approaching squad with confusion in its eyes. It suddenly jumped up and started screeching in its high-pitched, annoying tone, and it was followed by a loud cacophony of similar noises. Reivyn estimated that there had to be at least twenty other voices joining the sentry’s alarm, but it was hard to tell with the echo.

“Maintain speed,” Decker ordered. “No reason to rush out into the open when the confines of the tunnel benefit us. Let them come like they always do, and we’ll operate with standard switch procedures if your stamina begins to fall.”

The men inched forward with slow, steady steps, but it wasn’t long before a small horde of goblins came screaming into the tunnel. They were smaller than adult humans, so they could fit more across in the tunnel, but that was if they had any sense. Instead, they managed to stumble and trip over each other, only managing three abreast in the front, as they dashed in a disorganized mess toward the men.

The battle was what Reivyn expected. He didn’t get a clear count of the enemies, but it was slightly more than his initial guess of twenty. Even so, with the goblins doing as much harm to their assault in their feral madness as the squad members did in their attacks, Cliff and Steil didn’t even have to switch out with the men behind them.

After a short, five-minute conflict, the goblins all lay dying on the ground. The stench of their spilled blood and emptied bowels filled the air, and with no escape for the fetid stink to disperse into the atmosphere, it caused several men to gag before they mustered their willpower… by pinching their noses closed.

“Alright, let’s go see if there’s anything else in this room other than stinking goblin corpses,” Corporal Decker ordered the squad. They moved into the room, and with the ever-present glow of the dungeon, they quickly realized this was only a sleeping quarters with nothing else to it. A quick scan indicated that there were no minerals or ores in the walls, and there were definitely no accumulated treasures on the ground.

“Every now and then, supposedly, you can come across a chest that contains some sort of valuables in a dungeon,” Brace leaned over to say to Reivyn. “Nobody knows what, where, or why—well, I shouldn’t say nobody, but nobody we know—nobody knows why they’re there. I say it’s just more dungeon shenanigans, and that seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse to me.”

The men quickly filed their way back down the tunnel, eager to get away from the horrendous smell. It wasn’t just the blood and feces from the slain goblins, but it was the accumulated fetid air over a long period of time from their unwashed bodies.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do,” Corporal Decker said as they rejoined two bored-looking soldiers at the main pathway. “Kran and Sile will take point now, with everyone moving back one spot. Any more branches and the back two men will take up sentry, and we’ll repeat the action and rotation to let everyone participate.”

The squad obeyed the new orders as they reintegrated the two men who had stayed behind and continued on their downward journey.

The squad continued its advance deeper into the bowels of the mountain spur, occasionally coming across similar branches every hundred yards or so. Reivyn didn’t keep count of the number of branches they explored with only more dead goblins to show for it, but it was enough times that he took point with Brace more than once.

Finally, something different appeared. As Reivyn was marching alongside Brace in the third row, a clinking sound could be heard coming from deeper down. As they approached, more sounds of goblins screeching and some deeper, guttural voices mixed together.

“Sounds like Orcs,” Decker said. “I’m going to guess the next branch has some Orc overseers watching some goblin miners. The sounds indicate tools, so expect some metal pickaxes at the very least in the next skirmish. The goblins still shouldn’t be a threat with them, but if you’re negligent, they could pop you a good one.”

The squad made it to the next branch, and, leaving two sentries as always, they made their way down the side tunnel. As they approached the opening, instead of a distracted or sleeping goblin, an Orc sentry spotted them right away and gave a loud bellow. The sounds of picks chipping at the wall ceased, and it was replaced by the telltale sound of frenzied goblins with the roars of some Orc overseers mixed in.

The men performed in the exact same manner as previously, but instead of a discombobulated mess of goblin bodies and limbs charging at them, they heard the sound of a whip cracking, and a relatively orderly line of goblins advanced on their position. It was relatively orderly in the sense that they didn’t entangle each other, but they were still stupid goblins who mindlessly charged the men.

As Corporal Decker had warned, these goblins were equipped with metal picks, and they were being driven forward by a duo of Orcs with whips. There were four Orcs in total, the two overseers, the sentry at the front of the open room, who had allowed the goblins to bypass him, and one other presumed sentry from the opposite side of the room. They were each equipped with large swords that looked like giant meat cleavers.

The Orcs tried to direct the goblins in some semblance of a coordinated attack, but, Reivyn noted with some amusement, they gave up with exasperated looks on their faces. Even monsters can roll their eyes at just how dumb these goblins are, Reivyn chuckled to himself.

Before all of the goblins could be mowed down, the Orc overseers had a brilliant idea and decided to engage the front two men with their whips. Corporal Decker put a stop to that.

“Second row, javelin,” he commanded. The front two men squatted down slightly, and the two in the second row quickly adjusted their grip on the spears and hurled them at the Orc overseers in one smooth motion. The Orcs never saw it coming, and a spear skewered each of them, center mass. They weren’t quite dead, but they were out of the fight.

The two Orc sentries lost all reason at the sudden change in circumstances. Their eyes went bloodshot, and with a roar, they charged into the fray with their cleaver swords raised high. The two Orcs trampled their way over any goblin in their path in their frenzied dash. The two squad members in the front, however, maintained their calm, and they simply leaned back into the men behind them, shields up and spears out, and let the Orcs charge right onto the waiting spears.

Reivyn and Brace passed their spears to the two men in front of them who had operated the javelin throw, and the two second-row soldiers quickly stabbed the two Orcs that were trying to drive their bodies forward on the impaled weapons. After the final two Orcs stopped moving, they decisively abandoned their spears and drew their sidearms. There were only a few remaining goblins at this point, and they were quickly exterminated.

After retrieving all of their gear, the men made their way into the room to discover what the goblins had been mining. There was a vein of metal clearly visible on the wall, and a pile of crude ore was strewn about in multiple heaps. Reivyn was no expert on raw ores, but he definitely spotted some silver and what he thought could be iron.

“This resource is going to be a huge boon for the county,” Corporal Decker exclaimed. The men gave him a sideways, incredulous look. “And us,” he continued. “Obviously, as the ones who collect it will get a reward. This mine will pay for itself and then some.”

As an infinitely instanced dungeon, there should theoretically be an infinite amount of these resources. Reivyn understood, vaguely, from remnants of some of his dreams that such a situation could wreck an economy, but upon closer introspection, he realized that there were many such dungeons within the kingdom, and nobody had ever mentioned anything about it. He wouldn’t find any answers on the subject from the squad he was with. Maybe the Knight-Lieutenant could shed some light for me, he thought.

“No point in trying to take all of this,” Corporal Decker said. “We just don’t have the capability to do so on this delve. Grab some of the silver, though, and we’ll turn it in to the commander. Should be worth a small bonus.”

The men smiled as they sifted through the rubble to pick out gleaming bits of silver. They stuffed anything worthwhile into their knapsacks to carry out when they were done.

“It’s about time for chow,” Decker remarked. “This place stinks, though, so let’s head back to the intersection, and we’ll take a short break and eat.”

The squad continued its exploration after the short break, and the curving path continued unabated. The next intersection they reached didn’t have the familiar sounds of goblin screeching or the clinking of mining, though, and it returned to being silent. They made their way down the side tunnel, but instead of opening up at the end into a big, open room, there was a tiny room with six cots.

This room was also guarded by an Orc sentry, and all six cots contained sleeping Orcs as well. It seemed they had made it beyond the area where the goblins lived, and now they would have to actually exert some effort for each branching tunnel.

The Orc sentry immediately spotted the approaching squad and bellowed for his sleeping mates to wake. They quickly sprung up due to the sudden shout, and upon spotting the human intruders, they grabbed their cleavers, which appeared to be the standard weapon of these particular Orcs, and charged.

They were much more coordinated in their combat tactics, but that was only compared to their goblin counterparts. They were still fundamentally individualistic, so they weren’t able to leverage any advantage from any kind of teamwork. Being closer to the size of the humans, they also could only fit in the tunnel two at a time.

Four men working together, switching out when their stamina dropped a couple of dozen points, and superior gear quickly whittled the Orcs down in front of them.

Looks like we’ll be able to mop this place up in short order and head on back to the surface, Reivyn thought. He froze as soon as the thought entered his head. Why did I think that?! Something always goes wrong when I think that. He mentally kicked himself.

“Guys, there’s probably a big surprise waiting for us at the end of this path,” Reivyn suddenly said. The others gave him a puzzled look as they searched through the possessions of the deceased Orcs.

“Why do you say that?” Corporal Decker asked.

“Because I got complacent just now, and something always goes wrong when I get complacent,” Reivyn answered. Corporal Decker gave him a thoughtful look as he rubbed his chin in thought.

“Okay,” he said. “You heard him. Keep your heads up and your wits about, men.” The others acknowledged the order.

“You’re just going to take my word for it? Just like that?” Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow. Decker chuckled.

“You learn to trust your gut,” he answered. “You got a gut feeling, so I’m going to trust it. What would be the point of dismissing it out of hand, anyway?” He spread his arms out, palms up.

Reivyn nodded. They were supposed to be keeping alert anyway, but the timely reminder had probably pulled some of the others back from being complacent as well.

“Onward,” Corporal Decker exclaimed with a dramatic flourish. A couple of the men snickered at his theatrics.

The rest of the delve continued in the same vein. They would travel a distance on the main path, moving deeper and deeper, and then they would branch off to engage in combat with Orcs. There were no patrols after that very first encounter with the goblins, but there were always Orcs in the rooms, and there were always sentries watching over their sleeping comrades.

They continued their dungeon dive for several hours, the System time keeping Reivyn abreast of the elapsed duration. He didn’t know how long the other squads had spent in their exploration, but it seemed to be drawing close to the same amount of time soon, and they still had their long trek back up to the surface.

The squad eventually reached a new environment, though, shortly after Reivyn had noted the time. The main pathway came to an end, and, according to the dungeon’s glow, it opened up into a similar open space as all the branching tunnels had.

There was no sentry at the end of the pathway into the cavern, and Corporal Decker reminded everyone to remain on alert. There were no sounds or movements as they reached the threshold, and there was nothing to do but to move forward.

“Staggered Crescent formation,” Corporal Decker said. The men moved into a formation resembling a half circle with two rows like they usually used for combat. Reivyn found himself in the front row, second from the right, and Brace was supporting him from behind. They marched forward with a little bit of space between them, but they had their shields up and spears out at the ready.

-ROAR-

A loud roar shattered the silence, and a giant figure came trundling into the visible range of the glow. An ogre, hunched over from being too tall to stand up straight with the ceiling not being very high, was walking toward the squad.

Reivyn noticed that it had chains attached to manacles on its wrists, and it was dragging clearly unwilling Orcs along in its wake. The two Orcs had their heels set in the ground, and they were trying with all of their might to stop the ogre from moving. They were completely ineffectual.

The ogre leaned forward and roared at the men again, causing Reivyn’s ears to ring from the loud sound. It flicked its right wrist around, looping the chain attached to the manacle around its arm, and then it whipped the chain forward at the squad.

“Brace for impact!” Decker yelled, and all of the men huddled together to support each other. Reivyn watched with macabre humor as the Orc that had been trying to restrain the ogre got whipped along with the chain, its eyes wide with surprise and fear. If it wasn’t such a deadly serious situation, it would have made for a hilarious sight.

The Orc smashed into the huddled squad with tremendous centrifugal force. It died on impact as it was impaled by more than one spear sticking out of the hasty reinforcement, but it had the intended effect on the ogre. The formation was obliterated as men went flying away from the impact, and Reivyn was no exception.

He tumbled through the air, and in order to not injure himself, he was forced to let go of his spear. He continued to roll once he made contact with the ground again. He heard footsteps running toward him, and alarm bells went off in his head as he realized none of the men should have been on their feet fast enough to reach him.

He looked up as his momentum was coming to a halt, but upon seeing a descending cleaver sword, he forcefully accelerated his roll to move out of the way. The sword smashed into the ground, barely missing him, and Reivyn performed one more roll to gain some distance before coming to a knee. He instinctively raised his shield above his head, and another blow slammed into the protective cover immediately after.

He didn’t have time to gain a proper stance, so, shield still raised, he reached across his body and yanked his sword out of the sheath, letting it extend into a wide slash as he had previously done when confronting the wolves closing in on Corporal Decker. He felt the sword meet some resistance, and he powered through to hear a yelp of surprise and pain.

With the slight gain of initiative, he launched himself forward and up, and he slammed his shield into the surprised face of the Orc. It had clearly underestimated him, seeing that he was the smallest member of the squad and was in a perilous situation, and that miscalculation had cost it its life. All of the Orcs in the dungeon were slightly weaker than the individual squad members, and considering his superior skill levels, Reivyn was also slightly stronger.

The Orc lost its balance, and with previous experience, Reivyn managed to snake his sword out, under the sight and guard of his opponent, and stab it in the gut. The wound caused the Orc to fall to its knees, and as it looked up in disbelief, Reivyn had already begun the downward thrust that stabbed straight into its neck, killing it.

The sounds of heated combat could be heard all around, and with a quick glance at the situation in the open room, he noticed that while some men were limping with injuries, nobody was down. He quickly spotted the ogre, fully prepared to witness it barreling down on another squad member, but it was in a berserk state and had actually turned on its handlers.

The other Orc holding one of the chains had apparently been smashed under its foot, as it was long dead along with its compatriot, and the ogre was busy laying into the dozen or so Orcs that had lined up behind it. They had no doubt anticipated the ogre allowing them to move into a downed enemy, but they hadn’t taken into account its literally crazy nature. They put up a valiant defense, but they were clearly losing.

Reivyn realized that once the ogre finished off the group of Orcs, it would have unfettered access to run amok among the disorganized squad. Without the advantage of the formation and teamwork, he could see them suffering devastating losses.

It wasn’t in his nature to stand back and allow things to happen to him. He was decisive and proactive. He quickly located his spear after slinging his shield onto his back, and, reaching down to snag the spear, he sprinted toward the wide-open back of the ogre. He held his sword in his dominant hand, and he held his spear in his left hand as he closed in on his target.

He didn’t know much about ogres or their weaknesses, but he quickly spotted a target for him to attack. He had no time to contemplate what he was doing, and he let the adrenaline focus his mind on only the task at hand. No distracting thoughts were allowed.

He wound up his arm holding the spear as he madly ran, and, at the last second, he activated Charge. Using the momentum of his powerful burst of speed, he zeroed the tip of his spear right on target… right through the flapping loincloth worn around the ogre’s waist.

I seem to recall something about “A Thousand Years of Pain.” The fleeting thought crossed his mind as he struck true. The ogre immediately tensed up and smashed his head into the ceiling above as it bellowed in absolute outrage, shock, and pain.

The involuntary movement of jerking upward, slamming its head into the wall, coupled with the spear sticking out of its… sensitive area, stunned the ogre momentarily, and Reivyn grabbed the only chance he would be presented with. Maintaining his momentum, he leaped in front of the ogre from the side to the astonishment of the few Orcs still standing, mouths agape, and slashed his sword up, activating Devastating Strike as he did so.

His sword cut halfway through the ogre’s neck, nearly decapitating it, and a torrent of blood came gushing out. Only a small amount landed on Reivyn as he finally came to a stop in front of three Orcs with incredulous looks on their faces. Without missing a beat, he executed a perfect-form lunge thrust into the closest Orc, and then he regained his shield as he recovered and assumed a ready stance.

The other two Orcs regained their focus, and, after sharing a look, they turned around and fled farther into the room away from the crazy human that had materialized out of nowhere to singlehandedly slay the great beast that had been tormenting them. Reivyn stood in place, panting, as he watched the two Orcs flee. A loud bang sounded behind him as the ogre’s body finally crashed into the ground, the spear sticking straight up like a monument to his accomplishment.

He turned back toward the sound of fighting, and he charged the back of the closest Orc. The combatants had been too preoccupied with their own individual fights, some squad members fending off two Orcs at once, and, while obviously noticing Reivyn’s deed, nobody could afford to be distracted. This left his chosen target to be fully focused on the man in front of him, and it never knew of the danger approaching from behind until it saw the sword blade piercing through its chest.

It was a quick, snowballing effect after that. Reivyn and the man he had freed from his engagement were able to assist others in a similar fashion, and within no time, all of the Orcs lay dead on the ground.

Several squad members were cradling broken arms or leaning on compatriots for injured legs. Many had cuts and bruises, with only a few having come out of the ordeal completely unscathed.

“Two more ran off that way,” Reivyn quickly informed Corporal Decker as he pointed off into the distance. Corporal Decker quickly rallied a couple of uninjured men, and they took off toward the escaped Orcs.

They came upon them beating on a giant, steel door with no obvious mechanism for opening. Upon hearing the men approach, the Orcs turned. When they laid eyes on Reivyn, they yelped, threw down their weapons, and attempted to flee once again, but the squad members lunged forward and pierced them with their spears.

The dungeon had been cleared.

The ground shook, and a bright flash of light temporarily blinded the men. When they opened their eyes again, the steel door had simply vanished. They stood there and gaped for a moment before Corporal Decker cleared his throat.

“Looks like the dungeon continues,” he said. “It’s getting late, though, so… no, we’re not going in there,” he said with a chuckle.

The men gathered back up together, and Corporal Decker made sure everyone got bandaged up and their wounds tended to. With the way the System worked, one could get back to full health but still have a broken bone. It would heal at an accelerated rate depending on one’s vitality if full health was maintained, but getting to full health wasn’t a miracle cure for injuries.

“Ahem.” Corporal Decker got the attention of his squad. “From the context of the disappearing door at the end of the room, and the overall difficulty of this fight, I’m going to go ahead and assume this was the ‘first floor’ boss room,” he said with air quotes. The men looked at each other with raised eyebrows and excitement showing on their faces.

“Now, before you get excited,” he continued, “this is a resource dungeon.” He let the words sink in, only continuing as the last man regained his composure. “As you know from the Knight-Captain, resource dungeons have about a 1% chance of having a chest in the boss room. There isn’t one here.” Several of the men let out disappointed sighs.

“Not all’s lost, though,” he said once again. “Remember the silver. We’ll get a good bonus. We also cleared the boss, so we should get a good amount of experience upon exiting the dungeon.” The squad members perked up again at that reminder.

“I just have one question,” he said. His gaze landed on Reivyn, a slight tilt to his lips. “Was that a skill you used? What’s ‘A Thousand Years of Pain?’”

“Did I say that out loud?” Reivyn scratched his head in embarrassment. At the nods from all the men, he half turned and gestured toward the dead ogre.

The men looked over to where he was indicating, and upon seeing the monument standing proud, they burst into laughter.

Chapter twenty-three

A Ring of Fire

The sun was setting on the horizon, casting the landscape in shades of orange, as Reivyn and his squadmates finally exited the dungeon and returned to the palisade. The daylight in the dungeon had never shifted, and the incongruence was disorienting for a moment before he got his bearings.

The men made a sorry sight as they came limping through the barricade supporting each other. Bandages and dried blood adorned almost the entire squad. The sentries standing post at the dungeon entrance looked at the returning squad with wide eyes.

“I’ll escort you men to the infirmary, but I need to go report the situation to Knight-Lieutenant Brand,” Corporal Decker informed his squad. Knight-Captain Reifold was really the one who ultimately needed the information, but one did not simply go up to the commander without going through the chain of command. As it was, Corporal Decker would need to go through his platoon sergeant to get to the adjutant, and they would most likely all end up in front of the Knight-Captain anyway.

Brace was one of the men that had suffered a small leg fracture, and now it was Reivyn’s turn to support the other man as he gave him a shoulder to lean on. The entire squad, even the few members who were completely unharmed due to providing assistance, hobbled their way to the infirmary. Many of the soldiers and levies stopped what they were doing to watch the procession. Their squad, so far, was the only group to return with any kind of injuries.

“What happened to you lot,” a man with the same rank markings as Corporal Decker approached and asked. He spoke as if talking to the whole squad, but he was actually addressing Corporal Decker. The man was the first squad’s squad leader. Corporal Lam, I believe, Reivyn identified.

“Oh, you know how it is. These guys are too clumsy for their own good, and they just couldn’t help themselves,” Decker replied. “Always causing me worry. Can’t go on a relaxing stroll without at least a couple of them stubbing their toes.”

“Seriously? A bunch of goblins and Orcs did this to you?” Corporal Lam raised an incredulous eyebrow. Decker frowned at the other man.

“No, it was the ogre,” he answered.

“Ogre?!” The other NCO exclaimed in shock. “What ogre? Did you guys go all the way to the bottom?”

“Yeah, didn’t you?” Decker asked back. Lam shook his head.

“We were pretty cautious, and we stopped after the second room holding Orcs,” he said. “We decided to call it a day there so we could grab some more silver and have the strength to haul it back.”

Corporal Lam had joined the men in their trek to the infirmary for the conversation, and they finally arrived at their destination. Corporal Decker supervised his squad going in to get the necessary medical attention that field first dressing couldn’t handle. He waved the other man off.

“I’ll tell you more about it later. I gotta make sure my men are taken care of and then report to the adjutant,” Decker told the man. “I’ll give you all the juicy details after.”

“Sure thing.” Lam clapped Decker on the shoulder and bade him farewell.

“Alright, men. Get patched up then grab some chow. Nobody has duty tonight, so I’ll see everyone bright and early in the morning,” Corporal Decker instructed the squad.

Reivyn helped Brace make it to an empty bed where he could get attended to by the healers. After sitting down, he waved Reivyn away.

“Alright, alright,” he said. “They’ll get me patched up good as new in no time. Go on ahead. There’s nothing to worry about anymore.” Reivyn clapped him on the shoulder in the soldier’s common gesture.

“Okay, Brace,” he said. “I’ll probably be asleep by the time you get done, so I’ll see you in the morning.” Reivyn waved to the other men and bade them farewell as he exited the infirmary.

Reivyn dragged his tired body to the chow hall. He grabbed a quick bite to eat in the mostly empty eating area, and then made his way to his tent as dusk settled in. He crawled into his sleeping bag and then brought up his notifications.

Exiting Dungeon
Calculating…
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp + 155
Boss Defeated: Exp + 200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp + 500
Anomaly Detected.
Calculating…
Determined Boss Solo Killed: Bonus Exp + 300

Helpful Hint: System determined you engaged the Boss without the assistance of your Party. The other combatants were determined to be friendly to the Boss, thus System determined it was a Solo kill.
Calculating…
First Floor determined not completed Solo. No Achievement awarded.

Achievement! Defeated a Tier 3 enemy solo while still in Tier 1!
Physical Stats + 1
Level Up!
Experience 776/800

Reivyn smiled as he saw the notifications. This was the first time in a long while that he had received an explanation from the Akashic Record. Getting credit for killing the boss as solo also led to the System inadvertently letting him know there were achievements involved with clearing floors completely alone.

Based on the number of goblins and Orcs he would need to fight and defeat all by himself in order to get solo credit for the rest of the dungeon, he had no hope of doing such a thing any time soon. It was something to consider for the future, but he would need to be equivalent to mid–Tier 3 at least to be able to handle that entire floor plus the boss room all on his own.

Knight-Captain Reifold could do it without breaking a sweat, but I wonder if he would get any benefit based on his level? I don’t know enough about how this all works, he thought.

He distributed his unassigned stat points, bringing his clarity up to par with his other mind stats before putting a few points in his physicals. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him shortly after.

Reivyn reported to the Knight-Lieutenant to continue acting as an aide once more after eating breakfast with his squad. The stipulations about talking about the dungeon to other squads didn’t apply to the levies, so Reivyn found some time to tell Teilon about what could be found in the lower parts. Teilon understood his and his compatriots’ abilities, and he vowed to turn around as soon as they heard the clinking sounds of mining. The levies might have a few among their number who had advanced to Tier 2 already, but they were still ill-equipped to fight anything actually dangerous.

Reivyn continued to read the book, gleaning tidbits here and there regarding the information required of a junior officer, but he kept getting distracted. The Knight-Lieutenant, while absorbed in his own work, would occasionally glance at Reivyn and snicker. Reivyn eventually closed the book, set it aside, and looked at the adjutant. The older man looked over at Reivyn when he noticed the youngster staring at him.

“Heh, looks like the apprentice will become the master sooner rather than later,” he said with a laugh. “Oh, master, accept this humble one as your disciple. Teach me your ways, and reveal the secrets of the fabled ‘Thousand Years of Pain’ technique, hahaha.” The man couldn’t hold his laughter in any longer and finally broke down. He wiped a tear from his eye, and Reivyn rolled his eyes at his antics.

“Seriously, though,” the man continued after he had calmed himself down. “How did you ever think to attack an ogre in such a way?”

“Well…” Reivyn drew the word out as he considered his state of mind at the time. “I saw that the ogre was going to kill the Orcs that had put it in chains, and while it was flailing around dealing with them, its loincloth was bouncing around. I just happened to notice it, and it jumped out at me like it was a clear target. I didn’t have time to think of anything else, and I just grabbed the opportunity,” he finished with a shrug. The Knight-Lieutenant listened to him as he rubbed his chin.

“It’s a good thing you did. Ogres have very thick skin. It isn’t quite to the point of natural armor, but it does offer plenty of resistance to piercing and slashing damage. At your current power level, in a standup fight against an ogre, your best bet is to use a blunt weapon to smash its knees and immobilize it. Once it’s unable to move around, attacking from behind or from a distance is the next step. Slings are superior to arrows, as it can rattle their tiny brain around in their skull while arrows have a tendency to bounce off and cause bruising unless you have the Aim skill at a decent level to pinpoint the weak points such as eyes, mouth, throat, and if needed for whatever reason, ears.”

“Hmm, I have Aim at Level 19,” Reivyn spoke up. Knight-Lieutenant Brand raised his eyebrows in surprise for a second before returning his face to a neutral expression.

“Of course you do,” he wryly said. “19, combined with your Journeyman level mastery of ranged weapons, might be enough. If you’re close enough. Ogres are Tier 3 equivalent. As such they will have a good reflex speed and dodge ability. Just because you immobilize their legs doesn’t mean they can’t twist their bodies around.

“By the way, from the report Decker gave, the ogre you encountered in the dungeon sounded like it was low Tier 3. Most likely under Level 10. That’s typical for a Tier 1 dungeon,” Brand explained. Reivyn nodded his head in understanding.

The two went back to their tasks after the short interlude. Knight-Lieutenant Brand was busy with his own reports and planning, and Reivyn tried to get back into reading the book. The talk of the dungeon had distracted him, however, and he was having a hard time concentrating on the words on the page. There was something nagging him once the subject of the dungeon had been brought up, but he couldn’t quite place it.

He tapped the desk with his pen as he went over the events of the previous day. They had started off with chow like normal, then went through the tunnel in the butte to enter the dungeon. Brace had repeated the information he knew about the dungeons on the trek, and then they had scouted the above-ground portion which had been a perfect mirror of the outside world.

Wait… a perfect mirror? Reivyn set his pen down and looked up to the adjutant.

“Sir, there’s been something nagging at the back of my mind for a while now,” Reivyn broached the topic. Knight-Lieutenant Brand motioned for him to continue as he kept working. “When we entered the dungeon, it was like a perfect mirror to the outside, minus the base.”

“Mhmm,” Brand acknowledged. “Dungeons have the same environment and details like the local area they’re found in.”

“But, sir,” Reivyn said with a bit of apprehension. “There was a giant underground cave system right under our feet in the dungeon.”

Knight-Lieutenant Brand froze with his pen mid-stroke. He maintained that stance for a moment before looking up at Reivyn with his eyes wide.

“We completely overlooked this point!” he exclaimed. “Let’s go.” He abruptly stood and headed out of the tent, causing Reivyn to scramble to keep up. The two men quickly headed to Knight-Captain Reifold’s tent. One of the sentries standing post outside the commander’s tent moved to inform Knight-Captain Reifold, but Brand waved him off.

“Emergency,” he simply stated. The man stopped his movements and went back to standing at attention.

Reivyn followed the adjutant into the tent. It was sparsely furnished. Moreso even than Knight-Lieutenant Brand’s tent, if that was possible. The Knight-Captain, knowing his adjutant wouldn’t barge in without being announced unless it was for a good reason, immediately stopped what he was doing and placed his full attention on his XO.

“We’ve overlooked something, sir,” the Knight-Lieutenant stated without preamble. “Reivyn brought to my attention that there is very likely to be a replica of the underground caves here in the real world.”

The Knight-Captain shot to his feet. Reivyn noticed a small twitch in the man’s eye as his face tried and failed to form a grimace. That’s the most expression I’ve ever seen on his face, Reivyn idly mused.

“Take me to the entrance of the tunnels,” Reifold commanded. He quickly came from behind his desk, and Reivyn realized he had been talking to him. He turned and headed for the tent flaps, but he lost his footing and nearly collapsed.

The ground wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Reivyn crouched low to get his center of gravity as close to the ground as he could as the earth itself started swaying side to side. An extremely loud, sustained roar, the likes of which he had never heard, drowned out all other sounds, and he was vaguely aware of the other two men shifting about to maintain their balance.

The noise and motion had appeared out of nowhere. There was no buildup or crescendo. One moment everything was peaceful, and the next the ground was trying to shake them off. It sounded like the land itself was screaming.

An intense vibration accompanied the rapid side-to-side motion of the mountain, and the earth tore asunder, as if it had turned into a giant, gaping maw. A crack had appeared in the center of the tent, separating Reivyn from the other two men and tearing the canvas to pieces as the stakes were violently yanked apart.

The ground beneath Reivyn’s feet began to collapse, and he felt himself falling into the chasm. He desperately dug his hands into the dirt, slowing and eventually stopping his descent. He could hear and feel his heartbeat pounding in his head as adrenaline pumped through his system. The motion finally stopped, and Reivyn gave out a sigh of relief that he hadn’t completely fallen into the hole.

He held on tight to the side of the wall and lowered his head as he panted. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but he still felt the relief of surviving a disaster as he was confident in his ability to climb back up to safety without issue. A shadow fell across him as he rested there.

Reivyn looked up at what had caused the shadow, and his eyes opened wide in horror and despair. A giant arm, covered in brown and glowing red scales, with individual fingers larger than his entire body, reached up from the depths and grasped at the land above. Another arm followed a distance away, and, as they bent, a giant head followed.

It was a scene out of a nightmare, and Reivyn felt his grip holding him aloft go slack as just looking at this creature filled him with abject terror. Its entire body was made up completely of the same brown and glowing red scales. A fire blazed in the deep pits of its eyes.

Reivyn was incapable of moving his body, but his eyes refused to leave the creature as it appeared as if from the Abyss. It raised its head and bellowed a loud, screeching roar along with a visible shockwave. Blood began to seep from Reivyn’s ears, and he could feel that the roar alone had shaved off some of his health.

His body began to seize up further, so much so that he couldn’t even operate his lungs to draw in a breath. There was nothing in Reivyn’s world but fear.

A gentle pulse originating from his heart spread throughout his body, and where it passed, his body returned to normal. It moved through him in an instant, and if he hadn’t been so consumed by fear, he would have noticed what had returned his bodily functions to him.

He had no time to think or consider the monstrosity as he desperately clawed his way up to the safety of solid ground. A viselike grip suddenly clamped down around his ankle, sending searing pain shooting up through his leg. He screamed in pain, and he instinctively began kicking as hard as he could at whatever had grabbed him.

The grip loosened, and Reivyn was able to yank his leg up as he scrambled up the wall faster than he had ever moved in his life.

When he attained the top, he spun around onto his back as he crawled away from the hole while keeping an eye on it. The giant monster’s attention had been grabbed by something on the other side that was sending out astounding waves of mana. If Reivyn had been able to think rationally, he would have realized it must have been the Knight-Captain.

Reivyn watched with wide eyes, continuing to scramble back from the edge of the precipice as a gloved hand surfaced, this time normal-sized, to Reivyn’s somewhat relief. It moved unnaturally, in jerks and fits. Next, a body appeared from below. It stood with a sudden motion, and its head turned in small, quick jolts to focus its attention on Reivyn.

The humanoid thing was attired in a black robe, and there were zero parts of its body exposed. There was only shadow underneath a hood, but there was no denying that its gaze had locked on to Reivyn. His heart palpitated as it felt like icy fingers were digging into his very soul.

It took a stuttering step toward Reivyn and suddenly had a sword in its hand. Reivyn hadn’t even seen it move its arm to draw the weapon from wherever it had been. The sword was dented and rusty, covered in chips, and it looked like it would fall apart from a gentle breeze, but a sense of danger screamed through his mind at the sight of it.

Reivyn finally scrambled to his feet. It was customary to always carry a sidearm, and due to the incident with the assassin, Reivyn had gotten used to always lugging his shield around with him as well. He was lucky that the assassination attempt had instilled the habit in him.

He assumed a ready stance with his sword and shield. He had the sinking suspicion that if he turned his back to this thing to try to escape, he would get stabbed in the back before he could take more than a few steps. He had no choice but to engage.

As the thing lurched toward him, Reivyn noticed that it always had a short pause after any movement. He timed his attack for exactly such a moment, and he stepped forward and performed an overhead chop, taking care not to overextend. His sword came down hard, and then it bounced back with equal force. There was no loud clang as if he had struck some sort of armor under the hood, and there was no vibration to indicate he had hit anything hard. The sword strike had just been repulsed by some invisible force.

Reivyn’s eyes opened wide in alarm, and he raised his shield on instinct. A tremendous force crashed into his shield, knocking it back into his face and throwing him several feet in the air to land rolling end over end. His head swam, and his vision grew blurry as he came to a stop. His health had a significant chunk carved out of it, even though he had technically succeeded in blocking the strike. It had come so fast that he hadn’t seen any movement.

He staggered back to his feet and regained his balance. The creature had resumed its slow, jerking gait toward him again. Reivyn took huge, gulping breaths as he tried to think of a solution. He felt something odd in his shield hand, and as he looked down, his shield suddenly cracked in half and fell apart. It had not been able to absorb all of the impact damage from the strike.

Reivyn looked back up at the horrifying entity. It took another slow step toward him, but then it was suddenly right in front of him with no warning. Startled, Reivyn tripped over his own feet and fell down as he tried to back away. He felt the wind of a slash that he couldn’t see passing mere fractions of an inch above his head. He had been extremely lucky, but he couldn’t count on a repeat performance.

He once more scrambled to his feet and backed away. What to do? What to do? Panic was beginning to set in. He was completely not a match for his opponent. He knew that his sword wouldn’t be able to do anything to it, but it felt unnatural to toss aside his only semblance of security, so he kept it in his hand.

With no other options, Reivyn allowed his instincts to take over his actions, and, his body remembering a maneuver he had performed several days ago, a fire whip coalesced in the grip of his off hand. He whipped it out in an attempt to bind his foe, and not meeting the same resistance as his sword strike, it neatly wrapped around his enemy.

Reivyn saw the black robes smoke and char around where it made contact with his mana construct, so he pumped more mana through the whip like a conduit. The robe caught on fire, and Reivyn felt a moment of elation as he appeared to have stumbled upon a solution. Elation quickly turned into dismay, however, as the robes completely burst into fire and turned into ash, revealing the grotesquerie it had been hiding.

A skeleton appeared before him. Bits and pieces of rotting flesh were still attached to it in places, and wisps of silvery hair stuck to the top of its skull. The same Abyssal flames from the giant monster’s eyes were present in the empty sockets, and its jaw moved up and down in a rapid motion as if it was laughing at him.

A chill ran down Reivyn’s spine as all of the hair on his body stood on end. He lost his concentration, and as the fire whip dissipated, the skeleton took another jerking step toward him. Something that Knight-Lieutenant Brand had said to him about ogres entered his mind.

“Your best bet is to use a blunt weapon to smash its knees and immobilize it.”

Reivyn didn’t have a blunt weapon, but he did have earth mana. If he could make a whip out of fire, why couldn’t he make a hammer out of earth? Reivyn kept backing up as he focused his willpower to summon earth-attuned mana into his hand.

He imagined a sizeable war hammer, and the mana slowly gathered and started forming the shaft as he maintained his distance and eye contact. He was worried that if he looked away again, it would perform the same move and instantly appear beside him again.

The giant monster roared, and Reivyn’s body locked up as the shockwave passed through him, shaving off more of his health. He didn’t dare look, but he knew he was below 50% health just from the three attacks he had suffered obliquely. He lost his concentration, and the shaft that had been slowly forming dissipated, and he couldn’t help but flick his gaze toward his hand involuntarily.

Alarm bells went off in his mind as he sensed the impending danger. The creature had taken his momentary lapse in keeping his eyes on it to once more appear right in front of him. Reivyn had been standing with his knees slightly bent, and having just been stunned for a moment, there was no way he could properly utilize the force in his limbs to dodge the inevitable strike coming his way.

He made the only move he could think of, and he allowed his body to collapse to the floor, and once again he felt the wind of a sword slash pass over his head. He had no time to think as he surrendered himself to his mana and formed the most appropriate weapon of earth for the situation. It quickly appeared in his hand, and leveraging every last bit of power he could from his awkward position, he slammed his open hand into the joint of the skeleton’s knee.

A brick conjured out of mana slammed into the joint, completely obliterating it. The damage was so devastating that the lower portion of its leg separated and flew off into the distance. The skeleton collapsed on the ground next to Reivyn, having lost its ability to maintain its balance. Reivyn quickly backed away from the downed creature.

Reivyn rose and watched in fascinated horror as the skeleton tilted its head back in an unnerving manner and started to crawl toward him, pulling itself forward with its arms. Using the same timing as before, Reivyn leaped forward and brought his makeshift bludgeon device down on the shoulder of its sword-wielding arm.

Reivyn heaved a huge sigh of relief as the shoulder crunched and the arm fell to the ground. Capitalizing on the situation of the skeleton losing its ability to attack him with its weapon, Reivyn repeatedly bashed its skull with his brick. Cracks formed on the skull, and he could sense disgusting mana begin to seep through the wounds. He had no idea what element it was, but it was revolting.

In a move of inspiration, he formed a side of the brick into a sharp blade, and he drove it through one of the cracks. The orb of mana within its head, the source of the nauseating mana leaking through, popped like a bubble, and the skeletal body froze. Reivyn stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow, as he watched the bones disintegrate before his eyes.

Reivyn nearly collapsed in relief, but the sounds of combat reminded him that he wasn’t safe yet.

He was surprised that nobody had come to his aid during the fight. While it hadn’t been a prolonged struggle, it wasn’t short either, and there had been two sentries right outside the tent. He looked around, and everywhere he could see, the soldiers and levies lay collapsed on the ground.

They weren’t dead, as he could see them struggle to breathe, but they didn’t have the protection that he had had from whatever had caused his body to seize in terror earlier. The only people that weren’t collapsed on the ground were Knight-Captain Reifold, who was engaged in combat with the giant monster that remained in the hole with its upper body towering above, Knight-Lieutenant Brand, and himself.

The adjutant stood valiantly by the Knight-Captain’s side as he defended him from the encroachment of more of the abominations that Reivyn had struggled against. He was holding his own fending off three of them at once, but Reivyn’s stomach dropped as he witnessed dozens more begin to crawl out of the giant chasm.

Brand was out fighting the three still-robed skeletons, but he was having the same problem as Reivyn. His weapon wasn’t doing any damage. Reivyn couldn’t reach him if he wanted to because of the hole, but it would have been foolish for him to join in that fight anyway. The only thing he could do was call out the weakness he had discovered.

“Knight-Lieutenant!” He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “There’s an orb of mana in their skulls. You have to use mana to pierce through it, and that’ll kill them!”

“I can’t use mana like that!” Brand called back. Reivyn stood there in indecision as he tried to think of a solution. It would be suicidal to run over there. He had barely survived one, and the adjutant was fighting three, with dozens more converging on the two men.

Suddenly, a bright light expanded out from Knight-Captain Reifold. He had pushed the giant monster back for a moment, and using the opportunity, he leaped back and raised his sword into the air. Golden light swirled around before dozens of sharp, golden lances struck out and pierced through the skulls of all of the undead. He had apparently heard the shouts while fighting the huge creature.

Another, much larger lance of light shot up into the sky. This move had apparently drained all of the commander’s energy, as he collapsed to a knee, panting after he executed it. The giant beast sensed the weakness in its opponent, but before it could act on it, a giant sword of light penetrated from the clouds and cleaved into its skull.

One last mournful shriek escaped from the monstrosity as it burst into golden flames that quickly devoured it.

The three men that had stood to face the horror finally collapsed in exhaustion. Silence suffused the land, but they had survived.

Chapter twenty-four

Cult of Personality

Enemy Defeated.
Exp + 380
Combat Resolved.
Calculating…
Exp + 1520
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 596/1000
New Class Skill Slot Unlocked!
Achievement! Stare into the Abyss and retain your rationality
Mental Stats + 1
Achievement! Participate in a battle 3 Tiers above yours and survive
Luck + 2

New Skills Unlocked!
Mana Conjuration (1)
Mana Weapon (1)

Skills Leveled Up!
Balance (36 ->37)
Battlefield Awareness (4 ->5)
Evasion (26 ->27)
Iron Will (2 ->8)
Mana Sight (14 ->16)
Mental Fortitude (25 ->28)
Observation (30 ->33)
Pain Resistance (27 ->28)
Sense Mana (42 ->45)
Shields (22 ->24)
Spatial Awareness (9 ->11)
Tactics (6 ->11)
Weapons Master (28 ->30)

Select a Class Skill:
Available Class Skills:
Intimidate (0): Cause fear and hesitation into equal strength opponents. Chance to stun weaker enemies.
Power Swing (0): Transfer momentum into the impact area causing knock-back
Quick-Draw (0): Accelerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon

Reivyn reviewed his notifications while recovering in the infirmary. The damage he had received from the combat had been strange. No wounds, other than the minor scrapes from the shield hitting him in the face, had actually been found on his body, so there was nothing for the healers to mend. Instead, it was as if his essence had been damaged directly. The only thing they could do was accelerate his natural healing, and while it didn’t reduce his stamina, having his body work overtime still left him feeling drained, so he remained in the infirmary under the recommendation of the healers.

He looked over the choices for class skills available to him, and he considered each one based on his current fighting style and capabilities.

Intimidate might come in handy at a later date, but it probably won’t help me much with my current strength against anything other than goblins. Reivyn dismissed the skill.

Power Swing could have helped a bit in my last fight against the skeleton, and I can think of many situations where it would be better to force the enemy back rather than stepping back myself. It’s worth further consideration. Reivyn tabled it for now. He didn’t want to choose a skill before checking out each one and comparing them.

Quick-Draw would improve the speed of a maneuver I have already used on more than one occasion to save my life and others. It has the restriction of only applying to a sheathed weapon, but I always have a sidearm on hand. The last option was also a strong contender.

There were pros and cons associated with each skill, and Reivyn could think of uses for each one. It finally came down to the fact that he had already used a technique similar to Quick-Draw in emergency situations, so he ultimately decided to select it.

He pulled up his Status to look at his growth so far.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 10 Age: 9]
[Health: 600/600 Stamina: 1200/1200 Mana: 310/310]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 60 * INT: 32]
[VIT: 60 * MAG: 31]
[DEX: 60 * CLA: 31]
[CHA: 4 * PER: 28]
[LUK: 5]
[Experience: 596/1000]

Skills:
Acrobatics (26), Aim (19), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (33), Balance (37), Battlefield Awareness (5), Blind Fighting (6), Command (0), Danger Sense (1), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (27), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (19) Inspire (5), Iron Will (8), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Circulation (7), Mana Conjuration (1), Mana Manipulation (3), Mana Sight (16), Mana Weapon (1), Map Making (6), March (13), Mathematics (14), Meditation (14), Medium Armor (20), Mental Fortitude (28), Mining (10), Number Concepts (8), Observation (33), Pain Resistance (28), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (35), Sense Mana (45), Shields (24), Sneaking (19), Spatial Awareness (11), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (1), Swimming (0), Tactics (11), Weapons Master (30), Woodworking (1)

Affinities:
Air (15), Earth (15), Fire (15), Water (15)

Class Skills:
Devastating Strike (36): Deal 136% Damage
Cleave (27): Reset stance at an accelerated rate of 137%
Charge (29): Sprint toward the target at 139% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (1): Accelerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 11%
<Locked>
Available: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)

Hmmm… There’s got to be a better way to view my skills. Having them all in a huge block like this makes it hard to parse. Let’s see… Reivyn mentally fiddled with his Status page for a bit. He knew that the System was fairly dynamic, so he concentrated on what he wanted. After several minutes of contemplation, he finally managed to organize it in a way that he liked.

Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (19), Athleticism (33), Balance (37), Drawing (16), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), March (13), Medium Armor (20), Mining (10), Observation (33), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Running (35), Shields (24), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (1)

Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (27), Identify {Mundane} (19), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Circulation (7), Meditation (14), Number Concepts (8), Pain Resistance (28), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (45), Stealth (14), Strategy (1), Tactics (11)

Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (5), Blind Fighting (6), Command (0), Danger Sense (1), Inspire (5), Mana Conjuration (1), Mana Manipulation (3), Mana Sight (16), Mental Fortitude (28)]

Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (13), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (1)

Tier 5:
Spatial Awareness (11)

Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (30)

Reivyn was satisfied with the results of his tinkering. He closed his Status page and lay back on the cot to relax. He drifted off to sleep without noticing.

Reivyn was gently shaken awake. He sat up and rubbed the sleep in his eyes before looking up at who had woken him from his nap. Knight-Lieutenant Brand stood staring down at him with a severe look on his face.

“Sleeping on the job, I see,” he said with disapproval. Reivyn’s mouth opened in astonishment as he looked up at the older man. He stammered to come up with something to say, but the Knight-Lieutenant suddenly broke into a smile and laughed. “I’m obviously joking with you. Are you good to get up?”

Reivyn closed his mouth, stretched, and then stood up. He checked his health, which had climbed to 73% while he napped, and gauged his energy. He was still tired from the overwork his body was doing, but it was manageable if he just had to walk somewhere.

“As long as I don’t have to fight any scary monsters,” Reivyn replied. The adjutant’s smile fell from his face as he assumed a grim expression.

“There shouldn’t be any more surprises. The Knight-Captain and I descended to the depths with some ropes, and we didn’t find any more monsters. Knight-Captain Reifold also had some men locate the tunnels and begin exploring. The entrance had caved in and grown over, which is why nobody could spot it before. It just looked like any other hill dotting the ridge.

“Come, the Knight-Captain invited you to be debriefed by him,” the Knight-Lieutenant said. Reivyn followed him out of the medical tent. It was only late afternoon, and Reivyn could see that the camp had returned to almost normal after the incident.

A wall was being constructed around the hole that had appeared in the middle of the camp, but everyone had resumed their normal day-to-day routines. There were still some lingering effects, though, as Reivyn could see multiple people suddenly stop what they were doing and stare off into space for a moment before suddenly shaking and resuming their task.

The two quickly arrived at the new tent set up for the commander. The interior was exactly like it had been before, with nothing missing. If anything had tumbled down the chasm, it had been retrieved when the two officers descended earlier. Two additional seats had been set in front of Knight-Captain Reifold’s desk, and he indicated them as the two men entered his tent.

“Have a seat,” Reifold said. He set his pen down and leaned back in his chair a bit. “Reivyn, I asked you to join us because, as someone who managed to stand and fight, you deserve to know.” Reivyn and the adjutant each took a seat before the Knight-Captain began.

“First off, I take full responsibility. I’m the expert here when it comes to dungeons, and I allowed my duties as the military commander to distract me from pondering on the ramifications of what was found in the dungeon. Second, and this has already been posted on the notice board, nobody is to go beyond the first floor of the dungeon without an experienced mana user. I’ve noticed you use mana to great effect, but you’re not skilled enough yet, and, frankly, not high enough level yet, to go further into the dungeon. I can’t control the adventurers, but it’s their death warrant if they choose to ignore the warnings.

“That being said, let me explain why,” he continued. “I’m not entirely sure what that demon was, but it was a demon. You should have gotten some sort of notification or achievement regarding the Abyss. That’s a clear indication. While I might not know exactly what that was, the undead minions that crawled up with it were monsters called Revenants. They are high-level undead, at least for this region, and the only reason all of us weren’t massacred, myself included, was because we’re in a Tier 1 mana density region.” Reifold let that statement sink in for a moment. Even Knight-Lieutenant Brand was surprised at that revelation.

“Revenants require a higher concentration and purity of mana to be able to utilize their own magic. As undead, they can’t purify it themselves like we can through sustained Mana Circulation. The lack of available mana is what caused them to move in such jerky motions. If we were in a Tier 3 region, you would have never even seen them coming. They’re still inherently immune to all mundane weaponry, which is why you had to defeat one with your mana attacks. On top of that, the mana density inside the dungeon is higher, so while not enough to unlock their full capabilities, they will be significantly more dangerous in the dungeon.”

As the man spoke, he took out a piece of paper he had prepared beforehand and slid it across the table to the Knight-Lieutenant. The adjutant picked it up, and upon reading its contents, he nodded as if he had expected the information contained within. He handed it to Reivyn, and he quickly scanned it as he listened, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

Do not ask about the coincidence of the timing out loud. Someone, or something, may be listening, it read. Underneath the main message, it instructed Reivyn to take it with him and burn it during his mana practice later. He followed the instructions and, folding it up, placed it in an interior pocket.

“The demon was even more powerful than the Revenants.” Knight-Captain Reifold kept talking without break. “We were lucky my class and class skills directly countered it.

“As to why these things were down there, my guess is the Revenants were cultists while alive, and they summoned a demon they couldn’t control and got themselves killed. Those Revenants were ancient, though, and we might never know why they had remained underground for so long. Not everything is always tied up in a neat package for our understanding. That’s just life.

“On a final note”—the man turned to Reivyn—“I’ll be sure that you get the recognition that you deserve. Some people are even calling you a hero.” Reivyn was taken aback.

“I didn’t do anything particularly heroic, though, sir,” Reivyn quickly denied. “I could barely hold on against one Revenant. You and the adjutant fought off the demon and several Revenants at the same time.”

Reifold held up his fist and started ticking off on his fingers. “While being chased by a beast tide right on your heels, you turned around and charged toward the horde to pick up your fallen squad leader and carry him to safety. Then, instead of taking it easy in the infirmary, even though nobody would have begrudged you for staying there, you joined the fight, and you volunteered to reinforce one of the most exposed positions in a watchtower. Then, you singlehandedly killed an ogre in the dungeon, saving at least a couple of your squadmates’ lives. Finally, you stayed on your feet and fought a mid–Tier 3 Revenant while everyone else had been debilitated with fear.” The commander looked Reivyn in the eye with four fingers raised. He lifted his thumb and said, “You did all of this while having attained your Tier 1 class just barely over a month ago.” He lowered his hand back to the desk.

“People talk. The troops aren’t oblivious to what’s been going on with you. You’re practically their mascot at this point.”

Reivyn was stunned at the revelation. He had been so caught up in his own world that he hadn’t noticed the attention placed on him by the other soldiers. It made sense that they would keep track of him, considering the unusual circumstances around his entry into the regulars.

“Sure, each individual act could simply be described as bravery in the face of danger, but repeated instances, all taken together, are the actions of someone heroic. Usually, in a military unit, we strive to keep people humble and restrain their egos. It leads to better unit cohesion and teamwork. Taking your circumstances into account, though, I feel it’s appropriate to make sure you don’t sell yourself short.” The man clapped his hands together and stood. Reivyn and Brand followed suit, and Reifold kept talking as he walked around the desk to escort the men out.

“I would offer you instruction on how to properly utilize your mana, Reivyn, but my mana is fundamentally different from yours,” he said as he held out a hand to guide the two men out. “And judging on your ability to conjure mana weapons, I can only assume you have the necessary mana skills that I could instruct you on, but mana skills aren’t my expertise, and I wouldn’t be able to add much to what you already know. What you need help with is turning your mana into usable magic, and that, I can’t help you with.” The Knight-Captain escorted them through the tent flaps, and before Reivyn even realized it, the meeting was over, and he was standing outside with the adjutant.

“He’s not one for chitchat,” Brand said with a sideways look toward Reivyn. “The day is almost over, so go ahead and take the rest of the day to yourself. I’ll see you in the morning.” With that the adjutant strode off toward his own tent, leaving Reivyn behind.

Reivyn looked at the time in his System interface and saw that it was about time for evening chow, so he simply made his way over to the chow hall. He pondered on the things the Knight-Captain had said and the things he should work on based on his new knowledge. He would need to devote a significantly larger portion of time to bringing his mana skills up. It’s a good thing I had already decided to not let my mental stats fall too far behind, he thought.

Reivyn sat in his tent in a relaxed, cross-legged fashion. He had just completed a couple of rotations of Mana Circulation. It was subtle, but he could faintly tell that the mana was traveling through his pathways in a smoother manner. It was like it had less friction against the walls of his meridian pathways.

He opened his eyes after the exercise and looked down at his hand that he held aloft with his palm up. He concentrated on the mana within himself, and, using his willpower, he summoned it in pure form to his hand. A little bluish, translucent orb of mana appeared floating over his palm. It glowed faintly in the dim lighting.

He bore his willpower down further and morphed the orb into various shapes. He started by elongating portions, turning the orb into a polyhedron. It wriggled about and flowed like a liquid as he constantly shifted the shape at his whim. Mana Manipulation had increased his ability to move his mana around and do things with it outside of circulating it inside his meridians, but after unlocking the Mana Conjuration skill, his ability to turn his mana into an object had increased by another level. The two skills were clearly operating with synergy.

He moved on from simply stretching and deforming the orb and tried to make more definite shapes. He extended it into a rectangular prism. The general shape of the mana was fine, but he was unable to keep the edges and corners sharp. They kept degrading into a curve, and when he shifted his attention to fix it, another spot would deform. He was unable to keep a perfect shape with his current skill level, but that was the purpose of the exercise.

He continued to maintain the shape and try to adjust it to the perfect form he had in his head. Another problem he encountered was the irregular mana density throughout the construct. Trying to focus on the perfect shape and uniform density, though, was currently an impossible task. He switched back and forth between focusing on one task at a time.

He worked on the rectangular shape for a time before moving on to attempting new designs. He shifted to a pyramid, a cylinder, and a cube. He didn’t shift back and forth at a fast speed. Instead, he continued his practice of forming the overall shape and then concentrating on perfecting it for a while before moving on. Rapid shifting in forming patterns would be something to work on at a later date once he was satisfied with his current training regimen.

Sweat trickled down his brow, and his mana slowly ticked downward as he maintained his focus. He lost track of time as he fully concentrated on the task at hand, and when his mana finally reached a point where he could feel a bit of strain, around 30%, he finally stopped. He was surprised to see that it had gotten completely dark outside while he was practicing.

He checked the time—he had been at it for close to an hour. His mana had lasted longer than he had thought it would. It must be because, on top of having the skills unlocked, I’m not actually doing anything with the mana, and the loss just comes from what’s dissipating into the air, he mused.

He pulled up his notifications that had accumulated while he was working.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 2:
Mana Circulation (7 ->8)
Meditation (14 ->15)

Tier 3:
Mana Conjuration (1 ->3)
Mana Sight (16 ->17)

The System had adapted his notifications for skills leveling up to match his new interface format without him specifically doing so himself. Interestingly enough, he noticed, that looking at his Mana Conjuration while working on his skill also caused his Mana Sight to level up. Doing one exercise had the potential to raise several of his skills concurrently. Once I get Mana Conjuration to Level 10, I’ll start focusing more on Mana Weapon and allow the other skill to level up naturally.

Reivyn was hopeful for the future. He had a clear plan for not letting his mental stats and mana skills fall behind his physical ones, and with his new position as a faux-aide, he would have the time to work on that plan. He would make sure to continue to practice his martial skills, but they could take a backseat for a short time as they waited for the permanent guards to arrive and take over.

The feeling of elation at having survived a disaster washed over him as he lay down to go to sleep. His body relaxed and he slowly drifted off. Luckily, this time, the elation wasn’t paired with the conflicting feelings of survivor’s guilt.

Chapter twenty-five

Smooth Transition

Reivyn concentrated his willpower as he controlled his mana. It was getting easier to quickly and accurately form the desired shapes he conjured with his mana. He was staring at an arrow held in his left hand while he mimicked its shape and balance to the best of his ability with water-attuned mana in his right. Having a medium to focus on greatly enhanced his ability to maintain a consistent shape and uniformity in mana density.

He had originally thought far too simply about training his Mana Weapon skill. He’d had to stop and actually sit down to think about what he wanted to accomplish, what his tools available were, and then how to utilize those tools to do the task.

The problem had arisen when he tried to practice some strikes on a dummy with a sword conjured from fire mana. The fire sword had simply passed right through the dummy, only leaving some small smoldering marks on the surface. He had stood in surprise with his mouth wide open until a fleeting memory surfaced in his mind. He recalled that the first time he had ever made a whip out of fire mana, the weapon had passed through the birds in the sky while setting them on fire. It hadn’t actually been striking them.

That led him to the most recent incident where he had wrapped a fire whip around the Revenant. It had clearly been corporeal and made contact with the target. It wasn’t just a matter of intent, either. He had been operating purely on instinct in both cases. He felt he should know how to do what he wanted, and while he clearly understood it subconsciously, he just couldn’t quite make that final step.

This led to a compromise in his exercise. He had been, so far, operating with either pure mana or one basic element, and his usage of the elements could only be described as crude, at best. He would simply gather any latent elements contained in his own mana reserves and attract ambient elements and force them into his construct.

An idea had popped into his head. If I can use one element to infuse into the construct, why can’t I use two?

This simple question led to several days of experimentation that led to his making arrows out of water. He gathered his own mana and used the same crude method to attune it to water, but then he gathered the fire element into his palm, not letting it escape, and used it as a catalyst to absorb the heat out of the water arrow. The result led to a shiny, crystalline arrow of pure ice.

Affinity Unlocked!
Ice Affinity (1)

Reivyn wasn’t too surprised by the notification. He had had conjectures on other mana affinities for a while now, and he had assumed that using them in combination with each other was probably the most likely way to unlock more affinities. If he had been able to reach Level 15 in his affinities while still at home, he was sure his mother, who had been the one to lead him onto the path in the first place, would have been able to properly guide him. As it was, he could only fumble about with his own ideas.

This new way of utilizing his affinities, however, came with a cost. He frowned as he looked at his mana expenditure. Creating a simple construct out of pure mana would cost roughly 1 mana point per second. Once it was created, it could be maintained for a significantly less cost of his mana, as he wasn’t actively infusing more into it at that point, but was instead simply holding it in place against the slow dissipation that occurred. Infusing a single affinity added 1 additional mana point to the expenditure.

When Reivyn had used a second affinity to create the ice arrow, though, it wasn’t an addition of simply 1 more mana point. It had added double the mana points as the total of using one affinity for a total of 6 mana points per second. With his current mana pool, he would be able to create approximately five ice arrows, as it took him close to ten seconds of concentration to complete the conjuration. That would only be if he made them and let them disperse, though. If he wanted to actually use them, he could prepare three arrows ahead of time.

That would work down in the dungeon where they could prepare before each fight, but it wouldn’t be tenable in a situation where ambushes were a possibility. Making arrows during practice made sense, as the complexities involved would allow him to practice the skill. He would be better suited to making stones of earth mana to use as ammunition for a sling in practice.

However… that was creating the ice element out of using two elements together. What happens if I just use the newly unlocked affinity directly? With that thought, he immediately put plan into action.

First, he dispelled the maintenance of his already formed arrow. It didn’t immediately disperse in a cloud of mana like the other constructs had, but instead, he watched in fascination as it slowly disintegrated in front of him. Bits and pieces would flake off to float away, and then those pieces would disperse into the environment.

Is it because it’s a higher-tier mana affinity? Or is it because it’s a solid shape? The crystalline structure? There’s so much I don’t know about this.

He threw his questions aside and remade another arrow. The new way of conjuring the mana saw him use 1 mana point per second based on the pure mana, but only 2 mana points per second for using the Ice Affinity directly. The downside was that his Ice Affinity was still only at Level 1, and it took about twice as long to form the arrow.

So roughly the same amount of mana cost per arrow at half the speed. But that’s because I’m at Level 1. If I bring my affinity up to par, it will be half the cost at the same speed. He had gained another aspect to train in.

Reivyn put the matter of the technicalities aside. He took his shiny, newly formed arrow, nocked it in his bow, took aim, and let it fly toward the target dummy. He held his breath for the fraction of a second it took to reach the target in anticipation.

It shattered on impact.

Reivyn let out an exasperated groan as he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. I’m still missing something.

Reivyn was afforded a lot more free time to work on his mana skills, and he took advantage of it by practicing in the mornings as well as the evenings. He still maintained his position as Aide to Knight-Lieutenant Brand, though, as he was learning a lot of valuable information, both from the book and from asking any questions that popped into his head.

“Why don’t I get training from the healers?” he had asked on one such occasion.

“A couple of reasons,” the adjutant answered. “First, they’re not really using magic. Yes, they’re using mana to assist in their work and perform things they wouldn’t be able to do without it, but it’s not technically magic. Second, they spent, at minimum, two years of their time as Tier 1s studying the human body and basic medicine. You lack the foundations for the things they could teach you.

“Knight-Captain Reifold, on the other hand, is perfectly capable of healing through magical means. But, again, the way his mana works is of a completely different nature. You could theoretically learn the usage, but you would have to spend a couple of years working as a squire at a church to gain the recognition required to unlock the method. Magron doesn’t even have a church that has the capabilities to train squires.”

While Magron was a magnificent city according to Reivyn, it was still just in its infancy relative to the true seats of power located in the central regions of the kingdom. Magron was a county capital in a county located on the fringe of the nation. The kingdom wasn’t symmetrical with the Capital located in the center. The truly prosperous cities were instead close to the border on the complete opposite end of the country where it abutted up against a higher-tier region.

“If he was an adventurer in a high-level team in a higher-tier region, he would absolutely be an auxiliary healer. As it is, it’s a waste of his time and completely unnecessary for him to assume that kind of role out here. Maybe in an emergency where the healers we have are incapable of handling the numbers or severity of wounds, he could make use of his magical healing, but, as you’ve seen multiple times already, it makes far more sense for him to deal with any kind of threat capable of doing that to the men directly himself.”

Acting as the aide to the adjutant had another, unexpected benefit. Reivyn had been perusing the reports and determining whether to stamp them or pass them along when his boss had given him a new task.

“Hmm… we’ve been too preoccupied with letting the men get experience in the dungeon.” Brand said. “Reivyn, go to the cavalry unit and pass on my order to have them perform a three-day extended sweep into the plains and forests to make sure any remnants of the beast tide aren’t forming back up again. Can’t let them terrorize the locals, now, can we?”

“Yes, sir.” Reivyn stood up and hurried out of the tent to accomplish the task. This was the first time he had been tasked with doing anything other than screening reports and educating himself.

He made his way to one of the edges of the palisade where the cavalry unit resided. They had a large space afforded to them for the sake of having to take care of their mounts, and there was a definite break line in the layout of the camp so the infantry wouldn’t have to deal with the sounds and smells anymore than was necessary. The cavalry might have the upside of slightly more prestige and versatility, but it came with the corresponding downsides as well.

The camp was alive and performing routine military duties like any other day as Reivyn made his way to the command tent. He spotted men grooming their horses, maintaining their gear, practicing with weapons, and some were performing riding maneuvers as well. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to acquire the skills required to ride a horse. I’ve heard that it’s not just Riding, but there’s also Horsemanship, Reivyn thought to himself as he watched the activity around him. That begs the question: Are there other forms of mounts? It was a question that would have to be answered another time.

Reivyn approached the tent to the sergeant in command of the cavalry. The company commander was present and performing his duties in the encampment, but he was the only officer besides the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant. Most of the duties of command that a junior officer would perform were actually handled by the most senior sergeant of each platoon.

“I have orders from the adjutant,” Reivyn instructed the sentry standing guard. While the cavalry sergeant wasn’t rated to have two men guard his tent that a legitimate commissioned officer would, he was still performing the duties of one. The sentry was more a means to prevent him from being interrupted by anyone who fancied dropping in than any kind of guard.

The man ducked his head into the tent to inform the sergeant before straightening up and waving Reivyn in. Reivyn nodded his thanks to the man and entered. The tent wasn’t nearly as bare-bones as the senior officers’ tents were. As an experienced NCO, he knew what he could and couldn’t bring along with him, and he had some possessions to provide a more cozy living environment, as well as some things to entertain himself during downtime. The man was reclining on his cot, reading a book as Reivyn went inside.

“Sergeant, upon the orders of the adjutant, you are to perform a three-day extended sweep of the plains and forests below,” Reivyn said without preamble. The sergeant marked his place in the book before sitting up. He looked Reivyn up and down. He clearly knew that Reivyn was acting as an aide to the Knight-Lieutenant, and, as a more mature man, he didn’t posture or try and assert his seniority over his junior.

“Alright. Did he give any specifics?” the man asked.

“No, sergeant,” Reivyn answered. “Standard procedures. You pick the men, you pick the route, you make the plan. The intent is to make sure none of the beasts from the beast tide congregate together again to pose a threat. Nothing complicated.” Reivyn knew from the book he had been given by the adjutant that the aide had to anticipate the orders of his boss. This might be a test of the older man, or he was just used to doing things in this manner. Either way, Reivyn knew the purpose of the orders.

“Okay. Orders received,” the sergeant said. Reivyn gave the man a friendly smile and a wave as he exited the tent. Once he stepped back out into the sunlight, he was greeted with a notification.

Skill Leveled Up!
Command (0 ->1)

Reivyn was surprised that he had gained a level in this particular skill. Based on what Knight-Lieutenant Brand said about Strategy, it must simply be because I gave an order that was acknowledged. Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever given a command to someone.

Satisfied with his own explanation, Reivyn returned to his duties as an aide.

Reivyn wasn’t satisfied with only unlocking one additional affinity. He had done the thought experiments and laid the groundwork. He sat on his cot and focused his mind. There was no need to do anything fancy, shape-wise, as he was simply testing out combinations he could think of.

He formed the mana ball with practiced ease. He already had a combination he wanted to try out, so he got right into it without hesitation. He infused the ball with the earth element and watched as it took on the characteristics of a small stone. Once he had accomplished that task, he set about adding the fire element to it.

He had considered how he wanted to go about doing it. He wasn’t sure if the method used in combining the elements had any tangible benefit, but there was no harm in trying. He chose to start from the inside out. He added the fire element to the interior and slowly suffused the entire pebble with it. Nothing seemed to happen for a while, so he increased the intensity of the fire mana.

Eventually, as he watched the stone, cracks started to appear on it. Bright, glowing orange light radiated out from the interior, and the color slowly spread to encompass the entire mass. It wasn’t just red, however, as dark, dark splotches of black also accompanied it. It reminded him of the demon that had appeared from the depths. It started to wriggle about and move like a thick liquid instead of a solid object after his mana had been drained considerably.

New Affinity Unlocked!
Magma (1)

He released the mana upon getting the notification, and then he had to immediately fumble about to regain control of the construct. Like with the ice arrow earlier, it didn’t immediately dissipate. It had lost its cohesion and started to fall to the floor, and a small speck had dripped down to the ground, causing a hiss as it started to burn the surroundings.

Whew, I can’t be careless with these things, he thought to himself as he regained control. He stopped feeding it mana to maintain it, but he kept his connection to it so that it would float harmlessly in the air while it slowly disappeared.

Hmm, it can’t just be combinations of mana that unlock new affinities. Let me try something.

He conjured an ice arrow in his left hand and then simultaneously created a long stick made of earth mana. He used his Mana Sight to look closely at the structure of the mana that made up the ice arrow, and using it as a medium for concentration, he started to manipulate the mana making up the earth stick to match the crystalline structure.

Sweat beaded his brow as he conducted the complicated operation. The mana didn’t fight his control, but it would still tend to move out of the careful structure he was creating. He had to constantly move back to shore up the weaknesses, but as more and more of the earth mana took on the aspect of the ice arrow, it began to work with him. After reaching just past halfway to completion, it became exponentially easier to arrange the structure properly. As he approached the final touch, the earthen stick began to change to a lighter color, and when he finally accomplished his task, he held a silvery metal rod in his hand.

New Affinity Unlocked!
Metal (1)

Reivyn released his hold on the mana objects and collapsed back onto his cot. He gulped down some air to help him recover. He hadn’t spent any stamina in the exercise, but the drop in mana and the mental fatigue combined to give him the phantom feeling of physical exhaustion. He checked his mana points after he had calmed down.

Just enough for one last experiment tonight, he thought. I wonder what happens if I combine all four of the basic elements?

He once more made the pure mana orb. He wasn’t sure if combining all four of them together one at a time was possible, so he bore down on his willpower and gathered four separate strands of attuned mana simultaneously. He positioned them equally across the globe, and then shoved them all toward the center all at once. For a brief second, they clashed with each other in the center before swirling around each other and combining with a silent pop.

A bright flash blinded Reivyn as he had been staring wide-eyed at the orb. He closed his eyes tight as he lost control of the mana, and when he was able to open his eyes again, a dark shadow remained in his vision in the form of the mana ball.

New Affinity Unlocked!
Light (1)

He threw his hands into the air in triumph. He had been successful.

Another week of training and working as an aide passed. Reivyn continued to hone his mana skills each day. He didn’t ignore his martial skills, though, and he set up a rotation where he would do about an 80/20 focus. He could slowly feel himself improving in both his mastery of the skills and in his affinities.

With the passing of another week, another opportunity to delve the dungeon appeared. Apparently, there was some sort of mechanism where the dungeon would reset for each individual or party each week. It didn’t occur on any set day for everyone, but instead, it was tuned specifically to the people involved and would maintain the progress of the dive for a week before starting over.

The second exploration of the dungeon went much smoother, and not just for Reivyn’s squad. With the information gathered, all of the squads pressed on and defeated the boss room. They handled the upper floors by sending teams of four down each path while the rest of the squad continued on, and they would break into three groups that leapfrogged their way down.

With proper preparation, the boss room wasn’t all that difficult to handle, either. It turned out that the ogre turning on his handlers was the rule, not the exception. It seemed like a scripted event. Nobody continued on beyond the boss room, though, as nobody wanted to potentially run into the powerful Revenants or any other possible demons.

Reivyn was seated at his customary desk going through reports. Normally the canvas of the tent was thick enough to block out any ambient noise from the outside, but the peace and quiet were abruptly interrupted by some loud sounds coming from outside. The noise didn’t have the hallmarks of an emergency such as a sense of urgency or panic associated with the incoming noises, but it was loud and sustained.

“Ask one of the sentries what that racket is,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand finally said. Reivyn stood up and poked his head out of the tent flaps. He could see a flurry of activity in the distance as he queried one of the men standing post outside.

“The adjutant wants to know what all this noise is about,” he said. The man turned toward Reivyn, and with a smile on his face gave him the answer that he had been anticipating for a while now. Reivyn quickly returned to the adjutant to let him know the news.

“Sir, the permanent garrison has arrived,” Reivyn said with undisguised jubilation.

“Well, it looks like we’ll be able to go home soon,” Brand said with a smile.

Chapter twenty-six

Looking Forward

The trees lining the road offered shade in the midsummer heat as the troops made their return trip to Magron. Reivyn marveled at the sights and sounds all around him, constantly turning his head about. He was surprised that the change in perspective from riding a horse compared to walking on his own two feet was so pronounced. Not only was he able to easily peer over everyone’s heads to gaze into the depths of the woods at will, but even if he had been as free to look around while walking, he wouldn’t have seen anything except the heads of the other men surrounding him in formation.

The change of command when the permanent garrison troops arrived had happened without a hitch. He had followed Knight-Lieutenant Brand out to greet the new commander, carrying a stack of reports that had been prepared ahead of time. The Knight-Lieutenant had cordially greeted the other man, and even though he was only the XO meeting a new commanding officer, Reivyn had seen surprise and a little flattery on the other man’s face.

The man commanding the new guards was technically at the equivalent rank as the company commander under the adjutant, and Reivyn suspected there was something to do with non-military standing involving the designation of “Knight” in Brand’s title. Reivyn didn’t understand all of the nuances involved, but from the way the men acted, it was more than appropriate for Knight-Lieutenant Brand to handle the matter in Knight-Captain Reifold’s stead.

Reivyn had stood behind and to the side of the adjutant as the two men walked and talked. Upon observation, the new guards weren’t quite as crisp in their military bearing as the troops making up the Lord’s Retinue, but that wasn’t their job. They were more peacekeepers and security than soldiers. Despite that, the NCOs leading them were capable and didn’t require the micromanagement from their commander, allowing him to simultaneously handle the formalities as his men assumed their roles.

Reivyn’s presence hadn’t gone unnoticed by the man. A perplexed expression crossed his face when he noticed Reivyn’s age and slightly smaller stature.

“I haven’t heard of any young, promising officer candidates, Knight-Lieutenant,” the man said with a nod toward Reivyn. It was a fair assumption made by the man.

Brand glanced at Reivyn and then chuckled. “He’s not an officer candidate, Captain Aren,” the adjutant said. “Technically, he’s a conscript.” He waved his hands about and shook his head. “It’s complicated. It’s all in the reports if you want to find out for yourself later. Anyway, this is Reivyn, the Little Hero.” Reivyn momentarily froze upon hearing those words. He knew from the debriefing the other day that some people had started calling him a hero, but for the Knight-Lieutenant to say so in his official capacity could only have been a deliberate, calculated move.

Captain Aren’s interest in Reivyn had obviously dimmed when Brand had said that instead of being a promising officer candidate he was actually a conscript, but his eyes had lit up with even more interest upon hearing the title of “Little Hero” being assigned to him. He looked Reivyn up and down, and then, with a smile, he clapped the youngster on the shoulder.

“If Knight-Lieutenant Brand refers to you as such, then you obviously have a bright future ahead of you, kid,” the man said.

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn said. It wasn’t an invitation into the conversation, so he kept his response a short acknowledgment of the praise.

The two officers continued their conversation along the way to the adjutant’s tent, and as they ducked inside to continue the meeting, Reivyn noticed out of the corner of his eye that it wasn’t just the new militia unit that had arrived. He paused for a second to get a better look, and he spotted a long caravan of civilians with all kinds of different building materials along with personal possessions stacked in carts.

Getting in on the ground floor of a brand-new settlement that had the potential to become a prosperous city in the near future was a huge opportunity for a lot of people. Most of the first arrivals were young men and women who had recently completed an apprenticeship or were journeymen without an established footing of their own. There were bound to be larger organizations branching out to the new location eventually, but they weren’t going to participate in building it themselves.

“What are you thinking about?” Reivyn was brought out of his contemplation by the voice of the Knight-Lieutenant.

“I was just thinking that a small shift in perspective completely changes the scenery,” Reivyn answered. Knight-Lieutenant Brand smiled at the response.

“Indeed it does,” he said. “It is all about perspective. It’s interesting that you’ve had this bit of insight all on your own. The best example I’ve ever heard was an explanation given by my father.

“He’s a baron attached to Count Ilpir, and he was working his men toward a specific goal. There were many moving parts, and he didn’t have the time, nor inclination, to explain every little detail to everyone involved. Because the men didn’t understand the whole situation, some grumblings of discontent appeared over some apparent contradictions in orders.

“My father had gathered the men and given them a little speech. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but the gist of it went like this: He held up a chair to the men, and he showed them the bottom of it as he said, ‘When you look at this chair from this angle, all you see are these four legs and the bottom of the seat. Without the context of the whole picture, you have no idea what it is, or what its purpose could be.’ He turned the chair right-side up and then said, ‘I’m looking at it from this angle. I look at it, and I think, “This is clearly a chair.”’ He set the chair down and finished. ‘Each order that I’m giving out can be likened to an individual leg of the chair. Trust me that the work you’re doing is important, and it’s laying the foundation for the project as a whole.’”

Knight-Lieutenant Brand looked at Reivyn expectantly. Reivyn had been listening to every word, and it had resonated with his small insight from the view overlooking the heads of the marching men.

“What was the project?” he asked.

Knight-Lieutenant Brand coughed into his hand in slight embarrassment. “I have no idea. I can’t remember,” he said. “But that’s not the point! Don’t focus on the wrong part of the story,” he gently reprimanded.

“Anyway, are you finally getting used to riding?” the older man asked. Reivyn tilted his head down and gave him a flat look through his lashes.

“I am now, no thanks to you,” he responded. Knight-Lieutenant Brand just laughed and clapped him on the shoulder before returning to his position slightly ahead of Reivyn.

When it was time to finally leave the encampment, Reivyn had been fully prepared to assume his position in the formation and march with his squad again. While he had been going over the final checks of his gear with his squadmates, the Knight-Lieutenant had shown up with a horse.

“No aide of mine is going to march on his own two feet. You have an image to uphold. You’ll be riding next to me,” he had declared. “Here, we’ll put your gear into the saddlebags instead of the rucksack.”

They quickly transferred the gear over, and the spear was placed into a special holster behind the saddle. Knight-Lieutenant Brand pointed out the gear and gave some simple instructions on how to mount the horse and sit in the saddle, but he didn’t go into elaborate detail. He helped Reivyn ascend the mount for the first time. Reivyn was only slightly shorter than the average height of the men, but the stirrups had been adjusted to fit his size properly ahead of time.

“Alright, are you good?” the older man asked. Reivyn sat in the saddle, loosely holding the reins as he looked down at the man before nodding. He turned to his squadmates to offer his farewell.

“Yaaahhh!” A loud shout interrupted him, and the horse bolted as the Knight-Lieutenant smacked its flank with the flat of his blade. Reivyn grabbed the reins in a death grip, and his entire body tightened at the unexpected movement. The horse galloped through the camp and quickly made it to the road. Reivyn held on for dear life as he was bounced around like a sack of potatoes.

“Aaaaahhh!” His loud shout echoed out over the open air.

Luckily, the horse was well trained, and, absent any commands from the clueless rider, it simply followed the road leading down the ridge. Reivyn’s heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, but he eventually started to calm down as he noticed the horse not acting crazy. His body loosened up, and he began to absorb the impacts caused by the galloping by utilizing his Balance skill.

The horse started to slow down on its own after not receiving any instructions for a while, and Reivyn was able to experiment with how to control the horse through the reins and body movements as he had witnessed the cavalry do. He got the horse to come down all the way to a walk, and as he was getting it to turn around to head back to the palisade, a burst of loud laughter entered his ears. He looked up to find the adjutant just behind him on his own horse.

“Well, how did you like your first ride?” the man said with a grin. Reivyn looked at him with wide eyes.

“Can you not do that again? That was terrifying!” Reivyn complained.

“Check your notifications,” the man said, his grin never leaving his face. Reivyn did just that. With a mental tug, his notification popped up in front of him.

New Skill Unlocked!
Riding (1)

Now that he had calmed down and read the notification, he noticed a subtle increase in his ability to properly sit in the saddle and unconsciously guide the horse. If it hadn’t been pointed out to him, he wouldn’t have noticed it anytime soon, as he was still coming down from the short bout of excitement.

“That’s how I got the skill,” Brand said. “That’s why I didn’t hesitate to use the same tactic. It would take you all day and a sore butt to get the skill from gentle walking. You can thank me later when you’ve calmed down.” The man smirked at him.

Knight-Lieutenant Brand had then given Reivyn proper instruction on how to ride the horse and control it in various ways. He went through the proper usage of the reins and how and when to shift his balance properly to guide his mount. Brand supervised his practice for about an hour before the troops finally came marching out, and they fell into their proper place in the formation.

“You’ll get the Horsemanship skill after you’ve learned how to properly take care of your beast, not just ride it,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand informed him.

True to his word, Reivyn had gained the relevant skill after properly looking after the horse that evening under the tutelage of the adjutant. They had taken some time out each day to ride ahead and practice some riding maneuvers each day, and Reivyn’s skill level steadily climbed. Along with the increase in his skill, he was able to divert his attention more and more, which led to him constantly observing his surroundings after a few days.

He still hadn’t thanked the man.

The city of Magron looked the same as the first time Reivyn had seen its walls looming in the distance. That wasn’t to say he had gotten used to it. It still looked amazing to him, and he wondered what it would be like to live in the city.

The troops made their way back to the garrison after entering the city, and Knight-Captain Reifold had all of the men stand in formation for a moment as he addressed them.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone. I only have a couple of points to make before you’re all dismissed. I’m sure everyone has better things to do than listen to me speak,” he said.

“First, a moment of silence to honor our dead brothers.” He bent his head down along with all of the troops. The bodies that had been preserved had not followed them to the garrison, but they had instead gone off immediately to their own destination so as to be returned to their families as soon as possible. After a respectable length of time, Knight-Captain Reifold raised his head to continue his address.

“Second, I sent ahead to prepare the promised combat bonus, and they will be disbursed through your chain of command tomorrow.” While the men were excited about getting bonus pay, they maintained their military bearing and didn’t celebrate while in formation.

“Last, the conscription has formally come to an end, and it will technically come to an end when you return to your homes. The levies will keep their tokens. Sergeant Mok will be in charge of overseeing your return, and before you do, he’ll modify your tokens to no longer function as your military identification. They will, however, be your proof of preferred dungeon access, so anyone who chooses a combat class and returns to delve the dungeon should make sure not to lose them.”

Knight-Captain Reifold nodded to the adjutant and then strode off.

“Dismissed!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand commanded. He turned toward Reivyn, who had remained by his side at the front of the formation, as the men broke off under their NCOs. “Come with me.”

Reivyn followed him to his office on the second floor of the headquarters building. To his surprise, they walked up the central stairway in the central foyer that Corporal Decker had told him to never use. Makes sense. If even the second in command can’t use the stairs, then what’s the point of having them?

Reivyn took a seat in front of the desk at the adjutant’s gesture. The older man sat at his desk and relaxed back into his chair.

“Well, that’s it. You’re officially done,” he started. “A couple of final points. One, you don’t have to worry about the court-martial of Ren. You don’t need to be there for it, so you don’t need to stick around any longer than necessary to see it through. We’ll handle everything on our end.

“Two, there will be a banquet at the lord’s manor tomorrow evening. Knight-Captain Reifold has extended an invitation for you to attend. You’re going to be attending as a guest of the Knight-Captain, not of the count, so you don’t have to worry about performing any sort of duties or anything like that. The banquet is to welcome and congratulate the Knight-Captain on a successful mission, though you will most likely meet the count in private afterward. Knight-Captain Reifold did say he would make sure you got recognition for your actions, so that makes sense to me.

“We’ll have a proper uniform tailored for you to wear tomorrow, so be sure to head to the quartermaster after this.” Brand handed him a piece of paper. A glance showed that it was the order for the uniform, and Reivyn placed it in his pocket.

“Other than picking up your uniform and showing up on time for the banquet, we’ll meet in front of the headquarters at five p.m. tomorrow. You have the rest of today and tomorrow free to do what you want. It was a pleasure having you work as my aide, short though it was,” the man said as he reached across to shake Reivyn’s hand. Reivyn stood up and gave a slight bow to the older man.

“Thank you, sir, for everything you did for me,” Reivyn said. The Knight-Lieutenant tilted his head to the side as he raised an eyebrow at Reivyn, who rolled his eyes and added, begrudgingly, “And for helping me unlock the Riding skill.”

“You’re welcome,” Brand said as he got up from behind the desk. He led Reivyn to the door and said, “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn responded as he left to go get his measurements made at the quartermaster. In only a few more days, he would finally be heading back home, and that thought was far more exciting to him than attending a banquet with the upper echelons of the county.

Chapter twenty-seven

Table Manors

Reivyn looked at the silver and copper coins in his hand. He had just received his pay for the conscription and the bonuses. On top of getting a combat-pay bonus, his squad also received two additions to their pay from the requisition of the silver ore on their two dungeon delves. He looked up at Corporal Decker, who had just passed out the coins to the squad.

“Corporal, this is too much,” he said. The men received their pay monthly, and it was about a silver’s worth of coppers for the rank of lance corporal. Reivyn was a private, so he should have less, but even if he accounted for an additional combat bonus from fighting the Revenant, the numbers didn’t make sense.

“No, it’s right,” Corporal Decker said. He pulled out a piece of paper and showed it to Reivyn. “See here? Pay scale is aide to the adjutant, which is equivalent to a sergeant.”

“But I was only assigned as the aide for just over a week,” Reivyn protested. He wasn’t averse to receiving more pay, but he felt uncomfortable taking more than he thought he deserved.

“Hand me your token.” Corporal Decker extended his hand. Reivyn pulled the token out of his pocket and placed it in the NCO’s hand. The man took out his own token and held them together, and then he appeared to be reading something in front of his face that Reivyn couldn’t see. He was obviously looking at a System Notification of some kind.

“According to the date on your token, you’ve been assigned as the aide to the Knight-Lieutenant since the day you were transferred from the levies to the regulars,” he said after a moment. He handed the token back to Reivyn. “So, the pay is correct. It looks like the officers planned on taking care of you from day one.”

Reivyn pocketed the token along with the coins. Any reservations he had had were alleviated. Knight-Lieutenant Brand did tell me that they had wanted to assign me as an aide in the very beginning. It made perfect sense to him after getting the clarification.

“Alright, I have some things to take care of, so I’ll see you all later,” Reivyn bade the squad farewell with a wave.

Brace got up from his customary spot playing cards and followed him out of the barracks as everyone else waved in response.

“So what do you got planned?” he asked.

“Oh, I have to attend the banquet tonight, so I need to go find a barber and get my hair under control,” Reivyn answered. A bit over a month without a proper haircut had caused his hair to get a bit unruly. Despite proper hygiene and care, his hair had natural waves to it, and letting it get past a certain length caused it to stick out in weird ways, no matter how he tried to comb it into place.

“Sure, sure. I’ve got nothing going on today. Do you need a guide through the city?” Brace volunteered.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Reivyn said.

“Alright, let me square it away with the corporal real quick.” Brace went back into the barracks briefly before returning and waving Reivyn on.

The two men traversed the open square to where the levies were still quartered. They were given a few days to rest before they had to march back to their homes under the supervision of Sergeant Mok. Teilon was standing waiting for him at the edge of the tents. He was conversing with a familiar figure as the two approached.

“Hah! What are you wearing?” Reivyn teased. Teilon was wearing the clothes he had been conscripted in, and he had apparently experienced a considerable growth spurt as they no longer properly fit him. He had several inches of skin showing between the bottom of his trousers and his footwear.

“Laugh it up, shorty. This just means I’m turning into a real man,” Teilon retorted. The figure next to him snorted. Teilon gasped and put on a face of mock hurt as he turned toward the person waiting with him. “You too?”

“Me, especially,” the girl said. She turned toward Reivyn and offered her hand in a dainty grip. “Hi, we haven’t ever been properly introduced. I’m Kimberly,” she said. Reivyn was slightly surprised at the girlish handshake she offered, considering the state he had seen her leave Teilon in after their “dance” sessions.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m Reivyn,” he replied. “This here is Brace”

“Hello,” Brace said. The two shared a handshake as well.

“Kimberly insisted on coming along once she heard of the main purpose of our trek into the city proper,” Teilon explained. “She said, and I quote, ‘I need to be there to make sure you don’t mess up your shaggy mane any further.’”

“Yeah, obviously,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “You’re a, ahem, ‘man,’ as you say, and everyone knows that men can’t be trusted with these things.”

It was Teilon’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Just remember,” he said seriously, “you just agreed that I’m a man.” He smirked as she playfully swatted at him.

“Okay. We’ve got coins in our pocket, so we can take the opportunity to get some new clothes while we’re at it,” Reivyn said.

“Alright, enough talking. Let’s goooo!” Teilon pointed forward dramatically.

The streets were bustling as the four people made their way along. The road was properly paved throughout the entirety of the city, and the buildings were taller and more compact than the ones found in Haluville. They could still see some suburbs in the distance with individual houses, but from what they could see, the empty spaces and yards around them were also much smaller so as to fit in more buildings.

Brace led them to the commercial district in the center of the city, and they had a grand time perusing all of the storefronts. The wares on display were more varied and generally of a higher quality than the ones they were used to.

They all spent some of their hard-earned coins on getting some new clothes that properly fit and taming their hair. Reivyn felt much more comfortable being able to finally feel the breeze on the back and sides of his head once his hair was cut short. There was no “standard” hairstyle, but he had been advised to keep his hair short when wearing a helmet. He planned on doing some adventuring with Teilon in the future, so it was a good idea, he figured, to get into the habit of keeping his hair short.

Kimberly seemed to be fascinated with the way the short stubble felt, as she constantly ran her hand against the grain on the back of Teilon’s head. He didn’t seem to mind in the least. In fact, he positively beamed at the ministration. Reivyn had to admit that it did feel pretty nice when he did so to his own hair.

The four walked into the storefront attached to a blacksmith shop. Any craftsman that could take up such a large area in the central commercial district had to have the necessary abilities to keep their spot amongst the competition. The wares available on display were high quality, and the four of them inspected the weapons and armor with great detail.

They were more window shopping than planning on making any purchases. They still had some time before they would set out to do any actual adventuring, but it was prudent to price the market and get a gauge of the quality of the gear they would need in the future. The weapons and armor they would equip themselves with would potentially save their lives one day.

Teilon was inspecting a pair of daggers almost long enough to be considered shortswords while Kimberly tested the balance of a staff she had found. Reivyn was getting the professional opinion of Brace on a longsword when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He left the sword with the other man while he went exploring the new discovery.

A rectangular, box-looking object found its way into Reivyn’s grasp. It looked completely out of place amongst the steel surrounding it, but Reivyn was drawn to it. He flicked his wrist, and the object opened into a fan. This was a proper war fan, reinforced with metal. He couldn’t place the main material of the fan itself, but it didn’t appear to be simple cloth.

“Hey, Brace. What color are the uniforms, again?” Reivyn called out.

“Dark blue with red trim. Why?” The man asked back. Reivyn held up the fan for Brace’s inspection. It was dark blue with red patterns. “Oh yeah, just like that.”

“What are the chances I’d find something like this in the exact colors of the uniform?” Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Pretty high, actually,” Brace said. “These are the colors of Count Ilpir. It makes perfect sense to me.”

“You have a good eye there, young master,” an attendant said as he walked up. “That’s a tessen. It was manufactured as the journeyman piece of one of the apprentices under the tutelage of our master blacksmith. While it’s not as high quality as one that comes from the owner, it’s much cheaper as a result. Is the young master interested in such a piece?”

Reivyn considered the words the attendant spoke along with examining the fan—tessen, he reminded himself—in his hand. The craftsmanship was perfectly passable. There weren’t any obvious flaws, the design was impeccable, and it was lightweight yet sturdy.

“How much?” he asked as he looked back up at the attendant.

“Two silvers,” the attendant replied.

Reivyn pulled the coins out of his pocket. After getting a haircut and purchasing several sets of travel clothes, he had just over five silvers left from the initial six. He contemplated whether or not he should go ahead and splurge on the fan. Two silvers weren’t necessarily expensive, but it wasn’t cheap, either. The longsword that he had left in Brace’s care was priced at 120 coppers or 1 silver 20 coppers.

“I’ll take it,” he finally answered. He wouldn’t need to spend all of his money on gear right now, but it was unlikely he would come across another tessen such as this anywhere else. This was the only one he had seen in the several shops they had gone through.

“Excellent choice, young master,” the attendant said. He was clearly an experienced salesman. Where other attendants in other stores had ignored the four of them, assuming by their plain clothes that they didn’t have any money, this one was able to spot a potential spending customer, and, more importantly, he was able to smoothly convince him of the product.

Reivyn handed over the two silvers he owed. There was no need to go to the counter for anything formal. It was an option, but it was mainly used either for people who were purchasing several things or for someone who didn’t have an attendant come to them.

Brace looked back and forth between the battle fan and the longsword in his hand.

“You bought a folding fan?” he asked incredulously. “Over a longsword. A cheaper longsword?”

“A battle fan. I purchased a battle fan,” Reivyn corrected him. “And don’t look down on this thing. I can take it somewhere that a sword or dagger would be confiscated, and it’s perfectly capable of both attacking and defending. Trust me. I’ve spent years training with an actual folding fan, and this thing is way better.”

“Ok~ay, if you say so,” Brace said. He didn’t sound particularly convinced.

“Dance, boy!” The sound of Kimberly shouting from somewhere startled the two, who had been focused on the fan. Reivyn looked up to see Kimberly thrusting and sweeping the staff she had previously been inspecting at a harried Teilon. They were in an open space that was designed to allow people to gauge the weight and feel of any weapon they considered buying.

“Dance for your money!” Kimberly was grinning. At first glance, it seemed like Teilon was barely holding his own as he hopped about and twisted his body to avoid the attacks from the girl. Upon closer observation, however, Reivyn noticed a lack of panic in his eyes or sweat on his brow. Maybe he really did let her win.

“Haaa, alright,” Kimberly huffed as she lowered the staff to rest on the ground. Teilon relaxed and pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. He started to swagger over toward Kimberly, but a glint entered her eye as she suddenly shifted the staff and tripped him.

Hmmm… maybe not.

“Haha, I win,” Kimberly shouted as she threw her hands into the air. She had to quickly stop and catch her staff, though, as her movement had caused her to nearly drop it.

“So, what was that all about?” Reivyn asked as the two rejoined him and Brace.

“He wanted to buy those daggers, but he only had enough money for one. He was only short a couple of coppers, but when he turned his puppy dog eyes on me, I told him nothing in life is free, and if he wanted any of my money, he would have to dance for me.” Kimberly had a smug smile on her face.

Reivyn cocked an eyebrow at the statement. It didn’t appear that she had acted out of malice. She seemed to genuinely enjoy using the staff, and the trip at the end was probably because of Teilon’s arrogant attitude.

Reivyn flicked his wrist and fanned himself with his new purchase as he spoke. “Well, I have everything I wanted to get, but I still need to get my uniform from the quartermaster and take a bath. It’s about time for us to head back.” He continued to fan himself as if it were the most natural thing in the world and he did it all the time.

The other three side-eyed his antics, but they all nodded and made their way back to the barracks.

Reivyn examined himself with a mirror in the Knight-Lieutenant’s office. The crisp lines of the uniform plus his tidy haircut caused a resonance with the dreams he had had all his life. It wasn’t a one-for-one match to what he remembered, but there were enough similarities to evoke a sense of belonging. It felt nice, was the only way he could describe it.

The uniform was as Brace had described it. Dark blue for the most part, with red trim. There was a thin red line on the epaulets, which were themselves nothing fancy. He turned toward the adjutant and saw two thick, silver lines on his. He assumed it was the rank, but as a private, he shouldn’t have any markings at all.

“Sir, what’s the thin red line on my shoulders?” he asked.

“That’s the rank signifying an officer candidate,” Brand answered. “Despite how I’ve thrown the term about, it’s not an actual rank within the chain of command. It’s just a designation. In your case, we’re flubbing it a little based on your ‘official’ position as my aide to give you a bit of face at the banquet. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Here,” The older man handed Reivyn a sheathed longsword. The scabbard was a shiny black that matched the waist belt of the uniform, and it was embossed in silver at the tip and hilt.

Reivyn frowned as he received the weapon. “Are we allowed to carry a weapon in the presence of the count?”

“You’re representing the Lord’s Retinue, and technically as an officer, as others will see it. It’s perfectly appropriate for you to carry a sidearm.”

Reivyn strapped the sidearm to his belt, and then the two men made their way out to the front of the headquarters where they would meet up with the other officers to travel to the lord’s manor as a group. As he was wont to do, Knight-Captain Reifold was the last to arrive.

His uniform was slightly different from everyone else’s. Instead of a black waist belt, he had a wide red sash. There were decorative chains and medallions hanging across his chest, and a red cape completed the ensemble. It was a much more flamboyant version of the military garb.

“That’s the mess dress,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand leaned over and whispered in Reivyn’s ear. “It’s expensive.” His wide-eyed look told Reivyn that what he meant was “It’s expensive even for me.”

“Everyone’s here?” Knight-Captain Reifold looked around to make sure. “Excellent. We’ll ride our mounts to give the citizens a little show to increase their spirit.”

The horses had been meticulously groomed, and they had been outfitted with clean, ceremonial saddles. They were clearly not used very often as it felt a bit stiff to Reivyn as he alighted his horse.

The city looked different in the evening as the orange glow from the setting sun splashed its color over everything. Streetlamps were already in the process of being lit. There were both mundane and magical lamps for different parts of the city. The main thoroughfare had bright, blue lamps powered by mana, and the alleys and back roads had more traditional orange lamps that used fire.

Reivyn felt slightly uncomfortable as the citizens gazed and pointed at the passing soldiers. He wasn’t used to being the center of attention so openly, and he could feel the curious stares directed at him. Luckily the ride to the manor was short and straightforward.

The lord’s manor that the group of officers arrived at wasn’t the austere seat of government controlling the city. While that building did have living quarters in it, there was no rule that stipulated the count had to actually live there. Instead, he preferred to treat the building as his place of work, and he lived in a mansion close by.

The mansion was walled off with a well-maintained brick wall with an elaborate iron gate at the entrance. The grounds of the manor were well maintained with tasteful paths, gazebos, and ponds, but they weren’t so ostentatious as to take up an exorbitant amount of space. To Reivyn’s untrained eye, it appeared to be the perfect balance between wealth and utility, allowing for other people to occupy residences in the area.

Servants waited to take the horses to the stables for the troupe. They were attired in black with embellishments in the count’s colors, and they moved with utmost professionalism and efficiency. Nobody demanded an invitation or anything upon their arrival. The uniform was invitation enough, and the servants were intimately familiar with the Knight-Captain.

The officers accompanied the Knight-Captain to pay their respects to Count Ilpir, and by this, they simply gave a military salute while the Knight-Captain did all of the talking. The count acknowledged their greeting and dismissed them with a smile as he retained the Knight-Captain. Knight-Lieutenant Brand indicated for Reivyn to stick with him, and they walked around the crowd giving simple greetings to the socialites attending.

“The key to these functions is to appear to be sociable, but always moving from one place to another. You don’t want to get bogged down by someone, as that’s a good way to get surrounded by sycophants,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand said with a gleam of mischief in his eye. He gave Reivyn a wink, and in his moment of distraction, he nearly walked right into a person who had stepped right into their path. Reivyn heard him curse under his breath and then whisper, “Exactly like this.”

“Knight-Lieutenant,” the woman greeted. She was dressed in similar attire to the uniforms Reivyn and the other officers wore, but hers had the colors inverted, among a few other small differences.

“Captain,” Brand replied tersely. He obviously knew who the woman was.

She appeared to be in her early twenties, and she bore a striking resemblance to someone that Reivyn couldn’t quite place his finger on. It was just out of reach of his mental grasp. She was a beautiful young woman, and her uniform didn’t do anything to detract from her charm. In fact, Reivyn would argue that it accentuated it perfectly.

“I’m here to represent the duke’s and my father’s stance,” the woman said. “I’m sure you know to what I’m referring?”

“Yes,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand answered simply. This was the least amount of speaking that Reivyn had seen him do when he had the opportunity.

“Yes, well, our stance is that he gets what he deserves, and there will be no interference or objection on our end.” She looked at Reivyn. “So you’re the ‘Little Hero’ that caused my brother to finally fall from grace.” Despite her words, the smile she directed at Reivyn was genuine.

“I’m sorry, miss…?” Reivyn asked.

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Lin. Captain Lin of the Duke’s Retinue. Ren is my twin brother.” She extended her hand toward Reivyn and chuckled when he subconsciously reciprocated with a dazed look.

“Now don’t give me that. I just said our stance was that we weren’t going to interfere. You can expect no problems from us in the future.”

Reivyn frowned as he regained his composure. “Are your elders not upset that I, through no fault of my own, mind you, had a hand in ending Ren’s career?”

Lin burst out laughing. “Hardly. Let me guess, he’s been spouting some nonsense about being the best hope for our family in generations, and that he was sent out here to gain military achievements to get a commission in the army? Does that sound about right?” Reivyn nodded. “Hah! He wasn’t sent out here to gain military achievements. He was banished out here to temper his character because he’s a brat. The stunts he pulled were not sanctioned by the family.”

Reivyn was suddenly enlightened. The story had never quite made sense to him. It was the opposite path that Knight-Captain Reifold had taken, after all.

“I mean, look at me. We’re twins, and I’m already a captain in the duke’s retinue. He was a corporal for a count, no offense.” She directed that last statement toward the Knight-Lieutenant.

“None taken,” he curtly replied. He wasn’t as guarded as he had been at first, but he wasn’t about to open up and become best friends with the younger officer from one statement on her part.

“I can see that you have ‘places to be,’ as it were,” Lin said. “I won’t keep you. It was a pleasure to meet you, Reivyn.” With that, she walked off.

“Whew, I need a drink,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand said. He glanced at Reivyn from the corner of his eye. “You’re too young. You can watch me have a drink.” Reivyn rolled his eyes at the older man, who had apparently returned to normal.

They found their seats, and, true to his word, the Knight-Lieutenant snagged a glass of wine from a passing waiter. They refrained from any more mingling and remained in their seats until the banquet began. The count gave a little speech to congratulate the Knight-Captain, but Reivyn was too preoccupied with his thoughts to really care too much.

The banquet was a simple three-course meal, consisting of an appetizer, a main entrée, and a dessert. The food was honestly the most delicious Reivyn had ever tasted. Outside of my mother’s cooking, of course. A mother’s home-cooked meal couldn’t be equaled.

Reivyn wasn’t used to wearing the military uniform, and after a while he found it stifling. He unsnapped the tessen he had hooked to his belt and used it to cool himself off. He heard a snicker from the side and turned to find the adjutant holding back a laugh.

“Oh, is it too hot for you, young master?” the older man teased. Reivyn turned his head and lifted his chin in mock disapproval. He locked eyes with Lin sitting across the room, however, and his movements froze as she grinned at him. He could guess what her thoughts were. He snapped the fan closed with a sigh and reattached it to his waist belt.

The banquet continued without any further incidents, and as the guests made small talk on their way out of the manor, Knight-Captain Reifold came up to Reivyn and the adjutant.

“Come with me,” he said. “The count wishes to see you.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand gave Reivyn a smile and a wink.

Reivyn followed the Knight-Captain out of the banquet hall to a more personal living space. It was well furnished, but it wasn’t decorated to impress like the public areas of the manor were. The count was sitting in a chair by a fireplace. He had short black hair and a pointed goatee on his chin, and his clothes were expensive without looking expensive. All in all, he struck a quite dignified appearance.

Knight-Captain Reifold led Reivyn over to the man, and Reivyn performed another military salute as he greeted the seated noble. The count stood up and approached Reivyn, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks as his body jerked forward a few times, and he had to visibly gain control of himself. Reivyn saw sweat bead his brow as he had a perplexed look on his face.

He suddenly turned away from the two men, waved his hand, and said, “Alright, I’ve seen the boy. Give him his reward and you’re dismissed.” He quickly strode off without looking back.

Knight-Captain Reifold frowned at the departing man’s back before turning toward Reivyn.

“I’m not sure what that was about. He’s usually quite amiable in a private setting,” he explained. “Anyway, the reward he has bestowed upon you is a simple, high-quality mana sword.”

The Knight-Captain reached down to a box that had been waiting on a table. He lifted the cover and removed a sword from within. It looked like a standard-issue sword, but Reivyn could feel something different about it. He could sense that it was allowing the ambient mana to flow freely through it instead of acting like an obstacle like other objects typically did.

“This isn’t anything extraordinary, and it’s not a magical weapon,” Knight-Captain Reifold said, introducing the sword to Reivyn. “The only difference is that the core is made out of a small amount of mythril, which allows it to act as a conduit for mana. You’ll be able to more effectively imbue this weapon with your mana.”

He handed the sword to Reivyn to inspect, and he was immensely pleased to find that it had been balanced to fit him personally. He placed the sword back in its box and tucked it under his arm.

“I extend my heartfelt thanks to the count,” Reivyn said.

Knight-Captain Reifold nodded. He stuck his hand into his inner coat and withdrew an envelope. It was sealed with the Knight-Captain Reifold’s mark, and he placed it into Reivyn’s hand.

“This is my reward to you,” he said. “It’s a letter of recommendation.”

Reivyn frowned and asked in confusion, “A letter of recommendation to what?”

“Anything you want. If you apply anywhere in the kingdom, give them that letter, and you’ll be accepted.”

Reivyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise. This was a true treasure. It represented opportunity.

He said the entire kingdom. Maybe I underestimated just how famous he actually is.

Chapter twenty-eight

Ambition

The march back to Haluville was uneventful. Reivyn was back on his own two feet, and he marched alongside Teilon with the rest of the levies. Sergeant Mok led a small detail consisting of a few corporals, the drummers, and a supply wagon. The levies kept their gambesons and spears, Reivyn included. He had traded his gear out for convenience’s sake. They marched in a proper formation, as everyone having the March skill meant it was a smooth transit.

Sergeant Mok had explained to them why they were still marching and acting in a military manner despite being officially terminated as levies.

“There are goblins in the woods,” he explained simply. “We’re doing it for your benefit. On top of that, proper marching gets you where you want to be faster than simply walking in a group.”

Nobody had complained, and being an irregular unit, they didn’t hold much sway to proper military bearing other than keeping in step with each other. As such, Reivyn found himself often conversing with Teilon, Kimberly, and a few others that Teilon had been teamed up with. They refrained from the more physical teasing and horsing around while they were marching, but the camaraderie was high.

The levies stopped in the same spot they had initially set up camp in while waiting for the surrounding recruits to arrive, and there they turned in their gear as the ones from the surrounding villages split off and continued on under the supervision of a corporal.

The regular troops could have left them to their own devices all the way back in Magron, but they were determined to take their responsibilities seriously. They were the ones who had dragged them away from their families, so they were the ones who were going to make sure they made it back to their families.

Reivyn, as well as his friends, were immensely impressed with the professionalism with which the whole ordeal had been handled. It hadn’t been nearly as much of an imposition as they had feared when they were first rounded up, and they had all, Reivyn especially, learned valuable lessons. The returning levies were excited that their class of Peasant Levy still remained, so their stat points would continue to see a significant head start as compared to the other young folks who still had the Villager Tier 1 class.

As an epic rarity Fighter, Reivyn had far outpaced anyone else in his cohort. His strength and dexterity stats had even overtaken many of the regular Tier 2 soldiers in the Lord’s Retinue. Granted that was because they put most of their points into vitality, which was still far ahead of his, and they had to shore up their mental stats more than Reivyn had to.

The soldiers with a rare class or a higher level like the senior lance corporals and NCOs still had superior stats to him, but most of the soldiers only had an uncommon class and were around the Level 8 to 14 range. Now that they had a dungeon available to them, Reivyn expected their experience gains to see a significant boost as some sort of schedule was devised to see them taking advantage of the resource.

Reivyn saw a large crowd of people waiting at the gates of Haluville as he, Teilon, and the others finally traversed the last little bit to arrive in the town proper. There were no expectant families suddenly receiving a shock that their child didn’t return home. Not many of the levies had lost their lives in the excursion, and the few who had had already been transported home to allow their families to mourn and lay them to rest.

Each of the returning youths spotted their families and immediately abandoned their friends to reunite with the loved ones they had been separated from. Reivyn located his mother standing with his two sisters, and he sprinted forward to be enveloped in a tight group hug. His mother didn’t sob or exclaim out loud, but he could feel the warm wetness of tears flowing down her face. His mother was fairly tall, so despite growing at a prodigious rate, he was still slightly shorter than she was.

“I’m home, Mom,” he consoled her. “I’m home.”

“…and then a big, hulking beast came crashing out of the woods. Rawr!” Reivyn held up his hands like they were beast claws and took large, exaggerated steps toward his sisters. They squealed in delight and danced back away from him. “I thought to myself, ‘No way am I going to let some stupid monster endanger my friends!’ And so with a mighty heave, I hurled my spear at it and defeated it in one blow!”

“Nu-uh! You did not,” Kailey said as she stuck her tongue out. Reivyn placed his hand on his heart in mock indignation.

“Of course I did,” he retorted. “Who do you think your brother is? I’m the hero of this story. My training with Dad didn’t go unrewarded, and I was given a mighty class and imbued with the strength of ten men!” He kneeled down and curled his biceps in front of his sisters. They looped their hands around his arms, and he stood up and casually lifted them up and down while they giggled.

“Alright, girls, leave your brother alone for a bit,” Ameliyn said patiently.

“Awwww, but we don’t wanna,” Riley complained from her position hanging from her brother’s arm. Reivyn set his sisters down, and Ameliyn shooed them out of the house to the backyard.

“What really happened?” Ameliyn looked over at Reivyn with a bit of anxiety. Her son was standing in front of her, unharmed, but she was still worried about what he could have gone through.

“Knight-Captain Reifold casually swung his sword from his horse in the middle of the formation and split the ogre in half.” He shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. “I didn’t even fight in that first battle. I just stood there and watched.”

“Knight-Captain Reifold was that man who singled you out and took you away when he could have just turned a blind eye?” His mother clearly held a lot of resentment toward the man.

“Actually, he wasn’t so bad,” Reivyn said. “He and the adjutant took good care of me. There were some hiccups and a bit of danger, but they kept a special eye out for me and even assigned me to be the aide of the adjutant, Knight-Lieutenant Brand, after I got some experience with the regular troops.”

“Wait, wait, wait… what?” Ameliyn waved her hands about in front of her as she asked in confusion. “Weren’t you just conscripted as a basic levy? What do you mean ‘experience with the regular troops’ and ‘aide to the adjutant?’”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know. I didn’t have time to go into it before leaving, but the System prevented me from being conscripted as the class Peasant Levy. It said that my bloodline prevented the designation ‘Peasant.’ I’m an epic Fighter class. What’s that all about?” He narrowed his eyes at his mother in suspicion.

Ameliyn sighed as a look of sorrow briefly flashed across her face. “You have the blood of the imperial line of Vynndin running through you. It will probably take a couple of generations before the System no longer officially recognizes it.” She had casually dropped a huge piece of news to Reivyn.

Reivyn froze as his mind practically exploded. Never in a million years would he have expected to hear something like that. He had assumed not being able to be designated as a peasant had something to do with his mythic skill or something.

“Woah! You can’t say something like that and just leave it,” Reivyn said. “Wh-wh-wh—I don’t even know where to begin. If we’re from some imperial bloodline, what are we doing all the way out here in basically the frontier? Are we hiding from assassins? I ran into an assassin! Did he know who I was? Is there some sort of secret cabal to retake the throne?” Reivyn rattled off several questions in quick succession. His mind was racing and making connections that hadn’t previously been there.

“Shh, calm down.” Ameliyn soothed Reivyn while rubbing his shoulder and upper arm. “It’s a long story, and I’ll be happy to tell it to you when your father is here, but for now I’ll just give you the basics. Your father and I grew up in the Vynndin Empire, which is in a Tier 4 region, but it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s gone. There’s no secret cabal to retake the throne. We’re not hiding from—wait! What?! Assassin? What did you say?! Explain, now!” There was a fire in her eyes as she glared at her son. He shrunk beneath the might of the fury contained within that look.

“Well,” Reivyn said with his head lowered. “I had a conflict with one of the soldiers who turned out to be a real piece of work. He took everything that happened to him because of his own actions as somehow my fault, even though I literally didn’t do anything. When we were at the base camp for the new dungeon—that was the reason for the conscription, to secure a new dungeon in the mountains at the edge of the county—some shadowy figure attacked me while I was on patrol. We thought he was part of an attack on the camp, but he was alone and clearly after me, specifically.

“Later when the troops from the neighboring county came to press their claim because of the ambiguous county lines, he showed up again in the ranks of the other side. It turned out he had been working with the crazy loon who had blamed me for his problems, and they manufactured a situation where I would be exhausted and unable to escape when the assassin attacked a second time. Luckily one of the adventurers I had gained a passing acquaintance with spotted the danger and saved me.

“Mom, that guy was strong. He appeared in the middle of pitched combat from nearly a hundred yards away in an instant, and he had several mid-level Tier 3s terrified of his presence. All the while, he treated them like air as he casually uncovered the evidence of the collusion.” Reivyn clenched his fist in excitement. Ameliyn looked at her son’s obvious idolization with a smile on her face.

“Well, I’ll have to thank him personally one day,” Ameliyn said. “Is he the man you’ve set your sights on as a goal?”

Reivyn shook his head. “I know almost nothing about him. He only spoke one sentence to me, and I never witnessed exactly how strong he was. If I’m going to set someone as a goal to work toward, it would be someone like Knight-Captain Reifold. A man of strength and upright character.”

Ameliyn crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Oh, a man of upright character you say? Do you have any plans of being a child-snatcher in the future, then?”

Reivyn rolled his eyes at his mother. “Mom, it wasn’t like that. And I told you they took special care of me.”

“He will forever be the man who took my baby away from me,” she harrumphed.

“Oh, I got something for you,” Reivyn changed the subject. He grabbed his pack and rummaged through it. He had grabbed a couple of things that he thought his mom and sisters might find interesting when he was shopping the other day in Magron. He pulled the items out as he searched for the present he had gotten for his mother.

He pulled out two identical warrior-princess dolls that he got for his sisters. They were little plush figures of a woman attired in a dress and tiara, but they were holding swords. They weren’t anything exquisitely crafted, but they had enough detail to see the facial features and they were well made. One was wearing a blue dress and the other a red one, and they each had a letter sewn onto them. He figured they were designed to represent the initials of any little girl who got one, but he couldn’t find one with a “K.”

He set the two dolls aside and finally pulled out the object for his mother he had been searching for. He pulled it out, and, keeping it cupped in his hand, he brought it over to his mother. She watched him with interest as he placed his hands in hers.

“I didn’t have enough money to get a nice chain to go with it, but this caught my eye from one of the booths in the market square. I don’t think the peddler knew what it was, and he had it on display as just a pretty stone.” Reivyn removed his hand, and a small medallion made of a clear, glasslike stone attached to a copper necklace was left in his mother’s hand.

“Oh, it’s very pretty,” Ameliyn inspected the bauble with interest.

“Look at it with Mana Sight,” Reivyn said.

“Oh, wow. This is a light mana–attuned Mana Stone. These are very rare to find out in a low tier region like this,” Ameliyn said with some delight. “How did you manage to find one?”

“I was practicing my Identify {Mundane} skill while walking through the market, and this thing caught my interest when nothing happened when I used the skill on it. So I activated Mana Sight, and I saw the swirling light mana—which I unlocked the affinity, too, by the way—inside, and I immediately thought of you,” Reivyn explained.

“I’m more impressed that you unlocked the Light Affinity,” Ameliyn said. “Most people can’t figure out the trick to merge the four basic elements without a guide”

“There’s a trick to it?” Reivyn asked. “I got it on my first try.” Ameliyn froze in her inspection of the Mana Stone.

“I forgot that I didn’t give birth to a human baby, but instead a little monster.” Ameliyn sighed. “I swear you were given to me as some sort of test.”

Reivyn laughed as he scooped up the dolls for his sisters. “I’m going to give Kailey and Riley their presents,” he yelled over his shoulder as he made his escape. He made his way over to his sisters, who were laughing and playing in their own little world, with his hands concealed behind his back.

“Hey, I got a present for each of you,” he called out to them. They stopped what they were doing and ran up to him with glee.

“Yay! Presents,” they said in unison. Reivyn chuckled as he pulled the dolls out from behind him and presented them to his sisters. He handed the one with an “R” on it to Kailey, and he handed the one with an “L” on it to Riley.

“Look here, it has the letter of your first name sewn on it so you know which one is which,” he pointed out. The girls frowned and looked up at Reivyn with indignation.

“Riley’s name starts with an ‘R’ not an ‘L,’” Kailey complained.

“Yeah, and Kailey’s name starts with a ‘K’ not an ‘R,’” Riley said. “You did it wrong.”

“You did it wrong,” Kailey echoed.

“Kailey? Riley? What are you talking about? I picked out the letters to your names.” He pointed at Riley. “Left.” He pointed at Kailey. “Right. Those are your names: Left and Right.” Reivyn had a look of confusion on his face.

“My name’s not Left!” Riley yelled with a stamp of her foot.

“I’m not Right!” Kailey mimicked her sister.

“Yup, you’re wrong,” Reivyn teased as he bent down really fast and snaked his arms out to tickle his sisters. They squealed and took off running, forgetting about their indignation at being named Left and Right.

“Now, like what you did to gain the Light Affinity, focus on all four elements, but, instead of merging them together inside your pure mana, concentrate on all of the tiny, minuscule motes and suck every last one of them out. Don’t stop at just removing them from the orb, but keep pulling them further and further away.”

Reivyn was seated cross-legged on the ground in the living room with Ameliyn seated just behind him. She was guiding him on the steps required to unlock more of the advanced affinities. They were currently working on how to unlock the Darkness Affinity.

Reivyn would have definitely hit a wall with this one. He might have eventually figured it out on his own, but it would have taken a long time. He had thought that his mana orb was already as pure as it could get, but with the guidance of his mother, he discovered that extremely tiny motes of the elements floated about within his conjuration. The next stumbling block would have been that he wouldn’t have known that he would have to extract them further away from the orb than just removing them.

He concentrated on the task at hand. The elements didn’t resist or elude him, but as he swept them up in one spot of the orb, others would make their way in on the other side. It wasn’t a one-to-one addition to what he was removing, though, and he eventually cleared all of the elements out of his mana. He felt a subtle shift in the mana, and he opened his eyes.

New Affinity Unlocked!
Darkness (1)

A black, shimmering ball floated in his palm. It was hard to describe exactly what it looked like, but the edges weren’t distinct. It was like a shadow given substance, but it leaked back into incorporeality the further it got away from the center. He let it disperse as he turned to face his mother.

“I don’t understand. Shouldn’t removing all of the ‘impurities’ from the mana orb just make extremely pure mana?” Reivyn questioned with a frown. Ameliyn chuckled at the question.

“Logically, that would make sense. But,” she emphasized with a raised finger, “we’re dealing with mana. Mana operates under different rules than the mundane world. All of those ‘impurities,’ as you called them, are actually part of pure mana. You can think of them as the mortar that holds bricks together. Removing them doesn’t make the structure crumble, though, like it would in real life. It just changes the nature of the mana.

“Mana, for the most part, isn’t inherently good or evil. Light mana isn’t good, and darkness mana isn’t evil. Light is just all of the basic elements combined together, and darkness is just their absolute absence. That being said, there are some forms of mana that are good and evil-aligned. They operate under different rules than basic mana, and they delve into faith and divinity.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them,” Reivyn mused. “Knight-Captain Reifold is a Paladin, and I saw him using some powerful mana skills. Knight-Lieutenant Brand told me his mana operated under fundamentally different rules. And there was a revolting mana from the Revenant I fought. It made me want to gag just sensing it.”

“Stop!” Ameliyn shouted. She lifted her head up and covered her face with her hands. “Just stop.” She paused for a moment to compose herself. “A Revenant?! You encountered a Revenant all the way out here?” She stared at Reivyn, who gave her a sheepish smile. “When your father gets home, you are going to sit down and tell us everything that happened. Not in little pieces. From start to finish. You will leave nothing out. Do you understand?”

Reivyn nodded vigorously. Of course, his mother would know what a Revenant was. After the revelation of her and Refix having grown up in a Tier 4 region, Reivyn suspected their knowledge base was vastly superior to that of even the most educated citizenry of the kingdom they resided in.

“Of course,” Reivyn agreed. “Though after mentioning the assassin and the Revenant, there’s not much more to say. There was just the giant demon, the beast tide, the Orc and goblin army, and the enslaved ogre in the boss room of the dungeon.” Reivyn recalled each of the incidents in a nonchalant manner.

“Aaahhh, you’re going to give me a heart attack!” Ameliyn shouted. “Giant DEMON! Beast tide! Orc army and ogres? And you went into a dungeon?! You’re Tier ONE, Reivyn. Even the lowest tier dungeons aren’t safe until you’re securely in Tier 2, and then a boss room has at least a half-tier higher difficulty level.” She pulled at her hair in exasperation. “You just wait until your father gets home.” There was a definite threat in her voice.

“I think…” Reivyn said as he stood up. “I think I’ve learned enough for now. I’m going to go consolidate my affinities and skills.” He made a quick retreat to his room.

“Yeah, you do that!” Ameliyn called out after him. “Not much more to say,” Reivyn heard her muttering as he closed the door to his room. His mother was scary when she was mad.

He sat on his bed and entered a state of meditation. Until his father got home, he had decided to work exclusively on his mana skills. He felt it was prudent to put unlocking more mana affinities on hold until his mother calmed down.

“Mom, is there a way to get a Tier 3 class while in Tier 2? From what I heard from the others, conscription was the only way they knew to get a Tier 2 class in Tier 1,” Reivyn asked.

“Of course, there is,” Ameliyn answered. “Let’s think about it. What caused you to have a Tier 2 class in Tier 1?”

“The conscription,” Reivyn answered.

“Not quite. Think about it deeper. What did the conscription do?”

“It caused the System to force me into a class…” Reivyn said with dawning realization. “So the System has to force a class. If that’s all it takes, how come it’s not more common?”

“Peasant Levy has very low requirements to unlock as a class. I assume it only requires a vitality stat of 20, which is one of the reasons that was the stipulation. Higher tiers have more stringent requirements, so even if there was a situation where the System could force a class onto someone, if you don’t meet the requirements, it’s not an option for the System to choose for you.

“Why do you ask? Do you want to try and trick the System into forcing you into a higher tier class again?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it.” Reivyn nodded. “From what I’ve been told, Tier 1 and 2 classes are limited to rare, and if I just go along with life passively, my Tier 2 class will naturally be restricted to another Tier 2 class. I already have an epic rarity combat class, and if I tier up, I can either keep the same class, but downgraded to rare, or I can switch focuses, but it would still be rare. Any way I think of it, it seems like a downgrade instead of an upgrade.”

“Hmmm, that makes sense,” Ameliyn said. “Peasant Levy is just an uncommon class, so the upgrade isn’t so pronounced, though it is there. Having a rare class upgraded to epic definitely opens up opportunities. What kind of focus were you thinking of for your next class?”

“I think I should choose something to take advantage of my mental stats and mana skills. I’ve always had more talent in those aspects, and I want to be well-rounded.”

“That’s a good idea. I imagine you want to have a rare Tier 3 class. The stat requirements for those are typically around 200, but stat requirements aren’t the only ones. There are skills, both the ones you have unlocked and their level, and the System also takes your life experience into account. Getting achievements can both unlock more class possibilities and lower the requirements. What are your mental stats right now?”

“Around 31 for all three,” Reivyn answered. “I’m Level 11, and I get 6 unassigned stat points per level up. So I have 19 more levels at 6 stat points, which means I have another 114 stat points to freely assign. That’s not enough to get a stat to 200…” Reivyn tapped his chin in contemplation. “I also have one achievement that gave me plus one to all of my mental stats.”

“Oh, nice,” Ameliyn said. “It’s common knowledge in higher tier regions that achievements that award a specific set of stats lower the requirements by one point per stat increase. There are four mental stats, so that achievement lowers the requirements by four points. Too bad you don’t have an achievement that granted points in luck. Those achievements lower the requirements by five per luck stat given.”

“Umm, actually,” Reivyn said, “I did get an achievement that gave me two points in luck.”

Ameliyn looked at her son with some surprise. “Okay, then. That means you only need around 186 points in your mental stats to meet the requirements of a rare Tier 3 class, but I think you’re thinking about this the wrong way. You don’t have to race to get your stats at the required amount before you reach Tier 2 if you’re aiming to force a class. Don’t you remember that all of the other villagers had their Tier 1 classes overwritten, and they got all of their additional stat points retroactively? I think the fact that you got a class ahead of time has been affecting your thought process.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right.” Reivyn smacked his head. “I completely forgot about that. In that case, I can take a rare Tier 2 class for several levels before trying to get it changed. Why don’t more people do this?”

“Well, it’s not common knowledge in lower tier regions, as evidenced by your friends only knowing about conscription. Though that doesn’t mean the higher-ups don’t know about it. The real bottleneck for allowing someone to force a higher tier class, though, is the life experience. Most people will never encounter situations that the System will count as a higher tier fulfillment. You would have to live your life and do things that the higher tier would typically do, and not just one or two things. The fights that you’ve described sound like a good start, but you would probably need to consistently explore the second floor of the dungeon beyond the boss room for the System to count it.”

“Hmmm… I think I can manage that if I can get into the right group,” Reivyn said. He recalled the adventurer that had saved him and his team. He wouldn’t need to find them specifically, but the fact they were around meant there might be others that were powerful enough. He would just need to figure out how to get into such a team.

“Okay, we know it’s possible, and I have a clear path to gaining the appropriate life experience, most likely. Now I just need to figure out a way to force a class.”

“You can apply for an academy in the Capital. I know they exist, and such academies typically grant a class. If you meet the life experience requirements and graduate from the academy, the System is likely to give you the class ahead of the typical trigger, which is reaching max level and experience in Tier 2. Gaining admission into such an academy, though, would very likely interfere with your plans to go to the dungeon. You would have to jump through some hoops to get in.”

Reivyn thought about the sealed envelope containing the letter of recommendation from Knight-Captain Reifold. “I don’t think I have to worry about that. Okay, I think I have a clear path ahead of me.” Reivyn smiled.

The front door opened, and the two looked up to see a tired Refix enter the house.

“Hey.” He immediately walked over to Ameliyn to give her a hug and kiss in greeting. “So what did I miss while I was gone?” He stood there with his arm around his wife and a smile on his face.

Reivyn and Ameliyn looked at each other before Reivyn answered. “Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.” Ameliyn snorted and rolled her eyes as Reivyn laughed.

Refix looked between the two of them, confusion written on his face. “Okay, what am I missing?”

Ameliyn gave Reivyn a severe look. “Your son went on an adventure,” she said. “And now that you’re back, he’s going to tell us exactly what those adventures were.”

Reivyn felt sweat trickle down the side of his face. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter twenty-nine

Family History

“…and now I’m home,” Reivyn finished explaining his tale of adventure. The mana sword and envelope containing the letter of recommendation were sitting on the small table in the living room. Refix had inspected the sword and said it was of passable workmanship.

Ameliyn wasn’t lying when she said he would tell them everything, as she often interrupted him to get clarifying information.

It was an interesting experience to be interrogated by his parents because each one focused on completely different aspects of his story. Ameliyn would often make him stop and expand on his relationship with his squadmates and others, and she would focus her questions on how they treated him and his state of mind.

Refix was much more analytical. When Reivyn was explaining the hazing situation that had gone wrong, he asked questions about the techniques Ren used and what Reivyn had done to try to counter them.

When Reivyn got to the part of the story about engaging the Orc tribe at the foot of the mountain range, Ameliyn asked him about the environment and how he fit in with the troops. Refix asked about the techniques used in combat and his impression of the bloodlust-filled Orcs.

Together, focusing on different aspects, they made Reivyn think about his experiences in new ways, and even he had some revelations of certain aspects he hadn’t considered before. They truly went over every fine detail.

His mother almost had a conniption fit when he got to the fight with the demon and Revenants.

“How in the world could nobody sense what was going on beneath the ground?” she asked. “And how is it that they attacked right when you had pointed out the possibility to them?”

“Knight-Captain Reifold surreptitiously informed me and the adjutant that there might be someone or something monitoring them. He said we might never know exactly what was going on. It seems to me that there’s a secret underground that somebody doesn’t want to be exposed, but what that could be, I have no idea.”

“Well, I’m second-guessing your plans to return there and delve that dungeon again,” Ameliyn said as she crossed her arms. Refix placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

“It’s not as dire as it might seem, honey,” he consoled. “From what he’s said about what happened afterward, the two officers went down into the depths and didn’t find any more hostile surprises.” He turned his attention back to Reivyn as he continued. “That being said, it’s always prudent to be prepared and to pay attention to your surroundings. You never want to get so caught up in your goals that you forget to keep track of what’s happening around you.

“I support your idea of going back to the dungeon to gain experience and life experience to work toward your goal, but you have to make me a promise. You have to promise me that you will pay attention to what’s going on outside of the dungeon as well as what could possibly be below the first floor.

“Dungeons are strange existences, and they often take a reflection of the outside world and twist it in strange ways. For instance, you mentioned it appeared the ogre in the boss room turned on the Orcs that had it chained up as a consistent theme instead of a freak occurrence that saved your squad by happenstance.

“The things reflected in the lower floors might be carbon copies of what you could have found in the outside world if the entrance hadn’t been caved in and a team had gone exploring, or it might be something that’s only similar. You might go beyond the boss room to find that the second floor is filled with lower-level undead or weak demons, or there might even be more floors beyond the second. We don’t know.

“So you need to be cautious whenever you enter a new area of the dungeon, but you also have to always keep in the back of your head, ‘What is the significance of this as it relates to the real world?’ If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything that doesn’t seem quite right, you must promise me that you will abandon your goals at that dungeon and return to either Magron or Haluville.”

This was the most serious that Reivyn had ever seen his father be. Refix was usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy in his everyday interactions. That wasn’t to say that he couldn’t be strict or an effective disciplinarian. He was just typically jovial. Seeing such a stern expression with such a topic made Reivyn realize just how serious his father was about the situation.

“Of course, I promise,” Reivyn said. “That being said, exactly how attached are we to our home here in Haluville?”

“What do you mean?” Ameliyn asked.

“Well, you told me that you’re from a Tier 4 region, and so Haluville isn’t our hometown,” Reivyn said. “Well, I guess it’s technically mine, but that’s beside the point. I was just thinking—and Dad mentioned it just now—why don’t we move to Magron? The standard of living there is greater, it’s closer to the dungeon, and it’s safer. Other than Dad’s work, I can’t really see a reason we have to stay here.”

Ameliyn and Refix shared a look before returning their attention back to their son.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ameliyn said. “We only settled down in this city, in the beginning, because you had just been born. While it’s a nice, quiet place, we don’t particularly have any attachments here. What do you think?” She directed that last question to Refix.

“Actually, the man I work for isn’t based primarily out of Haluville. My immediate superior, sure, but he’s just the branch manager. My actual boss lives in Magron.” Refix chuckled. “I’ve mentioned Mr. Einrin a few times, and he’s actually the big boss from Magron. He’s been quite generous with his contract for me and has allowed me to stay here in Haluville despite wanting me to work for him directly.

“The only reason we remained here, originally, was because of you kids being so young, and then we just got accustomed to our living and working arrangements and never brought it up again because it didn’t seem to be a priority.

“Now that you want to go out and delve the dungeon, and the girls are older, it makes perfect sense to move. I’ll have to bring it up to the local branch manager and pass the message up the chain, but we should be able to move within the year.”

“Hmmm, that should be enough time to work something out with Teilon,” Reivyn mused. “He’s been really enamored with that new girlfriend of his recently, so she’ll be a factor in it as well, but I think I’ll choose to move to Magron over staying here, even if Teilon or his girl doesn’t want to move. It’s not like we can’t team up at the dungeon anyway if they don’t move with us.

“Now, it’s time for the two of you to explain some things.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Ameliyn asked with an innocent expression.

“Don’t think I forgot about you saying you would explain growing up in a Tier 4 region when Dad got home.” It was Reivyn’s turn to level a stern gaze at his mother. It didn’t seem to have the same effect, as she just smiled his attempt off.

“Of course, dear,” Ameliyn said. “Where should I start?” She tapped her chin in contemplation.

“Well, you can start with Dad being an imperial prince or something,” Reivyn said.

“Imperial prince? Me?” Refix looked confused. “I think you’re making some assumptions there, buddy.”

Reivyn looked at his parents in confusion. His mother had already told him he had the blood of an imperial family line running through his veins, so he had assumed his parents were part of the direct line.

“Your father isn’t an imperial prince, dear,” Ameliyn said with a smug smile. “I’m an imperial princess. I’m the firstborn daughter of the emperor of the Vynndin Empire.

“The Vynndin Empire was located in a Tier 4 region, and it spanned a huge territory. It had countless other kingdoms under its control all the way from Tier 3 to Tier 1 regions,” Ameliyn continued with a hint of pride in her voice. “That being said, nobody around here is likely to have ever heard of it. The continent we live on is vast. It is much larger than you could possibly imagine.

“Your father and I, to this day, aren’t entirely sure on exactly what happened. Oh, we know what happened, just not how nor all of the intricacies involved. We strongly suspect there were traitors involved, but the empire collapsed due to one, singular event: a dungeon break.

“As a Tier 4 region, we had access to innumerable dungeons; from low Tier 1 all the way to high Tier 4, like the region level implies. The capital of the empire was located in a region that had several Tier 4 dungeons in close proximity. The reason we believe a traitor was involved, is that all of the Tier 4 dungeons experienced a break at the same time.

“We were completely caught off guard and unprepared. A dungeon break isn’t when the inhabitants of a dungeon come storming out of the dungeon on their own, though that is a very small possibility from time to time. A dungeon break is when there’s a fundamental breakdown of the realities within the dungeon, and many, many individual instances combine together.

“One of the reasons we only suspect a traitor was involved, though, is because nobody knows of any way to artificially induce such an event. It’s never been heard of before, at least that we’re aware of.”

Reivyn was entranced by the information his mother was revealing, and he noticed her demeanor had slowly changed from one of happiness and pride to one of loss and sadness. She took a moment to gather herself from the memories of what must have been a terrifying event. Reivyn could only imagine what it would have been like for countless high tier monsters and beasts to suddenly come pouring out of the dungeons that were most likely viewed as the lifeblood of the Capital.

“I was a bodyguard for your mother.” Refix picked up the story. “It’s more complicated than a simple bodyguard position implies. I am one of the nobility, and the position was designed to introduce potential suitors among other things. It wasn’t a master-servant relationship. Anyway, we can get into the more intricate details of court life some other time, but when the dungeons broke, other imperial guards sacrificed themselves to give us a chance to escape.

“One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I could only save your mother. She wasn’t an only child.

“Your mother and I spent the next several years traveling to the different vassal states seeking to rally support from those who had sworn fealty to the imperial family.” Refix looked at his son with a grim expression. “We learned a lot of hard lessons in those early years. I had sworn an oath, and I took it seriously—still do, in fact. I assumed others had the same honor as I did, but after being strung along over and over, and people attempting to use your mother for their own political benefit with no consideration for their own oaths, we decided to leave it all behind.

“The homeland of the empire was in ruins, and the kingdoms that had been held together by the might of the empire had descended into squabbling children fighting over the remnants. They saw the downfall of the imperial family not as a sorrowful event that they needed to avenge and support the last living member, but as an opportunity for them to supplant.

“Through the trials and tribulations we experienced, our relationship eventually blossomed into what it is today. We spent years traveling between kingdoms, and we used several teleportation circles to gain farther distance from the strife and anyone who would know of your mother’s background. We eventually made it out to here, and you know everything else.”

The three of them sat in silence as each thought about the story that had just been shared. Ameliyn hadn’t shared specifics about her family and the life she had lived like a princess, but from the look on her face, which was slowly returning to normal as she composed herself, he reckoned it was still hard for her to broach such topics out loud. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he had to leave his family behind and not know what happened to them but with the knowledge that they had most likely perished.

“One of the reasons our family was able to establish a powerful empire was our bloodline,” Ameliyn continued after wiping at her eyes and resuming a smiling face. “I know your father explained the Mana Circulation pathways to you before he left on his trip, and that is integral to unlocking the benefits provided by it. Your bloodline should activate when you turn ten, the time you would normally get your Tier 1 class, and slowly over time it will unlock with diligent practice of your Mana Circulation.”

“Oh, my bloodline is already activated,” Reivyn said. Ameliyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Oh? That would make your unusual stat growth before reaching Tier 1 make more sense,” she said. “One of the benefits to our bloodline, aside from the initial boost of 1 stat point in physical and mental stats, is accelerated growth in the early years. It also comes with—what is it?” Ameliyn frowned as she saw Reivyn fidgeting in his seat.

“I didn’t get a bonus of 1 point to physical and mental stats,” Reivyn said. “I got a bonus of 3 points to all stats, charisma and luck included.”

Ameliyn was taken aback once more. She looked over at her husband to see if he had any answers.

“Don’t look at me,” Refix said ruefully. “My family elders mentioned we used to have a bloodline, as well, but it’s been generations since anyone had unlocked it.”

“Hmmm,” Ameliyn thought for a moment. “Well, you’ve always been stronger than all of your peers, so you may be infinitely close to having unlocked your family bloodline. Maybe they interacted with each other for Reivyn.” She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “Yeah, that’s what we’ll go with.” She returned her attention to Reivyn. “Did you notice any differences with your meridians as compared to what your father told you?”

“A little, yeah,” Reivyn nodded. “The main pathways were the same, but there were several side branches and many more intricate smaller paths. I just assumed it was personalized for myself, and that everyone had slight deviations.”

“Is there anything else you can think of?”

Reivyn thought for a moment before remembering one final point. “It’s labeled as ‘Unknown Bloodline’ by the System.”

“Well, that settles it, then,” Ameliyn said. “Your bloodline is slightly different. There could be many reasons for it, and it’s not unheard of, but none of that is really important. The main thing is that bloodlines all work in a similar way, so our experience will still help you.

“Anyway, to bring all of this back around to the original point, I can agree with you going back to the dungeon with the stipulations put in place by your father, but you also need to put some serious focus on your Mana Circulation to reap the benefits of your bloodline. There are thresholds that will provide additional benefits as you unlock them.” Ameliyn gave Reivyn a very serious look.

“Your father and I are also going to step up your skills training. I won’t feel comfortable sending you into such a dangerous place unless I am absolutely sure that your skills can make up for your low stats at this point in your life. Being slightly more skilled than your cohorts in the military unit isn’t going to cut it.”

Reivyn felt sweat trickle down the side of his face as Refix leveled a grin at him.

-CRACK-

The loud sound of the wooden weapons clashing resounded throughout the backyard. Reivyn once again lost his stance as the force of the blow knocked him back.

“Keep your stance,” Refix calmly instructed as he continued his assault.

The way his father sparred with him had changed on a fundamental level. Gone were the bouts where he would slowly push Reivyn and end with a moderate strike at an exposed location so as to simultaneously train Pain Resistance. Gone was the matching of skill levels.

Refix came at him in a furious tempest of slashing and stabbing attacks. He wouldn’t press Reivyn until he created an opening and then back off for him to gain his footing and focus any longer. Instead, he would press his son as hard and fast as he could, and when Reivyn lost his balance, instead of capitalizing on the moment to land a strike, he would only lessen the pressure.

The sparring matches had turned into one long slog of Reivyn constantly fending off a superior foe until he was near exhaustion.

Reivyn felt the wind blow past him as Refix dashed in to close quarters and jostled his body to interrupt him regaining his stance before he leaped back to stab forth with a lunge all in one smooth motion. Reivyn had known that his father was a skilled combatant, but, noticing that even with the increased, sustained tempo his father still wasn’t sweating or out of breath, he finally realized that he was considerably more skilled than he had ever imagined.

Refix continued to keep Reivyn on the back foot as they danced up and down the backyard. Refix came at him in unexpected ways, and he incorporated many new maneuvers that Reivyn was slowly beginning to identify. As soon as Reivyn would learn to cope with one set of maneuvers, though, his father would switch it up once more. He apparently had an endless number of ways to launch an assault.

The duo continued their bout until Reivyn could no longer keep up. Refix lowered his practice weapon and gave Reivyn an appraising look. There was a hint of pride on his face.

“What’s your skill level for Weapons Master now?” he asked.

Reivyn brought up his skills page and located the skill in question. “It’s at 37.”

They had been working at their increased intensity for a couple of weeks, and the tough sparring matches had not gone without their benefit. He had spent several years working on several different weapon skills to initially unlock the mythic skill, and then he had spent considerable time expanding on the foundations. He had seen explosive growth in life-and-death fights during his time with the Lord’s Retinue, but, considering the increased difficulty of raising the skill as the level grew higher, his father was somehow able to pinpoint exactly what Reivyn needed to continue his progress at a blazing speed.

“Your mastery level of weapons is reaching close to the master designation,” Refix said with a nod. “I think it’s safe to say that reaching Level 50 in your skill is the minimum that your mother will accept in sending you back to the dungeon.”

“Are you kidding me?” Reivyn complained. “I feel like I’m just flailing around. I can hardly put up any kind of resistance in front of you, and you say that that is almost the master level?”

Refix threw his head back and laughed. “You can’t compare yourself to me. I have years of training, and many levels on you. But think about it for a minute. I’ve come at you with many different styles, and you’ve slowly gained enough understanding and skill to ward them off, relatively speaking, with just the one style you know. Being able to utilize your combat style to deal with anything coming your way is vastly superior to learning many different styles.”

“Then why do you use so many?” Reivyn asked as he wiped himself down with a towel.

“Well, I haven’t finished yet,” Refix said with a roll of his eyes. “We’re still building your foundation. Sure, your skill level and mastery level are close to master, but that’s just an artificial designation that people have given. True masters are above Skill Level 100, and before you ask, no, I’m not above level 100 in any of my combat skills.

“That being said, I’m still in the prime of my life and growing just like you. These training sessions don’t just benefit you. Despite my abilities being much higher than yours, having to control myself in our sparring matches has actually greatly benefited me.

“Now, back on topic, reaching the master designation will mean that you’ve reached the limit of polishing your foundations. Once we’ve reached that point, it will be time for you to branch out into other styles of swordsmanship, and, because of your skill, you’ll also need to learn other styles for your corresponding weapons to further progress the skill. I can continue to help you with several of them, but if you ever plan on becoming a true master with a skill level above 100, you’ll have to seek out further guidance from others in those weapons.

“Not much is known about the Weapons Master skill, other than what I’ve already shared with you, but I’m pretty sure there has to be more to it than a simple consolidation and increased mastery level as compared to what your numbers indicate. This is a journey that we’ll have to slowly discover, and I’ll be there with you as long as you need me.

“Now, go get cleaned up. You know your mother will throw a fit if you try and go into the house covered in sweat like you are.” Refix smiled as he dismissed his son.

While Refix had devised a way to increase the intensity of his training even further than Reivyn had thought possible, his mother had devised ways to strain his mental capacity and eke out just as much benefit for his mana skills.

Despite the physical and mental exhaustion that had become almost a part of his existence lately, Reivyn was still in high spirits and excited about the future.

Chapter thirty

On the Horizon

“Okay, now, Teilon, step forward and feint, don’t actually attack,” Refix instructed. “Good. Show that you’re there in that position. In a head-on engagement, it’s unlikely for you to go completely unnoticed by the enemy. So you need to plant a seed in their mind that you are in a certain spot.”

Refix was standing in front of the three youths: Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly. Kimberly had her staff held in a ready position, Teilon was wielding the dual daggers he had purchased, and Reivyn was standing to the back and slightly off to the side. They were only going through the motions, moving slowly but deliberately, as Refix instructed them on some small-unit tactics when they were employing their preferred weapons instead of everyone having a spear and shield.

“Now, Kimberly, you keep the focus of the opponent on yourself, and any time their gaze wanders to try and surveil the battlefield, that’s an opportunity to reach past their guard and give him a good pop. It’s not necessarily your goal to do damage; you want to keep their focus on you.” Refix indicated for her to strike at his face, and he simulated having to fend it off.

“The next step is to lure the enemy into the trap. So, Kimberly, after you’ve successfully enraged the enemy by giving a good thwack in the face, back off slowly while keeping the engagement.

“Teilon, take this opportunity to lunge in and perform another feint, but when you back up, keep the exact same backward trajectory. Don’t adjust your position. With the opponent’s focus on Kimberly, and you performing multiple feints in its perceived same location, it will subconsciously place your positioning in the same relative space. As Kimberly draws it forward, move back to your same spot, and keep your movements small, smooth, and to a minimum.

“You might think that you need to get into position as quickly as possible in order to hide, but that’s not the case. Fast, quick movements draw attention. Perform the feint, and yes, you need to quickly recover your stance from the fake-out, but once you’ve done so, slowly and deliberately take your steps back. Then stand perfectly still. There’s no reason to try and move around and find a ‘good hiding spot.’ Just stand there. Trust me.

“Now, this is the trap you’ve set up.” He continued to walk forward while pretending to engage Kimberly, and he walked right past Teilon. “Just let it walk past. Unless it has the skill Battlefield Awareness unlocked, it will continue to think Teilon is in the same relative position to itself. Now Teilon, once it’s passed you, simply come in behind and attack its vitals with a free hand.”

Refix stepped past Teilon and indicated where he should go with a sweeping arm motion to his back. Teilon followed the command and walked right up to Refix’s back and performed the mock back-stab.

“Good, good,” Refix praised. He brought everyone back into their original position before continuing. “Now, if the enemy does have Battlefield Awareness unlocked, which, in monsters is highly unlikely, that’s where your Hide, Sneak, and Stealth skills come into play. The System does all the calculations for you, and it is more complex than anyone could ever deduce—and there are always random chances and mitigating factors—but you can think of it like this: Slow steps back initiate your Sneak skill, standing perfectly still initiates your Hide skill, and letting it walk past initiates your Stealth skill.

“If you interrupt any of those steps, say you leap back instead of walk back slowly, you’ll interrupt the synergy of your skills. You can still succeed, but they won’t be working together to give you the maximum benefit. What’s more likely to work? Their one skill Battlefield Awareness versus your three skills, or one versus one?” He gave each of them a pointed look as the trio nodded with looks of contemplation on their faces.

“That was an example of engaging a superior foe. If you come across a single enemy that is weaker than you, unless you want to practice, which I recommend you do a lot of in the beginning, there’s no reason to go through so much trouble. Don’t waste your time. Simply have Kimberly bash it in the head to stun it, and Teilon can swoop in and stabby, stab, stab.” Refix performed a little demonstration of the “stabby, stab, stab” technique as he spoke. The three students chuckled at the antics.

“Last person, Reivyn, as the only one here with a ranged skill currently, will be performing that role. After considering everything, he’ll be using the sling. It’s capable out in the open and in confined spaces like the dungeon.

“Your task is one of strategy. You can direct the other two, or more if you get more members in the future, from your vantage overlooking the whole situation, and your tactics are similar to Kimberly’s. If there are multiple strong enemies, your task is to strategically keep their focus off of Teilon, but you also have to strike a balance between keeping them focused on Kimberly, but not overwhelming her.

“Once you guys get the basics down to where you can perform it without thinking about it too much, and you can adapt to changing variables, working as three against multiple strong enemies is where most of your practice will lie. Combat is fluid and ever-changing. You add more enemies, you add more variables. I’ll hire out some of the guards under me to come and help out later.

“For now, we’ll go with practicing the basics while slowly increasing the pace until we’re moving at full speed. Reivyn, it might seem like you don’t have anything to do, but you can take this time to practice observing the battlefield and pointing out anything they might miss being in the heat of combat.”

The three youngsters got into their positions and went through the different steps that Refix had laid out for them before with Refix acting as the antagonist. He would slowly ramp up the speed and engage Kimberly while making sure to keep his skill level suppressed so as not to overwhelm the poor girl.

Every now and then Refix would throw in some random variable, such as not following Kimberly right away or turning to attack Teilon when he performed his feint. While it wasn’t absolutely necessary for Reivyn to direct the two in these simple situations, he still practiced his role of pointing the variables out and shouting out a solution.

At one point, Refix chose to disengage Kimberly halfway through the maneuver and lunged at Teilon, but Reivyn had been waiting for him to pull such a ploy, and a stone, which was tossed and not launched from the sling, went sailing past Refix’s face just when he started. Reivyn smirked at the wide-eyed look his father directed at him, and when he moved toward Reivyn, Kimberly smoothly interjected and regained the initiative. The tactic was pulled off without a hitch.

“Excellent work, everyone,” Refix said as he stood over a collapsed Kimberly and Teilon. They were panting for breath from the exertion of practicing their tactics. At the end, Refix hadn’t given them any time to recover between practices, and they were moving at full capacity of their skill levels. Refix gave them a nod and casually strolled away with a chuckle.

“Your dad” <gasp> “is a monster,” Kimberly said between breaths. Reivyn stood over his friends with a smirk on his face.

“Get used to it, haha,” Reivyn said with a bit of schadenfreude. His two friends were too busy recovering to come up with any sort of retort.

“Reivyn!” He looked up to the sound of his father calling his name. A pack landed next to him with an audible clunk. Whatever was in it was heavy. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you standing there perfectly fine while your friends did all the work,” Refix said with a tug at his lips. He twirled his fingers in the air. “Run.”

“Awww, man.” Reivyn hung his head for a moment before reaching down to put the pack on.

As he turned to begin his exercise, he heard Teilon speak up. “You get” <gasp> “what you deserve.”

Exiting Dungeon
Calculating…
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +200
Boss Defeated: Exp +200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Level up!
Experience 496/1100
Monthly Experience
Calculating…
Relevant Skills Training: +600 Exp
Physical Exercise: +65 Exp
Sparring: +200 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +100 Exp
Life Experience: +3200 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 4,165
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 1061/1400

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1
Aim (22)
Athleticism (35)
Balance (40)
March (15)
Medium Armor (22)
Mining (12)
Observation (36)
Running (37)
Shields (28)
Woodworking (11)

Tier 2
Evasion (30)
Identify {Mundane} (24)
Mana Absorption (41)
Mana Circulation (17)
Meditation (21)
Pain Resistance (30)
Sense Mana (49)
Strategy (3)
Tactics (14)

Tier 3
Battlefield Awareness (9)
Blind Fighting (7)
Command (4)
Danger Sense (4)
Inspire (6)
Mana Conjuration (11)
Mana Manipulation (11)
Mana Sight (22)
Mental Fortitude (30)

Tier 4
Mana Weapon (6)

Tier 5
Spatial Awareness (13)

Tier 6
Weapons Master (40)

Affinities:
Tier 1
Air (22)
Earth (22)
Fire (22)
Water (22)

Tier 2
Ice (6)
Magma (6)
Metal (6)
Plasma (6)
Wood (6)

Tier 3
Darkness (8)
Light (8)

Reivyn reviewed the progress that he had made in the past month and a half as he lay in bed. He had already seen the notifications when they first popped up, but he had checked it several times to see if he could figure out how to maximize his experience gain. Without further education on how the System worked, he could only glean so much from the information given.

The Akashic Record skill was no help, either, as its “helpful hint” only said the same thing for each entry: “A higher Skill level is required.”

He had gotten a huge boost to his experience from the “life experience,” but there was no way he was going to try to manufacture a confrontation with a giant demon and Revenants again, even if he could. The only thing he could do to ensure a boost to his experience was to explore deeper into the dungeon.

He pulled up his Status page.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 14 Age: 9]
[Health: 740/740 Stamina: 1440/1440 Mana: 410/410]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 70 * INT: 41]
[VIT: 74 * MAG: 41]
[DEX: 70 * CLA: 31]
[CHA: 4 * PER: 32]
[LUK: 5]
[Experience: 1061/1400]
Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (22), Athleticism (35), Balance (40), Drawing (16), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Horsemanship (6), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), March (15), Medium Armor (22), Mining (12), Observation (36), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Riding (11), Running (37), Shields (28), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11)

Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (30), Identify {Mundane} (24), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (41), Mana Circulation (17), Meditation (21), Number Concepts (8), Pain Resistance (30), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (49), Stealth (14), Strategy (3), Tactics (14)

Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (9), Blind Fighting (7), Command (4), Danger Sense (4), Inspire (6), Mana Conjuration (11), Mana Manipulation (11), Mana Sight (22), Mental Fortitude (30)

Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (13), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (6)

Tier 5:
Spatial Awareness (13)

Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (40)

Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (22), Earth (22), Fire (22), Water (22)

Tier 2:
Ice (6), Magma (6), Metal (6), Plasma (6), Wood (6)

Tier 3:
Darkness (8), Light (8)

Class Skills:
Devastating Strike (43): Deal 143% Damage
Cleave (46): Reset stance at an accelerated rate of 156%
Charge (49): Sprint toward the target at 159% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (33): Accelerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 33%
<Locked>
Available: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)

It was always satisfying to look at his full Status and compare it to what it was when he had first begun his journey in life. There was something that had been bothering him a little for a while now, though. It wasn’t anything serious or bad, but he was confused about the rate of progression of his class skills. He also never got any notifications about them increasing in level.

He got up from his bed, and after preparing for the day, he walked out into the living room where his mother was already working on her loom. His sisters were behaving themselves, eating breakfast at the kitchen table. The mornings were the times when they were least active, but their shift from little angels to little demons would be swift and sudden when they had had enough time to ramp up their engines.

I wonder what kind of skills they have unlocked? I know Mother has them doing the same sorts of basic training in Penmanship and Mathematics and the like, and I’ve seen them do some physical training with Dad, but nothing like I did when I was their age. Then again, I did ask for it.

He put them out of his mind so as to not get sidetracked from his question. His father had already departed for work, but his mother was just as knowledgeable about these things as his dad, so he walked up to his mother.

“Mom, what’s up with these class skills?” he began without a preamble.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Ameliyn said with a smile.

“Ah, sorry. Good morning, Mom,” Reivyn said as he gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek.

“That’s better,” she said. “Now what’s this you want to know about class skills?”

“My class skills are progressing at a ridiculous speed. I don’t get any notifications about them at all, but every time I pull up my Status, they seem to have grown by leaps and bounds. It’s way faster than my other skills. Is this just a function of class skills?”

“No, dear. Class skills don’t inherently grow at a faster pace than regular skills. There are a couple of reasons they’re growing so fast, as far as I know. One, they’re low-level class skills. Tier 1 classes don’t have any class skills associated with them, so Tier 2 class skills are entry-level skills. Even then, it isn’t as exaggerated as you’re describing it.

“So that leads to the other reason: talent. When someone selects a class that they’re inherently talented in, the class skills will level up at a faster pace. Combined with the entry-level nature of the class skills that you have, it would account for how fast they’re going up. You have the Weapons Master mythic skill, a powerful bloodline, and a strong drive for improvement. Your Fighter class is a good fit for you.

“If someone foolishly chose their class, they would have a very hard time leveling up their class skills, but that honestly doesn’t happen very often. It usually comes when someone has a goal for a higher tier class they want to work toward, but they need to have a specific class and focus to get to it, and they’re not suitable for that prerequisite class.

“It’s fine for people in Tier 2 to sacrifice their talents to take an inefficient class, if they’re driven and hard-working. It is a terrible idea, unless one has access to the proper resources and guidance, to choose a poor fit for Tier 3 or higher. Does that help?”

“It does, thank you, Mom,” Reivyn said.

“You’re welcome, sweetie.”

Reivyn grabbed a quick bite to eat before taking off to find Teilon and Kimberly. Considering my mental stats being much higher than my physical stats initially, I wonder how quickly class skills will increase in level if I choose a mana-focused class?

Reivyn walked down the road toward Teilon’s house. They both lived in the same little neighborhood, but there were still several houses between them. Reivyn nodded and smiled at Will and Simmon as they walked past. They gave their own perfunctory greeting as they were busy with their own things.

Teilon was coming out of his house as Reivyn approached. He ran up with his usual exuberance.

“Morning, Reivyn.” He waved as he joined his friend. “Let’s go get Kimberly and get started. I think I would like to practice my Sneaking and Hiding skills out in the woods, and Kimberly can practice her Observation skills while trying to spot me. You can switch back and forth with whatever you want to focus on.”

“Sure, that sounds like a plan,” Reivyn responded. “Hey, I just walked past Will and Simmon. When was the last time we hung out with them?”

Teilon looked up as he thought about the question. “It had to have been before the conscription. We just really haven’t had the time to play around with them. Any days that we have off, they’re doing their own bit of training that their parents have set up for them, and vice versa.”

“Yeah, I just feel kinda bad. If we hadn’t gone off with the levies, we’d still be hanging out and figuring out a way to form a group with all four of us. As it is now, our little adventure has set us apart on our trajectories.”

“Well, just because we’re not going to go adventuring together in the short term doesn’t mean we’re not still friends,” Teilon said. “We’ll just have to make an effort to set aside some time, but they’ll have to do the same.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Reivyn sighed. It was strange that Reivyn hadn’t really even thought about his other friends all that much since he had been home. Sure he had been stepping up his training regimen and incorporating new training methods with Teilon and Kimberly involved, but it had always seemed natural to have Will and Simmon in his group before. Now it felt more natural to just be with Teilon and Kimberly.

I guess that’s life, he mused. People grow apart, and new connections are made. We can still be friends and hang out, but things won’t go back to how they were before. We have our own life paths ahead of us.

Chapter thirty-one

Movers and Shakers

Reivyn walked along the side of the cart carrying their family possessions as they traveled along the road to Magron. His father was driving the cart with his mother and sisters sitting next to him. Reivyn was used to walking much farther distances than his younger siblings, so he spent the bulk of the time on foot.

It had been six months since Reivyn had returned home from his time being conscripted, and he had finally turned ten years old two months after arriving back in Haluville. His parents kept the relentless pace of his training up during those two months, and he saw a lot of growth in his combat and mana skills.

They didn’t do anything special for his birthday, even though it was the ten-year milestone, and the only difference Reivyn noticed was that his bloodline was finally listed on his Status page. It was still shown as “Unknown Bloodline,” and it retained the experience values indicating he could still put his experience points into it to further unlock it.

His father needed to go to Magron for a bit to square away the details in moving his position to the larger city and find living accommodations, and so they had all decided to let Reivyn take it easy at that point. Reivyn had been going hard for several months, and his parents feared he might burn himself out, though Reivyn hadn’t shown any signs of it. He didn’t protest the decision, though, because he understood his parents were looking out for him and he trusted their judgment.

He had only gained a total of 800 experience from the training and sparring he did over the course of the past six months. He had gotten zero experience boosts to his life experience because he was doing the same things he had always done his whole life.

He wasn’t too concerned about the slowdown in experience, though, as he would be heading off to the dungeon once he reached master level in his Weapons Master skill, which was just two more points away. That last point to reach fifty would take some considerable time and effort, though.

Reivyn placed his hands behind his head, his fingers interlocked, as he casually strolled along the roadside. He kept an eye on the tree line on either side, as he knew there were occasionally goblins or higher-level predators, but he wasn’t too concerned with his father around. The goblin horde that had attacked the levy convoy was apparently an anomaly, and the count had dispatched a platoon to sweep the surroundings to thin out any such accumulation of the pests, so the roads were exceptionally safe at the moment.

“Reivyn.” He looked up to his mother who had called out to him. “The girls are getting antsy again, so come take a break.”

He walked over to the cart and helped his mother and sisters get down. His sisters ran to the side of the road and began picking flowers as his mother followed along with a smile on her face. Reivyn hopped up into the cart to take their place next to his father.

“Want a go at driving?” Refix asked him while extending the reins over. The cart was rented and had a pair of horses pulling it along.

“Sure,” Reivyn said as he took control of the cart.

“There’s really not a lot to do right now, but you can practice slowing them down and guiding them a bit,” Refix said from his position next to him. “Here, let me help you.”

Refix spent the next hour or so explaining to Reivyn exactly what he needed to do with the reins to get the proper response out of the horses. He practiced with them for a while, occasionally coming to a full stop so he could get them moving from a standstill. There wasn’t a ton of room for maneuvering them along the road, but he did get them to meander a bit under his guidance. After the hour of stuttering movements, Reivyn finally got the notification for a skill unlocking, and he instantly felt more in control of the horses.

Skill Unlocked!
Driving (1)

“I got the skill,” Reivyn informed his father. Refix just shook his head and chuckled.

“While it’s an easy skill to get, an hour of just stopping and going is still impressive for unlocking it.”

-ROAR-

Reivyn looked up in startlement at the sudden roar of a large animal. He spotted his sisters being held close by his mother as a large bear came out of the tree line. Reivyn moved to launch himself at the intruding animal, but a hand fell on his shoulder, firmly holding him in place.

“Don’t worry,” Refix said with a twinkle in his eye. “Do you think I would let them wander about if I didn’t have confidence in your mother keeping them all safe?”

Reivyn sat at the front of the cart as he watched the spectacle unfold in front of him. The bear came out of the woods, and after initially zeroing in on his mother and sisters, it came to a stop with confusion in its eyes. It hesitantly sniffed the area as if it was trying to locate its target. A blinding light suddenly materialized in front of its face, and it recoiled back while rubbing one of its paws over its face.

The black bear shook its head and looked in the direction it had first spotted its prey, and Reivyn watch on in fascination as a duplicate copy of his mother and sisters materialized and took off running into the woods. The bear roared once again and took off chasing the duplicates into the woods while his mother remained motionless with Kailey and Riley huddled in her embrace.

After a few minutes, Reivyn could no longer hear the loud sounds the bear was making, and Refix took the reins back from him.

“Go switch out with your mother so she can get the girls up into the cart, and I’ll get us moving on down the road,” Refix commanded.

Reivyn looked back and forth between his father and mother. “What just happened?” he asked. “I get that there was a distraction conjured by Mom, but why didn’t the bear see them?”

Refix raised an eyebrow at his son. “Your mother’s a Light Weaver.”

“I know that,” Reivyn said impatiently. “Isn’t it just a rare lifestyle class?”

“Who said?” Refix smirked at the surprise on Reivyn’s face. “Your mother can weave illusions out of light mana, and she can also use it to bend it around herself to make herself invisible. That bear could still smell them, though, so she blinded it momentarily before making the illusion of her and the girls running off so that the bear would chase what it saw and not investigate what it smelled. Alright, go,” Refix once again said with a wave of his hand.

Reivyn dropped down from the cart, and his mother was already arriving with Kailey and Riley held in each of her arms. Their eyes were wide with fear, but they still clutched the multitude of flowers they had picked in their hands. Reivyn helped his mother up into the cart, and his sisters sat firmly between both of their parents.

“Go grab a training spear out of the cart,” Refix called to his son. “Your sling can scare most things off, but you’ll need something else to keep that bear at arm’s length long enough for me to come deal with it. It shouldn’t be a problem. Your mother’s illusion should lead it quite a distance away before it dissipates, but better safe than sorry.”

Reivyn did as he was told, and he continued walking alongside the cart with the sturdy training weapon. He wouldn’t be able to kill a bear with it unless he could get a very lucky strike at a vital like the eyes, but it made him feel more secure as he resumed scanning the tree line. He walked in silent contemplation at the new revelation about his mother.

The family walked through the gates of Magron without any complications among the throng of other citizens going about their business. There was no entrance fee to enter the city, and the guards didn’t closely inspect everyone coming and going.

The City Guards were more to keep the peace and make sure the people didn’t clog up the gateway. They only inspected obvious merchant caravans, but those weren’t that frequent on this side of the city that led further toward the frontier.

“The barracks I stayed in were over there.” Reivyn pointed down the road alongside the inner wall that lead to the military base. His mother and sisters followed the direction his finger was indicating, and they could just barely make out the walls of the compound in the distance mostly obscured by other buildings in the way.

The cart continued on its way alongside the main thoroughfare, the military compound quickly disappearing from sight. Reivyn reached up and adjusted the flower crown on his head as he returned his focus back to the road in front of him.

His sisters had made the laurel crown from the many flowers they had plucked along the roadside, and they had insisted that Reivyn had to wear it at all times.

“This isn’t just an emblem of your status as the Flower Knight,” Kailey said.

“It’s a protective charm,” Riley piped up.

“It will let the forest inhabitants know that you’re a friend, and they won’t attack you.” Kailey gingerly placed the amulet they had carefully crafted upon his head. Reivyn looked at the other members of his family with amusement. They all had flowers on their heads, and even his father nodded seriously when he was told of its special properties by his sisters.

Reivyn’s eyes widened, though, when he casually threw an Identify {Mundane} at the crowns.

New Skill Unlocked!
Identify {Magical} (1)
Calculating…
Merged Identify {Mundane} (26) with Identify {Magical} (1)

New Skill Unlocked!
Identify {All} (14)
Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight
Reduces presence toward predators and reduces wariness of forest animals

His eyes nearly popped out of his head, and Reivyn determined to take the girls more seriously. It seemed his parents had already noticed the unusuality of the items the two girls had created, and his father nodding seriously at them made more sense than just an indulgent father.

The family turned down a side road that led away from the commercial district of the city. Reivyn glanced down the road to the area he and his friends had gone shopping with a thoughtful look.

Not that I would ever do such a thing, but I wonder how much one of these crowns would sell for? he mused. Obviously not much to anyone who couldn’t properly assess it. He chuckled to himself as he recalled finding the light Mana Stone from a vendor who had no idea what it was.

“Hey, Mom,” Reivyn called out as a thought crossed his mind.

“Hmm, yes?” Ameliyn said as she looked down at him.

“Since mana is so abundant, and magic is a thing, why aren’t there more magical plants and materials? Why don’t I see more magical things and treasures?”

“Reivyn,” his mother replied with a look of amusement. “Think about where you are.”

“We’re in Magron…” Reivyn said. He wasn’t quite following what his mother was getting at.

“And where is Magron?” his mother continued with a patient tone as if she were teaching a class.

“In the Magron County under Count Ilpir…” He gauged his mother’s reaction as he spoke. She nodded and motioned for him to continue. “In a Tier 1 kingdom.” He smacked himself in the head as the words left his mouth. “The mana density isn’t high enough.”

“Exactly,” Ameliyn said. “There are pockets out there with higher densities where one is likely to discover a magical plant or ores, but they’re sparse. They are far more common as you move up in tiers, and it increases exponentially. A Tier 2 region will have roughly double the mana density as a Tier 1 region. That doesn’t mean they have double the magical materials as a Tier 1.”

“Ahh? It’s still so rare?” Reivyn asked.

“No, dear, it’s four times more prevalent to find magical materials. You have to consider the time scale involved as well. Tier 2 regions are steeped in at least twice as much mana as a Tier 1 region over a long period of time,” Ameliyn patiently explained. “A Tier 3 region has about twice as much mana density as a Tier 2, and four times again as many natural treasures. That means where your father and I are from, there were sixty-four times more natural treasures than in this region. When you consider dungeons have a higher density even than the region they’re found in, and the number of dungeons located near the capital city, it’s not hard to imagine how such a place could dominate countless other regions below it.”

Reivyn was flabbergasted at the implications of living in such a region.

“So what kind of treasures are we talking about?” Reivyn asked with excitement.

“Well, not only are there plants and animals that are inherently magical in and of themselves that can only grow in such mana-dense regions, even the more mundane species can have semi-magical properties. For instance, regular trees located near a volcanic region could absorb the ambient fire mana in the environment and gain specific properties. It’s not always the same, either. Some are resistant to fire and heat, some burn longer, and some burn hotter.

“There are many more varied classes that exist to take advantage of such living environments that simply can’t be found in lower tier regions. Alchemist, for instance, is a very popular lifestyle class found in Tier 2 regions and above. The higher the tier region, the higher the number and overall level of alchemists.”

That answered a question that had been in the back of Reivyn’s mind. With such means as mana-enhanced healing and even magical healing, how come there didn’t exist an occupation that created magical products that one could buy and take with them? It turned out that they simply didn’t exist in Tier 1 regions, not that they didn’t exist at all.

“You said that the dungeon was a resource dungeon,” Ameliyn continued. “It’s far more likely that you’ll be able to find mana-aligned ores in the lower floors than finding chests provided by the System with magical items already in them. That’s not to say you won’t find any, but the probability is quite low.”

“What good would it do to find higher tier ores in a Tier 1 region if there isn’t anyone with a class to take advantage of them?” Reivyn asked with furrowed brows.

“Oh, a high enough level Blacksmith will be able to handle mana-aligned ores just fine. They won’t be able to craft truly magical weapons and armor from them, but anything made out of those ores will be superior to just regular steel. It’s still an upgrade.”

Reivyn continued to walk in silence as his imagination ran wild with daydreams of him returning from the dungeon with a full load of magical ores. He would have to figure out what kinds of mana alignment could be found in the dungeon.

What if the ores on the lower floor are infused with that revolting mana that came from the Revenant? he thought with a frown. In that case, I’d rather pass.

The family continued their journey through the city of Magron. The foot traffic on the side road was nothing compared to the main thoroughfare, but, even getting so far away from the central regions of the city, there were more pedestrians walking about than could be found anywhere in Haluville.

“We’re here,” Refix proclaimed as the cart came to a halt in front of a small house.

Small is relative, Reivyn thought as he looked at their new home. It was small compared to a lot of the other buildings that they had passed to get to their location, but it was still slightly bigger than their house in Haluville. Instead of a large, open space for a backyard, though, there was a walled courtyard with plenty of space for sparring matches.

“Alright, I’ll give a short tour to everyone before we get our stuff,” Refix said as he hopped down and headed for the front door.

Reivyn stood and appraised himself in the mirror at the blacksmith store where he had previously purchased his fan. Refix was standing to the side looking him up and down as well. He had helped pick out all of the gear that Reivyn was currently attired in, and he double-checked to make sure everything was fitting properly.

“I think it’s good, Dad,” Reivyn said with a roll of his eyes. He was standing in a full set of leather-plated armor. It wasn’t quite the same as the armor he had worn when in the military unit, but it was similar. The main difference was that it was designed for more agile movements as compared to what would be needed when fighting in a large formation.

“You’ll thank me later when you don’t suffer from any chafing,” Refix chuckled. “Alright, all of this plus the arming sword and spear comes out to about 7 silvers. I know you want to be independent when you strike out on your own and pay for your own things, but that’s not allowed. As a father, it is my privilege to provide you with your first set of equipment, and you won’t be taking that away from me.”

Refix worded it in such a way that it was a favor to Refix for him to buy the equipment Reivyn would be using for his first independent venture. Reivyn rolled his eyes as he accepted the proposition from his father. He would still need to purchase other things like rations, clothes, and other necessities anyway.

“An excellent choice, young master.” The voice of the attendant reached his ears. It was the same person as last time. Different from when Reivyn had come before, several other attendants had started to approach the father-son duo to assist them, but this attendant had recognized Reivyn and had swooped in to take charge once again. Reivyn was very pleased with the performance of this shop, which is why he had brought his father back to this one to get his armor.

“Yes, we’ll be taking this set,” Refix said as he pulled out the coins from a pouch he kept in his inner breast pocket. “No, no. Keep it on.” He motioned to Reivyn who had started taking it off. “You’ll need to wear it in, and we’re going to go to the Adventurer’s Guild after this. Need to look the part.”

Reivyn nodded as Refix paid the attendant. The man encouraged the pair to return for all of their adventuring needs, as he had heard the comment about going to the guild, as he walked them out of the shop with a smile on his face.

Reivyn didn’t notice any significant change in the attention he garnered from the surrounding pedestrians as they made their way toward the Adventurer’s Guild. He could spot others attired in various types of armor like he had seen from the adventurers at the dungeon outpost, so he guessed it wasn’t much of a strange sight to be seen walking around as such.

The Adventurer’s Guild was a large, ornate building that was situated near the same square as the City Hall, the “official” bastion of the count. It covered a very large area, and it was three stories tall. Large columns decorated the entryway above the steps leading up, and there were many large windows that served more as decoration than any real function.

“Why is it so…” Reivyn couldn’t quite find the word he was looking for.

“Ostentatious?” Refix supplied with a glance at Reivyn out of the corner of his eye. He continued when Reivyn nodded his head, “This is the headquarters for the entire county. Not only are there smaller branches in some of the outlying towns and villages, but there are also smaller branches in this city located closer to the gates. But if you want to register as a sanctioned adventurer, you have to do so at a county-level headquarters like this, at the minimum.

“This is an administrative building, and it isn’t actually designed to cater to the needs of the individual adventurers on a day-to-day basis. You won’t find any notice boards or missions or anything inside. For those things, you’ll have to go to one of the smaller branches.”

The two made their way up the stairs and into the foyer. There were ornate decorations and statues dotting the mostly empty halls, and the duo’s footsteps echoed through the building. The main area was lit by a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling that stretched all the way to the roof of the tall building. The duo marched up to a front desk manned by a female receptionist.

The young lady looked up at the pair with a smile as they approached.

“What can I help you two gentlemen with today?” she asked with a sweet voice. She couldn’t be much older than Reivyn, and it made sense to him that such an occupation would be held by someone with a Tier 1 class.

“My son wishes to register as a sanctioned adventurer,” Refix answered.

“Oh, certainly!” She obviously had a bubbly personality based on the attitude that she greeted the two strangers with, Reivyn surmised. “Can you use mana or…” She trailed off as she looked at Reivyn uncertainly. It was understandable that she would have such a reaction once she actually got a good look at Reivyn. Despite his body that belonged to someone who was a fit teenager, his face still gave away his young age.

“I’m sorry, but only those with a Tier 2 class can register,” she said with an apologetic smile.

“I’m aware,” Reivyn said with a wink. He didn’t usually act in such a manner, but there was something about her personality that made him act a bit cheeky. “I have the Tier 2 class Fighter, and, yes, I can use mana.”

“Oh! Great.” She returned to her exuberant personality. “All you have to do is infuse your mana into this token, and then hold it to this form.” She handed both items to Reivyn as she mentioned them. “The token will scan your Status, and if you hold it to the seal in the top-left corner there, it will fill in the form automatically.”

Reivyn did as he was instructed. It was very similar to the token he received from the military, but it was designed to need an actual infusion of mana instead of passively being able to do so when held to his core. He didn’t know if that was an upgrade or a downgrade.

“Excellent,” the girl said as she accepted the form from Reivyn. It listed his name, class, and basic physical and mental stats. There were large empty portions available to record any deeds or missions that he accomplished in the future, but as he was just starting out, they were left blank. “You keep the token. It will record your accomplishments, and you can use it to update your Master Record when you apply for a promotion in the future.”

She put the form away into a drawer and then clasped her hands in front of her as she looked at the two expectantly. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” Reivyn was momentarily taken aback.

“Is that it?” he asked.

“Of course! We’re not much of a formal organization when it comes to the adventurers themselves. Well, at least not at the lower ranks. We don’t need to conduct any tests or anything like that. Your Status proves you have a Tier 2 class, and there isn’t any need to prove competency just to join the guild,” she explained. She was quite talkative once she got going.

“I noticed that there was a large space for accomplishments on the form. Would this be able to apply to it?” Reivyn held out his old military token that he had been left with to verify he had privileged access to the dungeon. Since the adventurer token kept records of deeds, this probably did as well.

“No harm in trying!” The young lady quickly retrieved the form once more and put the military token to the seal. Her eyes widened in shock, and her hand flew up to her mouth as words appeared on the page.

“Veteran of the Lord’s Retinue with the rank of aide to the adjutant! Participated in the subjugation of a Tier 4 demon!” She squealed when those words appeared. “This, this…wow!” She was at a loss for words. Reivyn chuckled. The sound of his laughter caused the young lady to look up, and with a visible struggle to compose herself, she continued. “With these deeds, you won’t have to do anything to get promoted for the next several ranks. You just need time in grade.”

“Time in grade?” Reivyn was confused.

“Of course. You need to spend an appropriate amount of time in each rank before you’re qualified for promotion. The first two promotions only require six months each, and then the next one requires a year. In two years’ time, you’ll be able to directly be promoted three times, as long as you apply in a timely manner, that is. As I said, you have to spend the time in grade. If you dilly-dally and fail to apply for promotion for a long time, you’ll still have the accomplishments necessary for the promotion, but you’ll have to wait the required time again.”

“Got it.”

“Is there anything else you need help with?” Reivyn shook his head. “Well then, let me be the first to welcome you to the Adventurer’s Guild!”

Chapter thirty-two

Leavetaking

Motes of color danced in the air around Reivyn as he sat in a meditative trance. The specks of mana slowly coalesced around his body as they formed a whirlpool of mana being absorbed into the top of his head. He could feel the energy coursing through his body fluctuate at a constant up and down pace as he maintained his pace of absorbing the mana around him. His skill level in Meditation kept him centered and calm.

With his eyes closed, he could still sense the different elements of mana ever since his Sense Mana skill had reached Level 50. It wasn’t pinpoint accurate, as he couldn’t sense individual specks of the mana, but he could make a sort of mental sight map where he could see where the different elements congregated in higher concentrated pockets.

I wonder if I can exert different levels of force on specific locations to further separate the elements? Reivyn thought with a frown of concentration.

He exerted his will on his Mana Absorption skill. The mana sped up in its spinning, and while he had it accelerated, he tried to bear his will down in a different location to try to slow it down.

Nothing happened.

He relaxed his concentration on maintaining the accelerated spinning and tried again. The skill refused to change. As he put more concentration into slowing down one portion, he slipped up on keeping it accelerated, and when he focused back on accelerating, the slowing vanished. His skill was apparently all or nothing, so he allowed the skill to return to its balanced state of absorption.

Maybe there’s something else I can try? What about building a fence out of my own mana?

With that new thought, Reivyn brought a strand of pure mana out. He located a region in the swirling mana where a clump of fire mana was concentrated, and he directed his mana to slice through the region between it and the other specks of mana.

As he concentrated on moving his pure mana into place, his concentration on Mana Absorption slipped, and the swirling mass of mana threatened to dissipate. With sweat on his brow, Reivyn refocused his concentration to keep the Mana Absorption spinning. His grasp on his pure mana, though, began to waver as he did so.

I’m able to manipulate my own mana independently of the swirling mass of ambient mana, so that’s already a step ahead of what I was trying before. I think I’m on the right track, so I just need to practice switching my focus back and forth in quick succession. I can apply some force like I’m spinning a top to the Mana Absorption, and then while keeping an eye on it but not bearing my will on it directly, I can switch my focus to the mana thread.

Reivyn put thought to action, and he spent the next hour or so practicing the exercise he had come up with. He made some headway on being able to manipulate his mana while simultaneously absorbing the ambient mana, but it was like threading a moving needle.

He had to begin by leading the spinning mana with his own pure mana at a slower speed. Once the pure mana thread got closer and closer to the demarcation of the elements he was focusing on, he had to match the speed of the rotation while attempting to stab the mana thread through the border while anchoring its speed to match the mana whirlpool.

It was incredibly mentally taxing.

Eventually, the mental exhaustion of maintaining swapping concentration got to him. He let the Mana Absorption skill dissipate, and he pulled his pure mana back into himself. It was time for him to take a break for the day.

He sighed as he stood up from his bed to head into the living room. The new house they had moved into had a different layout than their past house, and instead of walking out of his room directly into the living room, he had to traverse a hallway. His parents had the master bedroom that took up most of the space on the opposite side of the hallway to where he and his sisters had their own rooms, his sisters sharing one.

He made his way into the open space of the living room. Instead of the door being placed in the center between the living room and kitchen area, the door to the front was placed in the living room with the door to the back off to the side on the kitchen side with the hallway being placed in the center between the two.

Reivyn stepped out into the living room to see his mother at work on her loom as she usually was. He could hear the laughter of his sisters coming from the backyard as he plopped down on a couch in a relaxed posture.

“How was your Meditation?” Ameliyn asked without stopping her motions while working the loom.

“It was alright. I tried to do something new, and it was really hard.”

“Oh? What was this new thing you tried?”

Reivyn sat up and explained to his mother his thoughts on separating the ambient mana and the solutions he had attempted. Instead of offering tips on how to more effectively split his concentration or thread his mana into the proper place, his mother tilted her head back and laughed.

“Reivyn,” she said after a moment to calm down. “I’m right here. You can just come to me to get advice. What led you to want to separate the ambient mana?”

“I thought that if I could separate the mana into their own elements, I could practice my affinity at the same time,” Reivyn said.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Ameliyn said. Reivyn clenched his fist and nodded with a smile. I knew it! “However, your approach was wrong. Let me ask you this: What did you do to unlock the Ice Affinity?”

“I used my fire mana to suck all the heat out of the mana I was working with.”

“Exactly. You took a strand of pure mana, attuned it to fire, and then used it like a magnet to attract all the other fire mana.”

Realization dawned on Reivyn, and he smacked himself in the head. “So instead of trying to manually separate every little pocket of elements, I need to attract them all to the same spot. I should have realized that considering all the motes of mana that weren’t concentrated together. I didn’t even think about what I was going to do about those.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Ameliyn said with a chuckle. “Everybody has to explore and make mistakes when they try to figure things out on their own. That’s just how the world works. If you just knew how to accomplish what you wanted every time, then what would be the point of teachers and master-apprentice relationships?

“Anyway, what you want to do for what you’re working toward, is create many mana threads and shoot them out into the whirlpool like spokes to a wheel. In the beginning, it doesn’t matter too much if you match the speed of your mana to the speed of your Mana Absorption, just get them out there and moving approximately the same speed.

“Next, alternate infusing each strand with a different element and focus on absorbing it like ambient mana. The real trick to this exercise is to not absorb the ambient mana into your own mana strands but to just anchor it to the strands.

“Once you have all the ambient mana anchored to your mana spokes, you can slowly move the spokes until they all occupy a different quadrant. The mana spokes with all the ambient mana anchored to them will amplify the magnetic pull, and all the other, new ambient mana brought in through Mana Absorption will automatically filter themselves to the proper quadrant.”

Reivyn shook his head at how needlessly complicated he had made things. He had already learned how to do what she was describing, and yet he hadn’t thought of it at all.

I’ve always considered myself to be pretty smart, and my skill advancement seems to back that up; however, a real genius wouldn’t have made such a silly mistake as to completely ignore a technique he or she had already used. I still have to work harder.

Knock, knock.

Reivyn made to get up from his perch on the couch to answer the door, but his sisters leaped up and beat him to it.

“Too slow,” Kailey and Riley said as they ran to the door. They opened it and looked up at the person standing in front of them. Reivyn heard a familiar voice come from the other side of the door.

“Hi, I hear you house itinerant adventurers. We’re here to mooch.”

Kailey stood there for a moment with her hand still on the door. She just looked up at the person at the door for a couple of seconds, and then she casually shut it in his face. The two girls ran back to their spots where they had been playing on the living room floor.

Knock, knock.

The twins once again leaped up to race to the door with the exact same level of excitement as before. Kailey opened the door, took one look at the person, and before they could even open their mouth, she shut the door in their face.

“Who’s at the door, Kailey?” Reivyn said with exasperation.

“A charlatan,” Kailey said.

“A charlatan,” Riley mimed.

“He’s up to no good,” Kailey said.

“He’s up to no good,” Riley repeated.

Reivyn rolled his eyes as he got up. He shooed the two girls out of the way as he moved to answer the door. He opened the door to be greeted by a smiling Teilon. Kimberly was standing behind him with a bored expression on her face.

Teilon’s smile grew wider, and he opened his arms for a hug, and, as he opened his mouth to greet his friend, Reivyn slammed the door in his face. A muffled, “Hey!” came from the other side.

“Yup, a charlatan,” Reivyn said with a wink toward his sisters. They devolved into a giggling fit at their brother’s joke.

Reivyn opened the door once more and beckoned the two to come in. Teilon stepped across and gave him a big bear hug. Kimberly simply gave a polite smile with a nod as she entered the house.

The two of them had large packs containing their gear, and Reivyn could see that they had already purchased their armor and other necessities besides food. Kimberly marched up to the two girls playing on the floor and addressed them with hands on her hips.

“I’m a charlatan, am I?” She raised an eyebrow at the two. Kailey and Riley scrambled up and hugged a leg each as they continued to giggle.

“Big Sis Kim! We didn’t mean you,” Kailey said.

“Yeah, we’ll protect you from the bad man,” Riley said.

Kimberly looked down at the two girls with a stern expression on her face. Kailey and Riley simply grinned back up at her. Kimberly couldn’t maintain her mock expression for long, and she smiled as she bent down and gave the two girls a hug.

“I see you already have your gear,” Reivyn said to Teilon as they watched the girls begin to play. “Have you already registered at the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“Yup, we took care of all that first thing.” Teilon nodded. The two took a seat on the couch. Teilon leaned in and whispered to Reivyn, “Man, I tell you what. That receptionist was pretty cute—”

“What was that?” Kimberly glanced up with a sharp look at Teilon.

“I was saying that the receptionist couldn’t hold a candle to my cute girlfriend,” Teilon said. Sweat popped out on his brow as Kimberly narrowed her eyes at him.

“Uh-huh,” she returned to playing with the twins.

Reivyn and Teilon caught up on the things each other had been up to in the several months since Reivyn’s family had moved to Magron. Now that they were here, and apparently well prepared, they could finally move on to the dungeon in the upcoming days. They still had to travel through the forests and plains, but there was much less wilderness heading toward the mountain range, as there was a lot of farmland and farming communities along the route.

The thought of having to travel through some wilderness reminded Reivyn of the flower crowns his sisters had made.

“Hey, Kailey, Riley, do you think you can make some flower crowns for Teilon and Kimberly and induct them into the Flower Knights?” Teilon gave him a skeptical look, and Reivyn replied with a gesture that said trust me. Teilon shrugged and went along with it as he looked at the twins.

“No way!” Kailey said.

“No way!” Riley repeated.

“Big Sis Kim can be the Lady of the Flowers,” Kailey said.

“But Teilon will be the Flower Thief,” Riley concluded.

Teilon rolled his eyes in exasperation as the twins giggled. Kimberly looked between the twins and the two boys sitting on the couch with confusion.

“Here, let me show you,” Reivyn said as he got up. He went back to his room and grabbed the laurel flower crown that was still in pristine condition. None of the flowers had wilted, and they looked like they had just been freshly picked. They were still plump and supple with moisture.

He returned to the living room and handed it to Teilon.

“They made this several months ago,” Reivyn said. Teilon accepted it and inspected it. He looked back up at Reivyn with confusion evident on his face.

“It looks like it was picked this morning,” Kimberly said as she came over. She looked up at Reivyn in surprise. “You said they picked these flowers months ago?”

“That’s right,” Reivyn said with a nod. He leaned in to whisper to the two, “I have an appraisal skill, and when I inspected this, I gained the ability to inspect magical items. This flower crown is called the Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight, and it reduces your presence to predators and makes other forest creatures less wary of you.”

Kimberly gasped, and Teilon widened his eyes at the revelation.

“Hey! No secrets,” Kailey said.

“No secrets,” Riley repeated.

“We were just praising your craftsmanship,” Reivyn said.

“Yeah, it’s beautiful,” Kimberly said. Kailey and Riley beamed at the compliment. “I definitely want one.”

“Sure thing, Big Sis,” Kailey said.

“I guess we can make one for the bad guy, too,” Riley said.

“Why am I the bad guy?” Teilon complained.

“Dunno,” Kailey said.

“We just needed one,” Riley said.

“So you’re it.” The two girls giggled at the pained expression on Teilon’s face.

“Fine. I guess I can be the Flower Thief,” Teilon conceded.

“Haha, yay!” Kailey and Riley jumped up and down while holding hands.

The front door opened, and Ameliyn and Refix came in from the errands they had been running. They greeted the two new additions to the house and began working on dinner. Ameliyn easily agreed to let the two stay in their house. Teilon would sleep on the floor in Reivyn’s room, and Kimberly would get the guest room on the opposite side of the living room to the hallway.

“I have one final gift for the three of you,” Refix said. He got up and went to the master bedroom for a minute. When he returned, he was carrying three large packs. Reivyn frowned at the sight of the new packs that were much larger than the ones they already had. Refix brought them into the living room and set them down.

“Dad, we already have most of our provisions. The only thing we have left to get is our rations, and we’re not going to get those until we’re on the way out,” Reivyn said.

“Uh-huh. These aren’t provisions,” Refix said with a smirk. “Come see.”

The three of them got up and went to the packs. Reivyn lifted the top flap to inspect what was inside.

It was filled with rocks.

“These are for training,” Refix said, a twinkle in his eye. “You didn’t think you were just going to stroll to the dungeon, did you? Hahahaha.”

Reivyn rolled his eyes with a sigh. He was resigned to his fate.

Sweat dripped down into his eyes as Reivyn struggled to place one foot in front of the other. He was attired in his armor, and a laurel crown of flowers adorned his head, while his helmet was strapped to his pack. The effort of walking along the road under the immense weight of the additional pack his father had saddled them all with was compounded by the struggle of maintaining the same steps as the other two.

“You have to March in step,” Refix had said as they were giving their farewells. “If you don’t activate your March skill, then this training is useless. One final point, don’t take too many breaks. You need to press through the discomfort.” He hadn’t elaborated any further than that.

The trio must have made a strange sight to any of the passersby. They were all attired in similar armor, weapons sheathed or stored for travel, and they all had crowns made out of flowers atop their heads instead of their helmets. They trundled down the road, huffing and puffing, but maintained the same step and pace with each other.

“What” <huff> “is” <puff> “the” <huff> “point!” Teilon complained for the thousandth time.

“Save” <huff> “your” <puff> “breath,” Reivyn gasped out.

Kimberly didn’t add her thoughts to the brief conversation. She continued to walk with her head down, ignoring the two boys.

His father had expertly assigned the weight distribution of each pack to provide the same level of effort necessary for the three of them. It had been pretty easy at first, but as the day wore on, and the distance traveled increased, it became harder and harder.

Reivyn was questioning his father’s wisdom, his choices, and life in general when he finally received a notification, and the effort required to walk under the weight noticeably reduced.

New Skill Unlocked!
Forced March (1)

“Guys,” Reivyn called out to get their attention. “I figured out” <huff> “what the point is.” He was acutely aware that he had a much easier time speaking than he had moments before. He didn’t know if the other two would notice, though, while they were in their own world of suffering.

“What” <huff> “is” <puff> “it?” Teilon asked.

“I got a skill,” Reivyn said. “Forced March. It” <huff> “makes it a lot” <puff> “easier. Just keep” <huff> “at it, and” <puff> “you’ll get it soon.”

The other two continued their trek with renewed determination. With a clear goal in mind and one that apparently wasn’t too far off, they were able to push through their pain.

The trio continued their journey to the confused amusement of the occasional traveler. After another thirty minutes of walking, Kimberly gave a small shout of triumph.

“I got it!” she exclaimed. Teilon just glanced at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Reivyn could almost see the despair in his gaze.

After another ten minutes, Teilon finally collapsed to the ground. He lay there gasping for breath. Reivyn and Kimberly came to a stop as they turned toward their friend.

“C’mon, Teilon,” Reivyn encouraged. “Just a little further. The more you take a break, the harder it will be to unlock the skill.”

“Nah,” Teilon waved him off. “I collapsed when I got the notification. I already got the skill. Let’s just take a rest here.”

“Alright,” Reivyn said. “But let’s get out of the middle of the road. It looks like someone is coming.”

The three of them looked up into the distance back from where they had come. There was a plume of dust in the distance, and it was slowly getting closer as they watched.

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” Teilon said. Reivyn and Kimberly assisted Teilon in getting up. Even without being utterly exhausted, it would have been a chore to get up under the weight of the packs he carried on his back.

The three of them stepped a few yards off the road out of the way. They took the opportunity to get a quick bite from their rations and quench their thirst as they took a rest.

As they sat on the roadside, a long troop of cavalry slowly came into view. The sun glinted off their shiny armor, and there was a standard bearer proudly holding a banner with a large sunburst pattern on a white background.

The three youngsters looked at each other as the cavalry came into view.

“I wonder what all this is about?” Teilon queried.

“Probably something to do with the dungeon,” Reivyn said. “Either way, it’s not something that concerns us.”

The other two nodded as they continued to recover their stamina. Reivyn had a strong suspicion that these people were dispatched to investigate the instance of the demon and Revenants, but those things were no longer part of his responsibility.

They were just your average rookie adventurers now. Well, maybe not average.

Chapter thirty-three

Arrival

Reivyn and his two adventuring mates leisurely rested along the side of the road as they watched the horsemen come closer and closer. The cavalry unit was exquisitely precise in its horsemanship. Each individual horse was in step with the others at a trot in perfectly dressed columns, a feat that surely took a lot of practice and a fairly high level of Ride and Horsemanship.

Aside from the bannerman out front acting as the guide, there were several other horsemen not in formation overseeing it. Reivyn turned his head and scanned the countryside and sparse woods in the area, but he didn’t spot any scouts.

They are either supremely confident in themselves or their leaders are too arrogant. If there’s anything I’ve learned so far, it’s that one shouldn’t get complacent.

Reivyn shook his head at his thoughts. Just because they were in a low tier region that was populated by small bands of goblins and weak beasts, that didn’t mean there couldn’t be surprises. Reivyn knew for a fact that there were still roving ferocious beasts from the mountain range lurking about, but he didn’t know how far they had managed to travel away from the mountains at this point. The mounted men might be high level, but their horses weren’t, and ferocious beasts were just as likely to make a meal out of a horse as they were out of a man.

“Who do you suppose they are?” Reivyn said between bites of his ration.

“Probably the military branch of some church,” Teilon replied. He leaned back against his pack and relaxed his body as much as possible. He was the last one to have unlocked the Forced March skill, so he was the most exhausted of the trio.

“They have the Sunburst standard, so they must be from the Church of Mierna,” Kimberly supplied.

Reivyn inspected the standard carried by the guide out front. He had recognized that it was a sunburst emblem when he had first spotted it, but upon closer inspection, he was able to see that it was the official symbol of the Church of Mierna like Kimberly said. As the horsemen drew closer, Reivyn could see that their shiny, silvery armor was also decorated with gold-plated trim and patterns.

“The Goddess of Light, huh?” Reivyn mused. “That settles it then, they’re obviously on their way to investigate the demon incident.” His two companions nodded in agreement.

One of the horsemen not in formation cantered up to the trio. He had a frown on his face as he inspected the three youngsters from top to bottom.

“Make way!” he commanded. Reivyn looked at his two friends. He observed the distance between them and the road before looking back at the man. Even if they didn’t move, they were sufficiently far enough away from the road that they wouldn’t be in the way of even the supervising horsemen who weren’t part of the formation.

“We did make way,” Reivyn began.

“Insolence!” the man shouted. “You dare talk back? I didn’t ask for excuses, I told you to make way!”

Reivyn gave the man a flat look through his lashes. “And? I’m not one of your subordinates. You can go around.”

The man’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the response, and he was momentarily stunned. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword as his expression turned furious.

“You dare to disrespect Mierna, the Goddess of Light?” There was a dangerous tone to his voice.

“No, no, no,” Reivyn said with a shake of his head. “I don’t dare to disrespect the Goddess of Light… I dare to disrespect you.” Reivyn pointed at the man to emphasize his point.

Reivyn wasn’t worried that the zealot would make good on his implied threat and actually attack the three of them. He was clear on the law. While the Church was granted the authority to have an independent military, they had to abide by the laws of the kingdom, not the other way around. The three of them were just sitting on the side of the road, and they each had proof of prior military service and identities of sanctioned adventurers.

“Josn!” A loud shout came their way as the man started to bare the steel of his weapon. Reivyn rolled his eyes at the theatrics. The man was clearly trying to bully them for some reason.

“Sir!” Josn replied as he shoved his sword back into place and turned his head to address the older man who trotted up to the small group. The other men of the cavalry drew abreast of the resting youngsters and continued along the road with their eyes remaining straight ahead, and, as Reivyn had determined, they were nowhere near close enough to impede the soldiers.

“We have somewhere to be, Josn,” the older man said. “Are you going to slow us down to interrogate some random kids sitting on the side of the road?”

Josn stiffened in his saddle. “I suspect them to be heretics, sir.” Reivyn looked at his companions and guffawed.

“On what basis?” The man’s stern gaze inspected the three young adventurers. His eyes lingered on the flower crowns adorning their heads, and he assumed a thoughtful look.

“Three ‘kids’”—Josn used air quotes on the word—“dressed in armor and wearing druidic artifacts on their heads, plus the proximity of demonic activity is very suspicious.”

Reivyn gave his two companions a look, and the three of them retrieved their two tokens and displayed them to the two men. Josn urged his horse forward and leaned down as if to take possession of Reivyn’s tokens, but Reivyn smoothly deposited them back into his inner breast pocket with a smirk.

“I understand your zeal, young Josn, and it guides you well,” the older man said. He gestured with his head for Josn to accompany him as he turned his horse aside. “But we don’t have time to waste, and they have shown that they’re members of the Adventurer’s Guild. Having magical items isn’t a crime.”

The two men made their way back to the side of the formation, Josn shooting the three of them teens one last hostile look.

“Geeze, that commander needs to put a tighter leash on his dog,” Teilon complained. He was obviously loud enough for the two departing men to hear as Reivyn saw Josn stiffen in his saddle for a moment. The older man didn’t pause in his departure, though, so Josn was forced to keep up with him.

Reivyn looked over at his smirking friend. “You think he was just some zealot who was overreaching his authority?”

Teilon tilted his head as he looked at Reivyn. “What else?”

“Nine times out of ten, the older guy told him to come investigate us. He might not have told him to be a jerk about it, but he knows what kind of person his subordinate is. They were just putting on a show to try and trip us up and give ourselves over to their authority. When we didn’t lash out and just calmly identified ourselves as adventurers, that’s when the commander backed down.”

“Why did you antagonize him, though?’ Kimberly asked with a frown.

“If I had tried to outright deny any disrespect at all, he could have kept up the connection to his deity and used that as a bludgeon, but admitting I was being disrespectful toward him, specifically, I broke his narrative.”

Kimberly tapped her chin and looked up with a thoughtful expression. “That makes sense. If we let him keep up the thread that we were disrespecting Mierna or the Church directly, he might have been able to detain us, and who knows what could have happened then?”

“Well,” Teilon began with a smile toward Reivyn, “who knew you had it in you? You’re always so silent in these kinds of situations.”

“What do you mean, ‘I’m always so silent in these kinds of situations?’” Reivyn asked in confusion.

Teilon unstrapped himself from his large pack and got up to begin stretching as he said, “Well, you know, we heard about your run-in with Ren and that assassin, but you never really said anything about it.” Reivyn and Kimberly joined their friend in stretching their muscles. The last of the church cavalry passed by as they were doing their exercise. Probably two hundred or so men, Reivyn mused to himself before turning back to his friend.

“What would you have had me do? Throw a tantrum?” Reivyn rolled his eyes. “That first incident with Ren, I was basically unconscious when everything went down afterward, and he was already punished. Was I supposed to round up my squadmates and go beat him up with numbers? Was I supposed to yell and shout and make a fool of myself?

“And the assassin was killed by that adventurer, and he cut Ren’s hand off. Ren was thrown in the stockade and received a court-martial when we got back to Magron. I didn’t need to make a fuss over any of these instances, and if I had, I would have only reinforced in everyone’s mind that I was what I appear to be: a child. I think I acted appropriately for the situations.”

“When you put it like that, it makes sense,” Teilon said with a nod. “There were a few people saying you were just rolling over and taking it.”

“Pfft, what else was there to do? The situations had already been resolved beyond anything I was capable of doing. Those people are just idiots who can’t see beyond what’s right in front of their eyes.”

“Alright, alright, calm down,” Teilon said with a chuckle. “I never doubted you, I just didn’t know you were so quick-witted, was all.” Reivyn playfully shoved his friend.

The three of them bantered back and forth while playing around during their stretching. Once they were done and good and limber again, they each, in unison, stopped and looked at their packs. Teilon threw his head back and let out a loud groan.

“This is going to suck,” he complained. “How did I let you and your dad convince me this would be a good idea?”

“Because we didn’t give you a choice,” Reivyn said with a smirk. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.”

Reivyn reached down and gripped his pack on either side. It was on its back and upside down toward him. He squatted down and heaved it up and over his head, shooting his arms through the straps as he did so. The pack settled on him sitting right-side up. He attached the hip straps to focus the weight onto his lower body versus bearing all of it on his shoulders.

This was the proper method Refix had shown them to don a heavy pack. If they had tried to put the pack on from the ground, they wouldn’t be able to stand up without much greater effort, and the pack was much too unwieldy to try to swing it around to the back like a normal, lighter-weight pack.

Teilon and Kimberly soon followed, and the trio once more set out on their journey.

Reivyn and company spent several days longer on their trip to the mountains than they had when marching with the military. The Forced March skill greatly helped them reduce the time, but it was a gradual thing. It was still incredibly taxing to walk with the overweight packs in the beginning.

The skill didn’t reduce the weight or make them stronger, but it did reduce the strain they felt and their stamina consumption. The strain was still there, however, and it still accumulated to a point that the three would nearly collapse each time they stopped. It was getting longer and longer between that point, though, as the skill increased in level.

They kept the laurel crowns on their heads, and they proved invaluable. During one of their breaks, a mountain lion came waltzing out of the tree line, but it simply gave them a glance before flopping down in a sunbeam like an oversized house cat. It was uncommon to see a mountain lion prowling about down in the plains and forest, but Reivyn figured it was probably caught up in the beast tide and hadn’t gone back to its home because of the increased human activity in the area.

After a brief moment of panic, the trio kept quiet as they regained their strength. It wouldn’t have been a fatal encounter if the mountain lion had decided to attack them but they were so tired from their Forced March training, it would have left at least a few nasty injuries before it could be driven off.

Reivyn watched the large, predatory cat with contemplation.

With the effect of these crowns, it might be possible to gain the trust of a mountain lion like that. It looks and acts just like a big, aggressive cat. Surely there’s a skill for Taming. He shook his head. Maybe one day I can experiment, but we don’t really have time to be diverting toward such a thing at the moment.

The three of them didn’t have any more run-ins with predators, man or beast, but the traffic flowing in the same direction as they were picked up as they made progress. The other people traveling the road were mostly other adventurers by this point, most on foot but some on horseback. There were varying levels of quality to the gear they were sporting, and Reivyn’s group sometimes exchanged greetings with some of the younger teams.

They would need to either bolster their own ranks or join another team once they arrived at their destination, as at their current levels, it wasn’t a smart idea to challenge the dungeon with just the three of them. Sure, they could go in and garner some level of success, but it would be nearly impossible for them to clear the first floor, and it would be incredibly dangerous.

Reivyn also kept his goal of exploring further into the depths of the dungeon in the back of his mind. He had been contemplating how he could go about doing such a thing. He didn’t want to abandon his friends to go off on his own and leave them to fend for themselves, but he also didn’t want to drag them into a situation they clearly weren’t prepared for.

Best case scenario is to, at one point, join a higher-level party with all three of us, one that intends to go deeper. We can strike a deal where they let us handle the first floor for the most part, and then I could go with them to the next floor while Teilon and Kimberly retreat back to the surface. Maybe we can make a deal where Kimberly and Teilon could go in and mine the silver and other ores throughout the remainder of the week and apportion some of it to their team. I would have to do my own part or compensate them somehow, though, as that would be unfair to them.

The three young adventurers finally staggered their way up to the walls of the palisade surrounding the base.

Skill Leveled Up!
Forced March (13)

The settlement had already gone through a tremendous change since they had left. The palisade had been extended several times farther out than the initial one constructed to encompass the military, and several stone and wooden structures had already been constructed.

The paved road had been expanded and leveled out significantly to increase the quality, and new roads had been built throughout the area expanding out in the general layout of what the new town would eventually look like. It hadn’t been all that long since they had left, so not a ton of buildings had gone up, but it was definitely a far cry from when it was just rows of tents.

Teilon moved off to the side of the road after passing through the gate and dropped his pack onto the ground with a loud thump. He bent over to catch his breath after the several-miles-long hike up the mountain ridge. Reivyn and Kimberly joined him in taking a break. They had progressed enough in their skill that they weren’t at the point of collapse, but walking up an incline, even one that wasn’t very steep, with a heavy load still exhausted the three of them.

Reivyn had high enough stats that he recovered very quickly, and while his two companions were still resting, he surveyed the area around him. The streets weren’t abandoned, but there wasn’t nearly as much foot traffic as could be found in a properly established town. Most of the people out here were adventurers, and their occupation, obviously, was to adventure in the dungeon, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to Reivyn that he wouldn’t see throngs of them lining the streets.

Some of the actual buildings that had been erected already also included taverns and inns. The people getting in at the beginning were smart enough to realize that such a town would house many transient adventurers for a long time before more established families moved in to be actual citizens of the settlement, upgrading it to a town or city.

Reivyn’s eyes scanned outward, and he could see a team of engineers and masons laying the foundations for a wall much farther out than even the expanded palisade. They hadn’t noticed them on their trek up the road because they had had their heads down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. There were a few people who gave them sidelong glances, but as independent adventurers themselves, they knew that others like them sometimes went to strange lengths to temper themselves or train their skills.

There weren’t just the new taverns and inns located near the central region of the settlement, but there were also some shopfronts already constructed and areas with obvious construction set aside for expansion and allocation of commercial buildings. Small houses were also on the outskirts forming a design that mimicked the other towns and cities from the county that Reivyn had seen: commercial districts in the center surrounded by residential areas interspersed with other, smaller shops. There was also a stone building near the dungeon that was obviously the new seat of government for the budding camp.

Reivyn had briefly met the new commander of the guards for the area, but he was pretty sure that man wasn’t going to be in charge of the civil affairs. Considering the presence of the civil engineers and masons he had spotted, it made sense that a team of civil officials would have made their way here to take charge of those matters. Until it was a properly recognized town, though, any civil official wouldn’t have a title like mayor, and they would have to share or derive any of their authority from the guard commander.

The commander didn’t come off to me as someone who was interested in becoming the mayor or whatever it would be for this place, Reivyn thought. Granted, I only met him briefly and don’t know much more besides the first impression I had of him, but he didn’t seem like an administrator.

“C’mon,” Reivyn said as he saw Teilon and Kimberly catch their breath enough to also stand up and begin observing their surroundings. “Let’s go find some lodging first and ditch these ridiculous packs. Then we can get reacquainted with the surroundings.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Teilon replied. “Just… ugh… give me a second longer.” Teilon looked at his pack with obvious reluctance. Reivyn clapped him on the shoulder with a chuckle.

“The sooner we find a place to stay, the sooner we can say goodbye to these packs.” The three of them psyched themselves up briefly, and then, donning their packs once more, continued on into the heart of the camp.

Reivyn had initially planned on going to the government building to see if there was anything in there to lead the three of them in the right direction as there were no obvious signs other than the ones displayed on the outside of the taverns and inns. It might have seemed like a good enough idea to simply get a room at an inn, but they were probably constantly full, and Refix had given him a little extra money in order to pay for more secluded accommodations.

As he entered the main square, though, Reivyn spotted a smaller stone building kind of off to the side that he hadn’t seen when they first entered the camp. There was a signboard hung above the door that read “Adventurer’s Guild,” so Reivyn steered his companions toward it. The Adventurer’s Guild wasn’t just a place where people could find missions and quests; it also served as a hub to provide assistance or guidance to any of its members in the area.

The three of them dropped their packs outside the entrance to the branch building. They weren’t worried that someone would come by and steal their packs, as they only dropped the heavy ones filled with rocks. Sure, the packs themselves were valuable, but anyone who attempted to empty them of their contents would require the time to do so, and Reivyn was confident they could react in time to stop them.

This branch of the Adventurer’s Guild was incredibly bare, and it didn’t have anything other than a couple of receptionist desks and a notice board. Reivyn had expected any branch of the Adventurer’s Guild to have other accommodations attached to it, like a bar or something, but after some careful thought, he realized that it might in the future, but this building was extremely new, and there were already taverns outside that people could go to, so there was no need to provide such a service as a priority.

The three walked up to a desk with a young man sitting behind it. He was flipping through a book, as there were hardly any people inside the establishment at the moment. That wasn’t to say that it was empty, just that there weren’t enough people lined up to cause Reivyn and his friends to have to wait.

The young man placed his book aside, marking the page, as Reivyn walked up to the desk.

“How can I help you?” he asked with a smile. Even though the attendant had been sent out to man the desks of such a bare branch in a hardly established area, he maintained a professional attitude. He might actually be happy to get in on the ground floor in a place that will obviously one day be important. I don’t know.

“We just got here, and we need a place to stay,” Reivyn said. “We want something more exclusive than just a room at an inn.”

“Certainly. We provide private courtyards. You’re lucky that you got here relatively early, as there are only so many spots we were allowed to purchase. As we’re just getting settled in, though, we only have one form of courtyard available for everyone. They’re little four-bedroom houses with a small kitchenette and living space. Will that be acceptable?”

Reivyn looked to his two companions, and receiving a nod from them both, he turned back to the young man. “That would be perfect. What’s the price?”

“Since these aren’t anything special, they’re not too expensive, but, at the same time, there aren’t too many of them. It will be 3 silvers per month.”

Reivyn pulled out the coin purse his father had given him and pulled 12 silver coins. His father had given him 50 silvers, enough to pay for an entire year, but Reivyn had no idea how long they would actually be staying here on this stint, and an entire year seemed like a long time for someone who had only spent ten years alive so far. He also didn’t want to squander the money his father had given him, and he wanted to return as much of it as possible.

“We’ll go ahead and pay for four months,” Reivyn said as he handed the coins over.

“Sure thing, just give me your adventurer tokens.” He held his hand out for all three of them to hand their tokens over. Once he had them, he took out four different forms. He placed one token each on one of the forms, and for the last one, he placed all three tokens. Once done, he gave the tokens back while putting the coins away. He handed a copy of the forms over to Reivyn. “These are the contracts stipulating that you are the ones staying in the courtyard. Here.” He produced a key from somewhere. “This is the key. The courtyard you have is number seven. Just head out, turn left, and it’s the fourth one on the left side of the road.”

“Thanks, you’ve been a big help,” Reivyn said as he took the key. “Is there a copy for them?” He indicated his companions with a tilt of his head.

“I’m afraid not. That’s the only key at the moment. While you could get copies made yourselves, you’ll need to do so through the guild branch, and there will be an associated fee.”

“It’s fine,” Kimberly interjected. She looked at Teilon and Reivyn in turn. “It’s not likely that we’ll be in a situation where we’ll be separated and unable to get in.” Reivyn nodded at her words.

“You’re right. Something to consider for the future if such a situation seems likely, though.” Reivyn waved at the young man and took the papers and key. “Thanks again.”

“No problem. Have a nice day.”

The three regained their packs and made their way to the courtyard that was indicated. The guild building had been to the right of the square as they entered from the main road, so turning left had them heading back toward the outskirts on the other side of the camp.

Having said that it was the fourth building on the left made it seem like the courtyard was just right there near the central area, but that wasn’t the case. There was a large open space where a building would obviously be built sometime in the future, but there was nothing there yet.

The three of them spent several minutes walking to where they could see the courtyards in the distance. Each of the houses was built exactly the same. They were small, square buildings with a chest-height wall built around them. There was space inside the walls for a short yard and training space, and there was enough room to drive a single cart in between each wall.

They made their way to the fourth building, the one with a prominent “7” displayed at the gate of the wall—the even-numbered buildings were on the right side of the road—and Reivyn used his key to gain access to the building. There was a wooden gate that could be closed at the wall, but as it stood empty, it had been open.

“Ahh, our new home,” Reivyn said as he walked into the little living quarters. There were two small rooms off on either side of the central area, and the living space and kitchenette were also fairly small. All in all, the building was about a quarter the size of his parents’ house in Magron.

“It’s a little cramped,” Teilon said with a skeptical look. The building came furnished with one couch, and there was one bed and a chest of drawers in each room.

“More room, and, more importantly, more privacy, than a room at an inn,” Kimberly remarked as she also followed them inside, closing the door behind them. “Don’t think that I don’t know what you’ve been thinking all the way here,” she said with a knowing smirk toward Teilon. “Remember what my parents said to you before we left Haluville.”

“Whaaaat? I’ve been nothing but a perfect gentleman this whole time. Back me up, here, Reivyn.”

“Hmmm? Oh, keep your hands to yourself,” Reivyn said. Teilon looked at Reivyn in shock with his mouth agape.

“Why does everyone assume I’m the bad guy?” Teilon said with mock hurt.

“Because you are,” Kimberly said. She quickly left the two and headed to the room in the back left that she had claimed for herself. “I don’t know why you’re just standing there in the doorway. You were the one complaining the whole time about getting rid of these packs.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Teilon said. He dashed to the room next to the one Kimberly went into with a glance at Reivyn.

Reivyn just chuckled at their antics as he moved to the back right room to deposit his things.

Home, sweet home, he thought.

Chapter thirty-four

Dungeon Town

Reivyn sat in meditation on his bed practicing his Mana Absorption skill. He had found through constant practice that practicing Mana Circulation at night and Mana Absorption in the morning was the best fit for him. It was possible to practice both at the same time, but, even though the effect of increased energy one gained from absorbing mana didn’t linger after it was processed, it energized his mind and made it harder to fall asleep quickly in the evening. Conversely, it worked wonders to wake him up in the morning.

The rate of absorption had increased noticeably over the past several days, and Reivyn wondered if he was on the verge of reaching the expert level threshold. It wouldn’t be the first time that his skill level raised substantially all at once after a period of accumulation.

Reivyn could sense the different elements of mana more clearly with his eyes closed now that he had incorporated the method of sectioning off the mana into quadrants that his mother had told him about. He wasn’t actually seeing the mana, but he could faintly feel the different characteristics contained within the elements.

His brow creased as he contemplated the topic. He was able to see mana in solid objects, barely, when he activated his Mana Sight, yet he couldn’t see even a hint of the mana circulating around him when his eyes were closed. That doesn’t make any sense, he thought. When I look at my sword, I can see into the structure beyond just the surface, and that’s solid metal. My eyelids are thin flesh.

He focused his mind on the characteristics present in the mana, and he mentally superimposed what the mana motes would look like in his vision. He had to focus on keeping the mental image aligned with the rotating mana quadrants, but after several moments of maintaining the alignment, something clicked, and the mental image focused into clarity and remained in place all on its own.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 2
Sense Mana (50 ->51)

Tier 3
Mana Sight (24 ->26)

Reivyn nodded satisfaction. He turned his head around the room, and he was able to see the mana in the environment through his closed eyes. The laurel crown placed on top of his chest of drawers stood out as a little shining beacon. It must have been a mental block of some sort. I can see this being distracting when trying to sleep, so can I turn it off? With a mental flip, the Mana Sight turned off right away. It wasn’t difficult at all. He turned it back on and ended his meditation session.

Reivyn got up from his bed and looked around his small room. He still wasn’t able to see completely through solid surfaces like the walls, but he was able to more easily see further into the surfaces. More porous objects didn’t hinder his vision as they had previously, though, and he was able to see the mana in the bed underneath the blankets and sheets lying on top.

I might be able to cultivate the ability to see mana completely unimpeded if I raise the levels of my skills high enough. It’s not true sight through solid objects, but it could definitely be useful.

His ability to Sense Mana through solid objects, though, had improved. Before his session, his Sense Mana would expand out from him, and he could feel the mana within the box of his room. Now he could sense a bit of the mana that was in the living space as well as completely outside of the house on the other side of the room, but it was currently only by a foot or so.

Reivyn went into the communal living area and made himself some breakfast. As he ate at the table, he sensed agitation in the movements of the mana coming from Teilon’s room a second before the door opened and the boy himself walked through. He rummaged through the kitchenette they had put their rations away in—filling it with proper ingredients for real meals would be one of the errands they would have to run soon—and prepared breakfast for himself and Kimberly.

The noise of the breakfast preparations brought Kimberly out of her room, and, like before, Reivyn was able to sense right before she opened the door. I need to really practice these skills. It could really reduce the possibility of an ambush while delving the dungeon in the future.

The three friends greeted each other, but otherwise, they ate in silence. Teilon and Kimberly didn’t have mana skills, so they didn’t have the benefit of using Mana Absorption in the morning to assist themselves in waking up. Reivyn smirked at the sluggishness with which they moved.

“What are you smirking at?” Teilon wielded his jerky like a pointer as he jabbed it in Reivyn’s direction.

“Nothing,” Reivyn chuckled. “I figured we could look at the notice board in the guild branch to see if there are any teams recruiting. We can go and check them out and apply to join any we think would be a good fit, and if there aren’t any we can post our own notice.

“I can do that on my own, and you and Kimberly can go out and see if there are any places already set up that sell provisions for making real meals.”

Teilon grunted in acknowledgment as he continued eating. Kimberly remained silent, but she would have spoken up if she disagreed.

“Here, you hold on to the key. It’s more important that you guys be able to get in with the supplies when you need to,” Reivyn passed the key to the small house over to Teilon.

He quickly finished his breakfast and headed out the door to go search for a party.

The notice board was filled with scraps of paper. Reivyn stood with several other people and perused the contents written on the notes pinned to the board. There were several established parties seeking to bolster their ranks to delve the dungeon, but most of them were only looking for one person, sometimes two.

Reivyn had spotted a couple of notices where a small group like theirs was seeking to combine, and he had made copies to go investigate exactly what their group was like. He would have to judge whether or not they would be a good fit for each other.

The notices included cursory information about the current party members like level, class, and what they were focused on such as defending, melee, ranged, etc. There were very few groups that already had someone who was considered a caster class or could manipulate mana in a sufficient way to use it in combat. That didn’t mean that there weren’t a lot of parties that had such individuals, but it was more likely that they were full and weren’t seeking to bolster their ranks.

Seeking a caster class was the number one focus of the majority of notices that were only seeking one adventurer. The second floor has probably been at least scouted by this point by some of the more competent adventurer parties, Reivyn thought.

Reivyn spotted several notices where a party was selling information on the first floor, but there weren’t any on the second floor or beyond, if it existed. Makes sense that information on the second floor is more valuable, being hoarded by those exploring there in the early stages. I bet that once more groups start treading down there more consistently, the front runners will start to sell information on the deeper levels.

Reivyn jotted down a couple more copies. He had found a total of six other groups consisting of two or three members seeking to combine with another small party. They included instructions on where to find the groups in the local taverns or inns as they waited for their chance to delve.

The notices Reivyn had copied were ones belonging to groups that had similar power levels and experience as his group, from what he could gather on what was listed, but none of the notices included things like the personality or background of the members. Weeding out who they could fluidly mesh with was the next step on Reivyn’s to-do list.

He glanced over at another portion of the board, one with far fewer notices pinned to it, and was surprised to see that there were already missions pinned by some of the locals for adventurers to procure certain supplies for them. There were several notices for ores that could be found on the first floor of the dungeon, including one from the local garrison.

Knowing that the count was acquiring the silver ore found from the dungeon, most of the notices pinned from the locals were for a premium on the other ores that could be separated from the silver and used in crafting gear that could be sold back to the adventurers. There were even missions for adventurers to go farther up the mountain in search of monster parts and other resources that could be found in the mountain range.

Reivyn wasn’t interested in exploring farther into the mountain range to procure herbs or special types of lumber at the moment, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility to do such a thing in the future, so he kept that in the back of his mind.

Donating the silver ore to the garrison could net the party either contribution points that could be redeemed for various things, like purchasing parcels of land, or they could just receive a monetary remuneration. The contribution points weren’t limited to the local area, though. They could be redeemed anywhere in the county.

Reivyn exited the branch building. He swiped at his brow, expecting sweat to be forming, but his hand came back dry. Man, it’s really starting to get humid.

He made his way over to the closest tavern at the corner of the square leading to the front of the settlement. Reivyn could see three different taverns along the road, with the largest one being the one he headed to first. Not all of the taverns were attached to an inn, but this one was. It already stood three stories, and it was the largest building so far constructed.

They must have some backing elsewhere and really rushed to be the first and biggest. Just because most of the people coming out to the little dungeon town in the very beginning were individuals seeking their fortune didn’t mean at least some of the larger establishments weren’t already spreading their claws. There were different strategies employed: wait and purchase already built establishments or build them themselves.

Reivyn pushed his way through the entrance to the building, and the loud sounds from within immediately assaulted his senses. It wasn’t an out-of-control, drunk crowd that populated the floor of the tavern, but most of the tables were filled with people eating breakfast and conversing. Nobody was being excessively loud, but there was a big difference between the quiet, sparsely populated roads and a full tavern of people.

Reivyn pulled out the copies of the notices he had written down and scanned the crowd to search for the groups matching the descriptions on the paper. Three of the six notices he had pulled were located in this tavern, and they had said that they would be waiting inside for any interested parties.

There wasn’t a continuous stream of servers threading through the tables to provide drinks like one could expect to find in the evening, but the staff was still attentive, and the customers didn’t have to wait long for any of their needs to be seen to. Reivyn had only scanned the crowd once over when a female server approached him.

“Hi there, are you looking for an open table?” she asked Reivyn with a smile on her face. She was dressed identically to the other servers that Reivyn had seen, further solidifying in his mind that this was the branch of a larger organization.

“Actually, I’m looking to meet up with some of the parties that left notices in the guild branch,” Reivyn said. He showed the server the pieces of paper in his hand.

“Oh, several of them have notified us of their intentions. Let me see if I can help you out real quick.” The girl bent down to read the notices. “Ahh yes, two of these groups are on the floor, there and there.” She pointed to the tables in question, and Reivyn followed her direction and quickly spotted the groups. “This last one is in a private room on the second floor, room three.”

“Thank you,” Reivyn said with a nod and a smile. The server girl gave him a return smile as he poked the papers back into his pocket.

Reivyn made his way through the crowd toward the first group. It was a party consisting of three young men, and they were laughing uproariously about whatever tale was being told. The notice they had left indicated that they had one person who was focused on maintaining the enemy’s attention while the other two were ranged attackers.

The three men stopped laughing, but with smiles still on their faces, as Reivyn approached their table.

“What can I do for you?” one of the men said. He was the larger of the three, and based on his armor choice and the shield propped up nearby, Reivyn surmised that he was the leader of the group, Cal.

“I saw your notice in the branch about wanting to combine parties,” Reivyn said while displaying the note. “My name’s Reivyn, and my friends and I just arrived yesterday and we’re looking to join another party. There’s three of us.”

“Sure, sure, have a seat,” Cal said with a smile. Reivyn sat down next to him. The other two gave him a once over and then returned their attention to watching the crowd. Reivyn followed the gaze of one of them and noticed that he wasn’t watching the crowd per se, but he was instead trying to surreptitiously ogle the serving girls.

“I’m Cal. What class do you have, and what’s your current party makeup?” Cal asked. Reivyn returned his attention to the other young man seated next to him. The three of them were probably in their late teens, and the notice had indicated that they were close to Level 20 Tier 2.

“I’m a Fighter, and my two companions are Peasant Levies.” Cal frowned in thought at the revelation. “Despite being technically in Tier 1, we all have Tier 2 classes, and we have combat experience. The three of us were actually present here during the excursion that formed the base.” Reivyn produced his preferred access token to show to the other young man.

“Hmmm…” Cal rubbed his chin while he thought about it. “You say you have combat experience, and you have the proof right there, and I believe you, but what kind of experience do you have as an adventurer?”

“I’ve personally cleared the first floor of the dungeon while I was conscripted.” Cal gave an appreciative nod at that revelation. “My two friends haven’t cleared the boss room of the first floor, but they’ve delved most of the way into it, and we’re all familiar with the first floor. Kimberly is focused on keeping the opponents focused on her; Teilon is proficient in slipping in behind and devastating from behind; and I’m currently focused on ranged attack, but I’m just as proficient performing any of the roles required of me.”

Cal gave him a contemplative look while he tapped the table with his finger, lost in thought. Reivyn didn’t press him and just waited for him to work through the information he had been told, so he went back to watching the other two members.

One of the party members had a dagger out and was twirling it with the tip stuck in the top of the table. He seemed to be lost in his own little world as he hunched in on himself and his activity. He’s probably not much of an outgoing person.

The first person Reivyn had observed, though, was in the middle of trying to coax one of the serving girls to get closer to him. He wasn’t acting out of hand or anything, but he was clearly a flirt. Might be some tension between him, Teilon, and Kimberly, Reivyn thought.

“Well, I’ll have to talk about it more with my companions here.” Cal indicated to the other two, drawing Reivyn’s attention back to him. “I’m definitely intrigued by what you could bring to the table, and your first-hand knowledge of the dungeon would be a big help, but”—he paused and held his finger up for emphasis—“the fact that you’re all still technically in Tier 1 is a pretty big mark against you.”

“I understand,” Reivyn said as he nodded.

“I’m not saying we’re not interested, mind you,” Cal continued. “But right now, we’re just interested. The dungeon resets each week, so I think we’ll wait a couple of days to see if there’s anyone else that better fits with us, but if nobody shows, and, honestly, that’s likely, we’d be happy to do a run with you.”

“I’ll have to talk to my companions, too,” Reivyn said, “but that doesn’t sound like a bad option. We’ll see where things go, and I’ll let you know if we reach an agreement with another group so you’re not waiting for us and expecting to team up if we’re not available.”

“I appreciate that,” Cal said as he stuck his hand out. Reivyn reached out and clasped hands with him as he stood up.

Reivyn turned his sight to the other group that the server had pointed out to him. The next group consisted of six people, and they were all sitting in complete silence, staring at the table in front of them.

Hmm… they seem a little… dour, Reivyn mused to himself. Teilon was very much an upbeat person, and so was Kimberly to a lesser extent. This group gave Reivyn the feeling that they wouldn’t be a good match just from his first impression of them.

I can always come back again. I don’t have to meet up with them right away. Who knows, I might find a party before I even need to consider them. Also, six seems a little strange to be looking to group up with. Their notice didn’t mention six people.

Reivyn’s gut feeling was that they weren’t the best option. It might even be a better idea to wait a couple of days on the chance that Cal and his group wouldn’t meet up with another party.

Reivyn decisively turned toward the stairs and made his way up to the second floor. The tavern had a couple of rooms to stay in at the end of the second-floor hall, but most of the rooms on the second floor were private dining rooms with the third floor being the main floor for people to sleep in.

Reivyn walked up to the room on the left with a big “3” carved on it and knocked. He could hear some muffled conversation from within come to an end.

“Come in.” A muffled, feminine voice reached his ears.

Reivyn opened the door and stepped inside. There wasn’t much to the room except for a couple of simple decorations and a dining table in the center. There were three people seated at the table with the remnants of breakfast still on it: two young women and one young man, the inverse of his party makeup.

“Hello, my name’s Reivyn, and I’m here about the notice you left at the guild branch about combining parties,” Reivyn introduced himself.

The three people looked at each other before looking back at Reivyn. They looked him up and down briefly, noticing his gear and young age, but one of the young ladies nodded and indicated an open chair.

“Have a seat,” she said. Reivyn nodded and took his seat facing her. “My name is Melissa, Mel for short. What can you tell me about your group?”

Reivyn considered the girl in front of him before he responded. The notice had listed only that they ranged from Level 15-30 Tier 2, but it hadn’t said what their classes or focuses were. There was a distinct lack of gear or weapons present, so Reivyn wasn’t able to guess their party makeup, but he did get a faint sense of a higher concentration of mana being present in the two girls.

Likely to be caster classes, or able to use mana, at least. Reivyn thought. It made sense to him that they wouldn’t directly advertise that on their notice. They would immediately be swamped with countless invitations to either join their group or possibly break it up.

“My friends and I just arrived yesterday, but we’ve been here before,” Reivyn began. “We were part of the levies conscripted to come and press the count’s claim and establish this base, and I’ve personally cleared the first floor of the dungeon, twice. I’m a Fighter, and my two companions are Peasant Levies.” Reivyn paused to gauge the response from the other party at that revelation, but Melissa kept a neutral expression. “Kimberly is the vanguard and is adept at maintaining enemy focus while luring them into a trap, and Teilon is adept at sneaking into that trap and attacking from behind. I’m currently focused on range, but I’m proficient at any role.”

Reivyn looked at the other two seated in the room. The young man had an air of nonchalance, and he didn’t seem to really care about what was being said, but Reivyn picked up on the enthusiasm the other young girl displayed on her face. Probably at the mention of Kimberly’s name. I can see that she would be happier to group up with another party not consisting entirely of men.

Upon closer examination of the others, Reivyn noticed that the two girls looked very similar to each other. They had the same auburn hair and green eyes, and their facial features, while not identical, clearly showed that they were sisters. Reivyn would place Melissa around the age of sixteen, and the other girl seemed a bit younger. The young man accompanying them didn’t look like he was a family relation as he had dark brown hair and eyes, and he did not have similar facial features.

They didn’t say which one was Level 30 and which one was Level 15, but if I had to guess, the younger girl is the lowest level. It’s still pretty impressive that someone who’s fourteen or fifteen years old is already around Level 15 in Tier 2. Most of Reivyn’s squadmates in the Lord’s Retinue had been around nineteen or twenty years old, and their levels were closer to 10 in Tier 2, aside from the NCOs, of course.

“Judging by your aura,” Reivyn continued, “I’m also willing to inform you that I have the Sense Mana and Mana Manipulation skills. I can use my mana offensively, though limitedly, in combat.”

Melissa shared a look with her sister.

“Well, I see that our—” Melissa began.

“You’re hired!” the younger girl shouted out. Melissa rolled her eyes and gave her sister a withering look before turning back to Reivyn, who was staring at the young woman in surprise.

“Don’t mind her,” Melissa said. “As I was saying.” She gave a stern look toward her sister, who shrunk down in her seat with a sheepish look on her face. “It seems that you were able to sense our mana. Yes, my sister and I are caster classes. I’m an Ice Mage, and Larissa, my sister, is a Fire Mage. They’re both Rare Classes. Erik”—Melissa nodded toward the young man—“is also a Fighter, but his role is the vanguard.”

“I see,” Reivyn said with a nod. “I’m going to be upfront. My goal, personally, is to delve deeper into the second floor eventually, and I know that having a caster class in the party is most likely a requirement. I’ll have to talk to my companions, but I don’t think they’ll turn down an invitation to group up with you, so it’s all on you at this point.”

“Yes, I think it would be best if we met up with your companions before we make any finalized deals, but my sister says she wants to join up with you, so we’ll reach a preliminary agreement then,” Melissa said. Her way of speaking was very composed, and Reivyn could tell that she had some formal education.

“Alright then,” Reivyn said as he stood up. He shook Melissa’s hand. “My friends are procuring supplies at the moment, but I can bring them around this afternoon if that works for you.”

“That works,” Melissa replied. “We’ll be waiting for your return, and if all goes well, we could possibly be in the dungeon tomorrow.”

Reivyn smiled and waved his farewell to the two girls. Erik was still apparently not concerned, but Reivyn could feel the other man’s attention on him the entire time he had been in the room. He could hear the muffled conversation start back up once he closed the door.

Alright, that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, Reivyn thought. He had a smile on his face as he made his way back down the stairs. He wouldn’t tell Cal immediately that he had reached an agreement with another party. It would be more prudent to wait until they officially merged.

If all goes to plan, we could “officially” begin our adventures tomorrow.

Chapter thirty-five

Might and Magic

Reivyn and Teilon walked alongside each other as they emerged from the tunnel leading into the partitioned-off sub-space of the dungeon. Erik walked in front of them by himself, not really interacting with anyone, but he kept his head on a swivel as soon as they stepped out into the open. Kimberly walked with Melissa and Larissa behind the two boys.

Larissa had latched on to the new girl almost immediately. Despite being at least a year older than Kimberly, Larissa acted a bit juvenile as compared to Kimberly. She’s probably been sheltered her whole life and used to acting in the role of the younger, precocious sister, Reivyn observed.

Reivyn wouldn’t say he could guess exactly what kind of situation the girls grew up in or what their background was, but he could surmise it was at least from a wealthy family. Kimberly, on the other hand, had grown up as a run-of-the-mill commoner, so she was a bit more world-weary.

“Hold up for a moment, Erik,” Reivyn called out to the leading young man. Erik was attired in plated mail over chainmail, a step up above what the common soldiers wore and reminiscent of what the officers wore. He was armed with a kite shield that covered his torso from his shoulders to just below his groin and an arming sword.

Erik didn’t carry any long-reach weapons like a spear. In contrast, Reivyn carried a spear, a sword, a shield, and a sling with an ammunition pouch. He also had his tessen squared away in his interior breast pocket. Teilon, likewise, was also armed with more than just his daggers, as he was also armed with a spear that he was walking with casually draped over his shoulders. Until they made it farther down into the dungeon and fought the more organized Orcs, it made sense for Teilon to use the spear against the hordes of goblins they would find.

Erik came to a stop, but he kept scanning his surroundings. On the surface, it appeared that he was ignoring Reivyn and his companions, but Reivyn had learned better after interacting with the new group for a while. Erik seemed to be some sort of bodyguard, and he was always watching the surroundings while listening to everything that was going on around him. He didn’t interact with the other party members, at least while Reivyn and the others were involved, but he always responded to any words directed at him.

“I’ll repeat what we’re likely to find in the dungeon one more time before we go any further,” Reivyn said as the three girls joined him and Teilon. “I’ve been in the dungeon twice, and Teilon and Kimberly went into the dungeon twice together, so that makes four separate instances. In every single case, we found the exact same thing: one goblin patrol near the surface, several branching hallways ending in open rooms of sleeping goblins with sentries, one mining room with goblins and Orc overseers, and then the living quarters of the Orcs followed by the boss room.”

Melissa nodded with a serious expression on her face, and Larissa bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet in excitement.

“The method we used in our squad was to break up into groups of four to tackle the goblin rooms and leapfrog our way down so as to progress as fast as possible, but we had thirteen people in our squad. We only have six with us. I’m confident we could handle the goblin rooms if we separated into two groups of three, but for this run, I think we should stick together the first couple of rooms so that we can see what the others are capable of.”

“I agree,” Melissa said. “We’ll watch how you guys handle the first room, and then we’ll show you what we can do with the second room. We can discuss further after that.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Reivyn said.

The two groups had defaulted into having Melissa and Reivyn speak for them, and so far it had worked out well. Teilon and Kimberly were perfectly aware of Reivyn’s fighting prowess and his experience in the dungeon, and they weren’t interested in jockeying for perceived power as the group leader, and Melissa was apparently used to being the one in charge of her group, and her companions just naturally followed her.

“Alright,” Reivyn concluded. “There’s nothing to find topside in the dungeon, no monsters, and no resources, so let’s just head into the cave. It’s up the slope a little way.”

Erik once more proceeded as the vanguard. Even though Reivyn had said there was nothing to find above ground, Erik never let his guard down. Reivyn nodded at the sight.

The group made their way into the cave and proceeded along the tunnels. Melissa and Larissa marveled at the hazy illumination that followed them, having not seen something like it before.

Erik maintained his spot in the lead with Reivyn and Teilon right behind. It wasn’t necessary for Kimberly to assume her role as a vanguard just yet, so she continued to walk alongside the other girls. Teilon also acted responsibly and quit walking with his staff thrown across his shoulders, holding it in a more ready position.

The goblin patrol was quickly encountered, and Erik charged right into their midst and displayed incredible competency with his sword and shield. He was just as able to bash his opponents using the shield as a weapon as he was at using it to deftly deflect any stray attacks that reached him. Reivyn and Teilon simply watched as Erik massacred the goblins in short order. They weren’t stunned into inaction, they just weren’t needed.

“Oh, oh, oh,” Larissa exclaimed. “I wanna see!” Larissa had been too far back to actually watch the destruction that Erik had wrought on the little green pests. She was too short to see over or through the others who were standing in her way.

She quickly ran up to the group of dead goblins and bent down to inspect them.

“Ewww, are these goblins?” She poked at one with her finger. It squished against the pressure, and blood seeped out of the wounds covering it. Larissa jumped up in shock and flailed her hands around before rubbing them on her pants. “Gross, gross!”

“Larissa!” Melissa gave a low shout. She leveled a stern gaze at her sister as Larissa returned to her side, her head ducked and a sheepish grin on her face. “Compose yourself.”

“Awww, you’re no fun,” Larissa said as she grabbed her older sister’s hand. She swung it back and forth like a petulant child. Reivyn smiled at the antics as he was reminded of his own sisters.

“It’s fine,” Reivyn said. “They are disgusting little creatures. But there’s way more of them where that came from. C’mon, let’s continue.”

The group made their way to the first branching corridor in no time. Kimberly took her position in the front with Teilon slightly behind and to the side of her. He wasn’t equipped with a shield, so while he was going to act as a front melee combatant, he was going to mainly assist with Kimberly holding the brunt of the attention. Reivyn had his sling and ammunition in hand to help direct the flow of battle, but he was ready to step in at any time with either sword or spear if necessary.

While the squad that Reivyn had served in had mainly been focused on using the spear by itself and a sword and shield combination, there was nothing preventing one from using their shield with their spear, and Kimberly had especially been training for such a situation. Her levels in Peasant Levy had provided her with a higher strength stat than she would have been able to achieve as a Villager, so she had no problem with the weight and balance of using the spear one-handed with a shield.

The trio led the way down the corridor. Reivyn temporarily took point so he could eliminate the sentry that would inevitably be sleeping at the entrance to the open room. As he expected, the sentry was dozing in his usual spot, and as its nose was twitching at the intruding scent of the adventurers, struggling to wake up, Reivyn smashed its skull with a smooth stone from his sling.

Reivyn hooked his sling to his belt and drew his sword as Teilon attached his spear to his back and drew his daggers.

“Alright, our smell wakes them up pretty quickly, but Teilon and I will dash in to kill a few before returning to our spots at the hall entrance in order to thin the horde out a bit.”

Melissa and her two companions watched as Reivyn and Teilon activated their Sneak skills and dashed in silently to wreak havoc on several of the sleeping goblins before they were alerted to their presence. The duo killed three goblins each before one finally woke from the sounds and smells and released a piercing shriek. Reivyn and Teilon quickly dashed back to the hallway and took up their places.

Kimberly expertly maintained the defense of the choke point, Teilon assisting in killing the goblins and keeping any from moving around Kimberly’s side to reach into the corridor. Reivyn pelted the goblins with his sling, keeping them from overwhelming Kimberly on the other side. Their synergy was in full form.

Reivyn felt he wasn’t actually needed too much, as Teilon and Kimberly pretty much had a handle on the situation all on their own. If they weren’t in such a favorable position with the walls of the corridor funneling the goblins together, he would have been required to put forth more effort, maybe even joining in at melee range. As it was, he decided he could experiment a little.

Reivyn grabbed a stone from his pouch and focused his intent on it. He infused the stone with his earth mana, and sent it hurtling into the goblin horde. It completely obliterated one of the goblin heads it smashed into, and it continued on to brain another that was behind the first. Reivyn nodded his head at the increased might of the projectile. It had only taken him about 20 mana points to perform the action.

Next, Reivyn wrapped a stone in air mana, and he sent that one flying soon after. This time the stone wasn’t given a more solid mass to smash through obstacles, but instead, it sailed through the air at an incredible speed. It pierced right through four goblins in succession and continued even after until it hit the far wall, disintegrating into smithereens at the impact.

Reivyn widened his eyes at the sight. He hadn’t expected it to contain so much lethality. I wonder what would happen if I do both? Infuse the inner part of the stone with earth mana and wrap the whole thing in air mana?

Reivyn put thought to action, and after draining 60 mana points, because using two different affinities wasn’t a simple one-plus-one equation, the stone shot through the goblin horde. Not only did it pierce through the goblins it encountered, the weight behind it actually created a small vacuum in its wake, and several of the nearby goblins were pulled off balance.

Okay. It’s a bit expensive, so it’s not a viable option for ordinary encounters, but that move could definitely cause some serious harm to the ogre in the boss room. Reivyn was pleased with the results of his experimentation.

The battle quickly ended after that, and Kimberly and Teilon were only slightly winded from the exertion. The goblins weren’t much of a threat in this environment, and it took just a bit of effort and stamina to wipe them out. The three quickly cleaned off the blood from their weapons and armor and turned to the three waiting companions.

“Impressive,” Melissa commented. “Why would you put yourselves into a dangerous situation, though, at the beginning like that?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t necessary,” Reivyn agreed. “We just wanted to display our full capabilities to you. We wouldn’t normally do such a thing, but we figured showing you our Sneak skills in action would give you a better understanding of what we can do with it. And we were never really in any danger performing such a maneuver.” Reivyn shrugged.

“I see,” Melissa said. “In that case, yeah, it makes sense. You said that this is the standard setup for several more rooms along the tunnels?” Reivyn nodded his head at the question. “Okay, we’ll take the next one and show you what we can do.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Reivyn said. “There’s not any loot to be found in any of these top rooms, so there’s no need to waste time looking. We can find some ores to harvest later in the mine.”

The party of six continued making their way down the tunnels, and Melissa and Larissa took up position directly behind Erik. Teilon took the opportunity to walk next to Kimberly and make some small talk before they reached the next corridor leading to the sleeping goblins. They didn’t need to maintain silence throughout their entire journey, but there was no reason to risk waking one of the sleeping sentries if they didn’t have to.

Erik walked down the corridor with his shield up and sword at the ready. Knowing what to expect ahead of them, Melissa held her hand out and a visible manifestation of mana swirled into a small projectile made out of ice. As soon as the next sleeping goblin sentry came into view, Melissa flicked her hand forward, and the ice shard pierced into its neck at a speed no slower than a released arrow.

Erik took up a position at the choke point, and the two girls stepped up to channel their mana. Reivyn activated his Mana Sight to see if he could gain a glimpse into exactly what they were doing.

Complicated threads of ice and fire mana pulled together, respectively, made some intricate patterns at a blazing speed. Reivyn widened his eyes at the display. There’s no way I could manipulate mana that quickly or precisely just with my passive skills. They must be using their class skills assisted by the System to do such a thing. At mid–Tier 2 levels, I don’t believe their skill levels are so far above mine that they could do that freestyle.

Melissa threw both of her hands out in the direction of the goblins, and the mana she had accumulated shot out and spread over the surface of the floor, covering the entirety of the sleeping goblins. Reivyn’s group watched as the goblins didn’t just twitch their noses at the scents assaulting them, but their entire bodies started to shiver at the sudden cold.

Walls of ice extended up from the ground surrounding the perimeter of where the ice-covered the floors, creating a smaller walled-in area inside the room. Larissa, beside her, had built up a raging inferno hovering between her hands, and as soon as the walls went up, she released it into the center of the goblins.

The ball of fire exploded, sending flames and a shockwave expanding out, but the walls of ice contained the force of the explosion, amplifying it as it bounced back into the center to devastate the goblins several times over. The ice walls had been built in such a way that they were brittle, and the shockwave caused them to shatter and pelt the goblins further with shrapnel.

Complete silence met the group of six party members. Not a single goblin had even woken up before they were killed by the combined might of the two casters.

Larissa jumped up and pumped her fist into the air as she yelled, “Yeah! That’s how it’s done.” She turned to the group with a wide grin on her face.

Melissa was much less exuberant, but she also sported a smile on her face as she turned to face Reivyn. Teilon and Kimberly stood staring, their mouths agape.

Reivyn scratched the back of his head as he took in the carnage.

“Yeah, that was way more impressive than what we did.” Reivyn coughed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Melissa replied. “My sister and I have been training together for a long time, and we have the skills necessary to perform such a feat, though we can’t do it indefinitely.”

“Speaking of, how much mana did that cost you?” Reivyn asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s no problem. The Ice Bolt I initially cast cost me two mana points, but the spell I cast into the room was actually two spells I combined into one that I refer to as the Ice Tomb. It’s the spell Slick Ground combined with Ice Walls, and at the area covered it cost 30 mana points each, so 60 mana.”

“Oh, oh, oh, I used a custom spell, too!” Larissa said in excitement. “I also have Fire Bolt, and it’s basically the same thing as Mel’s, but I used Inferno Blast, which is a combination of Inferno and Fire Blast. The spell cost is based on how much mana I accumulate as opposed to the area that Mel covers, but I also used 60 mana points.”

Larissa struck up a pose to show how pleased she was with herself. Reivyn had to admit that witnessing those spells used together was an eye-opener. He had seen Knight-Captain Reifold use some powerful spells before, but he was a high Tier 3, and these two girls were only one-third of the way through Tier 2, yet they were able to do so much damage in such a short amount of time.

Reivyn didn’t know how much mana they had, but as rare caster classes with a focus on the mental stats, they were bound to have significantly higher mana pools than he had at the moment.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand.” Reivyn voiced his doubts. “Why did your spells cost so few mana points? If I was capable of doing the same thing, I wouldn’t even have enough mana to do so, much less only expend 60 mana points.”

Melissa chuckled at the question.

“Yeah, if I tried to do that with just Mana Manipulation and no class designed for it, no way would I be able to do so. Those were class skills, though, and the System handles the heavy lifting for us. We just guide, direct, and fuel the System’s actions, basically. That means that the mana usage is considerably less. It’s possible to perform the same spells without the help of the System, and it’s even possible for it to cost the same amount of mana. It would require an extremely high Mana Manipulation skill, as well as a very high elemental affinity, though.”

“Hmmm… yes, I can see that,” Reivyn said while rubbing his chin in contemplation. “I guess I’ll have to just stick to my little tricks while training up my affinities and skills.”

“Oh? Are you going to try and unlock a Spellblade class or something similar?” Melissa asked. The group didn’t have anything to clean up or search for, so they spoke as they walked down the corridor.

Reivyn and Melissa walked together. Erik was out front, and Larissa was bouncing around Teilon and Kimberly, pestering the couple with, “Did you see? Did you see? I was awesome,” over and over. Kimberly was amused by her antics and played along with the other girl with a twinkle in her eyes. Teilon walked along with a sullen expression, as this was his valuable “alone time” with Kimberly, but he didn’t voice any discontent. He was also incredibly impressed by the display of raw power.

“I’m not too sure, yet, but I know that I want my next class to be focused on mana and my mental stats. My mental stats were actually my highest inherent stats, but due to circumstances outside of my control, I was forced into the Fighter class at Tier 1. I’ll tell you the whole story some other time when we’re out of the dungeon.

“I’m not complaining, mind you. I spent a lot of time training in weapons and on my physical stats, so much so that I hit the wall of diminishing returns a long time ago, but I don’t want my other talents to go to waste.”

Melissa’s eyebrows raised, and she gave an appreciative murmur at the revelation.

“Well, I can tell you that Mage is the uncommon Tier 2 class focused on mana, but they don’t get any powerful spells at all. They basically only get the basic Magic Bolt spells of the basic affinities and accelerated growth in their mana skills. An elementally focused Mage, like me and my sister, is of the rare variant. We give up the easy usage of the other elements in favor of one, but the tradeoff is well worth it.

“We get access to powerful spells assisted by the System as you have seen, but we also get an increased control of Mana Manipulation in our chosen element, which lets us experiment with freestyle usage. I could cast the same spells freestyle at only about three times the cost, though that’s because I’ve studied the spell structures extensively. Starting off, or if someone didn’t investigate their spells, the increased ability wouldn’t be enough to offset the cost.”

“So does that mean that you’re going to be focused on an ice-attributed caster class going forward?” Reivyn’s interest was piqued.

“Not at all,” Melissa chuckled. She reached out and touched Reivyn’s shoulder as she replied. The gesture was friendly and completely natural. “Selecting an elementally focused class doesn’t exclude their other elements in the future, but it does accelerate the growth of that affinity while I have the class.

“My sister and I come from a family that has a high affinity for both ice and fire elements, and we train together not just to increase the synergy of our spells, but because we can observe each other’s spells and Mana Manipulation in tandem. We’re working toward an epic Tier 3 class of duality between ice and fire. Several of our family members have gone through the same route going way back in our lineage, so we have an accurate road map to achieve our goals.”

“That’s fascinating,” Reivyn said. “My dad has a martial combat class and my mother has a caster combat class. My sisters have shown some promise with mana, as well, but they’re still only six years old, almost seven. They’re twins, by the way.”

Reivyn didn’t feel any compunction in revealing this information, as he wasn’t going into any specifics, and he wasn’t likely to team up with Melissa and Larissa for all that long. They would most likely never meet his family, and Melissa’s charisma made Reivyn feel comfortable around his new party members.

“So, you sound like you come from a fairly prominent background,” Reivyn remarked while looking at Melissa out of the corner of his eyes.

Melissa smiled at the obvious leading statement. “I’ll tell you some other time when we’re out of the dungeon.”

“Right. Well, since we’re still in the dungeon, let’s decide what to do next,” Reivyn replied. “I say we break up our groups and combine them so we all get a chance at working together. Next room we can have Kimberly, Teilon, and Larissa handle the goblins. Then you, Erik, and I can take the room after.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Melissa agreed. “I think we should take a couple of rooms like that so we can have a chance to practice together, then we can switch it up again. We also need to have Kimberly and Erik fight side-by-side at some point, as well.”

“Agreed,” Reivyn said.

He looked forward to working with this new group. If everything worked out well, he might not have to search for a higher-level party to explore the next floor of the dungeon. With the power that Melissa and Larissa showed earlier, it should be feasible to put up a fight with what they could potentially find in the depths, as long as it wasn’t anything ridiculous. Even then Reivyn was confident they would be able to work together to escape in such a situation.

Reivyn smiled as the pieces to his goal of gaining sufficient life experience were falling into place.

Chapter thirty-six

Magical Mashup

The stink of unwashed goblins, blood, and excrement filled Reivyn’s nose. He had long gotten used to it, so he wasn’t in any danger of getting nauseous, but the same couldn’t be said for Larissa.

Reivyn had to step up next to Kimberly to assume a melee role once they split their groups up. He had already conducted a few rounds of combat with Melissa. Everyone had gotten a gauge of how to work well with each other, with the exception of Kimberly and Erik both acting as the vanguard together. This would be the final, necessary step in order to tackle the boss room.

Reivyn could hear Larissa huffing and puffing in displeasure behind him as they fought off the goblin horde. He snuck a quick glance behind him to see how well she was doing. She was holding her shirt collar up above her nose in an attempt at anything to stem the strong smells from assaulting her. By the sounds she was making and the frown on her face, Reivyn could tell it wasn’t working.

Reivyn continued the almost mindless slaughter of the goblin horde. With his abilities and their lack of any, he didn’t have to maintain too much focus on the task at hand in order to perform properly.

He mused on the abilities of the two casters they had found themselves teamed up with. While they weren’t as powerful without pairing up, the two girls were still competent spell casters, and where Melissa lacked in lethality, she made up for in utility.

When he had been paired up with her, she had expertly used her Slick Ground and Ice Wall spells to trip up, cut off, and direct the goblin horde’s movements. Barriers of ice had sprung up to separate the enemy into smaller units, and the icy ground caused them to flail about without being able to even build up any momentum in charging them. While Reivyn and Kimberly were able to easily dispatch the units funneled to them, Melissa continued to attack individual goblins with her Ice Bolt spell.

Larissa, on the other hand, was pure destruction. While she couldn’t reproduce the rebounding force and shrapnel effect of their combined might, her custom Inferno Blast spell was still plenty lethal. She would accumulate the spell in her hands as they made their way to the open room, and then she would release it into the center of the sleeping goblins. It didn’t kill everything, but it did put down over half of them.

Her expenditure in mana in that opening attack was much more than what Melissa would do, though, so she spent the rest of the battles trying to prevent the stink from reaching her.

Reivyn and Kimberly quickly killed the remnants of the room and ended the combat. Larissa didn’t even wait to be told as she immediately sprinted several yards away until she could breathe relatively fresher air. Reivyn watched in amusement as she gulped huge breaths to recover.

“You’ll get used to it,” Reivyn said with a smile.

Larissa gave him a sideways glare.

“I don’t want to get used to it! Bleh,” she spat. “Why did we have to come all the way out here just to fight some stinking goblins?” Her enthusiasm at encountering the little green critters had quickly waned after a couple of hours in the cave system.

“Yeah, why did you come all the way out here to ‘fight some stinking goblins’?” Reivyn asked as they walked down the corridor.

“School credits,” Larissa replied. She looked over at Reivyn when there was no response, and the look on his face was one of expecting more of an answer. “We’re students of the Magic Academy in the Capital. We can get school credits through ‘adventuring’ and delving dungeons. We came all the way out here because we can get bonus points.”

“Bonus points?”

“Yeah. We can get more points from gaining more life experience, and not only does delving a newly established dungeon grant more LE, but the entire trip out here goes into the calculation. Considering the long trip out here adds more points and isn’t just a huge waste of time in itself, my sister proposed to come delve this dungeon.”

“I see,” Reivyn said. He would have to pick their brains later about the Magic Academy. It also wouldn’t hurt to gain some friends beforehand. Having acquaintances in the academy and Capital would really make things a lot easier on him in the future.

Now wasn’t the time to go into the details of the academy, though, as they were still in the midst of their delve. Reivyn didn’t want to distract Larissa, or her other two companions, from focusing on the task at hand.

“There’s something I want to try in the next room,” Reivyn said to Larissa. “There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a little while now ever since your sister explained how the System operated the class skill spells, but your sister’s affinity isn’t quite appropriate for what I want to try out.”

“Oh, oh, oh, what do you want to do?” The prospect of doing something different with her mana got Larissa excited again.

“It’s nothing much on your part,” Reivyn said. Larissa sighed as she calmed down from the cold damper Reivyn had put on the topic. “Your sister said that one of the reasons your class spells cost so much less is because the System does the heavy lifting while you guide and fuel it.” Larissa nodded at his statement. “Following that line of thinking, I thought that there might be a way for us to combine our mana, and I can guide and fuel your spell.

“Basically, I’m going to coat my sword in pure mana, and I want you to try and ignite the mana with your Inferno spell and see if I can keep it going independently of you.”

“Hmmm…” Larissa tapped her chin in thought. “I think that could work. Everyone in the Magic Academy is a caster class, so there’s really no option for them to experiment like this, but I’m sure you’re not the first one to think of such a thing. Even if we can’t get it to work, I’m sure your idea is feasible.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think I was breaking any new ground here. I’m just trying to learn as many things as I can on my own.”

“Alright, let’s do it!” Larissa pumped her fist.

Reivyn chuckled at the other’s actions. It felt like she was the youngest person on the team, and Reivyn had to constantly remind himself that he was, in fact, the youngest person in the group. Larissa was even older than Kimberly and Teilon. She just has that kind of a personality.

Larissa quickly made her way to Kimberly’s side, and the two girls conversed with their heads together as Reivyn led them further into the dungeon.

Reivyn had decided to conduct his experiment with his sword instead of the spear for a couple of reasons. First, it was a mana sword and would conduct his mana a lot easier than any of his other weapons, and, second, his spear was made of wood, and he was afraid it would catch on fire.

There was only one more room for them before they reached the mining room, and since they were going to join back up once more with the other three at that point, this was the last goblin room they had for Reivyn to attempt his idea.

They quickly made their way to their next destination, and after Reivyn silently dispatched the sentry with his sling, they all stopped short in order to try to ignite his mana.

Reivyn concentrated as he sent his mana into the sword. It was indeed very simple for him to conduct his mana through the mythril core of the sword, but the mana was inside the sword. That wouldn’t work for the idea he had, so he concentrated again and expanded the mana to coat the edges of the weapon.

Once he had it, it didn’t take too much mana to maintain. Since he wasn’t using any elemental mana and he was conducting it through a mana sword, it only cost him two mana points per second to hold.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Reivyn said.

Larissa frowned at the sword as she activated her Mana Sight and directed her base Inferno spell into the mana coating the sword. It caught fire and spread to surround the entire sword, and Reivyn could feel the drain on his mana tick up a point as he began fueling the fire.

“Success!” Reivyn exclaimed. Larissa clapped her hands in glee. He hadn’t expected it to be so simple and easy, but his joy was quickly cut off as he encountered a different problem.

“Hot, hot, hot!” Reivyn exclaimed. The heat from the Inferno spell was no joke, even with the small amount being fueled on his sword. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Reivyn threw up a screen of mana infused with the water element. It acted as a heat sink between him and the fire, and he was immediately spared from the heat.

“Whew, that was close,” Reivyn said. If he hadn’t acted to throw up the thin barrier, he would have had to give up on the mana fueling the Inferno spell. A blinking light caught his attention, and he quickly pulled up his notifications.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 3
Mana Manipulation (18 ->20)

Tier 4
Mana Weapon (9 ->11)

New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3
Mana Shield (1)

Interesting. That mana screen counts as its own unique skill, and the new technique seems to combine easily with my Mana Weapon skill. That’s probably why we succeeded so easily. Reivyn could feel that his ability to maintain the thin Mana Shield got easier once the skill was unlocked.

“Alright, let me try out the might of this combination,” Reivyn said.

He stepped up to the choke point and whistled. There was no reason to wait for the goblins to slowly wake up on their own. That would just deplete more of his mana. Reivyn indicated to Kimberly to wait behind him for now.

Reivyn stood with his shield raised and his sword at the ready. He locked the position of the Mana Shield to rotate around his body but always be between him and the flaming sword. Kimberly and Larissa stayed further away, just at the edge of the heat radiating from the weapon.

The goblins quickly woke up at the intrusion. They shrieked as they amassed together and charged toward Reivyn.

Before they even reached halfway to him, Reivyn slashed out with his sword while simultaneously infusing a huge burst of mana into it. With his willpower, he directed the new mana to extend from the tip of his blade, and a huge scythe of fiery death reaped through the goblin horde. All of the goblins hit with the fiery blade were cut in half. The two halves of their bodies were instantly cauterized.

Reivyn released his hold on the mana with surprise. He had instantly slain the entire room full of goblins, but it had come with a price. Fueling the Inferno spell out to such a reach, plus what was already being used to maintain it, had sucked almost 80% of Reivyn’s mana points out of him in that brief moment. A splitting headache immediately assaulted him, and he cupped his head in his hands with a groan.

“Wow…” Kimberly was left speechless.

“That was awesome!” Larissa bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. She looked over to Reivyn to congratulate him on his successful use of the combination, but she saw him crouching down in pain. “Oh! That must have cost a lot of mana.” She quickly ran over and placed her hands on either side of his head.

Reivyn’s head was pounding, and he was barely aware of his surroundings as he tried to focus on recovering from the sudden expenditure of almost all of his mana. Suddenly, he felt a gentle pressure on either side of his temples followed by a warm trickle of mana that immediately caused his headache to recede a considerable amount. It was still there, but it wasn’t all-encompassing any longer.

Reivyn took in a deep breath as he straightened up. The headache began to increase in intensity right away, though, and he winced at the discomfort.

“No, no, no,” Larissa admonished him. “You’re suffering from a backlash of using too much of your mana too fast. As students in the Magic Academy, my sister and I have a lot of experience with such a thing. Crouch back down and let me continue infusing mana.

“While I can’t replenish your mana points directly, the presence of my mana coursing into your system will alleviate the headache until you regain enough for it to go away on its own.”

Reivyn grunted in acknowledgment and quickly squatted back down. Larissa put her hands back on his head and continued to help him get through the backlash. From the sounds of what Larissa said, it would take several minutes for him to recover, so Reivyn pulled up his notifications once again.

Achievement!
Unlock a Class Skill of a different Class!
Through the manipulations of your own mana, you were able to figure out and execute a Class Skill from a different Class as your own!

Class Skill Unlocked!
Flame Blade (10)
Due to the circumstances of unlocking the Class Skill, it is available to you in any Martial or Caster Class, and its base level and growth rate are enhanced.

Reivyn was shocked at the contents of the notification. He didn’t know it was possible to acquire other class skills.

Since it’s possible to acquire other classes’ class skills, it should be possible to unlock my current class skills as permanent, too. But since I already have the System assisting me in doing them, and I don’t know how it performs the skills, how do I go about doing that? Reivyn refocused his mind on the notification as there was more.

Achievement!
Unlock a Class Skill of a higher Tier Class!
Error. Calculating…
Tier 2 Class in Tier 1
Precedent Exists
Unlocked a Class Skill two Tiers higher than current Tier!
All Stats +3

Nice! This will reduce my stat requirements even further. Reivyn was ecstatic at the notification. One of the main goals he had set for himself was to not only gain the mental stats required to unlock a good Tier 3 class, but he also needed to accumulate achievements and life experience. He hadn’t even been trying to accomplish any kind of special feat with his actions, so this was an unexpected boon.

“Ahem.” A cough brought Reivyn out of his thoughts. “What’s going on here?”

Reivyn opened his eyes and turned his head to see Melissa standing with her arms folded, glaring at him. He came back to himself and realized that his head was currently being cradled in Larissa’s embrace. When did she hug my head to her? I thought she just had her hands alongside my temples. He had been too focused on his notifications and hadn’t noticed the change.

Larissa removed her hands and jumped away from Reivyn. “It’s not what it looks like!” She waved her hands out in front of her as Melissa tapped her foot on the ground with an eyebrow raised. “He lashed his back, and his points were low mana, and, and…” Larissa was so flustered that she was completely incoherent.

Melissa couldn’t hold her stern expression any longer and started laughing at her sister’s failed attempts at explaining the situation.

“It’s okay,” she said while still chuckling. “I could tell what you were doing from the very beginning. It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone treat a backlash from mana expenditure. We felt a huge surge of mana being used over here, so we came to investigate. I put two and two together.”

Larissa stomped her foot and thrust her fists down by her side.

“Hmph! You made me feel self-conscious about helping someone.” Larissa turned her head to the side and lifted her chin. “I’m not talking to you.”

Luckily the increase in his mental stats had come with an increase in his mana points, so Reivyn’s headache reduced to a slight throb on its own, and he no longer needed Larissa’s assistance in staving off the pain.

Melissa walked up to Reivyn and put her hand on his forehead while she surveyed the carnage in the room. She infused a trickle of her mana through Reivyn’s head as she gave a low whistle at the sight of the bisected goblins.

“Whatever it was you did was sure effective,” she said.

“Well, I don’t mind telling you,” Reivyn said. Melissa looked at him with expectation. “I coated my sword—you’ll notice it’s a mana sword if you take a look—in pure mana and had your sister ignite it with her Inferno spell. It worked, and I took over fueling the magic. It wasn’t too difficult to maintain at only about 3 mana points a second.

“I had to quickly improvise a Mana Shield made of water element to protect myself from the heat, though,” he continued with an embarrassed smile. “What really cost a lot of mana was when I decided to see if I could extend the flame blade out past my sword. It drained 80% of my mana in an instant, but you can see for yourself how well it worked.”

“Yes, that makes sense. Fusing our mana together will be one of the ways Larissa and I will unlock our epic class,” Melissa replied.

“I didn’t know that,” Larissa said as she looked over at her sister. “I only knew we had to train together a lot to learn from one another.”

“Well, you just haven’t reached that point in your education, yet,” Melissa said to her sister with a smile.

“Oh right,” Larissa said as she resumed facing the other way with her head tilted up. “I forgot. I’m not talking to you.”

Melissa rolled her eyes at her sister’s antics.

“Okay, I should be able to recover my mana well enough on the way to the boss room,” Reivyn said as he began walking down the hall. They resumed their earlier “formation” with Erik in front, Reivyn walking next to Melissa, and Kimberly and Teilon being inundated by the exuberance from Larissa.

“The next room will be the mine. It will be mostly goblins, but there will be several Orc overseers, as well. Following that will be the living quarters of the Orcs. With all of us together, I don’t see there being any problems. We’ve all gotten a good look at what everyone is capable of, and the following rooms will be good for Kimberly and Erik to practice their coordination, which will be necessary for the boss room.”

“You plan on clearing the boss room?” Melissa asked with some surprise.

“Sure. Our combat strength is definitely higher than the requirement to defeat it.” Reivyn nodded his head.

“Didn’t you have thirteen people in your squad when you cleared it?”

“Yeah, but we didn’t have magic.” Reivyn smiled. “Speaking of, I think I’ve come up with a good plan for the boss. This is what we’ll do…”

Reivyn and his party stood at the entrance to the boss room, performing one final check on all of their gear and making sure they were full on mana. They had gone over the steps they were going to take to defeat the monsters guarding the second floor, and Reivyn was content that everyone knew what their role was.

The party had made quick work of the preceding rooms. The mining room had been incredibly simple. The goblins were dealt with using a less powerful combination of Ice Tomb and Inferno Blast, and then the Orcs had been singled out into one-on-one combat with the use of Ice Walls erected by Melissa.

None of the Orcs, in the mine or any of the living quarters, had been able to put up any kind of sufficient defense against their onslaught, and Kimberly and Erik had learned how to divide up the vanguard position between the two of them in short order.

“Alright,” Reivyn said as he looked over the party. “Everyone knows what to do. This shouldn’t be hard, and even if things don’t go according to plan, it still shouldn’t be hard with the amount of firepower and teamwork we’ve developed.” The rest of the party members nodded. “Let’s go.”

There were no inspiring speeches or attempts to improve morale. It wasn’t needed. Everyone was in high spirits and confident in their abilities.

Erik and Kimberly led the group forward. They traveled in a double column with Reivyn and Teilon behind the two vanguards, and the two sisters brought up the rear. They were already accumulating their spells between their hands.

A furious roar shook the ceiling, dust falling on the heads of the party, and a bowed-over ogre, too tall for the headspace available, came charging forth from the darkness, the two Orcs holding the chains to its wrists being dragged behind it. It was exactly the same as the other two times Reivyn had been here, and his confidence in the plan soared.

The four people in front of the two sisters abruptly spread apart, allowing a clear line of sight for Melissa. She threw her hands forward, and the ground was covered in ice for a long swathe in front of the ogre, finally popping up in a short wall directly in its path. Its foot slammed into the Ice Wall, but instead of being built with shrapnel in mind, Melissa had reinforced this one.

The ogre tripped and landed face-first on the icy ground in front of it. Its momentum from the charge carried it sliding toward the party, the two Orcs being slung around like sacks.

Erik and Kimberly stepped forward with their shields raised to engage the two helpless Orcs, and Reivyn and Teilon launched their spears in the javelin style at the downed ogre. The spears pierced into the shoulders of the ogre, immobilizing its arms, and it gave a loud, angry shout at the sudden burst of pain.

Teilon took off running in front of Reivyn, and he leaped onto the back of the still sliding ogre, driving his daggers into the small of its back where the kidneys would be located. Reivyn wasn’t standing still, either, and he dashed forward and stabbed into the back of its neck, severing its spinal cord.

The ogre’s body stiffened as all of its muscled locked at once before it relaxed into death.

Erik and Kimberly, likewise, easily dispatched the Orcs that had been dragged along with the ogre. Reivyn looked up, deeper into the room, as he knew it wasn’t over yet.

While they were finishing off the ogre, the two caster sisters hadn’t been idle. Melissa had already formed a “\ /” shape with her Ice Walls to funnel in the remaining Orcs that had been waiting just outside the range of the ambient dungeon lighting, and Reivyn could see the final adversaries already charging toward their doom.

The two sisters had created another Ice Tomb setup, and Reivyn watched as Larissa threw her Inferno Blast into the midst of the screaming Orcs. The blast devastated the monsters, but they weren’t nearly as weak as their goblin counterparts. Only the Orcs in the center that took a direct blast to the face died immediately, but they were all knocked down.

“Let’s get in there and finish them off!” Reivyn yelled.

The four melee combatants charged at the struggling Orcs. Most of them were dazed and only rolled around on the floor, bleeding, but several that were on the very outskirts of the blast area were attempting to stand up. These were the Orcs that were targeted first, and none of them managed to put up a fight.

The boss room was cleared within a minute of the group entering it.

“Hah! Too easy,” Reivyn said with a grin. He high-fived Teilon, and the three girls shared a joyous hug. Erik maintained his vigil as he stared at everything else around them.

“So,” Melissa said as she stepped away from the other two girls and faced Reivyn. “Want to take a peek at the second floor?”

Chapter thirty-seven

The Dark Damp

Reivyn looked through the doorway that had opened up after they defeated the boss room. There was a clear demarcation as the color of the floors and walls were a dark, dark gray as opposed to the earthy browns of the cave system on the first floor. The walls and floor were made of brick and were clearly man-made.

The ambient lighting was dimmer and only extended to twenty feet into the distance. A warm wind blew into Reivyn’s face as he stood at the precipice. The air was thick and harder to breathe. A fetid stink wafted from the depths.

Reivyn looked behind him to Melissa, and she nodded at his unasked question. Reivyn had taken up position with sword and shield next to Erik, and the two of them would lead the way with the two girls following behind. Teilon and Kimberly had opted out of exploring further.

“Alright, we’re likely to find monsters that are immune to mundane attacks down here. Those monsters will be high Tier 3, but with the lowered mana density, they’ll be weakened,” Reivyn said.

“How do you know that? As far as I can tell, there’s no information found anywhere about the lower floor, yet,” Melissa asked.

“I was part of the unit that built the camp initially,” Reivyn said. Melissa nodded at his words; they had already been over that. “What I didn’t tell you was that there was a demon attack from the depths. A giant demon tore through the ground, and several Revenants crawled out of the hole it made.”

Larissa gasped and put her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with astonishment. Erik actually glanced over and took an appraising look at Reivyn at the words.

“Most of the soldiers were debilitated and unable to fight back at all, but the commander, Knight-Captain Reifold, is a high-level Paladin. He fought and defeated the giant demon while the adjutant, Knight-Lieutenant Brand, defended him from the Revenants. I have a skill that allowed me to resist the mental fear induced, and I was able to fight off a Revenant, too.”

“Wow, that’s impressive. You said that they were weakened due to the lack of mana density? I can’t see any other way you could survive from a Level 50 Tier 3,” Melissa queried.

“Yeah, it moved really jerky and slow. If I took my eyes off it, though, it would quickly close the gap and attack. I got knocked back and tumbled for several yards just from one attack that I blocked with my shield. If they weren’t in that weird, jerky state when I was watching them, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. The attacks with my sword just bounced off it, and I got lucky that I could use mana as a weapon.

“I made a brick of earth mana, as that was all I had time to concentrate on, and it smashed through its legs pretty easily. Once it was crippled and unable to move very well, I drove a mana blade into its skull where its core of mana was animating it.

“What took me several desperate minutes to accomplish against one of them, Knight-Captain Reifold cast one spell and destroyed over a dozen at once.”

“Okay, so focus spells on the skull. Got it,” Melissa said. “If they’re in that weakened, jerky state that you mentioned down here, it shouldn’t be a problem for the four of us to take on one or two at a time. If we encounter more than that at once, we should reevaluate and possibly retreat. No reason to take any chances. We’re just taking a peek, after all.”

“Sounds good to me,” Reivyn said.

“I hope they don’t stink,” Larissa muttered. Melissa nudged her with her elbow. “What? I can tell it’s going to be a chore already,” Larissa said indignantly.

“Smells won’t kill you.” Melissa rolled her eyes.

“That you know of!” Larissa refuted. “What if it causes me to gag, and then I choke, and then I’ll die! Smells can absolutely kill you!” Larissa stuck her tongue out at her sister.

“I’ll be sure to let Mom and Dad know that you succumbed to the stench when I get home. We’ll hold a proper memorial for you with incense and everything to commemorate your courage in the face of odor.”

“Now who’s being ridiculous?” Larissa poked her sister in the side.

The banter between the sisters helped Reivyn calm his nerves at the prospect of heading into the dangerous area of the dungeon. He nodded to Erik, and the two of them stepped over the threshold to the second floor, shields up and swords at the ready.

The air was damp with moisture, and Reivyn could see water dripping from cracks between the bricks. The walls were slick with condensation in many places, and scraggly moss could be seen growing in patches.

The hall stretched on in a straight path, no longer angling downward like the previous cave tunnels. There were no monsters or anything for the first several yards, but Reivyn and Erik never let their guards down. The chit-chat between the siblings had ceased as soon as they had begun their scouting excursion.

Reivyn walked along for a couple of minutes before he spotted the first thing that stood out as unusual. A skeleton lay on the ground at the edge of their ambient light. Rotting leather armor and rusted mail encased the bones, and a broken sword was clutched in its hand. A round shield was resting on top of the pile of bones.

Reivyn activated his Mana Sight, and he let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding when he saw that there was no mana core in its skull ready to animate it.

“Not a Revenant,” Reivyn whispered to his companions. They nodded as the group continued on. A cursory look at the skeleton showed that there was nothing to be gained from looting it.

It looks like the remains of an ancient adventurer exploring the caves. If he died down here, though, that means there’s something that can kill. This isn’t a maze, so he obviously didn’t get lost and starve to death.

The party stepped past the lone skeleton and continued their way down the hall. It was eerily quiet. The sounds of the dripping water echoed off the walls, and Reivyn could hear the breathing of his group.

Soon the quiet was broken by the sound of something shuffling ahead of them. Reivyn adjusted his grip on his sword and shield, his sweaty palms causing his hands to slip a bit.

A skeleton came walking down the hall at the edge of their vision. It didn’t have any armor on at all, but it carried a cleaver similar to the ones the Orcs used. Reivyn frowned at the sight of the moving bones. It didn’t appear to be a Revenant as he couldn’t sense the powerful emanations from its core.

He activated his Mana Sight, and with the gains he had previously made that allowed him to see slightly beyond solid surfaces, he could make out the tiny marble of black mana in its skull. It wasn’t nearly as large as the one he had seen from the Revenant, and it didn’t give off nearly as noxious of a feeling.

“That’s not a Revenant,” Reivyn whispered. The skeleton had already seen the group and made a beeline to them, but it was still walking in a rambling shuffle.

At the words spoken by Reivyn, Erik dashed forward and lashed out with his sword. Erik was unable to use mana skills, but he was very adept with his swordsmanship. The skeleton moved very slowly as it attempted to parry the attack, but it just wasn’t able to move quick enough. Erik’s sword seamlessly sliced through its spinal cord at the neck, and the skeleton collapsed in a heap.

Reivyn observed the skull of the skeleton, and despite there not being any indication of where it was looking, he could feel its gaze as it was angled up toward him where it sat on its body. It wasn’t dead yet.

“The mana core in its skull is still intact,” Reivyn directed toward Erik. The other man nodded, and with a quick thrust, he jabbed his sword into the top of the skull, destroying the core. The mana dissipated into the air as Reivyn watched, and he finally nodded. “It’s dead. Well… you know what I mean.”

“It’s unalive?” Larissa ventured. “No, that still doesn’t make sense. It’s dead-dead?” She looked off to the side with her finger against her lips as she considered the options.

“Let’s just go with dead,” Melissa said with a roll of her eyes. “We all know what we mean when we say that.”

“You’re no fun,” Larissa harrumphed.

Reivyn joined Erik again, and the group continued walking down the hall. Reivyn heard the tell-tale sounds of wandering skeletons again just a few short yards further.

A group of seven skeletons came into view this time. They were again devoid of the strength found in the Revenants, and they all had a motley assortment of weaponry. They mostly carried variations of a sword or other bladed weapons.

Erik didn’t charge forward this time, as it was inappropriate to break up the two-man shield wall they had to protect the unarmored girls behind them. They slowly advanced toward the incoming undead, and when they were in range, Erik and Reivyn stabbed forth with their swords simultaneously, jabbing them up through the mouths of the respective skeletons they had targeted.

They recovered their stance and blocked the incoming attacks from the other skeletons. A barrage of fire and ice bolts flew over the two vanguards and demolished the skulls of the remaining five skeletons.

“This is too easy,” Larissa said.

“Don’t say that!” Reivyn gave her a sharp look.

“What?” Larissa replied with a confused look. “Didn’t you say that earlier in the boss room?”

“I said that after we defeated the room,” Reivyn said with a shake of his head. “Every time I’ve said, or even thought, ‘this is too easy,’ or something like it, something goes wrong. Don’t get complacent.”

“Ok~ay,” Larissa rolled her eyes.

“He’s right,” Melissa admonished her sister. “He’s already told us that we’re likely to encounter stronger enemies down here, and this is just the first batch.”

“Okay, okay, I get it, sheesh,” Larissa said with a pout.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Reivyn said in consolation. “I just don’t want you to get in the bad habit of underestimating a situation just because things are easy at the beginning.”

“A valuable lesson,” Melissa said.

The group reformed and continued on their way. There were several more patrols of skeletons ranging from four to eight in each group, but with their combined efforts, and the fact that the skeletons quickly died from one elemental Bolt spell, they didn’t have any problems in their progress.

After about a hundred yards or so they finally came to their first break in the long corridor. A simple iron door was inset into a depression on either side of the hall. Reivyn looked at each of the party members in turn before facing the door on the right.

“I’ll open it,” Reivyn said to Erik. “You stand guard for whatever might be on the other side, and then we’ll assess the situation and go in.” Erik nodded. “Okay, on three. One, two, three!”

Reivyn yanked the door open and stepped back with the movement to give clear access to Erik. The two girls had their hands up, ready to channel their spells. Reivyn quickly let go of the door and resumed a ready stance as well.

Nothing attacked them or came through the door, so the group of four tentatively walked through the threshold.

Reivyn looked around and saw that they had entered a fairly small square room. Bones lay scattered all over the ground in various levels of decomposition. A large cauldron was located in the center of the room with what looked like faded markings of intricate patterns carved into the surface of the ground underneath it.

A hooded skeleton sat at a chair on the other side of the cauldron, facing the entrance. Its head was cocked to the side, and it was missing an arm. The hooded robe was tattered and torn, and it frayed at the edges.

“Hold up!” Reivyn shouted in a low voice as Erik made his way toward the seated skeleton. “That’s definitely a Revenant.”

It was as if the words were a magic spell, and a loud wail filled the room as the Revenant’s head snapped upright. Its jaw moved up and down like it was laughing at them as two burning orbs materialized in the eye sockets of its skull.

Erik dashed forward and struck out with lightning speed before the Revenant could stand up, but as Reivyn had warned, his attack was rebounded, and Erik was thrown slightly off balance. He was lucky that he was well trained and kept his shield up, as the Revenant threw its one remaining arm out and smashed it into the shield.

Erik was thrown into the air and crashed into the wall on the other side of the room. The force of the blow caused him to remain suspended in the air, pressed against the wall, for a moment before he slid down. He was slightly disoriented, and he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Reivyn kept his eyes on the Revenant, knowing that they had a propensity for sudden, quick movements if they weren’t watched. Reivyn imbued his sword with pure mana. There was no reason to waste extra mana on adding an element, as that wasn’t necessary to bypass the immunity the Revenants had.

The Revenant stood up from its seated position and looked back and forth between each of the party members, briefly considering Reivyn a bit longer than it had Erik before its attention zeroed in on the girls with the swirling mana accumulating in their hands.

Reivyn positioned himself between the girls and the Revenant on the other side of the cauldron. The Revenant’s jaw continued to move up and down as it reached forward and threw the cauldron out of the way. A glint caught Reivyn’s eye as it sailed through the air, but now wasn’t the time to investigate. He could hear the sounds of the girls entering the room fully behind him.

The Revenant took jerky steps toward Reivyn, but it moved considerably faster than the one he had previously fought on the surface. The Revenant quickly reached Reivyn, and before it could strike out at him, Reivyn instinctively activated his Mana Shield skill and placed it over the top of his shield.

The force of the blow from the Revenant knocked Reivyn back a few steps, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the attack that had landed on Erik.

It works! Reivyn thought. The power it exerts has something to do with its immunity to mundane weapons. When it came into contact with the mana on the shield, the force was greatly reduced.

Reivyn’s spirits soared at the revelation. The attack had still been very powerful, but it was no longer a one-hit-kill situation.

A barrage of Fire and Ice Bolts swarmed the Revenant, striking it all over its body. The robe caught fire in some places, but the Ice Bolts quickly put the fires out before it could immolate the entire garb like had previously happened with Reivyn.

Reivyn took a sturdy step forward and slashed out with his mana-encased sword. The blow didn’t rebound as it had with Erik, but it didn’t penetrate through the defenses of the Revenant and only slightly staggered it. The Revenant lashed out with its skeletal arm again, and Reivyn was once more knocked back toward the girls.

“Use blunt force on its joints!” Reivyn shouted.

Fire wasn’t the best at creating such an attack, so Larissa continued to try to burn the Revenant as best she could, switching from pelting it with Fire Bolts to surrounding its skull with her Inferno spell.

Melissa concentrated and manipulated her Ice Bolt into a solid brick shape, having remembered Reivyn’s mention of using an earth-aligned mana brick before, and hurtled it into the knee joint of the Revenant that was inexorably gaining ground on them.

The knee shattered, and the Revenant collapsed to the side with a loud wail filling the room. Reivyn saw his chance and dashed forward. Larissa’s Inferno spell, while not destroying the Revenant or its skull, had damaged it, and Reivyn could see where it was weakened with his Mana Sight.

He stabbed his sword through the weakened spot on the skull, and after some slight resistance, his blade slid into the breach and destroyed the mana core inside. The putrid mana escaped into the atmosphere, and Reivyn had to hold his breath to fight against nausea it induced.

Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief as he looked up with his sword still stuck in the skull of the now-deceased Revenant. His eyes widened as he saw another Revenant come through the open door from the opposite room in the hallway, and it was reaching out toward Melissa.

“Watch out!” Reivyn shouted as he activated Charge. He slammed his mana-encased shield into the new Revenant, for once knocking one of them off of their feet and slamming it into the wall.

Melissa hopped back in surprise at the sudden movement, and Larissa screamed as she pulled her arms up and twisted her body to the side.

“Focus!” Reivyn reminded them. He brought his sword down on the Revenant’s skull as it tried to stand up, knocking it back down.

“Floating Tomb!” Melissa shouted to her sister as she channeled her mana. Larissa finally regained her composure and nodded. She accumulated mana as Reivyn dodged the errant swipe from the downed Revenant and kept it down on the ground with the occasional bash to the top of its head.

Larissa formed her Inferno Blast spell, and she directed it to float next to the skull of the Revenant, but she didn’t release it. She maintained it floating there, sweat beading her brow as she held the spell so far away from herself.

Melissa shortly released her spell, and a small orb of reinforced ice made from manipulating the Ice Wall spell formed around the skull and Inferno Blast spell, sealing it in. Reivyn felt the vibrations of the Inferno Blast spell going off inside of the mini Ice Tomb, and the Revenant’s body went slack.

Melissa released her hold on the spell, and once it dissipated, Reivyn saw a completely headless body. The improvised Ice Tomb plus Inferno Blast spell combination had completely obliterated the Revenant’s skull into dust. The mana core was likewise eradicated, and it didn’t even have wisps escape into the air.

Reivyn swiped at the sweat from his brow as he searched for any other threats, assuming a ready stance. There were no other monsters in the room, and with a quick peek out into the hall, Reivyn saw that there was nothing nearby as well.

He finally let his guard down and returned to the sisters standing in the room investigating the dead Revenants. Erik had recovered from his stunned state earlier, but knowing he couldn’t do anything in the fight, he had simply stood to the side. He had been ready to dash in and block any attacks from the Revenant in place of the girls, but until that situation arrived, his best use was to just stand at the ready out of the way.

“Yeah, those guys were definitely empowered by the higher concentration of mana in the dungeon,” Reivyn said. “Luckily, it’s still not enough to give them their full power.”

“Uh-huh,” Melissa absentmindedly replied. She bent down and traced the bones and robe, but she straightened up soon after, having not found anything out of the ordinary from a regular skeleton. “It must be the mana that forms their cores. While they’re susceptible to mana attacks, their bones are reinforced on top of their immunity to mundane attacks. It looks like sustained attacks can weaken that reinforcement, though.”

“We need to be smarter with our next encounters.” Reivyn nodded his head. “I think the best strategy would be to lure them out of the rooms into the hallway. Erik and I could do that while you and Larissa build up your spells. Form the brick-shaped Ice Bolts and destroy their joints as they follow us into the hall. Larissa can then roast their heads a bit, and I can stab through their cores.”

Melissa looked up as she brushed her hair behind her ear. Reivyn could still see traces of nervousness on her face, and beads of sweat were still formed on her forehead.

“That sounds like a good plan for now,” she agreed. “Erik, you don’t need to actually engage the Revenants. Just pop in and back out when it stands up to follow you.”

Erik grunted in acknowledgment.

“I saw something glint as the cauldron was thrown out of the way. I’m going to go check it out,” Reivyn said.

He walked over to the overturned cauldron, and with a quick search, he saw what had drawn his attention. He bent down and picked up a small crystal, barely larger than the joint of his pinky finger.

He held it between his forefinger and thumb as he activated his Identify skill.

Damaged Experience Crystal
Experience: 1,000

Reivyn’s eyebrows shot up as he looked up at his companions.

“It’s a Damaged Experience Crystal,” he said. Larissa gasped, and Melissa and Erik shared a look. “My Identify skill says it holds 1,000 experience.”

“That’s a valuable commodity,” Melissa said. “They can be found in the Capital and other prominent cities bordering the Tier 2 region. They can also be found in Tier 2 regions, and alchemists can make them from magical ingredients.”

She walked over and looked at the crystal in Reivyn’s grip. She looked up at Reivyn with her hand halfway extended.

“May I?” she asked. Reivyn placed the crystal in her hand with no hesitation. Melissa smiled at the show of trust.

“Yeah, I can see cracks in the structure,” Melissa said after getting a closer look. “The most experience I’ve ever seen in an undamaged Experience Crystal, though, is only 200. This must be a very high-grade crystal.” Melissa placed it back in Reivyn’s hand. She gestured toward the scattered bones filling the room. “With your mention of demons and the presence of the demonic mana animating the Revenants, it would appear they were alchemists extracting the experience from living people.”

“Let’s go check the other room,” Larissa said with excitement as Reivyn put the crystal away. Even though Melissa said the crystal had likely been formed from living people, Reivyn had no compunctions against appropriating it for himself. Those people were long dead, and it would just be a waste to throw the experience away.

Larissa ran out of the room before anyone could stop her, but she came back shortly after with a huge grin on her face. She held up another Damaged Experience Crystal, and with a quick Inspect, Reivyn saw that it also contained 1,000 experience.

“Since this is a commodity that can be found in the Capital, does that mean these things are what you and your sister used to level up?” Reivyn asked.

“That’s right,” Melissa confirmed with a nod. “But, as I said, they’re expensive commodities. One of the reasons we’re out here delving the dungeon is to gain school credits. School credits can be traded for weaker Experience Crystals. Our family only provides so many to the juniors at a time, so we have to find ways to get our own.”

“That makes sense,” Reivyn said while rubbing his chin in thought. “Considering this is a resource dungeon, it looks like valuable ores are the resources on the first floor, and experience is the resource reward for being able to defeat these Revenants on the second floor.

“I say we continue on a bit further and see if there are any more isolated rooms like this and employ our combat plan. We can get as many of these Experience Crystals as we can from the weaker encounters before we head back out.

“We have a lot of time to delve the dungeon, and if we can consistently find Experience Crystals in the upper part of the second floor, I think it would be prudent to build up our levels before tackling anything harder.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Melissa said. She looked at her other two companions. Erik gave one curt nod, but Larissa bobbed her head so enthusiastically her hair almost got tangled.

“Alright,” Melissa said as she turned back to Reivyn. “You and Erik lead the way.”

Chapter thirty-eight

Hollow Escapade

Reivyn dashed forward and stabbed his sword through the skull of the foremost Revenant. The hallway was clogged with a shambling horde of eight Revenants, six more lying on the ground behind the surging mass, never to rise again. Various weapons and pieces of rotten equipment were strewn along the ground in the wake of the undead.

The standing Revenants struggled to move forward as their jerking motion didn’t allow them to maintain their balance very well on the slick ground. Occasionally a short wall of ice would spring up and cause one or two to stumble and create another obstacle they had to bypass.

Sweat poured down Melissa’s brow as she maintained her focus on casting the crowd control spells. Worry furrowed her brow as her mana reserves dipped dangerously low. They had moved in such a way that she was able to maintain her mana pool at a sufficient level for every encounter, but this time they had miscalculated.

The second floor of the dungeon had been straightforward up until this point. There was one other pair of rooms a little further down the first hall they had walked along, and the interior of both contained what they expected to find: a small room with one Revenant sitting in repose in front of a cauldron. Sadly, these cauldrons had been empty of any prize. Reivyn was disappointed, but he realized he couldn’t expect to find the remnants of the abominable alchemic rituals in every room.

Reivyn had led the group further into the dungeon, Erik relegating himself to being the last stand between danger and the two girls. Just a little way after the second pair of rooms the party had encountered a stairway spiraling down further into the depths. Reivyn could feel the increased mana density wafting up into his face from the opening leading down.

The group had traversed the spiral staircase, Reivyn leading from the front. A hallway could be seen branching off to the side, a rotten door barely hanging by the hinges partially blocking the view. The stairs continued further down, but Reivyn didn’t want to leave anything behind them. It would be a disaster if something snuck up on them while they were battling a pair of Revenants.

Reivyn led his group into the hall, the door collapsing into splinters as he attempted to open it silently. They froze in place, listening for anything that could have reacted to the noise. After a few moments of nothing appearing, Reivyn glanced at the other three with an embarrassed smile before continuing into the hall.

“Cast an Ice Wall here at the entrance to keep anything that might be coming up the stairs from ambushing us,” Reivyn said. “Can you lock it in place so you don’t have to concentrate on it?”

“I can anchor it to the ambient mana, but without a proper fuel source, it’ll dissipate in about ten minutes or so,” Melissa replied.

“Okay, that should be long enough. We can always come back and set another one if we really need to.”

The group continued into the new floor, and it turned out their worry about wandering patrols was unfounded. The hallway was similar to the branching rooms containing the Orc living quarters on the first floor, but this one ended in a cul-de-sac with three rooms about fifteen yards from the stairway, one on each side other than the hall. The doors were in various states of disrepair, but nothing like the rotten ones they had encountered on the stairs. These were much more sturdy. Probably for the privacy of the people living here at the time, Reivyn thought.

Reivyn silently walked up to the door on the left. He paused as he turned back to the other three, and he indicated for them to keep their eyes on the other two rooms. He turned back and slowly opened the door. Luckily, this one didn’t collapse at the first touch, though it did give off an annoying squeak, as the hinges were rusty with neglect.

Reivyn didn’t open the door all the way, and he peered in through the crack. He could see a bed on either side of the room with skeletal remains lying in them, two chests at the foot of the beds. This was the first time he had encountered any kind of chest or container. It was obviously not a System reward, but they were part of the original environment.

Reivyn stood in place and observed the skeletons, which he had positively identified as Revenants, for a moment. When they didn’t react to his presence, he slowly closed the door once more. He stepped back and signaled for Erik to check the room on the right.

Erik performed the same actions, and he quickly nodded while holding up two fingers. Reivyn nodded and approached the final door in the center. His eyes lit up when he saw that the last room wasn’t a residence like the other two, but it was instead another alchemy room like they had seen above. His excitement was dampened a little when he saw that the cauldron in this room was guarded by three Revenants.

He closed the door, and the party retreated down the hall a ways.

“So, a total of seven Revenants. Any suggestions?” Reivyn looked toward Melissa.

“I can do the same thing I did at the stairway. Cast Ice Wall and cover up to two of the rooms while we tackle the first one. If the Revenants in the other rooms are alerted, the Ice Walls will give us time and warning. They’ll have to destroy them in order to get to us, and that should give us ample opportunity to either handle the first pair or to escape to the stairs if we need to.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Reivyn agreed. “Don’t dissipate your Ice Wall at the stairs yet, just in case. You can always get rid of it in case we need to run.”

“Alright,” Melissa replied. She followed it up by casting the Ice Wall spells, one after another, in front of the middle and right doors. The group stood and waited for a moment to make sure that act in itself didn’t activate the Revenants resting inside.

In a moment of inspiration, Reivyn reached down and picked up a piece of rubble. He silently opened the door, tossed it at the Revenant lying on the bed on the right side of the room, and closed the door once more. The wail that always accompanied the activation of the Revenants was greatly reduced by the barrier of the door preventing the sound from traveling. Reivyn saw Erik nodding his head in approval out of the corner of his eye.

Once the wail subsided, Reivyn opened the door once more, and he had to immediately bring his mana-covered shield up to block the blow from the Revenant that had already made it to the threshold. Every action has its consequences. We gained some respite from the sound of them activating, but that caused nobody to have eyes on them, and they were able to make it to the door at a much faster speed, Reivyn realized in a flash.

He let the force of the blow knock him back into the little cul-de-sac, and Melissa took the opportunity to cast Slick Ground and Ice Wall to control their movements. The four members of the party walked backward down the hallway as Larissa engaged her Inferno spell to weaken the skull of the first Revenant, and Reivyn was able to end its existence after a short moment of controlled retreating.

All of their preparation paid off, and the group was able to clear out the three rooms without any worry or surprises. The Revenants were dangerous, but as long as they controlled the initiative and worked using the plans they had come up with to deal with small groups of them, they weren’t much harder than the other monsters they had encountered in the dungeon. They just presented different obstacles to overcome for those armed with the ability to use mana skills or spells.

“Alright, let’s see what’s in these chests!” Reivyn said with a gleam in his eyes.

“Oh, oh, oh, I’ll take the right room,” Larissa exclaimed as she jumped up and down. She took off running once more without a care. Reivyn just shook his head as he headed to the left room, and Melissa and Erik went to inspect the alchemy room.

The boarding room was bare of any decorations. Though there might have been some however long ago it was that these things were alive, Reivyn speculated. The beds were rotting and wouldn’t provide any sort of comfort to the living, and the chests had holes eating through the wood as they tried to withstand the ravages of time.

Reivyn flipped over the lid of the first chest at the foot of the right bed. It was filled with crumbling scraps of cloth and not much more. Reivyn frowned as he inspected the contents of the container. I knew it was for personal effects, but only ruined clothes?

He bent down and tossed all the scraps out onto the floor. He knocked on the bottom of the chest to see if there was a hidden compartment, and his hand went right through the feeble wood. Well, that was easy, he thought as he brute forced the bottom to give way.

Underneath the top portion containing the clothes was a hidden bottom filled with sparkling, bluish sand. Reivyn sifted through the sand, and he was able to find three Damaged Experience Crystals. He inspected them and found they were exactly the same as the ones they had found previously, containing 1,000 experience each.

Reivyn walked over to the other chest, and with the experience from the first one, he quickly exposed the bottom compartment containing similar blue sand. The second chest contained two whole crystals.

This bluish sand must be the remnants of other crystals that disintegrated over the years, he thought. I wonder if this is of any value? He threw an Inspect at the sand.

Experience Essence

Well, that tells me a whole lot, Reivyn thought with a wry smile. It was obviously something useful, or the System would have Identified it as something more mundane. I don’t really have anything to hold this stuff in. Reivyn shook his head as he walked back out of the room. There was nothing else to inspect. The covers and pillows that would normally adorn a bed and provide a hiding place had long since disintegrated into dust.

Larissa was standing in the small area between the rooms with a sullen look on her face, kicking at the rubble while grumbling incoherently under her breath.

“Didn’t find anything?” Reivyn asked. Larissa peeked up at him through her hair as she kept kicking at loose pebbles.

“No! Just rotten clothes,” she said petulantly.

“Did you not check the bottom compartment?” Reivyn asked with a frown.

“Bottom compartment?” She looked up in surprise, a twinkle once more in her eye. She dashed back into the other room, and Reivyn heard the sounds of the chests being obliterated before a triumphant shout came forth.

“Aha!” Larissa said as she came out of the room holding her hand aloft. “There were three Experience Crystals in there.”

“What about the sand? Do you guys have anything to carry it in?” Reivyn asked.

“The sand? Why would you care about the sand?” She tilted her head to the side as she shot him a questioning look.

“It’s Experience Essence. I don’t know what it’s used for, but it might be valuable.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Larissa said. “Maybe Melissa does. Either way, I don’t think we have anything to carry it in.”

“Another time then.”

The two looked up at Melissa and Erik coming out of the alchemy room. Melissa shook her head to indicate they hadn’t found anything.

“It’s alright,” Reivyn said with a smile. “Your sister found three crystals in her room, and I found five in this other one.” Melissa’s face brightened into a smile at the news. “Also, the chests were full of blue sand that the System says is Experience Essence. Know anything about it?”

Melissa tapped her chin as she thought about it. “I think I’ve heard something about it somewhere before, but I can’t think of it at the moment. We’ll collect some the next time we come down here.”

“Alright,” Reivyn said. “C’mon, let’s continue.”

The party went back to the stairway, and they encountered another three similar living arrangements with the same situation as the first one. The only difference was that in the last one, there were four Revenants in the alchemy room. The tactics they had devised in the first corridor continued to work, and they reaped the benefits.

Not all of the chests contained whole crystals, but their overall haul was still nothing short of amazing to Reivyn. They managed to find another twelve crystals. They had a total of 22 Damaged Experience Crystals, 22,000 Experience waiting to be assimilated to whoever used them.

They had agreed to split the crystals evenly between the groups. Reivyn was the only one from his group that continued on to the lower floor, so he questioned whether or not it was appropriate for him to receive an equal share.

“Even though you’re the only one down here, it’s only you, me, and my sister participating. Erik is just kinda here right now because of the nature of the monsters, and while we’re down here exploring this floor, your companions are up top mining and organizing the ores. With those things in mind, it’s not a stretch to appoint half of the Experience Crystals to your group.”

Melissa made some good points that put Reivyn’s mind at ease. He didn’t want to feel like he was getting more than he had earned, and her explanation helped appease that thought.

The staircase ended with a new hall moving off perpendicular to the original direction of the first hallway if Reivyn’s sense of direction was accurate. The group moved down the hall at a sedate pace, ready for any monsters that might be patrolling the depths. With the increase in the mana density and what they had seen so far, Reivyn was fairly certain that any patrolling skeletons found from this point on would be Revenants.

A break in the wall about chest height on the left side came into view as they moved further along. It was a long opening that continued along the wall for ten yards, and it was about three feet high. Reivyn glanced through the opening as they approached it, and he quickly yanked himself back out of view at the sight that greeted him.

He had only glanced for a fraction of a second, but the scene was burned into his mind. The opening was some sort of observation window that showed a giant quarry. Hundreds of Revenants populated the enormous room, and before he could make out anything else in particular, Reivyn had ducked out of sight.

“What is it?” Melissa whispered as she sidled up next to Reivyn.

“Hundreds of Revenants,” Reivyn answered back with a nod of his head toward the opening. Melissa frowned as she looked up at it from her squatting posture.

“Look at the opening with your Mana Sight,” she said after a moment of inspection. Her frown had gone away.

Reivyn followed her instructions and activated the skill. A solid wall of bluish light greeted him. It was so thick and compact that he couldn’t see through it at all with his Mana Sight activated. He reached out his hand to touch it, and it was a solid barrier.

“It’s like the barrier that separates the dungeon from the real world on the outside,” he said in surprise. He deactivated his skill and stood at the opening to get a better view of the scene below.

“That must be the third floor. We have to beat the boss room on the second floor to gain access,” Melissa surmised. “Once we beat the boss room, this barrier should go away, even all the way up here.”

Reivyn nodded absentmindedly. He watched as the Revenants below appeared to be quarrying a giant cavern. He could make out a new type of monster roaming about acting like supervisors. The new entities were ethereal. They glowed a faint blue, and they floated about instead of walking on the ground.

He frowned as he continued to watch, though, as something about the scene seemed odd to him. He couldn’t quite place it at first, but then it suddenly came to him.

They’re not actually doing any mining, he realized. They look like they’re locked into the actions that they performed before they died. What in the world could they have been doing down here?

“It seems safe enough to travel down the corridor,” Melissa said.

“Are you not curious about what they were doing down here?” Reivyn asked.

“Of course I am,” Melissa replied. “But we’re not likely to find out any answers here, are we?” She chuckled.

“I suppose you’re right,” Reivyn said with a smile. “Alright, then. Let’s continue.” They resumed their pace down the hall, but before they got too far, Reivyn turned back to Melissa. “What are those floating, blue things down there?”

Melissa took a quick peek at what Reivyn was referring to. “Those are Spectres,” she answered. “They’re the same tier and level as Revenants, but they’re completely incorporeal. If you don’t use mana to coat your shield or armor, their blows will go right through it and damage your vitality directly.”

Reivyn nodded as they continued walking. He remembered experiencing that type of damage when the demon had attacked the base.

Either a similar demon will be the final boss of this dungeon, or this is a reality where they didn’t actually successfully summon a demon, he mused. Those thoughts were for later, though, and Reivyn refocused his attention on what was in front of him.

“We’ve been down here for a couple of hours, now,” Reivyn said. “We should think about going back up soon.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. We don’t want your friends to worry,” Melissa said. “We’ll go just a little bit further. The hall curves up ahead, so let’s just go see what’s around the bend, then we’ll call it quits.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Reivyn said.

They hadn’t encountered anything in the new corridor up to this point, but Reivyn never let his guard down. He had learned his lesson about getting complacent in dangerous situations, and he wasn’t about to forget it.

Despite having his guard up, though, there were always unexpected surprises. The group turned the corner to the last place they were going to explore, and they were immediately beset with a torrent of wails as they came face to face with a patrol of fourteen Revenants.

“Retreat!” Reivyn yelled without taking his eyes off the Revenants in the hall. They were almost within striking range as soon as they had encountered them, and Reivyn noticed that their jerking motions were considerably faster than any of the previous ones they had fought.

“Melissa! Crowd control,” Reivyn yelled as one of the front Revenants slammed a spear into his shield, knocking him back a few paces. “Larissa, use Inferno. Attach it to the ceiling and torch several at a time. We need to thin them out!”

Ice quickly covered the ground and continued to follow Reivyn as he made quick steps back. Short, compact walls sprung up all over to impede the movement of the Revenants, and they had a hard time maneuvering around them with the hallway being filled with the mass of skeletal bodies attempting to get at the living. The ones that tried to go over the short walls lost their balance and fell down when they stepped back down on the slick ground. They weren’t smart enough to learn from their mistakes, either, and it happened over and over again.

Blistering fire above soon accompanied the freezing cold below. The two sisters worked in tandem to keep the temperature differences from diminishing their spells. The increased effort added considerable strain to the two sisters, and their mana dropped swiftly.

Reivyn knew they didn’t have much time with them expending so much mana, so he had immediately begun accompanying his retreat with quick lunges forward to down a Revenant. Each lunge forward to kill one of the foes had coincided with a slam into his raised shield from a retaliatory blow. Reivyn had to use everything he had with his Balance skill to stop himself from joining the Revenants on the floor due to the Slick Ground spell.

The Revenants knew no fatigue or fear, and they followed the group as they made their way back down the hallway with the large opening. The encounter eventually became bearable after several minutes of desperate fighting as more and more Revenants were put down for their final rest. Reivyn slowed down the tempo he used to kill the Revenants, and he only moved forward to kill one after Melissa managed to trip one or the other in the lead.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of heart-pounding action, the last Revenant fell. Reivyn leaned against the wall as he gasped for breath. His stamina had almost reached 40% by the time the combat had ended. They had been in the dungeon for many hours, and his stamina depleted faster and recovered slower in a reflection of his tired state.

He looked back to see Larissa laid out on the floor, her forearm covering her eyes as she groaned. Erik helped Melissa sit down and then stood over the pair to keep watch.

“That was too much,” Larissa complained.

“Yeah, that was entirely too close,” Melissa agreed.

“Well, you did say you wanted to only explore one last corridor before we go back up,” Reivyn said with a chuckle.

“How can you be in a good mood?” Larissa moved her arm slightly to peek at him.

“Because we survived,” Reivyn said simply. “Do either of you need help with a headache? You guys used a lot of mana.”

“No, we’re good,” Melissa denied with a shake of her head. “Even though we used a lot of mana, we did it in a controlled manner. While we’re a bit light-headed, we’re not going to get a headache as you did from using most of your mana all at once.”

“Good to know.” Reivyn nodded. The group fell into silence as they each focused on recovering. Reivyn pulled out a piece of dried meat to eat while they rested.

“Alright, it seems the floor becomes incredibly more difficult from this point going forward,” Reivyn said after several minutes. “I say we don’t go any further until we’ve raised our levels a bit.”

“I agree,” Melissa said as she and her sister regained their feet. “We’ll need larger mana pools to be able to fight groups that large on a consistent basis. An increase in your strength will also allow you to hit them harder, requiring less mana from Larissa to cook their skulls to weaken them.”

“I like the sound of that,” Larissa said. Erik grunted in agreement when Reivyn looked at him for his opinion.

“Alright then,” Reivyn said as he began walking back toward the first floor. “Let’s go meet up with Teilon and Kimberly. 22 Experience Crystals is a good haul in my book.”

“Just a friendly reminder. Don’t use too many of those at once if you or your friends choose to,” Melissa said. “Your friends have Tier 2 classes, so you and they can use them, but if you gain too many levels too fast, your skills and life experience can’t keep up. You guys should be good, what with you being conscripts and all that you’ve done that a normal Tier 1 wouldn’t, but it’s always good to get in the habit of moderation.

“Our family only provides us a small boost once we reach Tier 2, and the school requires us to go out and get school credits to purchase any from them. The academy has been doing this for a long time, and they’ve carefully balanced the rate of earning credits with the rate of gaining life experience for good classes.

“We’re probably not going to use any of these, ourselves. They can be sold for a lot of money in the Capital, and our families will also give us good benefits if we turn them in.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Reivyn said with a nod.

Teilon and Kimberly don’t really need a lot of life experience to get a more powerful class, as they’re going to transition into a regular Tier 2 class, but I’ll definitely have to drag them down here in the future before they tier up again. With us able to basically mine experience, we should be able to move through Tier 2 pretty quickly.

Chapter thirty-nine

The Dungerums

Reivyn took a deep breath of the fresh air as soon as they stepped out of the caverns into the bright sunlight. Due to how the dungeons worked, there was perpetual sunlight in the open-air area of the dungeon, and the marked difference between the sunlight and cool breeze helped to wash away the gloom that was practically sticking to Reivyn and his party.

Larissa ran ahead and spun around with her arms out, twirling around a couple of times before dropping down to lie on her back and bask in the open air. Kimberly and Teilon smiled at the whimsical attitude displayed by the girl. Melissa and Erik simply ignored her, apparently used to her behavior after living with her for years.

“Ahhh, it feels good to be out,” Reivyn said. “I’m dog tired, so let’s go our separate ways and regroup to talk about the dungeon and our plans for tomorrow.”

“While I would normally say it’s better to talk things over when it’s fresh in our minds,” Melissa began, “there really isn’t anything we need to specifically consider about the dungeon. We have our methods figured out, and the first floor and first part of the second floor pose no real threat to us as long as we stick to those tactics. So, I agree. Let’s go get some rest, and we can meet up at the same private room in the tavern as before.”

“What’s there to plan?” Teilon said. He had resumed walking with his arms resting on his spear draped across his back. “We’ve already distributed the loot, and we know what we’re doing in the dungeon for the foreseeable future.”

“There’s always something to plan.” Kimberly poked him in the side.

“I’m with Teilon.” Larissa spoke up. “Come. Join me on the ground as we gaze up into the big blue above us and let all of our troubles melt away.”

“What troubles do you have?” Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It was a figure of speech,” Larissa retorted.

“Sure, sure. Anyway.” Reivyn turned his attention to Teilon. “To answer your question, we need to plan a training schedule around our dungeon delves.”

“You and training!” Teilon rolled his eyes. “I thought it was hard working enough when I got my vitality to above 20 only a couple of months after unlocking my class, but you were sitting on over 20 before you even turned 10! And you want to do more training!”

“I like training,” Reivyn replied with a shrug. “What else are we going to do? The town isn’t really even built, yet. Do you want to go build the town so you have something else to do?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Teilon mused. “Maybe I’ll get a part-time gig at construction. Can’t let this Woodworking skill go to waste, now can I? You’re the one that’s always saying to work on all of our skills.”

“So your idea of shirking is to get a job?” Reivyn tilted his head as he looked at his friend.

“Well, when you put it that way…” Teilon trailed off as he looked away.

Melissa held her hand over her mouth as she giggled at their banter. Kimberly folded her arms as she waited for the two to finish their back and forth, knowing the likely outcome already.

“We’re not going to be doing nothing but training,” Reivyn said. He nudged his friend with his elbow as he explained, “But we need to coordinate when we’re going to be busy, and I’m sure there’s a lot we could learn from Mel and Lisa… and Erik.” Reivyn added that last one as an aside.

“Lisa, huh? Since when did we get so close?” Larissa said.

“Since just now,” Reivyn easily shot back.

“Everyone calls Melissa Lisa, but she insists on Mel. This is going to be confusing.” Larissa placed her hand over her eyes.

“Anyway, I plan on learning a few things about the academy, if they’re willing.” Reivyn shot a look at Melissa. She nodded in approval. “I got that letter of recommendation from Knight-Captain Reifold, so I’m pretty sure I can get into the academy when we’re done here. Don’t you want to go to the Capital?”

“Hmmm…” Teilon moved his spear down to his side so he could lean on it as he considered. “That doesn’t sound half bad, actually.”

“Good. With the dungeon here just giving away experience, we should be able to fly through Tier 2,” Reivyn continued. “But if you want a decent Tier 3 class, you can’t let your skills lag behind. On another note, once you guys get to Tier 2, you’ll have to join us down on the second floor, too. You won’t have to do anything dangerous, but you will need to come down and participate in order to get some good life experience.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought about my future more than I have.” Teilon snickered.

“Can you blame me?” Reivyn said with a serious expression. “We both know I’ve gotten lucky enough to have some strange things happen to give me a big leg up, and if we don’t think about the future, I’ll leave you behind.” Reivyn put his hand on Teilon’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend, and unlike Will and Simmon, you have the opportunity to keep up with me.”

“Yeah, I know,” Teilon conceded. “But what will Kimberly and I be doing at the Capital while you’re attending the academy?”

“Ahem.” Melissa cleared her throat to get their attention. Once the two boys looked over at her, she opened her mouth, “There’s also a Knight Academy. Don’t let the name fool you. It’s designed for non-mana classes, not just knights, and it’s semi-attached to the Magic Academy. If you guys are able to reach Tier 3 at an early age, with a good class, and you have the money, you should be fine to get in.”

“There you go,” Reivyn said as he put his hand back down. “So in order for all of that to happen, we have to plan now, and those plans include training.”

“And here we go, all the way back to the original point,” Teilon said with a smile. “Alright, alright. You’ve convinced me.”

“I think I’ll just go back to my home in Haluville,” Kimberly said with a thoughtful look. “That’s more my speed.” Teilon just stared at her slack-jawed. After a moment of letting that statement fill the air, Kimberly burst out laughing. “Obviously I was joking. The Capital sounds fine to me.”

“Don’t scare me like that.” Teilon placed his hand over his heart.

“Oh, oh, oh! I can show you the best places to shop once we get there!” Larissa came skipping up to them. She dragged Kimberly away from the two boys, and she, Melissa, and Kimberly all walked along with their heads together.

“Oooh, what kind of dresses can I find…” Reivyn heard snippets of their conversation. Kimberly was a front-line combatant, but she was still a girl and apparently wanted to do girly things from time to time.

“You’re drooling,” Reivyn said with a straight face as he looked at Teilon. “Thinking of Kimberly in a dress?”

“Am not,” Teilon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Drooling, that is.” He inspected his hand as he brought it away. It came back dry. “See?!”

“Haha, c’mon. Let’s go,” Reivyn said.

The sun was just beginning to set on the horizon as the group of six exited the actual dungeon. Reivyn and his group had already experienced the phenomenon, but Melissa and her group were surprised at the change.

“Wow, that’s neat,” Larissa said. “We’ve been in there all day, but you would hardly know it if you didn’t come back out like this.”

Melissa nodded. “Alright,” she said. “We’ll be—”

“Hold up.” A voice interrupted her as she was giving her farewell for the evening. “Mandatory inspection for anyone leaving the dungeon.”

Reivyn looked over and saw a squad of the knights from the Church they had encountered on the road. He frowned as they walked up and barred their path.

“Is that really necessary?” Reivyn was prepared to pull out his identity tokens to avoid the hassle, but he spotted one of the local guards with the unit. He directed his attention toward the guard, and he received a nod in response.

“Yes,” the man confirmed. “Due to the nature of the dungeon and the events that transpired previously, the count is working with the Church of Light to ensure no demonic presences. It’s pretty routine, actually. Nothing to be worried about.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Reivyn replied.

“Empty your bags, and then each of you present yourself for inspection,” the first knight commanded. Reivyn raised an eyebrow at the man as the group followed the instructions. They dumped the content of their bags containing the ore for the church soldiers to sift through, and then they stood in a line to the side as one of the members in a robe walked up.

The new man placed his hand on Teilon’s head and stood there for a moment with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, Reivyn saw a yellow light quickly encompass his friend. It moved from the man’s hand on his head down to his feet before heading back up again. A look of surprise surfaced on Teilon’s face when it was over.

The robed man carried out his duties quickly and silently. When it was Reivyn’s turn, he noticed a feeling of fatigue deep from within him get expelled. He nodded with a new sense of appreciation for the inspection.

“Don’t think that we’re just randomly hassling you guys.” The first man spoke up. “Look over there.” He pointed across the open space in front of the dungeon.

Reivyn and his friends followed the direction the man was pointing. On the other side of the square was a group of fellow adventurers, but they were moving about at an exaggeratedly slow pace. The looks on their faces were reminiscent of the group Reivyn had decided not to approach the first day he was scouting out parties to join.

“That party has been delving the dungeon for weeks before we got here,” the knight explained. “While they’re not tainted with demonic influence, there’s something about this dungeon that seeps into your bones, and if it’s not gotten rid of, you’ll eventually become like them.”

Now that it was pointed out to him, Reivyn was able to see other groups, people who were older and looked more experienced, also moving about listlessly. He frowned as he considered the implications.

“My friends and I have actually been in there three times, now,” Reivyn said. “We were with the conscription that settled the place. Are there going to be any lingering effects from that?”

“Shouldn’t be,” the man replied. “You say you were with the conscription? So you left for several months after going in there twice?” Reivyn nodded his head. “Then it shouldn’t have had a chance to accumulate to a dangerous level. Once you guys left, it should have dissipated on its own without the chance to build up any further.”

Reivyn nodded. He hadn’t felt anything like what he was witnessing in the other parties.

“Are those guys going to be fine?” he asked.

“Should be,” the church knight was actually pretty friendly and informative once Reivyn and his party had acceded to their inspection. “We’ve been working with them every few days to dispel the lingering aura. It’s working, but it will just take some more time and effort for those that started going into the dungeon before we got here.”

“That’s good to know,” Reivyn said.

“Alright, you all are good to go.” The armored man gave Reivyn a nod as he gathered up his men and moved to the side to await more adventurers returning from their excursions. The robed man wiped the sweat from his brow as he staggered along beside them.

If it takes that much out of him just to handle six people, it makes sense that they would need to only work with the other parties every couple of days, Reivyn thought. Then again, I don’t know how many people he’s treated before us.

Reivyn and his friends quickly put the ores back into their sacks. He felt a brief pang of guilt over not letting the church followers inspect their bags containing the Experience Crystals after the knights had turned out to actually be pretty decent fellows, but he quickly brushed it aside. The System should handle the experience conversion, and we don’t want to expose the existence of the crystals. Never know what other people will do when faced with such wealth.

“Well, now that that’s over,” Melissa said after they had tidied up their belongings. “We’ll meet up tomorrow. Does lunch sound good to you?”

“Perfect,” Reivyn replied after glancing at his two companions. “We’ll see you then.” Reivyn waved to the other three as they separated.

“By~e,” Larissa called out. She took a couple of steps walking backward as she enthusiastically waved to her new friends. Melissa placed a hand on her arm to keep her from falling over.

“Whew, I’m tired,” Reivyn said as they walked back toward their little house.

“You’re tired?” Teilon teased. “Kimberly and I were the ones that had to do all of the mining while you were off gallivanting with two cuties.”

“Who are two cuties?’” Kimberly said with mock outrage.

“I mean… gallivanting off with… Erik? Were there two other people down on the second floor with you? I can’t remember,” Teilon said, his eyes wide. Reivyn snorted at his friend.

“Well, when you put it that way…” Reivyn copied his friend from earlier. He and Teilon burst into laughter as Kimberly rolled her eyes.

“Okay, so the day after a dungeon dive will be a rest day,” Reivyn said, “and the day before as well.”

Melissa nodded her head as she took a sip of her tea. Teilon was shoveling food into his gullet with gusto as if he had never eaten before, and Larissa and Kimberly had their heads together as they whispered about whatever topic struck their fancy. They would occasionally stop talking to giggle, but they ignored the rest of the room for the most part.

Reivyn was much more polite in his table manners than his counterpart, only taking bites when Melissa or someone else was speaking. Melissa and her group had impeccable manners, but the three girls didn’t have nearly as large of an appetite as their male companions.

Erik ate in silence, and Reivyn almost forgot he was even there.

“So dungeon, rest, one day to ourselves, one day of training together as a full team, two days to ourselves, and then the last rest day before the next dungeon run.” Melissa laid out the schedule they had come up with. “That works for us.”

Reivyn finished his meal as he leaned back with a sigh. “So that means today is a rest day. You’ve been here longer than we have, ever since the place started to become a proper town; is there anything to do around here?”

“Not really, no,” Melissa said as she set her cup down. “We’ve basically been hanging out in the tavern, for the most part, inspecting parties that show up looking to team up as you guys did. Now that we’re no longer looking for more members, we don’t have any reason to stay cooped up.”

“Hmmm, that’s true,” Reivyn said. “Well, want to go look around?”

“Just the two of us?” Melissa asked with a tilt of her head.

“Doesn’t have to be.” Reivyn shrugged. “I’m sure Erik wouldn’t want you going out alone.” A grunt from across the table greeted Reivyn’s words. “It’s up to you.”

“Alright,” Melissa said. “You, me, and Erik. Let’s go for a walk.” She accompanied her words with action as she immediately got up from her seat and headed for the door.

“What, right now?” Reivyn said as he scrambled to follow. Erik calmly placed his utensil down and also got up from the table. “Teilon, you’re—I can’t believe I’m saying this—in charge of looking out for the girls while we’re gone,” Reivyn called over his shoulder.

“I’ll be sure to keep him safe,” Kimberly called out.

“Hey.” Teilon’s indignant remark reached Reivyn’s ears as they stepped out into the hallway. The trio quickly made their way down the stairs. The babble of voices and sounds of laughter briefly followed Reivyn as they exited the tavern out into the open street. Melissa came to a halt after taking a couple of steps to get out of the way and turned to face him.

“I guess we can just walk around and see what there is,” Melissa said. She brushed her hair behind her ear as she waited for Reivyn’s response.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Reivyn said. He interlocked his fingers behind his head as the two started walking down the road. Erik followed them silently from behind.

“Soooo… what’s life in the Capital like?” Reivyn said to break the silence.

“It’s fine,” Melissa replied. “Coming from a well-established family affords certain freedoms and opportunities, while at the same time restricting others.” She turned her head to glance at Erik briefly. “For instance, I can’t go anywhere by myself. I don’t really mind that stipulation, as I know it keeps me safe. There are also places in the Capital I can’t go to, but I don’t really have an interest in going to those places anyway.”

“Oh? Like what?” Reivyn asked.

“The arena is one,” Melissa replied. “Generally, fights aren’t to the death at the arena, but accidents happen. Also, despite being a combat class and going on dungeon dives, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t want me being a spectator of any gruesome scenes that might arise. Fighting and killing monsters is one thing, but fighting and potentially killing other humans is another, entirely.

“But people seem to be drawn to it, and it isn’t always like that. Sometimes there are monster fights as well. Adventurers can accept missions to capture monsters alive to supply to the arena, and the school even allows the students to participate in such endeavors from time to time.”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound so bad, actually,” Reivyn said.

“It’s really not, but my parents are quite protective and don’t want me to go witness such a bloody spectacle. It sounds hypocritical, I know, but it has more to do with my age than anything.”

“I can understand it, actually. What other sorts of places can’t you go?”

“Gambling dens, brothels, places like that. Unsavory places for children, mostly.” Melissa glanced at Reivyn out of the corner of her eye. “Do you really want me to expound on the places I can’t go?”

“You’re the one who brought it up,” Reivyn replied with a chuckle.

“Haha, yeah, you’re right,” Melissa said. “Anyway, there are a lot of grand places, too. The Magic Academy is probably the most spectacular. It’s not just a place for teaching young students, like me and my sister. It’s also a place of true academics and magical marvels. There’s also the theater and museum, and other places of high society.

“Many of the established families and nobles will also host events for each other. There’s a web of relationships between the families in the Capital, but I have a lot of friends I can introduce you in the future if you do end up going to the Capital.”

“More friends are always good,” Reivyn said.

“Just being my friend and running in my circles will automatically give some others a negative opinion of you, though. I’ll be sure to warn you when the time comes.”

“Speaking of,” Reivyn said as a thought entered his head, “do you know of a family that has a son named Ren and a daughter named Lin? I don’t know their surname or anything about them, really, but I know they’re cozying up to the duke of this duchy.”

“Oh, yeah, I know who you’re talking about. Our family doesn’t really have any positive or negative relations with anyone from this region. There aren’t any benefits or resources for us to compete for, as we don’t have a base or any industries out here. Why? Are you interested in that Lin girl?” Melissa leaned forward as she asked in a teasing voice.

“Hardly,” Reivyn scoffed. “I had a run-in with Ren. I didn’t bow to his will, and he took it personally. Tried to have me killed and everything.”

“Really? You’ve led an exciting life,” Melissa said with a chuckle. “I’ll let my family know to steer clear of theirs.”

“Well, the verdict is still out on that,” Reivyn replied. “Lin found me and explained that his actions had nothing to do with them, and she expressed that they wanted to let bygones be bygones.”

“If they raised one wolf, they raised another,” Melissa said with a serious tone. “I’d stay away from them in the future if you can help it, regardless of what she told you.”

“Yeah, I didn’t have any plans of entangling myself with them. I just wanted to know if you knew anything about them so I could get a better gauge of the sincerity in her words.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“It’s fine,” Reivyn waved her off.

Reivyn and Melissa had been caught up in their conversation, and before they realized it, they had reached the edge of the small base. Reivyn looked around and noticed there wasn’t anything out there, so he turned back around, and the two headed back toward the center of the growing town.

Now that he was paying attention, Reivyn could see the constant activity surrounding them. People had continued to build more houses, storefronts, and workshops. He could tell that a lot of time and effort was being invested into the town, and with the knowledge of what the dungeon contained, he could foresee this becoming a center of power one day.

As long as the Church of Light is willing to set up a local ministry, Reivyn thought. The consequences of accruing the negative aura from the dungeon could be disastrous, and people aren’t likely to stay away in the face of the opportunity.

Reivyn and Melissa continued walking around through the streets, their thoughts and conversation focused on the future.

Chapter forty

A Day in the Life

Exiting Dungeon
Calculating…
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +400
Boss Defeated: Exp +400
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calculating…
Second Floor: Incomplete
Combat Experience: Exp +7,000
Total Experience: 8,300
Level Up! Lvl 17
Level Up! Lvl 18
Level Up! Lvl 19
Level Up! Lvl 20
Experience 1761/2000

Woah! 7,000 experience for fighting the monsters on the second floor! And that’s divided among the members, Reivyn was shocked at the incredible jump in experience. It was more experience than even his share from the Experience Crystals his group had retained.

The one dungeon delve had boosted him a whole four levels. He had passively gained a level from the monthly experience calculations he had received from the training he and his friends did before they left civilization, so he was now two-thirds of the way through the first tier.

Reivyn continued to look through his notifications as he sat on his bed.

Select a Class Skill:
Available Class Skills:
Intimidate (0): Cause fear and hesitation into equal strength opponents. Chance to stun weaker enemies.
Power Swing (0): Transfer momentum into the impact area causing knock-back
Flame Blade (10): Coat your blade in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the Flame Blade with additional mana

Reivyn didn’t even have to decide on his new class skill as the new Flame Blade skill he had unlocked was simply too amazing to pass up. Depending on how powerful and mana-intensive the skill is, I might be able to tackle the first floor and the first couple rooms of the second floor solo. He selected the skill without hesitation.

Okay, now let’s pull up the skill level-ups notification.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1
Athleticism (41 ->42)
Balance (42 ->43)
Medium Armor (28 ->30)
Shields (37 ->40)
Sneaking (21 ->22)

Tier 2
Evasion (33 ->34)
Pain Resistance (34 ->35)
Strategy (7 ->11)
Tactics (18 ->20)

Tier 3
Battlefield Awareness (10 ->11)
Command (7 ->8)
Danger Sense (4 ->6)
Inspire (6 ->10)
Mana Conjuration (18 ->21)
Mana Manipulation (20 ->23)
Mana Shield (1 ->11)
Mana Sight (26 ->27)

Tier 4
Mana Weapon (11 ->14)

Tier 5
Spatial Awareness (15 ->17)

Tier 6
Weapons Master (48 ->51)

Exploring a region filled with and fighting Tier 3 monsters, even if they’re weaker, really gives a lot of skill experience, too, Reivyn mused. Considering I had already surpassed the actual mastery level of expert with my Weapons Master skill, I didn’t have a bottleneck at 50. Fighting against a horde of Revenants on the second floor gave me more skill levels than any manner of intense training I could get with my dad or friends. Having to make up the stats difference with the skill plays a significant role, too. Once I gain more levels and stats, the skill growth should normalize.

Reivyn pulled up his full Status.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 20 Age: 10]
[Health: 950/950 Stamina: 1800/1800 Mana: 660/660]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 85 * INT: 67]
[VIT: 95 * MAG: 65]
[DEX: 85 * CLA: 34]
[CHA: 7 * PER: 41]
[LUK: 8]
[Bloodline: Unknown 1000/10,000,000]
[Experience: 1761/2000]
Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (25), Athleticism (42), Balance (43), Drawing (19), Driving (1), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (26), Horsemanship (6), Map Making (11), Mathematics (17), March (15), Medium Armor (30), Mining (12), Observation (38), Penmanship (24), Piano (0), Riding (11), Running (40), Shields (40), Sneaking (22), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11)

Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (23), Evasion (34), Forced March (13), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (46), Mana Circulation (23), Meditation (24), Number Concepts (9), Pain Resistance (35), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (51), Stealth (16), Strategy (11), Tactics (20)

Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (11), Blind Fighting (8), Command (8), Danger Sense (6), Identify {All} (14), Inspire (10), Mana Conjuration (21), Mana Manipulation (23), Mana Shield (11), Mana Sight (27), Mental Fortitude (31)

Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (14), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (14)

Tier 5:
Spatial Awareness (17)

Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (51)

Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (30), Earth (30), Fire (30), Water (30)

Tier 2:
Ice (16), Magma (16), Metal (16), Plasma (16), Wood (16)

Tier 3:
Darkness (20), Light (20)

Class Skills:
Devastating Strike (76): Deal 176% Damage
Cleave (62): Reset stance at an accelerated rate of 172%
Charge (63): Sprint toward the target at 173% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (55): Accelerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 55%
Flame Blade (10): Coat your blade in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the Flame Blade with additional mana
Available: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)

Reivyn nodded in satisfaction as he got up. He walked into the shared living space, where Teilon was already busy cooking breakfast. While the food they prepared for themselves wasn’t nearly as good as the fare provided by the professional cooks at the tavern, it was still a step up from eating rations for every meal.

Teilon is probably working on his Cooking skill; he’s always the first to jump at preparing the meals.

“What’s your skill up to now?” Reivyn asked as he took a seat at the table. Kimberly was already waiting and gave him a nod in greeting.

“What skill?” Teilon called out over his shoulder.

“Your Cooking skill. What else?” Reivyn said.

“I don’t have the Cooking skill,” Teilon replied.

“Then why are you always the one cooking?”

“’Cause I’m hungry!” Reivyn rolled his eyes at the response. “Though I probably will unlock the skill soon.”

“Alright then Hungry Man, pay attention to what you’re doing, and stop talking to me. You need to focus if you’re ever going to unlock the skill.”

“You’re the one talking to me!”

“You don’t have to answer back!”

Kimberly shook her head, already used to the interaction. Reivyn tapped the tabletop as he waited the final few minutes for his friend to finish. Teilon brought over a platter with scrambled eggs and bacon, and the three friends helped themselves to fill the plates that had already been waiting.

Reivyn eyed the bacon with appreciation. They didn’t have any way to store raw meats, so Teilon or Kimberly must have gone out in the morning to procure it before Reivyn got up.

“See, if you hadn’t been talking to me, and instead had been focusing on your task, this would almost be edible,” Reivyn said after taking a bite.

“I don’t see you putting your fork down,” Teilon retorted.

“Yeah, it’s actually pretty good. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Teilon nodded at the appreciation.

They quickly scarfed down their breakfast, and Reivyn took up the dishes and washed them. It was only right for him to take the task upon himself as his friends had done all of the preparation.

“Alright, time for some real skill training,” Reivyn said as he toweled off his hands. Kimberly had dried the plates and utensils and put them away as Reivyn handed them to her after cleaning.

Teilon groaned as he got up from the table to get his gear.

“Do we have to? Can’t we take a break?” He dragged his feet as he entered his room.

“We went over this already,” Reivyn replied with a gleeful grin. “Plus we had a break yesterday.”

“You know what I mean!” Teilon called from his room. “One day isn’t a break. We should take a couple of weeks off. We’d still go into the dungeon, of course—speaking of, we need to go turn in the ores for cash later today—but a couple of weeks of taking it easy otherwise would be nice.” Despite his complaining, Teilon still dutifully kitted himself out and rejoined Reivyn and Kimberly.

“Stop complaining,” Kimberly said while tapping her foot with her arms crossed. “Don’t you want to dance with me?”

“Yeah, but not that kind of dancing!”

“Well, if you do my kind of dancing, I’ll do your kind of dancing, later,” Kimberly supplied.

“What are you two standing around waiting for?” Teilon said as he headed out the door. “We have training to do.”

Reivyn and Kimberly shared a look before following Teilon out to the space they had available for sparring.

Reivyn sucked in a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brow. He lowered his sword and leaned against the wall as he struggled to catch his breath. He gripped the collar to his shirt and armor and pulled them away from his body to let the trapped heat escape. There wasn’t as much as he thought there would be.

“Aren’t you guys hot?” Reivyn called to his two friends who were continuing to spar with their spears. “This humidity is killing me.”

“What’s this?” Teilon said as he disengaged his sparring. “Is Reivyn slacking off?” Reivyn gave him a level look.

“You know perfectly well I’m not slacking off.” Reivyn pulled his tessen out and fanned himself with it. “It’s just really hot and humid. I feel like I’m swimming in the air.”

“I don’t really notice any difference.” Teilon shrugged. “I mean, yeah, it’s hot, but it’s not any different than it was before.”

Kimberly walked up with a concerned look on her face and placed her hand on Reivyn’s forehead. She frowned as she contemplated for a moment.

“You’re not running a fever or anything,” she said. “Maybe you really do need to take a break. Your martial skills are perfectly acceptable for the dungeon at this point, but you need to use your mana skills down on the second floor. Maybe you should just focus your efforts on that. Didn’t you get a new class skill? I would work on that if I were you.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Teilon said as he slung his spear over his shoulders.

“What you say makes a lot of sense,” Reivyn said. “My new class skill is Flame Blade, though. Not sure if working on that is going to help with the heat.” Reivyn chuckled.

“Then you’ll just have to doubly focus on your Mana Shield that you used in the dungeon to protect yourself from the heat.”

“Speaking of,” Reivyn said as a thought came to him, “I want to try something with that. Melissa said she could anchor her spell to the ambient mana, and I want to see if I can do the same thing with your weapons and armor. There might be a way for you—and Erik, I suppose—to actually participate in the second floor.”

“Whoa, now,” Teilon said as he held his hand up. “I want nothing to do with that nonsense. I’m perfectly happy working in the mines.” Kimberly nodded in agreement.

“Well, yeah, we already decided to wait until you guys reach Tier 2, but you’ll have to go down there with me at some point,” Reivyn reasoned. “I’ll be a lot more secure if I’m able to give you guys some protection, and you’re sure to gain a lot more life experience if you’re able to actually meaningfully participate.”

“Okay, well, what do you need us to do?” Teilon asked.

“Let me see if I can imbue your spear from all the way over here, first. You don’t have to do anything. Just stand there.” Teilon nodded, and the three friends went into a comfortable silence as Reivyn focused on projecting his mana toward the spear while Teilon and Kimberly patiently watched.

Reivyn pulled his mana forth like he normally would and looked at it pooled in his hand. I’ve never actually tried extending it away from my body before. He wasn’t entirely sure how to go about the task, so he would just have to try different things until it either worked or didn’t. I should have asked Melissa how she anchored her spell when I had the chance. I didn’t really think about it at the time.

For his first attempt, Reivyn simply attempted to float his spinning ball of mana toward Teilon, who was standing about six feet away. The ball moved at a slow pace, and it wobbled about a bit as he didn’t have perfect control over its movement. It was akin to moving a ball through a tunnel of ice, but the slipping occurred from all sides simultaneously, yet he could move it in any direction. It felt incredibly strange.

The ball of mana slowly dissipated as it lost the mana Reivyn had used to fuel it to the environment.

Hmmm… I could either pump a lot more mana in and see if that works, or I can tether it to myself to keep fueling it. I’ll go with the tether first, as that’s likely to cost less mana.

He repeated his exercise, but this time he kept the ball attached to himself with a thin string of mana that he used to maintain the balance of output with dissipation. The amount of mana required to keep the ball from growing smaller got larger and larger the farther away it reached, as even the mana he was using to supply it was slowly dissipating.

When the ball of mana reached about five feet away, the tether suddenly snapped. Reivyn shook his head as he let his control of the ball go.

Reivyn didn’t know if it was because the tether was too thin, or if he just wasn’t skilled enough to move it farther. He tried again, but this time he doubled the thickness of the tether.

It snapped at about the same distance away.

Okay, so it’s based on my skill, and not the tether. Good to know.

“Well? Have you done anything yet?”

Teilon’s voice brought Reivyn back to his senses, and he sheepishly looked at his friends.

“I’m holding you guys up,” Reivyn said. “I can experiment with this on my own while you guys practice. I’ll let you know once I figure something out.”

“Alright, sounds good to me,” Teilon said as he looked at Kimberly. “Shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s get back to it.”

Reivyn placed his sword a couple of feet away from himself on the ground as his friends moved back to their position to continue their sparring session.

Reivyn sat cross-legged as he stared at the sword. He leaned forward and rested his chin in his left hand. He resumed his practice as he stretched his right hand out and channeled his mana to his sword. With it only placed only a couple of feet away, and his hand extended out, it wasn’t too far for him to extend his mana this time.

He made contact with the sword, and he felt his mana’s dissipation slow down a bit as it was no longer just floating in the air. He was able to infuse his mana through the tether and encompass the entire weapon.

Now I need to figure out how to anchor it.

He used his Mana Sight to watch the motes of ambient mana surrounding the sword. His brow furrowed as he attempted to send out a small tendril from the mana and attach it to one of the free-floating sparks.

The environment had a lot of mana constantly present, and there were many motes that were even in contact with the sword itself. Reivyn didn’t try to use any of the mana directly touching the blade, though, as he wanted to actually see what exactly he was doing.

The tendril came in contact with a mote, and Reivyn willed it to meld together with it. A cascading chain of events happened when he easily accomplished the task. The mote directly touching the mana stopped moving about as soon as they connected, and it created a sort of suction that drew more mana motes immediately near it to join the connection. This in turn caused the ethereal mana to provide a constant, small source of fuel.

The magnetic effect was very small, though, and only a few other motes joined their brethren. Reivyn could tell that it wouldn’t be enough to maintain the mana surrounding the sword for very long. He did the same thing in several other spots all around, this time choosing motes that were directly in contact with his own mana as he no longer needed to see it.

Once a sufficient number of anchors formed for him to tell, it would last about ten minutes or so. Adding further points no longer provided any benefit. He retracted his tendril from the sword, and he could see that his mana kept its shape without him providing any more mana to it.

“Success!” Reivyn yelled out as he threw his hands in the air in triumph. He was only able to do it to something a couple of feet away from him, so it wouldn’t be viable in the midst of combat, but it would be invaluable for his friends on the second floor if he charged their gear up before combat. He might even be able to convince Melissa or Larissa to share in the mana cost and do the same thing for Erik.

I can’t use Mana Shield from a distance, but simply infusing their shield and armor should be good enough to ensure survivability.

Reivyn grabbed his sword and stood up. The mana anchors were attached to the mana around the sword, and the points connecting to the ambient mana moved freely. He was pleased to see that moving it about didn’t affect the process of drawing in more mana.

“Alright, I figured it out,” Reivyn called over to his friends. “It’ll be easier to do it when I’m touching your gear, so we’ll have to do it before combat, and there’s a time limit, but it should work.”

“Sounds good,” Teilon replied. The momentary distraction caused Kimberly to press her spear through his defenses and land a hit on his side. They were using staves with rounded tips that they had bought from one of the storefronts, and, combined with their armor, they moved freely in their sparring sessions.

“Ack!” Teilon called out in an exaggerated manner. “Look at you distracting me again! How am I ever going to level up my skills if you won’t let me focus?”

“You didn’t have to answer me.” Reivyn shrugged. “Heck, maybe you’ll get a focus-based skill with all of my distractions. I’m helping you.”

“Yeah, some help,” Teilon said as he stretched. Kimberly smirked at him. He shook his head and resumed his sparring with her.

Now to work on my new class skill: Flame Blade.

Reivyn resumed his practice.

Chapter forty-one

Coming to the Light

“Show me again, if you don’t mind,” Reivyn said.

The two groups had gotten together to conduct some training together to polish their teamwork. Reivyn and the two girls had already developed a rapport with each other on the second floor, but Teilon and Kimberly could use more work, especially once they joined the rest deeper in the dungeon.

Larissa activated her Fire Bolt spell. It was incredibly cheap, and it was the simplest spell she had access to. Melissa was standing off to the side waiting for her turn, and the other three non-casters were practicing together with their mana-infused gear. They needed to figure out the timing so they wouldn’t suddenly be stuck with their mundane gear no longer protecting them from the Revenants.

With the amount of focus they’re putting to keeping track of their gear, they may even unlock the Mana Sense skill. From what I know, one doesn’t need to be able to use mana to be able to sense it. It’s just much harder for them.

The way they had determined to time the mana infusion was to set a timer, and they staggered when the gear was infused for each person. They would then spar while trying to pick out all of the small details that the mana infusion added, like the change in weapon speed as it cut through the air or the sound it made. They were having a hard time of it for now, but Reivyn was optimistic they would get it down eventually.

Reivyn had set to himself the task of observing the simple Bolt spells from Larissa and Melissa in turn. If he was able to figure out a more complicated spell—like Flame Blade that used Inferno, then he was confident he could replicate that feat with something easier. Sure there had been a little cheating involved with the way they had gone about unlocking that spell, but Reivyn was determined to learn as much spellcraft as possible while he had the chance.

The mana that Larissa used for the spell wasn’t directly under her control, so she wasn’t able to slow it down for Reivyn every time she activated it as a class skill. She and her sister would free-hand the spell occasionally, since it was the cheapest and simplest spell, but even with much larger mana pools than Reivyn, doing it consistently over and over again wasn’t viable.

Reivyn focused his Mana Sight on the mana that formed in Larissa’s hand as it built up. The activation time for the Bolt spell was very short, though, so Reivyn only had a fraction of a second to parse what was happening.

The mana didn’t form in a spiral like the way Reivyn pulled his own mana out to manipulate it manually. It instead formed a shell of the projectile before it braided itself inside and created intricate patterns in the form of pillars supporting the shell.

Those braided patterns are probably what give it the necessary properties, and forming it as pillars supporting the shell probably gives it the reinforcement to have an impact.

He could tell that his forming of the arrows and daggers and other weapons he created with his Mana Weapon skill was rudimentary at best. He would need to learn the complicated braids if he was to ever give any real power to his mana arsenal.

After a fraction of a second, the Fire Bolt launched itself at the target. The group had left the confines of the budding town so as to practice their spells without accidentally setting a fire or injuring a bystander. The spell slammed into a boulder a short distance away, chipping off some fragments and leaving a scorch mark on the surface.

Larissa wasn’t accumulating any more mana than was necessary, so the damage caused by the spell was pretty superficial against something like a boulder. Melissa’s Ice Bolt spells did even less damage. It still caused fragments to shatter, but it only left an icy imprint of where the impact was afterward. Larissa’s heat had started to actually melt portions of the rock after repeated use.

Reivyn closed his eyes and replayed the scene in his mind’s eye. He combined it with all of the other examples he had been given. While he was lost in thought, he held his hand out and manipulated his own mana to try to recreate the braids that he had witnessed.

Reivyn was able to pinpoint three separate types of braids from Larissa’s spell, and Melissa’s spells also contained three. The two spells shared two of the braids, but the third for each was unique to itself. Reivyn wasn’t able to figure out what each of the braids did, yet, and he asked the two girls not to tell him until he had a chance to try to figure it out for himself.

I’m sure the secrets will become more readily apparent once I’m able to actually form the braids properly in a timely manner.

The problem that Reivyn was running into wasn’t that he wasn’t able to copy the pattern of the braids, but that it took him so long to create them that the mana started to dissipate on the first parts, which affected the entire structure. He needed to be able to form the braid almost instantly in order to succeed.

A higher affinity means easier control of the elements; higher Mana Manipulation means more precise movements of the threads; and a higher mana pool can be used to brute force through it. That’s probably the root cause of why it’s so hard to free-hand these spells. Being able to use the System to cast the spells not only automates all of the intricate maneuvers, but it also allows one to have a blueprint much more accessible for research.

“How long did it take you guys to figure out how to free-hand these easier spells?” Reivyn asked, his eyes still closed and his mana still moving.

“Ummm…” Larissa tapped her chin as she thought about the question. “I think it took me three months to get all of it right, but that was only with one braid each in the spell. The System puts several of each type when it handles it for us, and that took me almost a year to be able to do.”

“My results were about the same, give or take a few days,” Melissa said. “You’re actually getting a lot further along on your first day than either of us did. I’m pretty impressed.”

“Yeah, it’s not fair that a martial brute is able to pick it up so easily.”

“Well, to be frank, I already told you that my mental stats were actually my highest inherent stats. The conscription forced me into a martial class,” Reivyn explained. “I’m not sure if I would have taken a caster class at Tier 2 or not, but my mother has been training me on my mana skills for several years now. I had always wondered why she only ever really focused on sensing the different elements and improving my affinities. Now with how complicated even the simplest spell is, I finally get it.”

“Yeah, in order to unlock the lower-tier caster classes, you don’t have to be able to cast spells, you just have to have the necessary affinities,” Melissa supplied. “For rarer, higher-tier classes, though, you would need to be able to do a lot of these things on your own. The System is only ever a base built upon your own foundations, and if you slack off in your own research and practice in the early stages, you’ll forever be relegated to uncommon, which is the lowest rarity of caster classes.

“That also means you’ll never reach beyond Tier 4.”

“Why is that? Because you’ll not be powerful enough to move further up the levels?” Reivyn asked.

“No, you’ll literally never be able to advance.” Melissa shook her head. “In order to reach Tier 4, you have to have an uncommon Tier 3 class. That’s simple enough for caster classes, as, like I said, that’s the minimum rarity for us; however, in order to get to Tier 5, you have to have a rare Tier 4 class, and so on and so forth beyond that.

“Tier 8 is the highest tier, and in order to reach it, you have to have a mythic Tier 7 class to advance. If you skimp out on your foundations in your foundational classes, it becomes magnitudes harder to unlock higher rarity classes. The System doesn’t recognize a Tier 4 uncommon class figuring out the mana braids as equivalent life experience as a Tier 2 uncommon class doing the same.

“You can imagine why there’s a dearth of higher levels, especially in a Tier 1 region like this. It’s not just lack of experience and resources; it’s a lack of opportunities on a fundamental level.”

Reivyn frowned at the new information. He was sure his parents would have eventually told him whenever it became relevant to do so. He already had an epic class at Tier 1, after all, and he was working toward gaming the System to get an epic Tier 2 class, as well. They probably weren’t too worried about him needing the information so soon.

“That leads me to two questions,” Reivyn said as he temporarily halted his practice to focus on the conversation. “One, if there are Magic and Knight Academies in the Capital, where are all the graduates? And two, why don’t more people of means attempt to force a higher-tier class at a lower tier like our situation?” He gestured toward himself and his two friends to indicate who he was talking about.

“Oh, oh, oh, I know the answer to the first question!” Larissa jumped up and down until Melissa gestured for her to go ahead. “The top graduates get sent to the higher Tier 2 region. Our kingdom isn’t completely independent. There’s a higher authority in a more mana-dense region, and the top talents move on. From what I know, there’s a similar situation in the Tier 2 region, as well. The rest of the graduates are attached to the noble or established families.” Melissa nodded her head at the explanation.

“To answer your second question,” Melissa said, “conscription is the only way that we know of to force a Tier 2 class on a Tier 1 person. The more established families aren’t willing to have their children lose their autonomy like that, and the nobles are barred from doing so altogether. I suppose someone of a noble background living in another country, for whatever reason, might be subject to it, but we’ll probably never know, as that situation is very unlikely to occur.”

Reivyn managed to keep a straight face as Melissa answered his question.

“As for the academy being an avenue to force a Tier 3 class at Tier 2, it is well known that that is a possibility, but there are two problems with that. First, without the more established families allowing for their offspring to have a Tier 2 initial class, it is much harder for them to accrue enough power to be able to get the necessary life experience at Tier 2 to be able to force the Tier 3, and people from a non-established family have an even harder time with fewer resources and opportunities.

“Second, one cannot gain too many levels in Tier 2, or it locks into place. Tier 1 classes are the same for everyone, and they aren’t anything special, other than nobles. But Tier 2 classes integrate with your soul once you reach Level 10, so much so that it cannot be replaced. That means my sister and I are already unqualified.

“Think of it like building a house. As I said, the earlier classes are foundational. If you only have a few bricks laid, you can adjust the blueprint at any time, but once you start getting the walls and supports put in place, it will be impossible to meaningfully change anything.

“Also, as far as anyone knows, Tiers 1 and 2 are the only times one can force a higher tier. The higher-tier classes reward life experience, stats, and achievements with higher rarity options. It’s theoretically possible to receive a Divine rarity class at Tier 3, but I’m confident enough to say that in all of history, it has never happened.

“Everything involving the Divine tier, whether it be skills or classes, involves a higher plane, and they operate on different rules. Mythic class is the highest tier anyone can get on their own, and I’ve never heard of a Tier 3 mythic class. There’s probably some legendary Tier 3 classes out in the higher regions—they have the same basic rules as everything else, there’s eight of them—but not anywhere we’re likely to see in our lifetime.”

“Hmmm… that’s a lot to think about,” Reivyn said.

“You have a good chance of forcing a Tier 3 class in Tier 2, but running this dungeon is a double-edged sword. It gives you the necessary life experience, and I’m sure you can get some amazing achievements, but you also have to worry about getting too much experience and leveling up too quickly at the same time.”

Good thing I’m able to siphon experience off into my bloodline, Reivyn thought. With the amount of experience required to upgrade it, I thought I wouldn’t be doing so anytime soon, but it looks like that might be an integral part of my plan, now.

“Sure, that’s a problem to figure out when the time comes, though,” Reivyn replied. He wasn’t going to expose all of his secrets, no matter how friendly he was with his new team.

“Alright, let’s get back to work,” Reivyn said as he indicated for Melissa to cast her spell. “I’m sure I’ll have enough to work on the braids on my own after a few more examples. I can feel it.”

“Sure,” Melissa said with a smile.

“Sir, we have another group of adventurers that ignored our advice and continued to delve the dungeon,” Josn reported to the Sword-Bishop. “They managed to make it out alive, but that leaves another three groups that haven’t come back for an extended period of time. I went ahead and ordered a squire to tell the local Adventurer’s Guild branch to mark them as ‘presumed deceased.’”

Sword-Bishop Nix sighed as he rubbed his temples. He mumbled something to himself, and Josn could faintly hear something about “idiots.”

“Show me.” The Sword-Bishop got up from behind his desk.

Josn led him out of his command tent and escorted him to the infirmary they had set up.

Josn was a Sword-Priest of the Church of Light. His family was one of the more established ones from the Capital, and they had gained their first footing in society through an ancestor who had risen through the ranks of the Church, so they had a long history with the faith. Many of the noble families would send off their younger offspring to serve in the military or one of the churches so as not to interfere with succession, but his family was slightly different. They sent their firstborn to the Church.

There was no stipulation against getting married or having children, so serving in the Church didn’t interfere with the firstborn’s duty to take over the family in the future. Josn was an only child, so he doubly didn’t have to worry about the matter of succeeding as the head of his house, but as a particularly pious family, they generally had strong bonds and didn’t have situations where there was internal strife.

He had practically been raised in the Church, his father being fairly high ranked among the Sword-Priests, as they called their military arm. While Sword-Priest was a rank, it was also the term used to refer to them as a whole.

Josn had recently been promoted, and his first assignment saw him traveling all the way out to the frontier where some demon-infested dungeon had spawned. The stink of the local mana permeated everything. As a righteous scion of the Church of Light, all of their members were particularly sensitive to demonic influences.

The Church wasn’t an official, state-mandated organization, but they were afforded many liberties. As such the Sword-Priests had set up a separate encampment outside the palisade. They didn’t want any rumors of fraternization, and neither did the officials overseeing the new settlement.

Josn and Sword-Bishop Nix quickly made their way to the large infirmary tent. Real buildings had been commissioned to be built nearby by the locals, as the situation involving the dungeon was likely to require a permanent presence.

Josn had no idea how long he would be required to stay out in the boonies, but he didn’t mind too much.

It was his duty to search out and destroy heresy.

The two men ducked into the tent, and the demonic mana that was ever-present intensified immediately. It was oozing off the bodies of many adventurers that were laid up on the cots set out. Priests moved about seeking to dispel the demonic toxins, but they weren’t specialized in medicine or healing. The local guards had to provide any healers, and they had their own duties to see to, so they weren’t on hand at all times.

As the pair navigated toward the new additions, one of the adventurers waiting for treatment leaned over and vomited black blood into a bucket by his side. Sword-Bishop Nix didn’t even spare him a glance, but Josn instinctively shied away a bit.

Ugh, disgusting. Even after they had already fallen victim to the symptoms associated with the demonic mana, these adventurers were just too greedy and couldn’t stay out of the dungeon. These groups were among the first that arrived, and they’re the worst off.

Josn showed his superior to the furthest, newest occupants of the tent. If Reivyn had been present, he would have recognized them as the dour group that he had avoided in the tavern.

“These men had already been treated once, and they were warned that they should stay out of the dungeon for several weeks so they could recover, but they simply chose to put up a notice to recruit some more people to make up for their diminished state and kept going. Luckily, the people they teamed up with were conscientious enough to drag them out of the dungeon and not just leave them to their fate.”

Sword-Bishop Nix inspected the new people in his care before turning to one of the priests.

“These men were lucky they had already received treatment before they went down this last time. They should survive. See to it that they get the proper care,” he ordered. The priest in question gave a salute and marked it down.

“I think we should just put them to the sword and call it done,” Josn said as the two stepped out of the tent.

“Sword-Priest Josn, while it is in our purview to stamp out heresy wherever it is found, it should always be the last option,” the Sword-Bishop rebuked. “These men didn’t willingly submit themselves to heresy, so we should do all in our power to cure them.”

“You misunderstand me, sir,” Josn replied. “I said we should put them to the sword as a mercy. While they have a slim chance of survival, it’s not looking good for the first few groups. We could end their suffering.”

“Hmmm, yes, I see,” Sword-Bishop Nix said. “However, they are all children in the Light, and suffering is a way of life. Nobody can escape suffering, and as such, we shouldn’t resort to the Sword of Mercy unless we have to. Everyone should get a chance, and we’ll make sure they get it until the very last moment. If we start ending suffering out of mercy, we run the risk of choosing to do so more easily in the future. And then what? We’ll become the very darkness we stand against.”

“I understand, sir,” Josn replied.

He wasn’t fully convinced, but he wasn’t the one ultimately in charge or responsible. He would follow his orders, even if he didn’t fully agree with them.

My faith is strong enough that I wouldn’t fall to the darkness and become a butcher, he thought to himself. He looked around at the other Sword-Priests attending to their duties. Though I suppose the Sword-Bishop has a point. We can’t only be concerned with ourselves. As officers, we need to be mindful of those in our charge as well.

“Stand up straight, squire,” Josn corrected a man on duty. “Don’t let yourself become slovenly. We must avoid even the appearance of it.”

“Yes, sir.” The man saluted and straightened his posture.

Josn kept a critical eye out for all of the Sword-Priests as he made his way back to his tent.

It is especially important to make sure we don’t let anything affect our mindset so close to the infestation. This dungeon is an insidious beast, just waiting to clutch the unsuspecting in its claws.

Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix

Ameliyn sat on the couch to hand knit some smaller, more delicate projects. She didn’t always do all of her work on the loom, but the things she produced to sell were usually larger things she created quickly. For the more personal items she made, she liked to do it by hand. It felt more intimate to know that something her daughters wore was made with her hands directly.

She wasn’t currently making a more intimate piece of clothing, though. Instead, her eyes were focused beyond what her hands were doing, and she manipulated her mana in intricate braids and patterns over and over again.

Her mastery of braiding mana had astounded her tutors, and it was what had enabled her to unlock the Weaver designation instead of simply Mage when she became a Light Weaver. She had found that practicing her needlework, which her mother had insisted she learn as a child—“Any noble lady needs to know certain, delicate skills,” she would say—directly translated to her ability to perceive and manipulate mana threads into braids.

She had made it a habit to continue practicing both as they compounded each other’s growth. It was the main reason she had taken up the persona as a talented weaver to provide some extra income for her family.

Once Reivyn gets back from his adventure in the dungeons, he should have just unlocked his caster class, or be about to, and I can move on to the next stage of his training. If he hadn’t been so insistent on practicing his martial skills so much, we would have had more time for this.

She looked over at her daughters, Kailey and Riley, affectionately as they wove baskets made out of grass. The odd flower bud was interspersed with the grass laces. Ameliyn thought back to the flower crowns they had made on the road to Magron. That little act of theirs had woken her and Refix up to the fact that they needed to seriously start guiding their development.

The girls hadn’t realized exactly what they were doing, and they weren’t intentionally manipulating mana, but they probably had unlocked the skill. She didn’t know as they weren’t quite as forthcoming about it as Reivyn had been. They sought each other’s counsel more than anything, but they didn’t intentionally hide things, either.

They had begun to subconsciously infuse their intent into their little creations more and more. It didn’t always manifest as a complete magical item, but it wasn’t infrequent. They could really benefit from buckling down on some official training in their mana skills and mental stats.

The only problem was that they had an utter lack of any motivation to do any serious training, completely opposite from their brother. Ameliyn had had to trick them into practicing. She had instructed them that each time they wanted to go out and pick flowers, and other things to make their little crafts, they had to first weave a grass basket to carry it in. And they had to make a new one every time.

The two girls hadn’t understood why it was necessary to make a new basket every single time, and they had expressed as much. Ameliyn smiled at the memory of their conversation.

“But mo~om, there’s a perfectly good one right here!” Kailey had complained. She grabbed Ameliyn’s arm and swung it about.

“We don’t need a new one,” Riley added on, swinging Ameliyn’s other arm.

“Well, take those ones that you’ve already made apart,” Ameliyn advised. “Be careful not to tear the grass while you do so. Once you dismantle it, build it again, but this time, do something different. Try and incorporate some different colors into shapes and patterns. Give it a unique look. You can sport new fashion every time you go out of the house.”

The two girls looked at their already-made baskets in thought. Ameliyn could see the gears whirling in their minds as they imagined the different things they could do. After all, making new, cute things was the entire point of them going out to collect more flowers.

“Alright, Mommy,” Kailey and Riley said in unison.

That had been several weeks ago, and the two girls had quickly become experts in designing new and interesting looks for their grass baskets.

“Mommy, Mommy, look!” Kailey came running over, followed immediately behind by a beaming Riley. “We made something completely new!”

“It’s completely new!” Riley added.

“Oh? Show Mommy what you’ve made.” Ameliyn faced her daughters as she assumed a look of rapt attention. Kailey held up her basket for Ameliyn to inspect. She had somehow managed to incorporate all of the tiny, minuscule color distortions and blemishes in the grass into the outline of a woman in a flowing dress with braided hair over her shoulder. “This is magnificent!” Ameliyn exclaimed. She meant it.

“Look at mine! Look at mine!” Riley thrust her basket forward. She had similarly used the imperfections to craft a little masterpiece. Her basket sported the outline of a man in armor, a sword’s hilt peeking over his shoulder.

“It’s Princess Amily, like in your stories!” Kailey said while pointing to the woman. “She has a braid like yours.” Kailey reached over and gave her mother’s braid a tug. Ameliyn was able to see that her daughter had somehow incorporated the pattern on the braid into her work in elaborate detail.

“Mine is Knight Fenrix, Amily’s trusty bodyguard!” Riley nearly shouted in her excitement. “See, he has the dragon-head pommel on his sword.” Sure enough, a little depiction of a dragon’s head was on the hilt sticking out from the man’s shoulder.

Ameliyn could feel an unusually strong mana fluctuation coming from the two baskets, so she threw an Inspect at them.

[Princess Amily’s Basket]
[It holds the hope of her people]

[Knight Fenrix’s Basket]
[It holds the weight of his responsibility]

Emotions threatened to overwhelm her as she accepted the baskets from her daughters and held them. A single tear fell from her eye, but she quickly mastered herself.

“Why are you crying, Mommy?” Kailey leaned forward and peered up at her mother.

“Why are you crying?” Riley put her head right next to her sister’s.

“It’s nothing,” Ameliyn said as she wiped the tear away. “I’m just so happy at what you two have been able to do.” She put a bright smile on her face. She was happy, and not just at the amazing things the two girls had crafted.

The words described in the notification about the two magical baskets weren’t empty. She felt a tangible weight that she hadn’t noticed was there lift from her shoulders as she accepted the baskets. She felt fresher and more clear-headed than she had in years.

“These baskets mark an important milestone for you girls, so we won’t be taking these ones apart,” Ameliyn said as she got up. She took the baskets and placed them on the mantelpiece to be displayed. “You can make new ones to use for your flower gathering, but Mommy’s going to be selfish and keep these for herself.”

“Ok~ay, Mommy,” Kailey said. “But…”

“…you have to tell us another story,” Riley finished. “It’s payment for services rendered.”

“It’s payment.”

Ameliyn chuckled at her two daughters as she resumed her seat on the couch. The girls took up space half sitting on the couch and half sitting in her lap on either side of her. “Now, where were we?” Ameliyn asked, looking back and forth between Kailey and Riley.

“Amily and Fenrix had just embarked on their quest to find the Holy Amulet to wake her sleeping siblings,” Kailey chimed in, bouncing up and down in her seat.

“To wake her sleeping siblings,” Riley echoed.

“Right, right,” Ameliyn said. It was a good thing she had already mastered her emotions. She felt her heartstrings tug at the mention of “Amily’s” siblings. She took a deep breath and began her edited version of events. “Princess Amily bravely rode forth on her steed, the handsome Fenrix in his gleaming armor dutifully escorting her…”

“You’re a bastard! A gremlin! An oaf!” Ameliyn stomped her foot as she shouted at the man who had kidnapped her away from her family. He had snatched her from the arms of her younger brother and sister and dragged her all the way out into the wilderness without even a glance back.

“I’m not an oaf,” Refix said defensively. He sat in front of their campfire and stared into the flames with a distant look. His armor was nicked and scarred, covered in scorch marks and scratches adorning every part of it. Soot marred the features of his face, and exhaustion was the only emotion he was able to display.

The elaborate red cape that completed the ensemble of an Imperial Bodyguard was tattered and torn, and he had stripped it off to give to Ameliyn to use as a blanket. She had scoffed at the gesture and thrown it back in his face. He had simply shrugged and used it as a pillow.

The two had narrowly escaped from the Imperial Capital and had fled for well over a full day before they had to stop to get some rest or risk collapsing. The incursion had started at dusk the previous day, and they had traveled through the night and all day.

Ameliyn was just a young Tier 2 who had just unlocked her class, but Refix was already an established Tier 3. Not only was it his duty to protect and serve the imperial family, but he had years of experience fighting in dungeons and against monsters in the wilderness to prepare for and compete for the honor of his position.

Refix had maintained a high-alert state of mind for over twenty-four hours and had rushed as far as he possibly could on his stamina reserves. He had constantly been on the lookout for threats, oftentimes having to fight off weaker monsters that had been drawn to the commotion in order to scavenge, and any time Ameliyn needed to rest, he had simply picked her up and kept going.

Ameliyn had been numb and mostly unresponsive for a long time. She had never encountered anything close to the strife they were faced with. Eventually, though, she had snapped out of her fugue. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able or mature enough to handle the cascade of emotions that flowed within her, so she reacted in the only way that offered an outlet for her.

She had lashed out at the one person who was protecting her, and she was indignant at the treatment she was getting in their need for a speedy escape. She dragged her feet and complained about every little thing, escalating as she was unable to get a rise out of the target of her ire.

“I demand that you take me back to the Capital this instant,” Ameliyn lifted her chin and attempted an imperious tone. “You will mobilize any forces you can find and launch a sortie to rescue my siblings at once.”

“Yes, Princess, as soon as I’m able,” Refix replied. He got up from his spot and tidied up their camp. He paused for a moment, looking at the tattered cape in his hands before he carefully stored it away in a pack he had been given by another soldier before they fled. He kicked dirt over the fire and made sure it was completely out before he grabbed Ameliyn’s wrist and led her out of their little enclave.

The pack that had been thrust into his hands in haste had been carefully prepared ahead of time for such an eventuality, and it was inspected and maintained regularly. The imperial family didn’t personally direct the action, but the Imperial Guard was professional, and they planned for everything.

The kit had included rations, money, some easily transportable resources, and several portable runic arrays. Refix had used such an array to hide themselves from any roaming monsters or beasts so they could both get some sleep without the need for a watch. They didn’t have an unlimited number of them, though, so he would need to be selective when he chose to use one. The first time they had stopped to rest was definitely one of the times it was a necessity.

Refix walked back out into the open of the small hills they had found themselves in, Ameliyn in tow. He didn’t drag her or force her to move faster, but he was insistent with his movements. He found the road they had been following and turned down it again, away from the Capital.

“Unhand me!” Ameliyn shouted. She verbally asserted her displeasure, but her feet kept walking. “You’re going the wrong way! I told you to escort me back to the Capital.”

“Yes, Princess, as soon as I’m able,” Refix replied as he continued walking without missing a beat.

The sky was still orange from the flames that still raged in the Capital, and it dyed the surroundings an unnatural color. Smoke was billowing on the horizon, marking the location of the tragedy.

“You’re able to right now,” Ameliyn said.

“You ordered me to launch a sortie with any forces I’m able to find,” Refix patiently pointed out. “I’m going to go find those forces. They’re most likely located in the vassal states in this direction. We’ll have to find some form of transportation soon, though, because it will be a long journey on foot.”

Refix released his hold on Ameliyn’s wrist when he noticed she continued to follow. She folded her arms across her chest and pouted as she stepped up to walk alongside her bodyguard.

“You’re not my exclusive guard,” Ameliyn tried a different tack. “You’re a bodyguard to the imperial family. Family. You have more people to protect than just me.”

“Yes, Princess, I understand,” Refix said. “I’m also not the only Imperial Bodyguard. I have several brothers in arms who can take on that duty as we make our escape.”

Ameliyn lapsed into silence as she trudged along, thinking about the possibility of other bodyguards rescuing her siblings. She had to believe it was possible or she wouldn’t be able to take any more steps forward. She knew deep down that they were making the right decision, but it hurt.

The two continued walking along the well-maintained road in silence. There were no other people on the road around them, traveling in either direction, so they walked alone.

I’m alone. Tears silently rolled down her face as she continued her beleaguered journey with her annoying bodyguard.

“…and Amily and Fenrix saw that the men were loyal, and so they recruited them to their cause. Amily embarked on her journey in style with all of her needs taken care of, and Sir Fenrix kept a protective watch over her at all times.

“We’ll pick up from here next time,” Ameliyn said.

“Awww,” the two girls complained in unison.

“But we want to hear more about the magical land that they traveled through,” Kailey said.

“And about the beasts that they tamed along the way,” Riley added.

“And about the brave companions that joined them.”

“And, and…”

“And another time,” Ameliyn said. “I’ve paid for your baskets with what I’ve told you so far. It’s time for you to make new ones and go get your flowers.”

“Ok~ay,” Kailey and Riley said.

The pair got up from the couch and ran into the backyard to pluck more strands of grass and simple flower buds for their next projects. Ameliyn smiled as she watched them run off.

The front door opened and closed, and Ameliyn looked up to see Refix join her.

“Look at what your daughters have made,” she said with a nod toward the mantelpiece. Refix walked over and stood in stunned silence as he observed the two baskets.

“These are amazing,” he said as he reached out to pick them up. His eyes widened as he looked up at Ameliyn. “Wow! I feel… I feel… I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel better.”

“Like a weight, you didn’t know you were carrying has been lifted?”

“Yeah, but more than that.” he carefully placed the baskets back in their spots. “We’ll have to keep these treasures safe.”

“Agreed,” Ameliyn said as she walked up and hugged her husband from behind. “My loyal bodyguard, I order you to keep these treasures safe, and to protect and guide the two treasures playing outside, as well.”

Refix turned in her embrace and whispered, “Yes, Princess, as soon as I’m able.” He leaned down to give his wife a kiss.

Chapter forty-two

Classist

Monthly Experience
Calculating…
Relevant Skills Training: +800 Exp
Physical Exercise: +0 Exp
Sparring: +0 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +20 Exp
Life Experience: +2000 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 2,820
Level Up! Lvl 28

Another two weeks had gone by since the first time the team had delved the dungeon, and Reivyn had seen a tremendous increase in experience just from the two runs. It turned out that the final hallway where they encountered the patrol of fourteen Revenants was the final step before the boss room. The second floor of the dungeon was considerably shorter than the first, yet magnitudes more dangerous.

He was concerned that he would outpace his two friends far too much if he continued getting an additional 8,000 experience a week, so he was able to convince them to move on to the next floor much sooner than he had expected. Teilon and Kimberly had gone with them and participated in the combat on the second floor, but due to the restrictions of them requiring their gear to be infused with mana, they only participated on the upper floors and stayed in the stairwell for the final patrol.

Reivyn saw a decrease of 2,000 experience due to his friends joining them on the third run, and Melissa and Larissa saw a similar decrease. From a conversation with Teilon and Kimberly afterward, he learned that they had earned 4,500 experience from the trip.

With the added participation of Erik, Teilon, and Kimberly, they each received around 4,500 experience, which amounts to 13,500 experience—Erik didn’t get any experience the first trip besides from the normal skeletons. The two girls and I combined lost 2,000 each, which is 6,000 experience. We somehow managed to gain an additional 7,500 experience spread between all of us. I have no idea what the calculations are, but other than for seeking achievements, grouping up provides the most experience. Sure, the total experience gained would be far greater if everyone went in solo, but not everyone is able to clear the dungeon’s first floor, much less the Revenants, by themselves.

He was still at such a low level that he gained multiple levels for each trip, but Melissa told him that would drop off a bit as he advanced into Tier 2.

“It’s not a dramatic increase in experience required to level up at Tier 2, but it ramps up quickly. For instance, Tier 1 classes require the current level times 100, all the way up to 2,900 experience to reach the maximum level of 30; however, to initiate the Class Change, you have to max the experience in the maximum level out, so the full 3,000 experience.

“Tier 2 classes require an additional 200 times the level, in addition to the amount required to reach max level in Tier 1. Level 1 is always a freebie in each tier, and it’s brought about by the changes the System makes to your meridians and the leftover experience from maxing out the previous Level. Tier 2, Level 2 requires 3,200 experience, and to reach the max level to go to Tier 3, which is Level 60 as opposed to 30. You would need 15,000 experience at max level.

“I was Level 22 on our first dungeon dive, and that meant I required 7,400 experience to level up. I’ve leveled up once for each dungeon dive, but that will soon slow down as well. I’m not complaining, mind you; it’s still really fast.

“This dungeon is ridiculous for caster classes and anyone able to team up with caster classes, so I imagine almost everyone at the two academies will make a trip out here once we return with the information on it. The System doesn’t care that the Revenants are restricted due to the lack of mana density. We still get the full experience for killing them. We’re basically getting the experience reward for an entire tier higher dungeon.”

Reivyn pulled up his Status page.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 28 Age: 10]
[Health: 1190/1190 Stamina: 2200/2200 Mana: 915/915]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 101 * INT: 91]
[VIT: 119 * MAG: 92]
[DEX: 101 * CLA: 34]
[CHA: 7 * PER: 49]
[LUK: 8]
[Bloodline: Unknown 1000/10,000,000]
[Experience: 381/2800]

Reivyn was concerned that, due to the nature of the System awarding experience all at once when exiting the dungeon or during the monthly experience calculation, he would accidentally reach maximum experience and accidentally initiate the Tier 2 Class Change before he was ready.

I don’t know if the Class Change, once initiated, is irreversible or not. What if the System demands that I choose a new class and doesn’t let me activate the Experience Siphon? That would be terrible news. I’ll go ahead and activate it to see how it works.

Reivyn mentally flipped the switch, and he felt a pull in his core as a whirlpool of experience formed in his heart.

Makes sense that the center of the bloodline would be in the heart, Reivyn thought. He continued to examine the ability.

Experience was an intangible form of energy, so he wasn’t able to see it like he could mana, despite all of his attempts at activating his skill. It was a subtle thing, barely at the edges of his awareness, but he could feel the experience that had permeated his body get sucked into his heart. He kept the ability active even after all of the remnant energy had been devoured, and he was happy to see that he was able to simply leave it on without even having to think about it. With nothing to absorb, the ability was inert, but he could tell that it was ready to gobble up any new experience.

Bloodline: Unknown 1,381/10,000,000
Experience: 0/2800

Alright. Simple enough. I’ll just reach Level 30, and then keep the siphoning ability active at all times until I’m ready to tier up.

Reivyn deactivated his ability, and the waiting maw in his heart went dormant. It didn’t cause any feelings of discomfort, no hunger, or anything one might think about as an insatiable pull of energy, so he wasn’t concerned about leaving it on at all times. If he didn’t focus on it directly, it wouldn’t cause any noticeable changes in his everyday life at all.

With the comfort of knowing he could delay his tier up indefinitely at will, Reivyn turned his attention to another new addition.

Ever since he had been forced into the Fighter class, the Class tab on his System page had simply contained the general information about his class, and nothing else; however, upon reaching Level 25, that had changed.

Now his Class page was filled to the brim with possible classes he could acquire upon reaching Tier 2. Several of them were grayed out, so he had sought Melissa once again for her counsel.

“Once someone reaches the last few levels before reaching the next tier, the Class page will display the classes that you have already unlocked, as well as the classes you’re close to unlocking.

“Classes that you almost meet the requirements to will be grayed out. The System doesn’t provide the information about what needs to be done to fully unlock the class, though. You will have to examine the class, and, based on the context, figure out what it is that you’re lacking.

“It could be anything: stats, skill levels, life experience, or even something more intangible like reputation or affiliation with a group. You won’t be able to unlock the Priest class without being a member of a church, for instance. That includes the Paladin class that Sir Reifold holds.”

Reivyn ruminated on the information as he pulled the Class page up.

Tier 2 Classes Available:
Common:
Hunter
Laborer
Mason
Miner
Story Teller
Woodsman

Uncommon:
Bowman
Horseman
Hunter *Wood
Laborer *Earth
Mason *Earth
Mage
Mercenary
Militiaman
Miner *Earth
Miner *Metal
Orator
Scout
Woodsman *Wood

Rare:
[Archer]
[Builder *Earth/Wood]
[Cavalryman]
[Dreamer]
[Fighter]
[Mage *Air]
[Mage *Darkness]
[Mage *Earth]
[Mage *Fire]
[Mage *Ice]
[Mage *Light]
[Mage *Magma]
[Mage *Metal]
[Mage *Water]
[Mage *Wood]
[Rogue]
[Politician]
[Tracker *Earth/Wood]

Tier 3*:
Uncommon*:
Expert Hunter
Expert Laborer
Expert Mason
Expert Miner
Expert Story Teller
Expert Woodsman
Fortune Teller

Rare*:
Cataphract
Expert Hunter *Wood
Expert Laborer *Earth
Expert Mason *Earth
Expert Miner *Earth
Expert Miner *Metal
Expert Woodsman *Wood
Marksman
Statesman
Recon
Soldier
Soldier of Fortune
Wizard

Epic*:
Assassin
Chevalier
Magic Swordsman*
Shade
Sharpshooter
Veteran
Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water

Legendary*:
Champion
Juggernaut

Reivyn had a lot of options available to him.

I doubt anyone else has the sheer number of classes available to them upon tiering up. Most of these can be ignored, though. No way I would ever choose a common rarity class, especially after the reminder from Melissa about having to have rarer classes to even be able to continue leveling up.

Reivyn completely ignored the entire swathe of common classes and most of the uncommon ones. He wasn’t ever going to choose such a class, but several of them caught his attention in the uncommon rarity.

Let’s start with Hunter *Wood. That makes me think it has something to do with the Wood Element Affinity.

Reivyn focused on the class and received a pop-up notification window containing the information about the class.

Hunter *Wood

You are an expert at finding and killing game. You’ve delved into the intricacies of leatherworking, but skinning your prey is as far as your knowledge in the field goes. You have the ability to tap into the mana that surrounds and subsumes all of nature, bending it to your will.

In addition to the normal skillset a Hunter is equipped with, the Wood Aligned Hunter will be able to manipulate mana and use some rudimentary spells.

It’s like I thought. Being able to use mana skills inherently increases the rarity of a lifestyle class. Come to think of it, based on how the classes are named, I would have realized something was up with Mother’s class once I had access to this information. If it were a lifestyle class, it would have been Weaver *Light, instead of Light Weaver.

Thinking about it critically, the simple difference in the names has an entirely different connotation. A Weaver *Light would be a mundane Weaver with the ability to manipulate the light element, but a Light Weaver is one who literally weaves the Light.

With his curiosity sated, Reivyn moved on from the lesser rarity classes. He was determined to get a rare Tier 3 class eventually, but there were several Tier 2 classes in the rare section that piqued his interest.

Dreamer

You have had an intangible connection to the ethereal realm of Dreams ever since you were young. Most dreams are what they appear on the surface, subconscious thoughts that you experience in your sleep. You, however, are able to delve beneath the surface.

The Dreamer is able to experience a lucid dream at will. With practice the dreams one experiences will have a more significant connection to reality. Entering someone else’s dreams are still out of reach for the Dreamer.

That one’s interesting, and if I didn’t already have a clear path ahead of me and didn’t care about the possible consequences, I might have chosen such a class to explore simply to see where it goes in the future.

Tracker *Earth/Wood

You have the ability to sniff out and track any sort of target, be it beast or man, across any kind of terrain. Nobody on the run is safe with you on their tail, as you are not only skilled in the ability to track and investigate, but you can use the mana of nature and the very earth to assist you in your tasks.

The Wood and Earth Aligned Tracker is skilled not only in recognizing tracks, trails, and scents, they’re also able to conduct investigations and use mana skills. Some simple spells are at their disposal.

This class sounds like it’s a combination of Hunter, Woodsman, Militiaman, and a bit of casting. From the description, there actually appears to be a lot of utility for such a class, and I can see that anyone who goes down this route would have a lot of opportunities. It specifically says they’re able to track not just beasts in the wilderness, but men and monsters, too. A skilled Tracker could be employed by a city as an investigator or by the army as a competent alternative to a scout.

Reivyn already knew about the Fighter class and the intricacies involved with the lower tier Mage classes. He also wasn’t too interested in the other combat classes available in the Tier 2 range, so he moved his focus down the list to the classes in Tier 3 that he already had access to or was close to unlocking. He could extrapolate the information in the other classes just from their names, and focusing on them specifically wasn’t necessary.

Fortune Teller

You are able to barely see the threads of fate connecting one to the web of reality. You aren’t able to predict the future, but you can see whether one is fated with a certain action or relationship. With higher skill, more threads and higher clarity can be gleaned.

The Fortune Teller is able to recommend whether a course of action is advisable or not. It isn’t always 100% accurate, but with time and skill, the Fortune Teller can not only accurately guide someone to a desired outcome, they can also manipulate common events.

Another interesting class. Sure, it sounds kind of weak: common tier—it only shows as uncommon because it’s Tier 3 in Tier 2—not 100% accurate and manipulates common events, but if anyone competent and/or lucky enough to encounter the right kind of opportunities goes down this path, I can see some powerful iterations at higher tiers. Imagine someone able to manipulate extraordinary events. Or control someone’s fate. I can see some interesting synergistic combinations arising out of someone who takes Dreamer/Fortune Teller as the class build.

Then again, that would only be possible for someone who unlocks this in Tier 2. Having it listed as a common class is probably a way for the System to prevent such a person from arising, locking them out of Tier 4.

The Uncommon (Rare*) rarity was filled with expert-designated lifestyle classes. Reivyn assumed one would need to literally have expert-level skills to even qualify for the classes.

The only reason I can see them as close to being unlocked is probably because of my expert mastery in Weapons Master and my high-level affinities. I would need to abandon my adventuring and buckle down on working on the associated skills to unlock any of those, and I have no intentions of doing anything of the sort.

Statesman

You have inspired those around you with your words and deeds, and you have a Charisma that draws others to you. Embark on the path of the Statesman and control the lives of others through words instead of action.

The Statesman can bend others to their will. It is not a nefarious mind control, but a Skilled Statesman can better argue their points and influence others to see things his way. As a champion for a cause one truly believes in, the Statesman can change the course of a nation.

Hmmm, I’m not really one for political machinations. I’m not so blind as to be led by the nose by others, but this simply isn’t anything I’m interested in. Someone in a position of power, though, who becomes skilled with such a class could truly become a force to be reckoned with, not through the force of their own arms, but from the arms of many. I can only imagine the reason this was offered to me is because of my Inspire skill and charisma stat. Both of those are explicitly stated in the description.

There wasn’t really anything else of interest in the entire range of classes that he was interested in, except for one, and it was only because it sounded similar to, but different from, the other combat classes.

Soldier of Fortune

You are a professional Soldier, but you hold allegiance to no one. Some think the professional mercenary is beholden to money, but that isn’t quite right, either. You hold allegiance to yourself. You go where the wind blows you, and fight the fights you choose.

The Soldier of Fortune is more focused on individual combat as opposed to joining the ranks of his fellow brothers in arms. That isn’t to say the Soldier of Fortune can’t perform in an organized group, but they are more individualistic and independent. These characteristics serve them well in the life of adventuring or selling their combat services to those who can afford it.

This class sounds like the perfect transition for anyone discharging from the military service but wants to continue in the combat field. The specific mention of adventuring probably makes this a popular choice, actually. I would probably need to get more life experience fighting as a soldier to unlock this class, but I have no desire to do so at this point in my life.

Reivyn continued to peruse the options available to him further down the list.

Assassin

You have spent time slinking in the shadows, but not to steal. You are as deadly with a blade or bow as any other competent fighter, but the darkness is your friend. Not only can you conceal yourself in the dark, but it doesn’t hinder your ability to bring swift death to your foes.

The Assassin can meld with the shadows and move about undetected where the common Rogue would be easily spotted. They can infiltrate hardened fortifications, and their targets aren’t safe anywhere. The Assassin can operate in the pitch-black of midnight just as well as the full sun of noon.

It would appear the skill Blind Fighting is the lynchpin for this class; as it says they aren’t hindered by the dark. I would need to focus on increasing the skill level in order to have a chance at unlocking this class. While I’m not interested in being a literal Assassin, I can see how the class itself could provide some powerful boosts to combat and utility.

Chevalier

You’re able to fight mounted on a steed just as well as on foot. You can wield a wide variety of weapons and armor, but you aren’t the vassal of a lord or lady.

The Chevalier is most well known for their heavily armored combat abilities. They are able to operate with heavy plate just as well as their counterparts in more lightweight armor, and they have the Skill to utilize a wide array of weapons: lances, spears, swords, and ranged weapons.

This sounds like an unaffiliated Knight. Going off of the words in the class description and from what Melissa told me, one would need to swear allegiance to a lord or lady, and receive the proper recognition, to actually unlock the Knight class. Considering Chevalier is an unattached equivalent, I’m sure there are some benefits to swearing to someone else to gain the Knight class, but I don’t know what those might be.

Magic Swordsman*

You have an aptitude for Martial Combat as well as Casting. You have spent long hours honing your ability with a weapon, but you never slacked off on training your mana Skills and affinities.

The Magic Swordsman is renowned for their versatility, and only the most talented of individuals are able to combine the Martial with the Magical. The Magic Swordsman chooses an Elemental Affinity to specialize in, and they are able to apply their magic directly to their weapons, and at higher Skills, their armor. While the Magic Swordsman is unable to cast Spells in the traditional sense, they are incredibly deadly at close range.

*Synergy detected with Weapons Master Skill. Class can utilize Weapons Master instead of Swords.

This sounds right up my alley. The description paints a picture of someone doing what I’m currently doing, but with far more skill and utility. That being said, the point of my next class isn’t to keep doing what I’m doing now, but to fully utilize my talents and open up further possibilities in the future. I’ll keep my eye on this class, and it’s definitely in the running for what I’ll choose—plus it’s already unlocked— but I’ll keep accumulating experience and achievements and see if I can’t get something more in line with my goals.

Shade

You’re a deadly assassin with the element of darkness at your fingertips. You’re able to use the mana that shrouds the world to hide your presence and confuse your targets.

The Shade is far more deadly than the mundane Assassin. Shades are able to utilize the darkness elemental mana, and several superior Spells are at their disposal.

Not much different from the Assassin class, but with this one, I would be able to properly bring my mana skills to bear. If I had an inclination toward choosing the Assassin class, then this one trumps that.

Sharpshooter

Take aim with any ranged weapon, and strike your target from nearly any distance. You can extend the effective range of weapons beyond what others could possibly conceive. You are a terror on the battlefield.

The Sharpshooter has deadly accuracy, even beyond what would normally be possible. They can strike at targets before others can even see them coming.

This class would definitely require a much higher Aim skill level. Sure, my Weapons Master skill can lift some of the load, but that skill more affects my ability to use the weapon itself, and not necessarily the accuracy. It plays a role, for sure, but Aim is the true determining factor for ranged accuracy.

Veteran

You have survived many battlefields, and many different life or death situations. You have the uncanny ability to perceive danger, and your presence is a solid rock for anyone else in your Party.

The Veteran is able to soothe the nerves of others with their Aura alone. They instinctively know when danger is coming, and they know how to defeat it.

Veteran sounds like a great class, actually. Even though the description is kind of bare-bones, the implications are amazing. This class would be able to fully use the Sense Danger skill, and it looks like it comes with an Aura skill that relies on Inspire. This is much more than just a typical strong combat class, and it is closer to a leadership role that’s also able to get down and dirty in the thick of it. This is the kind of class that I think of when I think of the epitome of a soldier. Then again, despite how much I’m drawn to this class, it’s not for me.

Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water

You’re able to expertly wield the four basic Elements. You can use simple Spells and complex designs of magic equally with ease across the spectrum of all the basic elements, and you’re able to somewhat use others, as well.

The Full-Basic-Elements-Aligned Wizard is a powerful Caster. Their Spells are no longer restricted to one Element, but they can shape each of their Spells to their desired Element, and the weaker versions can also be used with more complicated Elemental Tiers. Simple Bolt Spells no longer take up a Class Skill slot, and they have several powerful Spells available to them.

It looks like one needs to, at minimum, master the ability to free-hand cast each of the basic four elemental Bolt spells. I have a decent grasp on Fire and Ice—which probably counts toward Water, though I should work on that in my own time as well, just to be safe—but I’ll need to figure out the mana weaves intrinsic to the other elements.

Maybe I can post a notice in the Adventurer’s Guild branch to pay for some tutoring from others who have the other elemental Bolt spells to learn from. Yeah, that sounds like a plan, and something I should do anyway. This is definitely the frontrunner for my next class right now, and I should focus on trying to unlock it.

Reivyn wasn’t done looking at the other classes just because he found a strong candidate. He still had two more classes, and they were of a higher rarity. Reivyn was surprised to see that he was somewhat close to unlocking Epic (Legendary*) rarity Tier 3 classes.

Champion

You are a bastion of light on the combat field. None can stand before you, and those that follow in your wake are bolstered by your very presence.

The Champion is a master of their preferred method of combat. They can wield mana Skills in an expert display of synergy between Martial and Magical, and they lead from the front. They are able to sway the entire battlefield with their Aura, and none will break and run when a Champion leads the charge.

There’s a lot of subtext in those lines: able to use the light element, high Battlefield Awareness skill, master of combat, expert mana skills, high Inspire skill. If I was interested in the Magic Swordsman and Veteran classes before, this class puts both of those to shame. And the requirements listed between the lines are insane, at least for someone in Tier 2. I’m sure it would be a lot easier for someone to acquire master level in a martial skill plus expert level in mana skills with an additional 60 levels available for them to train in. I’m actually 100% confident I could easily unlock this class in the future. In fact, as of right now, this is the class that I want once I legitimately reach Tier 3.

Reivyn was truly impressed with the short description of this class. He would likely find other classes just as interesting and powerful in the future, but this one was a good one to choose as a goal for now. With his thoughts in order on what he would work toward one day, Reivyn read the last class on his list.

Juggernaut

You are a whirlwind of unstoppable death on the battlefield. You are a berserker that can launch a devastating assault just as easily as you can act as a level-headed bulwark to protect your companions.

The Juggernaut is a steel tornado. They are able to freely wield any weapon or armor, and they can assume the role of absolute destroyer or absolute defender. Woe be to any who get in the way of the Juggernaut.

This sounds like the less magical version of Champion, but with just as much skill and utility, just in a different way. I mean, it wouldn’t also be listed as an epic class if it was noticeably weaker. If I thought the Veteran was the epitome of a soldier before, then that would only apply to the basic troops now. This is the epitome of a soldier: able to attack and defend in equal measure, and able to bolster morale and intimidate their foes.

Reivyn concluded his perusal of the various classes that he had access to. He had gone through all of the ones that had any chance of being selected, and not only had he found a class to work toward unlocking in Tier 2, but he also had an even further goal to work toward once again.

He was quickly approaching the day when he would be able to reach Tier 2, and he needed to get more achievements under his belt if he wanted to get the best class possible.

This week we’re going to tackle the boss room on the second floor. I’m sure there’s an amazing achievement, for all of us, for successfully doing so. Next week: solo dungeon delve.

Chapter forty-three

High Muckamuck

Reivyn did some simple stretches and calisthenics in the hallway leading up to the boss room. The entire party was there, and the plan was for the three companions who couldn’t use mana to rush in and do as much damage as they could in six or seven minutes, then retreat to the hallway or entrance, depending on the situation. The boss room on the first floor didn’t close off once they entered it, and Reivyn didn’t see a door or mechanism to do so at the end of this hallway either.

Granted, the System could step in and make an impenetrable wall, though I doubt it. The dungeon seems to have recurring scripts, but I haven’t seen any evidence of direct punishment or interference from the System other than the requirement to clear a floor to move on to the new one.

If there was some System trickery involved, they might be in trouble, but Reivyn was confident they could handle it.

He was warming up to keep his blood flowing, as they had taken a break in the last stretch of the second floor after wiping out the patrol. They had had Kimberly, Erik, and Teilon participate this time, as their stats had increased a lot more as compared to when they first arrived over three weeks ago. The majority of the Experience Crystals from Reivyn’s group had gone to help them keep up in level, and they were sitting at Level 25.

Reivyn noticed that they had required a bit of additional attention from the priests when they went through the mandatory inspection, so he guessed there might be some issue with the Experience Crystals.

We’ll take them to the Church and let everyone else know about it, especially the three local authorities—the Church, the garrison, and the local guild branch—before we put them into circulation. They can probably remove any lingering taint.

Kimberly and Teilon had gained a lot of confidence from their first trip into the second floor with how well the mana infusions worked out. That confidence didn’t lead to cockiness, though, as they still understood the dangers and remembered many of the same lessons Reivyn did. It led to competence and calmness when faced with the large group of Revenants.

Reivyn was happy to see his friends step up to the task, and the fact that they performed so well was one of the reasons they had decided to include the other three in the boss room. Erik was already extremely competent, he just needed the mana assistance. It was never a question of whether he was going to join them in the boss room or not.

“Alright, is everyone ready?” The others had also been warming up after their short rest.

“Yup, I’m as good as I’ll ever be.” Teilon spoke up. Kimberly nodded her head alongside him.

“We’re both good to go,” Melissa said for her and her sister. Erik grunted as he assumed his position in the front of the group.

“Okay, we’ll top up the mana infusion for all three of you at the same time when we get to the entrance, and we’ll use the first minute or so to assess the situation on the other side,” Reivyn explained. They had obviously already talked about what they were going to do, but Reivyn had a habit of always repeating everything before initial action.

You never know what you might forget in the heat of the moment, and if it’s fresh in your mind, you’re more likely to subconsciously think of it, Reivyn said to himself.

“Erik and Kimberly will be in front, followed by me and Teilon, and Melissa and Larissa will bring up the rear. We’ll try and get some shock value out of you three”—Reivyn indicated the three who couldn’t use mana—“but safety is paramount. Judging by the hobbled Tier 3 on the first floor, we can expect either a hobbled Tier 4 or an unrestrained Tier 3 in there. Before your mana gives out, you need to be in a safe spot, and Melissa or Larissa will top up your infusions if the opportunity arises.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Teilon replied. He wasn’t trying to be flippant, but he was getting his mindset in order for the likely grueling challenge that faced them.

The group made their way to the entrance. The room was too big for Reivyn to see the details of what they would face before they entered the room, but the structure was at least similar to the rest of the manmade facade of the dungeon.

Based on the dimensions he could see looking to the sides, the room wasn’t nearly as big as the first-floor boss room. Reivyn could see support columns placed at regular intervals, so it was a larger, more grand room than any they had entered so far. There were two columns on either side of the center of the room, and Reivyn speculated that there were more further in, out of sight of the ambient lighting.

“Let’s top up and get to it,” Reivyn said as he reached out to infuse the weapons and gear for Teilon. Melissa took care of Erik, and Larissa insisted on taking care of her “new best friend,” Kimberly.

“Go, go, go,” Reivyn said.

The group cautiously, but quickly entered the room. There were no triggers blocking the room off, System or mechanical, and Reivyn released a mental sigh.

As soon as they approached the first row of columns, a faint chanting entered Reivyn’s ears. He couldn’t make out what the words were, but they were in a low, deep tone. It was somewhat disconcerting, as the Revenants and other undead they had encountered so far had been incapable of speech, or any other kind of verbal sound for that matter.

The chanting seemed to come from every direction at once, and Reivyn suspected it was a magical effect associated with the boss room, and not some Revenants or other undead actually chanting.

They quickly traversed past the first row of columns, and their quarry finally came into view.

A large, circular pit filled with bubbling, red froth was located in what appeared to be the very center of the room. A group of six Revenants stood around it, three equally spaced on either side. Their hands were raised, and their jaws moved like they were the ones doing the chanting, but no sounds came forth from them.

The chanting noise is probably a holdover from when they were still alive, much like how the miners we could see down on the third floor are locked into the actions they held while still alive. They appear to be using the large pit as a cauldron for alchemy like the ones in the upper rooms, but this one is much more grandiose. It also has fresh ingredients, unlike the remnants of all of the other cauldrons. These thoughts entered Reivyn’s head in a flash.

There was one final entity visible in the room: A Spectre floated on the other side of the pit. Its head was thrown back, and its arms were out to the side. It didn’t have a lower half to its body. It was just a bluish, incorporeal torso. Its head had the appearance of a middle-aged man with long hair, but the features on its face were fuzzy and indistinct.

The undead didn’t react to their presence at all, and the group hesitated for a moment in order to gauge the rest of the room.

Suddenly, another Revenant appeared off from the right, dragging a goblin along with it. The goblin walked along like nothing was out of the ordinary until it got close enough to spot the bubbling mass in the pit. It started to struggle, and it grew more frantic with each step closer to its destination. It started to hiss and shriek at the Revenant pulling it along, grabbing at the bony fingers and trying to pry them off, but there was no helping it. It was completely incapable of putting up any kind of meaningful resistance, and it was slowly dragged before the floating Spectre.

The Revenant brought it forth before the Spectre, standing off to the side in order to continue holding it in place. The Spectre lowered its head and looked at the goblin briefly, then it slashed its arm across at lightning speed, and the goblin’s throat erupted in blood. The Revenant quickly turned the goblin around and held it out so that the life-blood escaping from the goblin joined the rest of the alchemic concoction in the pit.

Reivyn watched in horrified fascination as not only did the blood geyser out of the little creature, much more than should have been possible, but also as the body of the goblin itself melted from the feet up and joined the bubbling mix. By the time it was over, there was nothing remaining of the goblin.

The Spectre finally looked up from its task and focused on Reivyn’s party. Reivyn recognized awareness in the eyes of the monster, and a raspy chuckle entered his ears. The sound of the laughter seemed to originate from multiple places in the room. One second it came directly from the Spectre, then it sounded as if it came from off in the distance. It even sounded like it came from Teilon standing next to him at one point.

The Spectre gestured toward the group, and the Revenants, as one, lowered their arms and turned to engage the party.

Reivyn was heartened to see that the Revenants didn’t move any quicker than the ones they had encountered in the hallway.

Several more Revenants appeared to materialize out of nowhere on the edges of the ambient lighting on either side of the ritual. Reivyn counted eight on his left and seven on his right.

The one who brought the goblin must have been in the group on the right. I don’t know how large the room is, but seeing as how we weren’t able to see any of those Revenants before they entered the light, it could be massive. They likely closed the distance in an instant.

“Erik, you and Larissa smash the ones in the center! Kimberly, Teilon, you engage the ones on the left. Melissa, crowd control the ones on the left. I’ll get the ones on the right,” Reivyn quickly issued commands, and all of the party members leapt into action.

As they were maneuvering to engage the designated enemies, Reivyn noticed out of the corner of his eye that the Spectre floated backward, and it seemed to melt out of existence.

It might have gone invisible or something, Reivyn thought. “That Spectre is still around, so don’t get tunnel vision!”

Reivyn ignited his Flame Blade spell as he ran to intercept the group of Revenants that had appeared on the right. He had given himself and Erik groups of seven each, but he had opted to have Larissa assist Erik instead of himself. He was able to fight and defeat the Revenants all on his own, and while Erik could do the same, he was dependent on the mana infusion, so he had a time limit.

Reivyn had instructed his two friends to engage the group of eight Revenants with Melissa more to hold them apart from grouping up with the rest of the bunch. He knew Teilon and Kimberly could kill some with their weapons, and he was sure they were going to defeat some of them, but that wasn’t their main goal.

Reivyn’s Flame Blade slashed out as he charged the outlier of the group that had set their focus on him. The fire extended out much like he had done when he first unlocked the skill, but instead of dumping nearly his entire mana pool into fueling the spell, he was able to keep it under better control. He only extended the blade a few feet beyond the metal tip.

Mana is what does the damage to these Revenants, and we’ve discovered through multiple engagements that the undead in general are more susceptible to fire, so I don’t need to actually hit it with my sword.

The blade of fire passed through the neck of the first Revenant, and it threw its head back in a wordless shriek as it caught fire. The fire was magical in nature, and it quickly consumed the bones of the Revenant.

Reivyn quick-stepped back to keep his tactical positioning against the rest of the group, and the one he had set ablaze managed to take two tottering steps toward him before it crumbled.

As long as I have enough mana to fuel this spell, and I don’t get overwhelmed by numbers, these Revenants are no more dangerous to me than that goblin they sacrificed earlier, Reivyn thought. Well, as long as they’re restricted by the lack of mana in the environment. From the looks of it, the third floor might have enough density for the Revenants down there to unlock their full potential.

Reivyn had learned his lessons well, so even though he was confident against the Revenants, he kept scanning the room for other threats as he maintained his focus on the task at hand. He wasn’t able to completely monitor the situation in the rest of the room, but he could hear them perfectly well, and from the sounds that reached him, he knew the fight was going well so far.

Reivyn quickly dispatched each of the Revenants by dashing in on one that was slightly on the edge of the group, slashing it with his magic, and then hopping back to keep up his guard. He paced his use of stamina and mana so that he wouldn’t just burn through it as fast as possible in case there was more to the room than initially met the eye.

Loud banging sounds came from the two sides of the wall flanking the entrance, and Reivyn glanced down when something rolling by on the floor grabbed his attention. A small piece of rubble had been thrown across the room, and the small distraction had allowed the Revenants to close the gap and launch an attack on him. He blocked the strikes he could with his shield and evaded a couple of others before regaining his positioning.

“Ahhhhhh!” A panicked scream from Larissa entered his ears, but he couldn’t turn his head away and risk leaving the last couple of Revenants out of sight, or they would materialize next to him and deliver devastating blows.

He made a decision, and instead of continuing to conserve his stamina and mana, he increased the output of his Flame Blade and charged in to the last three Revenants standing from his group.

He slashed the one in the middle. He raised his shield to block the hard attack coming from his left. He now had enough strength to not get completely knocked back anymore and ducked under the blow coming from his right. He sidestepped the one he had set on fire and quickly maneuvered through the trio of the undead. He backhanded his sword across the spine of the Revenant on his right and came back up facing the last one, but this time they were positioned so that he could see back to the other groups and what they were dealing with.

A set of doors they hadn’t noticed because they had been bricked up accompanied the entrance to the room. There had been six Revenants in each of the rooms, and they had destroyed the barriers preventing them from entering the boss room in order to engage the party in a surprise pincer attack. Luckily, the sealing of the rooms required them to smash through in a loud manner; otherwise, if they had been able to remain silent, they might have suffered some serious casualties.

I should have known it wouldn’t have been so simple. We got lucky with the design of the room. No idea why they would have sealed those twelve people away like that, but that’s not important.

Melissa and Larissa had abandoned their position in the center of the room hanging back near the entrance. They dashed over to Erik, and combined with Larissa’s firepower and Erik’s skilled swordsmanship, the group of seven Revenants were destroyed as Reivyn finally got into position to be able to see what was going on. Erik immediately charged forth to engage the new threat with Larissa providing fire support again, but this time the girls were positioned closer to the center of the room.

Reivyn ended the un-life of the last Revenant and sprinted across the room to help Teilon and Kimberly. He watched Erik engage the new group of twelve Revenants all on his own, and Reivyn was happy to see that he did it in an incredibly smart way.

Instead of just charging forth and getting himself surrounded, he charged one group, attacked wildly for a second, and then charged to the end of the other group. He lined them all up and began dragging them along behind him around the center of the room. He managed to position himself so that he wasn’t directly between them and the girls he was protecting, which would have limited his room and maneuverability.

Combat was often incredibly fast and intense, and only a couple of minutes had gone by since the party entered the room. Reivyn wasn’t concerned that they would run out of mana infusion while they were spread apart so much.

Like he had thought they were capable of, Teilon and Kimberly had managed to slay three of their eight Revenants. Reivyn charged the outermost Revenant on the left side and made quick work of it. He circled around behind the other four and gave them a taste of their own tactics.

He had to pick his footing carefully, though, as remnants of Melissa’s Slick Ground and Ice Walls spells still populated the area. She had moved on from assisting the duo, however, and was adding her magic to her sister’s to prevent the horde that Erik had picked up from overwhelming him.

Raspy laughter cackled out once more as it seemed to echo from several different places in succession, and Reivyn’s hair stood on end as his Danger Sense went into overdrive.

“Watch out!” Reivyn screamed as he cut through another Revenant. There were still three left, and Teilon and Kimberly had them well in hand, but a mutation suddenly occurred.

The Spectre that had disappeared at the start of the fight materialized again. It was already moving at a fast pace as it reemerged right next to Reivyn, and he watched as its entire body zipped between the mana-infused gear that Teilon was wearing and entered his body.

Teilon froze for a moment before he started thrashing wildly about. His spear knocked into Kimberly’s helmet, and she staggered at the unexpected blow. Reivyn could envision the worst happening, so he threw all caution to the wind and activated his Charge skill with Kimberly as the target. He moved through the last two Revenants and placed his body between them and her, and he suffered a blow on his back that threw him into the off-balance girl.

Searing pain threatened to cause him to black out as his vision darkened, and the two tumbled along the ground. The only thing that probably saved them was Melissa looked up at Reivyn’s shout, and she managed to keep an eye on the Revenants, so they weren’t able to use their supernatural movements when they were unseen.

“AHHHHHHH!!!” Teilon screamed in pain as his body continued to thrash around, and the Revenants now ignored him. His spear managed to knock into the skull of one of the Revenants as they walked past him to get to Reivyn and Kimberly, and Reivyn managed to use the short stumble to regain his feet and properly engage them.

“Fall back to Melissa and Larissa,” Reivyn instructed Kimberly. She groggily nodded and stumbled toward the other two girls. Reivyn exerted even more mana from his dwindling supply and slashed both remaining Revenants with one swing now that he was positioned in a way where he wouldn’t have to worry about hitting his two friends.

He backed up and looked at Teilon, and while he continued to scream in agony, his body stopped thrashing about and locked in place. He floated up into the air, and he started to jerk back and forth like he was a puppet being controlled by strings.

Teilon suddenly shot off toward one of the columns, and Reivyn’s stomach dropped as he anticipated witnessing his best friend get smashed into a pulp.

Teilon’s body, however, didn’t get smashed. He phased right through the solid stone support, and whatever energy the Spectre had used to hurtle him through the air seemed to run out as his body slumped down. He still wasn’t out of the woods, yet, though, so Reivyn charged over.

What do I do in this situation? I can’t slash his body, and that probably wouldn’t hurt the Spectre anyway. I can’t use Flame Blade, as that would also kill Teilon. I need to force the Spectre out. Think. Think.

Reivyn crouched down and held his friend down in place with his superior strength. Even though his body had been possessed by the Spectre, it didn’t seem to add any additional stats or anything. Teilon’s body lurched up and down as the undead controlling his body tried to pry it out of Reivyn’s grasp.

The only thing that would hurt the Spectre is mana, and the only mana that won’t hurt Teilon is pure mana.

With that thought, Reivyn infused pure mana into both of his hands, and he pumped copious amounts into his friend. Teilon’s mouth opened as wide as it could go, and an otherworldly shriek escaped his lips. The sound of the Spectre screaming in agony quickly shifted about in its strange way, and it suddenly came rushing out of Teilon’s body.

Teilon went completely limp, but Reivyn could see that he was still conscious, if unable to move.

“Are you okay?” Reivyn asked as he knelt by his friend, cradling him.

“Ow,” Teilon said. His body relaxed, and he weakly lifted his hand to shoo Reivyn away. “I’ll make it. Go get that bastard.”

Reivyn nodded as he gently lowered his friend to lie fully on the ground. He turned and sprinted toward the center of the room. Luckily, Erik and Larissa had been efficient in their work, and the last large group of Revenants had been whittled down to only a couple left.

Reivyn scanned the room as he ran, but he was unable to spot the Spectre. He looked to the three girls, and he could see them surrounded in mana as they flung spells at the Revenants. He looked down at himself and activated Mana Sight. He was also covered in mana simply from the internal network fueling his spells.

The Spectre is likely unable to possess a caster without damaging itself. Teilon still has my mana in his body, and the large amounts of mana Melissa and Larissa are throwing about are also covering Kimberly. That leaves…

He looked over in time to see the Spectre materialize behind Erik. With his Mana Sight activated, he could see the holes of mana in the places where Erik didn’t have armor covering himself.

“It’s going to take Erik!” Reivyn shouted as he activated Charge. With past experience, he knew that the Spectre wouldn’t gain full control of Erik right away, and the Revenants would ignore him while he was possessed. There were only four left, though, and he didn’t want to leave them to chase after the girls while he dealt with the possessed Erik.

He dashed in and slashed through the two front Revenants that had sidestepped Erik to start working their way toward the girls in the center of the room. His sword moved in a quick criss-cross as he sliced through them, and one of Larissa’s empowered Inferno spells consumed the other two.

The Spectre seemed to have learned from its previous possession of Teilon, and Erik only thrashed about for a short moment before his body was lifted into the air.

If the Spectre learned from its last possession, it’s unlikely to hurl Erik at a column or the wall. What’s its target?

Reivyn looked around. The room was still the same as it was before. He didn’t see any additional enemies come in, and he was sure the Spectre would want to stay away from the girls. They had circled around the pit as Erik had dragged the group of Revenants around so they could stay within a decent range for accuracy, and now they were watching Erik with alarm.

“The Spectre can be forced out with pure mana,” Reivyn called over. “I’ll pump my mana into Erik. Melissa, throw up some Ice Walls all around to box it in and prevent it from moving about. Then we can bombard it with magic to destroy it.” The girls nodded while keeping their wide eyes on Erik.

The Spectre didn’t throw Erik at an obstacle this time. Instead, after gaining full control of his body, Reivyn watched the Spectre lower Erik to the ground.

Reivyn was cautious about what the Spectre might have in mind, so he quickly made his way over in order to get his hands on Erik to force it out of him. Erik suddenly lifted his head and looked at Reivyn, a wide, manic grin on his face.

Reivyn’s stomach dropped once more as he realized the positioning he and everyone else was in. Erik’s head turned to face the girls, Reivyn just a few feet off to the side. He instinctively knew he wouldn’t be able to make it to Erik before the Spectre did what it had planned, and based on intuition and his Danger Sense, Reivyn charged at the girls.

Reivyn arrived a fraction of a second ahead of Erik’s charge, and he shoved the three girls out of the way with his body. Indignant squawks entered his ears as Erik’s shield slammed into him, and he went sailing through the air.

Reivyn had time for one final thought as he saw where he was heading.

Oh, no…

His body plopped down into the bubbling pit with a splash.

Chapter forty-four

Desperation

Melissa watched the young man they had entangled themselves with out of the corner of her eye as he did calisthenics in the hallway. He always moved with purpose, and he never let himself sit still or let any time go to waste.

He was an enigma.

He’s far more hardworking and inquisitive than any of the other young men and women in the academies. They’ve been raised with resources, opportunities, and tutors their whole lives, and that breeds a certain expectation out of life. They mostly do the bare minimum to gain their graduation certificates, and that’s it.

That’s obviously not true of every student, but that’s the current trend of the majority. Even the ones who go above and beyond pale in comparison to the drive he displays.

From what Reivyn had said, and the stories he and his friends shared, she had gleaned quite a lot of information from them. Reivyn and Teilon came from adventurer backgrounds, so it made sense that they were so enthusiastic about working on their combat classes. She wasn’t sure of the background of Kimberly, but she was also present during the excursion that set up the base to this dungeon.

He’s only spoken a little bit about the incidents that happened, but I had Erik do some digging, and there’s a lot more to it than he makes it seem. He participated in a Tier 4 battle while in Tier 1. I’m sure he got an amazing achievements for that. The System doesn’t discriminate when it calculates participation and rewards. His defeating a Tier 3 Revenant on his own would label him a main combatant of the battle even if he never even got close to the giant demon the commander fought.

Reivyn moved with an air of calmness and competency that belied his young age. If Melissa didn’t look into his face all the time, she would never believe he was only ten years old. He had obviously spent long hours working on his physical stats in order to gain such a physique at such a young age.

He probably doesn’t know and hasn’t noticed, but only stats gained through effort affect the physical body. The stat points gained through System achievements or leveling work differently. They work completely internally through the meridians of the body, and while they have some function on the density of the muscles, it’s more like they act as a multiplier and increase the efficiency of the body rather than directly enhancing it. There are many examples of old and decrepit combat classes with immense strength, yet withered bodies.

She watched as he laughed and joked with his best friend before they moved to the dungeon boss. She was sure, from his personality and other context clues, that Teilon was adamant about not setting foot on the second floor at all, at least until he was firmly in Tier 2. And yet, just after an additional week of leaving them behind, here he was with Kimberly.

He has natural charisma to him, and he’s obviously unlocked the stat. He probably already had some before he even got the achievement for the Tier 4 battle—which obviously gave him full stat boost, I mean it was a battle that spanned three tiers for him. It’s probably quite high, and I’ve noticed the effects of the Inspire skill whenever he’s led a battle, which is most of the time.

He’s a natural leader, and he doesn’t even seem to realize it. Not only do his two friends easily follow him, but he’s even quietly inserted himself as the leader of this group as a whole. We started off sharing that responsibility, and I know that he hasn’t tried to edge me out intentionally, but he’s just naturally taken on the role of commander. Oh, he still asks for opinions, but he makes the final decision, and he issues the commands.

I don’t resent him for it at all. Melissa was a little surprised at the realization. She had been groomed her whole life to be in a position of authority, and she was quite good at being the leader of her three-man group, but she found herself relying on Reivyn’s steady demeanor more and more completely unconsciously.

Reivyn’s background was a little suspect. He had mentioned that his father was a combat class and that his mother was a caster class, and while it wasn’t out of the ordinary for one of humble beginnings to be able to use mana and garner decent classes and skills, it was highly improbable for one to do so without a proper teacher.

Reivyn had never mentioned that his parents were actually adventurers, and the circumstances behind him not being a Peasant Levy was very suspicious.

I threw out that comment about a noble family living in another country to test him, but he didn’t reveal anything when I mentioned it. Either he’s not, or he has a skill that affects his mentality. It’s not actually important, in the grand scheme of things, but if I want to recruit him to our family, it’s better to know everything about him.

And I obviously need to rope him into the family. His two friends, too, but to a lesser extent. The entire point of the higher-tier regions poaching the talented graduates from the lower regions is to infuse talent into their society, and there’s no harm in emulating their behavior. If we can get him to join us, I can see our family moving up to bigger and better things.

Melissa looked at her sister, and the wheels turned.

“Go, go, go,” Reivyn said. Melissa and Larissa drew up the rear as their group walked into the boss room. They all kept their heads on a swivel as they searched for any enemies about to launch an ambush on them.

After walking several steps deeper into the room, the unholy setup of the pit being tended to by the undead came into view. The very sight of the Spectre induced fear into Melissa, and she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Larissa literally shaking, clutching her staff to her chest with her arms instinctively held in a way to make herself as small as possible.

Her gaze was unable to tear away from the scene before them, and she also noticed similar reactions from everyone else. Everyone but Reivyn. He was still able to look around the room without seeming to be affected by the aura given off by the Spectre.

The macabre scene of the ritual slaying played out, and tingles shot down her spine as the Spectre laughed at their party. She had serious thoughts of retreating once the rest of the Revenants made themselves known.

This is far more dangerous than I was expecting. I don’t know much about Spectres, but if its debilitating fear is any indication, I don’t think we can handle the boss room right now. I need to tell Reivyn we should leave and come back later.

She had the will to open her mouth and advise retreat, but she wasn’t able to move. Then Reivyn opened his mouth.

“Erik, you and Larissa smash the ones in the center! Kimberly, Teilon, you engage the ones on the left. Melissa, crowd control the ones on the left. I’ll get the ones on the right,” Reivyn’s calm voice issued forth.

The aura of fear that was gripping the party dissipated with his commands, and Melissa noticed that even Larissa relaxed and assumed a “business as usual” stance. Melissa marveled for a second at the young man’s ability to instill confidence and boost morale just from some simple tactical instructions. He even had the forethought to remind everyone to be wary of the Spectre that had disappeared.

Melissa attended to her duties of disrupting the Revenants that Kimberly and Teilon held back. Now that she was in the thick of battle, all of her other worries disappeared as she focused on the task at hand. She occasionally kept an eye on Reivyn to see how he fared by himself.

He is an absolute beast. He’s doing just as much damage to his group of Revenants as the combined efforts of Erik and Larissa.

An explosion sounded out behind them, and then a bony hand grasped for Larissa and managed to make contact with her.

“Aahhhhhh!” Larissa screamed as she leapt a foot in the air.

Melissa quickly turned her head and noticed the impending ambush from a group of Revenants that had been sealed away before the battle. She threw down a Ice Wall plus Slick Ground combination, and then she grabbed Larissa by the elbow and ran with her toward the center of the room as Erik finished off the last of his group, utilizing the lingering effects of Larissa’s Inferno spell.

Erik quickly recognized the danger and expertly intercepted the new opponents. Melissa noticed Reivyn had repositioned himself so as to be able to observe the entire room.

As soon as he realized he needed to be able to surveil the entire room, he immediately positioned himself to do so. No hesitation. Melissa nodded as Reivyn displayed the characteristics of a battle commander.

The fight continued on in a controlled manner, and Melissa was hopeful they would be able to clear the boss room without any hiccups.

Then the Spectre reappeared and possessed Teilon. The shout from Reivyn had drawn her attention, which enabled her to keep her eye on the remaining Revenants as Reivyn was knocked down while protecting his friend. She watched the terrifying scene of Teilon getting jerked around like a toy.

Reivyn managed to solve the situation in short order, but he quickly informed them that the Spectre was targeting Erik next. Melissa and her sister redoubled their efforts to destroy the last remaining Revenants just as Erik was possessed.

“The Spectre can be forced out with pure mana,” Reivyn called over. “I’ll pump my mana into Erik. Melissa, throw up some Ice Walls all around to box it in and prevent it from moving about. Then we can bombard it with magic to destroy it.” Melissa nodded at the plan, and she noticed Larissa release some pent-up tension at the instructions.

Quickly identifying the situation and resolving the problems. Melissa heaved a sigh of relief. All of the Revenants lay destroyed, and only the Spectre remained. Reivyn had already calmed them down and laid out a plan of action to end the threat.

Things didn’t go as planned.

The Spectre controlled Erik to charge at the girls, but Reivyn noticed at the last second and managed to insert himself as a shield between them.

“Wark!” An undignified sound escaped Larissa’s mouth as Reivyn crashed into the three girls, knocking them out of the way. She was horrified as she watched him sail into the magical soup that was bubbling and frothing in the pit.

“No!” She took an involuntary step forward, her hand extended. Kimberly kept her head on, though, and she tackled Erik to the ground as the Spectre tried to reassert control over him after he had stumbled from the impact.

“Get him!” Kimberly shouted.

Melissa didn’t have time to worry about Reivyn for the moment, and she latched her hands on either side of Erik’s head and pumped pure mana into him.

“Larissa, get your spell ready!” she shouted without looking up.

“I’m ready!” Larissa replied.

Melissa was a bit more skilled with her Mana Manipulation than Reivyn was, and after watching how he dealt with the possessed Teilon, she had some ideas of her own. Instead of just pumping the pure mana into her companion, she created a loop, and as the Spectre came screaming out of Erik’s body, she tightened it like a noose and lassoed the Spectre in place.

The Spectre shot up into the air and tried to get away, but it was tethered to Melissa through her mana rope, and it screamed in agony as it circled about above her head. The visage of the Spectre changed from a fuzzy image of a long-haired middle-aged man to a skull with its mouth open in a gruesome grimace, the hair standing straight up in a frightening display.

“Now!” Melissa cried.

A ball of condensed fire shot up into the open mouth, and a huge explosion sent a shockwave out, rattling the bones of the party members and causing dust to shower down from the ceiling. Larissa wasn’t satisfied with just releasing her Inferno Blast spell, though, and she followed it up by pumping even more fire into the maelstrom of red fire and blue Spectre mixed together.

Larissa emptied nearly the rest of her mana into the spells, and she collapsed to her knees as she finally finished. The only thing that remained was some dust and ectoplasm falling to the floor with a plop. Melissa and Kimberly looked at each other as they panted, and Erik rolled over as he groaned in pain.

A red light shot out in a ring with the pit as the epicenter, and Melissa returned her attention to where her new friend had disappeared into the alchemical concoction.

“Reivyn,” she whispered. The liquid bubbled and frothed, and Reivyn’s body suddenly shot to the top.

“AAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” He screamed in torment as his body convulsed and thrashed about.

Melissa ran up to the pit and tried to reach in to grab him, but an energy barrier, composed of red hexagonal lines, materialized and prevented her from getting closer. The three girls watched on as their leader suffered from unspeakable torture, his voice ripping through them and carrying an ethereal quality that conveyed a fraction of the pain he was in.

Melissa helplessly watched as the bubbling brew seemed to come alive as it climbed up his body that was bobbing on the surface, and drilled into him. It entered his body through all of his orifices and even seemed to absorb through his pores. It completely covered his body until all that Melissa could see was a red humanoid form.

The liquid drained at a visible rate, and after several minutes that felt like an eternity, Reivyn was revealed at the bottom of the pit. Not a single drop of the liquid remained.

Reivyn continued to thrash about wildly and moan in pain. His convulsions weren’t ending, and Melissa could tell that he was still suffering, even as his mind broke and entered into a comatose state to protect itself.

“The church!” Melissa yelled as the energy field disappeared. She jumped down and lifted the shaking boy up to Kimberly who reached down to help pull him up. Erik slowly struggled to stand up, and he took Reivyn from Kimberly and threw him over his shoulder as Melissa climbed back out of the pit. “We need to get him to a priest to purge any corruption out of him!”

Larissa groaned as she held her head with one hand. She took a few steps before she had to stop and dry heave from the migraine that accompanied her expending all of her mana so fast in the final burst that killed the Spectre.

“I’m fine,” Larissa said to the inquisitive look Melissa shot her. “We have to go. I can make it.”

The four of them ran toward the front of the boss room, ignoring any loot or other rewards, to where Teilon was slowly getting up.

Kimberly rushed up and helped him to his feet, and half carried him on her shoulder as she helped him walk toward the exit of the dungeon.

They started off hobbling at a slow rate, and Melissa was practically dancing on the balls of her feet as she knew they needed to get to one of the priests as soon as possible. They slowly picked up speed, though, as everyone recovered on the way. They went from a staggering limp to almost a full-on sprint as they made a mad dash for the exit.

After an eternity of running through the tunnels, they finally came into the light of the wide-open space of the mountain ridge, but they were still in the dungeon, so they didn’t hesitate to continue running.

They burst forth from the dungeon and made a beeline for the waiting church members. Erik gently placed Reivyn, who was still plagued with tremors, at the feet of the robed priest who quickly finished inspecting another adventurer and turned his attention to Reivyn immediately, temporarily halting his inspection of the rest of the other group. Melissa saw the leader of that group step forward and open his mouth to say something, but a glare from her shut his mouth, and he quietly ducked his head and waited his turn.

“I’m sorry,” the priest said after straightening up from inspecting Reivyn. There was no change in his status. “There’s nothing I can do for him.”

“The taint is too strong?” Melissa’s face fell and she felt the beginnings of tears form in her eyes.

We got here as fast as we could! They must be able to help him.

“No, that’s not it,” the priest clarified. Hope rekindled in Melissa. “There’s no taint present in him. None at all, actually. What he’s suffering from is something different. You’ll either have to take him to a healer, or he’ll have to fight through it on his own.”

Erik picked Reivyn back up with a nod from Melissa.

“Thank you,” she said as their group turned to head to the healers. “We’ll be back for proper inspection. I promise, but we need to go.”

Melissa was vaguely aware of a crowd forming as more people came from within the dungeon and the surroundings as they rushed off to the infirmary.

It’s good that he’s not suffering from any corruption. He has to pull through. He has to. She was slightly surprised at how attached she had grown to Reivyn and his friends in the few weeks they had been together, but with everything else associated with him, it had just come naturally.

Josn walked out of the dungeon, followed by his group of fellow Sword-Priests and the two priests that accompanied them. He was covered in dry sweat from the exertions of fighting the Revenants on the second floor. While most of the Sword-Priests were unable to use mana skills, their weapons and gear were blessed with Divine mana, and so they were uniquely qualified to fight the denizens deeper in the dungeon.

Ugh, it’ll take three days of bathing to get the stink of the dungeon off, Josn thought to himself. He examined his men with a critical eye as they moved in search of the inspection team on duty. Even with the blessings of the goddess herself, these men aren’t quite ready to go much further into the second floor. If it wasn’t such a great opportunity for them to increase their skills and gain levels, I would never set foot in there myself.

Despite the Church being antithetical to the creatures and nature of the dungeon, that didn’t mean they would completely ignore a resource available to them. They regularly sent teams into the dungeon to gain skill levels and experience. The life experience of fighting the creatures of the dark was also a huge benefit for ones such as them.

Several teams had traveled quite far into the second floor, but Josn viewed it as his duty to accompany some of the weaker members so that he could oversee their development. The Sword-Bishop had led a team that cleared the second floor, but even he had shied away from exploring any deeper for the time being.

The Experience Crystals found on the second floor were a huge discovery, and Josn could barely understand the decision of the adventurers to ignore the warnings in the face of such wealth. This wealth wasn’t in money, but in strength, so Josn could grudgingly concede the point.

It still doesn’t justify literally throwing their lives away. What good does the opportunity do a dead man?

The Church was well-positioned to supervise the extraction of the Experience Crystals. Josn could see the Church gaining untold wealth and increased power by charging a simple percentage fee—just one crystal per group—for removing the taint from the crystals so they could be safely used.

They weren’t like the adventurers, though. They kept a careful watch on the level of corruption that seeped into them and regularly dispelled it even while delving the depths. They even insisted on having a third party cleanse everyone once again once they left.

You never know if the corruption could affect the spell of the priests who go in there and let some of it slip by, so better to have another round of cleansing to be 100% sure.

Josn noticed a commotion as they drew closer to the inspection team. He saw a group of adventurers take off running in the direction of the infirmary.

Hmmm, some of those adventurers look familiar… Where have I seen them? He couldn’t quite place why they looked familiar, but it wasn’t that important, so he put it out of his mind as he approached the inspection team as the priest finished his inspection of the group he was currently attending to.

“What’s the situation, priest?” Josn asked. The robed man looked up at his voice, and, noticing who it was, he snapped to attention and offered a salute. Josn returned the salute with perfect precision and awaited the man’s response.

“A group of adventurers came sprinting out of the dungeon carrying a man in a coma. Even in his unconscious state, he was racked with convulsions, so I, and apparently the adventurers, assumed he had fallen to the taint.” The man shook his head as he spoke. “There was no taint in him, though.” He looked at Josn dead in the eye. “None. And they just came out of the dungeon.”

“Really?” Josn said as he looked in the direction the group had run off to. “Interesting.”

Chapter forty-five

Agony

Reivyn’s body submerged in the liquid, and he slowly sank to the bottom. He didn’t know what to expect out of entering the alchemical concoction, but based on what happened to the goblin, he wasn’t thinking it would be anything good.

Except for not being able to breathe, it’s not much different from water. It’s not actually boiling—I suspect the bubbling is magical in nature—and it’s cold to the touch.

He kept his eyes firmly shut, as he didn’t want to risk permanent damage from the unknown substance, but the first few moments of falling into the pit weren’t unpleasant. He swished his arms and kicked his feet in an attempt to swim to the edge, but his arms just waved through the liquid without propelling him in any direction at all.

Okay, so that’s out. I’ll just have to wait until my body reaches the bottom, which should be soon, and I can walk over to the edge. I hope my friends aren’t freaking out too much. They should be able to handle the Spectre without me.

Reivyn crossed his arms as he simply bided his time as his body sank. Quickly, the presence of the bottom of the pit—must be about eight feet or so—reached his perception through Spatial Awareness.

Alright, I’ll just walk over and climb out, and in the future, we’ll make sure there’s more room between the pit and our members. This is actually just more annoying than anything else.

Reivyn’s foot came into contact with the bottom of the pit, and even visible to his closed eyes, complicated lines of runes lit up as soon as his foot touched down. A red pulse originated from the center of the cauldron and shot out in a ring, and the liquid suddenly became extremely viscous. His body was immediately locked into place, and apprehension filled Reivyn.

Okay, this doesn’t look good, but so far not much has happened. I’ll either have to force my way through the thick substance or wait for it to return to its original state. Due to my high vitality, I can hold my breath for several minutes before I enter a dangerous situation, but there’s still a time limit.

Reivyn attempted to move his body through the liquid, but the harder or faster he tried to move, the more it resisted him. If he moved at an extremely slow pace, he was able to move, but it was so slow that he wasn’t sure he would be able to traverse the distance to the edge of the pit and climb out in time.

He utilized his mana to try to force it away from him with a Mana Shield.

That was a mistake.

Reivyn could sense through his control of the mana that the liquid had formed countless, extremely tiny spikes, and it had latched on to his mana. In his panic, he tried to retract the mana, and while he didn’t have any problems in doing so, the liquid followed.

Searing pain assaulted Reivyn across his entire body, as he had foolishly tried to draw his Mana Shield into his entire body all at once. The liquid now had a bridge connecting his mana circuits to the outside, and, as if it had sensed a tasty morsel of food, it drilled into his body.

Every second was followed by an increasing level of pain. There was no end to the level of pain that was being induced, and every second the intensity increased at a steady rate. Reivyn tried to open his mouth to scream involuntarily, but the nature of the liquid had changed once more, and he couldn’t control the muscles in his body at all.

The liquid seemed to come alive with glee, and he felt it lift him up to the top of the cauldron. As soon as his head broke the surface and his face was no longer in contact with the liquid, his mouth opened and let out a primal scream all on its own. The pain continued to increase.

It was almost like the liquid had a mind of its own, and it didn’t want him to drown to death before it could accomplish its task, but it quickly crawled up his body and covered him once more. He was vaguely aware of his body thrashing about uncontrollably from the pain.

Reivyn’s consciousness was consumed by the all-encompassing pain, and his awareness was starting to fray at the edges, but a worrisome notification finally popped up and grabbed the last vestiges of his consciousness.

Helpful Hint:
You are being invaded by a foreign System!

The Akashic Record, something that hadn’t made an appearance since the time he had been knocked out by Ren, finally showed itself again. The tone of the message almost seemed like it was taking joy in Reivyn’s predicament. Reivyn wasn’t able to form any coherent thoughts beyond that simple idea fluttering at the edges of awareness.

He knew he was definitely in trouble, as that message hinted at a much more insidious situation.

Reivyn buckled down all of his willpower, utilizing Mental Fortitude and Iron Will in overdrive, and focused his attention on the notifications that had popped up that he wasn’t previously able to perceive through the pain.

Detected Tier 1 Entity
Forcing Class Change
Class Changing to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
Error…
Tier 2 Class Detected

A foreign System has invaded you!
Foreign System attempting forceful Class change
Tier 2 Class is locked to your soul

Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Level Up! Lvl 29

Reivyn’s heart sank as he caught up to the notifications at this point. They were still coming at breakneck speed. The ever-increasing intensity of pain was beginning to sap his willpower once again, and he was barely able to understand what was happening to him, but he instinctively knew it was bad.

Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Level Up! Lvl 30
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +700
Level 30(max) Achieved
Exp +300
Error. Maximum Level
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
Initiating forceful Class Change
Class changing to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel

Warning!
Succumbing to a foreign System is PERMANENT
Aside from Divine Intervention, you will be FOREVER locked out of your original System
Helpful Hint!
Turning into a demon doesn’t rob you of your free-will, and you can continue progressing using the foreign System

Who cares if I don’t become mindless! I don’t want to be a demon! Reivyn’s consciousness was fading fast, and he desperately used the last of his will to deny the Class Change.

Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
{Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
The Abyssal Vessel is one who prepares his body for accepting the transformation into a demon. The stronger your base body, the stronger the demon you can become.
Open a connection in your soul and stare into the Abyss. Let. It. In.

Decline || Accept

Reivyn mentally mashed the grayed-out Decline button over and over, but nothing was happening. His awareness was fading, and he didn’t know what to do.

Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
OPEN A CONNECTION IN YOUR SOUL AND STARE INTO THE ABYSS. LET. IT. IN.

Decline || Accept

ACCEPT YOUR FATE

I will never accept my fate! Reivyn screamed in his mind.

You have accepted the foreign System
Once your class change completes, you will be forever locked out of the System

You have accepted the Class change to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
Initiating Class Change

What?! No, I didn’t! Cancel! Cancel! Nothing happened. Reivyn could feel the energy building in order to alter his meridians and flood his mana circuits with energy. Reivyn’s consciousness was quickly dimming, and the notification windows appeared to get smaller and smaller in his vision until it was almost consumed by the darkness.

Is there nothing I can do? Am I destined to not achieve my goals and instead be transformed into an abomination? Wait… My goals! My bloodline! ACTIVATE!

With the last shred of his willpower, Reivyn activated his Experience Siphon ability. He noticed a change in the notification windows that were still popping up in the distance. No longer did he see the foreign window, but his regular, blue window had returned, but the experience gains continued to tick up.

Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000

The nature of the pain changed, and it was no longer continuing to ramp up. Instead, it lessened an equal amount with each new pulse. It would eventually go away, following the new trend, but Reivyn had expended too much mental energy.

Some new windows popped up, but with the relief of surviving the calamity, Reivyn finally fell to darkness before he could see what it was.

Reivyn stood on an illuminated platform surrounded by infinite darkness on all sides. Reivyn looked around, but he couldn’t see the source of the light. It extended about thirty feet in a perfect circle around him. Beyond that was nothing.

He didn’t gradually become aware of his surroundings. He was completely devoid of any conscious thought one moment, and then the next, he was fully aware and found himself in this strange place.

Does this have something to do with the boss room? Is it some kind of gimmick where we’re all separated and have to fight our own battles? Reivyn had no recollection of how he could have gotten here, and his last memory was of right before he and his party entered the boss room on the second floor of the dungeon.

To Reivyn’s perception, he had taken a step forward through the threshold, his memory went dark for a second, and then he was in this room.

He looked around, but he couldn’t see anything besides the floor. It was a white marble brick, and every rectangle was perfectly uniform and smooth with perfectly straight lines in the mortar holding it together.

Reivyn looked left and right, and, shrugging his shoulders, he began walking.

The floor and illumination never changed, and if he wasn’t able to see himself take the steps forward on the ground, he would swear that he wasn’t moving at all. There was no wind, there was no sound, there was nothing but his small circle of light that followed him like the ambient lighting of the dungeon.

Reivyn picked up the pace, and he slowly transformed from a sedate walk to a slow jog, all the way up to a full sprint. He didn’t notice any loss of stamina, but he was unable to pull up his Status page to check. There was no wind on his face despite his all-out sprint, and he still had no perception of any movement. He ran at full speed for several minutes, never growing tired until he finally came to a stop.

He didn’t have to breathe heavily or anything. He was able to transition from walking to full speed to a complete stop, and he didn’t feel anything.

The fact that I don’t have access to my Status page is extremely worrisome. This obviously isn’t some gimmick for the boss room. Where am I, and what happened to my companions?

Reivyn decided to simply wait, and so he sat down and attempted to Meditate.

Nothing happened.

Reivyn frowned as he stood back up. He attempted to activate another skill. He tried to summon his mana.

Nothing happened.

Reivyn’s concern began to turn into panic. He activated all of his skills, but it was the same thing with all of them.

Reivyn forced himself to stop and think. He expected his heart to be pounding in his chest due to his increasing panic, but there was nothing. He reached up and placed his fingers on the pulse on his neck.

There was no pulse.

Okay, okay, okay…. Okay… Okay… Calm down… Reivyn’s body was still completely normal, and he didn’t show any signs of the panic his mind was experiencing. He didn’t hyperventilate, he didn’t sweat, and he didn’t have a pounding heart or infusions of adrenaline.

Am I dead? The thought crossed his mind involuntarily. No, I don’t believe it! I’m going to assume I’m not dead. So then what’s happening?

Reivyn crossed his arms and tapped his foot as he tried to work out what was going on.

No access to the Status page. No access to skills. Probably no access to the System. I’m not in my “body,” so this must all be in my head. But even then, I would have access to skills and the System. Am I in some powerful illusion?

Reivyn couldn’t figure out what was going on, but absolutely nothing was happening or changing. He had no idea how long he had been here, considering the break in his consciousness, and he had no idea how long he would have to wait.

If I can’t activate the skill Meditation, then I’ll just have to settle for the old-fashioned version.

Reivyn sat down and crossed his legs. He didn’t have any bodily functions to master to help him enter into a meditative state, so he simply closed his eyes and resigned himself to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

He had no idea how long he waited, but it felt like weeks at least.

Finally, something changed.

A breeze rustled his hair, and due to the complete lack of any external stimulation, Reivyn immediately noticed it. He opened his eyes and sprang to his feet. There was no discomfort associated with sitting in the lotus position for extended periods of time. There were no locked muscles and no tingling sensation from pinched nerves. He easily assumed a standing position.

Way off into the infinite distance, high up in the sky, Reivyn saw something new for the first time. He couldn’t perceive the distance, but he instinctively knew that it was so far away that he would never be able to reach it, even with ten lifetimes.

Two short lines of color formed next to each other, spread far apart. Reivyn watched as they slowly grew thicker, as the line of color extended upward. It was a deep crimson.

The lines slowly, steadily increased in size, and Reivyn was able to notice that the shape wasn’t blocky, but was instead forming an oval. Even though the appearing colors radiated intense light, it didn’t reach Reivyn, and it didn’t add to any illumination.

Are these red suns? What are these things?

The ovals continued to reveal themselves, and after reaching a certain point, a hollow spot appeared in the center.

Rings? What’s the meaning of these red rings?

The two hollow circles finally came into complete view, and as Reivyn watched, the large black space in the center contracted instantaneously to pinpricks, and then they swiveled until the orbs were focused on Reivyn.

Those are eyes! Abject terror filled Reivyn as the impossibly large being brought its focus to bear on him. His non-body finally had a reaction, and even though he didn’t have any regular bodily functions, he still felt the cold tingles down his spine as his hair stood on end.

“Hmmm, one of yours, it looks like.” An impossible sound echoed out from the distance. Reivyn could clearly hear the words, but he couldn’t make any sense of what they were saying, and he couldn’t place any of the characteristics. It didn’t sound like anything. More like it was the words were just in his head.

“Seems so.” Another voice startled Reivyn, and he spun around to face the opposite direction. There was another pair of impossibly large, impossibly far away eyes hovering in the sky, also focused on him. This pair of eyes was a light sky-blue, however. Reivyn didn’t have any feelings of terror or apprehension from these eyes, and he felt an instinctive kinship with them.

“Let’s see what dragged him here,” the first voice said.

Suddenly, two figures were standing right in front of Reivyn, shoulder to shoulder. He startled backward half a step before he realized nothing else was happening, and he looked at each, in turn, to see if he could gain any clues.

The one on his right was completely shrouded in darkness, and he couldn’t see anything other than red eyes and the outline of his body. The body appeared to be made of smoke, as he could somewhat see the illuminated ground behind him.

The one on his left was the exact opposite. He appeared to be made of white clouds, and his blue eyes were the only other distinguishing characteristic.

The white entity—Blue, let’s call him—placed its hand on Reivyn’s head. There was no movement. It was standing there completely still for one moment, and then it had its hand on Reivyn’s head with its eyes closed. It gained what it was searching for, and quickly resumed its position a couple of steps away again.

The two were suddenly facing each other, and Reivyn listened in as they conversed.

“It would seem those remnants of your followers continue to try and influence my realm, all these years later,” Blue said.

“Really?” the black entity with red eyes—Red, let’s call him—replied. “It’s been, what, a couple of million years since we walked that plane?”

“At least. I guess they never moved on from our old grudge, huh, old friend?” Blue smiled. Reivyn couldn’t see the smile, but he could perceive that it was there.

“Guess so. We’re brothers, now, but our offspring obviously don’t know about our change in the relationship.” Red chuckled.

“His body is falling apart from the warring energies. He has an interesting ability and a powerful connection to my bloodline. He’s siphoning all of the experience into increasing his bloodline, something I’ve never seen before. Must be System shenanigans. But all of the impurities from the energy are scarring his body. If nothing changes, he might be crippled, and I would hate to see something happen to someone with such a strong bloodline. Do you mind doing something for him?”

“Sure thing, Vynn,” Red extended his hand much like Blue had done, but instead of simply closing his eyes and sensing something, Reivyn could feel the tainted energy that had accumulated in his body get sucked out.

It wasn’t a gradual thing, either. Red instantaneously removed all of the corruption. The smoky being smiled at Reivyn, much like he had perceived from Blue, and patted his shoulder.

“I’ll put a barrier up in your mana circuits. It’ll automatically filter out any corruption you come into contact with in the future.”

A ball of red and black energy formed in Red’s hands, and it quickly shot into Reivyn’s body. He was expecting excruciating pain from the sudden turn of events, but instead, he got a warm, fuzzy feeling. It was like a blanket covering all of his meridians.

“Thanks, old friend,” Blue said. He turned his attention back to Reivyn. “Work hard, young one. Maybe we’ll meet each other on the higher plane one day.”

He touched Reivyn’s head once more.

“Sleep.” A word Reivyn was finally able to put meaning to came from Blue, but before he could contemplate further, darkness once more consumed him.

“He’s dying,” the healer said. Melissa stopped her pacing and turned toward the man that had been leaning over Reivyn.

“There must be something you can do?”

“Afraid not.” The man sighed. “His body is chock full of warring energies, and they’re slowly corroding his internal organs and meridians. If I inject any other kind of energy, instead of doing what I want it to, it will simply join the battle and accelerate the damage.” The man wiped the sweat from his brow. “It’s all up to him now, but it doesn’t look good. I would make your peace.” The healer moved on to attend to others needing his attention.

Melissa turned to face the rest of the group that was sitting or squatting nearby. Teilon had a dazed look on his face from the information they had just received, and Kimberly squeezed his hand to try to offer what little comfort she could.

Larissa looked back and forth between Teilon and Kimberly, Melissa, and Reivyn lying on the cot.

“He’s not going to make it?” she asked with a quivering lip.

“It’s Reivyn,” Melissa said. “He’ll make it.” She didn’t believe her own words.

She walked over and sat down next to her sister. Erik was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and one leg up behind him, placed on the wall, behind Larissa, and even he had a frown on his face. Melissa put her arm over her sister’s shoulders and leaned her head down to place it against Larissa’s.

“There’s a slim chance. All we can do is wait.”

He’s in this predicament because of us. If we hadn’t just stood there like idiots, he wouldn’t have had to insert himself between us and the Spectre.

Melissa had never been in a situation where one of her friends or companions had died, much less right in front of her and due to saving her. Her feelings were extremely complicated. She felt sorrow over the ordeal that Reivyn was going through and rage at herself for being incompetent. She felt guilt that it was him and not her that had been knocked into the pit, and she felt frustrated that she had found such a powerful talent to recruit into her family, but the opportunity very likely had disappeared.

Hack! Urk! Cough! Reivyn’s body locked up, and he began to cough profusely. His head shook around, and if the muscles in his body hadn’t locked up, he would have probably continued convulsing.

Suddenly, he spewed some black, sticky substance out of his mouth. His body relaxed, and he went completely still with a sigh. There was no movement.

Melissa and the others all stared wide-eyed at the sudden change. Melissa held her breath as she feared that she had just witnessed her new friend pass away.

After a short eternity, Reivyn’s chest rose, and Melissa let out the breath she had been holding. Relief flooded her, and tears trickled down her face. She turned to her sister, who likewise had tears, and smiled.

“See,” she said through the smile, a slight hiccup interrupting her. “I told you he’d make it.”

Chapter forty-six

Return

Reivyn leisurely stretched as he slowly opened his eyes. He smacked his lips as he gradually came awake. He felt like he had just had the best sleep of his life. His vision came into focus, and he was momentarily confused at waking up in a different location.

Where am I? Reivyn sat up and looked around. He was placed on a bed in an unfamiliar, large room consisting of rows of beds. Some of the others had occupants, but most were empty. His companions were sitting or slouching off to the side in various states of sleep or rest.

Erik was crouched down with his sword ready to be drawn as he fought off sleep in order to maintain his vigil over the two sisters. Erik looked up from the movement on the bed, and noticing Reivyn awake, he gave him a simple nod.

Reivyn nodded back and then mouthed the words, “Go to sleep.” Erik nodded. He was already asleep before he even finished the movement. Poor guy must have been tired, Reivyn chuckled to himself.

This looks like an infirmary, Reivyn returned to trying to figure out where they were. Erik wasn’t the type to be very forthcoming with information, which is why Reivyn had no compunction in just telling him to go to sleep instead of picking his brain.

Does this mean we failed the boss room? Reivyn grasped his head in his hands as he tried to remember. Why can’t I remember anything? What happened?

A brief scene of him standing in infinite darkness quickly flitted through his mind, but he was unable to grasp anything else about the memory.

The last thing I remember is taking the first step across the threshold to the boss room. After that… After that, I’m here.

It was obviously the middle of the night, from what he could see from a window further down the long dormitory, so he didn’t want to wake his companions to figure things out just yet. He had other things to investigate that could grant him the information he wanted.

I’ll check my notifications. They’ve been blinking quite incessantly in the corner. If that doesn’t jog my memory, I can wait until morning to ask my friends.

Reivyn brought up his notifications.

Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000

Error…
Class Change, {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel, halted. Level 30(max) not achieved.
System transfer interrupted. Access to Abyssal System revoked.

Error…
System detected entity without access to any System.
No Precedent exists.
Seeking solution…
Petitioning closest relevant Ascended for intervention.
Entering Soul Space…

Resolution achieved.
Access to Veridical System restored.

New Affinities Unlocked!
Tier 5
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)

What in the…? What’s all this? The notifications didn’t jog his memories right away, but they contained some very alarming information. He still had several more to look through, so he continued to pull them up in the order they had appeared.

Achievement!
Come into contact with a foreign Realm.
Access to Tier 5 Affinities Unlocked

Achievement!
Meet an Ascended in person.
Error. Met an Ascended in the Soul Space. System deems “in person” does not apply.

Achievement!
Infuse your meridians with energy from the Abyssal Realm on a fundamental level.
Abyssal Realm is no longer considered {Heretical} by the System for you.
Abyss Affinity Unlocked!
Note: Other Realms are still considered {Heretical}

[Achievement!]
[Infuse your meridians with energy from the Veridical Realm on a fundamental level.]
[Veridical Affinity Unlocked!]

Other realms? How many other realms are there? Reivyn absently thought as he scrolled through his notifications.

[Achievement!]
[Save yourself from impossible odds. You successfully defended yourself from the corruption of a foreign System.]
[Luck +5]
[Increased Veridical Affinity]

[Exp +1,000]
[Exp +1,000]
…
[Exp +1,000]
[Bloodline Milestone: Physical and Mental Stats +3. Charisma and Luck +1.]
[Exp +1,000]
…
[Bloodline Milestone: Physical and Mental Stats +3. Charisma and Luck +1.]
…
[Bloodline: Unknown 2,518,381/10,000,000]
[Experience: 0/3,000]

What?! There are twenty-five messages about bloodline milestones being achieved. Reivyn did some quick mental math. That means that for every 100,000 experience dumped into my bloodline, that will get me three to all my physical and mental stats and one to charisma and luck. I just gained 500 stat points from siphoning experience!

Reivyn was stunned at the revelation. He had always thought that he would get a bonus upon reaching the full ten million experience, but he hadn’t considered the possibility of there being additional milestones.

Reaching the full ten million would mean one hundred milestones, total. That’s 2,000 stat points for fully unlocking my bloodline. Just how powerful is my bloodline? There must be more to what Mom said about her bloodline. I don’t believe for an instant that she only got one stat boost to physical and mental stats. Her wording was also very suspicious. She said “initial” stat boost.

Also, two million five hundred thousand experience?! That’s a ridiculous amount! That amount of experience could get me to Tier 4. That would be a terrible idea, though, because I would lose out on the time needed to increase my skills and gain life experience for a good Tier 4 class.

I definitely have to ask Teilon and the others what happened to figure out why my experience shot up so much. Maybe I can replicate it to fill out my bloodline all the way.

There was one last notification for Reivyn to look at.

[Exiting Dungeon]
[Calculating…]
[First Floor: Complete]
[Combat Experience: Exp +400]
[Boss Defeated: Exp +400]
[First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500]
[Calculating…]
[Second Floor: Complete]
[Combat Experience: Exp +6,000]
[Boss Defeated: Exp +1,000]
[Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000]
[Total Experience: 13,300]

Okay, so it looks like we did, in fact, defeat the boss room.

Reivyn pulled up his Status to see the results.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 30 Age: 10]
[Health: 2,000/2,000 Stamina: 3,800/3,800 Mana: 1,670/1,670]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 180 * INT: 167]
[VIT: 200 * MAG: 167]
[DEX: 180 * CLA: 109]
[CHA: 32 * PER: 126]
[LUK: 38]
[Bloodline: Unknown 2,531,681/10,000,000]
[Experience: 0/3,000]

With my new achievement giving five luck, and the reduction to stat requirements that brings, I definitely meet the requirements for a rare Tier 3 caster class already. Now I need to ensure I have my skills, affinities, and life experience up to snuff. I’m pretty sure I got the life experience covered, actually. Reivyn chuckled.

Reivyn was too wired to go back to sleep, but he didn’t want to disturb his friends’ rest, so he sat up in the lotus position and entered Meditation.

Might as well start working on those skills and affinities now.

“Reivyn!” Reivyn opened his eyes as he heard Melissa call out his name. He looked up and saw her leap to her feet from her position of sleeping next to her sister. Her sudden movement startled Larissa awake, and Teilon and Kimberly also woke up from the yell.

“We were so worried that you weren’t going to make it,” Melissa said as she quickly reached Reivyn’s side. “How do you feel? The priest said there was no corruption in you, but the healer said you had warring energies and were unlikely to survive.” Reivyn could see the faint traces of worry still etched on Melissa’s face.

“I feel great, actually,” Reivyn said matter-of-factly. “My memory is hazy, though. I don’t remember anything after taking that first step into the boss room. What happened? Did I get my butt handed to me or something?”

“Heh, nah, man.” Teilon spoke up with a chuckle. “If anything, I was the one that got my butt handed to me. You were fine, and we succeeded in clearing the boss room.” Teilon gestured toward Melissa. “She saw more than I did, so let her explain it.”

“Yeah, aside from the very end, we all handled the boss room pretty well. Here’s what happened…” Melissa recounted the fight from her perspective, Kimberly or Teilon occasionally interjecting a detail that she had missed.

“So you’re saying I basically became an ingredient for a Mega-Experience Crystal?” Reivyn laughed.

“This is no laughing matter,” Melissa gently rebuked, a stern expression on her face.

“What are you worried about?” Reivyn asked with a lopsided smile. “I’m fine, aren’t I?”

“You almost weren’t.”

“Well…” Reivyn didn’t have a reply to that. “I mean, I actually managed to get some amazing benefits out of this whole ordeal, so I’m not too turned off about it.”

“If you heard the way you were screaming, you wouldn’t be saying that.” Melissa frowned.

“Hmmm… You’re probably right,” Reivyn conceded. “I guess I’m lucky I don’t remember it, and I don’t have any lingering pain or negative effects. I feel amazing.” Reivyn threw his arms out and smiled brightly. “Let’s get out of here.”

Reivyn swung his legs over the side and made to stand up, but instead of standing up smoothly, he launched himself across the space between the beds and tumbled over the adjacent cot. He fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. He let out an embarrassed cough. He focused his attention on his muscles as he extremely carefully stood back up.

“What the hell was that?” Teilon fell over laughing. Even Kimberly didn’t rebuke him, instead hiding a chuckle behind her hand.

“Amazing benefits, hmmm?” Melissa said with a raised eyebrow. “Seems like it made you stupid, or something, to me.” She couldn’t hold the look on her face and also cracked a smile.

Larissa smiled as she poked Erik awake. Erik sat up, fully alert in an instant, and after looking around briefly, he grunted before taking up his usual position standing in the back. The group made their way out of the infirmary, Reivyn walking in what felt like an exaggeratedly slow manner, yet he had no trouble keeping up with his friends.

I’m going to have to work on getting used to my new stats, he thought. I pretty much made a fool of myself back there.

“Melissa,” Reivyn called out as they exited the infirmary, “how many tiers of affinities are there?”

“There are four tiers of affinities, but there is speculation from some of the academics that there might be more. Why?” Melissa said. She brushed her hair behind her ear as she faced Reivyn.

“Well, I guess I can confirm that there are five, then,” Reivyn said sheepishly. “Have you ever heard of the Veridical Affinity?”

“Veridical? Truth?” Melissa shook her head. “No, is that what your fifth tier affinity is called?”

“Yeah,” Reivyn said. “I got an achievement that the reward was opening up the fifth tier of affinities, and Veridical was the name of the affinity I unlocked.”

No reason to bring up the Abyssal Affinity. If that got out, it would bring more trouble than it was worth, Reivyn thought.

“Hmmm… I can only speculate based on the name, but it sounds like it’s ‘The True Element,’ or something,” Melissa tapped her chin in thought. “That’s interesting. Maybe you can help me and Larissa unlock the affinity somehow.”

“Oh sure,” Reivyn replied. “I just have to figure out how to safely manufacture a similar scenario first, so no idea when that will be.”

“I’m not in a hurry. Aside from the speculation, I’ve never heard of anyone actually having a fifth tier affinity. We’re all young. With the precedent of you getting the affinity, I’m sure we can figure out how to do it.”

Hmmm… from what she told me earlier, absorbing the medicinal soup is what created the interaction with the other realm. We’ll have to see if absorbing some in small doses will have an effect.

“Why are we heading back toward the dungeon?” Reivyn asked as he noticed the direction they were heading.

“Oh, we skipped the inspection for all of us because of the emergency situation. We promised the priest we would come back as soon as we were able,” Melissa said.

“Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any of that gunk in my system,” Teilon added. “And they offer free purification with the inspections, so no reason not to do it.”

“We originally thought you had succumbed to too much corruption, but the priest said there was zero corruption in you.” Melissa glanced at him out of the corner of her eye with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, one of the ‘amazing benefits,’” Reivyn said. “I got another achievement that said it won’t affect me anymore.”

I’m pretty sure I actually do have some of the “corruption” inside of me, Reivyn thought while doing an internal inspection. It’s just no longer in conflict with me. It’s interesting that the priest inspecting me wouldn’t be able to tell. It must have something to do with how our System interacts with it, rather than its inherent characteristics.

The group approached the inspection team that was on standby, and after a short explanation, they received the purification.

“Ahhh, refreshing,” Teilon said with a stretch of his arms above his head. “Well, this was fun and all, and I know we just woke up, but I’m going to go back to the house and relax. I’m not up for any training or sparring today.” Teilon eyed Reivyn with suspicion, clearly waiting for him to propose such a thing.

Reivyn chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. I actually have a lot of things to think about. Plus I need to get used to a few things.” Reivyn cleared his throat. “You and Kimberly also have enough experience and skills that I’m not worried about training right now.

“I’ll come over to the tavern tomorrow to talk more about the affinities and such.” Reivyn turned and addressed Melissa and her two companions as the group of six split in two distinct groups.

“Sure.” Melissa nodded her head.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Larissa said with a smile. She gave a little wave, and Erik added his customary grunt and nod.

“Thanks,” Reivyn said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The two groups bade their farewells and headed toward their separate accommodations.

“Alright, I guess you and Kimberly do whatever you want for the next few days,” Reivyn said as they made their way back to the house. “I pretty much need some time to work out some things on my own, anyway.”

“I’m guessing you got a major boost to your stats?” Teilon queried. Reivyn simply nodded his head. “I know you said you don’t remember anything, and I believe you, but it was bad. If you ever need to talk, I’m here to listen.” Teilon gripped Reivyn’s shoulder as he put on a serious expression.

“I appreciate that,” Reivyn said. “The things I need to work through and think about aren’t like that, at the moment, but I’ll remember it.”

“Good.” Teilon put his hand back down, and the trio made their way to their temporary home.

Okay, let’s see about this new affinity.

Reivyn was sitting in his customary cross-legged position on his bed. He extended his hand and willed a ball of mana into his hand. He took a deep breath, and then drew upon the new Veridical element and infused it into his mana orb.

Reivyn frowned, as he couldn’t perceive any change in the mana. It still looked like just pure mana. He didn’t sense anything different about it, either.

Maybe something will show up with Mana Sight?

Reivyn activated his skill and looked at the mana swirling in his palm. There was still no discernible difference.

It just looks like pure mana. I can tell that I infused the element, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. The notification did say something about this being the Veridical Realm, so maybe it is pure mana? Is it the basic building block of the world? That would make sense, but it begs the question: How am I supposed to increase my affinity level?

Reivyn pondered the problem, but he didn’t even know the first step to move in the right direction.

Maybe Mom will know something? I can ask her when I get home.

Reivyn ended his session by experimenting with the new element prematurely. There was no way he was going to try to manipulate the Abyssal element out in the open.

I had already planned on attempting a solo run next week, and I don’t see any reason to change plans now. Especially with my increase in stats. I can try it out in the dungeon.

Reivyn resumed his affinity and mana skill training. He had the stats for a good Tier 3 class now, and he had the means to access the academy where he could initiate the Class Change, but he wanted to be 100% sure he met all of the requirements.

Even if I wasn’t planning on getting an early Tier 3 class, I would still work on these skills, anyway, so nothing’s really changed. I’ve just removed one worry.

Reivyn swung his sword in the basic forms over and over again, sweat dripping down his face. He had spent the past several weeks focusing on being able to assist his friends in traversing the second floor of the dungeon and not so much on physical training or sparring, so he had almost forgotten how hot and humid it was.

I swear it’s getting worse every day, but Teilon and Kimberly never say anything about it. I’ve seen Melissa and Larissa fan themselves occasionally, and some of the bystanders walking around, so I know it’s not just me. I really need to adapt myself to my new physical condition, though, so I just have to train through it.

Reivyn gritted his teeth as he continued his practice through the discomfort. He performed his sword forms for several minutes before he switched to his spear. The body movements associated with the spearwork were sufficiently different that he was able to work several other muscle groups and continued to gain mastery over his body.

This isn’t going to be over in a day, though, so I get to look forward to several days of this torture.

Reivyn finished up with the spear, and then he pulled out his tessen.

The good thing about the tessen is that I can intersperse training with fanning myself to cool off. Reivyn chuckled to himself.

The tessen was a unique form of combat, and there wasn’t nearly as much body movement associated with it as with the other forms of combat, so Reivyn included unarmed styles into his routine while wielding the battle fan.

After several sessions of working with all of his current weaponry several different times, Reivyn was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

I’m not actually that tired, he thought. It’s just so hard to breathe in this humidity. Reivyn took a long drag from his water skin as he rested, and he dumped some of it over his head to help with the heat.

Alright, just a little bit more, and then I can call it a day for now. Agility exercises here in the courtyard, and then a pack run around the town.

Reivyn psyched himself up before he got to work running back and forth in the yard, working on changing directions as fast as possible and controlling his momentum properly.

Whew, this is going to suck.

Reivyn ran through the streets back toward the house after he finished his endurance session along the perimeter of the palisade. He watched the other people in town as they went about their business. He noticed a lot of people also struggling with the heat, but not everyone.

I guess we’re just more sensitive to the temperature? Reivyn thought to himself as he witnessed a group of adventurers mostly ignoring the heat. The group he spotted had several people moving about in their full armor and kit, and they didn’t show any visible signs of discomfort, yet a couple of their members were clearly affected as they didn’t wear a single piece of armor, opting for loose, flowing clothes.

Well, whatever. I guess we’re just the unlucky ones. Reivyn put the thoughts to the back of his mind as he slowed to a walk before reaching the house.

He washed himself off with water from a rain barrel and changed into some clean clothes he had prepared beforehand before heading inside. Teilon and Kimberly were laughing and joking as he walked in.

“How was the run?” Teilon said as he spotted Reivyn entering the house.

“Hot,” Reivyn replied as he plopped down on an open seat. He leaned back and relaxed with a sigh.

“Well, Kimberly and I have some good news,” Teilon said. Reivyn lifted his head and gave his friend his full attention. “When we came out of the dungeon, after checking the experience we got, we noticed we were only a couple thousand experience away from maxing out at Level 30, so we decided to use a couple of Experience Crystals.

“You’re looking at two brand-new Tier 2s,” Teilon lifted his chin with pride, a smile on his face.

“Congratulations!” Reivyn said. “What class did you pick? Let me guess, let me guess,” Reivyn held his hand out to forestall his friend. “Kimberly chose Fighter, and you chose…” Reivyn snapped his fingers. “Rogue.”

“Ha ha,” Teilon gave an unamused laugh. “I know I was all about stealing those pies, but that was a long time ago! I’m a proper adventurer, now!” Teilon placed his hand over his breast in mock indignation.

“Well, you’re right that I chose Fighter,” Kimberly supplied. “It made the most sense.”

“I can give you some pointers and show you the Mana Circulation pathways later,” Reivyn said with a smile and a nod.

“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Kimberly smiled back.

“Okay, okay, enough about other people, and more about me,” Teilon said. Kimberly and Reivyn rolled their eyes in unison. “I didn’t pick Rogue, though it did have some interesting benefits for my style of combat. No, I got something new available after this last dungeon delve.

“I picked a class called Spook,” Teilon said. Reivyn couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. “Hey now! I know the name doesn’t really do it justice, but it’s a rare Tier 2 class, and it has a lot of utility for my way of fighting.”

“Oh? Like what?” Reivyn leaned forward in his seat, an expectant expression on his face.

“It focuses on lessening my presence, and it gives me bonuses and class skills that increase my speed and dexterity while moving in the shadows or unseen, either one. I don’t necessarily have to be in the shadows, and I don’t have to be completely invisible to others, it’s like an upgraded version of what a Rogue gets. There are a lot fewer limitations.”

“Okay, that actually does sound like it would benefit your style.” Reivyn nodded in seriousness. “We’ll have to get you some training time with Erik and the girls soon, so you and they can adapt to the changes.”

Teilon threw his head back and groaned. “Why do you have to ruin the good mood with the dreaded ‘training’ word?” Teilon complained. “I also noticed you didn’t include yourself in that statement.” Teilon looked at Reivyn through the side of his eye.

“Yeah, I plan on doing a solo run next week,” Reivyn casually said.

“A what?” Teilon sat straight up.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Kimberly asked with a concerned look on her face.

“Yeah, what’s the issue?” Reivyn looked back and forth between his two friends.

Teilon and Kimberly shared a look before Teilon said, “I mean, you just went through that whole ordeal, and now you want to go back in without any backup?”

“Trust me, I’m fine,” Reivyn said. He shook his head. He really was fine. “I’m not saying I’m going to go down and challenge the second-floor boss on my own.”

“That’s a relief,” Teilon said. He wiped away imaginary sweat from his forehead.

“Yeah, it’ll depend on how well I can handle the Revenants on my own,” Reivyn added.

Teilon looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “Just promise me you won’t take any chances.” He looked at Reivyn with a sober expression. Kimberly nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m not going to throw my life away,” Reivyn said. “I got a pseudo-achievement way back for killing the ogre by myself, but not clearing the whole first floor solo, so I know an achievement for it exists. I know what I’m getting into, and I know I can at least handle that, so I want to go get it. I’ll just explore the second floor a bit afterward, and I’ll only move on to the boss room if I can handle the Revenants with ease.”

From what they told me about the boss room, I didn’t seem to have any problems, and my stats have improved significantly. The entire reason I’m suffering through the heat is to get acclimated to my new stats as fast as possible.

“Alright, man, if you’re sure,” Teilon said.

“It’ll be fine,” Reivyn reassured. “Now, let’s do something fun for once.”

“More training?” Teilon rolled his eyes.

“Nope,” Reivyn said. He pulled a small box out of his breast pocket. “Cards.”

Chapter forty-seven

Lucky Draw

Teilon placed his cards on the table and lifted his arms in triumph.

“Hah! Finally beat you,” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah, you only had to team up with Kimberly to do it,” Reivyn smirked.

“Since when did you get so lucky?” Teilon asked as he scooped up the cards.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Reivyn shrugged. “I’m obviously just the superior card player.”

Teilon rolled his eyes as he started shuffling the deck. He suddenly frowned, though, and paused his manipulations.

“Huh, I just got an achievement,” Teilon said absentmindedly.

“Really?” Reivyn focused on his friend. He got a tingle in the back of his mind, so he activated Mana Sight on instinct.

There was a strange distortion with the ambient mana. He couldn’t quite describe what the difference was, but it appeared that the mana around Teilon was more excited. It felt, more than looked like, they were vibrating around him, and he could faintly discern an outline of a box in front of Teilon. He felt a similar distortion from a few feet away, and he looked over and saw the same phenomenon in front of Kimberly.

Is this the manifestation of the Veridical Affinity? Reivyn contemplated. He was brought out of his thoughts by Kimberly speaking up.

“I got one, too,” Kimberly said. “It says, ‘Using strategy and a little luck, win a friendly match against impossible odds. Charisma and luck plus one.’”

Teilon and Kimberly shared a glance before looking back at Reivyn.

“No idea what I’m talking about, huh?’ Teilon accused. “You were obviously up to something. You a card shark or something?”

“Nah, I’m just a little lucky, is all.” Reivyn kept it deliberately vague. He wasn’t opposed to sharing his luck stat with his friends, but he found it more fun to watch Teilon squirm in the dark.

I’ll tell him someday, but before then, there are several other games of chance I can mess with him with. I need to get some dice. Reivyn smiled to himself, and his two friends narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

“He obviously already has the luck stat unlocked,” Kimberly pointed out. “He’s just messing with us.”

“Aww, you’re no fun,” Reivyn said with some exasperation. “It’s only a little higher than yours, and now that you’ve unlocked the stat, it should even out.”

“You sure about that?” Teilon asked while continuing to shuffle.

“Yeah, it’ll be fi~ne,” Reivyn assured his friend.

It didn’t even out.

Reivyn watched as the man formed a bolt made of the earth element and sent it hurtling at the target. Reivyn continued to observe the different mana braids that made up the Earth Bolt and attempted to add them to his repertoire.

Reivyn had placed a notice on the board in the Adventurer’s Guild branch that he was seeking to observe the basic spells, and after meeting up with several people who were interested in the tavern, he had set up a training schedule. He used his portion of remuneration from the ores they still gathered to pay the spell casters for their time. He had continued to go to the same location he first went to with his party outside of the town.

All of the adventurers were in the same boat with the time they had available to delve the dungeon, so they were also looking for things to alleviate their boredom and find something to do. Some chose to search for other resources for the locals building the town that was posted on the notice board, some did training like Reivyn and his team, and some spent their hard-earned coin in the taverns.

Due to these reasons, the arrangements that Reivyn entered into with these other spell casters weren’t expensive. The spell casters didn’t ask questions about why Reivyn wanted to watch them cast their basic spells. Most of them had done or were doing, the same thing in one way or another. Most people weren’t like Reivyn, though, and it was rare for many people to be equally talented in the base affinities, much less have decent talent in the higher tier affinities.

“So you’re trying to figure out the structure of the basic Bolt spells, huh? Which elements are you working on?” the man, Lorin, asked.

“Yeah, I’m teamed up with a couple of casters who told me about the System rewarding you for figuring out how to cast the spells free-hand, so I’ve been studying the braids to build my foundation. So far I’m able to cast Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Water Bolt, and Air Bolt. Earth is the last one I need to learn for the four basic elements, and the only reason I know Ice already is because of one of the casters in my party,” Reivyn answered.

After interacting with Melissa, Larissa, and several other casters who had answered his notice, Reivyn had learned that it wasn’t nearly as much of a stigma to discuss affinities among casters as he had first thought. Talking about skills was one thing, but the affinities were universal. The only thing people kept private was their exact level, but they still freely revealed that they were within a certain range.

Reivyn wasn’t sure if they were completely honest with the numbers they provided, though, as he certainly wasn’t. The numbers he heard from the other casters made him realize just how much further along in his affinity training he was compared to someone else in the same age range.

Lorin gave a low whistle before replying, “That’s pretty impressive for someone your age. I was sixteen before I had the braids for the four basic elements down, and you’re, what, thirteen?” Reivyn gave a noncommittal shrug. “And you already have your Tier 2 affinity, as well. What kind of a Tier 3 class are you working toward?”

“I kind of got forced into a martial class—it’s a long story—so I don’t have as many opportunities to work on my caster skills other than just training, and most of what I’ve learned to date have to do with melee combat, with some ranged. I would like to eventually combine the two methods, but I feel a pure caster class for Tier 3 would lay a better foundation for the future,” Reivyn let the misunderstanding that he was Tier 2 training for his Tier 3 class stand. There was no reason to go into details with every person he interacted with. Likewise, there was no reason to disabuse the man of the notion that he only had one Tier 2 affinity unlocked.

“That’s true,” Lorin said. He continued to form the Earth Bolt spell and release it as they conversed. “You have to keep in mind, though, that you’ll be in Tier 3 for a long time. Much longer than you’re in Tier 2. Having access to three of your class skills from your Tier 2 class as it becomes your secondary will help.

“Active adventurers like us, especially ones who run dungeons, move through the earlier tiers at a much faster pace than lifestyle classes and the military, so it’s not like you’ll be stuck in Tier 3 for decades or anything like that. Just make sure you balance your experience diet with your skills training.

“It’s not common out here, but there are tales of talented individuals who grew overconfident and advanced too quickly. They almost always get stuck with terrible classes in Tier 4, and the really unlucky ones get an uncommon class and end their progression prematurely.” Lorin eyed Reivyn for a second as he let his remarks sink in. “Most people don’t have to worry about such things, though, and the ones who do don’t stay in this region. If you see any high-level person in this region who isn’t in his or her twilight years, they’re likely a talent who hit an insurmountable roadblock.”

Reivyn’s parents came to mind as he thought to himself. That’s not always the case. My parents have obviously not reached the end of their progression. I’ll have to ask them why they chose to settle in such a low-density region when I get home. I know they were traveling to get somewhere where nobody would know of their lineage and try to use them politically, but they could have still chosen a Tier 2, or even Tier 3, region.

“Thanks for the reminder,” Reivyn said as he concentrated on the next bolt. “I almost have the braid down, by the way. Just another ten minutes or so will probably do it.”

“Sure thing.”

They continued practicing until Reivyn felt a sort of mental click as he effortlessly braided the Earth Bolt. He wasn’t supplying the full spell, and he wasn’t releasing it either, so the drain on his mana wasn’t too bad over the course of the session. He had a considerably larger mana pool now, though. The amount of mana it took him to succeed in braiding each of the elements had been more than his original entire mana pool each time. If he had tried to learn all of the braids before his stat increase, it would have taken him a lot longer.

“Thanks for taking the time to show me the spell,” Reivyn said as he handed over a small coin pouch.

“It was my pleasure,” Lorin said as he accepted the money. “It can get a bit boring while waiting for the reset, and there are too many others scouring the countryside for the locals. People have to go farther and farther to find anything worthwhile. I would bet someone in authority will step in soon and regulate it so that things don’t get out of hand.”

The two continued their idle conversation as they walked back to the town.

“Well, see ya ’round,” Lorin said with a small wave as he and Reivyn separated.

“See you.”

All of the preparations are done. All that’s left for me to accomplish out here is the solo dive. Reivyn was filled with excitement as he thought about his next excursion that was fast approaching.

“You got a letter,” Reivyn heard Teilon call to him as he walked through the door. He grabbed a towel that he had taken to leaving near the door and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He ran it along the inside of the collar of his shirt, too. Teilon frowned as he witnessed his friend’s actions.

“Do you think it has something to do with the corrupt mana or something?” Teilon asked.

“You know, that’s what I thought at first, too, but I’m not so sure,” Reivyn said as he accepted the sealed envelope from Teilon. He took a seat on the couch and opened the letter as he spoke. “I’ve kept an eye out on all of the people walking around and the church guys, but it’s not consistent who suffers from the heat. Hardly any of the church guys seem to be affected, and the priests always have their robes on. As for the adventurers, sure a lot of the casters have a similar experience, but not all of them, and there are plenty of non-casters who suffer from the heat, too.

“I really don’t know what’s going on, but it hasn’t really been a problem, yet.” Reivyn held the letter in his hand while he spoke to Teilon. He didn’t want to be rude and start reading the letter while in the middle of a conversation.

“Alright, if you say so,” Teilon said. He gestured for Reivyn to go ahead and read the letter, and he walked off to his room. Kimberly was apparently out running an errand or spending time with Larissa; Reivyn wasn’t sure.

He opened the folded paper and read the letter that he saw had been sent by his mother.

My Dearest Reivyn,
I hope all is well with you in the Dungeon Town. From your previous letter, it sounds like you’ve met some wonderful new friends to team up with. You’ll have to tell me all about Melissa and Larissa when you get home. And I suppose Erik sounds fine, too, but a mother cares more about some things than others, if you get my drift.

Reivyn rolled his eyes at the words on the page. Geez, Mom, I’m only ten years old. Sure I’ve gone through puberty and all that, but isn’t it a bit early? He snorted in amusement.

This leads to the main purpose of the letter: We’ve decided to move to the Capital.

We already knew you were planning on going to the academy located in the Capital when you got done with the dungeon, and while we hadn’t said anything, we were obviously going to go with you. You’re still a kid, after all. (So she does know I’m still a kid.) And with the development of your sisters’ ability to craft magical items but lack of drive, we can’t in good conscience leave them to their own devices any longer.

There is a supplementary school for younger children who haven’t reached Tier 2, yet, including those younger than ten, and we’re going to enroll your sisters there. Depending on how long you have to spend in the academy, you might end up being their senior one day. How exciting!

We will have already left by the time this letter reaches you, so when you send your next letter, mail it to the Adventurer’s Guild in the Capital, and your father will go and check each day. We’ll be sure to send you the address of our new home once we get there.

You don’t have to worry about your father’s employment, either. He received a very nice recommendation from Mr. Einrin, who has some connections in the Capital. We’ve also been pretty frugal with our money over the years, so we’ll be perfectly fine.

Your sisters are grumbling a bit, but luckily we hadn’t really been here long enough for them to grow attached to any new friends, and they’ll get to see Teilon and Kimberly again when you guys move to the Capital as well, if your indication that they’re interested in attending the Knight Academy holds true and they come with you, that is.

I know this letter is short and to the point, but I promise to regale you with the tales of our travels and what the Capital is like in our next correspondence.

Stay safe.

With Love,
Mother

P.S. We hadn’t thought it would be an issue, yet, as we thought we would definitely meet up before you officially reached Tier 2 (I mean, none of us expected the experience gain on the second floor to be so much higher than the first floor!), or lacking that, we would at least be able to help you through the mail, but since we’ll be on the road, I need to tell you one last important detail (if your new friends haven’t mentioned it already): Slow down on leveling once you reach close to the Tier 2 threshold. I know I advised you that you could force a class even after accepting your Tier 2 class, but you can’t go past Level 10! With the increased experience requirements and the less exciting nature of living in a city and going to a school, it should be fine as long as you don’t gain too many levels in Tier 2.

Again, much love.

Reivyn lowered the letter as he thought about the contents.

I knew my sisters had an unusual talent—the flower crowns are proof of that—but it seems like it’s even more so than I had thought. This works out pretty well, actually. Nothing has changed in the grand scheme of things from the sounds of it. They’re just securing some training and education for Kailey and Riley a bit earlier than originally planned. They don’t know about my Experience Siphoning ability, so I don’t have anything to worry about on that front.

Reivyn put the letter back in the envelope and carried it with him to his room. He placed it on his chest of drawers next to the other couple of letters he had received, and he picked up the letter he had started writing that contained a brief summary about his stat gains. He didn’t go into the grisly details, though, but he was confident his parents would squeeze it out of him one day anyway.

Hmmm… No reason to rush and finish this letter now. It’s already too late. I’ll just add to it after the solo delve and send it out next week. They’ll be busy with the move for the next week or so, and even though it has a lot further to travel now, the mail couriers cover ground a lot faster than people moving all of their belongings.

Reivyn sat down on his bed and pulled up his skills page before deciding on which mana skills and affinities to work on. He hadn’t been paying as much attention to his skill level ups as he used to. I still get a sense of satisfaction from the accomplishment of the skills increasing, but working on the mana braids and knowing I’m progressing along that front is much more exciting. I can feel the anticipation building as I know the System is going to give me a big notification soon about all the work I’m putting in on them. That being said, might as well take the time to see what I got as I make a plan for what to work on.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Athleticism (44 ->45)
Balance (44 - >45)
Medium Armor (34 ->35)
Mining (15 ->18)
Observation (40 ->41)
Shields (45 ->47)

Tier 2:
Evasion (36 ->37)
Mana Absorption (47 ->49)
Pain Resistance (36 ->42)
Strategy (13 ->15)
Tactics (23 ->24)

Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (12 ->14)
Command (8 ->11)
Danger Sense (9 ->11)
Inspire (10 ->13)
Mana Conjuration (25 ->28)
Mana Manipulation (26 ->30)
Mana Shield (18 ->20)
Mana Sight (30 ->31)
Mental Fortitude (31 ->38)

Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (14 ->15)
Iron Will (8 ->13)
Mana Weapon (22 ->24)

Tier 5:
Spatial Awareness (19 ->20)

Tier 6:
Weapons Master (57 ->59)

Reivyn’s eyebrows shot up as he examined his skill gains.

Wow, I guess it really was a terrible situation. I haven’t seen gains like that in Pain Resistance since my encounter with Ren, and that was at a much lower skill level.

And I guess the little trip to the soul space counted toward my Dreams of the Past skill? I don’t remember any other dreams.

It looks like my Weapons Master skill did actually reach a small bottleneck, it just came at an unexpected level. Does this mean I’m about to reach the master level at 60? We’ll see.

There are several other skills stuck at 24 and 49, too. Not all of those made the list, and they’ve been sitting there for a little while. I’m not too concerned with it, though. If they haven’t made any progress by the time I make it to the Capital, I might think about especially focusing on them for a bit.

It looks like my Mana Absorption has reached the 49 bottleneck, and Mana Circulation and Meditation have been at 24 for several weeks. I’ll keep working on Mana Circulation in the evenings because it has an actual function, but it looks like my focus in the short term should be on the Tier 3 mana skills.

Melissa had explained that the purification of his mana through Mana Manipulation was necessary for the System to activate more complicated class spells. His mother would probably have told him before long, but she wasn’t in the habit of dumping everything in his lap all at once.

Well, not anymore, anyway.

Melissa had told him that he could find what his level of Mana Purification was under his Mana tab on the System page. He hadn’t really considered it before, so he hadn’t paid it any attention. He was still dealing with the basics of the basics when it came to spells, so his level of Mana Purification wouldn’t come into play for some time.

No idea if it’s necessary for class unlocking, but if it is, it’s probably not relevant below the higher Tier 3 rarities and higher tiers. Still, something to keep working on so as to not accidentally lock me out of a good class without knowing why.

He quickly brought the tab up to take a quick peek at it.

[Mana]
[Gas {Cloudy}]

Reivyn had no idea what that meant, and Melissa had said she couldn’t handle any more attacks on her talent, so she had declined to hear him out on what his level was or explain further. She said he could ask his mother or wait until he enrolled in the academy. Reivyn had just chuckled and shrugged it off. He knew she would explain it if it was really important to him right now, so he didn’t take it to heart.

Reivyn closed his tab and assumed his Meditation.

Time to get to work.

“Yes, I have everything I need,” Reivyn said with a roll of his eyes. His friends continued to pester him about every little thing he would need for his solo excursion, Teilon especially. “I even brought some glass jars to keep the Experience Essence in case I do end up going to the second floor.” I’m definitely going to the second floor.

“Alright, man. You know we’re just worried,” Teilon said with a grin.

“I know, and I appreciate it,” Reivyn said. The group headed to the front of the dungeon, but this time Reivyn wasn’t a member of the party. “Okay, well, there’s no reason to delay any further, so I’ll see you guys either later today, or maybe even early tomorrow.”

“Be safe,” Melissa said as she waved. All of the party members gave their own version of a farewell: Teilon gave him a bear hug, Kimberly simply smiled and waved, Larissa jumped up and down while wishing him luck, and Erik grunted.

Reivyn separated from the group and headed into the dungeon ahead of them. Even though they were in separate parties, if they went in at the exact same time, it was possible to still enter the same instance. It was unlikely, but there was precedent for such a thing happening before. As such, they made it customary—everywhere, not just at this dungeon—to wait one minute between people entering the dungeon.

Reivyn quickly made his way to the cave, and he immediately noticed a difference from his stats.

I haven’t even entered the cave yet, and I can already hear the faint traces of that first goblin patrol.

He hadn’t really noticed a change from his perception stat until this point. Probably because of all of the background noise. I’m used to subconsciously filtering it out, and it looks like my increased mental stats assisted in keeping up with the increased perception. Now that I’m alone and all of that noise has faded away, I can now tell the difference.

Luckily perception wasn’t just an overall increase in the senses, but more along the lines of what he was able to grasp from it. His senses were improved on a fundamental level, but it wasn’t to such an extent that he was practically deaf or blind from being overpowered by them. It seems that I got a decent improvement to my senses, but I’m also operating at a much higher efficiency.

Reivyn was ready to enter the caves in high spirits, but first, he pulled out some parchment and ink sticks.

Now that I’m alone and can take pretty much as much time as I want, I’m going to map out the entire dungeon that we’ve explored so far.

With a flourish of his pen, Reivyn began his solo delve.

Chapter forty-eight

Too Easy

The small claw slammed into Reivyn’s shield, not moving a single inch. He hardly even felt the blow from the weak goblin, and only the sound of the collision was noteworthy. The attack was followed up with a sweep of Reivyn’s sword, slashing through multiple goblins that had encroached upon him with ease.

Reivyn was angled slightly with his back and side against the left-hand wall of the corridor that led into the goblin’s berth. He had steadily made his way down the dungeon, and he had tried several different approaches to tackling these rooms by himself.

His first attempt had been a disaster. It was a hilarious disaster, in retrospect, but it had left Reivyn winded and annoyed.

He had charged into the first room with his sling, and he attempted to run circles around the slower goblins while picking them off from range. They were never anywhere close to catching up to him, but the constant twisting about in order to utilize his weapon had been a huge hassle he hadn’t considered before employing the strategy. Even though he knew it was suboptimal, Reivyn had persisted in clearing the room out in that manner.

Even though I can use pretty much anything, including my own body, as a weapon, that doesn’t translate universally. I’m still right-handed, and I don’t have enough coordination with my left hand to effectively use the sling as a weapon in this situation. If I had turned to the right and ran around the room with my throwing arm on the outside, allowing me to sling across my body, that would have been one thing, but I chose to run left without giving it too much consideration.

Since his first snap-decision was a failure, but not a particularly dangerous one, Reivyn was determined to fail all the way.

Some of the best lessons are learned through adversity and messing things up.

Reivyn had attempted the same method again, but he ran to the right to use his dominant arm, and things worked out considerably better. It was still completely unnecessary, in his opinion, to waste so much time and resources evading the weak creatures, but he got some good practice out of it.

Reivyn used the following rooms to consider various issues with his skills and combat. He mainly focused on trying to figure out the mechanism the System employed to use his stamina to empower his body with the class skills.

Mana is a tangible force that I can sense and control. Stamina works in a similar fashion with how it can be used as fuel to power the body, so there must be some way to manipulate it directly. The only problem is, so far it has been completely intangible and invisible until it is actually used.

Reivyn knew from the System itself that it was possible to learn class skills permanently, and he was approaching the Level 100 threshold for his Devastating Strike, and his other class skills weren’t too terribly far behind.

He always used his class skills in combat whenever he had spare stamina or in an emergency, but he kept a tight rein on the usage so as not to ever dip to a dangerous level of his stamina pool.

He would be able to keep three of his secondary class skills when he achieved Tier 2, but one of those was definitely Flame Blade. His current combat style smoothly incorporated his class skills in such a way that it was almost second nature, and he would have to choose two out of the other three to keep.

Charge is definitely staying. It has much more utility than my other class skills and can be used for much more than just closing with the enemy. That leaves Quick-Draw, Cleave, and Devastating Strike.

Cleave might seem like a useless ability on the surface, but it greatly removes any openings I might leave behind if I need to overextend in certain situations. Without the skill, I would be much more conservative in my combat style, and it allows me to move about and strike much more freely than I otherwise would be able to.

Devastating Strike, especially when combined with Flame Blade, really lets me decimate the Revenants on the second floor, and I imagine it will play a role against the ogre in the first floor boss room.

Quick-Draw, while immensely practical from a starting position of a fight or when trying to surprise an enemy, is probably the weakest of the three remaining skills.

So far, unless I see a noticeable improvement from reaching Level 100 in Devastating Strike, I’m leaning toward Cleave, as it allows the most free-form combat of any of my skills.

Reivyn didn’t know if he would be able to switch out his secondary skills once he made his selection, and if they disappeared from his list, it would be a great loss if he had the opportunity to unlock the skill permanently but didn’t grasp it.

Reivyn focused on the way his muscles contracted and moved as he bashed a goblin skull while simultaneously keeping the others at bay with his deadly blade. He alternated between focusing intently on the skills versus just his own body.

All I need is to grasp the string that connects them together, and if I build up my understanding of the differences between them, it should make it easier. I feel like I’m on the right track with this method, but I still have a lot of work to do on it.

Reivyn finished up the room and continued further into the dungeon without even taking a glance at the room he had just cleared. There was never anything of value to be found in the goblin or Orc living quarters, and even if his luck played a role and he found something, it was likely to be less valuable than anything he could find deeper in the dungeon.

The next room is the mining room. I’ll clear the room out of monsters and then do some mining before taking a break. I’ll just leave the ores here for now and grab them on the way out.

I can grab a bite to eat while I review the maps I’ve drawn so far, and I can start making a master copy that’s much larger and contains the smaller maps I’ve made. The trick will be to keep the scales equal.

My leisurely experiments with the goblins are over. I should be able to continue against the Orcs, but I’ll keep it safe and not consider it until I get a better grasp of my new capabilities against them solo.

The Orcs, with Reivyn’s newfound stat growth, proved to be easier to handle than the goblins had been before his explosive strength gain. While moving out of combat, everything appeared normal as it always had, but once he really focused on the combat with his first encounter with the Orcs, he noticed that an increase in the range of his perception wasn’t the only benefit.

They’re moving almost in slow motion. I don’t know if the increase in my mental stats plays a role in how I’m able to interpret my perception, or if it’s all on the one stat, but I feel like I could dance around at will. I do know that if I didn’t get an increase in my physical stats, I wouldn’t be able to take nearly as much advantage of the new situation.

He hadn’t noticed it previously when fighting only the goblins as he had been almost fully focused on trying to figure out how stamina worked in conjunction with skills, and he had been far too busy and annoyed while acting as a ranged combatant, but even if he didn’t fully concentrate on the battle, he was still moving and reacting much faster.

Reivyn managed to further his understanding of stamina by a hair while he made his way down to the boss room where he took another quick break.

Okay, Reivyn thought as he loosened up his body, move hard and fast, and take the ogre out as quickly as possible. I’ll run in, charge as soon as I spot the ogre, and use Flame Blade plus Devastating Strike to kill it.

Reivyn pulled out his sword and shield, jumped up and down a few times to get the blood and adrenaline flowing, and then ran into the boss room at top speed.

Reivyn had never entered the boss room at such speeds before, so he was surprised to find that the ogre’s initial positioning was much closer to the rest of the Orcs than he had originally thought. He didn’t see any reason to change strategies, however, so he activated Charge as soon as he spotted the ogre lugging the two Orcs with chains.

Reivyn’s speed immediately doubled, and he crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. None of the monsters were able to react at all to the sudden change, and Reivyn effortlessly pumped his Flame Blade skill full of mana to extend the blade while activating Devastating Strike to initiate the swing.

A reddish-orange blur swept through the room, nearly at ceiling height, and before he took in the effect of his maneuver, Reivyn leaped while charging to carry his momentum, and he spun rapidly while sailing through the air, maintaining his Flame Blade extended out as he turned it into a mini-tornado of fiery death.

He went through a large chunk of mana—a quick glance showed it had cost 170 points from his mana pool—but it had a tremendous effect.

As Reivyn came to a stop in the guard position, shield up and sword ready to strike, silence filled the room. He looked around left and right to quickly identify any threats that might be approaching, but the group of Orcs and one ogre just stood there in stunned silence with their eyes bulging.

After a short couple of seconds, all of the monsters in the room collapsed to the floor. He had slain every enemy in an instant.

This first floor boss room really isn’t much of an obstacle at all, anymore. I would have been more surprised if I had had to struggle. Even though the ogre is a Tier 3, it is severely restricted by the low ceiling, and if it’s never allowed to gain any momentum, it’s just a big damage sponge. Looks like my damage has gotten a little high. He chuckled to himself.

Reivyn deactivated his Flame Blade, and after walking to where he couldn’t see the corpses any longer, he sat down for another quick bite to eat.

While I’m not tired at all, and I have a lot more mana now than the first time I traversed the second floor, I would still feel better at full mana before I head down there. I’ll finalize the maps for the first floor while I’m at it.

Reivyn bent forward over the maps he had splayed out before him, making corrections and alterations with his pen, a piece of jerky sticking out of his mouth as he absentmindedly chewed.

I’m making much faster progress than I had imagined, Reivyn thought as he approached the first rooms containing the Revenants. The skeleton patrols had hardly even been a blip, putting up no more resistance than the goblins had. I might be able to make it out of here even before Teilon and his group complete their excursion.

Reivyn looked at the door leading to the first alchemy room and considered the ways he could tackle the fights with multiple Revenants that he would soon face.

I can’t count on any form of crowd control or movement obstacles like I could when paired up with Melissa. I’ll have to use the same method I did with the ogre: Move fast and hard to kill the first Revenant, and once I have the initiative, I can direct the flow of combat and assess the situation.

With his mind made up, Reivyn took a deep breath before opening the door. He knew the Revenants wouldn’t activate right away from just the door opening, so he stepped inside the room before assuming a stance to Charge the undead sitting on the other side of the dilapidated cauldron.

No time like the present. Reivyn initiated his Charge before the Revenant had even begun to activate, and brought his sword, covered in flames, down on its skull.

He cleaved right through the bones, and even the chair it was sitting on until his sword struck the ground beneath. The two halves of the Tier 3 skeleton fell apart, and Reivyn was momentarily surprised with how easy it had been. He stood there in the position with his body leaning forward and sword tip penetrating the top of the floor for a second as he collected himself.

Still, one more to worry about, now that I’ve started the fight.

Reivyn quickly exited the room and assumed a ready position with his back toward the way he had come. He had cleared the first room so fast that the other Revenant didn’t have time to fully activate and sneak up on him.

Reivyn watched as the Revenant from the opposite room came shambling out into the hall, immediately spotting Reivyn and moving toward him. He stood with his shield raised and waited for the Revenant to make the first move, planning on assessing the strength of the blow.

The Revenant quickly reached him and threw out a powerful punch.

I can actually see it!

Reivyn watched the punch come toward him, appearing no faster than a strike from one of the Orcs would have been before his stats increased. An idea quickly formed in Reivyn’s mind, and he deactivated the flames coating his sword. He still sheathed his weapon in mana, though, as it would be completely useless otherwise.

Reivyn’s idea had been to work on his swordsmanship with the superior foe, now that he was able to keep up, and he spent several minutes treating his opponent like a sparring partner, except he would actually land the blows properly. The mana infusion did its job, and after approximately six minutes, the Revenant’s body could no longer hold up to the damage it had sustained, and it collapsed in a heap.

Not bad. I might be able to reach Level 60 with Weapons Master against these opponents. The rooms attached to the stairwell might be troublesome, as I’ll have to fight six at once, basically—if I don’t take one or two out immediately, which I should definitely do—and how well I do against those rooms will determine if I continue on to the last patrol before the boss room or not.

Reivyn quickly searched the cauldrons for their prize, but the first two came up empty. Meh, still a lot of chances for crystals later on.

Reivyn continued his one-man extermination of the undead.

Reivyn sat cross-legged, his pen held between two fingers with the other end between his teeth as he went over his maps. The corpses of the six Revenants lay strewn about throughout the rooms and corridors.

The end rooms had proven to be easier than he had anticipated.

Reivyn had rushed into the first room on the left, and he had quickly dispatched the two Revenants in repose before quickly dashing back to the corridor. With his eyes able to take in the two rooms remaining at the same time, he didn’t have to worry about the sudden movements of his enemies.

He kept his Flame Blade active for the beginning of the fight, as he didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances improving his skills without backup. If he weren’t delving solo, he might take the opportunity to continue treating the Revenants like sparring partners in such a situation to push himself, but without anyone to intervene in case things went horribly wrong, Reivyn wasn’t willing to risk it.

The first Revenant had stumbled out of the central room in his weird, jerky gait, and Reivyn had lunged forward while increasing the output of his mana to quickly pierce a hole in its skull and take it out of the fight immediately. With only three Revenants to contend with, he had adopted his traditional method of blocking and counter-attacking as he backed down the hallway.

With his Flame Blade and improved stats, the Revenants didn’t pose any threat, and he killed the remaining three in less than a minute.

I might be too strong for the first two floors, now, Reivyn thought. That still doesn’t mean I’m willing to check out the third floor if that scene through the viewing port is any indication of what can be found down there. I would really like to fight one of these guys at their full strength, but not if it’s accompanied by another hundred or so.

Reivyn quickly drew up a map of the floor. As he practiced his skill, it got easier and easier to maintain the proper scale without having to intensely concentrate or make several revisions. He removed the tip of the pen from his mouth and tapped his closed lips with it as he considered the parchment.

These look good to me. He took a quick glance at his Status page. And my stamina and mana are around 95%. No reason to stick around, so I’ll keep going. How long have I been down here, now? Reivyn pulled up his internal System clock and checked the time. Six hours-ish? Yeah, I’m blazing through this place. I’ll definitely beat the others to the surface, especially if I decide not to tackle the boss room.

He still hadn’t made a determination on whether or not he would attempt to defeat the floor boss or not. He was holding off on making the decision until and unless he fought the fourteen Revenants that patrolled the halls beforehand.

At this moment, though, it looks like I should give it a go. He got up and made his way to the next floor.

Reivyn danced back to avoid the strike from the Revenant on his right before leaping forward, shield raised to catch the blow from the Revenant on his left, and bashed the first one into the floor with his overpowering strength.

He had slowly decreased how many Revenants he killed before engaging all of them as he descended the stairwell until he fought the entire group all at once against the floor that had seven Revenants. He had proved that he was up to the task, so he had decided to tackle the final patrol.

He left his pack at the foot of the stairs. It was filled with Cracked Experience Crystals and bottles containing Experience Essence. His trip had landed him a decent haul with 20 crystals and 6 full jars.

Reivyn had charged the final patrol without hesitation and began laying waste to them before slowing down and controlling the flow of battle while slowly backing away. It wasn’t completely necessary any longer, but it kept his footing clear of any obstacles as the bones after the Revenants died, no longer had anything holding them together. They sometimes maintained the momentum from the collapsing undead and rolled about to cause a tripping hazard.

Reivyn kept his focus on the combat, expertly dodging and weaving, and blocking and parrying in turn, to demolish the last encounter before the boss room. The Revenants were unable to make full use of their superior numbers in the cramped hallway, so Reivyn whittled them down until they were all dead.

He wiped the sweat from his brow as his body relaxed once the last enemy fell. Whew, I’m nowhere close to reaching dangerous levels of stamina or mana, but I still worked up quite a sweat there. From what Melissa and the rest told me of the boss room, it’s mostly just more of the same.

I should charge through the first group and make sure my line of sight is always toward the center of the room, with the entrance in the background because of the hidden enemies, and then I can lead them around in a circle and slowly wear them down just like out here. The only danger will be that they can fan out and surround me, so I’ll have to continuously adjust my positioning to prevent that from being effective.

The Spectre won’t be able to possess me as long as I keep mana flowing through my body at all times, so if it gets drawn out too long, or I miscalculate and use too much mana, that will be the deciding factor on if I retreat or not.

Reivyn plopped down a short distance away from the carnage of bones and rested up. He had a plan, and he had the capabilities, so he was going to challenge the boss room. Should be a pretty good achievement for soloing the first two floors completely.

Reivyn quickly topped his stamina and mana up to 100%—No way I go into the boss room with even one percentage point missing—and made his way to the threshold. He looked at the open doorway for a moment. All of this still looks familiar to me. My memories give out at this point, though, and everything beyond this point will be new.

Reivyn only contemplated for a moment before he decisively crossed the threshold into the room. The layout was easily recognizable from the descriptions that Melissa had given, and Reivyn confidently marched toward the center of the room.

A frown crossed his face as the scene in the center of the room entered his vision, though. It wasn’t like what they had described at all.

Instead of a large pit filled with a bubbling, frothing red alchemical mixture, there was a slightly raised dais with a larger, more intricately carved large cauldron on it. He couldn’t see any light coming from within, nor any other indication it was filled with liquid.

The monsters surrounding the cauldron were also a far cry from what had been described. Instead of one Spectre in the center with several Revenants chanting beside him, there were three Spectres floating in attendance.

The three ghosts immediately noticed Reivyn approaching, and with an otherworldly shriek, their countenance changed from fuzzy middle-aged men to frightening skulls as they unceremoniously charged toward Reivyn.

Hmph, you guys are overestimating yourselves.

Reivyn exploded with mana as they quickly drew close, and as they reared back in hesitation, Reivyn slashed out with his Flame Blade. It passed through all three at once. They screamed in agony, and they bolted away back to the center of the room.

Their screams continued, even after they quit moving, and Reivyn sensed the ambient mana get drawn toward the three. While this was happening, Reivyn didn’t forget about the possibility of other enemies lurking about, so he kept his head on a swivel. After failing to see any additional monsters appear, he once more fully turned back toward the three Spectres and made his way over to them.

He only took a couple of steps, though, before he came to a stop. The ambient mana reached a crescendo, and the three Spectres coalesced together into one much larger Spectre. The apparition viewed Reivyn with pure hate, but when Reivyn was anticipating another attack, it backed away and faded into nothingness.

It might think it has a chance to possess me now that it’s grown stronger, so I need to keep my mana pumping through me and stay alert to the surroundings.

Reivyn stood in place, ready to receive a surprise attack, as he scanned the room. A dull thumping sound from the direction the Spectre had moved reached his ears.

Reivyn looked into the distant darkness, trying to peer into what had caused the noise, but he was unable to discern anything. Another thumping sound soon came after the first, and Reivyn saw dust fall from the ceiling a short distance away out of the corner of his eye.

Reivyn lowered his center of gravity, raised his shield, and held his sword in the ready stance. Another dull thumping echoed through the empty room.

Suddenly, the thumping sounds no longer came interspersed several seconds apart, but they came at a tremendous speed, getting louder at the same time. Reivyn’s Danger Sense screamed at him to move, and he charged to the side with one of the pillars as the target.

Immediately after, a huge shape came hurtling out of the darkness and slammed into one of the other pillars. The entire room shook so violently that Reivyn was thrown from his feet despite his high Balance skill. He rolled over and stood up ready to fight, and he got his first glimpse at the new enemy.

A hulking, giant figure slowly straightened up from where it had crashed into a pillar. The pillar was no longer straight, and it had a very large, very noticeable dent that made it look like a bent elbow.

The figure finally stood all the way up, and Reivyn’s stomach dropped. It was easily half as big again as the ogre in the first floor boss room, but the ceiling in this room was much higher. It wasn’t constrained at all.

It was fully armored in heavy plate, and Reivyn noticed that there was no head adorning its shoulders as it turned to face Reivyn. Its head, which was also fully armored, was held in the crook of its left arm, and it stared at Reivyn with the same hate as the large Spectre.

A spike-covered ball, twice the size of Reivyn’s head, thumped to the ground, and Reivyn saw that it was connected to a pole grasped in the monster’s right hand with a thick chain. The pole would have been a quarterstaff in Reivyn’s hands, but it was simply a handle to the giant.

It raised its right arm, and the spiked ball began twirling in a circle as the monster took a step toward Reivyn.

How the hell am I supposed to fight this thing?!

His Danger Sense once more screamed at him, and he dove to the side in a roll as he felt, more than saw, the shadow of the spiked ball sail past him.

The reach of his weapon is incredible!

Reivyn sprang to his feet and started to rush toward the giant as its weapon had been launched and presented an opportunity, but he quickly skidded to a halt and once more dove for the ground. The giant easily retracted the weapon almost instantly, and it launched another sweep toward Reivyn.

Reivyn knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet, and he once more leaped to his feet, but this time he didn’t advance on the enemy. He turned around and ran further into the room to try to get some distance.

I need time to think about a countermeasure.

Reivyn heard the staccato thumping coming at a rapid pace, so he once again activated Charge toward another column. The room once more shook him off of his feet as the giant crashed into another pillar.

Hmm, the pillars. Reivyn examined the pillar he had rushed to as he regained his feet. He quickly came up with a plan, and he waited for the giant to once more turn and face him.

The giant turned and swirled its weapon again, and Reivyn’s heart beat in his chest so loud he was surprised the giant couldn’t hear it. He watched the enemy as it took two slow steps toward him.

Now!

Reivyn threw himself on the floor and rolled out of the way as the giant launched another straight attack. Reivyn leapt to his feet, but instead of advancing on the hulking monster, he backpedaled several steps as he watched the giant yank the spike ball back. With a flick of its wrist, it sent it hurtling toward Reivyn once more in a large, sweeping motion.

Reivyn charged toward another close-by pillar, and he watched in satisfaction as the chain came into contact with the pillar he had just been near and wrapped around several times.

Hah! Take that, you big dumb undead. Reivyn had no idea what this thing was actually called.

The giant saw that its chain weapon was taken out of commission, so it immediately dropped the pole and reached behind its shoulder. Reivyn noticed the huge sword strapped to its back for the first time as it pulled the new weapon out of the sheath. The sword blade itself was longer than Reivyn was tall, and it was about half as wide as he was.

The giant lowered its shoulder and sprinted at Reivyn, covering ground much faster than Reivyn had anticipated. He had assumed it was utilizing a Charge skill earlier and wouldn’t be nearly as fast when it didn’t use it, but it still moved at an incredible speed.

I don’t have time to dodge this attack!

Reivyn pumped mana into his Mana Shield skill and braced for impact. The giant came into range and slashed with its huge sword at lightning-quick speed. The force of the blow picked Reivyn up off the ground and threw him several yards back. He coughed out a mouthful of blood as he sailed through the air, and his vision went blurry for a brief moment.

That one slash, that I successfully blocked with my shield and Mana Shield, took off a quarter of my total health! A quick glance at his Status revealed that he was down to 1497/2000 health from that one attack.

I can only take one more of those to be safe, Reivyn thought as he stood back up once more.

The giant bent its knees and launched itself at Reivyn with its Charge skill. Reivyn quickly identified a nearby pillar and used his own Charge to dodge the attack.

The giant is only disoriented for about three seconds after slamming into an obstacle, and I spend most of that time getting back on my feet. Reivyn thought faster than he ever had before as he searched for a way to win. The only way to fight this is if I can take advantage of that small window.

How do I avoid being thrown off my feet? Easy, don’t be on my feet, Reivyn leapt into the air as he still hurtled across the room toward his target. The room shook as the giant made contact with its column, and Reivyn didn’t get thrown down.

Hah. Now the hard part. I haven’t done something like this in a long time. He pulled every last bit of his Acrobatics skill out of himself as he turned his Charge into a flip. He landed sideways on the column and absorbed the shock with his legs, briefly appearing to stand horizontally on the pillar.

The only way to take advantage of the situation is to use another Charge, but it’s nearly impossible to do right after completing a previous one. I have to force it! Reivyn summoned all of the experience he had gained into the insights of how his muscles and stamina interacted from the first floor, and with a mental snap, he managed to bend his stamina to his will as he manually activated the Charge skill with the giant as the target.

He once more launched across the room. The time difference between reaching his first target and activating a second Charge skill was so quick that it looked like he had simply bounced off the pillar with an equal velocity.

He pumped his Flame Blade, which had slowly been draining his mana this whole time as he never deactivated it, full of mana, and swung it forward with all of his might. The blade made contact with the back of the helmet on the head in the undead giant’s arm.

The head got knocked out of the crook it had been sitting in as the giant stood back up to its full height, and it started to bounce further away. The giant immediately dropped its sword once it noticed it had lost contact with its own head, and it chased after it like someone would chase a chicken, its arms outstretched as it chased the unpredictable moving object.

If the situation wasn’t so dangerous, and if every second didn’t count, Reivyn might have laughed at the unexpected comical scene.

I need to keep it away from its head!

Reivyn activated his Mana Weapon skill in a similar manner to how his enemy had used the spiked ball and chain, using the blade of his mana sword as the “hilt,” and because of his Weapons Master skill, he was able to expertly create and use a chain of fire. His fire whip had upgraded: The new strike he launched was actually closer to an Inferno Chain.

The chain sailed through the air and wrapped around the ankle of the giant as it ran about with its arms outstretched trying to catch its head, and with all of his might, Reivyn grasped the hilt of his sword in both hands and tugged, tripping the giant.

Reivyn’s usage of Charge back-to-back had caused tremendous stress on his body: His muscles, bones, joints, and ligaments all ached. He wasn’t able to launch another Charge right away, so he had to run the old-fashioned way to the head, which had stopped bouncing but continued to roll. The first few steps he took were unsteady, but he quickly built up speed and passed the giant. The large undead wasn’t smart enough to get back up and continue running, and it was instead crawling on the ground to try to get to the head.

Reivyn easily reached the helmeted head first, and as it rolled to where the open face was up, he stabbed his sword through the center of its skull. The head’s mouth opened up as it released the agonized wail of the empowered Spectre, and as it tried to flee the confines of the head through the open mouth, Reivyn manipulated the flame coating his sword to wrap around and contain the Spectre.

It screamed for several long moments, unable to flee the fiery hell it found itself in, and it eventually disintegrated into ectoplasm.

The Spectre, and the giant it had possessed, were dead.

Reivyn was completely spent, both physically and mentally, so he simply collapsed as he panted to regain his breath.

Damn. I was complacent.

Chapter forty-nine

Solo Run Get!

Reivyn groaned as he rolled over and slowly stood up. His entire body ached. He felt as if his insides had shifted from the blow he took from the giant, and his entire lower body was going to be sore for several days from the stress of activating Charge in such quick succession.

Speaking of… Reivyn pulled up his notification window.

Achievement!
Manually activate one of your Class Skills.
Charge is permanently available to you regardless of Class.

It was a skill from my own class, so there are no additional benefits gained from manually learning the skill. It’ll also still be available to me as long as I have Fighter listed as my secondary or tertiary class. The real benefit to this would be if I have a skill in another class that I really want, but it’s locked out to me to freely choose, but I want Charge instead of whatever other skills that class has to offer.

I’ve also learned how to do it without assistance from the System. I wasn’t really in a position to tell the difference in stamina cost, but I could feel a substantial amount of energy drain as compared to the other times I’ve used the skill.

Reivyn attained his feet and looked down at the armored head. It was easily three times the size of his own, and the face was forever locked into the twisted visage of hatred and agony. It had bits of rotten flesh peeling off it in various places, and the skin looked like it was thrown over the skull instead of being an actual part of the head. Overall, it was pretty disgusting.

Reivyn bent down and inspected the giant helmet. There was no way it would be practical for Reivyn to loot it for equipment, but it might be made of a material that could be repurposed. Reivyn reached out and knocked it with his fist. It, and the head it contained, crumbled into dust.

Well, there goes that idea. Is it because it’s a dungeon monster and its gear isn’t actually lootable? I’ve never tried to take any of the gear from any of the other monsters before. Or is it because it no longer has the spark of un-life, or whatever it is, fueling it, so it turned into scrap metal?

Reivyn didn’t know the answers, but either way, he wasn’t going to be lugging the huge plate armor out of the dungeon.

Reivyn glanced down at the ectoplasm that the Spectre had turned into.

It looks like glowing snot. I am not touching that. I’m not even going to try to figure out a way to store it without touching it. I don’t care what benefits it could bring. Someone else can get this stuff.

Reivyn shivered with disgust. He turned and walked back to the corpse of the headless giant. It was still stretched out in the position of crawling toward the head that had been knocked out of its arm.

Why did it turn so stupid there at the end? Are the head and body not in coordination with each other if separated? Was the Spectre only actually possessing the head? Either way, lucky me it happened that way.

Reivyn shook his head as he kicked the body. He wasn’t entirely sure of the mechanics of looting corpses in the dungeon, but there might be something of worth remaining after the body and gear disintegrated.

Reivyn leaned back and shielded his face by pulling the collar of his shirt up over his mouth and nose as the huge body kicked up a cloud as it turned into dust. Reivyn had no interest in having flakes of dead giant in his mouth or nose. Once it settled, Reivyn scraped his foot through the pile to see if there was anything left.

His hunch bore fruit as he felt his foot come into contact with something solid. He bent down and sifted through the dust with his hand until he spotted something shiny, and he carefully wiped it off as he picked it up to inspect it.

The object was a normal-sized, golden medallion and chain with the symbol for the Church of Light inscribed on it, though it was scratched out.

Corrupted Symbol of Light
This is the mark of a Champion of Mierna, though this one has had its Light dimmed.
Helpful Hint: This is Dungeon Loot. It has no bearing on the real world, so even if you returned it to the Church of Light, it would hold no real significance to them. It wasn’t owned by a person from the real world.

I noticed that the System didn’t say anything about it not being a real magical item, just that the Church wouldn’t be looking for the knowledge of the fate of the person who once carried it. I bet if I could get the light undimmed, or whatever, it would no longer be “Corrupted” and would have some magical properties.

Reivyn pocketed the medallion.

I don’t know if there’s a stigma with using one of their symbols without their permission or anything, though, and they’ve turned out to be pretty decent folk, all things considered. I’ll take it to them and ask about it. It’s no big loss if they have a problem with it.

As to the presence of this medallion down in this dungeon, my guess would be that with whatever reality this dungeon is pulled out of, that giant was some crusader. He got his head removed by the cultists down here for his efforts.

Reivyn looked around the large boss room. The integrity of the room was still sound despite all of the damage the giant had done to the columns—probably more decorative than supportive—but there was still a lot of rubble strewn about from the chaotic fight. Reivyn’s vision landed on the raised platform with the bigger, more intricate cauldron on it, so he made his way over to it first.

I know there are other hidden rooms attached to the boss room, but I’ll check that out after I verify what’s in the pot. Might be an undamaged Experience Crystal.

He reached the cauldron and peered down inside of it. Instead of a shiny crystal or bubbling brew, there were instead some dried-out plants sitting at the bottom of the cauldron.

So it’s reagents? That’s the reward for the boss room? Reivyn frowned as he looked at the different plants, but he froze as he spotted what looked like a blood-red root. It appeared to be ginseng, but all thoughts of trying to figure out what it was fled his brain as soon as he saw it.

A ravening hunger assaulted him, but it came from his heart, and not his stomach. Without even thinking about it, his body moved all on its own, and he snatched it up and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed a couple of times, and it seemed to dissolve into pure energy as it reached his throat.

What the hell am I doing?! Reivyn came out of his fugue state and nearly panicked as he mentally inspected himself. He couldn’t sense anything amiss, but he did feel a burning course through his veins. It wasn’t uncomfortable, though, and it actually made him feel quite energetic.

The hunger came from my heart, which is the core of my bloodline, so let’s see what’s up with that first. He pulled up his bloodline from his Status page.

Bloodline: Unknown 2,781,681/10,000,000

Wow, that little root gave me 250,000 experience toward my bloodline! So upgrading the bloodline isn’t an exclusive ability that I have, just the fact that I can drain experience directly into it. It seems that root was a key component in an alchemy recipe for something to increase one’s bloodline.

My guess is that spike in hunger and the uncontrollable urge came about because I have my siphon running in the background. I previously got stat gains for every 100,000 experience I dumped into my bloodline. Does that still apply to using a natural treasure? He pulled up his full Status.

[Status]
[Name: Reivyn Class: Fighter Lvl 30 Age: 10]
[Health: 1,497/2,000 Stamina: 2,234/3,800 Mana: 318/1,670]
[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]
[STR: 186 * INT: 179]
[VIT: 206 * MAG: 179]
[DEX: 186 * CLA: 115]
[CHA: 34 * PER: 132]
[LUK: 40]
[Bloodline: Unknown 2,781,681/10,000,000]
[Experience: 0/3,000]

Reivyn noticed his health, stamina, and mana first.

Wow, this is the most I’ve ever suffered from a single fight before. Sure, Ren did more percentage damage to me, but that one attack from the boss did more than the entire ordeal with Ren. I’ve already recovered a lot of my stamina after resting, and it’s still just over 50%. My mana expenditure was also getting into dangerous territory.

Reivyn moved his sight down to take in his stats.

Yup, I gained six to all my regular stats and two in charisma and luck. So natural treasures are another source of upgrading my bloodline, and that includes all aspects associated with it. I bet that was another thing my parents would have told me once we got to the Capital or before I headed off toward a higher tier region. Mother did say that natural treasures were extremely rare in Tier 1 regions.

Then that raises the question: Where did this one come from? These guys probably migrated to this mountain range, and they’re not actually natives. Unless this region was once a higher tier many, many years ago. Doesn’t really matter, though.

Reivyn carefully extracted the remaining reagents. He didn’t know if it was a quirk of the dungeon, System, or whatever, but they weren’t aged at all, and they were all perfectly capable of still being used. He had no idea what any of them did, though. He threw an Inspect at one of the plants as he put them away.

Sparkle Grass
Useful for Alchemy

Helpful Hint: A higher Alchemy Skill is required to know more.

Helpful Hint indeed.

Done with his task, Reivyn clapped his hands together as he turned and faced the direction Melissa had said the sealed rooms were located. He walked up to the wall on the right side of the entrance, and he quickly spotted the location where there was obviously a room bricked up. The color and shape of the bricks were slightly different from the rest of the bricks that made up the room.

I can see why they didn’t notice it before. Unless one looks right at it, it’s easy to miss, but if you do look right at it, and not just over it, it’s pretty easy to see.

Reivyn didn’t have any tools or weapons designed for the job of smashing through a brick wall, but that didn’t stop him. He formed a sledgehammer with an earth element head. With his knowledge of the mana braids and increased skill, it was a much sturdier object than he had previously been able to make, though it did cost a substantially larger amount of mana.

He locked his mana into place to continue feeding into his improvised tool, and he slammed it into the brick wall. There wasn’t any support in place for the seal, and it was hollow behind it, so he easily dismantled the brick wall sealing the room. Maintaining the earth sledgehammer cost a lot less than forming a new one, so Reivyn didn’t dissipate it as he entered the room.

Reivyn sighed in disappointment as he looked around. It was just a bare room with nothing in it.

I don’t know if this served an actual purpose or if it’s just System shenanigans for the boss fight. Whatever it originally was, it appears to just be a staging ground for an ambush now.

Reivyn exited the room and walked over to the other one. He was greeted by the exact same scene as the first one.

If there are hidden rooms here, there might be hidden rooms elsewhere. I’ll check the perimeter of the rest of the room.

Reivyn carried his sledgehammer on his shoulder as he turned away from the central entrance and inspected the wall as he walked around the room. He didn’t find any additional sealed rooms, but he did see an empty room that was identical to the other two.

This is probably where the Revenants dragged the goblin from. No idea about more sacrifices, though. It must have been some sort of event triggered by the System.

Reivyn continued his inspection, but he didn’t find any more rooms. He reached the far end of the room, and he finally spotted an anomaly.

There was a staircase that led down further into the depths, obviously the entrance to the third floor, and sitting next to it was a chest. This chest was completely different from any of the others he had seen in the dungeon. It was in pristine condition, and it appeared to have a faint halo of golden light emitting from it.

This must be one of the chests mentioned being a reward for defeating a boss room. Everyone said that the chances of seeing one of these were less than 1% in a resource dungeon. The reagents in the cauldron are obviously the “resources” for this room. The Experience Crystals and Essence are the resources for the rest of the floor.

This is the actual reward for defeating the boss.

Reivyn rubbed his hands together before he lifted the lid of the chest. The halo winked out—must be there to catch the attention of whoever clears the room—and Reivyn inspected the contents of the chest. Down in the bottom of the chest, several pieces of armor lay in a neat pile.

Reivyn reached in and drew them out one at a time: a cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces, and gauntlets. They were made of a shiny, silver metal, and they had golden filigree in intricate patterns decorating them. The cuirass included the underlying leather that would cover the entire upper body and arms as one whole piece.

A full set of upper body armor. Does that mean there’s a chance to find a matching set for the lower body or head? Let’s Inspect it and find out exactly what it is.

Cuirass: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
STR +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.

Misery is the opposite of Euphoria, so basically, bad guys can’t wear this armor. It doesn’t say one has to be a member of a church, just if a bad guy gets forgiven, then he can also wear it. This is probably in line with the backstory, or whatever, of the giant undead guy.

Not sure what “minor protection against Evil” is exactly, but I’m sure it has something to do with the cultists and/or undead of the dungeon.

Pauldrons: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
STR +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.

Vambraces: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
DEX +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.

Gauntlets: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
DEX +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.

Those stat increases may seem small on the face of it, but they add up. The four pieces of armor together grant 20 vitality by themselves. That’s several levels’ worth, and that’s an increase in 200 health and 200 stamina. I’ll need to work on my Heavy Armor skill from scratch to get the full benefits of switching to this armor, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I should go ahead and put this armor on now.

Reivyn quickly took his battered and scarred medium armor off his upper body. Almost all of the scarring came from repairing rips and tears in the underlying leather suffered through training, and the few dents in the metal were from the same source. Reivyn occasionally let his armor take blows from the goblins and weaker skeletons, but he mostly avoided hits to his body and intercepted attacks with his shield and weapon.

Looking at the repairs I’ve made on my own armor, one can tell I’m not skilled at all in such things. I should take the time to learn, especially if I move to Heavy Armor. I also imagine these pieces would require mana work if they sustain substantial damage. More things for me to learn.

He put the new armor on, and, despite the small numbers compared to his overall stats, Reivyn immediately felt a bit more energetic. He twisted his body to gain a feel for how he could move in it.

Despite what I thought about Heavy Armor, it doesn’t really hinder my movements any more than Medium Armor, and I don’t even have the skill yet to help me properly maneuver in it. It’s probably full-plate that would cause any significant restrictions, and I can’t really see myself ever needing that.

Reivyn adjusted himself and resumed walking around the boss room, looking for anything else he might have missed.

It looks like this is it. I’m actually quite satisfied with the results. I wasn’t expecting to get a System chest at all, so this is a nice surprise on top of everything else.

Well. Reivyn looked around before facing the entrance. No way I’m going to the third floor, so it’s time to head back to the surface. I’ll just pick my pack up from where I left it, grab some ores from the mine that I set aside previously, and then I’ll be on my way.

Reivyn double-checked to make sure he had everything. He still carried his other armor with him as it still had some value to it. Once he was sure he wasn’t forgetting anything, he began his journey to the surface.

Exiting Dungeon
Calculating…
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +1200
Boss Defeated: Exp +1200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calculating…
Second Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +15,000
Boss Defeated: Exp +30,000
Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Total Experience: 52,900

Those numbers are absolutely disgusting. Fifty-two thousand total experience for soloing the dungeon. Thirty thousand from the second-floor boss alone. That seems like a lot. That 52,900 also puts me over another bloodline milestone.

There were more notifications to go through, so he kept mentally scrolling.

Achievement!
First Floor Completed Solo.
+1 to Physical and Mental Stats

Achievement!
Second Floor Completed Solo.
+5 to Physical and Mental Stats

Achievement!
Second Floor Hard Mode Boss Defeated.
Auxiliary Achievement: Completed Solo.
+3 to Physical and Mental Stats
+7 to Physical and Mental Stats

Achievement!
Defeat a Tier 4 Enemy while in Tier 1
+10 to All Stats

That giant undead boss was Tier 4? Considering everything was restricted on the first two floors, which made the boss both incredibly powerful but stupid at the same time, that makes sense to me.

These stat gains are starting to eat into the requirements for my Tier 4 class in the future. Pretty sure I’ve solidly eclipsed any stat requirements for Tier 3. What do my stats look like, now? Reivyn pulled just his stats up from his Status page.

[STR: 215 (+6) * INT: 208]
[VIT: 235 (+20) * MAG: 208]
[DEX: 215 (+6) * CLA: 144]
[CHA: 45 * PER: 161]
[LUK: 51]

Even if all of those achievements didn’t lower the stat requirements for a rare Tier 3 class, I would still be eligible. As it is, I’m probably close to having the required stats for an epic Tier 3 class, especially if it’s one that requires 200 in multiple stats versus just one stat.

Reivyn nodded as he brought his attention back to the present. He had stepped off to the side to allow traffic in or out of the dungeon to flow unimpeded, and now it was time for him to depart. He searched the crowd of people milling about near the entrance and spotted the Church’s inspection team before heading over.

“I just came out of the dungeon and need to be inspected,” Reivyn volunteered. The man in charge of the priests nodded and motioned for Reivyn to step aside.

“Alright, empty your belongings and wait for the priest to check you over. It’ll only be a minute, and we’ll have you on your way.” Reivyn followed the instructions. He had never noticed any of the priests confiscating anything ever taken from the dungeon, so he didn’t quite understand why they always wanted to check the packs.

“What are you guys looking for anyway?” He finally decided to just voice the doubt.

“Cursed items. Almost everything that comes out of the dungeon is actually fine, but some of the things found on the lower floors could be dangerous if they circulated into society unchecked. For instance, there are Experience Crystals that can be found on the second floor. They contain a small bit of the corruption in them. While it’s fine for you adventurers to use them in small doses here, it could be quite problematic if someone sold a large amount in the Capital and someone got corrupted without realizing it. If you guys use them here, it’ll get caught and cleansed by the routine inspection.” The man was quite forthcoming with information.

“Oh, so what do you do about the crystals you find here during the inspection?” Reivyn asked.

“We offer to cleanse it for a fee.”

“A fee?”

“Ten percent. One crystal generously donated to the Church for every ten crystals cleansed,” the man replied. He gave Reivyn a glance out of the corner of his eye as he continued. “We don’t confiscate any if you have four or less, but we keep records of individuals and their parties, so I would advise against trying to game the system by only bringing us four at a time. If you have any, that is.”

“I actually do,” Reivyn said. He fished out his pouch with the crystals. He and his friends had planned on selling a majority of their share of crystals, and if it only cost one out of every ten to make them legitimate, that wasn’t too bad, in his opinion.

The man’s eyebrows raised in appreciation. “I see. Since you’re here alone, does that mean your party is still inside?”

“Technically, yeah,” Reivyn said. “I’m not grouped up with them this time, though. I went in solo.”

“Impressive.” The man nodded. “Not many people are willing to explore the lower floor by themselves, and most of the ones who do are a lot older than you.”

“I’m just lucky that I can use mana skills and I have a mother with a caster class who could teach me.” Reivyn downplayed his achievement.

“Still, you’re a lot stronger than most of the people around here. That’ll change once news of what can be found in the dungeon spreads and higher level teams make their way over, though.”

“Oh, I also found this on one of the monsters.” Reivyn fished out the medallion he had swiped from the giant’s remains. “I didn’t know if it was appropriate to keep it because of the nature of the item or not, nor if you guys could fix it.”

The man took the medallion and stared at it for several long seconds. When he looked back up at Reivyn, his eyes were wide in astonishment.

“You cleared the second floor?” The man nearly stuttered.

“Oh, so you know where it’s from. I’m guessing you’ve seen it before, then?”

“Oh, sure. The Sword-Bishop has taken a team to clear the second floor a couple of times now. It’s not too hard for him to defeat three Spectres and that bumbling oaf of a Dullahan.”

“‘Bumbling oaf?’” Reivyn questioned with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah, you fought him. Kill the three Spectres, and then this big guy stumbles over and tries to whack you with his too-big sword.” The man chuckled. “Pretty easy encounter for a boss fight on the second floor, honestly.”

“Yeah,” Reivyn said with a cough. “Almost too easy.”

Looks like I wasn’t supposed to let the Spectres combine and then possess the—what did he call it?—Dullahan. I’m guessing there are varying levels of difficulty and reward based on how many Spectres possess it, and I let all three do so. No wonder it was Tier 4 and really, ridiculously strong.

“As to your question, sure, you can keep it. Fixing it up and recharging it will come at a cost, though. You’ll have to speak to the Sword-Priest, Josn, to work out what that will be. You’re the first person to bring us one from outside of our ranks seeking to get it fixed.”

“Alright, thanks,” Reivyn said as he took it back. He also handed over two of the twenty crystals he had acquired to pay for cleansing them as the priest checked him.

The man got a surprised look on his face for a moment before saying, “You’re good to go. No corruption.” Reivyn had already known that that was going to be the case, but he had to keep up appearances.

“Excuse me, but would you happen to be the adventurer, Reivyn?” Another Sword-Priest walked up with an entourage. Reivyn frowned as he appraised them.

I don’t think I’ve ever told any of them my name before, and why would they be looking for me? No reason to lie and possibly get on their bad side, though, so I’ll see what they want.

“That’s right.” Reivyn nodded. “What can I do for you?”

“If you would, Sword-Priest Josn has ordered us to escort you to him.” The man took a step back and gestured toward the center of the other men who had followed him. “Grab your gear, and then please come with us.”

Reivyn shared a look with the other Sword-Priest he had been happily chatting with. The man gave a shrug, and so Reivyn grabbed his stuff and allowed himself to be “escorted” toward the church grounds.

What in the world is going on now?

Chapter fifty

Brave, Brave Sir Reivyn

Reivyn walked with the Sword-Priests as they marched toward the church compound. He noticed that his body subconsciously matched the steps of the church members, but he just shrugged and kept doing it. Because he had changed his upper armor, he almost matched the others, and to those who didn’t know, it almost looked like he was the commander of the troop. This resulted in hardly anyone taking any notice of him in the procession.

These guys are still being pretty polite, despite the way they just came and ordered me to follow them. Still, no reason to sour the relationship we’ve formed just from that. Maybe this guy just doesn’t have any tact.

Reivyn wasn’t too concerned about why someone in authority would be asking for him. He was pretty sure nobody connected his name to the youths that had mouthed off to the organization on the road several weeks ago, and even then he hadn’t done anything wrong.

I haven’t even practiced my Pickpocket and Stealing skills on my friends since forever ago, much less caused any problems for others.

Despite how there was still a lot of empty room within the confines of the town because of the planning ahead, it still wasn’t that big. The group quickly made their way to a small encampment outside of the palisade. Reivyn took in the military order and orderly lines of tents and felt right at home. He eyed a group of masons laying the foundations for some rather large buildings.

Looks like they’re going to be here for the long haul. Ten percent of Experience Crystals for cleansing them on top of what they can accumulate from their own delves, I can see why. Even if they didn’t feel compelled to provide services for keeping the taint—well, Abyssal mana—in check, they would still most likely set up a permanent presence here.

I would bet that they’ve already sent missives to the Capital to petition for any uncleansed crystals to be designated contraband outside of the Dungeon Town. This place is probably a better resource for the Church of Light than even for the count. I bet there will be a lot of political maneuvering for the count, and the duke he’s under, to get a piece of that pie.

None of that had anything to do with Reivyn, though, so he turned his attention to observing the men, and the few women, going about their business.

There’s a higher percentage of women making up the robed priests than the Sword-Priests, but I do spot a few here and there. It was the same situation with the Lord’s Retinue. I guess most of the women around these parts just gravitate toward the less violent professions when given the choice.

Reivyn caught a glimpse through the flap of one of the largest tents, and he saw rows of people lying on cots. They were being tended to by several priests, but a quick look showed Reivyn a scene of desiccated bodies barely hanging on.

“What’s going on in there? I thought you guys didn’t have your own healers,” Reivyn said with a nod toward the tent. The man in charge followed the direction before turning back and addressing Reivyn.

“Those are the adventurers that delved the dungeon for several months before we arrived on the scene. We’re not technically ‘healing’ them. The taint has accumulated so much that it’s breaking their bodies down. We have a healer come out and do what they can to give them a fighting chance, and we’re slowly purging the corruption from their bodies.” The man shook his head. “Already several of the first parties have succumbed, but despite how dire it looks for those in the infirmary now, most of them should pull through, as they’re not quite as bad off as those that were worst affected.”

“Huh, I was with the military that settled the claim, and we ran the dungeon several times before we left. Good thing we didn’t stick around,” Reivyn said.

“Oh yeah, you were part of the local retinue? The way the taint works is that it slowly dissipates unless it reaches a tipping point. You would need to go in like eight or so times without letting it dissipate or receive any cleansing for it to be a problem,” the man continued. “The worst ones in there right now had been in there like ten or so times before getting any cleansing.

“Alright, we’ve arrived. I’ll announce your presence.” They continued walking as they conversed, and the camp wasn’t that big. The man ducked his head through the tent flap and reported to whoever was inside. Reivyn wasn’t actively engaging his Eavesdropping skill, so he didn’t pick up any of the words.

He just smiled and nodded to the two Sword-Priests standing at attention outside of the tent. They obviously didn’t respond, but Reivyn wasn’t put out because he understood they were on duty.

“Alright, go on in,” the man said after turning back to Reivyn. Reivyn nodded and headed inside the tent, and the men that had escorted him simply left to attend to their duties.

Reivyn walked in and spotted a familiar-looking man sitting behind a desk with paperwork strewn about in an orderly manner. Sure brings back memories, he mused. Reivyn narrowed his eyes as he slowly remembered why this man seemed familiar.

It’s that overzealous officer from the road. Surely he didn’t connect my name here with what happened on the road. Nobody else should know about it, so it’s not like he could have investigated.

The man looked up and nodded to Reivyn before gesturing toward a seat across from him.

“Thank you for coming. Have a seat,” the man said. Reivyn was slightly confused at the cordial nature. “Thank you for coming?”

“Well, I wouldn’t really say I had much of a choice,” Reivyn said as he sat down. The man tilted his head with a puzzled expression on his face before understanding washed over his features.

“I must apologize. I told my men to ask you to come. They can sometimes forget that others aren’t under our command,” the man explained. Reivyn nodded at the explanation.

“I was with the Lord’s Retinue, so I’ve seen similar situations before. No big deal.” Reivyn shrugged.

“Well, introductions are in order. I am Sword-Priest Josn, and I already know that you’re the adventurer Reivyn. I now also know that you have a veteran background, so I can add that to the file. You must be wondering why I requested your presence.” It was more a statement than a question.

“Honestly? I figured someone in your outfit was trying to mess with me over the encounter on the road or something,” Reivyn casually said. Josn frowned at the statement as he tried to think about what Reivyn could be referring to. Reivyn watched as recognition slowly dawned on his face.

“Oh, you were one of the adventurers I spoke to on the road several weeks ago. It looks like another apology is in order. I hope you know that was nothing personal. We don’t root out only heretics, but also criminals. When we see something unusual—and you have to admit, three young adventurers with magical flower crowns on their heads is unusual—then we investigate. Sometimes we use methods to put the people we speak to off-balance, and those with a guilty conscience often crack under just a little pressure and admit to wrongdoing.”

“Water under the bridge,” Reivyn said. “We didn’t suffer any hardship or anything from the encounter, so apologies aren’t needed.” Reivyn was actually a bit surprised at how polite the man was being. Now I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing here.

“The real reason I asked you to come is that it came to my attention that you had a situation where you didn’t have any of the taint when you exited the dungeon. I had some men on standby observing, and once the priest determined that you didn’t have any taint for a second time, they stepped forward.”

“Oh, I see. So you were waiting for confirmation?”

“Just so.” Josn nodded his head.

“Is that a problem or something? Do you suspect I’m using some sort of artifact associated with your church?” Reivyn was still confused.

Josn steepled his fingers and stared at Reivyn for a couple of seconds. It wasn’t long enough to make him uncomfortable, but Reivyn was about to fidget under the intense scrutiny when Josn finally opened his mouth.

“Have you ever considered joining the Church?” Reivyn was taken aback. That came out of nowhere.

“Wait. Let me get this straight.” Reivyn placed his hand on his forehead as he looked down in thought. “You’re trying to recruit me?”

“Exactly,” Josn said. “We understand that there are other faiths out there, and there could be any number of reasons for your apparent immunity to the taint, not just faith in Mierna, the Goddess of Light. But none of that matters. Your resistance to the corruption uniquely qualifies you to be a powerful member of the Church.

“The Church can offer a lot of resources and opportunities, and I can foresee you going far in the future. The Church is realm-wide, not just in this kingdom. You can gain easy access to higher regions with the contributions you could quickly acquire.”

Reivyn rubbed his chin as he considered the man before him.

“What do you get out of it?” Reivyn finally asked.

Josn sat back in his chair as he considered the question.

“I won’t lie to you. I will get some merit from successfully ‘finding’ and recruiting you, and the further you go, the further I would be able to go as well.” Josn gave Reivyn a level look. “That being the case, it is not my motivation. I am a True Believer, and it would be of great benefit in the fight against heresy and evil if someone with your capabilities joined us.”

Join the Church? Knight-Captain Reifold was apparently a squire in a church, probably this one now that I think about it, and he got a pretty decent class out of it, so it wouldn’t necessarily hamper my goals. Reivyn shook his head. I don’t know enough about the opportunities, but if it’s realm-wide, then there obviously must be some powerful classes unique to the organization.

But I’m not interested in fettering myself to the Church. Not at all.

Reivyn chose his words very carefully as he replied, “I’m not against being associated with the Church. I’ve seen what you guys have been up to out here, and I must say, especially after clearing the air between us, that I have a positive impression.” Josn had a hopeful smile on his face as he listened to the words. “But I don’t really have any interest in being a full-fledged member. I have other things and other people to consider.”

“Well, don’t make any decisions, yet,” Josn said, undeterred. “There are many ways to contribute to the Church without being an official member. It would be best for the Church—and me, personally—if you were to be a full member, but you can also choose to be a ‘Friend of the Church.’ I’m sure we will have many opportunities to convince you of the right path in the future.”

“I’m not opposed to establishing a relationship,” Reivyn said.

“Excellent.” Josn reached into a drawer and drew out a bronze token. “Here, take this. This is the mark of a ‘Friend of the Church.’ It’s not quite like your adventurer token, as it doesn’t record any information or deeds other than simply being attuned to you, but it will identify you as someone who has a good relationship with us.

“With this, you can do missions and assignments for the Church wherever we have a presence, and you can use your contribution points to get many things. A full member has access to a lot more than a simple associate, but you can get some resources, training, and knowledge in return for your efforts.”

Reivyn reached out and took the token. It was a simple bronze medal with the symbol for the Church of Light on it, very similar to the medallion he had gotten in the dungeon.

“Does that mean there are missions I can complete here? You did say anywhere you have a presence.” Reivyn asked as he attuned the token to himself and put it away.

“Sure, we have missions. The variety isn’t so great, at the moment, as most things are covered, and you might not be able to do the main mission: cleansing any taint you find. But there are other things, like information about the dungeon.”

“I do have some information about the dungeon, actually,” Reivyn said. “What do you know about the second-floor boss room?”

“It’s three Spectres and a weakened Dullahan,” Josn replied quickly. “I’ve never been that far, myself, as I go with some of the lower-level Sword-Priests in order to oversee their progression, but that’s what everyone who has been there has said. Why? Is there something else to it?”

“Mhmm,” Reivyn nodded. “The first time my party made it down there, the boss fight wasn’t three Spectres and a Dullahan. It was one Spectre plus a horde of Revenants. They were doing some sort of fell ritualistic sacrifice of goblins, and there was a giant pit filled with bubbling liquid.

“Do you know of the events that happened here during the claim campaign?” Reivyn suddenly shifted directions.

“I know about the Revenants and the demon, yes,” Josn replied.

“I came into contact with that liquid, which is what put me in that situation where my party members rushed me to the surface to see if I was being overcome by the taint, and from the notifications I received after waking up, I’m pretty confident that was the source of the demon. It would appear that someone had snuck down there, and they were either forced by someone else or willingly chose to turn themself into that demon.”

Josn pulled out a parchment and recorded the information Reivyn supplied. “So what you’re saying is, this liquid has the ability to turn someone into a demon? How did you survive?” Josn paused as he looked at Reivyn.

“Had something to do with my immunity.” Reivyn shrugged. He wasn’t going to go into more detail than that.

“Fair enough, everyone has secrets. We’re not so close-minded as to need to know everything about you, especially if the end result is what it is,” Josn replied with a smile. He continued to write on the parchment. “Okay, so there’s a chance—we don’t know what, yet—that the encounter in the second floor boss room will be a ritual with demonic alchemy. Special note: Do not come into contact with the liquid.

“We’ll probably inform everyone to see about—very carefully—acquiring a sample if anyone else gets that encounter,” Josn said after he finished recording, setting his pen down. “Anything else?”

“Yes, actually,” Reivyn said. Josn was slightly surprised as he picked his writing utensil back up and prepared to write again. “There’s a hard mode associated with the second-floor boss.”

“Really?” Josn said with some excitement.

“Yeah, I didn’t know you were supposed to kill the three Spectres right away, and I sort of let them combine into one. Then it possessed the Dullahan, and it was much stronger and deadlier to fight as compared to what some of your men described. I guess that there are varying levels of difficulty, with the relevant increase in rewards, with how many Spectres you leave alive to combine and possess the Dullahan. Three would obviously be the hardest version.”

Josn wrote all of the words down, clearly excited to be able to share this information with his associates.

“I’ll be sure to let the Sword-Bishop know right away. He’s a fairly high level Tier 3, probably close to Knight-Captain Reifold, your previous commander. He is a lot older, though, so it’s to be expected.

“I would say that this information is probably enough to be considered pretty valuable. We won’t spread it to outsiders, so you can probably get double merit if you take this to the Adventurer’s branch.” Josn winked at Reivyn.

Reivyn was slightly surprised at the friendly action. Didn’t expect someone like him to wink at me. It appears he’s pretty similar to Knight-Lieutenant Brand in some ways: strict on his subordinates and outsiders, but amiable to those he sees as equal, or close to equal, in rank.

“That’s not a bad idea. I hadn’t really considered it before you mentioned knowledge as being considered contribution.”

“Happy to help,” Josn said. “Okay, once again, is there anything else?”

Reivyn looked up and to the side as he thought about his experiences with the dungeon. “I don’t think so. At least not off the top of my head.”

“Alright, well, let me escort you out of the camp.” Josn stood up and held his hand out, gesturing for Reivyn to precede him in stepping out of the tent.

The two men exited the tent and made their way toward the exit of the camp. They made small talk as they walked. The topic of conversation was mostly about the military-esque style of the camp and Reivyn’s experience in the Lord’s Retinue. Reivyn paused for a moment as they walked close to the infirmary.

“Do you mind if I peek inside?” Reivyn asked. “There was a group of adventurers that helped me out during the claim battle with the other count’s forces. They didn’t stick around to delve the dungeon after, but they might have come back later, and I want to see if they’re in there.”

“Sure, I couldn’t deny a show of loyalty in good conscience,” Josn replied as he led him to the infirmary.

Reivyn entered with Josn on his heels, but he didn’t recognize any of the adventurers that were laid up near the entrance of the tent. I never saw their faces as they had their visors down or hoods up, but I would definitely recognize their build, especially the big armored guy. They would most likely be together, too. Reivyn made his way to the back, but he never saw anyone familiar.

“It doesn’t look like they’re here,” Reivyn said. The two men turned and made their way out of the temporary infirmary.

Suddenly, as they walked past some groaning adventurers, Reivyn felt a flash of heat and a small spike in humidity. He instinctively activated his Mana Sight as he turned to face where the sensation came from. He stood in confused silence for a while as he saw what was happening.

He could see motes of dark red mana float off the bodies of the corrupted adventurers. They floated up and away, and then they reacted to the ambient mana. The two different forms of mana coalesced together before they fused with a pop, and that fusion caused a small release of heat as the mana density infinitesimally ticked up.

So it is the mana! The heat is coming from the two forms of mana combining, and the feeling of humidity is coming from the mana density increasing from the interaction.

“Is something the matter?” Josn brought Reivyn out of his contemplations.

“I just noticed something,” Reivyn replied. “Have any of your casters, or those sensitive to mana, complained about the heat and humidity?”

“Yes, a few have. Even the Sword-Bishop has commented on it. We don’t know the exact reason for it, though.”

“I think I just figured it out,” Reivyn said. Josn gave him his full attention. “I noticed a spike in the heat and humidity as we walked by these guys, and I activated Mana Sight. The corruption coming off them is fusing with the local, ambient mana, and that fusion is causing the heat while also assimilating and increasing the mana density.”

“That makes sense,” Josn said with a contemplative look. “If the corrupt mana is assimilating, though, it should be fine? I’ll pass the word up to the Sword-Bishop.” Josn clapped Reivyn on the shoulder. “Look at you, already adding more contribution. Keep it up, and the Sword-Bishop might take you more seriously than he does me.” Josn chuckled.

“Hmm… I don’t know about that,” Reivyn said. The words of his father echoed in his mind. “If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything that doesn’t seem quite right, you must promise me that you will abandon your goals at that dungeon and return to either Magron or Haluville.”

“I think I’m going to get my party and head back to Magron. We’ve pretty much accomplished everything we wanted to, anyway.”

Reivyn turned to face Josn and gave him a level look. “I would recommend you guys consider moving farther away, too. Not just you, but everyone. There have already been a lot of weird, dangerous things happening around this dungeon, so it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.”

Josn nodded as he replied, “Well, it’s not up to me, but I’ll be sure to pass your warning on to the Sword-Bishop and the militia captain.”

“That’s good,” Reivyn said. They stepped back out into the waning late afternoon sun, and Reivyn squinted with his Mana Sight in the direction of the dungeon. With intense concentration, he could just barely make out what looked similar to a plume of smoke rising into the air before dissipating. It was a constant stream of Abyssal mana fusing and assimilating with the ambient mana.

Yeah, I think it’s time to go, Reivyn thought as he headed back to the town proper.

Chapter fifty-one

He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled

Reivyn stood near the entrance to the dungeon as he watched every party that came out, looking to see if they were his companions. He fidgeted back and forth on his feet, eager to get moving.

I don’t know the exact extent of the changes the ambient mana has gone through, but this dungeon was discovered months before the count sent his men to conscript us. And who knows how long it existed before then?

I knew that the mana density could feel like an increase in humidity, but I had been so focused on it being paired with the heat, that I let myself think my way out of the right answer, Reivyn silently berated himself. I know everything seems fine on the surface, and there’s no impending doom or anything, but ever since I noticed what was going on, I have a bad feeling in my gut.

Standing here waiting isn’t doing any good. It’s not like they’re going to run off or anything. I should go ahead and make a trip to the Adventurer’s Guild branch to see about supplying the information on the dungeon.

With his mind made up, Reivyn walked over to the guild building. It was located nearby, so it didn’t take any time to get there. Everything in the small town was still running exactly the same as it always had, and only Reivyn had a sense of impatience.

There had been a steady stream of additional adventurers and lifestyle class holders over the several weeks Reivyn and his friends had been here, so the level of activity in the guild branch was considerably higher than when they had arrived.

Reivyn weaved his way through the crowd of people milling about, talking to each other or looking at the notice board, and got in line to wait for one of the receptionists. This was the first time he had to actually wait for his turn, as he hadn’t had to interact with a member of the guild officially since they had rented their small house. Putting up a notice for private tutoring didn’t require one to go through the official channels, and it had its own sub-space on the board.

Reivyn tapped his foot as he waited. The line wasn’t actually moving that slowly, but with his impatience, every second felt like a minute.

“Oh, hey, Reivyn.” A voice brought Reivyn out of his brooding, and he looked up to see Lorin approaching him. “Fancy meeting you here. What’re you up to?” Lorin walked up with a smile and joined Reivyn. He had come from the front of the line, so Reivyn surmised he had actually already finished his business and wasn’t trying to cut the line.

Reivyn nodded his head to his acquaintance and motioned for him to lean close.

“I got information on the second-floor boss room, so I’m seeing about selling it or something, but”—Reivyn held his finger up, pointedly—“my party and I are going to leave as soon as possible. I would suggest you do the same.” Reivyn kept his voice low so as not to cause a panic, but he was also going to express the same sentiments to the receptionist, and hopefully, the guild branch would take his warning seriously and handle it in an appropriate manner.

“If you’re leaving soon and think there’s a problem, why take the time to sell information on the dungeon?” Lorin asked with a puzzled expression.

“Well, a couple of reasons,” Reivyn said with a shrug. “I don’t know that anything bad is going to happen; I just have a feeling. And the information I sell here will get recorded on my badge and submitted to the headquarters, so I might as well take care of it sooner than later while I wait for my party who’s still in the dungeon on their own dive.”

“Okay, what exactly do you think the problem is, though?” Lorin continued to question.

“I don’t know. I figured out what’s causing the heat and humidity feeling for most of us that can use mana skills and spells: The demonic mana is leaking out of the dungeon, and when it mixes with the ambient mana, it causes some heat and increases the mana density. And the sum is greater than the whole. When one demonic mote mixes with one ambient mote, it creates four total motes worth of mana.”

“That doesn’t seem like such a bad thing, honestly.” Lorin had a skeptical look on his face. “That would explain why we all have seen an increase in our Mana Manipulation skills without a drastic increase in skill level. Shouldn’t a higher density be a good thing? I mean, if this keeps going unabated, maybe it will spread over the entire region one day, and this won’t be a Tier 1 region any longer.”

Reivyn nodded his head. “I agree it is a good thing, but I made a promise to my dad. I promised that if anything unusual happened, I would leave and reassess. I don’t know that anything bad is going to happen, but this is definitely unusual, and I’m just spreading the word so that people can keep it in the back of their minds. It would be irresponsible of me to run away but say, ‘Nah, everything is fine.’”

“Hmm… now that you mention it, it is very unusual.” Lorin rubbed his chin. “I personally haven’t been to any other dungeons, but I’ve met others who have, and I have some knowledge of them. They don’t typically passively increase the mana density around them. I’ll tell my own party about it, but they’ll probably want to wait and see before making a decision.”

The line kept moving as they had their quiet conversation, and it was quickly Reivyn’s turn.

“Alright, well good luck to you guys. Just keep it in mind.” Reivyn bade him farewell.

“Sure, sure,” Lorin clapped Reivyn on the shoulder. “Good luck to you, too. I’ll see you around one day. Maybe at another dungeon. Who knows?”

Lorin walked off as Reivyn stepped up to the desk. “I have information on the second-floor boss room I would like to sell. How do I go about doing that?”

“Certainly,” the young lady behind the desk responded. “You can use a private room to write the details down. You can choose to sell it in a couple of ways: You can have your own packet that we will sell for you, and you’ll get all of the proceeds—minus a small fee, of course—but that runs the risk of nobody paying attention to it if you don’t have a reputation among the other adventurers.

“Or, you can let us handle it for you. One of the managers will review the contents and determine whether or not it’s relevant enough to include in the regular packet of information we sell, or if it’s valuable enough to have a VIP portion included. This method cuts out the need for a reputation for others to get the information, but the amount of money you get will be a lot less per packet as it will be bundled with the information provided by other adventurers. It also helps build your reputation, if you include your name or party name on it, if it is valuable information and a lot of people benefit from it.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Reivyn said.

He thought about it for a moment as he took the paperwork to a back room. We’re not hurting on funds from our trip out here. We’ve pretty much broken even just from the ores, and we have a lot of Experience Crystals we can sell for a lot more in the Capital. Building a foundation as a reputable adventuring team makes the most long-term sense. Teilon and Kimberly will go with whatever I choose.

After coming to a decision, Reivyn wrote down the information he had previously told Josn. He put his name down as the party leader and filled in the names. I should include Melissa, Larissa, and Erik. They were vital in helping us get this information. But it asks for a party name. We never came up with one. What would be a good party name? Reivyn twirled the pen in his fingers as he thought about it.

I’ll just go with the Ravens for now. Reivyn chuckled to himself. He rang the bell to notify the attendant he was ready, and after waiting a few minutes, a middle-aged man came into the room.

“Ahh, Adventurer Reivyn, I presume.” The man smiled as he shook Reivyn’s hand. “You understand that I’ll have to read the contents of the information you wish to sell, yes?”

“Mhm.” Reivyn nodded. “I’ve also decided to have the guild handle how to distribute it.”

“I see,” the man said as he turned his attention to the paper. He read through the contents, and his eyebrows raised in appreciation. He read it a couple of times to ensure that he fully understood and hadn’t missed anything.

“Well, this is definitely new information,” the man said as he looked at Reivyn. Reivyn could see new respect in his eyes. “While we already have the information on what the second boss room entails, and we even had one group also encounter the ritual that you explained, this is the first time anyone has said anything about a Hard Mode. The other group to meet the ritual also didn’t successfully provide a sample or learn anything about the alchemic substance.

“I think the appropriate way to handle this is to include the warning about the cauldron and the existence of a Hard Mode with the regular packet, and provide the information on how to activate the Hard Mode and the information on the more powerful Dullahan in a VIP packet. Does this sound reasonable to you?”

Reivyn was momentarily surprised. I didn’t think I would get any input on the matter, from what the receptionist said.

Reivyn nodded. “That sounds fine to me.”

“Excellent! That’s what we’ll do, then.” The man folded the paper up and stuck it in an inner breast pocket. “As to the method of receiving payment, we put the funds that go to you in an account that you, or anyone in your party that you as the party leader designate, can access with your guild badge at any time, at any guild branch. You’ll need your party members to come with you to ‘officially’ be recognized as party members, though.”

“Sure thing,” Reivyn said.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” the manager asked.

“One final point,” Reivyn said. “I don’t know if it’s anything serious, but I’ve figured out the cause of the heat and feeling of humidity…” Reivyn explained the situation once again.

“I see.” The man frowned at the information. “I’ll send it up the chain to the Guild Branch Master, but he’ll ultimately decide what to do with this knowledge. Thank you for considering spreading the news, though. Is there anything else?”

Reivyn shook his head. “That’s it.”

“Well, then, have a nice day, Adventurer Reivyn.” The man gave a short bow and exited the room. Reivyn followed him out and headed toward the exit.

Now back to waiting for the others.

Reivyn didn’t have to wait too much longer, as the rest of his friends came out of the dungeon around the same time they usually did: near dusk. It had been late afternoon when Reivyn had left the church compound, so it only felt like an eternity due to his impatience.

“…bet he cleared the second-floor boss.” Teilon’s voice, mid-sentence, reached his ears before he spotted the group walking out of the dungeon. Reivyn held back from running up to them, and he let them make their way to an inspection team before walking up.

“There he is, already out and waiting for us,” Teilon said as he stood and had a priest cleanse any corrupt mana that had latched on to him. “How long have you been waiting for us?”

Reivyn looked at his System clock for a second before answering, “A little over an hour, total.” Teilon shared a look with Kimberly and the others.

“Yeah, he definitely cleared the second boss,” Teilon said with a smirk. “Did you get the three Spectres and Big Boy this time?” Reivyn nodded to the question.

“Did you have any problems?” Kimberly asked with concern.

“Nah, business as usual,” Reivyn replied nonchalantly. “Hey!” Reivyn turned as he felt his shield get lifted off his back where he had it secured, and he found Melissa inspecting it in her hands. She looked up at Reivyn with a level gaze before turning it around to show everyone else the giant rent that was now adorning the shield from top to bottom.

“That was already there,” Reivyn said with a straight face. Melissa snorted as she handed it to Erik. Erik took the shield in his hands, and after applying some pressure on either side, it snapped in half. “I should get my money back for such faulty equipment.” Reivyn frowned.

“Uh-huh. ‘Business as usual,’ you say.” Melissa raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, the wound was on the shield, not me,” Reivyn defended himself. “Anyway, I have something important to say once the inspection is over.”

“Alright, go ahead and deflect,” Melissa said as she resumed her position in line, waiting for cleansing.

“I already did, you saw.” Reivyn smirked. Melissa rolled her eyes. They waited for the all-clear, also taking the opportunity to cleanse their Experience Crystals for the fee after hearing the explanation from the Sword-Priest.

The group gathered their belongings and walked away from the congested area before Reivyn pulled everyone up short.

“Okay, we’re leaving,” Reivyn just threw it out there. Larissa tilted her head at the statement.

“Didn’t you have something important to say first?” she asked.

“That was the important thing,” Reivyn said. “I’m saying we’re leaving the Dungeon Town. Right now. You three should come with us.”

Teilon looked at the setting sun and then back at Reivyn. “The sun’s going down.”

“Uh-huh, I see that. Let’s go,” Reivyn said.

“You want to go right now?” Larissa narrowed her eyes. Melissa nudged her with her elbow.

“Let’s hear him out,” she said. Reivyn took a deep breath and then explained what he had found regarding the mana and his promise to his dad.

“And so I think we should leave and reevaluate the situation,” Reivyn concluded. “If nothing happens, you took a little break. If something does happen, though, you’re safe.”

“I agree, we should leave now,” Erik said.

“Well, hold on a minute…” Larissa began.

“Silence!” Reivyn waved his hands about as he looked at Erik with wide eyes. “Erik has spoken. It’s time to go.” Melissa rolled her eyes once again, but she didn’t argue.

“We’ll get our things and load up the saddlebags on our horses,” Melissa said.

“You have horses?” Teilon asked.

“Yup!” Larissa nodded her head enthusiastically. “You guys don’t? Did you walk all the way here?”

“Hardly,” Teilon said dramatically. “We Force Marched under immense strain all the way here.” He gave an accusatory look toward Reivyn as Larissa giggled behind her hand.

“You got a valuable skill out of it,” Reivyn pointed out. “Plus, you don’t know how to ride a horse.” Larissa stopped giggling as she looked at Reivyn with an open mouth.

“Wait, you were serious? You guys not only walked all the way here, but you even made it harder on yourselves, on purpose?”

Teilon shrugged. “That’s life. Welcome to the party.”

“We’ll dump the rocks out of those packs, but we shouldn’t leave them here. Those are valuable pieces of equipment.” Larissa gave Melissa an incredulous look as she mouthed, “Rocks?!”

“I noticed nobody said anything about you or Kimberly not knowing how to ride a horse.” Melissa brought them back to the main topic.

“I have the skill. Kimberly does not,” Reivyn answered.

“Okay, instead of trying to buy new horses, we’ll double up,” Melissa said. “You and Teilon on one, Larissa and Kimberly on one, and I’ll take the last one with Erik.”

“Alright, let’s make it happen,” Reivyn said. “We’ll go get our gear, turn in the key to the house, and meet up with you outside the stables to the tavern.”

Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly separated from the other three, and they quickly made their way to the house. They emptied the house of all of their belongings and threw the perishables away as they tidied the place up. No reason to leave a mess behind us.

Reivyn ran the key back to the Adventurer’s Guild branch while Teilon and Kimberly went ahead and met up with the others. Reivyn wasn’t expecting it, but he still got a small refund back for not spending the entire time they had rented the house out for.

“Alright, is everything in order?” Reivyn said as he finally reached the stables. The other members of his party were already mounted. Melissa nodded down at him from her seat atop her steed. Erik looked a bit uncomfortable in his position behind her.

Larissa had an excited expression on her face as she turned in her seat and conversed with Kimberly, and Teilon tried to hide it, but he appeared to be a bit nervous. Reivyn smirked as he remembered how the Knight-Lieutenant had initially taught him the Riding skill.

“You’re lucky this time,” Reivyn said as he walked up to the horse they would be sharing as a mount. “Remember what the adjutant did with me? You get to skip that.”

“Yeah, not sure I could handle that,” Teilon said as Reivyn assumed his position on the horse. He looked around at everyone, and seeing that they were ready, he turned the horse to start down the main road to the exit. Since they were leaving at such a late time, the road was practically deserted.

Reivyn grinned as he suddenly drew his sword. He smacked the flat of the blade on the horse’s thigh and yelled, “Yah!” The horse took off at a gallop.

“You son of a… Aaahhhhh!” Teilon screamed as he held on for dear life. Reivyn could hear the laughter of the girls coming from behind as they sped out of the town.

“Looks like it’s just going to be an extended break, after all,” Reivyn said from his position behind Teilon on the back of the horse. He had given up his position in charge of directing the horse to let Teilon work on his skill, and Larissa had done a similar thing with Kimberly.

The party had traveled for several hours into the night on the evening they left before Reivyn felt they were far enough away to stop and camp. Now that the party had expanded, they were able to break up the watch better so everyone could get some decent sleep out in the open.

They moved a lot faster since they were on horseback and not over-encumbered with the heavy load of rocks, but the trip was still most of a week’s time. They weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere, as the main purpose had simply been to get away from the Dungeon Town and not to Magron, so they had decided it was appropriate to let Teilon and Kimberly work on their skill.

“We don’t mind,” Melissa replied. “It’s kind of nice, actually.”

“My parents have already moved to the Capital to enroll my sisters in the supplemental school attached to the academy,” Reivyn said, “so we’ll have to get a place to stay for a few days. I can introduce you to my friends from the Lord’s Retinue while we’re there, and you, Larissa, and Erik can decide to stick with us on our way to the Capital or go back to the Dungeon Town at that time.”

“Oh, you’ve mentioned your sisters showing promise in mana skills before. Do you think they’re talented enough to get into the Magic Academy?” Melissa asked.

Reivyn rummaged through the saddlebags and pulled out the flower crown his sisters had made for him. He handed it over to Melissa, and she exclaimed in surprise after Inspecting it.

“My sisters made that for me on the road from Haluville to Magron. They made a couple for Teilon and Kimberly, too.”

“And you said they’re only six years old, almost seven? Yeah, I would say they’re definitely talented enough to get into the Magic Academy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get recommended to move to the Tier 2 region’s academy before they reach the age of ten. I don’t know of any other students who were capable of making something like this before they entered the academy, much less at the age of six!”

“Yup, apparently my parents decided to move ahead of time because they show a complete lack of interest in studying or training,” Reivyn said with a chuckle.

“Well, you can’t expect your sisters to be exactly like you.” Melissa stuck her tongue out.

The group rode in silence for several minutes, but Reivyn suddenly held his hand up and gestured for Teilon to stop the horse. The others also pulled their horses to a stop and looked at him with questioning gazes.

“Do any of you hear that?” Reivyn said. He thought he had heard a faint rumbling sound.

“I don’t hear anything,” Teilon said. Melissa and the others each shook their heads. Reivyn looked at Erik, who had his eyes narrowed.

The faint rumbling increased, and Erik nodded his head in confirmation. Reivyn frowned as he looked back down the road in the direction they had come from. The trees obscured most of what could be seen, so he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary right away.

The faint rumbling sound suddenly turned into a tremendous roar, drowning out all other sounds, and the horses went crazy. The earth began to shake, and it quickly escalated until it was heaving violently.

Reivyn was tossed into the air from the back of his horse, and he was slightly disoriented at first as he tumbled through the air. He quickly oriented himself, though, and he launched out lassos made of pure mana to each of the members to keep them from getting flung too far apart. Melissa picked up on the mana skill being used, and she cast some Ice Walls to protect everyone from the trees that were being uprooted and tossed about.

The party hunkered down in their little bunker made of ice and waited for the earthquake to pass. The walls occasionally shook as they were hit by falling trees, but the shelter held. Larissa supplied a small spark to light up the interior, and Reivyn saw fear on everyone’s faces.

The loud roaring sound eventually faded out, and the earth quit shaking. Melissa removed the Ice Walls, and Reivyn stood up to survey the damage. One of the horses had moved too far away to be included in the protection from Melissa, and Reivyn spotted it crushed beneath a tree, dead.

Flashes of devastated countryside flitted through Reivyn’s mind as the surroundings evoked some of the memories from his dreams. It looked like someone had bombarded the entire forest with powerful spells. Most of the trees still stood, but they were almost all damaged, and a good portion of them were down and splintered completely.

Reivyn looked over at Melissa, and she shook her head. He frowned as he looked back down the road in the direction they had come, but this time, he saw something different.

A giant, blood-red pillar of light shot up into the sky from the direction of the Dungeon Town. Even this far away, Reivyn could feel the rolling tide of mana as the density continued to climb.

“Looks like it’s not going to be an extended break, after all,” Reivyn said as he turned back to his party. They looked back at him in confusion. “I guess you guys can’t see it, but there’s a giant pillar of light that I’m guessing is from the corrupt mana in the dungeon shooting up to the sky. I had a very big increase in my perception stat recently, so that’s probably why I can just barely make it out.

“We need to get to Magron, but now we’re down to two horses. We’ll load up the saddlebags on the other two, and Erik and I will have to run. Teilon can switch out with him when he gets tired, but we can’t take our time any longer.”

“Won’t you get tired, too?” Melissa asked.

“It wasn’t just my perception that got a big boost. I should be fine. Let’s get going; we don’t have any time to waste.”

“What’s the hurry? It looks like the damage is already done,” Teilon asked, but he got to work digging the saddlebags out from under the tree pinning the dead horse to the ground.

“My mother mentioned something like this to me once, and I think that’s what’s going on here,” Reivyn said with a serious expression. “I think this is a dungeon break.”

Melissa’s, Larissa’s, and even Erik’s faces all turned pale. Teilon and Kimberly looked at each other in confusion.

“What’s a dungeon break?” Kimberly asked.

“The monsters in the dungeon break free,” Melissa said. She gulped at the implication. “This is an infinitely instanced dungeon, so no telling how many instances are involved. And the mana density is quickly rising.” She looked at everyone in turn. “Those Revenants and other powerful undead won’t have their strength restricted for much longer.”

“Yeah, I would say that’s a good reason to hurry,” Teilon said as he finally managed to get the saddlebags. “I’ll feel a lot safer with the walls of Magron between us and them.”

“Yeah, so let’s get going.” Reivyn helped load up the other two horses, and then the group continued their retreat to Magron.

We still have a couple of days to go to make it to Magron. I hope there’s enough time to make it and warn them of the impending danger. I don’t know how far out this earthquake reached, or if they know what’s about to come.

Chapter fifty-two

The Calm Before

Reivyn ran along beside Erik and the others on their horses. He matched steps with Erik, and he, after several minutes of running, felt his Forced March skill kick in. It reduced a lot of stamina consumption. He kept his armor on, as he was still wary of any stragglers from all those months ago from the beast tide, but he removed his helmet, and so did Erik.

Judging by his outward stamina consumption, Erik either has the Forced March skill or something similar to reduce his burden while running long distances. He should be able to keep it up for several hours.

Now that they had put a lot of distance between them and the dungeon, the heat and feeling of humidity were no longer a problem. The party continued running along the road, occasionally having to avoid downed trees. The devastation continued on for as far as Reivyn could see. They spent a couple of hours just traveling in silence, and eventually, the damage to the surrounding trees began to thin out.

“…lp.” Reivyn waved for everyone to stop running for a second as a noise reached him. After they stopped moving and got quiet, Reivyn tilted his head in the direction he thought he heard it come from.

“Help.” Reivyn clearly heard the sound this time, and he perked up.

“Someone is calling for help,” he informed his companions as they looked at him. “It’s a little ways farther along the road, but it sounds like it’s coming from off in the trees a bit.”

“We can’t leave someone that needs our assistance,” Melissa said.

“Yeah, let’s go check it out,” Teilon concurred. Everyone nodded in agreement.

The party resumed running, and once they reached near where they heard the calls for help coming from, they halted their horses and headed off in that direction.

“We’re coming to help!” Reivyn cupped his hands and yelled back. The others had been able to hear the cries for help for some time, and it sounded like it was coming from a young boy.

“Okay!” they heard in reply.

The trees weren’t particularly thick, and most of them were still standing, but they still couldn’t see whoever was calling from the road. After heading in that direction for a few minutes, though, they finally happened upon the scene. A young boy, around seven or eight, was standing next to a clump of fallen trees that had an older man trapped beneath it. The trees hadn’t crushed the man, but it was clear that he wasn’t able to get out on his own.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” the boy said, nearly in tears. “I was about to have to go run to the village and look for help, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find my way back. My dad can’t yell loud enough from his position for it to carry far enough to hear.”

“It’s okay.” Melissa hugged the boy to her, comforting him. “Everything will be fine, now.”

“Those trees are a bit too big for all of us to move,” Reivyn said as he looked at Teilon and Erik. Erik bent down and picked up a woodcutter’s axe. “That’ll help,” Reivyn said. “Here, I have a skill with axes that’s pretty close to my Sword skill, let me.” Erik showed no surprise on his face upon hearing that statement, and he simply handed the axe over.

“You’ll want to cut the side that’s not load-bearing first,” Reivyn heard come from under the main tree. It had fallen over in a tangle of other trees, and it was kind of at an angle. “It’s not pressing down on me, so you don’t have to worry about the vibrations affecting me.”

“Alright,” Reivyn said as he approached the side that was elevated. He turned to face Teilon, “I’ll cut through the trees here, and if we still can’t lift the trunk over, you and Erik will have to hold the load while I cut it off of the rest, too. We might get Melissa to use an Ice Wall to help hold the load.”

“Sure thing,” Teilon said. Erik nodded.

Reivyn assumed a stance to chop the largest trunk. There were several trees that came down in a pile to make a perfect cage, and the non-load-bearing side was up almost at chest height.

Reivyn took a deep breath and activated Devastating Strike as he took a mighty swing. The axe sliced right through the first trunk and embedded itself in another underneath it. He yanked the axe head out of the wood and took another swing, severing all of the remaining trees.

“Alright, let’s try it out.” Reivyn tossed the axe down and grabbed ahold of the mess with Teilon and Erik. They threw their weight into it, and they managed to lift it up a bit.

“I think I can get out if you can hold it there,” the trapped man called out. Reivyn looked at his friends, and they nodded back.

“Okay, we can hold it,” Reivyn answered. The weight of the trees was just within their range to hold, and Reivyn could feel his face turning red as his veins bulged. The man quickly scrambled out, and Melissa and Larissa ran up to drag him the rest of the way.

Once the man was all the way out, Reivyn and the other two let the trees back down and quickly stepped out of the way. Teilon bent over and heaved air, and even Erik was out of breath for a moment.

The boy ran up and hugged his father as he stood up. He didn’t look like he was injured, though.

“Thank you for helping,” the man enthusiastically said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“I don’t think it’s over, either,” Reivyn said. “There was an issue with the dungeon several days’ journey into the mountains. We think it might be a break. You need to get your family, and the rest of the locals, and get to Magron. If you have any horses, riding or work, doesn’t matter, I suggest you load them up.”

“You think it’s that serious?” the man said with a somber expression.

“Definitely. And it’s always better to be safe than sorry,” Reivyn said. “Do you need any help getting to the road?”

“No, I’m not hurt,” the man said as he picked his axe up. “Thanks again.”

“No problem.”

“It’s what we should have done,” Melissa supplied.

“Alright, let’s get back on the road. I know we warned him to get his family and others moving toward Magron, but we should go ahead and spread the word along the way, too.”

The party made their way back to the road and continued their journey. The village the woodcutter and his son were from wasn’t too far away from where they encountered them, and after about fifteen minutes of quick travel, they came to the village.

In the village, several buildings had collapsed, and Reivyn could hear people crying as others worked on clearing some debris. There were a couple of white sheets over what were obviously bodies off to the side of the village square. The scene sobered the party further.

“We should take some time to help out,” Melissa said with a somber tone.

“Yeah,” Reivyn agreed. The others dismounted and they began helping the villagers clear out some rubble. Melissa helped with some support castings of Ice Wall to help with the weight, and Larissa helped tend to any survivors, giving drinks of water to the villagers moving rubble.

The party spent about an hour helping to clear things out, and one other deceased body was recovered, but several others were safely rescued. Reivyn located the village headman and motioned him over as he got a drink of water to slake his thirst.

“I know this is terrible timing, but the cause of this disaster isn’t over with. You need to pack up everyone, and I mean everyone, and move them along to Magron. It’s not safe out here.”

“I see.” The older gentleman looked at Reivyn and the others as he contemplated. “We have several horses, but not enough for everyone. We have just enough for the children. Can you take them with you ahead of the rest of us? If there’s anyone we want to get to safety, it would be them.”

Reivyn looked at his companions, and he saw approval on their faces. It might slow us down a little bit, but that’s a small price to pay to save some kids, he thought.

“Okay. Tell the parents to pack some things and get them loaded up. We’ll take them with us and settle them in the local barracks. It’s off to the right after entering the city, so you can find the kids there once you arrive in Magron,” Reivyn said.

“Thank you, thank you,” the headman said as he clasped Reivyn’s hands. He thanked each of them individually before moving off to see to it.

“Thank you,” Melissa said to Reivyn.

“There’s nothing to thank,” Reivyn replied. “I would want the same thing for my sisters if they were in the same situation.”

The party rested for about twenty minutes before several horses, some laden with three children, met them at the road to Magron.

“Alright, it’s time to go. Don’t worry. You’ll be reunited with your parents soon,” Reivyn said. Melissa moved her horse over so that she could better supervise the children that had joined them.

“You don’t have a horse,” a little girl pointed out.

“I don’t need a horse. I’m as strong as one all on my own. I’m gonna run.” Reivyn flexed his biceps. Several of the children snickered. “Okay, let’s go.”

Reivyn and his party met two other villages with some damage to them, and they picked up an increasing number of children to tag along. The other two villages didn’t have nearly as much damage as the first one, and nobody lost their life, so they were able to organize their evacuations much more quickly. They still opted to send their children ahead, though, when they saw the train of kids attached to Reivyn’s group. They had a total of eleven other horses, carrying twenty-one kids under ten.

The villages they encountered after the third one didn’t see any damage, and the earthquake hadn’t caused any devastation to the surroundings. The forest opened up to the plains, though, shortly after, so it would have been a moot point, anyway, as the lands opened up to much larger farming operations.

The villages at this point, also, didn’t choose to send their kids ahead, and if Reivyn hadn’t promised to take them all the way to the barracks, he would have been tempted to leave them with the other villagers in order to get word to the city quicker.

It’ll only be a couple of hours difference at this point, and I did say I would get them settled at the barracks. I’m sure it will be a lot easier to get them space if I’m the one there talking to Knight-Lieutenant Brand about it.

“We’re almost there,” Reivyn said to the entourage. “A couple more hours.” They had passed the last real village some time ago, and the countryside was now dotted with smaller communities that just tended to the lord’s fields. They still spread the word to get to the city for anyone that was still out and about, though.

The children were putting up a brave front, even though Reivyn could tell they were a bit nervous being away from their parents. Melissa, Larissa, and Kimberly were really good about seeing to their needs and making sure they were comfortable on the journey, and they helped get them to sleep on the one night they had to spend out in the open.

Reivyn had been concerned they might run into trouble from local wildlife or beasts, but they hadn’t seen any sign of such a thing after the last village in the forest.

The kids all perked up at the reminder that they were almost there. Teilon spent a lot of time joking with the kids when he wasn’t taking his turn running to let Erik get some rest. Reivyn had been right that he would be fine running, though he did sweat a lot and had to drink a lot more water, but it wasn’t enough to impede their progress. Making sure none of the kids fell off a horse took up more time than anything.

I bet several of them get the skill. I wonder if that is likely to affect their future development? Reivyn idly wondered.

The last leg to the city was uneventful, and there was no indication that anyone was worried about a dungeon break or anything like that. Either word hasn’t gotten here, which means nobody in the Dungeon Town was able to get a notice out by carrier bird, or the leaders haven’t spread word yet in an effort to keep people from panicking.

The local guards were a little confused at the procession that appeared to enter the city, but they didn’t make anything difficult and waved the group through.

“I’m going to take the kids to the barracks and inform the Knight-Lieutenant about what’s going on. Do you have a way to secure a meeting with the count?” Reivyn turned toward Melissa.

“Yes, our name should get us in to see him. We can go tell him about it while you handle the kids and garrison. We’ll meet up with you at the barracks when we’re done, or send word if anything changes.”

“Alright,” Reivyn said with a nod. “We’ll see you then.”

Melissa, Larissa, and Erik took their horses and made their way into the city proper while Reivyn and his crew escorted the children to their destination.

“Why would they meet us back at the barracks? I’m sure they can get some nice accommodations at the lord’s manor,” Teilon said.

“They probably want to introduce themselves to the ones in charge of the city defense,” Kimberly pointed out with an eye roll. “Being caster classes, I’m sure they want to help defend the city if or when the monsters show up.”

“That’s a good point,” Teilon said.

Reivyn led his little parade to the barracks. The locals occasionally threw them some questioning glances, but the city seemed to be moving about like normal. They eventually made it to the gates of the military compound, and Reivyn greeted the guards. It hadn’t been that long since he had been with the troops, so they recognized him easily.

“I need to speak to the Knight-Lieutenant,” Reivyn said to the guards. “You guys just hang out here until I get the all-clear,” he said to Teilon and Kimberly.

“Sure thing, Reivyn,” one of the guards responded. There wasn’t really any need to keep them out, so the guards let Teilon and Kimberly lead the kids inside the compound to wait while Reivyn headed to the headquarters building.

Reivyn stepped in, and seeing that there wasn’t anything going on, he skipped walking to the end of the hall and walked right up the forbidden stairs. Just act like I’m supposed to use them, and anyone who objects might still associate me with the aide to the adjutant. Reivyn chuckled to himself.

He made his way to the Knight-Lieutenant’s office and knocked on the door. After a brief pause, he heard, “Enter,” come from within.

“Ahh, Reivyn!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand exclaimed as he spotted his once-aide enter his office. He got up from behind his desk and came over to shake his hand. “Looks like you’ve been doing well for yourself,” he said as he inspected the new armor Reivyn was wearing.

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn said with a smile. “Got it as a drop from the second-floor boss in the dungeon.”

“Already delving further in? Make sure you’re always careful and don’t get complacent,” Brand said as he took his seat again. “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He indicated for Reivyn to take a seat.

“I think there was a dungeon break,” Reivyn got right into the main issue. Brand’s smile instantly evaporated as he nodded for Reivyn to continue. “I noticed a steady increase in the mana density around the dungeon, after I pulled my head out of my backside, and got out ahead of the explosion. But there was a giant earthquake that did a lot of damage. I know of at least three people—villagers—who died because of it, on top of all the damage.

“There was a giant beam of light shooting up to the sky that we could see from about three days away, and there was a significant uptick in the mana density even that far out. I suspect we’ll have a monster tide to put the beast tide to shame, and I would bet the Revenants that show up won’t be restricted by the mana density.”

Reivyn laid it out on the table. Knight-Lieutenant Brand rubbed his chin as he thought about the issue.

“We didn’t get word from the Dungeon Town, so it’s either a total loss or they were unable to send an emergency message out. We need to go inform the Knight-Captain.” Brand stood up and motioned for Reivyn to follow him.

“My companions went ahead to the count’s manor to inform him. They have some sort of background from the Capital, so he should know soon as well. We also picked up a bunch of children the villagers wanted to send ahead as we spread word to evacuate on the way here. We brought them to the barracks because I didn’t know what else to do with them,” Reivyn said as they hurried down the hall.

“That’s good. Good thinking,” Brand said as he waved to a soldier walking along the hall. “Go to the gate and see about getting a bunch of villager kids squared away,” he commanded. The soldier saluted and hurried to do as instructed.

Knight-Captain Reifold’s door was open, so Knight-Lieutenant Brand simply knocked on the door on his way in. The two walked in, Reivyn subconsciously assuming his position a half-step behind the adjutant.

“Sir, news from the dungeon,” Brand said. “Reivyn here reports that there was likely a dungeon break. He didn’t see the incident up close, but he saw what matches the description some ways off. The local areas suffered damage, villagers have been evacuated, and Reivyn brought a bunch of children with him to berth here. Word has been dispatched to the count.”

Knight-Captain Reifold set his pen down as soon as he witnessed Knight-Lieutenant Brand enter his office, and he gave a nod to Reivyn’s presence like it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“Good, mobilize the scouts. Alert the City Guard. Issue a stand-down order and make sure all of the troops are prepared for battle. Send word to the local church and Adventurer’s Guild. We’ll need all the casters we can get. I know the lord has a personal unit, but that won’t be enough for a dungeon break from this dungeon.”

“Yes, sir,” Brand said with a salute.

“Sir,” Reivyn stepped forward. “My companions are casters, and I can use mana to fight the Revenants and Spectres.” The adjutant’s eyebrows went up at the mention of the new monster. “I would like to volunteer for the city defense.”

“Accepted,” Knight-Captain Reifold replied after a moment of contemplation. “Go with Knight-Lieutenant Brand and assume your previous role as aide. I know you can fight, and even though you’ll be an aide, you’ll still get your chance.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Reivyn said.

“No—thank you.”

Reivyn followed Brand out of the office as he prepared to get to work.

“I don’t really need anything from you right now, so go to your friends. If you want to help out just stick around, and I’ll have someone find you when I do need you,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand said, clapping Reivyn on the shoulder.

“Yes, sir. I’ll see you then.”

Reivyn exited the headquarters and saw that some soldiers were escorting the village kids to an open barracks. The meeting with the officers had been quick and to the point, so not much time had passed. Reivyn walked up to Teilon and Kimberly, who were waving goodbye to the kids.

“Melissa and her group are going to meet with us here, so we’ll stay here and wait for them for now,” Reivyn said as he walked up. “I went ahead and volunteered us for the city defense. No pressure though, I know you guys can’t fight the Revenants without assistance from someone who can use mana.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I kind of expected you to from the beginning, and it’s something Kimberly and I agreed to while you were gone,” Teilon said with a shrug. “We might not be able to be on the front lines against the more dangerous enemies, but we can definitely find something to do.”

“Yes, there’s no way I could live with myself if I abandoned everyone to their fate. Especially after bringing those kids all the way here,” Kimberly added.

“Good,” Reivyn said with a wide smile.

The trio took up a position to wait near the entrance, and it wasn’t long before they spotted Melissa, Larissa, and Erik making their way on foot toward the barracks. Reivyn stepped out and waved them over.

“How did it go?” Reivyn called out as they approached.

“The count took our warnings seriously and started getting things moving. We told him you went to inform the Knight-Captain, so he focused on getting his casters and any others organized. What about you?”

“Same. We got the kids put up in the barracks, and we volunteered to help with the defense.” Reivyn noticed that that statement got a nod of approval from Erik.

“We knew you would, and we’re going to volunteer with the casters, as well,” Melissa said with a smile. “Wait here for a moment while we go inform the officers about our presence and what we can do. They’ll be better able to organize things if they know what we’re capable of.

“The count gave us a place to stay, you guys included, so we can wait for further word while taking advantage of the small luxury that will afford. We’re going to be happy we did in a couple of days if we’re right about everything.”

“Are you kidding? Of course, we’re going to live it up with style,” Teilon said. Kimberly rolled her eyes, and Reivyn just shook his head.

“Alright,” he said. “The adjutant said there was nothing in particular for us to do yet, so that sounds like a fine plan. We’ll head over with you guys once you’re done here.”

Chapter fifty-three

The Storm

Reivyn stood upon the ramparts and stared off into the distance. The last group of villagers, the first ones Reivyn and his party had encountered, were finally making their way into the city below. The atmosphere was charged. Almost literally. Reivyn could feel the increased mana density as it spread all the way to Magron.

The other aspect was the palpable anxiety he could feel from the other people lining the ramparts, waiting. The Lord’s Retinue, the City Guard, the count’s personal Mage Corps, and volunteer adventurers all waited for the impending crisis. The local church branch was manned by mundane believers, though, so they didn’t have any casters available to assist in warding off the undead.

The scouts reported that many of the goblins had simply bolted in all directions, but the Orcs had corralled several thousand of them to act as shields in human-wave tactics as they scoured the countryside for places to pillage. Nobody is really too concerned with that, though, Reivyn ruminated. The real concern is that the scouts were unable to make their way past the horde, so we have no idea as to the numbers or activities of the undead forces that are sure to follow.

Reivyn glanced in the direction of the barracks. He couldn’t actually see it through the rampart or the people milling about, but he recalled the scene of several villager children reuniting with their parents.

Luckily they all made it ahead of the monsters; however, we have yet to make it through the ordeal. Reivyn’s face was grim, despite the temporarily happy incident.

Reivyn and his party had relaxed within the count’s manor, all of their needs seen to by the maids and butlers, as they waited for the time they would be needed to fight. It wasn’t hard to gauge the timing, either. The steady climb of the mana had been an obvious sign.

The three girls also managed to convince the maids to use their connections to keep them abreast of the goings-on of the children we escorted, Reivyn chuckled to himself. I didn’t realize they had grown so attached so quickly. The news also contained information about what was happening in the barracks. Put that together with the mana increasing, and it gave a clear sign of when we would be needed.

They had encountered a messenger departing to the lord’s manor to fetch them as they arrived at the barracks. Reivyn had assumed his position as a de facto aide. More in the line of being able to utilize my party’s experience and abilities more than any actual responsibilities, he thought.

The Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant weren’t playing any games. Anything that wasn’t necessarily super important, they would allow Reivyn to assist them, like giving and receiving messages to the administrative soldiers, but they kept a tight rein on everything involving the deployment of the combat troops.

He stood a little ways off from the Knight-Lieutenant. They hadn’t had anything to do for quite a while now, other than wait like everyone else, but he had found something he could trust Teilon and Kimberly with. When he had been running messages back and forth, Teilon had said that his new Tier 2 class was perfectly suited for such a thing during the upcoming conflict, so they would be acting as runners.

Reivyn surveyed the troops arranged upon the battlements. The Lord’s Retinue was first in line, and the more experienced City Guardsmen were behind them. The less experienced guards were still keeping order within the city. The city gates in the other three directions other than the one leading toward the dungeon were still open, and they would be until the enemies were spotted. The count had ordered that anyone leaving was responsible for themselves, but he wouldn’t keep anyone here against their wills, other than his military personnel, of course.

There had been a mass exodus upon news of the potential dungeon break, and it had increased further upon confirmation from the scouts. It had slowed to a trickle, since, though, and only those going it alone could be seen still occasionally leaving. Anyone with family wasn’t willing to brave the dangers of being outside the walls this late anymore.

Behind the experienced City Guardsman, dispersed evenly across the wall, were the members of the Mage Corps. They consisted of fifty low Tier 3 and high Tier 2 Mages, several having graduated from the Magic Academy not too long ago. Adventurers stood interspersed between the units, located wherever their specialty was focused. There aren’t that many additional casters from the adventurers, Reivyn thought with a frown. Maybe just over a hundred or so. There are several hundred archers and melee combatants, each, in contrast to that. I guess it makes sense; the number is a little over ten percent.

From the reports of the thousands upon thousands of goblins, I can assume there’s probably around a thousand or so Orcs, and depending on how many undead are on the third floor, or even lower, there will probably be several thousand Revenants, at least. The goblins won’t be a problem, especially with these reinforced walls, but I sure hope this is enough to fend off the undead.

Things weren’t looking optimistic. One of the first things Reivyn had done after getting settled in the lord’s manor was to send a letter to his parents in the Capital. Thankfully they left ages ago with my sisters. That was one thing Reivyn was happy about. The other members of his party had done the same for their families, even Erik.

Reivyn turned back to watching the countryside. Everything seemed peaceful on the surface. Reivyn watched as the wind blew the crops. There were multiple visible lines that could be seen to show just where it was. The sky was blue and dotted with pleasant-looking clouds. A flock of birds took off from their position foraging for bugs and other things to eat among the tall plants.

“Standby!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand suddenly called. Reivyn was pulled out of his contemplation. Of course. Those birds didn’t decide to all fly away for no reason. Something spooked them.

Everyone got quiet on the wall as it became obvious that something was moving beneath, through the fields, as the crops no longer shifted according to just the wind.

“Conserve your mana! Only cast as many spells as you can quickly recover from. We don’t know how much time we’ll have after the goblins and Orcs make their assault.” Brand continued his instruction to the casters. Everyone knew what they were about to face, but the adjutant didn’t want someone to get caught up in the moment and burn through their mana pool before the real threat even arrived.

Hmm… I actually have a lot of mana, now. I wonder… Reivyn reached down and picked up the bow he had acquired. He nocked an arrow, and then he activated his Mana Sight and concentrated on it. Is there a way to optimize this?

Reivyn used his Mana Manipulation to quickly cover the arrow. Next, he pulled it away from the arrow, but he maintained the shape and form. He added the necessary braids to the structure to give it some actual power. Okay, that did actually cost a lot less mana, and it was quicker than trying to build one of my own from scratch. Now, what do I do…?

Reivyn concentrated on the entire structure of the mana arrow he had created, and he pushed more mana into it. Once it had reached a certain threshold, he once again split it, and one mana arrow suddenly became two. Okay, about the same mana expenditure total. Let’s try one more thing. He concentrated as he pumped several times more mana into the first mana arrow, and he split them into a veritable bundle of mana arrows.

That’s way too much mana. Do I need the whole structure? Reivyn gathered up the mana consisting of all the arrows he had made, and he converted them all into the arrowheads with just a bit of the shaft remaining. That’s more like it. Lot’s more impact from this setup. The mana arrows still catch some of the drag from the wind, though, so can I overlap these while keeping them separate?

He put thought to action and pulled them all together, once more, but he kept them completely distinct from one another. Hmmm, it doesn’t exactly work. They still want to combine into one dense arrowhead. Maybe I’m overthinking things again. Let’s try one more thing.

Reivyn placed his dense mana arrowhead overlapping with the real arrow, and he placed some anchors within it. He placed as many anchors as he wanted arrowheads, and he designed them to deteriorate with a small pop after only a few seconds.

While he had been experimenting with his Mana Manipulation, the goblins had finally come into view, and as soon as they spotted the wall unimpeded, their loud screeching could be heard as they broke into a frenzied run.

The other archers had already begun releasing their arrows into the coming horde, and the city defenses had some scorpions scattered atop the wall that launched huge javelin projectiles into the horde, skewering many goblins all at once as well as causing mayhem from the force of the impact. The casters occasionally lobbed spells that exploded to cause area-wide damage, but it was few and far between as they conserved their mana.

Melissa and Larissa were nearby, and they also launched an occasional attack at the horde of goblins below. Melissa would create a sphere of ice, Larissa would fill it with her Inferno Blast spell, and then Melissa would launch the combination spell to devastating effect. They had gotten a lot more adept at combining their spells after the experience they had gained from the dungeon delves.

Erik simply stood to the side, silently watching everything around. He never dropped his guard, not even against the other defenders. Teilon and Kimberly accompanied him in their silent watch. They didn’t have much to do yet, as they had never worked on their ranged skills. That’s an oversight that needs to be addressed, Reivyn thought.

Reivyn lifted his bow and loosed his experimental arrow without even taking proper aim. There were so many goblins, it wasn’t really necessary. He watched with bated breath as the arrow sailed through the air. Once it was close to the target he had randomly fired at, he watched with Mana Sight as his mana arrow exploded and showered mana shrapnel in all directions. Including up and away from the goblins below.

Okay, while it kind of worked, as many of the pieces of mana still struck and killed a lot of goblins, that was basically a failure. I should just make a ball of mana with a directional blast to focus it downward.

Reivyn once more summoned his mana, but this time he made a ball with the braids necessary to give it power accompanied by one anchor that would pop in the direction the arrow was facing located at the back of the mana ball. He loosed the arrow and watched once more. This time it was much more successful, and it cost considerably less mana.

Yeah, I was definitely overthinking things. I’m sure there is a class skill out there that has a similar effect with actual arrows and such, but I would need to see it and study it to make it right. As it is, against these weaker enemies, a few more of these attacks should be fine. I don’t want to burn through my mana too fast, either.

Reivyn loosed several arrows without any mana as he was thinking, and once he had come to a decision, he occasionally took the time to form a mana attack to accompany his arrows.

The goblins were stupid and didn’t have any sort of plan to try to breach the walls, so they simply smashed against the obstruction and tried to climb it with their claws. They didn’t have much luck. They began to trample the front rows beneath them, though, and a ramp made of dead goblins began to form.

Several spots along the walls had soldiers step forward with large cauldrons filled with tar. They tipped the cauldrons down on the goblins below before moving the empty cauldrons back to get refilled for use again later. Another soldier came up once the tar was safely taken away and tossed a torch down below.

Reivyn could feel the heat as the copious amounts of tar caught fire, and the frenzied shrieking for blood quickly became wails of agony as huge swathes of the goblins caught fire. The ramp of dead goblins also made sure that the fire didn’t diminish, and the rest of the goblins were momentarily prevented from approaching the walls.

The goblins are dumb, but they’re not dumb enough to run into the fire. They’re just standing around, now, passively accepting the rain of arrows killing them. I bet that once the fires go away, they try the exact same thing and get torched all over again. Reivyn shook his head.

The goblins didn’t have any way to breach the walls, and the portcullis was manned by some of the City Guard with long spears, so it was also a death trap for any goblins dumb enough to run up to the gates. The arrows and occasional spell still continued, they still had to kill the pests, but it had lessened as many others came to the same conclusion as Reivyn.

He looked off into the distance once again, and he finally spotted the mass of Orcs.

These guys are much smarter and more capable than the goblins. They actually took the time to make crude ladders and battering rams. They even brought the ogres from the first-floor boss room with them.

The Orcs came marching forward in a much more organized manner. There were about a hundred or so of the ogres, and they were much more mobile now that they weren’t confined to such a low ceiling. They stopped and watched the goblins expend the resources of the defenders for a while before they began moving forward once more.

“Focus on the ogres with ranged attacks and spells first!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand’s voice carried to all of the troops. “Burn some of the ladders with the tar once they’ve climbed high enough, but let a couple of the ladders stand. We want to preserve as much of the tar as we can, so we’ll have to engage some of them in melee. I’ll direct the positions to do so in an orderly manner.”

Reivyn once more lifted his bow and started firing at the ogres with the others. There were several hundred ranged combatants atop the ramparts, and only a hundred of the ogres, so they were quickly peppered with arrows and looked like porcupines. They weren’t able to last very long under the barrage, and the ogres were quickly taken out of the equation.

The Orcs pushed the goblins aside as they charged the walls, and the ladders came up. The defenders waited until a line of Orcs made their way three-quarters of the way up the wall before they doused most of the ladders with tar. The Orcs covered in the thick substance screamed in defiance as torches sailed down and put an end to their attempts at breaching the walls.

The battering ram rang loud and clear over the screams, snarls, and other sounds of combat, but it, too, was quickly set aflame. The Orcs that had attempted to knock the gates down quickly fled the raging inferno. They joined their compatriots at the ladders that hadn’t been destroyed. Many of the goblins saw a way to get at the humans on top of the wall, so they tried to get on the ladders, as well, but the Orcs simply batted them aside as they entered a state of bloodlust.

The soldiers let the Orcs get on top of the wall under the careful planning of the adjutant, and they were able to corral the Orcs into another killing field. They were slain almost as quickly as they attained the top of the wall, and it was only a matter of time before the bloodlust wore off and the remainder chose to flee. The cavalry was standing by to chase them down and finish them off.

Reivyn replenished his arrows as he waited for the inevitable end of the first round of combat, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred. The Orcs continued to climb to their deaths before the last vestiges came out of their frenzy and tried to run, but the cavalry took care of the remnants.

Once the Orcs stopped attempting to climb the ladders, the goblins took their turn, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered the ladders to finally be torched. The goblins continued to try to scrabble up the walls to only be burned alive over and over again until they were completely killed off.

“Kind of anticlimactic, actually,” Teilon said from beside Reivyn.

“Well, we knew this was only a small taste from the very beginning,” Reivyn replied.

“Yeah, I know, but still.” Teilon shrugged.

The troops quickly set about making sure the ammunition and tar were all restocked, and the mages entered Meditation to use Mana Absorption to speed up their recovery. Reivyn took a cue from them and also sat down to get his mana back. Not only was his capacity increased with his rise in stats, but the level of recovery had seen a sharp rise, as well.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, it’s time to wait for the real show.

Reivyn came out of his Meditation as he felt a nudge from Teilon. He looked up at his friend with a questioning gaze.

“Something is happening,” Teilon said, almost in a whisper. Reivyn could see the nervousness in his friends as Kimberly was also fidgeting an unusual amount.

Reivyn stood up and looked to the distance once more. The sky overhead was still blue with clouds moving about, but the entire scenery seemed to have a subtle shift. He watched as a visible shadow, coming from no known obstruction from the sun, began to creep toward the city. It was like a wall of darkness.

Movement caught Reivyn’s eye, and he turned his focus toward it. After several breaths of waiting, he finally made out what had caught his attention.

A group of people came stumbling into view, obviously perking up at the sight of the walls and gaining a second wind as they rushed toward safety. Reivyn saw that many of them were kitted out in gear, but many of them were just in normal clothes.

“Looks like the Dungeon Town wasn’t a total loss. Those people are obviously adventurers and the locals from the town,” Reivyn said to Teilon.

“Oh yeah? I couldn’t quite make them out, yet,” Teilon responded.

“Scouts!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand’s shout reached the cavalry below. “Sally forth and pick those people up. There appears to be several hundred of them, so be quick!”

The light cavalry soon stormed out of the gates and made their way to people obviously fleeing for their lives. Reivyn watched as many were picked up and rushed back to the city. They were dropped off inside the safety of the walls, and he noticed that almost every single one of them simply collapsed where they had been deposited, most of them immediately falling asleep right then and there.

They’ve probably been running the entire time without much rest. Their stats should have aided them, but they were trapped between getting too far ahead and coming under the notice of the Orcs and goblins, or lagging too far behind and getting caught by what’s coming.

More and more people arrived, and it soon became clear that a large majority of the Dungeon Town had actually been able to escape the calamity. The reason for their survival soon became apparent as the darkness continued to grow.

A line of soldiers came running into view several minutes after the last of the stragglers. They were attired in the armor and tabards of the Church of Light, but their gear was bloody and torn. Several of the stronger adventurers, martial and casters alike, ran with them. They suddenly stopped and formed a line, and another group of soldiers, about the same number and makeup, came running after them.

Seconds later the cause for everyone’s concern came into view. A large line of Revenants came marching hot on the heels of the fleeing church members.

Reivyn’s stomach dropped as he witnessed the scene. Not only do they appear to be moving unimpeded by the mana density, but there also appears to be someone commanding them. No way they would march in an orderly fashion without someone, or something, interfering. Reivyn gulped as he shared a glance with Teilon and Kimberly.

“We’ll be fine,” Reivyn said to try to reassure his friends.

“Yeah.” Teilon nodded. He didn’t look like he was convinced. “It’s just a bunch of Revenants. No problem.”

Reivyn turned back to witness the church soldiers. The ones closest to the Revenant line ran past the first group, which intercepted the advancing undead. Their gear cut through the protections inherent to the Revenants, and the casters fired quick bolts to cause as much damage in as short amount of time possible. They exclusively used their most basic spells in order to conserve their mana properly.

The second line of church soldiers and adventurers came to a stop about fifty yards back and turned to face the incoming enemies as the others broke off their engagement with a push from their skills and turned to leap-frog their retreat. Reivyn watched as several of the members were hit with attacks despite their best efforts. Two of them went down and were quickly subsumed by the marching line of undead, but the last one managed to hold on and continue to flee.

“Dammit, they’re too close to the Revenants.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand’s voice entered Reivyn’s ears and he turned to face the man as he muttered to himself. “I can’t get the scouts close enough to pick them up without abandoning half of them.”

“Sir,” Reivyn called out to get his attention. “Give me and my caster companions some horses”—someone clearing their throat interrupted Reivyn—“and their bodyguard. We can ride out, hit the line hard with some magic, and the scouts can follow behind us to pick them up.”

“Make it happen.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand didn’t hesitate to agree.

Reivyn turned and jerked his head toward the bottom of the wall at Melissa and her two companions. “We’ll be right back,” Reivyn said to Teilon as they hurried down.

They ran to where the cavalry was on standby, and after a quick explanation, Reivyn and the other three galloped out of the city toward the retreating defenders and line of Revenants. The air turned cold as soon as they entered the encroaching shadows, and Reivyn felt an involuntary shiver.

“Melissa, take the left. Larissa, take the right,” Reivyn shouted at his companions over the whistling wind. “I’ll go around to the center. Hit them hard and fast!”

They split up, the scouts following shortly behind them, and they moved to engage the undead. Reivyn followed Larissa, and they quickly passed the line of defenders ready to intercept for their allies. Larissa launched several Inferno Blasts at the line, and Reivyn quickly maneuvered his horse around the line of retreating people in the wake of the explosion.

He saw, and sensed, Melissa also pelting the line of Revenants as he turned to gallop across the line. He pumped mana into his Flame Blade skill and launched massive attacks at the line as he galloped past, creating an opportunity for the scouts to sweep in and pick up those retreating. Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief as the plan went off without a hitch.

Suddenly, a stray Revenant came leaping out of the line, and Reivyn’s Danger Sense warned him in time to ward off the attack with a parry. The force of the blow almost unseated him, but he managed to hang on with a combination of his Ride and Balance skills. Reivyn urged his horse to continue galloping, and he broke away from the Revenant that had tried to keep him from getting away.

He glanced back as he galloped away, and he frowned at what he saw. The Revenant that had attacked him was attired in the same uniform as the church soldiers, but its gear had lost its Divine empowerment. Its clothes were covered in blood, and gaping wounds. Oozing black blood littered its body all over. The creature still had most of its skin and hair, and Reivyn recognized it.

That’s the Sword-Bishop! Reivyn realized as he turned back to putting all of his efforts into escaping back to the city. That can’t be good.

The cavalry, along with Reivyn and his party members, made it back to the city quickly, and the survivors joined the others in collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. There were no robe-wearing priests among them, but Reivyn did spot many of the acquaintances he had made in his time in the Dungeon Town.

He saw Lorin among the adventurers that had been assisting in holding the Revenants back for the others to flee. He saw the Sword-Priest that had given them the explanation on the Experience Crystals, and he even saw Cal had collapsed next to his friends in the group that had passed out.

There were many other familiar faces, but Reivyn didn’t have time to examine them. He dismounted and walked over to Josn, who had assumed command of the Sword-Priests after the Sword-Bishop had obviously fallen.

He was standing over the man Reivyn had seen take an attack to the back earlier, and the man was clutching at Josn and pleading for something. Even from this distance, Reivyn could see the man’s body twitch uncontrollably, and black veins were spreading across his body from the wound on his back.

Josn lowered his head momentarily, and Reivyn’s eyes widened in horror as he watched Josn look back up and then run the man through with his sword, ending his life. A smile was the last expression on the man’s face.

“What the hell?!” Reivyn yelled as he ran up to Josn. Josn looked up with expressionless eyes.

“He was beyond saving,” Josn said. “You don’t know what happens to them. You haven’t seen it.” His voice was devoid of any emotion.

“But we’re in the city now! We might have been able to find help. You just killed him without even trying!”

“Don’t be so quick to judge!” Josn yelled back. “That wasn’t his first wound, and we lost all of our priests early on! Do you think I wanted to kill him?! He asked me to! And it was my responsibility! He was about to turn. What more would you have had me do?” Josn sounded defeated.

Reivyn paused for a moment as he considered the words. What else could he have done? The local church doesn’t have caster priests; they’re mundane believers. Reivyn shook his head.

“I don’t know, Josn. I don’t know,” he said. Reivyn clapped his hand on the man’s shoulder in silent comfort.

“Report!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand came marching up to the group, quickly recognizing the man in charge of the retreat. Josn noticed the man’s air of authority and stood straighter.

“Yes, sir,” he began. “There was a group of black-robed men who suddenly appeared, and before anyone noticed what they were up to or could react, they initiated the dungeon break. We managed to fight off the first horde of goblins and Orcs that appeared through several rips in reality, and they quickly ran off to hunt for easier prey.

“Due to Reivyn’s timely information about the Hard Mode of the second-floor boss”—Josn gestured toward Reivyn—“we knew to quickly destroy any of the Spectres and Dullahans that suddenly showed up. Most of our priests sacrificed themselves to ensure almost all of them were taken out before they could empower the Dullahans.

“A few slipped through, but those are the least of our worries.” Josn’s energy quickly depleted as he came to this point, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand was about to urge him on further, but the people noticed the ground begin to tremor. “That’s what we need to worry about.” Josn continued. “The demons.”

“Back to the ramparts!” Brand yelled out. He turned to Josn one last time. “You and yours get some rest. Not only do you need it, you deserve it. If you feel you can fight, you’ll get your chance after you take a break. We’ll handle it from here.”

Chapter fifty-four

It’s Darkest Before

Reivyn looked out at the fields covered completely in moving skeletal abominations. In the distance, he counted fifteen Dullahans calmly walking with their heads tucked under their arms, and behind them, he counted five of the giant demons. They were truly monstrous, standing what appeared to be forty to fifty feet tall. It was difficult to gauge their exact size because of how far away they were, but they towered over everything else. Revenants filled the entire space, and then some, around the larger creatures.

I don’t see any Spectres at all. Based on how the Dullahans are moving fluidly, they are obviously possessed, but there has to be a limit to how many Spectres can combine and possess one entity. I don’t know if three is the maximum or not. Maybe there weren’t as many Spectres on the third floor as I imagined. I did only see the one in the room with the hundreds of mining Revenants.

The undead army didn’t pause to evaluate the situation in front of them, nor did they charge recklessly ahead. They simply marched, as if reaching their destination was inevitable, so why alter their speed?

“Load the canisters!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand’s voice echoed over the battlements. The soldiers loaded enclosed cauldrons, built to fly through the air better in an elongated shape, into the scorpions. They were filled with tar, and the Mages imbued the entire thing with pure mana as they were set.

“Launch!” The order came, and the scorpions fired their payload into the distance, having a much further range than simple bows or crossbows. The canisters sailed through the air before crashing into the ground amongst the Revenants, breaking apart and discharging the mana-imbued tar that had filled them across large swathes of the ground.

“Fire spell, ready!” The adjutant called forth all Mages with an affinity for fire. Larissa also stepped forward and began preparing a Fire Bolt spell. The fancy, more expensive Fire Blast or Inferno spells weren’t necessary, so she opted for the cheaper spell. It would cost a lot of mana to empower it enough to launch the spell far enough to hit the tar, so cutting mana costs somewhere else was more important.

“Cast!” Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered.

Different commands are necessary to give so each individual acting out the commands know when and what to do properly. Launch is the command for the scorpions, Loose is the command for the archers, and Cast is the command for the casters, Reivyn noted.

The spells were empowered across the line and fired into the distance. The myriad of Fire Bolt spells made contact with the tar, and magically imbued fire erupted among the Revenants.

All of the Revenants caught in the initial blast were destroyed outright in the explosion, leaving even hardly any dust in its wake. The rest of the Revenants continued to march forward through the fire, the ones in the center mostly falling apart before making it through, but the ones on the edges were just severely damaged.

Every little bit will help.

“Adjust the range! Shift right two degrees!” More commands for the scorpions came forth. The crew manning the siege weapons had one person rotate a gear to lower the elevation, and another person simultaneously rotated a different gear that moved the horizontal plane slightly to the right without having to adjust the base.

“Load the canisters! Launch!”

The troops were acting out the commands that continued to come in an orderly fashion followed by Mages taking turns launching Fire Bolt spells and rotating out to conserve mana. The battlefield quickly became a scorching inferno as more and more canisters were launched and subsequently fired.

The pure mana that is imbued fully into the canisters includes the tar within and seems to be affected by the properties of the tar. I can see that the fires are burning longer and hotter than one would expect, and all of the fire is magical in nature due to the mana infusing the tar and being lit by a spell. Reivyn nodded his head at the tactic.

Since the mana being imbued into the canisters affects the tar inside, I wonder… Reivyn reached down and pulled a couple of arrows out and tried to imbue them both as one entity while he held them both in his hand. It didn’t take, and he had to do each one individually. He then set the arrows aside and touched the quiver directly, pumping his mana into it.

Imbuing the quiver filled with arrows itself took considerably more mana than doing so to an arrow, but once he pulled an arrow out, he smiled.

It works. The cost, while more than an arrow, is actually less overall when considering just how many arrows get imbued all at once like this. Every arrow that he pulled out was imbued with magic. Reivyn emptied the quiver of all of the arrows and replaced them with fresh ones. He frowned as they didn’t acquire the effect, even though the quiver was technically still imbued.

Reivyn pumped his mana into the quiver once again, but this time it required a lot less mana. The next arrow he pulled out was successfully imbued.

So it doesn’t affect the arrows after the fact, but the mana sink of the quiver itself is removed, and it moves the mana more efficiently through itself to imbue the next set.

Reivyn looked up and down the line, and he saw that the archers weren’t doing anything, even though the Revenants were entering their range. They had been told to wait and fire at the demons and Dullahans because they weren’t inherently immune to mundane attacks, they were just a bit resistant to them.

“Sir!” Reivyn shouted to the Knight-Lieutenant to get his attention. “Imbuing the quivers works the same way as the canisters. If we imbue them, the archers can damage the Revenants, too! Each new batch of arrows has to be imbued after being placed in the quiver.”

“Non-fire casters, imbue the quivers of the archers near you!” The adjutant didn’t hesitate and issued a new order to take advantage of the discovery. I’m certain I’m not the first person to discover this, but this place has probably never had to consider such an issue before, and the Magic Academy graduates probably don’t have classes on siege warfare.

“Archers, ready!” Once the quivers along the line were imbued, Brand had the large portion of troops that didn’t have anything to do currently engage in the battle. The other operations continued as he added the troops to the mix.

“Loose!” Arrows rained down on the Revenants. Most of the arrows passed through empty space between the bones, or hit arm or leg bones and did some minor damage to the health of the Revenants. Some arrows, though, pierced into skulls directly and snuffed out the orb that powered the skeletons.

Arrows aren’t the greatest choice, but there’s not much more we can do in this situation. At least it has some effect.

Reivyn added his own arrows to the mix. He quickly ran through the arrows that he had imbued from his quiver, and he moved on to a new one to replace it. The administrative soldiers were busy refilling quivers. Teilon and Kimberly had taken it upon themselves to fulfill the role, as well, so he didn’t have to worry about running out of arrows.

Reivyn moved to imbue the new batch of arrows, but he hesitated for a second as a thought struck him. He looked back and forth between his bow and his arrows. So many other things have worked in ways that they’re not specifically designed for, I wonder…

Reivyn activated his Flame Blade skill with his bow as the target. He nocked an arrow, and he was pleased to see that it took on the characteristics of the Flame Blade spell without any additional input from himself, and he fired it into the mass of Revenants.

Calculating…
Flame Blade Skill has been altered to Flame Weapon

Reivyn casually inspected the System Notification that popped up. I got tunnel vision on the fact that I was using a sword for the most part in the dungeon, and I ignored that my skill affects every weapon equally. Reivyn clenched his fist, and he activated the skill once again with his hand as the target. His fist erupted in fire, and the flames and heat didn’t bother him at all. I am the weapon. Heh, nice.

Reivyn’s little experiment only took a couple of seconds, and he got back to launching his flaming arrows into the advancing Revenants. Reivyn noted that the damage done to them was more than just piercing damage, as the fires spread and continued to burn from where the arrows pierced into bones. As the Revenants got closer and closer, Reivyn also activated his Aim skill, and he exclusively aimed to hit Revenants in the skull.

The undead army continued its advance, and despite the large amount of damage the defenders had managed to inflict on their foes, the numbers were just too great, and the field still appeared to be filled with a never-ending tide of Revenants from the wall to the edge of the fields. And the Revenants were still coming.

There are way more than we had even feared possible. This is going to be ugly. Reivyn frowned. There must be even more Revenants on the third floor than I thought, or there might even be a fourth floor that we didn’t know about.

A huge surge of mana distracted Reivyn for a moment, and he looked over to see Knight-Captain Reifold, who had been silent and waiting up until this point, surrounded in a halo of golden light. The mana created a whirlpool around him as he sucked in more and more mana from the environment as well as fueling it from within himself, and the light from the halo became almost blinding.

The mana came to a tipping point as the spell Knight-Captain Reifold was casting filled to the brim, and after a brief moment, a huge ball of light shot out over the battlefield.

Reivyn watched as the huge ball the size of a small house rushed into the center of the field, where it exploded. The light turned into countless swords made of golden light, and they smashed down into the horde of undead. Reifold had aimed for a position that included a Dullahan, and even that larger boss monster wasn’t able to hold up for more than a couple of seconds like it, and hundreds of Revenants surrounding it were torn to shreds.

Knight-Captain Reifold watched the massacre his Divine spell wrought upon the undead, and after seeing the devastation, and the fact that most of the spell was overkill, he nodded to himself and started gathering mana once more.

I wonder how many times he can cast that spell? From the nonchalant look on his face, he probably has enough to cast it many times. That will be a huge help. Reivyn mentally heaved a sigh of relief.

Knight-Captain Reifold once more gathered mana to empower his spell, but he cut it off much shorter than filling it all the way to the bursting point like last time before he released it at another location with a Dullahan. The golden orb was considerably smaller, only the size of a room inside a small house instead of the entire house, and it once more exploded over the undead. It created the same amount of devastation, but there was much less overkill this time.

Knight-Lieutenant Brand continued to issue orders, the soldiers continued to follow them, Reivyn launched his flaming arrows, and the battle continued as the Paladin released another strike. The Revenants reached the bottom of the wall, and Reivyn was dismayed to see that they were able to dig their finger bones directly into the stone to carry themselves up the wall.

More soldiers got involved, and the cauldrons full of tar reappeared. They were imbued with mana just like the canisters, and the tar was dumped on the climbing Revenants to be lit with magical fire shortly after.

Knight-Captain Reifold began gathering mana for a fourth spell cast, and Reivyn’s Danger Sense exploded. A streak of shadow launched itself from the rear of the undead horde and quickly reached the Knight-Captain, and he was forced to cancel his spell as he instantly unsheathed his sword to block the attack.

Reivyn watched as the streak revealed itself to be a robed figure with a pitch-black sword. He stood momentarily locked in place as the Knight-Captain successfully parried the sneak attack. Reivyn noted that he couldn’t glean any details from the man, as along with the black robes covering his figure, it seemed that shadows oozed off of him and obscured everything else about him. The cowl of his hood seemed to lead into the Abyss.

“Can’t have you interrupting our little playtime, can we.” A raspy voice emerged from the hood as his momentum finally gave out and he backed away into a guard position.

The figure engaged Reifold in melee combat with lightning-quick strikes that Reivyn could barely make out even with his enhanced perception. The Knight-Captain continued to parry and riposte, but after a short moment, Reivyn felt fear truly begin to creep up his spine for the first time since the battle began.

Knight-Captain Reifold is outmatched.

Another figure appeared to materialize out of the shadows next to Knight-Lieutenant Brand, and he was forced to cut off shouting his commands as he, too, pulled his sword to defend from a sneak attack. The two men weren’t far from each other, and a bubble formed around them as they engaged in a fight for their lives and the soldiers backed away from the clearly higher tier combat.

Reivyn looked further down the line on both sides and saw several more figures materialize and assault the officers that could take charge of the defense. They’re disrupting the chain of command!

He noted that a lot of the soldiers weren’t paying attention to the overall situation, and they were just following the commands issued to them by the adjutant. They paused in their work, though, once the commands stopped coming. Reivyn leaned over the edge of the wall and saw that the Revenants were more than halfway up and gaining.

Reivyn looked back over and saw that there were still many cauldrons set up and ready to go, but there wouldn’t be enough time to use them all if they kept moving at the previous pace, and definitely not at the current pace of being completely stalled out.

He sucked in a lungful of air and yelled out in a powerful voice, as no other officers had taken charge in the last few seconds. I am technically the adjutant’s aide, he thought before he issued his first true military command.

“Soldiers, release all of the waiting cauldrons!” his voice bellowed out, and he was pleased to see that the soldiers didn’t hesitate to follow the command. “Fire Mages, standby! All other Mages, begin imbuing weapons and shields! Weapons and shields! Prepare for breach!”

The Mages hopped to imbuing as many of the weapons and shields of the soldiers and adventurers around them as they could. The melee combatants that weren’t busy with the cauldrons slammed weapons into shields and jumped up and down to pump themselves up.

“Archers, Loose at will! Empty your quivers down the side of the wall! Fire Mages, cast!”

Reivyn’s previous platoon, the second platoon, was the younger troops with lower levels, so they were in the second row with the adventurers of a bit lower level. The first platoon contained the veterans and higher Tier 2 individuals, and other, more experienced adventurers were interspersed with them. There were a couple of adventurers who were already in the low Tier 3’s, but they were few and far between.

The Mages finished imbuing the weapons and shields, and Reivyn noticed the time on his System clock so he would remember when to issue the next order to top the mana up. There wasn’t enough time or mana to spare to imbue the full kit of gear, so the defenders would have to make do.

“Mages, focus fire above and over the front lines! We can’t risk collateral damage on the troops! Conserve your mana so you can keep the gear topped up on mana!”

Reivyn had assumed command of the situation, and all of the commands that he could think of to keep the soldiers moving were quickly issued. He emptied his quiver and abandoned his bow to pull his sword and shield to wait for the Revenants to finally breach. He took a glance at the situation with the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant.

The shadowy figure engaging the Paladin mainly used melee attacks, but he interspersed his strikes with blasts of shadowy mana. Reivyn watched as the man leaped back, extending his off hand, and thin bolts speared out from each of his extended fingers. Each one zipped forward at tremendous speed, aiming for a different vital point on Reifold’s body. Reifold used his mana-imbued sword to parry several of the bolts, and he used his off hand to cast a bluish mana shield spell to block the others.

He quickly retaliated with a swing of his sword that contained a version of his previous spell, and golden, Divine mana lashed out at the shadowy figure. The man laughed as he dodged the attack and rushed back in at a different angle to engage in more melee combat again.

The robed-man assaulting the Knight-Lieutenant seemed to phase in and out of existence as his body blended with the increasing darkness as the shadows grew denser as time went on. The adjutant was unable to use mana skills, so he was unable to affect his opponent when he used the skill, and he was much more passive in defending against the opponent than his superior officer was. He had to constantly spin about as the enemy shifted all around with his random attacks.

Reivyn couldn’t make out how the combat situations were going with the other officers, but he could tell that they were at least holding their own for now.

Reivyn turned his focus back to the edge of the wall, as the first skeletal hand reached up into view, quickly followed by the rest of the Revenant.

“Breach!” Reivyn yelled the warning to the soldiers atop the ramparts. “Just like usual. First rank use sword and shield. Second rank, spears. Focus your piercing strikes on the skulls, and use sweeping strikes to push the Revenants off the walls so they don’t overwhelm us!”

Reivyn issued the command and then stepped forward himself, to take a position in the front. He lit his sword with his Flame Blade spell, and began killing the Revenants before they could get settled atop the walls.

All along the lines, the troops engaged in melee combat as the archers continued to release arrows into the horde below. The Mages launched their spells in an attempt to thin out the massive numbers still behind the Revenants finally entering melee combat.

The Revenants were the most powerful foes any of the soldiers had ever faced, and they constantly had to maintain their balance and stances with the assistance of the men behind them as the blows from the Revenants were much more powerful than they were used to. Luckily, panic had not ensued, and the troops fought like any other battle.

It wasn’t long, though, before the first casualty appeared. A soldier near Reivyn had his shield caught by one of the skeletal enemies, and it used its immense strength to launch the man off the top of the wall into the waiting army below. Reivyn listened to the man scream as he plummeted to his death, the abrupt halt in his voice indicating he had met his fate.

Similar situations occurred up and down the line as soldiers and adventurers were overpowered and killed by the increasing number of Revenants ascending the wall. The troops knew that there was no retreat from this situation, so they continued to fill the gaps left by the deceased, and the battle continued.

With the interference from those shadowy figures, we don’t have enough men. This is a losing battle.

Reivyn looked at his friends, who had joined the combat with their own imbued weapons and shields. Melissa and Larissa continued to launch their spells as they kept an eye on their mana to keep the weapons able to ward off the Revenants, and Erik was a bulwark in front of them against the tide of undead.

Reivyn gritted his teeth and quashed any feelings of guilt toward his friends that began to creep up. He had a job to do, and it was not the time to lament their actions or circumstances.

A large ball covered in spikes suddenly appeared, crashing down on a group of soldiers to Reivyn’s right, decimating their ranks. Men called out in pain as they were launched aside, but many more were silent as their heads were crushed, dying instantly. The Dullahans had reached the walls, and their spiked chain weapons were easily long enough to engage the defenders before they climbed all the way to the top.

Reivyn looked into the distance and noted that the giant demons would be able to strike at the defenders soon as well, and the fact that he could now see the end of the horde did nothing to diminish the despair that began to fill him.

We have to figure out a way to get the Knight-Captain away from that shadow-cloaked guy. But how?! He’s obviously a bit higher level than the Knight-Captain, and he’s high Tier 3!

Reivyn racked his brain for a solution, but he couldn’t think of anything other than the dumbest method: simply barging in and hoping he could distract the man long enough to let the commander launch some more spells.

I’m going to regret this! Reivyn thought as he shouted to Melissa and Larissa, “Assist me with the shadow guy!”

Reivyn waited a moment for the right opportunity. The man performed his leap back to launch the shadow spells, and Reivyn activated his Charge skill with his Flame Blade imbued sword out at the man’s back.

The man reacted almost instantly as Reivyn closed the distance in mere fractions of a second, but Reivyn was ecstatic to see that it hadn’t been fast enough. Reivyn’s sword bit into the man’s side as he twisted his body about to avoid a strike on his vitals, and Reivyn could hear a snarl of rage come from the dark cowl. Reivyn sensed the mana coming from the sisters, and he leaped back as the man began to swing toward him with his sword.

Reivyn threw up a Mana Shield in front of him and empowered it with extra mana as the mobile Ice Tomb spell detonated in the man’s face, preventing him from exacting his revenge. Knight-Captain Reifold didn’t miss the opportunity either, and he stabbed the man in the back with his Divine-empowered sword.

The man screamed in rage and pain, and he threw his arms and head back as a huge shadow exploded out of him. The shadow picked Reivyn up and tossed him away, toward the edge of the wall, and even the Knight-Captain was knocked back. Reivyn crashed into the backs of the men defending against the encroaching Revenants, and his momentum was stalled out, preventing him from being launched into the crowd of undead below.

“I’m not playing with you anymore!” A loud, otherworldly voice exploded out of the shadowy figure as he leveled his gaze on the Knight-Captain, who was getting back to his feet.

“Then maybe you’ll play with me!” Another voice answered him as a towering, hulking man covered from head to toe in heavy plate armor appeared out of nowhere. He backhanded the man with his shield, and the shadowy figure went cartwheeling off the wall, disappearing from sight in the distance as he faded into the growing darkness.

“Oh, maybe not,” the man said as he lifted his hand up to scratch his head. His armored fingers met his helmet, though, and he pulled his hand back in front of his face to look at it in apparent confusion. “He was a lot weaker than he looked.”

“Looks like we made it in time,” Reivyn heard another man say. He looked over and saw a familiar group: the heavily armored giant man, the less armored swordsman, and the Rogue and Mage, accompanied by a smaller, slimmer person also covered from head to toe in a shimmering robe. They were all decked out with their heads and faces covered with their protective gear, but Reivyn recognized them, aside from the slightly smaller addition, instantly.

It’s that group of adventurers from the Dungeon Town expedition! he thought. I remember they were really strong. We might have a fighting chance, after all.

Chapter fifty-five

The Dawn

The battle didn’t stop because of the entrance of the high-level adventurers. Reivyn wasn’t one to goggle, and the situation was certainly in hand, so he quickly made his way back to his original position to defend against the Revenants with Melissa and Larissa in tow.

Now that the Revenants were on top of the wall and engaging properly, Reivyn was finally able to see just how powerful the Revenants were without the restriction of the mana density.

Gone were the jerky motions. Gone was the lack of coordination caused by not being able to attack their exact target. The blows came in hard and fast, and Reivyn returned the strikes just as quickly. Most of the soldiers and adventurers to his left and right were unable to fight off the Revenants singlehandedly, and they had to use the tactic of stalling them out as much as possible while waiting for the spearman behind them to pierce their skulls or knock them back with a sweeping attack that put them off balance.

Reivyn was able to match the Revenants’ speed and strength, and his working mind was superior in dealing with changing situations. I can hold this position indefinitely, as long as my mana pool can keep up. A quick glance at his Status showed that he was still around 1,100. Good. My situation here should help to Inspire the morale of those around me, too.

Only a brief moment had passed, and while Reivyn had almost all of his focus concentrated on the enemies in front of him, he was still able to keep abreast of most of what was occurring nearby due to his Battlefield Awareness skill. The new adventurers had apparently finished assessing the situation after rushing to stop the shadowy figure from holding the Knight-Captain down, and they were beginning to get to serious work.

The Rogue turned and looked at the one engaging the Knight-Lieutenant, and Reivyn heard him chuckle. “You want to play with the shadows in front of an expert? I’ll play with you.”

The Rogue faded into the darkness, and almost like teleportation, he instantly appeared beside the shadowy figure as he phased back into corporeality. He had to turn away from the adjutant to parry the attack from the Rogue’s dagger. He yelped in surprise when he suffered a slash to his chest, despite successfully blocking the strike.

The Rogue laughed again as his body sunk into the man’s shadow that he still cast, despite the increasing darkness, and the robed figure turned to run away, his movement skill temporarily unable to be activated so soon after use.

“Haha, run! Run! I know you like running.” The Rogue’s upper body came back up from the shadow, being carried along without any effort on his part. He casually slashed the running figure in the back.

“Gah!” The man stumbled, and after a short pause, he dispelled the skill or magic item that caused the shadows surrounding him to continuously spread in an attempt to remove the Rogue from his position.

“That won’t help you, haha.”

A giant ball of light formed in the sky, brighter than the midday sun. It dispelled most of the darkness, but it had the side effect of actually deepening everyone’s individual shadows.

“It’s not fair, is it? Here, I’ll give you a head start.” The Rogue jumped out of the man’s shadow and returned to his group. He crossed his arms as he tapped his foot. The shadowy figure wasted no time in running for the edge of the wall to retreat into the horde of undead.

The other adventurers weren’t standing idle, though. The Mage raised his staff, and despite not being able to see it with his eyes, Reivyn could sense the powerful mana as tethers shot out and attached to all of the shadow-robed foes engaging the officers, and then they were all violently pulled to the Mage, including the one that had tried to flee from the Rogue.

The Rogue looked down at the man who had fallen to the ground from the powerful yanking force. “Oh, did I say I would give you a head start? Whoops.” He slashed down with his dagger and nearly decapitated his enemy, ending his life.

A shadowy apparition rose from the man’s body and melted in the glaring light of the artificial sun.

“We’re not here to play,” the Swordsman said. He casually swung his sword, and a blade aura slashed through all of the other robed men at once, nearly cutting them all in half. “The longer we take, the more people will die.” Similar apparitions rose from their corpses, as well, and disintegrated shortly after.

“Right, boss. Sorry, boss.” The Rogue bobbed his head.

A spiked ball from a Dullahan came flying up over the edge, and the towering metal adventurer raised his shield as Reivyn felt a force expand out from him. The spiked ball jerked from its trajectory and slammed ineffectually into the man’s shield and bounced off.

“Can’t have any of that,” he said as he charged to the edge of the wall. He released a mighty shout, and a bluish aura expanded out from him to encompass nearly half of the entire wall. Ethereal shields sprung up in front of all of the troops within range of the aura, and the Revenant’s attacks were all sucked into attacking the shields whether they wanted to or not. The blows didn’t so much as cause a ripple as the man singlehandedly reduced more than half of the line’s pressure.

While the man covered in heavy armor took up his defensive position, the Swordsman threw his off-hand into the air, and hundreds of ethereal weapons appeared as if he had tossed them out of a bag. Most of them were swords, but they also contained axes, spears, daggers, and many other forms of bladed weapons. They floated down to begin circling around him. He turned to the adjutant.

“Order the line to retreat to the middle or rear of the wall. I’ll handle the breach.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand nodded.

“Soldiers! Retreat ten paces!” The soldiers and adventurers manning the line began to methodically back away. In the center where the defensive adventurer had taken up residence, the Revenants were unable to follow, but along the edges, more and more came up as space was made.

The Swordsman dashed to the end of the line in an instant, and his weapons became a maelstrom of destruction as they swirled around him at blinding speed. He didn’t even have to swing his own weapon. He just ran up and down the line at a blistering speed a couple of times, and he reaped all of the Revenants on the line.

The Mage followed behind him, the Rogue standing to his side to prevent any more shadowy figures from appearing and sneak-attacking him, and a wall of fire encompassed the entire line. Reivyn could feel the heat from his position after backing away with the soldiers, and he watched as the air itself turned into plasma and dripped like molten metal.

The wall of flames descended along the face of the city wall, and it scoured it clean of any Revenants and Dullahans that had been climbing.

“The mana density is still a bit low,” Reivyn heard come from the more diminutive Mage. The new addition reached into a pouch on their back and pulled out a handful of crystals that were way too large to fit in such a small space. The Mage threw them into the air where they shattered. Reivyn felt a tremendous, sudden increase in the mana density, several times higher than it had even been when filled with the mana the enemies had inundated the battlefield with.

“Ahh, that’s better.” The Mage extended their arms to the side, and they began to levitate in place. Hundreds of balls of light flew out of them and spread across the battlefield in the sky. Beams of golden light began to shoot out of the balls as they traversed the sky, raining destruction upon the undead below. Reivyn felt the increased mana density begin to coalesce around the individual as they prepared a massive spell.

As the situation was brought well in hand by the new adventurers, the five giant demons finally arrived at the wall. Reivyn noticed that they were actually a bit taller than he had expected. The walls were fifty feet tall, and the demons stood head and shoulder above even that.

“Haha, yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!” the hulking man in armor exclaimed. He reached into a pouch behind him, and he withdrew a giant hammer, the head half the size of his own body. “BRING IT!” The loud shout contained a ripple of power, and all five demons forcibly had their attention pulled to the man.

The first demon raised its hand and brought it crashing down on top of the armored adventurer. The man easily withstood the strike with his shield, and then he swung his hammer forward. It crashed into the air like it hit a solid wall, and the demon’s body, which was still about twenty feet away, seemed to take a blow out of nowhere. Its head snapped back from the force of the blow, and it stumbled a bit.

“Hahahaha, yeah! Get some!” The armored man cackled maniacally as he engaged the five demons by himself. The other adventurers gathered back together near where the new member was floating in the air. The taller Mage occasionally shot beams of super-heated plasma at the giant demons.

Reivyn stood in awe as he watched the spectacle.

I knew they were strong, but holy cow! It’s been less than five minutes, and the battle is pretty much over.

The defenders all up and down the line relaxed as they witnessed the raw power of the adventuring team. Many collapsed to the ground as the sudden relief and feelings of survival overwhelmed the adrenaline that had just been pumping through their veins.

The mana finished accumulating with the smaller Mage, and Reivyn turned his attention back to witness the spell unfold.

Clouds made of golden light came streaking in from all directions toward the center of the battlefield where thousands of Revenants still moved mindlessly toward the city. The clouds quickly covered the entire sky, but instead of bringing doom and gloom like thunderclouds normally would, these brought a sense of peace and tranquility as they radiated even more light.

The clouds formed a funnel cloud in the center of the field, and Reivyn watched as a giant, golden tornado formed. The balls of light that were still blasting their beams were sucked into the tornado, and the tornado shot thousands of beams down onto the undead in all directions. The tornado began to move, and all of the undead were picked up and sucked into the spinning, golden death.

The Revenants began disintegrating before they even reached the main body of the tornado, and many more were blasted into smithereens by the beams of light. Reivyn and the others on the wall didn’t feel the wind or pull from the tornado, but it sucked up all of the undead, while leaving the fields, plants, and structures intact.

The giant demons began to be sucked toward the maelstrom, and one of them quickly grabbed hold of the top of the city wall, digging its fingers into the stone. The hulking adventurer laughed as he brought his hammer down on the fingers, and the demon was unable to hold on and got lifted into the air to be dragged to its demise.

Despite the huge spectacle, the battlefield went completely silent. The tornado lifted off the ground and returned to the calm clouds, and they, too, slowly dissipated to reveal that it was still midday.

Not a single trace of the undead army remained.

The artificial sun was gone, but the sky was still blue, and natural, fluffy clouds still floated through the sky, completely unconcerned with the happenings on the ground. I had almost forgotten that it wasn’t nighttime, Reivyn thought absentmindedly.

The sudden tranquility was broken by the mangled body of the first shadowy-cloaked figure falling from the sky to land on the ramparts near the adventurers. The man wasn’t dead, and he struggled to sit up and look at the adventurers who had so casually destroyed his plans.

The man coughed and hacked before he managed to find his voice as he addressed them.

“Who are you? There shouldn’t be anyone of your caliber in these parts!” He couldn’t accept reality.

“It doesn’t matter,” the Swordsman replied calmly as he stood over the broken body of the man. His sword was still in his hand, but the ethereal weapons he had summoned had long since been dispersed.

“Hahahaha. That bastard might have lied to me, but h—ack,” the Swordsman stabbed him through the throat as he tried to start a tirade. The diminutive Mage slapped him on the shoulder with the back of their hand.

“Hey! He might have had something important to say,” she admonished.

“Nah.” The Swordsman shrugged. “We probably know more than he does, anyway. I would rather not listen to him.”

“Whatever.” The smaller Mage turned their head away in a huff.

“Hahahaha. Better watch yourself. Don’t get on her bad side, or you know what…” The giant adventurer came bounding over with glee.

“Oh? I know what, exactly?” The Swordsman turned to him. The big man froze in place as he looked back and forth between his companions.

“You know… Stuff… And things,” he stammered out.

“Uh-huh. How revealing.”

“Hmph!” The little Mage crossed her arms as she turned completely away from the duo.

“May I know how to address the sirs, and ma’am, that have come to our aid?” The commander of the Mage Corps approached the adventurers, Knight-Captain Reifold a half-step behind and to the side of him. The Mage Corps commander gave a deep bow to the apparent leader of the team. Reivyn’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the scene.

“Just your everyday adventurers, looking for excitement,” the Swordsman replied nonchalantly. He sheathed his weapon as he nodded at the pair of men.

“Well, I’m Count Ilpir, the Lord of Magron. I would be honored if you heroes would join me for a victory feast at my humble home,” the count said.

Ahh, that makes sense. I had thought the man would wait in safety for news on the outcome of the battle, but he was here, fighting, the whole time. Reivyn’s respect for the man increased significantly.

“Won’t be necessary, and we aren’t Heroes,” the Swordsman replied.

“Yeah, this guy, here, had the chance to advance to the Hero class, but circumstances dictated otherwise.” The large man clapped a hand on the Swordsman’s shoulder. The Swordsman turned his head and glared at him, and the heavily armored man slowly raised his hand off of his shoulder. “I mean… yeah, no Heroes here.”

The Swordsman turned and walked off, and the other adventurers hurried to follow. The count took several steps toward the retreating party.

“There must be something I can do to show my appreciation,” he tried one more time.

“Nah, we got people to be and places to kill.” The Rogue waved his hand without turning back. The group made their way to the stairs, and they left, just like that.

“Damn,” the count muttered under his breath.

“Some things aren’t meant to be, my lord,” Captain-Reifold said from his position.

“Yeah.” The count sighed. “I know. It would have been a great boon to building a relationship with such powerful individuals, though.”

“There might be other opportunities in the future. The dungeon is still there,” Knight-Captain Reifold pointed out. “And there are other young, promising heroes to praise for their courage.” Reifold looked toward Reivyn and his friends.

Teilon, Kimberly, Melissa, Larissa, and Erik had all gathered around Reivyn once the danger of the Revenants on the wall had been dealt with, and they had stood just as stupefied as they watched the end of the battle unfold. Even Erik had lost his composure and put his guard down to witness the scene.

Reivyn had witnessed many scenes of bravery during the ordeal, and he was sure the Knight-Captain wasn’t just talking about him. He and his friends were just the closest and most prominent group.

The count looked back at the commander of his retinue, and then he followed his gaze toward Reivyn and his party. His body gave a small jerk as his eyes landed on Reivyn, but he visibly mastered himself before he walked over. He smiled at the group, and he even nodded to Melissa and Larissa.

“Yes, we’ll still hold a victory feast, and you all will definitely be in attendance. Things could have been much worse, young Reivyn, if you hadn’t stepped forward to issue commands at that critical juncture.”

There’s something strange about the way he addressed me like that… Well, whatever. It’s not important.

“The enemies must have seen through my disguise, because I was likewise entangled. You have my sincere thanks.” The count looked all around and lifted his head before continuing.

“That goes for all of you,” he shouted. “Each and every one of you stood up to a hopeless situation, and though many brave men and women fell to never get back up again, you faced your fears and showed what true courage means.

“In addition to the few who stood out and get recommended by their superiors to join me in the victory feast, I will personally see to it that you, and the families of the fallen, are justly rewarded and taken care of.”

The defenders cheered at the words. They weren’t cheering for the reward, or for the praise from the count.

They were cheering for life.

Mourning would be done for the friends that had laid their lives down, but right now, it was a triumph of life over death, in more ways than one.

The count nodded one last time toward Reivyn and his party, and he and the Knight-Captain departed the battlements. Knight-Lieutenant Brand walked up shortly after.

“We still have some cleaning up to do, and then a lot of after-action reports must be made. You and your friends have done enough, so I’ll see you at the banquet,” the Knight-Lieutenant said. “Good job on taking charge. Those were the right orders to issue for the occasion. I think you might still have some friends from the Dungeon Town down below, so I’ll let you go.”

“Thank you, sir,” Reivyn said. The Knight-Lieutenant clapped him on the shoulder before turning around to command the clean-up. Reivyn turned and faced his friends.

“Well, let’s head on down. There were a couple of acquaintances below, so let’s go check up on them.”

“Yeah, and after, I’m going to go back to our rooms, take a bath, and then collapse on the bed,” Teilon said with a stretch. “I’m exhausted. Both mentally and physically. One of those Revenants really hit my shield hard at just the right angle. I’m going to be bruised all on my left side.”

“Maybe it’ll improve your complexion,” Reivyn said as he threw his arm over Teilon’s shoulders. He swung him side to side as he ribbed him.

“I don’t have the energy to come up with a proper quip back,” Teilon said as he looked at Reivyn out of the side of his eyes.

“What else is different?” Kimberly chimed in with a lopsided grin. Teilon gasped and placed his hand on his breast in mock outrage.

“You, too?” He placed the back of his wrist on his forehead as he tilted his head back. “Traitors and scoundrels, the lot of you.”

“Hahaha, okay, okay,” Reivyn said as he straightened up. “We’ll get our chance to relax and recover, soon. Let’s go check up on a few people.”

“We’re going to go make sure the villagers and the kids are okay,” Melissa said. Larissa nodded, and Kimberly walked over to join them. Reivyn shared a glance with Teilon. He nodded to the girls, and Erik, and Teilon walked over and joined them as well.

“I’ll see you guys back at the lord’s manor,” Reivyn said with a wave.

“Sure. See you, then,” Melissa said as they followed him down the steps. Reivyn felt a little awkward having said their farewells but ending up still walking in the same direction. They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Reivyn gave another sheepish wave as they finally parted.

He walked toward where those from the Dungeon Town were still resting. Even more of them had succumbed to the lure of sleep, and the local City Guard that hadn’t been on the wall had brought blankets and pillows for them to use right there on the street. They stood watch over them so that nobody would decide that now was the perfect opportunity for a little pickpocketing.

Reivyn searched the faces of the men and women laid about. He saw that Cal and his friends, the original two he had met in the tavern before the other three he had eventually teamed up with, were still splayed out where he had seen them fall asleep. Lorin was sitting with his back leaning against one of his party members, his head down and chin on his chest, also asleep.

Reivyn didn’t see Josn anywhere, at first, and so he walked around with his head turning back and forth as he searched. He finally spotted him sitting on some steps, alone. His head was down, and Reivyn thought he might have also fallen asleep, but he saw him move and knew he was still awake. Reivyn walked over and sat down next to him in companionable silence.

“Did I do the right thing?” Josn eventually said after noticing it was Reivyn. He stared down at his hands, holding them palm up on his knees. “I told the Sword-Bishop, once, that we should put the stricken adventurers to the sword. As a mercy. I thought I was strong enough to handle such a decision and not become a monster, but now I know better.” He looked up at Reivyn, and there were tears in his eyes.

“I’m not strong enough. Not to make that decision. Not to not become a monster”—he looked at the top of the walls, his sight beyond—“and not to protect my men.” He clenched his fists as he looked back down.

“You know what you are strong enough for?” Reivyn said after a moment, placing his hand on his shoulder. Josn looked up at him with a curious look on his face. “You’re strong enough to admit it. You recognize your weakness. The real question is: are you strong enough to do something about it?”

Josn sat in silence as he looked back down once again. He sat like that, in contemplation, for several moments before he looked back up, the defeat that had been building on his face gone.

“You’re right. I’m not strong enough now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be strong enough eventually,” he said. “The Sword-Bishop singlehandedly killed three of those giant demons and five Dullahans before he was taken down. I can’t disappoint my mentor by giving up. He sacrificed his life to make sure we had a chance at survival, and he didn’t have to. He was strong enough to make it out of there all on his own.”

“He was also strong enough to make the decision not to,” Reivyn said gently.

“Yes. I must be strong like him.” Josn stood up, a look of determination on his face.

“What are you going to do now?” Reivyn asked from his seat.

“I’m going to lead my men back to the Dungeon Town,” Josn said as he looked at Reivyn. “We still need a presence there, and that’s my duty.

“We will run that dungeon until we’re as strong as that group of adventurers that defeated the horde in a few minutes by themselves.”

“Isn’t the Dungeon Town destroyed?” Reivyn cocked his head.

“No,” Josn replied. “It’s mostly still standing. Despite being the origination of the devastation, it didn’t really affect the town that much. Only a couple of buildings were destroyed by the demons and Dullahans moving about, and as far as I could tell, the mana escaping from the dungeon stopped once those guys opened the rifts to release the monsters.” Reivyn’s eyebrows went up in surprise.

“That’s good, I guess,” Reivyn said.

“Yeah.” Josn hit his fist into his other open palm. “I’ll send a request for reinforcements, and obviously a list of those to be honored, and we’ll get right back up and running.” He turned to look at Reivyn once more. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Reivyn said with a wave of his hand. “You had it in you the whole time, you just needed someone to point it out to you.” Reivyn stood up and clasped hands with Josn. “I’m going to go get cleaned up and get some rest. The count is holding a victory feast, later, and I’m sure you’ll be one of the ones he wants present the most.

“What you did, leading your men and the survivors of the town to escape all the way here, was extraordinary.” Reivyn clapped him on the shoulder one last time. “You’re already a lot stronger than you realize.”

Josn nodded with a smile before he turned and walked back to where the rest of the Sword-Priests were resting. Reivyn watched him go for a moment before he, too, turned and made his way to the lord’s manor.

As strong as that adventuring team that was able to end the battle in a few minutes by themselves, Reivyn thought as he walked. I’ll be that strong, one day. I don’t want my parents or sisters to ever have to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to make it out of a situation.

The streets were eerily quiet as the sun finally began to set on the horizon. Reivyn walked to the lord’s manor to get some much-needed rest.

Chapter fifty-six

After Action

Reivyn leaned back and relaxed in the hot water. Teilon and his other friends hadn’t returned to the manor right away, so Reivyn went ahead and took the opportunity to get cleaned up and relax his muscles.

As soon as he had entered the waters, despite the heat, his body trembled uncontrollably for a while.

Despite all of the dangerous situations I’ve found myself in before, this was the first time I truly felt like there was no hope of survival. If those adventurers hadn’t appeared, the city would have been lost.

Reivyn put his hand over his eyes, and silent tears leaked out of them. He wasn’t crying because of the fear he had experienced. The fear had only been a small portion of what he had felt. When it had finally dawned on him that they were going to lose the battle, he hadn’t felt much fear. He had felt sadness and regret for his friends. He had felt sadness for the fallen defenders.

He had felt sadness for his family learning of the news and not being able to do anything about it. His mind forced him to imagine the helplessness and despair his mother and father would feel and the confusion and later sadness his sisters would experience. They’re still pretty young, so they might not fully understand, yet.

He had suppressed those feelings in the moment in order to perform his job, but now they threatened to overwhelm him. He let the emotions run their course, and he didn’t fight back the tears but let them slowly drip off his face to join their watery brethren in the bath.

The time for tears is after the job is done. Reivyn vaguely remembered a similar quote from his dreams, and he felt he truly understood it, now.

After several minutes of just sitting there, letting the emotions course through him, Reivyn was finally able to overcome them and return to his normal self. He washed up as the water turned lukewarm and returned to the room that he shared with Teilon and Erik.

His friends weren’t back yet, and they would have to do their own relaxation once they arrived, so he donned some comfortable clothes and lay back on his bed, his hands interlocked behind his head.

Not much else to do right now, so might as well pull my notifications up, he thought.

Combat Initiated.
Enemies Defeated
Exp +25
Exp +25
…
Exp +25 x 314

Wow, I killed 314 goblins. I killed more than most, but a lot of other people should also have gotten a significant increase in experience from this battle. He continued to look through the battle report notification.

Enemies Defeated
Exp +60
Exp +60
…
Exp +60 x 38

I killed a lot less of the Orcs, but that’s still going to be a decent chunk of experience, too, for a lot of people. I didn’t attack any of the ogres, so I didn’t get any contribution from killing any of them.

Enemies Defeated
Exp +380
Exp +380
…
Exp +380 x41

41 Revenants were killed from the combination of the arrows I launched, and then the ones I fought on the wall. I didn’t keep track in the moment, but that number seems right.

Enemy Defeated
Calculating Contribution…
15% Experience Rewarded
Exp +159

Reivyn looked at the last line in confusion before he figured out where the last bit of experience had come from. That’s from that shadow-cloaked guy. I stabbed him in the side, so I got some credit for his defeat. 159 Experience is only 15% of the total! That means he was worth more than 1,000 experience all by himself. I know the Revenants are Tier 3 Level 50, and they give 380 experience for killing them. That means this guy was firmly in Tier 4.

Reivyn let that fact sink in for a moment. He wasn’t lying when he said he was playing with us. If he hadn’t wanted to fool around, this could have gone so much worse. But if he and his group were so powerful, why go through so much trouble in orchestrating the dungeon break? There has to be more to it than that. Reivyn couldn’t wrap his head around the motivations of the shadowy group, but then another thought struck him.

They were like children in front of the adventurers… Does that mean they were Max Tier 4? Or maybe they were even Tier 5… He clenched his fist as he thought about it. One day I’ll be Tier 5. I’ll be as powerful, or even more powerful, than them.

Reivyn had never lusted after power for power’s sake before. He had always been training, working, and planning to get into the most powerful class and work on his achievements because it seemed like the right thing to do. He hadn’t been worried about people bullying his family or any other such reason. Why hobble myself with an inferior class when I can get a better one? This is my life, after all. But now he had a real reason to aim for the top.

Reivyn turned his attention back to the notifications.

Combat Resolved.
Calculating…
Large Scale Siege Battle:
Exp +24,160
Calculating…
Determined Partial Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role <1%
Exp +784

Oh, looks like the commanders of battles get a bonus for the experience. That makes even more sense that they don’t just go in and do everything themselves. They don’t need to in order to continue to progress as well as let their men gain experience.

Achievement!
Survive a Hopeless Siege Battle
Luck +1

Wow, a lot of people just unlocked the luck stat if they didn’t have it already.

Achievement!
Command a Successful Siege Battle
Charisma +1
Bonus Leveling to Battlefield Awareness, Command, Inspire, and Strategy Applied

Achievement!
Command a Successful ‘Hopeless’ Siege Battle
Luck and Charisma +3
Bonus Leveling to Battlefield Awareness, Command, Inspire, and Strategy Applied

Achievement!
Inspire More Than 100 People at the Same Time
Charisma +1
Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied

Achievement!
Inspire More than 300 People at the Same Time
Charisma +3
Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied

Achievement!
Participate in a Battle Between Realms
All Stats +1

Achievement!
Successfully Sneak Attack an Entity 3 Tiers Above You, Ending in Their Defeat
All Stats +10
Bonus Leveling to Hiding, Sneaking, Stealth, and Backstab Skills Applied

Achievement!
Bring Someone of a Higher Tier Back from the Depths of Despair with Your Words Alone
Charisma +3
Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied

That is a lot of achievements. I didn’t think I did that much in the battle. Looks like even taking over temporary command worth less than 1% still grants the Command achievements, though. I bet there are some stipulations applied to the achievement: like if a commander simply gives the command away to let someone else get the achievement it might not work. It’s probably only when someone steps up and takes command in a dire situation that it truly applies.

Reivyn didn’t know for sure, but based on the fact that Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand usually went out of their way to allow their men to develop, there was no way they wouldn’t game the System to let more of their troops get such an achievement and bonus experience if it was that easy.

There were still more notifications to peruse through.

Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1
Aim (25 ->27)
Balance (45 ->46)
Horsemanship (6 ->8)
Riding (11 ->12)
Shields (47 ->48)
Sneaking (25 ->27)

Tier 2
Evasion (37 ->39)
Sense Mana (54 ->55)
Stealth (18 ->23)
Strategy (15 ->19)

Tier 3
Battlefield Awareness (14 ->18)
Command (11 ->20)
Danger Sense (13 ->15)
Inspire (13 ->24)
Mana Conjuration (28 ->30)
Mana Manipulation (30 ->32)
Mana Sight (31 ->33)
Mental Fortitude (38 ->40)

Tier 4
Iron Will (13 ->15)
Mana Weapon (24 ->27)

Tier 5:
Spatial Awareness (20 ->21)

Tier 6
Weapons Master (59 ->61)

Weapons Master finally breached the Level 60 hurdle. The previous solo delve of the dungeon hadn’t quite done it, but it looks like using it so much in an intense situation, plus against a high Tier 4 leveled enemy, not only broke the barrier but even advanced an additional level.

New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 1
Heavy Armor (0 ->7)

Tier 2
Backstab (0 ->9)

Tier 3
Commanding Shout (0 ->4)

Tier 5
Heroic Bearing (0 ->3)

Backstab went from 0 to 9 in one go from successfully sneak-attacking that shadow guy. I guess that’s to be expected, but what’s with this Heroic Bearing? Reivyn thought about all of his actions and the achievements he had received from the battle and pep talk with Josn after. It has to be a combination of all of it together: I gave steady commands to the defenders, rushed in to attack a high Tier 4 bad guy, didn’t back down—I actually didn’t have time to cower in fear, so that might have actually bent things in my favor—and then I had a conversation with Josn where I Inspired him out of his depression, though I don’t know how much credit I can really take for that. He probably would have come out of it on his own given time.

Reivyn was very satisfied with the results. He had gained a lot of skill levels in some of the harder ones to level, namely the leadership ones, and his mana skills also saw a bit of a boost. He gained his first heroic skill, and his Weapons Master finally pushed through a significant barrier.

I guess I might be considered a master now? The numbers are off for me, and the skill levels are personal while the designations are more for outward appearances. I might not quite be there yet, but even if I’m not, it’s only a matter of time now that I’ve broken through my bottleneck.

I wonder if I’ve seen any additions to my available classes?

“Whew! That feels nice,” Teilon exclaimed as he walked into the room. Reivyn set aside his investigation of his System for now. He had accomplished his goal of reviewing the battle report and skill gains, and there would be plenty of time to look at his Class page later.

Teilon walked to his bed and flopped down on it, Erik following behind, also having washed off and both seeming relaxed after the battle.

“The victory feast is going to be tomorrow for lunch,” Teilon said, his forearm over his eyes. “The count said it was too soon to do it tonight, even though the battle was over before evening. Everyone would want some time to wind down. I know I do.”

“Yeah, you should also check your battle report notifications,” Reivyn said. “Several achievements, and a good boost of experience.” Reivyn sat up and looked at his friend. “Speaking of experience, you and Kimberly missed out on a chunk because you’ve never trained with a bow or other ranged weapons before. We’re going to fix that, soon.”

“Ugghhh, I just said I needed to wind down from the huge battle that threatened to kill everyone in the city, and you’re already talking about training!” Teilon complained. “I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from you by now.”

“Suck it up.” Reivyn chuckled. “Training with a ranged weapon should be a lot easier than your sparring sessions. Sure, you’ll still have to exert your muscles in a new way, but you and Kimberly are Tier 2, now. Your strength and stamina should help you quite a lot.”

Teilon didn’t check his notifications right away, and he stayed in his position lying down with his arm thrown over his face. Reivyn reclined once more and began to pull up his class page again.

“I thought we were going to die.” Teilon spoke up after a moment of silence. “I thought for sure the Revenants would overwhelm us, and tomorrow the city would be filled with new recruits for their undead army. Even Knight-Captain Reifold was no match for the invaders.” Reivyn put aside his class page once more and sat up again.

“I thought we were going to die, too,” Reivyn said with a nod. Teilon lifted his head up and peeked at him from behind his arm.

“Really? I never would have guessed. You were so steady the whole time.” Reivyn shook his head at the words.

“No, there was a point in the battle that I was filled with regret for dragging you and the others along with me,” Reivyn admitted. “I thought, ‘I should have sent them ahead to the Capital first. There was time for them to escape the situation, and it wasn’t their responsibility.’”

“Don’t speak like that,” Teilon said firmly. “You speak as if it was somehow your responsibility not only for the city but for us as well.

“I will admit that you’re the party leader, and the party is your responsibility in most situations. This wasn’t one of them. Staying to defend the city was no more your job than it was ours, and we knew that from the beginning.”

“You’re right, of course,” Reivyn said.

“Damn straight, I’m right.” Teilon leaned back on his pillow again. “I would make the same decision, again. So would Kimberly, and I’m sure Melissa and Larissa would, as well.”

“Yeah, I know,” Reivyn said with a sigh. “I just felt bad about it. When the cloaked guys showed up and took out our chance of thinning out the undead army, I knew the battle was lost. At that time, I didn’t feel fear for myself. I felt sadness and regret for everyone else.”

“I know what you mean,” Teilon said. “But I couldn’t live with myself if I had chosen to run away.”

The two young men lapsed into a moment of silence. After a brief moment, a voice cut through the silence.

“I didn’t think we were going to die,” Erik said. Reivyn and Teilon both sat up and shared a look of surprise at the words. Erik had apparently been looking at his notifications, and Reivyn had assumed he hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation. Erik finished looking off into space and faced the two friends.

“I knew we were going to die,” he continued. Reivyn’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “I had resigned myself to lay my life down at the last moment to try and secure an escape for the two young ladies. It’s my duty to shield them from danger.” He looked at Reivyn and Teilon in turn.

“It’s not your duty to lay your lives down for anyone, but you stood and fought anyway. I’m proud to call you two my companions. Kimberly, as well.” Erik said his piece and then turned around to go to sleep. Reivyn and Teilon shared another look.

“Well…” Reivyn said after a moment of silence. “Just so you know, we feel the same way about you and Melissa and Larissa.” Erik grunted in response. Reivyn chuckled as he leaned back once more.

“I think Erik has the right idea,” Reivyn said. “I was going to look at my class page to see if anything new popped up, but I can barely stay awake any longer.” I’ll just do it first thing in the morning.

“Uh-huh,” Teilon said with a dismissive wave of his hand, his other arm still over his eyes. “Teilon’s already asleep.” He lowered his arms and also turned to go to sleep. Reivyn heard his breathing become steady after only a few short seconds.

Reivyn chuckled and also closed his eyes to get some much-needed sleep. The exhaustion, both mentally and physically, had finally caught up with him, and he was asleep almost as fast as his two roommates.

Tier 2 Classes Available:
Rare:
Air Magus
Archer
Builder *Earth/Wood
Cavalryman
Darkness Magus
Dreamer
Earth Magus
Fighter
Fire Magus
Ice Magus
Light Magus
Magma Magus
Metal Magus
Plasma Magus
Rogue
Politician
Siege Engineer
Tracker *Earth/Wood
Water Magus
Wood Magus

Reivyn pulled up his Tier 2 classes available for selection. He directly ignored the common and uncommon rarities, and the only additional option for Tier 2 was the rare class Siege Engineer. Reivyn did notice several other important changes, though.

Must be because of my participation in the siege warfare. It wasn’t exactly what a siege would be, but I guess the System deems it close enough. The point of my Tier 2 class, though, is to focus on a caster class, and now it looks like my Tier 2 caster class options have evolved. The generic “Mage” designation is nowhere to be seen.

Another thing seems weird that I hadn’t really paid attention to before, Reivyn thought as a class stuck out to him. Why is Politician not alphabetically listed? Is there some sort of hint in placing it after Rogue? Eh, it doesn’t matter. I’m definitely not going to choose that as an option.

I had been wondering what I would choose, temporarily, as my affinity, but I hadn’t narrowed it down until now.

The most powerful Mage of the adventuring group used some sort of affinity I don’t have. It looked like it was Divine, but my Mana Sense skill gave me the feeling it wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t light. I have no idea what affinity it was, but it was extremely powerful.

It didn’t cause any damage to anything aside from the undead, but I think that was more the impeccable control of the Mage rather than the inherent characteristics of the affinity.

My instincts tell me it has something to do with the Light Affinity. Maybe it’s some sort of upgrade further down the line. I’m nearly 100% certain I want to take the Light Affinity as my caster class before I graduate from the academy. If the description of Champion wasn’t already enough to hint at the importance of it, then this definitely clinches the deal.

Let’s check it out real quick and see what the difference between Mage *Light and Light Magus is. Reivyn focused his attention on the class

Light Magus
You have done extensive research into many forms of the different mana affinities, and you have gained the ability to form the proper weaves of most of them. But you have gone even a step further than this, and you have gleaned some of the underlying truths behind the very nature of reality itself.

The Magus is one who can proficiently wield mana of all types, and the Light Magus has a specific tendency toward the Light Affinity, receiving bonuses to all magical constructs built from the affinity.

Reivyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

I didn’t realize a versatile affinity-based caster class was a thing in Tier 2. Melissa and Larissa had hinted that the more powerful classes that could utilize more affinities were exclusive to the higher tiers.

It looks like this was brought about not only by my practice with the weaves, but also the Veridical Affinity is finally showing a tangible effect.

Reivyn was more than certain, now. He wouldn’t have to give up the ability to cast spells using the other affinities while he waited for his Tier 3 class, and he would still get the benefits of specializing in one form of mana.

I think I’ll keep this one a secret from Melissa and Larissa. Reivyn chuckled. I don’t necessarily need to actually keep it secret, but Melissa had shown some signs of exasperation at my ability to figure mana skills and weaves out quickly. She and her sister are my friends. I don’t want to build some distance between us for something so stupid as talent.

Reivyn nodded, but then he stopped himself as another thought struck him.

Then again, they’re likely to find out when I enroll in the academy. I’m sure they’ll require me to reveal my class and prove I’m a caster in order to be eligible for the Magic Academy and not get sent to the Knight Academy…

Reivyn tapped his chin in thought.

I think… that would be worse than telling them right away. There’s still time. I’ll ask my parents for their opinion on the matter.

Decision made, Reivyn continued to look to see if anything had changed for his Tier 3 classes that he could see. He once more ignored the rarities that he wasn’t considering.

Epic*:
Arcanist
Assassin
Chevalier
Elemental Swordsman*
Mystic
Shade
Sharpshooter
Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
Veteran

Legendary*:
Arcane Elementalist
Champion
Death Knight
Juggernaut
Warlord

It’s mostly the same, but there are some significant changes. Let’s see: Arcanist, Elemental Swordsman, Mystic, and Sorcerer are all changes to the forced epic rarity. The Elemental Swordsman is probably just the version of the Magic Swordsman that can use more elements, and the Sorcerer replaced the Wizard. I’ll check them out briefly to see what the differences are.

Arcane Elementalist, Death Knight—that doesn’t look good—and Warlord are the changes to the forced legendary classes. Death Knight and Warlord are actually not grayed out, either. Not sure how I feel about that.

Reivyn decided to check out the differences in the classes with the slight changes in their names first.

Elemental Swordsman*
You have an aptitude for martial combat as well as casting. You have spent long hours honing your ability with a weapon, but you never slacked off on training your mana skills and affinities.

The Elemental Swordsman is renowned for their versatility, and only the most talented of individuals are able to combine the martial with the magical. The Elemental Swordsman has access to all of the elemental affinities. They are able to apply their magic directly to their weapons, and, at higher skills, their armor. While the Elemental Swordsman is unable to cast spells in the traditional sense, they are incredibly deadly at close range.

*Synergy detected with Weapons Master Skill. Class can utilize Weapons Master instead of Swords.

Almost word for word the same, just with the difference that I thought.

Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
You’re able to expertly wield the four basic elements. You can use simple spells and complex designs of magic equally with ease across the spectrum of all of the basic elements, and you’re proficient in the other elements, as well.

The Full-Basic-Elements-Aligned Sorcerer is a powerful caster. Their spells are no longer restricted to one element, but they can shape each of their spells to their desired element, and the weaker versions can also be used with more complicated elemental tiers. Simple Bolt spells no longer take up a class skill slot, and they have several powerful spells available to them.

The Sorcerer is proficient at all of the other elements, instead of just being able to use them slightly. Otherwise, it’s also the same.

Let’s check out some of these new options.

Arcanist
You have delved deep into the study of magic on a fundamental level. You have knowledge of all of the elements, and they bend to your will.

The Arcanist is a force to be reckoned with. They make no distinction between the elements, yet they wield them just as expertly as one who specializes. Simple Bolt spells no longer take up a class skill slot, and they have several powerful spells, of all elements, available to them.

It’s basically a vastly superior version of the Sorcerer. This one is probably close to being unlocked because of my research into the various mana weaves. It doesn’t have the same wording associated with it as the Magus does, though, so it’s probably not influenced by my Veridical Affinity.

Mystic
Not only are you an expert with the more traditional magics, but you have also delved into the otherworldly. You can see beyond the veil.

The Mystic is a powerful caster, though not quite as much of an expert as one specialized in pure magic. They can see truths of the various realms, and they make for fantastic advisors.

This class is probably because of my interaction with the Abyss realm. The veil probably refers to the separation of the realms. It doesn’t specifically state the Abyss, though, so it can probably see more than just the one realm.

Arcane Elementalist
The nature of mana is no mystery to you. You have mastered the four basic elements, and you can be considered an expert in many others. No magic spell is out of your reach.

The Arcane Elementalist can easily cast powerful spells of any nature, though the four basic elements are particularly empowered. They can learn new spells with a flip of their hand, and the different affinities flock to them of their own volition. Only the most talented of Mages could ever hope to become one.

Upgraded version of the Arcanist. So far, it looks like this is the class that I need to work toward while in the academy. The requirements are steep, though: Master level in the four basic elements and expert level in at least several others looks like the bare minimum. Well, I know I have a couple of years at least to work toward it, and I don’t have to worry about the stat requirements, so this should definitely be doable.

Reivyn nodded at the new goal he set for himself.

Death Knight
You are the master of death. Not only do you decide when one falls to their eternal slumber, but even the ones who already have are not out of your reach. You command the legions of dead, and they answer.

The Death Knight is one part Knight, one part Necromancer. They are feared on the battlefield for their mastery of the martial and magical, and even monarchs quake in fear at their very name for the armies they can raise. Descend into the Abyss.

Helpful Hint: This Class is not considered Heretical for you.

That’s not ominous at all. What’s even worse is that the System apparently deems I’m qualified now for the class. No.

This begs the question: If this class is available to me, why is there no Necromancer class in a lower rarity? It’s not that important, just a weird thing I noticed.

Warlord
Warfare is your calling. The battlefield is your home. You are able to lead armies to defeat vastly superior forces with your exceptional martial skills, and your men will fight to their very last breath for you.

The Warlord is more than a warrior. He is a ruler of the battlefield. Kings and queens must bow before the might of the Warlord with an army at his back.

It looks like the Warlord is more than meets the eye. Someone with high personal combat prowess as well as Battlefield Awareness with the ability to lead and command. The subtext of the kings and queens implies this class is available to me because of my background.

Reivyn finished reading the newest addition. His opinions, besides his goal for Tier 3, hadn’t changed. There was absolutely no chance of him taking the Death Knight class, and Champion seemed like the only one available to take advantage of his complete talents in martial and magical abilities.

That might change, though, as I have a long time before I step into Tier 3, truly.

Reivyn got up out of bed and started to get dressed for the day. Teilon was still asleep, but Erik’s bed was empty and neatly made.

“Get up, Teilon,” Reivyn called to his friend. Teilon groaned and barely stirred. “Hey, the victory feast is in a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, that’s in a couple of hours,” Teilon shot back without opening his eyes. “That means I have an hour and forty-five minutes more to sleep.”

“Oh, really?” Reivyn nudged his friend. “Don’t you know what’s going to be at the feast?” Teilon grunted a half-question. “Music.” Reivyn let the word stand and waited until his friend motioned for him to get to the point. “Haven’t you always wanted a chance to dance…”

“I have to get ready!” Teilon leaped out of his bed, instantly wide awake.

Chapter fifty-seven

Dance, Dance Revolution

Reivyn adjusted his suit for what seemed like the millionth time. He and Teilon had begun to get dressed for the victory feast when Erik had come back holding two suits tailored to Reivyn and Teilon. Erik had tossed the suits onto their beds, nodded toward them, and then left without saying a word. Reivyn and Teilon shared a look before Reivyn walked out of the room and found Melissa waiting in the hallway.

“What’s with the suits?” Reivyn asked.

“I had the count’s tailor make them for you,” Melissa replied with a smile.

“Okay, but I don’t recall getting any measurements taken?” Reivyn narrowed his eyes. Melissa chuckled.

“The count’s tailor is fairly high level for this area. He only needed to see you, and I made sure he did before the battle, in order for him to get your proper measurements. I knew a feast of some sort was likely if we succeeded in holding the undead army off, and I was right. You and Teilon don’t have anything remotely appropriate for attending a feast held by a count, so I took it upon myself to have them made for you.”

“Umm, thanks?” Reivyn said while scratching the back of his head. “How much did it cost?”

“Nothing,” Melissa replied. “The tailor was happy to waive the fee. He couldn’t make a suit for free for everyone, but since you were loosely attached as the ‘aide,’ technically”—Melissa used air quotes—“he did it more as a favor for the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant. And since Teilon is with you, he went ahead and did the same for him.”

“Okay, I’ll have to thank him later,” Reivyn said. “If you see him, pass on my thanks just in case I don’t run into him.” Melissa nodded, and Reivyn went back into his room to get dressed. Teilon switched into the new clothes as well once Reivyn explained the situation to him.

The new clothes weren’t uncomfortable, not by a long shot. Reivyn, and Teilon for that matter, just weren’t used to wearing such nice clothes. The design was similar to the uniform he had worn the last time he had attended a banquet hosted by the count, but it was a lot less utilitarian looking. It resembled a civilian imitation of the uniform, but the material was definitely a tier above.

Reivyn pulled out his tessen in order to stop himself from messing with the suit. Teilon eyed him from the side.

“You should teach me how to use one of those, too,” he said. “That way I’ll have an excuse to mess with something when I’m nervous, like you.” Teilon wasn’t subconsciously adjusting his suit, but he was rubbing his hands together.

“What are you so nervous about?” Reivyn asked. “I’m not adjusting the coat over and over because I’m nervous; I just feel weird.”

“Promise not to laugh?” Teilon said as he came to a stop, looking Reivyn directly in the eye.

“Nope,” Reivyn answered. Teilon sighed.

“I’ve never actually danced before,” he said. Reivyn stared at him for a second before chuckling. “Hey, now!”

“Teilon, you don’t have to worry about that,” Reivyn clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Kimberly left home with us to go to the dungeon as a member of our party, and she stood and fought with us on the wall in the face of impossible odds. She’s not going to care if you have two left feet.”

“I know,” Teilon said. “I know that. I still don’t want to trip all over myself in front of her.”

“You’ll be fine,” Reivyn said with a grin. He started walking down the hall once more to head to the banquet hall. Teilon quickly caught back up with him.

“And who said anything about two left feet? I just don’t know the steps,” Teilon protested. Reivyn just snickered at his friend.

They walked into the banquet hall, and it was packed with people already. Most of the people in attendance were the higher level adventurers who had volunteered to stay and fight and some of the officers and leaders from the Lord’s Retinue. Reivyn spotted the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant talking in a group with the count. Brand looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“The trick is to always be moving and appear to be mingling,” Reivyn leaned over and whispered to Teilon. “That’s what Knight-Lieutenant Brand taught me last time. You don’t want to get cornered by someone and have to stand in one place for too long. That will give other people the opportunity to swoop in and take up your time when you want to get to where you’re going: the table.”

As Reivyn was walking forward through the throngs of people, leaning over to whisper to Teilon the rules he had learned the previous time, a shadow appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path. He came to an abrupt stop so as not to walk into the person, and he looked up to see a familiar face.

“Ahh, it’s the Little Hero, again,” Lin said. She was dressed in her formal uniform like last time, an additional medal adorning her chest that hadn’t been there before. “I should have expected to see you here, though it looks like you’re not with the military unit, this time.”

“Yeah, not exactly,” Reivyn said. He heard Teilon return the snicker he had given him before entering the hall.

“You’re quite the expert at avoiding people trying to hold you up, huh?” Teilon whispered back. Reivyn rolled his eyes.

“Shut it, you,” he said to Teilon. He turned his attention back to Lin. “I thought you were with the duke’s troops? What are you doing out here this time?”

“The duke sent us to reinforce the city,” Lin answered. “We arrived late last night after pretty much everyone else was already asleep. Here.” She sidled up next to Reivyn, intruding on his personal space. She placed a hand on his shoulder as she turned to face the same way, and leaning into him, she pointed at several other people in the duke’s uniform.

Reivyn started to subconsciously shy away from her. Wait, why should I back away? She’s invading my personal space. He stood up straight, keeping his body in contact with hers. She glanced at him for a second and chuckled.

“If you look at those men,” she continued, “you might recognize them.” Reivyn squinted his eyes, not to get a better look, but in concentration as he tried to place their faces. He finally realized why some of them looked familiar to him.

“They were with the adventurers,” Reivyn said. Lin smiled as she backed away and resumed her original position.

“Exactly,” she said. “We knew we couldn’t get the whole force here in time, so we selected some of our fastest riders and had them come ahead of the rest of the soldiers. We decided to have them dress like adventurers so as not to highlight the fact that the duke’s troops didn’t make it on time. Better to appear to have not come at all, than to try and make it but fail.

“Now that it’s over, we can reveal that we had people there the whole time, and it gives us better optics.”

“I see,” Reivyn said. He had to agree that it made sense. The count himself had done something similar. I guess every action needs to be made with how it will look to everyone else. Politics.

Reivyn wasn’t necessarily averse to politics and the machinations involved. He just wasn’t well informed or experienced. Looking at it in hindsight, he could see the benefits of acting in such a manner, but he would have never considered doing it himself if he was the one making the decision. He just didn’t think that way. I might learn from Melissa and the instructors at the Magic Academy. It seems like the place where such considerations will be needed.

“And who’s this distracted fellow with our Little Hero?” Lin turned her attention to Teilon who had been scanning the crowd. Teilon’s head snapped back over and took the older girl in, head to toe before a wide grin crossed his face.

“I’m Teilon, the Little Hero’s best friend.” He gave a small bow while he took her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. Lin hid her mouth behind her other hand as she chuckled.

“Ahem.” A cough interrupted the show. Teilon’s eyes widened, and his body froze in the position of leaning forward. He slowly straightened up and turned to slowly come face to face with Kimberly.

“Ahh, Kimberly, I was just searching the crowd for you,” Teilon said as he reached out and took her hand. Kimberly let him, but she rolled her eyes at the same time.

“I’m sure you were,” she responded.

“He has impeccable manners, and he’s quite charming, actually,” Lin said to Kimberly. She turned her gaze to Reivyn. “You could learn a thing or two from your friend.”

Reivyn felt an arm snake around him and a body come to stand next to him. His eyebrows went up in surprise as he turned his head and saw that it was Melissa. Larissa and Erik were standing a few feet behind her, Larissa with a smirk on her face.

“I’m sure I could help him with that, too,” Melissa said as she and Lin stared at each other. “This must be Miss Lin, Ren’s sister, that you’ve told me about,” Melissa said with a small smile.

“Ugh… yes,” Reivyn said as he looked back and forth between the two girls. They were of a similar age and level of beauty. Melissa was a bit more bright in appearance, with her hair having a distinct auburn red color, while Lin was a bit darker, with her hair being straight black. Lin was slightly taller, but not enough for her to look down on the other girl.

“And who is this young lady? She seems to have me at a disadvantage,” Lin said, her eyes never leaving Melissa’s. “I’ve been busy with my duties as a captain in the Duke’s Retinue, I haven’t had time to keep up with all of the scions from the Capital.” Lin correctly guessed Melissa’s origins by the quality and design of her clothes.

“Umm,” Reivyn started . . .

“I’m Melissa Bluefayre,” Melissa said with her chin lifted, clear pride in her voice. “My sister, Larissa, and I happened to join Reivyn’s party when we were on a dungeon delve mission from the Magic Academy. My sister and I were a bit bored with the same old, easy dungeons nearer to the Capital.”

“Ooohhh, a party member,” Lin said with emphasis. Lin stepped forward on Reivyn’s other side, and looping her arm through Reivyn’s in the same way Melissa did, she leaned forward to continue addressing Melissa. “Here, let me escort you to your table.”

“Umm,” Reivyn said as he got dragged along by the two girls holding onto his arms on either side. He turned his head briefly and saw Teilon bent over laughing. What is happening?

Reivyn was “escorted” to his table, but he wasn’t allowed to sit. Lin and Melissa continued to hold on to his arms as they stood a bit in front of him, facing each other.

“Thank you for showing us the way, but I’m sure you must be tired after the march here from the duke’s domain. It would be rude of us to keep you from going to your own table and resting,” Melissa said.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Lin denied with a shake of her head. “This is my table. I asked the count to personally arrange for me to sit here, next to our Little Hero.” Lin had a bright smile on her face. Melissa frowned for a second, but the music started up at the opportune time, and she perked up at the sound.

“Well, you take your time getting some rest at the table,” Melissa pulled Reivyn away from Lin as she looked up at him. “Let’s go dance. Your friends are already out on the floor. We can join them.”

Lin narrowed her eyes as she let Reivyn escape from her grasp, but her face quickly returned to normal with a smile. “Okay. I’ll just get the next one.” She sat down at the table as Melissa grabbed Reivyn’s hand and dragged him out to where Teilon and Kimberly were standing. Several others were also getting ready to start dancing as well.

“A wolf, indeed,” Reivyn heard Melissa mutter under her breath.

“Umm, Melissa,” Reivyn said. Melissa turned her head toward him as they came to a stop in the open space for dancing. “I’ve never danced before.” Melissa chuckled at him.

“This will be the first song and dance, and it’s an ice-breaker,” Melissa said. “Just watch some of the others, and then do what they do. Everyone will start off with a partner who they will dance the most with, but everyone will be moving about and dancing with each other. Like I said, an ice-breaker.”

Reivyn nodded his head, and he and Teilon observed as the musicians finally stopped warming up and began the actual music for the dance. They watched for a moment to see what the other people were doing as they lined up and began moving about.

It wasn’t a complicated dance and was more along the lines of moving about in sync with the rhythm of the music. Melissa’s description was fairly apt, and Reivyn and his friends quickly joined. They started off in a line of all the men on one side with the women on the other. They moved in time together, locked arms with their partner, twirled about, and then separated into lines again, but when they separated, they shifted about so their next partner would be different.

The dance continued on for a bit, and the way the lines were designed, Reivyn would match up with a different girl each time, but he would always return to his original partner, Melissa, more often than anyone else.

He let himself relax and move about to the music, and he ended up having a blast doing so. He received a notification a few minutes in, but he ignored it as he just let loose for a short while.

Once the music was done, he pulled up his notification as Melissa took his hand once more to lead him back to the table.

New Skills Unlocked!
Dancing (1)
Rhythm (1)

Interesting. I bet Rhythm goes with Dancing and playing a musical instrument, both.

As Reivyn and Melissa approached their table, Lin came up and grabbed Reivyn’s other hand, again.

“You were right,” Lin said to Melissa. “I needed that short rest. I’m sure you need a bit of a breather, too, after that exciting first dance.” She turned her gaze to Reivyn. “I’m sure you still have a lot of energy, though. Not like us girls from the Capital. A big, strong, young man like you. Come on, I’ll show you the next one.”

Lin pulled him away from Melissa, and Reivyn spied her narrow eyes as she watched them head back to the dance floor. Teilon and Kimberly were still out there, and Larissa was apparently explaining the next dance to them.

“This one isn’t an ice-breaker,” Lin said as she turned and faced Reivyn. “Here, give me your hands.” She took Reivyn’s hands and placed one on her shoulder, and one on her hip. She stepped in real close as she reciprocated.

“There’s nothing too fancy,” she continued to explain. “For more advanced dancers, they can do something more in line with their skill, but it’s mostly the same. You just need to move your feet to the beat, and we’ll move about in small circles.”

The next musical piece began, and Lin started them off, leading. After Reivyn got into the movements, though, she let him take over leading them. He didn’t really know what to do, exactly, so he just moved them about in small circles as she had said.

Melissa hadn’t gone back to her seat, and she was standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching them with her arms folded. Once they drew a little nearer to her, Reivyn saw Lin’s slight smile get a little larger.

“Oops,” Lin said as her feet tangled together. She leaned forward and placed her weight almost fully on Reivyn. He was forced to embrace her completely. After assisting her in getting her feet back, she maintained closer contact. “I’m so clumsy. I think I should dance a little closer so as to avoid that happening again.” She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Umm.” Reivyn had nothing to answer that with. He just kept a straight face and continued the dance.

It wasn’t long before the music was over, but Lin didn’t make her way back to the table as Melissa had done before.

“We still have energy, so let’s do the next one,” Lin said. She wasn’t even asking anymore.

“Ummm.” Reivyn was quite eloquent tonight.

“Oh, you poor thing.” Melissa showed up as the musicians were about to start the next round. “I saw that terrible fall you almost had. Luckily Reivyn was your partner, and he kept you from getting hurt. You really must take more rest, though. We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen.”

Melissa spoke with the utmost concern for Lin’s well-being while simultaneously snagging Reivyn back away from her. Lin gave her a flat look, but she didn’t make a scene. She smiled again after a moment and fanned herself with her hand.

“You’re right,” she said. “It’s awfully hot in here. Reivyn, could I borrow your tessen?” She looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. Reivyn raised an eyebrow, but he still pulled his fan out and handed it to her. He could see Melissa gritting her teeth out of the corner of his eye. Lin took the fan, opened it, and began fanning her face as she turned to head back to the table. “Thank you, so much, my dear hero.” She winked as she walked away.

“Let’s step this next one up, a little,” Melissa said as she stepped up to Reivyn. She placed one of his hands on her hip and held the other in her hand as she put her other one on his shoulder. “I noticed you moved a little smoother, so I’m guessing you got the skill unlocked?” Reivyn nodded his head. “Okay, then we’ll spice it up a little. Watch some of the others as we move about and see what they do.”

“Okay,” Reivyn said as the music began.

They moved about in a similar manner, but they weren’t quite as close as he and Lin had been. He used his Battlefield Awareness skill, once again utilizing a skill in a novel situation, to observe the other dancers. The men spun the women about with their hands they were holding together, and sometimes they would dip them.

“See?” Melissa asked as they moved to the music. Reivyn nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Spin me.”

Reivyn released his hand on her waist and spun her about. Melissa laughed in delight as she twirled. “Dip me,” she said as she came back into his embrace. Reivyn copied the other men so as to maintain his center of gravity properly, and dipped Melissa. They continued dancing to the music, occasionally spinning and dipping, and Reivyn saw Teilon also manage to perform the same feats with Kimberly.

The music finally ended, and Melissa dragged him off the dance floor once more. Lin was waiting again, but Melissa was prepared.

“Oh, we really must take a break, this time,” Melissa said as she patted her face. “Reivyn was just telling me he needed a breather.” I did?

“Yes, I can see that,” Lin said as she glanced at Reivyn. She pulled the fan back out and fanned herself again, looking at Melissa over the top of it. Melissa dragged Reivyn to his seat, and Lin plopped herself down in the seat opposite Melissa on Reivyn’s other side.

“This little fan really comes in handy,” Lin said with a sigh.

Melissa rolled her eyes as she reached for a glass of water on the table. “Would you like some ice-cold water to try and cool off?” she asked with a smile to Reivyn.

“Ummm,” Reivyn responded with extraordinary wit.

Melissa fumbled with the glass, and the water spilled onto the table and into Reivyn’s lap. The water was extremely cold, and Reivyn jerked back at the sudden feeling of freezing water soaking through his pants.

“Oh, how terribly clumsy of me,” Melissa said.

“Let me help,” Lin was quick to grab a napkin and started to pat Reivyn’s thigh.

“That won’t be necessary,” Melissa said. She placed her hand on Reivyn’s other thigh, and with a gentle movement, completely appropriately, but definitely riding the line, she used her mana to draw the water and moisture out of Reivyn’s clothes. The water balled up above her hand, and she deposited it in an empty glass. “All done.”

I’m pretty sure Melissa didn’t have to touch me to do that… Reivyn sat in stunned silence. Melissa and Lin glared daggers at each other. Reivyn looked across the dance floor to where Teilon and Kimberly were still at it. Teilon looked over and gave him a big grin, laughing at his situation.

This is going to be a long night.

Chapter fifty-eight

The Party

The dancers eventually left the dance floor after the musicians played several more compositions. Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief once they stopped playing, and Teilon finally came to the table with Kimberly, a smirk on his face. Their faces were flushed from the exertion of moving, and Teilon was in high spirits. Kimberly seemed to be quite pleased, herself.

Reivyn tuned out the subtle digs and displays of one-upmanship from the two girls. Other than touching me when Melissa spilled the water, nothing they have done has been anything exaggerated. They seem to be staking a claim more than anything, most likely for their families. Melissa has never displayed any kind of interest in me before, and I hardly know Lin at all.

The girls practically ignored Reivyn as they continued their verbal spars, but the count mounting the little stage where the musicians had been put a temporary stop to it.

“First, I want to thank you all for coming. Everyone here played an integral role in defending the city from the dungeon break army that accosted us,” The count surveyed the entire venue. His gaze paused on Lin for a moment before he continued. “Also, the esteemed guests of the duke’s army. I thank you for sending several teams of your finest troops ahead of the main force to assist us. Please convey my utmost gratitude to the duke when you return.

“I won’t bore everyone with long speeches, and I won’t be patting myself on the back, either. I have thrown this victory feast simply to personally convey my gratitude to everyone who braved death in the face of impossible odds. I won’t extend the banquet beyond dancing and the meal, but I have prepared rewards for everyone.

“In a moment, I will instruct the chef and waiters to deliver the food, and I’ll go around and personally hand out the rewards while you eat. I think everyone here can agree that it makes much more sense than to have a long, drawn-out ceremony that will quickly get old as we end up saying the same things over and over again.

“Without further ado, let the food be served.”

The count looked to the side of the banquet and lifted his hand to gesture for those waiting in the wings to come in. The doors opened, and many waiters and servants came in with large, covered trays. They walked about the room, setting them down on each of the tables, and the count motioned for everyone to begin eating without preamble.

The count stepped down and joined Knight-Captain Reifold and his Mage-Liaison as he started walking to each table, conversing with the people seated there. Reivyn watched as he moved about, talking and joking with people, and he had multiple servants to hold things like scrolls and other awards that he passed to the people. An advisor was on standby to give him the names of anyone, but from what Reivyn could see, the count hadn’t needed it, yet, as he seemed to know everyone’s name.

“He’s quite shrewd,” Melissa said, forgetting about her little competition with Lin for the moment. “He must have some sort of social skill that allows him to remember names, faces, or both. It’s not uncommon for nobles and other people dealing with social interactions.” Melissa glanced at Lin then at Reivyn. “I can help you get such a skill and work on it in our free time at the academy. It should help you a lot in integrating. We have a couple of years together to work on it.”

“That’s not a bad idea, Reivyn,” Lin interjected with a smile. “I can lead you out to where my men are camped and get you a big boost to the skill level by having you interact with the duke’s soldiers.” She turned to look at Melissa. “You wouldn’t want Reivyn to hobble himself by not allowing him to meet more people, would you?”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Melissa replied. “I’ve always wanted to see the inner workings of one of the retinues of the kingdom’s top nobles. I’m sure you run a tight ship, and nothing will be out of place.”

“Quite.” Lin snapped the tessen open and peered at Melissa over the top of it with narrowed eyes.

Reivyn rubbed his temples with his hands. I need to put a stop to this.

“Ladies,” Reivyn said, putting his hands down and looking at each of them in turn with a meaningful look. “Let’s keep things civil.”

“Of course,” Melissa said, placing her hand on his forearm. “Miss Lin and I have been nothing but.”

“Yeah, Reivyn,” Lin replied, reaching over to adjust his collar with her free hand. “Melissa and I are getting along just fine. What are you worried about?” Reivyn rolled his eyes as he sighed.

“I’m not worried about anything,” he said. “I just want to enjoy the banquet. We have time for all of those other things, later. I would be happy to visit the camp and see how things are run out there, and I would obviously welcome learning new skills. But let’s enjoy the food for now.”

“Certainly,” Melissa said with a sweet smile.

The waiters arrived at their table and placed the covered trays down, removing the ornate covers after getting everything settled to reveal what was underneath. There were many selections of food available, and it wasn’t served in the same way as the previous banquet he had attended. The first banquet had been served courses in turn, but this time, everything was placed on the table all at once for everyone to pick and choose at will.

There were several different whole fowls, cuts of steak, and cuts of lamb. That only consisted of the meats made available. There were several other side dishes of a variety of fruits and vegetables, salads, and desserts.

Conversation temporarily ceased as everyone heaped servings onto their plates and tucked in with gusto. The food was clearly expertly made, and nobody was going to give up the chance of tasting such exquisite dishes while still hot and fresh.

The count continued to make his rounds, and he eventually arrived at Reivyn’s table. Reivyn watched him out of the corner of his eye, and he noticed that his strange behavior whenever he encountered Reivyn had apparently been gotten under control, as he only paused for a second instead of abruptly stuttering his whole body.

“Young Reivyn, Teilon, Kimberly. Miss Melissa and Larissa Bluefayre, and their trusted bodyguard Erik. Captain Lin.” The count looked at each person as he greeted them all by name. “I humbly offer my thanks for each of your contributions to the defense of the city.

“Young Reivyn, you did an excellent job of stepping forward and issuing commands to the troops when we were ambushed. Teilon and Kimberly, your efforts in assisting the administrative soldiers in keeping the quivers stocked didn’t go unnoticed, and I’m proud to have citizens willing to face the Revenants despite not being able to use mana skills on their own.

“Miss Melissa and Larissa, I am grateful for such esteemed guests to lend their magical expertise from the Magic Academy. I will be sure to send a letter to your family head to express my gratitude. Erik, you continued to show your stalwart character as you never hesitated to stay by the side of those you are entrusted to protect.

“Miss Lin, I greatly appreciate you recognizing that you wouldn’t be able to make it in time, and you made the decision to send some of your stronger troops ahead to mix with the adventurers. I’ve drafted a letter of thanks to the duke, and I’ll send it along with you when you depart.”

Knight-Captain Reifold nodded to each of the individuals at the table as the count addressed them and pointed out their contributions as he had personally witnessed them. The count motioned for one of the servants carrying scrolls to step forward and hand him some.

“These are just a paltry official declaration of my thanks. They can be used as letters of recommendation in certain situations, and you can take them to the Adventurer’s Guild to have them recorded on your file. They contain all of the individual deeds you accomplished in the battle. Reivyn, after consulting with Sword-Priest Josn, yours also contains the details of your warning at the Dungeon Town.”

The count personally handed over each scroll, and Reivyn and his friends offered their thanks. I already have a lot of accomplishments listed, but more couldn’t hurt. We can take care of getting everyone officially in the party at the same time that we record these, as well.

“Thank you, sir,” Reivyn said as he took the scroll. The count smiled to everyone, waved, and then moved on to the next table, followed by his subordinates. Reivyn and his friends continued to eat the delicious food once they had departed far enough away that it wouldn’t be rude.

Yeah, we’ll finish lunch here—Teilon and Kimberly might want to do some more dancing before we leave—and then head to the Adventurer’s Guild to record the accomplishments. We’ll handle the party issue while we’re there, and then we can head out to the duke’s camp for a stroll. Speaking of, I’ll have to get that social skill when we’re done eating.

Reivyn picked up the pace he was eating. Years of proper manners at the table instilled by his mother, though, ensured that he didn’t appear to be a mannerless barbarian. Reivyn glanced at Teilon out of the corner of his eye to see him with sauce smeared all over his face, and Kimberly was attempting to not laugh as she picked at her food in a much more dainty manner.

Reivyn sampled each of the dishes, and there wasn’t a single thing on the table that he didn’t enjoy, but by the time he had tried everything, he began to get full. He politely wiped his mouth, got a drink of water to wash everything down, and then cleared his throat as he looked at Melissa. She obviously had a smaller stomach, as she was already done and patiently waiting.

“Let’s go get that social skill,” Reivyn said. Melissa smiled as she nodded. She stood up and led him away from the table by hand. Lin watched them go while continuing to fan herself with the borrowed tessen.

“Basically, we’re just going to meet a lot of people in quick succession,” Melissa said. “We’ll walk up, introduce ourselves, make some small talk, and then leave quickly to the next group of people. Your job is to look each person in the eye, repeat their name back to them as you study their face, and say it to yourself in your head a couple of times as well.

“Once we’ve met everybody, we’ll stand to the side, and you’ll point out each person, discreetly, and try to recall their name. We’ll do this over and over until you unlock the skill.”

“Sounds like a great time,” Reivyn said.

Skill Leveled Up!
Memorization {Social} (1 ->7)

Reivyn looked at the notification as they walked as a group out of the lord’s manor. He had unlocked the skill rather quickly, long before he had actually met everyone they had intended to, and the rest of the interactions had simply assisted in rapidly increasing the skill level. Reivyn didn’t tell Melissa right away, though, and he went through with the entire plan.

Teilon and Kimberly had gotten the chance to do a bit more dancing while he was working on his skill, and Lin had joined them at one point. She and Melissa had retracted their claws, however, and they had simply moved about the room, talking and interacting with all of the others in attendance.

Reivyn had been surprised at the number of people who recognized him. It seems like a lot of people were paying more attention than I gave them credit for during the battle. I guess they just froze up and didn’t know exactly what to do without the commands coming down. It had only been a split second before I stepped in, after all.

He spent some extra time conversing with Josn and the other Sword-Priests who had accompanied him. The other man appeared to be back in high spirits again, and he was perfectly precise with his military poise and discipline.

Lorin and Cal had ended up sitting at the same table. They and their parties had received an invite after word of them stepping up to assist the Sword-Priests in the retreat had been communicated to the count from Josn.

The more Reivyn learned about the Sword-Priest, the more he felt he was right in starting a friendship with him. He’s strict on his men and military discipline, but he recognizes merit where it’s warranted and takes care of his people. He might have seemed a bit inexperienced, not understanding how to balance how hard he was before, but it looks like everyone has grown to respect him, and he’s more comfortable with receiving it rather than demanding it.

He had bidden farewell to the acquaintances he had made in the Dungeon Town. Who knows, we might meet each other in the Capital or at some other dungeon in the future.

“Okay, it’s time to get you guys on the party, officially,” Reivyn said as they exited onto the main thoroughfare. Lin tagged along with them. “I temporarily listed our party as the Ravens, as I didn’t really have any other ideas at the time. Does anyone else have any suggestions?”

“Oh, oh, oh, I have one!” Larissa said, hopping up and down. Reivyn nodded at her to give her suggestion. “The Frostfire Mages and Their Trusted Lackeys!” She pumped her arm up in excitement. Melissa smacked her with the back of her hand, and Teilon bent over laughing. “What? What did I say?” Larissa tilted her head, confusion on her face.

“Yeah, no,” Melissa said. “We’re not going to refer to our other party members as ‘lackeys.’”

“Other party members?” Larissa asked. “I was referring to me and Reivyn. You’re a lackey, too,” Larissa teased her sister.

“Haha, looks like you’re a fellow lackey, Melissa,” Teilon said after he recovered from laughing.

“I don’t see anyone else offering any suggestions,” Larissa said, crossing her arms. Reivyn could see a slight twinkle in her eye and knew that she wasn’t serious about the whole lackey thing. I think.

“What about the Flower Knights?” Kimberly said. “We have those flower crowns that we wore on our way to the Dungeon Town that your sisters made for us, and I’m sure they could make more for the others.” Melissa had a contemplative look on her face at the name, and Larissa didn’t seem to mind either.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Teilon said. “I don’t think anyone would take us seriously with ‘flower’ in our name. I know I wouldn’t.”

“Our reputation could speak louder, with time,” Reivyn pointed out.

“Yeah, with time,” Teilon nodded. “But our name will be the first impression, and then we’ll have to work double-time to fix it. Also, I bet a lot of others would think we’re a group of all girls.”

“Fair point,” Reivyn agreed.

“You’re also not Knights,” Lin supplied. “You can be a bit loose with naming conventions for adventuring party names, but some nobles or their knights might take exception to using the term.”

“That makes sense,” Kimberly said.

“What could we use that conveys the same intention, but sounds fierce, instead?” Teilon scratched his head in thought. The others were silent for a moment as they thought about the situation.

“Thorn.” A voice intruded on everyone’s thoughts. Reivyn turned to the source of the word, and Erik was walking along as if he hadn’t just spoken up.

“Hmm, yeah, that could work. So we use ‘Thorn’ instead of ‘Flower,’ but what do we use instead of ‘Knight?’”

“Oh, oh, oh, let’s combine the two!” Larissa said in excitement. “The Frostfire Thorns!” Melissa tapped her lips in thought, and Reivyn looked between each of the party members.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “In fact, it might just grow on me. It combines the ‘Frostfire’ nature of Melissa and Larissa, and it conveys a fierce connotation along the ‘Flower’ theme that Kimberly mentioned.”

“Yeah, I like it,” Teilon said. Kimberly and Melissa nodded their heads in approval. Erik kept silent on the matter. He would probably be fine with Flower Knights.

“I guess it’s settled then,” Reivyn said. “From now on, our party will officially be known as ‘The Frostfire Thorns.’”

I have to admit, I like it better than “The Ravens,” Reivyn thought to himself. It combines concepts from both of our initial groups, and it doesn’t sound too feminine.

“Is Miss Melissa Bluefayre the rose on top of the thorned stem?” Lin joked, glancing at Melissa’s dark red hair. Melissa lifted her chin and threw her shoulders back as she walked.

“Maybe I am,” she said. The others chuckled as they made their way to the Adventurer’s Guild.

The process of getting their accomplishments recorded was a simple, quick affair. The scrolls the count had given them were designed to be used in such a manner for ease of use. I would bet that most things issued by the nobles will have a similar function. There was a spot to hold their tokens to—the two Magic Academy students had Student Tokens instead of adventurer ones, but they were still recognized by the guild—and then the receptionist had them hold their tokens to a copy of their record on file to record it for the entire guild.

The whole ordeal had only taken a couple of minutes to get accomplished. Reivyn then pulled the record of their party which had been generated when he supplied the information on the dungeon, and they got their official name put in place.

“It’s still early, so let’s go ahead and head out to my camp,” Lin said as they left the building. “I can introduce you to the other officers and leaders in my company. You can level your skill some more, and get some more connections with some of the lesser scions sent to military duty for the duke. Someone of your caliber, about to attend the Magic Academy, can definitely benefit from making some more connections.”

“I can’t disagree with that,” Melissa said. “I won’t be able to vouch for each of their families, but while they’re in service to the duke, their family politics should take a backseat to their duty.”

“Just so,” Lin said. “It was a special circumstance, and not just involving my own family, that I was dispatched to clear things up last time.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” Reivyn said.

“Do you guys plan on going back to the dungeon? There’s still some time before the next semester begins,” Lin queried. Reivyn looked at Teilon and Kimberly, both of whom just shrugged.

“I’ve accomplished what I wanted to at this time,” Reivyn said. He looked over at Melissa and Larissa. “What about you two?”

“We did what we wanted to accomplish, too,” Melissa said. “It makes more sense for us to get back to the academy sooner so that we can get credit for all of the information instead of some other students who might show up and run the dungeon themselves. Technically, the information has already been supplied to the Adventurer’s Guild, but students can get bonus school credits for being pioneers and being the first to officially inform the academy.”

“Well, then,” Reivyn said, “I guess we’re in agreement that we can go ahead and move on to the Capital at any time.”

“Excellent,” Lin said. “Then may I offer that you head in that direction with us? We won’t be escorting you ‘officially,’ but we’ll be moving in the same direction—the duke’s domain is located just outside of the Capital—and you can travel the road in peace without having to worry about the occasional goblin attack.” Reivyn once more looked to his party members for their opinion, and they once more simply shrugged.

“Alright, then,” Reivyn said. “We’ll take you up on the offer; however, there is one last thing I need from you.” He gave Lin a pointed look, and she tilted her head in confusion. “Can I have my tessen back, now?”

Lin chuckled as she extracted the war fan from where she had placed it in her inner breast pocket and handed it back to Reivyn.

Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix, Part 2

Ameliyn adjusted her tunic as she stepped out of the back of the supply wagon attached to the caravan they had been traveling with. She did a once over of her person and seeing that she was fresh and presentable, she made her way back to her personal wagon.

She smiled as she saw her two daughters showing their newest creations off to the temporary nanny they had entrusted the two girls to. The young lady had a strained smile on her face as Kailey and Riley took turns talking her ears off, parading various pieces of art.

The twins hadn’t had a chance to restock their grass and flowers needed for their usual creations, so Ameliyn had pointed them in the direction of someone who could paint, and she had bought several beast skins with some washable colors for them to practice. The plan had been to introduce them to expanding their designs with more intricate color patterns, and then eventually lead that into weaving.

Those weren’t the pieces of art the girls were showing the nanny, though.

Ameliyn’s eye twitched as she saw Kailey pull out a small knife from who knows where, twirl it between her fingers, and then attack a block of wood with it. Many shavings and small statues were strewn about the front bench of the wagon, and the man driving it seemed to be deliberately ignoring the goings-on.

That’s… not exactly what I had in mind, Ameliyn thought. When did they get those knives, and why are they so skilled with them? Reivyn was much older and more mature before we ever let him deal with actual blades and not just wooden training versions.

“What do you have there, sweetie?” Ameliyn called out to Kailey as a shape was quickly forming from the block of wood. It had only been several seconds, and Ameliyn could already tell that it was going to be a small statue of a man holding a sword over his head. That’s definitely going to be Fenrix, but I’m almost certain Refix and Reivyn are the inspiration.

“Mommy!” Kailey and Riley called out at the same time, abandoning their work to look up at their mother.

“You said you would be gone for only a couple of hours! It’s been a whole day!” Kailey said with a pout.

“Yeah, Mommy,” Riley said. “You owe us for your deception!”

“Deception?!” Ameliyn was taken aback by the word usage. “Honey, Mommy didn’t deceive you. Things happened, and it took a little longer than anticipated to run our errand.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kailey said, crossing her arms.

“You owe us,” Riley said.

The nanny gave Ameliyn a sheepish grin. “They’ve actually been quite the little angels, Miss Ameliyn. They started off having a great time applying the paint to the beast skins, but somewhere along the way, they saw someone whittling. And then the knives came out. I tried to stop them, but they gave a convincing argument and they’ve been very careful with them, so… Well, you see.” She gestured toward all the shavings and statues.

Ameliyn listened to the explanation, and then she did a careful Observation of her daughters. She’s right. Not a single nick or cut can be found. I’ll have some words to say to Refix later, though.

“Thank you, Salya,” Ameliyn said. “I appreciate you watching them while we were out.”

“Certainly, Pr… ahem, Miss Ameliyn.” Salya bobbed her head in a tiny curtsey as she stood up to go back to her wagon. Ameliyn passed her a small pouch of coins that she forced into the girl’s hands.

“You deserve to be paid for your services, Salya,” Ameliyn said with a smile. The girl was a few years older than Reivyn and already a low Tier 2 class. She was a young adult, and, as such, she needed to receive the appropriate remuneration.

“Yes, thank you,” Salya said before dashing away. Ameliyn chuckled at her actions and shook her head. She looked back to her two daughters who were still staring at her, waiting for her response to their demand of “being owed something.”

“What would you two like from Mommy?” Ameliyn said as she climbed up and took a seat between them. They dropped their angry facade and began bouncing up and down in their seats, practically climbing into Ameliyn’s lap from either side.

“Princess Amily!” Riley said.

“Brave Sir Fenrix!” Kailey added.

“Okay, okay,” Ameliyn said as she held her palms out and patted at the air to calm them down. “I’m happy to continue the tale of their adventure. Now, where were we?”

“Princess Amily had just arrived at the palace of one of her vassals!” Kailey answered.

“And brave Sir Fenrix was trying to muster their generals,” Riley added.

“Of course, of course,” Ameliyn said with a smile. The little caravan they were part of began moving once more along the road from where it had been parked. “Let me see… Princess Amily stood in the apartments that had been given to her, and she marveled at the luxury…”

“This is totally unacceptable!” Ameliyn said, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “They give me the rooms of a visiting dignitary and not one of the spare rooms for their royal family! This is an outrage!”

Refix looked around the spacious accommodations. Objectively, the room was perfectly fine. Better than fine, even. There’s just the little detail that it is subjectively not fine at all. I know they have rooms set aside for people of the same status or higher, but it seems like they want to play games.

“Yes, Princess,” Refix said as Ameliyn took a seat at one of the chairs. “The room is up to standard, but I can’t help but agree that they’re making a subtle statement with the choice of rooms.

“I know that, guard,” Ameliyn said with a raised eyebrow. “I just said that!” Refix surreptitiously rolled his eyes.

“I was just agreeing with you, Princess,” he replied.

“Well, I don’t need your agreement, guard. I need you to go out there and fix the problem.”

“Yes, Princess. Right away.” Refix mentally sighed at the order. They’re obviously going to dodge the issue, and there’s certainly nothing I can do about it right now, but I can’t not obey the order.

Refix walked over to the door and opened it, but he took a step back as someone was at the door already. The first prince, Gallen, was standing with his arm raised, fist about to knock on the door.

A look of surprise was quickly squashed on his face as he unceremoniously strode through the door into the apartments. Refix took a slight shift to block his path, and a look of annoyance flashed on Gallen’s face as he came up short.

“To what do we owe the honor, Lord Gallen?” Refix asked. He used the title of lord for the first prince to indicate that he was merely a lord in the larger empire, despite what his title in the local kingdom was.

“We’ve prepared a feast in honor of your arrival, Your Highness.” Gallen leaned over and addressed Ameliyn directly, completely ignoring the presence of Refix. Refix narrowed his eyes as he stared at the other teenager. He’s only looking at the surface and sees that I’m Ameliyn’s bodyguard. He hasn’t taken the time to learn the truth: I’m actually a superior noble to his entire family, much less he himself. Refix once more sighed in his mind.

Ameliyn isn’t helping things, either, with her constantly referring to me as guard. Probably getting back at me for always addressing her as Princess, but not following all of her orders. It’s for her own good!

“Stand aside, guard.” Ameliyn’s voice reached his ears. “Let the young man through,” Refix smirked as he stepped aside. Even though she’s still annoyed with me, she didn’t miss the chance to get a little dig back at the first prince, referring to him simply as “young man.”

Gallen stood up straight, adjusted his coat with a tug from both hands, and then strode toward where Ameliyn was seated with his head held high. He approached her and gave a low bow, grabbing her proffered hand and placing a kiss on his own thumb instead of directly on the back of her hand. It was the standard procedure for greeting a lady of higher standing. If he had met a lady of lower standing, he would have kissed her hand directly.

Tiny, subtle things to indicate stance and rank. At least he hasn’t lost his mind completely and tried to show a display of dominance.

Gallen straightened up and gave Ameliyn what he likely thought was a charming smile, though Refix saw it as sleazy.

“We couldn’t possibly host the imperial princess and not throw her a welcoming feast,” Gallen said. “I’m sure all of the other princesses and their ladies are dying to get to know you better. It’s been years since you toured the kingdoms last with your family, and I’m sure there are several acquaintances and new people you would like to meet with.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Ameliyn said with a slight nod. “When is this feast supposed to be held? Why didn’t you simply send a servant to inform us?” Ameliyn cocked her head. Gallen placed a hand on his chest and looked scandalized.

“It would be highly improper to send a mere servant to inform Your Highness of such an event,” Gallen said with apparent shock. “I simply had to bring the news personally.”

“Hmm… would it really be improper to send a servant to—ahem—these apartments?” Ameliyn said, looking all around the room to emphasize her point. Gallen took a glance around at the room, a look of confusion on his face. Understanding seemed to come to him suddenly, and he bowed once more.

“I’m terribly sorry for the lack of manners we have shown with assigning this room to you, Your Highness,” Gallen said before straightening his back. “Our spare rooms in the Royal Wing are under renovations at the moment, and it would not be right to subject one such as yourself to such an inconvenience. We felt it would be more appropriate to afford you peace and quiet away from all of the noise and crowd. I will personally see to it that they pick up the pace, and we’ll relocate you to a more appropriate setting as soon as possible.”

He’s over-exaggerating his facial expressions. He needs more practice.

“See that you do,” Ameliyn said with a lift of her chin. “You still haven’t answered my first question.”

“Yes, yes,” Gallen said. “It’s right now. We figured it would be better to throw the feast immediately so you could quickly return to your rooms and rest.”

Another subtle dig, Refix thought. They’re trying to make it appear that she isn’t punctual under the guise of letting her rest earlier, but they could have let her rest now and given her time to prepare properly.

“Well, then, we must be off immediately,” Ameliyn said as she stood up. She headed to the door with a brisk stride, also appearing to have picked up on the situation, and Gallen rushed to follow at her side. Ameliyn headed toward Refix to give him her arm as an escort, but Gallen spoke up before she could get to him.

“Allow me to escort you, Your Highness,” Gallen said. “It’s only right that one of the royal family brings you to the banquet, personally.”

Ameliyn froze as she looked back and forth between Gallen and Refix. She made her decision and offered her arm to Gallen.

“Quite right,” Ameliyn said as she allowed Gallen to set a more sedate pace as they walked out of the apartments. “Guard, you walk behind us.”

Looks like she’s still more annoyed at me than them, Refix thought with a silent chuckle. This will mean that in order to get at me, she has to give up any chance of showing up with better timing. Gallen is obviously deliberately walking slower than he needs to.

The three walked through the empty halls. There weren’t many people on this side of the palace at the time. Visiting dignitaries would typically bring their own cohort of servants to take care of them, and so the local staff only did maintenance of the wing without fully staffing it.

Gallen held his arm out in a perfectly gentlemanly manner, and he occasionally brought his other hand up to pat Ameliyn’s hand as he spoke to her about different things they passed by in the halls. There were many little courtyards interspersed along the way containing gardens, and he pointed out and talked about the different decorations along the hallway as well. As this wing of the palace was for foreign diplomats, there were many decorations to display the might of the local royal family, but there were also many displays to show their cordiality and diplomatic accomplishments to the visitors.

They eventually made their way to the more central locale of the palace, and they headed toward the banquet hall. Many more servants and guards could be seen moving about taking care of running the palace, but there were no other young lords or ladies still outside of the banquet hall, as they had all apparently already arrived by this time.

I’m sure they notified literally everyone else before sending Gallen to pick the princess up.

They stepped into the banquet hall, and the noise and chatter immediately came over Refix. However, he had trained long and hard for many years, and his perception stat was high enough that it didn’t interfere with his ability to pick things out. He followed behind as Gallen led Ameliyn to the head table, where a seat was left open for her with the royal family. They made their way around the room under the watchful gaze of all those in attendance.

The king stood up with a hearty laugh as Ameliyn approached. “There she is, finally able to make it to the banquet held in her honor,” he said loudly, but with a large laugh and smile to make it seem like he was making light of the situation he deliberately brought focus on. “Have a seat, my dear, have a seat.” He gave a bow while he addressed her.

Refix gave the man an appraising look with narrowed eyes. He’s much better at this than his son.

Ameliyn walked up to the offered seat to the king’s right, and she paused for a moment to look over her shoulder at Refix. “Guard, I’m perfectly safe here. You go sit with the other guards.” She dismissed him.

Refix mentally sighed once more. She obviously knows that my standing is second only to hers, but she still sends me off to sit with the riff-raff. Oh well, I’ve suffered worse while training.

“At once, princess,” Refix said with a small bow before turning on his heels to head to a side table. It had several men in uniforms similar to his own official garb, but it was a tad less ornate. Refix hadn’t worn his uniform, though, as it was quite dirty. He spied that several of the men were older, grizzled veterans, and his hopes came up at seeing them.

Looks like it’s not the riff-raff, after all. I can see that these are the generals of the king’s armies. Maybe he’s not completely unwilling to offer us military aid, he thought. We’ll just have to evaluate the price.

“…and the king lavished praises on the beautiful princess of the empire while brave Sir Fenrix regaled the generals with tales of his prowess. They burned with excitement to join the pair in their quest,” Ameliyn said. “We’ll go ahead and end the story here for next time.”

“Awww, I want to hear about the banquet, though,” Kailey whined.

“Yeah, tell us about how the generals pledged their loyalty after being impressed by brave Sir Fenrix,” Riley said.

“Next time, next time,” Ameliyn said. “I need to keep some things for the story next time I tell it, and I see your father coming over. I have something I need to discuss with him.”

“Ok~ay,” Kailey and Riley said. They scooted over to let Ameliyn get up, and she climbed into the back of the wagon after motioning to Refix with her head. Refix came in through the back after Ameliyn waited for just a short moment.

“What in the world have you been teaching our daughters?” Ameliyn ambushed her husband with the unexpected question. “I know you trained Reivyn in all sorts of weapons, and I was fine with that because you used wooden training versions. Why do Kailey and Riley have real knives?”

Refix reeled for a moment at the sudden burst of accusatory questions before he grew a sheepish grin. “Well… I have managed to teach them a thing or two with knives and daggers over the years while working with Reivyn, enough that they gained the skills, and I mi~ght have given them some small tools to defend themselves before we left on our errand when you weren’t looking.”

“Small tools to defend themselves?” Ameliyn raised an eyebrow. “I saw Kailey twirl that sharp knife through her fingers like she had done it a hundred times before. They somehow got it into their head to work on whittling instead of the careful planning we made to get them into weaving.” Ameliyn bent down where several of the little statues had been discarded inside of the wagon and grabbed one. “Here, they’ve been practicing making figures of Princess Amily and Sir Fenrix. This one looks quite a lot like you.” She handed it over to Refix after inspecting it for a moment.

Refix took the little statue and stared at it for a moment before looking back up at his wife. “This is an ogre,” he said with a flat voice.

“Oh, is it?” Ameliyn said with a shrug. “I hadn’t noticed.” Refix rolled his eyes as he tossed the little ogre aside.

“Alright, alright,” he coaxed her, bringing her into a hug. She resisted for a moment, but only for a moment. “I should have told you I was giving them some real weapons, but I never thought they would actually use them. Much less for whittling and twirling through their fingers.”

“I know,” Ameliyn said. “You did it out of the same sense of wanting to protect them that I have for not wanting them to have them. Anyway, as long as they’re working on their skills diligently, we can still help with their development. Maybe we can consult with some of the educators about trying to use what they have instead of weaving to build their mana skills in the future.

“You know that my formal education came to an abrupt halt, and, while I did learn a lot, I’m not quite sure how to translate whittling into spell casting.”

“That’s just because you haven’t considered it before,” Refix said, kissing the top of her head while still holding her in his embrace. “I’m sure it will work wonders toward their visualization abilities.”

“Hmm, that’s a good point,” Ameliyn said. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a minute. “What’s Reivyn up to, now?”

“Heh, heh, he’s lucky in love, that one,” Refix said with a wide grin. Ameliyn pulled back and narrowed her eyes at him. “He’s got two scions of some of the well-off families from the Capital fighting over him. They haven’t taken things too far, but they are using all of their charms to try and dazzle him into choosing sides. He’s currently still with both of them, traveling with the duke’s men toward the Capital.”

“Hmph, we’ll see,” Ameliyn said. “Being the daughter of a wealthy family in a backwater little kingdom and attending one of their academies doesn’t mean they’re good enough for my son.” Some of that haughty, noble attitude that she had reined in over the years crept back up at the prospect of some harlots trying to steal her boy.

“Hah! I’m sure Reivyn can keep a clear distinction between personal and professional relationships.”

“He better, if he knows what’s good for him,” Ameliyn said as she leaned into Refix once again. “Not just anyone can be worthy of the Vynn bloodline.”

Chapter fifty-nine

Tier 2, Too

Monthly Experience
Calculating…
Relevant Skills Training: +400 Exp
Physical Exercise: +0 Exp
Sparring: +0 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +240 Exp
Life Experience: +4000 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 4,640
Experience 3,000/3,000

Initiating Class Change to Tier 2
Select New Class
Note: Primary Class: Fighter shall become Secondary Class

Reivyn had decided to turn his Experience Siphon ability off after he had decided on the initial caster class for entering the Magic Academy. The class one chooses directly affects the speed of leveling up the relevant skills, and the monthly experience calculation also bases the experience awarded on the class, as well. So far I’ve been doing a lot of physical fighting, so I’ve been getting decent experience rewards for those skills.

I’m entering a new phase in my life, though, where I’ll be focusing much more heavily on mana skills, and I needed to have a caster class to get accepted to the Magic Academy, too. It was time to finally breach Tier 2 for real.

Reivyn didn’t need to think about his class selection. Unlike last time when he only had 60 seconds to make a decision, Reivyn had been able to see and compare his available classes for well over a month. He chose his interim class immediately.

[Light Magus Tier 2 Rare]
[Advancement: 5 Unassigned Stats/Lvl (Tier 2, Rare)]
[STR: +1/3 * INT: +2]
[VIT: +3 * MAG: +3]
[DEX: +1/3 * CLA: +1/3]
[CHA: +0 * PER: +1]
[LUK: +0]

Class Skills:
Basic Elemental Spells (1): Bolt 2(4)MP, Flash 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), Blast 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity
Lattice (1): Bonus to Mana Manipulation +21%
True Light (1): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells
<Locked>
<Locked>
Available: Intermediate Light Spells (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0)

Reivyn felt his meridians shift about inside of him. It wasn’t the feeling of the literal, physical pathways changing, but it was more a metaphysical feeling, and he could feel the changed routes as he circulated his mana through the pathways. The new meridian paths didn’t completely change the ones that had been built from his Fighter class, but they instead built upon the foundations laid. It had been something he had been anticipating.

“Typically, a Tier 1 class doesn’t even have meridians other than what is inherently present in all people,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand had said. Reivyn had visited him in his office one last time before departing with Lin’s company and his party. The Knight-Lieutenant had had some final tidbits of knowledge and advice for Reivyn. “One of the things that aren’t mentioned about the Peasant Levy class and the conscription mechanic is the meridian foundation. You can expect to have marginal increases in your strength, vitality, and dexterity that wouldn’t normally be there when you class up soon.”

“Is that why people with bloodlines have superior stats?” Reivyn hadn’t meant to ask the question out loud.

“That’s exactly why. Someone born with a strong enough bloodline will have their class meridians built on the foundations of their bloodline meridians. Do you have a bloodline?” Knight-Lieutenant Brand asked conversationally. Reivyn knew that he could trust the older man, as he hadn’t leaked a single thing about his mythic skill, other than to the Knight-Captain, who had also kept the secret, so Reivyn wasn’t too concerned with his blunder. He still chose to hedge his bets, though.

“I don’t have an activated bloodline or anything,” Reivyn said nonchalantly. Brand gave him a knowing look but didn’t press the issue.

“One of the reasons I’m here in a position of authority is that my family actually has a weak bloodline. I say it’s ‘weak,’ but it’s more than what 99% of everyone else has, and it has served my family well over the years,” the man supplied. “But enough about that. Is there anything else I can do to help you along before you move on to bigger and better things?” Reivyn had already indicated this was their final meeting before he headed to the Capital to join the Magic Academy.

“There is, actually,” Reivyn said. “A wise man once taught me the ropes of handling a horse, but I find myself and my companions without a mount. I figured I could get a better deal in purchasing one from you, or you could steer me in the right direction.” Knight-Lieutenant Brand considered Reivyn for a moment over his clasped hands under his chin.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said, “give me two of those Experience Crystals, and I’ll use my authority to sell you three horses—you need three, right? You, Teilon, and Kimberly.” He ticked off his fingers as he named Reivyn’s friends.

“Yes, sir,” Reivyn said with a nod. “My other companions already have their own horses.”

“Very well, three it is,” Brand pulled out a form to make the bill of sale to be given to the quartermaster later.

“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you, here,” Reivyn said. “I know horses aren’t cheap, and these Experience Crystals won’t be too scarce around these parts, soon.”

“Mhmm, but they’re scarce now,” Knight-Lieutenant Brand said. He continued to fill out the form while he explained. “While it’s true that we’ll be sending the men to delve the dungeon, and, as it’s a resource dungeon, the crystals can be considered the resource on the second floor so most of the ones recovered will be the property of the outfit as opposed to those doing the delving, but we haven’t started yet. The supply and demand of these resources are still skewed in your favor at the moment, so it’s a perfectly reasonable price. This also includes all of the base equipment and some feed.”

“Thank you, sir,” Reivyn said as he accepted the filled-out form.

“You’re welcome. And enough with this ‘sir’ business,” Brand said. “I’m not your superior any longer. We can be considered friends, now.”

“Okay… Brand,” Reivyn winced as he said the man’s name without any titles. Brand laughed at his expression.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said. They chatted for a few more minutes before Reivyn took his leave.

Reivyn bent down and patted the neck of the horse he was riding. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, he thought with a chuckle. I know I’m considered an adult now, especially since I’ve officially entered Tier 2, but he still seems like someone on my parents’ social level. I feel like I need to add at least a “Mr.” to his name.

Reivyn sat up straight and continued to look at his full Status after the Class Change.

[Status]

[Name: Reivyn Class: Light Magus / Fighter Lvl 1 Age:10]

[Health: 2,490/2,490 (+200) Stamina: 4,750/4,750 (+260) Mana: 2,240/2,240]

[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]

[STR: 226 (+6) * INT: 224]

[VIT: 249 (+20) * MAG: 224]

[DEX: 226 (+6) * CLA: 155]

[CHA: 67 * PER: 173]

[LUK: 66]

[Bloodline: Unknown 2,886,274/10,000,000]

[Experience: 1,640/3,200]

Skills:

Tier 1:

Aim (27), Athleticism (45), Balance (46), Dancing (1), Drawing (19), Driving (7), Haman (20 MAX), Heavy Armor (7), Hiding (28), Horsemanship (8), Map Making (18), Mathematics (17), March (15), Medium Armor (35), Memorization {Social} (7), Mining (18), Observation (41), Penmanship (24), Piano (0), Rhythm (1), Riding (12), Running (41), Shields (48), Sneaking (27), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11)

Tier 2:

Acrobatics (26), Backstab (9), Eavesdropping (24), Evasion (39), Forced March (13), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (49), Mana Circulation (24), Meditation (24), Number Concepts (9), Pain Resistance (42), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (55), Stealth (23), Strategy (19), Tactics (24)

Tier 3:

Battlefield Awareness (18), Blind Fighting (8), Command (20), Commanding Shout (4), Danger Sense (15), Identify {All} (15), Inspire (24), Mana Conjuration (30), Mana Manipulation (32), Mana Shield (20), Mana Sight (33), Mental Fortitude (40)

Tier 4:

Dreams of the Past (15), Iron Will (15), Mana Weapon (27)

Tier 5:

Heroic Bearing (3), Spatial Awareness (21)

Tier 6:

Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (61)

Affinities:

Tier 1:

Air (36), Earth (36), Fire (36), Water (36)

Tier 2:

Ice (20), Magma (20), Metal (20), Plasma (20), Wood (20)

Tier 3:

Darkness (27), Light (27)

Tier 5:

Abyss (1), Veridical (1)

Class Skills:

Basic Elemental Spells (1): Bolt 2(4)MP, Flash 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), Blast 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity

Lattice (1): Bonus to Mana Manipulation +21%

True Light (1): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells

<Locked>

<Locked>

Cleave (96): Reset stance at an accelerated rate of 207%

Charge (97): Sprint toward the target at 208% absolute maximum speed

Flame Blade (62): Coat your blade in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the Flame Blade with additional mana

<Locked>

<Locked>

Available: Devastating Strike (99), Intermediate Light Spells (0), Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0), Quick-Draw (81)

I definitely don’t have the stats of someone just entering Tier 2. Even taking into account people like Teilon and Kimberly who also got a head start on their stats from the Peasant Levy class.

I have way more stats than even someone entering Tier 3 would typically have if they had zero achievements or other bonuses to their stats.

Take the Fighter class, for instance. A Level 60 Fighter would have around 140 to 150 strength, depending on their base attribute when they attained the class. My strength stat is over 70 points higher than the upper band. Reivyn shook his head. Thinking like this is what gets me in trouble all the time. I can’t assume I’m the only person with a lot of achievements under my belt. Other people already have unlocked bloodlines giving them steady stat growth per level, and people aren’t static.

I shouldn’t sell myself short, by any means, but I need to assume that anyone I meet has also had their own particular life experiences that would make them more than just what the class would entail.

Despite reminding himself to never get complacent and make assumptions about others, Reivyn was still immensely pleased with his progress. He had only technically gained 16 levels since he had made the decision to go to the dungeon, but he had seen close to 150 stat gains in almost all of his normal stats, and he had gained a tremendous amount in his charisma and luck. He knew that most people never even unlocked those stats, but he didn’t have a baseline to compare himself to see just how high those stats really were.

I’ll have to ask my parents to finally reveal their full stats for me, once and for all, and I’ll be able to see where I stack up. Those adventurers were awfully suspicious…

He had been too preoccupied each time he had encountered the adventurers to really focus on them and try to figure them out at the moment, but after being able to think about it clearly after the fact, there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

Like the not-light element that the new female adventurer used. My mother claims to be a Light Weaver and only in Tier 2… but she also claimed to be a Villager when in Tier 1, and I know that that was a lie. What else have they kept from me in order to “protect” me? I think I’m mentally prepared and mature enough for the full story.

Reivyn looked around the countryside as he came out of his contemplation. They had traveled with Lin’s company to the city the duke called home, Malgen, and had parted ways there. The city of Malgen was a true eye-opener for Reivyn, as it was several times larger than Magron. The walls were half again as high, and the level of foot traffic within the city was downright inconvenient.

Lin had tried to get the party to accompany her to her private house she had outside of the base to spend the evening, but Reivyn had politely declined as it wasn’t that late in the evening. He had begun to miss his family, and he could tell that Melissa had zero interest in staying in Lin’s presence any longer than she absolutely had to.

The two girls had cooled their little rivalry, though Reivyn could still pick out subtle jabs every now and then. It gets pretty annoying when it’s nothing but verbal sparring, but the occasional power play is actually a little flattering. Reivyn had to admit that it wasn’t all bad having two girls fight over him, even if he knew it was not in a romantic way.

The countryside between Malgen and the Capital—I still don’t know the name of the city, it might even just be the Capital—was dotted with far more communities, so much so that they appeared to be little villages spaced just a stone’s throw away. Or even one, big, extended city.

The road was lined with trees, and it afforded a quite pleasant, shaded ride toward the Capital.

“The trees aren’t there just for shade,” Melissa had said. “They’re also a wind-break for the farms. There was much more forest naturally breaking things up near Magron, so you didn’t see it the same way it is here, and there are more individually owned plots of land here. If you’ll pay attention and look out into the fields, you can see that they’re basically squared off with a line of trees creating neat little boxes. Well, ‘little’ is a relative term.”

Reivyn had done as Melissa had said and seen exactly what she was talking about. The scene caused a flash from one of his dreams to cross his mind for a split second. It appeared that he was looking down on a huge, open area with clearly defined squares of crops below. Reivyn instinctively knew that he wasn’t looking at a map in the dream, as he could see the fuzzy horizon way off in the distance, but he had no idea where or how someone could get such a vantage.

The closest thing I can think of that makes any kind of sense is falling off a giant bird, for some reason. Reivyn shook his head. It wasn’t that important.

Reivyn’s homesickness for his family only grew stronger the closer they got to the Capital, and he was itching to get his horse to move at a faster pace. He held himself back, though, as he wasn’t sure Teilon or Kimberly had leveled up their skills enough to handle a mad dash. He knew they had gotten several more skill levels in the week they had been on the road, but he also knew that he gained skill levels unusually quickly.

My own experiences aren’t the best baseline to judge how fast someone gains skill levels.

“How much further do you think we have?” Reivyn asked Melissa for the thousandth time. Melissa rolled her eyes as she looked around their surroundings to gauge exactly where they were.

“About a day and a half,” she answered. “About thirty minutes less than the last time you asked me.”

“Sorry, I’m just excited,” Reivyn said with a sheepish grin. “Not just about the academy, but about my family, also. You’ll finally get to meet them, too. You’ll have to if you want a flower crown for yourself. I doubt Kailey and Riley will make you one without meeting you.”

“Oh, oh, oh, I can’t wait!” Larissa cheered from beside her sister. “Your sisters sound adorable. Let’s see: You have the Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight, Kimberly has The Lady’s Flower Crown, and Teilon has The Plucked Flowers—obviously in reference to him being a thief as your sisters said. I wonder what my flower crown will be called.” Larissa looked to the side in contemplation, and her gaze landed on Erik. “For that matter, what will Erik’s be called? The Silent Thorn?” She giggled at her little joke.

“Hey, that doesn’t sound half bad,” Teilon said. “But knowing the twins, they’ll come up with something all on their own. He’ll probably get something completely out of left field, like The Rose Bush, haha.” Erik simply grunted. Teilon frowned as he turned to Reivyn. “Does that guy ever smile?”

“I don’t think so,” Reivyn said with a quick glance. “I dunno, I’ve gotten used to him like this. I think it would be weird if I looked over and saw a smile on his face.”

“True,” Teilon nodded his head.

The party lapsed into companionable silence, occasionally broken by a bit of banter between two or three of them. The trip had been very pleasant, and after reaching Malgen, there were no longer any dangers of any kind of random attack, be it from beasts or monsters.

Come to think of it, the only time I’ve ever encountered anything besides a few predators on the prowl was the one time the goblins showed up to attack the conscription team. I wonder why that is? Maybe they were just thinned out enough that it hasn’t been a problem recently.

Reivyn put the thoughts out of his mind. He was already beyond that portion of his life, and he was about to begin a whole new phase. Sure, he would most likely end up out there again for one reason or another, like running the dungeon while being an official student, but his family was now in the Capital, and so even though he had yet to actually set foot there himself, it was now his home.

Reivyn looked over at Teilon and Kimberly. Not just my immediate family is there, but the brother and sister I’ve made are going to be there with me, too. Reivyn still had the occasional regret over leaving Will and Simmon behind like they had, but they were likely still less than Level 10 in their Tier 1 classes. It was the right thing to do, even if it hurt sometimes.

It’s time to stop thinking about the past. I have a whole future ahead of me, and things are looking good.

Chapter sixty

Mama Bear

Reivyn stepped through the door to the modest house. Modest relative to all of the wealthier homes I saw on the way here. It’s still a nicer place than the previous two homes my parents had. The first thing he saw when he entered the building, aside from the familiar furnishings, was his mother at her loom and his two sisters doing… something on the ground in the center of the room.

His three family members looked up in surprise at the sound of the door opening, and after an initial moment of shock, all three of them jumped up.

“Brother!” Kailey and Riley yelled as they sprinted toward him. They slammed into him, giving him a big hug around his waist from either side.

“Reivyn!” Ameliyn likewise called out in excitement, but her approach was much more controlled. She walked around the seats in the way, not in a hurry, but also not too slow, and came around to also give him a hug around his shoulders. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek as well. She stepped back and gave him a once over from top to bottom before nodding her head.

“I see that you already tiered up,” she said. “And from the mana emanations, it would appear you chose a caster class as you had planned.” Reivyn was taken aback for a moment, and he cocked his head in puzzlement.

“You can tell just from looking at me?” he asked. Ameliyn just gave a small smile.

“I’m your mother,” she simply replied. Ameliyn clapped her hands together, a bright smile on her face. “This is cause for celebration! We’ve all missed you terribly, and your last letter didn’t have a whole lot of good things to say in it—other than that you were fine, of course. I’ll make you your favorite meal!”

“Thanks, Mom,” Reivyn said with a smile. “It is a little early, still, so maybe wait until Dad is closer to getting home? Also, you’ll need to make extras. Teilon, Kimberly, and the rest of my party have been invited over. I hope that’s not too much of an inconvenience.”

“Nonsense.” Ameliyn swatted at Reivyn playfully. “Your friends are always welcome in our house. Where are Teilon and Kimberly? They stayed with us before you guys headed to the dungeon last time, so I figured they would come here again. We have a guest room and couch set up for them and everything.”

“We stopped by the Adventurer’s Guild, first,” Reivyn explained as he walked to a couch. His sisters didn’t let go, so he had to carry them straight-legged all the way with him. “We sold some of the resources we picked up from the dungeon, and they decided to get a couple of boarding rooms at one of the nicer branches temporarily. They plan on applying for the Knight Academy while I apply for the Magic Academy, so they’ll move into the dorms over there when the new semester begins in a couple of months.”

“That makes sense,” Ameliyn said as she took a seat across from her children. “I’ll be sure to make some extra for them and the other—three?—three friends. What were their names again? Melissa, Larissa, and Erik? Is that right?”

“Mhm.” Reivyn nodded. “I’m sure you’ll like them just fine. I’ve already told you pretty much all about them in the letters I wrote, but I did learn that their last name was Bluefayre after I sent the last letter. I would have included it, but I had already sealed the envelope and figured it could wait until I got here. Do you know anything about that family, here in the Capital?”

“I’ve heard some things in passing, and from your father’s work,” Ameliyn acknowledged. “They’re apparently a branch family of a fairly powerful noble family in the Tier 2 region’s kingdom that this one is a vassal to. Not sure of the details of why they’re out here, but I can probably make some guesses.” Reivyn stared at his mother for a moment. Ameliyn stared back at him before she gave a small start.

“Oh, you wanted to know what those guesses are? Of course, well, the most likely reason is that their branch has been relegated to this kingdom to find talent. That includes their own children if they do well enough in the Magic Academy. From what you’ve sent in your letter, I’m sure Melissa or Larissa, or both, might get moved up to the main residence after they finish their stint in the academy whether they graduate at the top of their class or not.”

“Oh, so you know about that, as well?” Reivyn asked.

“Reivyn… Of course, I know about it.” Ameliyn gave him a meaningful look and rolled her eyes. “Your father and I already know that this region can’t keep you—your sisters, either, if they could ever learn to focus on studying and training their gifts—and we’ve been prepared for a long time to move along with you.”

Reivyn raised an eyebrow at his mom. He looked down at the twin girls still clinging to him and back at his mother a couple of times. Ameliyn finally got the hint and reached out to pat their heads.

“Girls, go outside and play. Your brother has new friends coming over, and they might want to see your amazing craftsmanship! It would definitely be a pity if you didn’t have enough materials to show off in front of them.”

“You’re right!” Riley popped her head up and exclaimed. “C’mon, Kailey, let’s go get some crafting materials.”

“Alright,” Kailey said as she got up. “We can always force Reivyn to give us more hugs later.” Force? Reivyn gave his sisters a strange look as they fled out the back door.

“Okay, so what did you want to talk about without them listening in?” Ameliyn asked as she settled back down in her seat.

“A lot of things, actually,” Reivyn began. “But we can start with why you guys settled in a Tier 1 region in the first place.”

“Oh, this conversation,” Ameliyn said. She got up and went into the kitchen. “I’ll get us something to drink. It might take a while. I can tell you the reason we chose Haluville specifically, though, while I’m up.” Ameliyn grabbed a couple of cups and used her Mana Manipulation to conjure some pure water with ice for them both. “We stopped in Haluville because you were born on the road, and that was the first decent-sized town we came across soon after.” Ameliyn handed Reivyn the cup of ice water and sat back down.

Reivyn looked at the cup of water skeptically. “Is it safe to drink mana water?”

“Oh, I didn’t make the water out of the water element, silly,” Ameliyn said. “There’s a lot of little tricks that I can teach you before you head off to the Magic Academy, now that you’re ready to actually cast spells instead of just working on your affinities all the time. Obviously, you’ll be doing more of that, too, but you understand.

“Anyway, I just drew out the ambient moisture from the atmosphere with the water element to fill the cup. I didn’t fill the cup directly with the water element. It would dissipate on its own that way.

“Same with the ice. I just added the step of pulling the heat out of a select grouping of the moisture, much like what you did to unlock the Ice Affinity.”

“That seems awfully convenient,” Reivyn said before he took a large gulp of the water. Ahh, that’s quite refreshing. I wish I had thought of this when I was suffering that heat at the Dungeon Town. Reivyn mentally kicked himself.

“Yup, it is,” Ameliyn smiled as she sipped her water.

“Ok, so, Tier 1 region. Go,” Reivyn said as he looked at his mother.

“Well, we weren’t just randomly fleeing from the higher tier regions…” Ameliyn said.

“And you say that this one person will be enough to bring our entire branch back to Eldiar?” Terrin, Melissa’s first uncle, asked in disbelief. “Forgive me if I don’t fully trust your judgment. You’re a promising student at the Magic Academy, and we all have high hopes for you to be accepted back to the main family. But that’s all: promising and hopeful.”

“I understand your skepticism, Uncle, but I assure you, I have not over-exaggerated the matter,” Melissa said.

She stood in the main sitting room of her family in front of her parents and the other decision-makers of the family. Her grandfather sat in the main seat, next to his wife, but they were letting their own children handle the inquiry. Melissa had been rushed to meet with the elders as soon as she, her sister, and Erik had stepped through the gates of their home.

Word of the dungeon break had obviously reached the Capital a long time ago, and despite her own letter—the one after the battle sent a few days after the one telling her parents how much she loved them and regretted not being able to see them again—her family was filled with relief at their safe return.

Yes, they gathered for official business and to interrogate me about the dungeon and the battle, but there was genuine concern in their eyes and mannerisms. Melissa was gratified that her family wasn’t like many of the other notable families in the Capital—or the main family, for that matter—that were only concerned with benefits.

“Of course, you would over-exaggerate the matter,” Terrin replied with an eye roll. “Who wouldn’t want to be the one to fulfill the duty that lets us all go back to the higher tier region?”

“Hush, Terrin,” Sarissa, Melissa’s mother, gently reprimanded her brother-in-law. “Let the girl explain herself before you make a judgment.” She turned her attention back to her daughter. “Go on, dear.” Melissa shot a quick smile at her mom.

“Yes, Mother,” Melissa said. “Well, as you all know from the letters I’ve sent, Reivyn is a very competent Fighter class martial combatant with powerful mana skills. What I didn’t dare to put into those letters, though, is he was able to easily pick up different Affinity Weaves—at a pace considerably faster than Larissa or I did—and Erik said he’s also close to, if not already beyond, the master designation in Swords.” Many of the elders nodded their heads with contemplative looks on their faces.

“Yes, I can see how that would constitute a talent worth investing in, maybe even sending to Eldiar to accompany you and your sister, but our whole family?” Gerrin, her father, said.

“What if I told you it wasn’t just Swords? He’s also shown the same skill level for Spears and Bows, and he’s close to expert level with Shields,” Melissa could see the interest rising in the elders’ eyes as they took in the information. “Don’t forget, that’s on top of his mana skills, which aren’t relegated to just his ability to pick up on the Affinity Weaves. He’s also the one who noticed the abnormality with the dungeon’s mana before anyone else. He warned the Church and the Adventurer’s Guild, and he got us out of there well ahead of the break.

“Additionally, he managed to interpret a class skill, Flame Blade, by combining his own Mana Weapon skill with Larissa’s Inferno spell.” Melissa looked at the faces of all of the elders, and she could see that they were almost there.

If there’s a way for me to convince them without revealing all of your secrets, then this is the final push. I consider you my friend, so I’ll give it a go, but my family will always come first.

“There’s one last thing that I didn’t mention about his class.” Melissa let the suspense build for a moment.

“Fighter is his Tier One class. He was conscripted by Count Ilpir, and his class wasn’t changed to Peasant Levy, but he was instead able to choose from a list, and he chose the rare Fighter, which became an epic Tier 1 class. He just tiered up to his official Tier 2 class, and he told me it was called Light Magus. His ambition for going to the academy is to graduate before getting past Level 10, and forcing the Tier 3 transition.”

“Magus?” Melissa heard her grandfather mutter. He looked like he wasn’t paying too close attention, but he had definitely heard and considered every word carefully.

“That will be all for now, Melissa,” Sarissa said with a smile. “We have much to discuss. We’ll let you know, if anything, what your role is going to be moving forward. In the meantime, didn’t you say you had been invited to his family’s home for dinner tonight?” Melissa nodded. “Good. Go and get a gauge on his ‘adventurer’ parents, as you said.”

“Yes, Mother,” Melissa said. She gave a short curtsey. “If I may be excused?” Her father nodded, and Melissa strode out of the room.

It looks like they might have been satisfied with that last bit about his class and goals. I’m glad I didn’t have to reveal his Veridical Affinity. I would have if push came to shove, but I think our relationship would change forever if he ever learned of it. Melissa was happy that she was able to conceal probably the largest secret Reivyn had—even if he doesn’t realize it—and still accomplish her goals of getting the elders to take him seriously.

Now it’s time to go meet Reivyn’s family. Larissa is excited to meet his sisters, but I’m anticipating meeting the two people who raised him.

Melissa stood back a bit as Teilon knocked on the door to the modest house. Melissa appraised it with a critical eye. It’s definitely squarely in middle class, but upon careful Observation, there isn’t a single thing out of place. It looks like someone takes meticulous care of every tiny detail. If one doesn’t look closely enough, it would be easy to miss. Melissa nodded to herself.

A neat and tidy home was a good sign. She had seen the homes of other promising students’ families, but many of them had only taken cursory care of their dwellings.

The group of five—Erik was an official party member, so he had obviously been invited as well—didn’t have to wait long before the door opened to two young girls. They are adorable, Melissa thought when she first saw the twins. They were in homemade clothes, and if one wasn’t well versed in the intricacies of fashion, one would hardly notice that the subtle quality placed the garments well in the upper echelons.

The color schemes of the two girls’ clothes weren’t identical, unlike their actual appearances, but they were tastefully done in a way to complement each other.

“Flower Thief! Big Sis! So happy to see you!” one of the girls called out.

“So happy to see you,” the other said immediately after. Melissa’s mouth tugged into a small smile. It looks like they haven’t spent a whole lot of time apart from each other. I’ve seen many close siblings like them with extremely similar personalities, but I’m sure they’ll develop their own unique spins on it once they start the supplementary school.

“Kailey, Riley!” Kimberly rushed forward and bent down to hug the girls around their necks. “These are our friends that we made in the Dungeon Town,” Kimberly squatted down and pointed to the other three people. “That’s Melissa, Larissa her sister, and Erik, the silent, strong-type. Our little Flower Court has expanded, and they just loved the crowns you made for all of us.”

“Oh, oh, oh, I really, really want one,” Larissa said as she bounded over. Melissa gave an internal sigh. She always acts like that when I’m around. I’ve heard from some of the servants that she’s almost a completely different person in private. Oh well, whatever makes her happy.

“I’m Melissa. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Melissa stepped forward and squatted down to be on eye level. The two girls giggled at the older pair of sisters.

“Oh, how rude of me,” Larissa said, abruptly coming up short with her hand on her chest. “I’m Larissa, the pretty one.” The girls giggled again.

“Don’t leave our guests at the door, girls, bring them in,” a woman’s voice came from within the home.

“Yes, Mom,” the two girls said in unison.

“So, which one is Kailey, and which one is Riley?” Melissa asked as they made their way inside.

“I’m Kailey,” the first girl spoke up.

“And I’m Riley,” the second answered. Melissa looked between the two of them, and other than the difference in clothes, she couldn’t tell either one apart. Yet. Reivyn isn’t the only one who’s worked on Social skills. The System will let me differentiate the two unless they’re actively trying to disguise themselves.

Melissa walked in and spotted Reivyn sitting on the couch. She frowned, as he hadn’t seemed to notice his friends arriving, which was unusual for him. He was sitting slightly forward with his elbows on his knees, and he appeared to be in deep thought. An older gentleman was leisurely sitting across from him. Well, older as in older than Reivyn. This man looks like he couldn’t be a day older than twenty. I thought Reivyn only had the two sisters. He never said anything about an older brother.

“Hello.” The man waved at the five new people in the house.

“Mr. Refix,” Teilon said as he took a seat next to Reivyn. Reivyn finally noticed the intrusion as Teilon sat next to him, and he started before he stood up to greet everyone.

Melissa cocked an eyebrow. Mr. Refix? That’s his father? He looks so young. If that’s his father, what does his mother look like?

The temperature in the room seemed to drop below freezing in an instant, and all sound and movement stopped. Melissa felt trapped in her body as time itself seemed to freeze as she was locked in the position of turning about in place to look for the origination of the voice she had heard from the doorway.

Melissa’s eyes continued to move in the direction her body had been moving, and they came to rest on another pair of eyes staring back at her.

The entire world fell away, and there was only the pair of eyes. They looked deep into her soul. They saw through her entire being, judging her.

Despite everything seeming to come to a complete standstill, Melissa could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest. Her blood moved through her veins at the forceful pulsations, and it felt like a river of ice traveling through her body. Her vision turned almost completely black, and only the bright spots staring into her could be seen. There was no sound or movement. There was nothing.

Nothing but the gaze of immense power boring into her.

I have to get away from here! her mind screamed at her. I can’t handle it! I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die… Melissa’s mind jumbled into a complete mess.

“Hey, what are you standing in a daze for?” Larissa snapped her fingers in Melissa’s face, dragging her out of the stunned state she had been in. Her heart still pounded, and her vision was still hazy around the edges. If Larissa had been a second slower, I’m afraid I might have fainted.

She looked up only to see the back of the woman who could only be Reivyn’s mom as she busied herself with the final preparations of the meal she had prepared for her guests. Melissa glanced over at Refix. Reivyn’s father glanced back out of the corner of his eyes, and he smirked at her. His body unfolded from the position he had been sitting in and readjusted.

Melissa’s eyes widened at the movement. That wasn’t just a simple adjusting of position. The way his body moved… He has complete and utter control of his entire being. These definitely aren’t simple “adventurers.”

“Are you coming? Seriously, what’s with you?” Larissa called over from the dining table. Everyone had already made their way over, and Reivyn’s mother—Ameliyn, I think he said her name is—was placing the dinner on the table.

Melissa looked around and saw that she was the only person not at the table. She looked over where Refix had just been sitting, but he had also vacated his spot and was standing at the head of the table.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” Melissa managed to stammer out, her breath coming in ragged.

She walked over on unsteady steps to the table where a seat had obviously been left for her, an empty plate sitting on the table in front of it. She had been placed next to Kailey, and Larissa was across the table next to Riley. Their seats coincidentally were placed next to the foot of the table.

Ameliyn walked over to the final seat, the one at the foot between Melissa and Larissa, and she gestured to the delicious-looking food on the table. She directed a smile toward Melissa. “Come, taste my handiwork.”

The smile she gave Melissa seemed to pound a message directly into her mind. It said: Who do you think you are, Little Girl?

Melissa gulped as she looked back and forth between the food, the other people at the table, and Reivyn’s mother. She found that she suddenly didn’t have much of an appetite.

What have I gotten myself into?

Chapter sixty-one

True Power

Reivyn sat in Meditation as he circulated the different affinities he had unlocked to finally begin improving them again. It had taken him a long time to enter the state of Meditation, much longer than normal. He had a lot on his mind after his talk with his mother and the strange dinner they had had afterward with his friends.

The information that his mother had given him about the circumstances behind them settling in a Tier 1 region made him realize there was a lot more going on in the world behind the scenes that he wasn’t aware of.

“Well, we weren’t just randomly fleeing from the higher tier regions. We had spent a couple of years traveling between the different vassal states to find anyone still loyal enough to mount a rescue on our territory.

“Most of the time had been wasted in the first, closest Tier 3 kingdom that we fled to after the destruction of our capital: Geledrud.” Ameliyn paused for a moment in her story and shuddered.

“They used soft tactics, at first, to alienate me from the other nobles. The biggest, worst thing they tried to do was alienate me from your father. At first, because of the resentment I had for the way we had escaped, I let my emotions cloud my judgment.

“They almost succeeded in their endeavor, but luckily for me, your father was the epitome of a knight in shining armor. He never once doubted me or gave me any reason, beyond the rumors that snake, First Prince Gallen, and his subordinates fed me, to doubt him in turn. He worked diligently in the background to build a network of loyalists.

“I have always deeply regretted the suffering I caused him on top of everything piled on top of him from the outside influence. Once I came to my senses, my adoration for his conduct is probably what led to me eventually falling in love with him.” Ameliyn sighed wistfully at the recollection. She came to herself again with a start. “Oh, but that’s another story for another time.

“After we left the court of Geledrud, we went to the other surrounding Tier 3 kingdom that nominally swore fealty to our Vynn bloodline. We met more of the same everywhere we went.

“The other kingdoms had taken the time to form their own alliances, and by the time we visited the third Tier 3 kingdom, they had fallen into open civil war across the empire. The Tier 3 kingdoms leveraged their own Tier 2 vassals as the main battlefronts, and vice versa all the way down to their Tier 1 subordinates.

“We had been almost completely ignored by that point as they squabbled among themselves. We were going to try one more time to see if we could establish a foothold, but First Prince Gallen had apparently never given up on his ambitions of making me his wife and using that relationship to secure the Vynnish throne for himself. He ambushed us and tried to use force.” Ameliyn leveled a gaze at Reivyn. “Your father didn’t appreciate that very much. Not at all.

“I’ve seen your father in a rage before, but all of those other times paled in comparison. Let’s just say that Prince Gallen wishes your father had killed him.

“Refix had always been pretty unassuming around the other nobility, and the lesson we learned from that was to always hide our strength in case it was needed. Nobody, including me, expected your father to be nearly as powerful as he was.

“We escaped from the ambush and headed to the nearest teleportation point—they’re common in Tier 3 and above kingdoms. How else do you expect empires to form and be able to move across such vast distances? We loaded it up with the remainder of our Mana Crystals, much more power than was necessary, and we rigged it to send us to a random location.

“Well, random location isn’t quite right. We chose a direction to be sent. You see, over the years of trying to build a base of loyalists, the ones we did manage to recruit didn’t stay idle. That’s where we learned about the possibility of outside interference and maybe a traitor. We learned that the ones involved in the dungeon breaks of the Capital had certain ties to ancient cults, and we sent our subordinates out across the vast lands to find traces of them.”

“The dungeon in the mountains?” Reivyn said with realization. Ameliyn nodded her head.

“Exactly. We didn’t know about the dungeon for a long time. After all, it was only recently ‘found by adventurers,’ but we knew about the cavern system. Your father, along with his ‘employer’—one of the loyalists—went in there long before you and the count’s men went and laid claim to it. They cleared out the remnants of the Revenants and cultist remains, which is one of the reasons I was surprised to hear about the battle you guys had with the demon.

“Your story of that battle is what actually tipped us off to the fact that there were active cultists in the area. We were looking for a suitable excuse to move the family to the Capital while still giving you room to grow and do your own thing, which is how we found out about the supplementary school attached to the academies. Even if Kailey and Riley weren’t nearly as talented as they are, we still would have manufactured a way to get them into the school.”

“But that means you sent me off to the dungeon when you knew about the dangers,” Reivyn pointed out. “I mean, nothing ended up happening, but that seems a little irresponsible on your part, don’t you think?”

“Reivyn,” Ameliyn said with a small smile, “you were never in any danger. Well, outside of your own delves, that is. Let me tell you, the man we had in charge of your security almost broke into the infirmary and kidnapped you when you were brought out of the dungeon unconscious. Luckily, the team healer was able to assess you from a distance and let him know that you were going to be fine.”

“How many subordinates do you guys have?” Reivyn tilted his head. Ameliyn just gave a coy smile. “Are the adventurers that saved the day at Magron your subordinates?”

“Partly.” Ameliyn nodded. “I’m sure you’ve realized it by now, but the leaders of that party were your father and me. It was actually a huge coincidence that your father was there for the beast tide the first time you ran into him. Remember, he had gone off on a ‘business trip?’ We had learned that the count was going to mount an expedition to the dungeon, but we didn’t realize he was going to conscript you.

“The fact that I knew you were going to run across each other—and a message to your father guaranteed that—was the main reason I didn’t throw a fuss and have you exempted. It would be child’s play to put the right kind of pressure on the Count of Magron.”

Reivyn sat in silence as he moved the affinities throughout his body. That part of the conversation had finally put to rest his suspicions about his parents not doing more to keep him safe at home.

I always knew there was something strange about the circumstances of my mother, an imperial princess, allowing her firstborn son to be conscripted without much of a fight. I had been so caught up in my own little world, though, that I just subconsciously accepted it.

Reivyn finally knew why his parents had settled in the Tier 1 region: partly because he and his sisters had been born, and partly because they were chasing after the mastermind of their own empire’s demise.

All of that gives me a lot to think about, but that’s not the real reason I’ve been so out of sorts after the conversation.

The real reason he had been so distracted, from noticing his friends’ arrival and his struggles in entering Meditation, had come soon after.

“Then how come I didn’t recognize your voices? You guys spoke plenty while I was right there, but you didn’t sound anything like you do now,” Reivyn said. Not seeing their faces was one thing, but hearing completely different voices and accents had been the real reason he had been hesitant in declaring the adventurers were his parents a long time ago.

“Haha, just listen to me,” Ameliyn said with a laugh, her voice matching that of the petite caster he had seen conjure the magical tornado. “Your father and I have had years to practice our deception skills, and modulating one’s voice isn’t so hard. Your father and I have also traveled to many different places and heard even more dialects and accents to mimic. It’s really not that surprising if you think about it.”

“Yeah, it does make sense,” Reivyn nodded. “Speaking of, what was the element you used to conjure that spell to wipe out the Revenant army? It looked like light, but my gut tells me it wasn’t.”

“Your gut is right,” Ameliyn said, a look of pride on her face. “It’s a half-step Tier 5 affinity—which is a fancy way of saying a more powerful Tier 4 Affinity—and it’s called the Celestial Affinity.

“Divine mana isn’t necessarily light or holy, or anything like that. Divine mana is literally just mana empowered through a contractual relationship with an Ascended being. Mierna, the Goddess of Light, is actually just an Ascended being, and she was one who lived in the same time and was an acquaintance of the same Ascended who we get our Akashic Record skill from.

“Vynndin, as we call him—we actually don’t have records of his true name—was the Ascended we’re descended from, and it was one of his more powerful grandchildren that founded the Vynndin Empire.

“Don’t expect a lot of answers from me on the subject, we had to flee the empire before I finished my education on the matter.

“Anyway, back on topic of the affinity. The Celestial Affinity is one that is powerful in its own right—it’s a combination of light, fire, and lightning, among some other things—and it’s particularly powerful against undead and other demonic forms of mana.

“It doesn’t get bonuses against all other realm mana, like the Verdant Realm isn’t particularly demonic, though it is technically heretical. And the Abyss isn’t the only demonic realm, either.”

“So then you know about the Veridical Affinity?” Reivyn asked. “I happened to unlock the Veridical Affinity after that time I was pulled out of the dungeon you mentioned.”

“Really?!” Ameliyn showed genuine surprise on her face at the revelation. “Typically, one unlocks the Veridical Affinity after years and years of studying and refining pretty much all of the affinities. The one arch magus of the empire that had it unlocked had transcended Level 100 in several of the basic affinities, and he was at minimum an expert in all of the others before he unlocked the Veridical Affinity.”

Ameliyn gently patted Reivyn on the shoulder and gave him a consoling smile. “Don’t worry about your Veridical Affinity for now. In order to train it further, you’ll need to get your other affinities as high as that arch magus, so outside of extraordinary circumstances, it’s going to sit at Level 1 for a long, long time.”

“Okay. I hadn’t really noticed anything when I tried to use it before, though I can see a faint shimmer when other people interact with the System.” Reivyn nodded his head. “And that leads to another question I have: You’re not a Light Weaver, are you?”

“I was a Light Weaver… when I was Tier 2,” Ameliyn said. “Remember, your father and I have been in the habit of hiding our strength for so long that we don’t even think about it anymore. We’ve even developed fake Status Pages for anyone that has a sufficiently powerful enough Analyze-type skill. Here, let me show you.”

Your mother has requested to share her Status page with you.

Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.

Accept Deny

Reivyn was momentarily surprised at the pop-up notification. I didn’t know it was possible to share information like this. I suppose they had always planned on sharing this with me—well, us, Kailey and Riley included—when the time was right. I don’t see any reason to deny the request.

Reivyn mentally selected to Accept the sharing of the Status.

[Status]

[Name: Ameliyn Class: Weaver *Light (T2) / Villager (T1) Lvl 40 Age: 33]

[Health: 1,660 Stamina: 2,080 Mana: 530]

[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]

[STR: 42 * INT: 78]

[VIT: 166 * MAG: 28]

[DEX: 44 * CLA: 24]

[CHA: 0 * PER: 81]

[LUK: 0]

“That’s what everyone who uses an Analyze skill that isn’t at the master level will see,” Ameliyn said.

“Yeah, you look like you have the stats of any typical lifestyle class commoner with a slight affinity to your class,” Reivyn said, dismissing the page. “What’s your actual Status look like?”

Ameliyn smiled as she mentally did something that Reivyn couldn’t perceive. After a moment, he received another pop-up notification.

Your mother has requested to share her Status page with you.

Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.

Accept Deny

He once again chose to Accept.

[Status]

[Name: Ameliyn Class: Forgotten Celestial Sovereign (T4) Lvl 40 / Celestial Elementalist (T3) / Light Weaver (T2) Age: 33]

[Health: 16,000 Stamina: 25,000 Mana: 23,755]

[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]

[STR: 900 * INT: 2,281]

[VIT: 1,600 * MAG: 2,470]

[DEX: 900 * CLA: 900]

[CHA: 249 * PER: 900]

[LUK: 76]

What…? Reivyn stared at the Status page in front of him. All coherent thought completely fled from his mind. He could hardly process the numbers he was seeing.

This… She… I mean… Ameliyn sat back and let Reivyn work through the implications of seeing her true Status page. Reivyn looked up at his mother and stammered out some nonsense, incapable of speech momentarily.

“Yeah, there’s a good reason we keep our strength hidden,” Ameliyn gently said. “There are some people in the Capital who might be close to my power level, but they will be few and far between. Knight-Captain Reifold is famous throughout the kingdom, and he’s only a high-level Tier 3 Paladin. The Sword-Bishop that went to the Dungeon Town was also a relatively well-known, powerful individual.

“The lack of higher-tier dungeons, along with the minuscule amount of mana density in the region, is one of the main contributing factors to the power gap between people living in the different regions.

“The dungeons that you’ll have to go through as part of your curriculum in the Magic Academy will not give you even a fraction of the experience you can gain in the Revenant Dungeon. From what I understand of it, even the first floor of the new dungeon is superior in experience and resources than any of the other dungeons that can be found anywhere else in the kingdom.”

Reivyn heard the words, and they registered and caused him some slight surprise, but he was still wrestling with the Status page he had just been shown. After several minutes of silence, Reivyn finally regained his wits and looked at his mother.

“If you’re so strong as a young scion of the empire, then just how powerful were the dungeon breaks and the mastermind behind it?” he quietly asked.

“So, something to know about regions and the denizens that can be found in them,” Ameliyn said, seemingly not answering the question right away, “is that in a Tier 1 region, like this one, the cannon fodder monster level is going to be Tier 1, like the goblins that roam about. You with me so far?” Reivyn nodded and indicated for her to continue.

“In a Tier 2 region, the cannon fodder level of monster will be a weak Tier 2.” Ameliyn gave Reivyn a look. Reivyn extrapolated the information.

“So a Tier 4 region’s weakest monster is basically a weak Tier 4?” Ameliyn nodded her head.

“Yes, and dungeons typically follow the pattern as well. There were more Tier 4 monsters coming out of each of the dungeons in the Capital than there were Revenants from the dungeon break army we fought. There were also many Tier 5 and some Tier 6 boss monsters in the horde.

“We had people powerful enough to fight monsters of that level, but not with how sudden it was and how many there were. It was a nightmare. Those dungeons weren’t demonic in nature, but the monsters and beasts from inside of them were no less dangerous.”

So imagine the Dungeon Town if there were four dungeons, and each dungeon break had more monsters than the Revenant Dungeon released. All happening at once on a much larger scale.

“What do you know about the mastermind?” Reivyn asked quietly after a moment.

“Not a lot,” Ameliyn said. “All we know is he, or she, has a connection with the cults somehow, and they have the ability to affect the dungeons from the outside. It is an unprecedented ability, and we’ve never heard of anyone else ever having that ability before.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Refix called out as he entered the house in the middle of the discussion. He quickly spotted Reivyn sitting on the couch, and he got a giant grin on his face as he walked over to give his son a hug. He stopped with a frown on his face when Reivyn continued to sit and stare in contemplation.

“What’s going on with him?” Refix turned to Ameliyn.

“I just revealed my Status page and the truth about why we’re in this region,” Ameliyn said.

“Ahhh, okay. Then his expression makes perfect sense,” Refix said with a chuckle. “He’s always been so strong for his age and tier, and I’m sure seeing something so outside of his range of expectations came as a shock.”

“I think he still can’t get over it,” Ameliyn agreed, with her own chuckle.

“Well, let’s help him out a bit more, then, shall we?”

Reivyn was aware of his father’s arrival, but he was still so preoccupied with the new information he had been learning. He was brought out of his thoughts by another pop-up notification.

Your father has requested to share his Status page with you.

Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.

Accept Deny

Reivyn glanced at Refix out of the corner of his eye. His father just grinned back at him.

“You, too? Can’t even give me time to come to grips with it?” Reivyn sighed.

“Nope. It’s like a bandage. Rip it off all at once,” Refix said.

Reivyn rolled his eyes. Okay, Mom said nobody expected Dad to be as powerful as he was, so let’s see just how strong he really is. Reivyn mentally selected Accept and a new Status page popped up once again.

[Status]

[Name: Refix Class: Embodiment of Righteousness (T5) Lvl 21 / Heart of the Sword (T4) / Blademaster of Vynn (T3) Age: 36]

[Health: 44,160 Stamina: 101,080 Mana: 13,500]

[Physical Stats * Mental Stats]

[STR: 5,692 * INT: 1,400]

[VIT: 4,416 * MAG: 1,300]

[DEX: 5,670 * CLA: 1,000]

[CHA: 175 * PER: 1,800]

[LUK: 121]

“Legendary!” Reivyn cried out in shock. He spluttered after shouting out the word once more, flabbergasted. “And Tier 5! I just noticed that. How is that even possible?!” Reivyn couldn’t fathom how his parents had gained so many levels.

“You guys have been in this region for longer than I’ve been alive, and I’m ten years old! How did you guys get so strong?” He was finally able to give voice to the doubts in his mind. Refix answered him with laughter before explaining.

“We got a rare treasure from a dungeon drop a long time ago in a much higher tier region. It allows us to remotely enter the dungeon from anywhere in the same realm once a month.” Refix reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled forth a weathered-looking ankh. It didn’t look like anything special at first glance, and Reivyn’s Inspect skill wasn’t high enough level to get any information out of it from the System.

“It’s technically a key to bypass several floors of the dungeon, but your mother and I paid a high price to a powerful Space-Affinity caster to modify it. It now leads to the entrance of the dungeon instead of deeper inside, but it can be used anywhere.

“It takes a month to recharge, and luckily the dungeon itself has drops that can be used to charge it. If it had to charge simply from the ambient mana, it would take nearly a year to fully recharge in this Tier 1 region.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Reivyn said. He looked up at his father with a hopeful look on his face. “Does that mean I’ll get the chance to delve that dungeon, too?”

“Yup,” Refix said as he put the ankh back away. “That was always the plan, but you’re not ready, yet. This is a Tier 4 dungeon. The Revenant Dungeon is Tier 3, and you’re probably not capable of getting to and clearing the bottom floor yet. Once you can clear it, while being a main member of the party, not just tagging along, I can give you a slot in the party that delves this dungeon.

“If you went now, not only would you be in more danger than I’m comfortable with, but you also wouldn’t be able to contribute enough for it to be beneficial. So with that in mind, what you need to do is keep up your training and do well in the academy, alright?” Reivyn nodded his head.

And that leads to my current situation of continuing training my affinities once again. If my hunch is correct, I’ll need more than just to graduate to force the Tier 3 class transition, so I still can’t slack off.

Reivyn continued his diligent practice. He had made the goal to be as strong, or stronger, than the adventuring team that had stepped in to save Magron, and now he had a glimpse of just how powerful he would need to be.

I think I can do it. As far as I know, both Mother and Father had regular Tier 1 and 2 classes, and yet they both have more than one epic class, and Dad even has a legendary Tier 5 class. I’ll have to ask them the specifics of what their classes are all about some time, but for now, I need to work.

Epilogue

The Man in the Mask contemplated the tapestry laid out before him. It overlapped with the real world, only visible to him. It painted a tableau of the many lives surrounding him. He could peer into the distant past, where threads that no longer existed mixed and weaved together to spawn the present picture, and he could look into the not-so-distant future.

Things got tangled when one peered too far ahead.

There was also a price to be paid to snap the image into clearer focus. One he wasn’t ready to pay at the moment. There were times when it was needed, but he had already seen what he needed to see long ago.

He hummed a tune in satisfaction as he read the weaves and interpreted what they told him. A buzzing sound tried to distract him, but he ignored it.

It was fascinating what one could learn from the weaves with enough practice. Here and there, he could not only see the decisions people were making, but he could intuit the thought process behind said actions. He could even see the consequences of most actions with the little bit ahead he could peer, though long-lasting repercussions would initiate the price.

He could reach out and pluck individual strings, even pinch them and move them about at will. Stretching them too far would snap them back into place, though. If he wanted to ensure a particular thread was in a particular spot, he needed to carefully guide it over a long span of time. Sudden changes couldn’t be handled by the reality surrounding him.

He had long since become a master at manipulating the threads and weaves. Careful planning of decades and centuries coming to fruition. His greatest masterpiece was beginning to materialize right before him in real time.

The sound got more insistent, trying to get his attention. Is there something that I needed to attend to? He couldn’t think of anything. Maybe the buzzing noise would let him know.

“…failed you, my lord.” The sound came into focus as the Masked Man dismissed the Threads of Fate. He turned to face the man kneeling before him.

“Oh,” the Masked Man exclaimed, suddenly remembering where he was.

He was seated in the kneeling man’s own chair, where he would receive petitions from the populace of his county. The kneeling man, the local count, hadn’t offered a single objection to the Masked Man usurping his seat. It was these small gestures that put people in their rightful place, along with their Threads.

“What was that?” the Masked Man asked.

“I said we have failed you, my lord.” The count bowed his head further, nearly touching his forehead to the ground.

“Enough of that.” The Masked Man motioned for the man to straighten up. Making sure people knew their place was entirely different than making one grovel and beg. He detested such behavior. His own memories made him balk at such actions, and so he never let anyone do such things to him. “Up, up you go. That’s it.”

The man raised his face at the urging of the Masked Man, hope glimmering in his eyes.

“What do you mean when you say you ‘failed me?’” the Man in the Mask inquired.

“We failed to kill the boy or secure the dungeon, my lord…” The count trailed off, confused by the lack of wrath from the Masked Man.

“Hah… hahahaha.” The Masked Man was overcome with mirth for a moment. He regained control and leveled his gaze at the kneeling count. “You haven’t failed me, child. You performed exactly what I wanted.

“I never said I wanted possession of the dungeon, if you’ll recall. I simply told you to contest the claim. Everything has worked out exactly as I predicted. The Threads don’t lie.”

The count gave a confused look at that last bit, but he also relaxed at the news that he wasn’t going to be punished for failing the man.

“I see… And what would you have of me, of all of us”—the count gestured to the others in the room, his retainers and loyalists who were also kneeling a distance away—“my lord?”

“Have you sent the messenger to the Royal Castle of Eldiar?”

“Yes, my lord. Just as you instructed.”

“Then your tasks are done,” the Masked Man said. He pulled out a bundle of scrolls from within his robes and tossed them to the count. “Here are the skills, achievements, and life experiences, plus where and how to acquire them, for you and your followers to ensure a higher rarity tier on your next class rank up.”

Gasps filled the room as the precious treasure was so easily tossed to the count. The Masked Man treated the scrolls as if they were nothing but common parchment, not the national treasures they deserved to be. The count hastily snatched them from the air lest they be damaged, cradling them to his chest.

“There’s one for each of you, tailored to you individually,” the Masked Man continued. “While they’ll work as general guidance for anyone—say, your descendants and heirs—they’re meant for each of you, alone. I’m a generous man, and I keep my word. You have done what you’ve been instructed, and the price has been paid.”

“Thank you, my lord. Thank you!” The count bowed forward a few more times. The Masked Man rolled his eyes at the man’s antics. “We will never forget you… Benefactor!”

The Masked Man smiled behind the blank mask, satisfaction radiating off of him.

I’m sure you won’t, he thought. Everything is lining up as it should. The boy is on his way, and I’ve secured another legend to add to my growing myth. The Masked Man chuckled as he got up from his seat and left the room, not glancing back.

Thank You

If you enjoyed the book, leave a review, and share it with your friends! Every little bit helps the authors craft these wonderful tales for you.

Join the Mango Media Community, or sign up for our newsletter:

Discord

Newsletter

Facebook

Website

Instagram

Other Mango Media Titles:

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Metaworld Chronicles

Dead Tired

And more!

Syl

Ruinous Return

The Runic Artist

Alexa Thyme

A few facebook pages allow us to self promote if we backlink them. Thank you to the following groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/litrpgforum

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/