The Grand Weave

Training with Brelten was an eye-opening experience. I told him about our day, and he was impressed by all the beasts that we ended up fighting. He actually laughed at me when I told him my excitement over receiving so many silver coins. At first, I thought he was mocking me, but it turned out he was just happy. He said that it reminded him of his time at the beginning stages when he and his party would treat every piece of silver like it was gold. Brelten then went on about how happy it made him to see young adventurers appreciate and celebrate every new step on their path to ascendency. The big man had an almost fatherly look in his eyes.

We sparred for some time, but it was more of me being his punching bag for an hour. The man had the viciousness of a nun with a ruler and the strictness of one too. Every time I performed a maneuver wrong or my stance was either too stiff or too loose, he would correct me by smacking my limbs with a long wooden staff. It was beyond frustrating, and whenever I glared, he just stared at me like an evil, sadistic drill instructor. I was damn sure his smile got wider the more mistakes I made.

After sparring, he did the weirdest thing.

He stopped and sat us down to enjoy some tea. Being an American, the only tea I drank was ice-cold and usually packed full of sugar. Despite my doubts, it perked me up, and soothed my throat. It reminded me of a warm green tea mixed with cinnamon and apples.

"So why the tea? It's great, don't get me wrong but is it more of tradition? Beat the noobie and then serve them tea?" I joked.

Brelten's ears twitched but he smiled casually. "One should always drink tea. It's good for the body and the soul. But no, its not tradition. It's a training aid."

"Huh?"

"Relax and you should feel it. I know you can sense the mana in your body. Your familiars are actively inside your soul, another thing that should help you where others might struggle. You already know what it feels like, and this will help you sense it with clarity."

I squirmed on the floor but complied and copied his pose. Meditation as it turned out, was similar no matter what world you were on.

"Ok. So why am I trying to feel my soul? Is this related to the system?"

He nodded. "To ascend the ranks and acquire more power, one must cultivate. Naturally, our bodies absorb ambiant mana, but this mana sits dormant until it is channeled into our skills. That same principle will be used tonight. What we are looking to do is to connect the soul and your mana to your physical body. To refine and carve out your mana channels so you may take in more power."

Brelten explained in greater detail but I got the gist. The system despite operating like a game system relied on cultivation. It pulled the legwork and showed our progress along with facilitating the magic. But we had to build ourselves up. And to do that, I needed to meditate and widen what mana pathways I had already created in order to rank them up and eventually tier up.

Under the effects of the strange tea, I could more easily visualize the lake of mana sitting in my chest. Mana channels were semi-corporeal in nature. They existed physically and spiritually, tied to my soul first, then to my physical body. I already had mana channels in my body, from both innate channels and due to me having a custom system-made body. The mana was used to connect more channels from my lake to my skills.

I could only see two skills, like glowing wisps of light inside my soul. Inside my soul was a pink-like liquid that floated separately above the lake of mana. This liquid was energy that I absorbed from fighting the beasts.

Under Brelten’s guidance, I directed the pink liquid and mix it with my blue mana. Using this new combined energy, I would first slowly carve out a pathway to my skills. The process was something that I did more through instinct than by following instructions. Brelten explained that it was good I had a knack for this and told me to do what felt the most right when carving the new channel. It took around minutes to form the new channel. After it was done, Brelten shook his head, muttering how unfair it was.

I completed two channels, one for each skill, and then began following the natural channels in my body and carving newer paths intertwined with the innate ones. The final hour of the night rapidly passed with me expanding slowly widening my work. By the end of the night my brain felt sluggish and churning thoughts squeezed my brain. The tea helped, but spending hours visualizing and actually carving the cold mana through my soul and body was draining like nothing I’d ever done before.

I checked my status in excitement but saw that both of the summons were still rank zero. Another thing that struck me was that I didn’t see a skill wisp for my dimensional storage skill. When I asked Brelten, he explained that the skill was something that only grew as I tiered up. He frowned and shook his head when I admitted my disappointment at not ranking up my skills. In response, he pulled out a pair of glasses that had matte black lenses that completely covered his eyes.

"What's that?"

"A mana piercer. It helps me see the pathways throughout your body. One moment and try to sit still."

I complied, not daring to breathe.

Eventually he took them off and sighed. "Be careful about complaining on the lack of progress. You are a monster, Cyrus."

I snorted. "I don't all too scary when you could run circles around me and beat me till I popped."

"While true, you are simply lacking in perspective," he smiled. "Your a prodigy, by way of your body and perhaps natural instincts. You took to the proccess and made admirable work for your fist time. Those who first began could easily take up to two weeks to get to where you are now. A savant, maybe a week. But in only a couple of hours, you have surpassed even that. Again, you are a monster and should not lament your lack of progress."

"So I'm close?"

"Very. I suspect another session and you'll rank up your skills."

If Sam didn’t come with me tomorrow night, then I’d just have to tease her when I finally ranked up. I bid Brelten goodbye and thanked him for the teachings. He waved me off and invited me the following day along with Sam.

When I finally entered my room at Oleanders, I passed out instantly. The exciting day finally coming to a close and concious thought turned off the moment my head hit the bed. Later in the morning, when I dragged myself down for breakfast, Sam was already there and mostly finished with her food. She turned to face me and offered me a piece of what looked like crispy bacon as I sat down. I accepted it without a word and munched on the bacon like a conked-out zombie.

“Listen, I know why I’m tired, but I have no idea why you're tired,” Sam commented.

I ignored her and watched Bera come out of the kitchen with my plate of food.

“Hey, Bera, I have a question,” I said as she set my food down and poured me a cup of juice.

Setting my plate down, she leaned on the counter and cocked her head. “And what would that question be, sweetie?”

“I meant to ask him but I don't think I was fully concious when I left. Brelten helped me begin carving my mana channels last night. I thought I would feel refreshed and energized. Instead, I felt tired as all hell and went to sleep the moment my head hit the pillow. Is it supposed to be that draining?”

Bera’s eyes softened.

“Ahhh, that's why you walked in like the living dead. To answer your question, yes and no,” she explained. My eyes narrowed in confusion. Seeing this, she continued before I could ask. “The process of taking energy and then forcing it to basically drill new mana pathways is always going to be a tiring endeavor. It only gets harder the more time you spend doing it. When you finally tier up, whether that is a skill or actual ascendency tier, you’ll feel a brief state of fatigue. After the fatigue wears off, you’ll feel more energized. To describe it, it feels like you finally corrected some imbalance in yourself you didn’t know you had. The euphoria after tiering up is well documented. Best be careful when you do. Some people joke that the smell of cleansing the impurities of the body is the system's way of balancing the rush.”

Throughout Bera’s explanation, Sam had all but forgotten her last strip of bacon in her hands as she paid attention to absorbing the new knowledge. Reaching over while she wasn’t looking, I quickly swiped the crispy strip and stuffed it in my mouth. Sam’s stared open-jawed before she raged and pawed at my arm. She tried to retaliate by stealing all the fresh bacon off my plate but I managed to fend her off.

“Children, please, behave yourselves. Cyrus, no stealing people's bacon. In some places, that’d get you killed or challenged to a duel. Sam, I’ll be out with a small plate of strips in a few minutes,” Bera admonished.

We cowed like rueful children while subtly poking each other in the sides. Bera walked away, shaking her head.

I spent the rest of the morning explaining everything to Sam and finally asked her how everything went with Nadia.

“Now, Cyrus, a woman never tells, don't you know?” Sam said while shaking her head. I didn’t respond and gave her a deadpan stare. Chuckling to herself, she punched me in the arm. “Fiiiine, I’ll spill. It went fine. Things were awkward at first, but hey, it all worked out. She left like two hours later and walked out with Marcus. You should have seen her, red as a tomato, while Marcus was silently laughing as he followed her out. If the impression I got on my performance was correct, I doubt this’ll be a one-time thing. Soooooooo... Score!"

As irritating as her boastfulness was, it was good to know Sam had some fun. There was always a worry that this world treated things differently than back on Earth. I know it felt relieving to her that nobody even thought twice about it; it bodes well for our continuous future spent living here.

We spent the rest of the hour bantering back and forth as she teased about how touchy Warren and I were last night. Comments that I aptly avoided and tuned out as I finished my meal. After eating, I decided to have a bath before we headed out for the day.

I’d have killed to have some item enchanted with an automatic cleaning function.

When I got done bathing, Sam all but yanked my arm off, dragging me to Volan’s shop. The red oni was thrilled that we came back so soon to buy more gear. We went bankrupt again, buying some more armour. Sam's new gear was made of hard grey leather embedded with small metal plates. She got herself a set of gloves, leg guards, and vambraces. My items were cheaper, lacking the metal plates but in return was far lighter.

I got all the same things as her with the addition of new steel-toed boots. All of my armour matched the black striped leather vest I got the day before. Feeling generous, Volan even threw in some leather belts and two simple iron daggers. The belt had a built-in strap and sheath in the back, and the daggers had a recurved blade. When asked why he was giving them away for free, he just scratched his cheek, looked away, and said that he appreciated the business. It probably helped that we told him how amazing everything was and acted like two kids receiving a load of presents on Christmas.

We truly felt like badass adventurers. All the times Sam got me to try on larp gear couldn't hold a candle to the experience of actually being decked out in real armour. Our excitement rode high high as we made our way out of the village. When we got to the gate entrance, we were surprised. Warren, Nadia, and Marcus stood at the gate their eyes, searching the road. Nadia was the first to spot us, and her face brightened when Sam waved. As we approached, Warren whistled.

“Wow, look at you guys, all decked out. You're starting to look like real adventurers now,” he praised.

Sam grinned like idiots. Thinking we looked like actual adventurers wasn’t nearly as satisfying as having someone say that you do. The only thing I felt that we were missing were the cool hooded cloaks. Our outfits wouldn’t be complete till we got them. Which only added another reason to go out more and kill more beasts.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Sam said boisterously, giving dramatic half-bows as she did.

They all grinned in return.

“What are you guys doing here? I figured you would have started your patrol already,” I asked.

They gave each other looks before answering.

“Well, about that, we had such a great time yesterday we figured we’d ask if you wanted to join us again today,” Warren explained.

Honestly, it would be much safer heading out with them. At some point, I’d want to test ourselves without having the safety net of having people around in case things get dangerous. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I was willing to give them some of the coin earned, that and maybe another chance at acquiring more candy.

Smirking, I turned to look Warren in the eye.

“You three just want more tantalizing candy goodness, don’t yah?” I teased.

Marcus actually looked slightly embarrassed, while Nadia smiled innocently. Warren laughed before returning my stare.

“You got us, can’t really blame us. That stuff was amazing,” he admitted.

With the unexpected addition of the three guards, we made our way into the forest. Today went very differently from yesterday. We ended up fighting a much larger, tier one thistlespine. Our new armour was immediately helpful and helped protect us from being turned into pincushions.

Even with the new gear, we still got stabbed multiple times. Unlike the tier zero thistlespines, the beast pelted us with quills shot from its back. Eventually, it was Zharia who managed the killing blow. After blasting a stream of golden fire into its face, we stayed back and let the beast succumb to the numerous injuries we inflicted on it. With a top-off from Áine and a solid high-five we continued on our way.

The entireity of the day continued with different fights every other hour. I didn’t know why, but there was a worrying increase in beasts in the forest. By the time we stopped for lunch, Sam and I got into three more fights before we settled down to eat by the river. We fought two emberboars, one a tier one and another tier zero. Along with a drawn-out battle against some kind of a horned rabbit that had ram horns curving out of its head. The battle took so long because the bastard kept tackling us like a furry cannonball and then instantly ran off to hide between the trees. The trio spent a decent amount of time laughing and mocking us good-naturedly after the fight.

Lunch was even better than yesterday due to me finally trying out my other magic pouch. The oohs and ahs danced in my earsl as I seasoned our fish before roasting them. Some garlic and pepper went a long way in turning some bland meat into savory goodness.

After full bellies and some relaxation we continued. Sam and I took turns fighting the beasts that would cross our path. We fought another tier zero ember boar and another pair of zilvawolves. Our last and hardest fight of the day almost forced the guards to step in. A large fourteen-foot snake dropped down from a branch above us and wrapped Sam in its coils. The monster kept Sam’s arms trapped against her body while shifting its head to fend me off. Its fangs were as long as my hand. My stabs were met with striking fangs, and I couldn’t score a clean hit on the creature despite its size. The blade of my spear kept scored shallow scratches against its light-blue scales.

Again, Zharia saved the day before the guards had to step in. She flew in like an angry crow and used her sharp talons to scratch one of its eyes. Zharia’s efforts loosened the serpent's death grip on Sam, and she managed to get one of her arms free. As the creature was orientating on my familiar, flying next to me, Sam sent a blood-splattering Tidal Smash to the stretch of scales wrapped around her body.

Scales dented, and meat caved in. A wallop from her hammer brought its head low.

With Sam free, we managed to whittle the snake down by attacking it from all sides. Whenever it tried to lunge for one of us, either Sam, Zharia, or I would attack and prevent it from landing another grapple. All in all, we came out of the fight fairly uninjured sans Sam's some sore ribs. Áine fixed her chest without issue

"Damn. Didn't think I could have this much fun putting myself in danger like this. I think I get why all the idiots we made fun in those reality shows put themselves into harms way," I said, ribbing Sam.

Warren's face flashed with a look I couldn't identify but it dissapeared before I could ask what was up.

Sam slapped my hand aside. But she had her grin on her face as she did. Unlike me, sweat plastered her skin. "Yeah. I think you're right. It's sorta addicting. Scary in the moment but beyond exhilirating. Maybe all those anime protagonists were right all long."

Warren coughed awkwardly. "You two seem to rea-"

His words were cut off with a guard rushing toward our group. As we reached the village gate, we were stopped, and I was asked to rush to the guard building.

Ah crap. Did someone get hurt?

I agreed to come and the others followed.

Cedric greeted me at the entrance of the barracks and led to the healing ward. All four beds were occupied, and two more guards sat in chairs bandaged up and resting.

“What the hell happened?” I asked.

A guard wrapped in bandages sporting serious burns released a groan that echoed throughout the room.

Cedric gritted his teeth and snarled.

“All three groups patrolling today ended up facing numerous monsters. Lena’s team came in after fighting off a pack of six zilvawolves. Only Lena made it out lightly injured,” he said. Looking more closely, I saw that the two bandaged and bleeding guards on the second and third bed were indeed the men who followed Lena. The captain pointed to the remaining injured guards. “Morris’ team got hit by two tier-one emberboars. Guard Yena suffered several third-degree burns. And Tharis’ team got tangled in a fight between three zilvawolves and a thistlespine.”

I looked back and saw the trio grimacing in anger. Sam had a comforting hand on Nadia’s shoulder to help ease the white-knuckled grip her fists were making. My mouth was set to a hard line as I summoned Áine.

“Who do you want me to heal first? If anyone is in danger of bleeding out, I’d prefer to prioritize them."

“Yena first. The others are holding thanks to the salve we put on them before bandaging them up."

I looked at Áine. “Take as much as you need."

The little fairy also clenched her fists. She nodded before flying over to our burn victim and activated her skill.

Mana drained away, pooling into her skill. Thankfully, her injuries were a tad better than Warren's previous injury. After bottoming out a chunk of my mana, I stopped Áine. She whirled towards me in confusion. I explained that she should heal her till she's stable and then save mana for the others. Áine nodded reluctantly and backed off.

“Why'd you stop healing her?!” Nadia shouted.

Cedric turned and glared before turning back to me. He gave me a nod of approval, seeming to understand my intentions.

“He's saving mana so he can heal everyone else. Healing a burn wound with nature-aspected healing puts a heavy tax on mana usage,” he explained.

Nadia calmed down and apologized.

Turning back to the guard, she was still covered in bleeding bandages, but underneath looked far better then before. Not all injuries were healed. There was still a lot of inflammation, and some wounds showed angry red scar tissue.

“I’m sorry that I can’t completely get rid of everything right now. I don’t have enough mana to heal you fully. I promise when I can, Áine here will get you back to one hundred percent,” I apologized while putting on a reassuring smile.

“No. Thank you so much. That hurt like hell, and I’ll gladly accept some tenderness left over,” the guardswoman said quickly.

I could tell she was still dealing with having a near-death experience, so I put a hand on her shoulder lightly and pushed her back into the bed. She looked flustered, but calmed down after Cedric reassured her.

I turned my head back to the others. “Someone should help her get those bandages off. No use in letting her keep bloodied bandages on. She could easily risk infection the way she is,” I said.

Nadia and Sam walked forward and began to slowly remove the bloodstained cloth.

Áine went around the room, healing the bleeding guards in the beds first. By the end of the second guard, that pervasive cold wormed its way into my chest. My head was sluggish, and I barely repressed the shivering caused by the cold. After healing the last guard on the bed, I felt two steady hands help hold me up as I swayed and grasped for the walls. Áine herself looked stressed. Her arms hung limply, and her wings fluttered more slowly.

“Master, I’m sorry,” Áine sent out.

I tried to smile at her, but I couldn’t focus my vision enough to even stare at her properly.

“No worries, Áine, you did amazing. Don’t… Worry about me, just finish… This,” I mumbled.

After the green light vanished from her hands, I wasn’t even sure if I was still standing anymore. It was cold, so damn cold. My limbs were beyond heavy. I could no longer feel their presence, only the weight. It dragged me down, weighing on me like two useless anchors. I knew I was struggling to breathe. I plunged past the feeling of drowing in a lake. It was as if I was in a raging blizzard while floating in frigid waters.

I felt panic through my connection to my familiars. Áine was distraught and regretful, while Zharia wanted nothing more than to warm me up. But she knew if she got summoned now, it’d only make things worse.

Something or someone pressed an object to my lips. It was hard, and it had an opening--a rounded tip. Some sort of liquid splashed down my throat. I couldn’t even taste it due to my addled state. The liquid went down, and settled into the cavity I called my chest.

Slowly, the cold started disappearing. It was like a spark of warmth spreading outward. After some time, I began to feel my limbs again, and I finally opened my eyes. Staring at me was an alarming amount of eyes. Almost everyone showed deep concern, but there were two who had different emotions. One was Sam's eyebrows were furrowed, and I could tell she was furious about something. The other was Cedric's. I wasn't sure what the man thought in that steel head. His face was neutral but troubled, his eyes burned red but without expression.

“What did you give me? I felt someone pour something down my throat,” I asked while leaning up slowly.

“We gave you a mana potion. You depleted your mana pool and went into extreme mana fatigue. Your body went into shock,” explained Warren.

He had an arm around my back to help support me.

I looked around again and noticed that some of the healed guards were staring at me with a mix of awe and horror. I groaned and got up with the help of Warren.

“Did I at least heal everyone?” I asked.

“Yes, you did. The only ones with any wounds left are Yena and Remos,” Cedric said calmly.

I looked over at the last guard. I could see some minor scratches on his face, but that was about it. The elf stepped forward.

“Uhm, thank you. I’ll be fine, so no need to heal me. I can live with some sore muscles and a few measly scratches,” he said quickly.

He had an uncomfortable look on his face and seemed in a hurry to make sure I didn’t start healing again. I chuckled inwardly. I must have made him feel bad for being a part of the reason I collapsed.

Owww. Okay, no mental chuckling. My head's pounding too hard.

“If that's the case, then I think I’m gonna have to apologize to you, Yena. I’ll try to come tomorrow and fix you in the morning. I think I need to rest a bit. I’m going back to Oleander's."

I began to walk out of the room when Sam came to my other side and let me lean on her. Her anger was still there, but it looked like it had dialed down a few notches to extreme annoyance. Nonetheless, Sam was there to help me, and that’s all that mattered. The walk to Oleander's was slow and arduous. Even with the potion they gave me, I felt wrung out. All I wanted was to sit down and slowly eat some soup.

When we walked in, some of the adventurers inside were giving us concerned wide-eyed stares. A couple of elves got up from their chairs and moved to a different table. I thanked them since it was the closest table, and they allowed me to sit down.

Bera came rushing after seeing me walk in.

“What happened? Is everything OK?” she asked with concern etched on her face.

I was really starting to dislike having people worry over me.

“The idiot used up all his mana healing the guards. Ended up going into shock,” Sam said tersely.

I inwardly sighed.

Yep, definitely still angry.

Bera’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she promptly disappeared back into the kitchen. Somehow, I felt like I just got silently scolded. I probably did the more I thought about it. I spent the time waiting with my head lying on the table. It was surprisingly clean, but then again, I doubt Bera would let her inn ever get dirty. Eventually, Marcus and Nadia walked in and sat down with us.

“I’m sorry, guys, I don’t think I’ll be heading over to Arlen’s tonight. Too tired,” I apologized.

There was no way they’d actually get mad over the wait, but I felt better at least vocalizing an apology.

“Don’t worry about that. You fought all those monsters yourself. They’re rightfully yours,” Warren replied.

He wasn’t looking at me worriedly, but his smile was halfhearted at best.

“Actually, Captain wanted me to give this to you. He told me to tell you that he was deeply grateful for saving and healing his guards. I’d like to add my thanks as well. There aren't many of us here in the village due to its size, so you end up getting to know everyone closely. Losing anyone sucks, and it's not something I want to repeat if I can,” Nadia said.

She placed a bulging pouch and slowly slid it across the table. Her words made me wonder who they lost, but I wasn't so socially inept to ask the obvious question. I’m sure with six months of dangerous monster-infested forest to patrol, they statistically have lost a guard or two. Inoria wasn't safe. It held danger even in the lowest of beasts. Without Áine healing everything, I doubt I’d be so cavalier about rushing into battle as easily as I did.

It took a couple of slow blinks before I snagged the pouch and opened it. The contents made my eyes widen. Inside was a stack of silver and a single gold coin on top. Damn, that meant a lot. One hundred silver pieces were equivalent to a single gold piece. With the new windfall, Sam and I could finish gearing up completely. That wasn’t even counting what I could get from all the beast corpses sitting in my dragon’s stomach. I gave Sam a double thumbs up, to which she snorted but showed a tiny smile.

Yay, progress.

Bera came over and set down plates for everybody and laid down some drinks. Everyone else had a plate filled with some meat and vegetable mix, but mine was a giant bowl of soup. I eyed the red-haired woman. I didn’t even mention I wanted soup. Still, I pulled out three silver pieces and handed them to her. I was definitely overpaying, but hey, with the way she's been treating us, I would feel horrible if I didn’t at least pay well enough.

She sighed but accepted the coins before she came closer and leaned forward.

“Thank you, Cyrus, for helping keep those boys and gals safe. Just try not to hurt yourself next time. Going into mana shock is one of the worst things you can do as an untiered,” she whispered.

Her words were both grateful and admonishing. I nodded, and she left to help serve other patrons.

I wasn’t sure what Bera put into the soup, but it warmed me up. It didn’t cure me of my fatigue, but I felt better, more so than I should, by just eating a delicious meal. She put something in the soup that helped me in some medicinal way. My thoughts on the woman kept soaring.

Surprisingly, some of the adventures came over and complimented me on a good job. There was even an instance of someone calling me a helpful rookie. Not sure I liked the title, but hey, I’ll take whatever positive things they had to say.

About forty-five minutes later, I definitely felt like I was ready to head to bed early. Before I said goodbye, I smiled at the trio and pulled out the Trickster’s Bag of Sweet Treats. The smiling orange pouch brought some grins to the table. I let Marcus, Nadia, and Sam pull out of the bag.

Sorry, Warren, but I needed to placate Sam.

I saw Sam had managed to pull out a sucker that looked suspiciously Neapolitan flavoured. I apologized but said I needed it for Bera. I only took it when I confirmed she wouldn’t try to bite my hand off.

"Bah. Fine, give it to her. If I had to sacrifice my spoils, I could do it for a saint," Sam grumbled.

I gave Bera the candy and thanked her one last time. She eyed me suspiciously until she unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth. I got a gentle but firm squeeze in return. I finally entered my room and flopped onto the bed. Sleep gripped me like a drowning lover. I didn’t wake up till morning.

----

Checking my system clock, it informed me it was almost nine o'clock.

All the fatigue from last night was gone. I stretched and headed down. The actions were starting to become routine. I found Sam chatting with a couple of women, so I made my way to the bar without disturbing her. Bera dropped a beautiful plate of breakfast in front of me. Today, it was accompanied by a peach-tasting lemonade. After I finished my plate, Sam finally said goodbye to the ladies and came over.

“Feeling better, Cy?” she asked.

“Perfectly,” I replied. Turning to her, I didn’t see any trace of the anger from last night. “I’m sorry for what happened last night.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she just sighed in the end.

“Good. That was scary. When we fight magical monsters, getting hurt is fine. I already know that we both enjoy the thrill of the battle. These new bodies are perfectly adapted to that. Whatever injuries, I know Áine can patch us up. I shouldn’t be so reliant on it, but nonetheless, I am,” she said. I stared at her curiously, wondering where she was going with this. She stared me directly in the eye and put a hand on my shoulder. “Last night, knowing that you were essentially dying in a situation where you couldn’t be healed magically or through some bullshit magic potion was terrifying. I couldn’t do anything, and dying to something so… it made me feel weak and scared for the first time. You're all I have, Cy. Losing you and being left alone here would suck. This magical world, this second chance at life, would be depressing without you. The adventure wouldn’t be as magical and fun anymore."

I leaned over and gave her a hug. Despite all the dangerous shit we’ve been involved in so far, it never felt truly scary. In battle, my blood sang. There have been several moments where I caught myself grinning like a psychopath after nearly dying against some beast. Dying never really felt like something I would be so concerned about. And in truth, I probably wouldn’t. It wasn’t like I was going to seek death, but somehow unexplainably, I felt a certain acceptance of it.

Sam was right. We were in a magical world, and we're currently adventuring like some character in a story. Because of that, I knew that every time we went out to fight, we risked death. I had to make peace with that fact, or I could never continue adventuring.

“I can’t and won’t promise that I’ll not get into those situations, and you can’t either. I know you. You won't be satisfied sitting back and relaxing. And neither am I. We have this drive, nothing we can do about other than keeping pushing forward."

She let me go and then lightly punched me in the arm. “I know. Now go get bathed so we can head out. Enough sappy speeches."

A trip to Arlen’s shop was a dry but successful affair. The thistlespine and emberboars made up a good portion of the sales, the two tier-one cores adding decent value. Disappointing were the zilva wolves and the horned rabbit. The rabbit only sold for half a silver since it was only good for meat. With the corpse being worth so little, it made the annoying fight even more annoying.

The snake was something specific to the Yidelwoods. It was simply called a Yidelwood drop snake. Thankfully, the meat could be used in several local dishes. With the low fat and high protein, its natural spicy flavor made the meat popular in the village. The scales were also useful as a brighter-coloured alternative to other leather options. He bought the whole snake from us for fifteen silver. It was kind of surprising to find out the creature wasn’t even tier one. It made me wonder just how large these snakes could get. All in all, It came to a total of forty-four silvers. I set aside six silver pieces in a separate pouch. We may have ended up fighting more than we did the other day, but Sam and I handled everything ourselves.

After retreating from the butcher, we headed to the guild. Earlier in the inn, one of the adventurers delivered a message. Apparently, Brelten wanted to see me, so we hurried over to the guard building to finish my promise of healing. Yena was super grateful and kept thanking me profusely. I had to eventually tell her to stop and not worry about it so we could get on our way.

Walking into the guild building, Talis greeted us warmly and told us to head on down.

Brelten sported a green robe today. It looked like silk, and it had a darker green pattern that resembled trees and roots. Idly, I wondered if the item was enchanted in any way. I doubted people wasted money on enchanted casual wear, but who knew? Brelten seemed rich and powerful enough to afford such a thing.

“Good morning to you two. How are you feeling, Cyrus? I heard of what happened at the guardhouse.” he asked as he set down what looked like a metal pen.

We sat down and settled ourselves in the chairs.

“Feeling perfectly fine now. Yesterday was tiring, but I figured I’d relax today. No need to burn myself out,” I replied.

“Good, I figured I could ask you some questions, and then we can spend the day helping you two carve more channels. The best way to not have a repeat of last night would be to deepen the amount of mana you have,” he said.

We both nodded. Having someone help us with ranking up would be nice. However, I was slightly concerned if it was okay for us two to be taking up his time.

“That’s perfect. What did you want to know?”

“When you first arrived in Inoria, you guys were dropped deep into the woods next to a mountain. You said that for a couple of days, you two didn’t run into anything as you trekked through the woods. When you did engage some beasts, it was only twice and in small or singular numbers,” he stated. I nodded again. So far, he hadn’t asked any actual questions. He continued. “You guys didn’t notice anything suspicious at all during your week spent getting to the village?”

“Not really? But I'm not sure if we'd know what's considered suspicious around here,” I said.

“Yeah, honestly, outside of the random assault from the zilvawolves, there wasn’t much wildlife. For miles, the forest was dead silent before we encountered the ember boar. Like full muted world kind of silent,” Sam added.

Brelten frowned slightly. “That would be due to the lingering effects of the ether storm. It's just that by now, the beasts should have calmed down. Instead, I’m hearing increased aggression and a number of reported attacks The assault on four different guard patrols is highly concerning. I’ve also received reports from different adventuring teams about an increased number of engagements between beasts in the Yidelwoods."

He pulled out a scroll from his desk and unrolled it. It was a map of the area. Brelten pointed to a small spot on the map, to an island in the middle of a lake. There was a symbol of golden crossed swords with a diamond above it. The diamond had the number one with a dash between the number two inside of it. “This is the Emberlake Dungeon that was discovered seven months ago. Normally, with the increased number of beasts showing up, I’d point to the obvious culprit. However, this dungeon has been in continuous use since its discovery. Every day, you will find adventuring parties delving into the dungeon. Because of this, there is zero chance that the dungeon would be reaching critical levels and have monsters breaking out. To our knowledge, there are no other dungeons in the area. This village was built to establish the Emberlake as a good area for beginning adventurers. If there were other dungeons that were at breakout levels, we’d have seen other monster types show up. Few dungeons, if ever, share the same type of creatures."

“From what I read about dungeons in the primer, the monsters inside can breach the dungeon barrier if the dungeon isn’t cleared. Are we sure that there isn’t a hidden dungeon that has beasts staying near the entrance but is riling up or driving out the local fauna?” I asked after some thought.

He paused but then slowly shook his head. “That could technically happen, but that’d be rare. Dungeon monsters are hyper-aggressive and short-lived. The monsters who break out of dungeons tend to be more mobile and bloodthirsty. They are specifically adapted to the ambient mana that saturates dungeons. Without it, they deteriorate and die in about a week. Because of this, it’s a very minute chance that a trapping or sedentary creature would willingly leave the dungeon,” he said. He then pointed down an area just away from the village and made a circle. “This is where the ether storm occurred. While close enough to have provoked the beasts in the woods, the area should have returned to normal by now. At most, the effects should only last a few more days, and that is already unusual. As guildmaster, I’m asking you two to be careful and investigate anything strange that you spot during your time in the woods.”

“We can do that. If anything, we're getting increased practice. And all the beast corpses go a long way in helping us gear out better,” Sam said.

“I’d love to try the dungeon at some point as well. So this really is a great time for us to train before we tackle our first delve,” I added.

Brelten smiled at that. “Thank you, and I think you are still a good way off from doing a delve. At least you’d have to party up with others; otherwise, you’d probably get eaten fairly easily.” He then stood up and moved his desk and chairs back. After we helped move the chairs, he clapped his hands. Suddenly, in his hands was a heavy wooden staff with metal end caps. “Let’s begin your training. After I beat the inexperience out of you, we can meditate together. I’m sure you are both filled with energy from the fights.”

He grinned evilly and twirled his staff.

This is going to hurt.

And it did. After a solid hour of treating us like uppity children, we collapsed to the floor, bruised and battered. With a top-up from Áine, we began meditating for the day. He made some more of the tea I drank the first time and told me to continue doing what I did before, and helped Sam begin the process.

Six hours, six hours of continuous meditation. I knew that stories always painted cultivators as ascetic monks who disappeared for months or even years at a time, doing nothing but cultivating, but I didn't realize what it truly meant. Still, the process was not some sit still and forget yourself sort of activity. Brelten explained that later, when we were higher-tiered and more skilled in meditation, we could easily cultivate for hours on end.

The process was as tiring as it was the last time, though I found myself taking the effort in stride. At the end, he summoned the weird glasses again and shook his head.

"Frightening. But good. Get some rest and remember to be safe," Brelten said before seeing us out the door.

We made our way to Oleander's and spent the rest of the night relaxing. After a few hours, the trio came in and joined us, which gave me the opportunity to hand them the six silver coins.

Over the next two days, Sam and I would head out on our own into the forest and go exploring. Our lessons with Brelten proved essential to our survival. The amount of beasts attacking us never waned. Every other hour, we’d end up fighting something, and sometimes twice in the same hour. It was a more harrowing experience without the guards to back us up, but we endured.

With each fight, we’d grow more comfortable with our weapons and improve our teamwork. I’d act as a distraction while Sam would provide well-timed support and finishers. Using Zharia as an added D.P.S., we would come out of most fights intact. The worst was when we got ganged up by two drop snakes at once. If it wasn’t for Zharia warning us before we walked under them, we would have been digesting in a serpent’s belly. Drop snakes, as it turned out, enjoyed the comforting heat when they could but hated Zharia’s golden flames.

Arlen actually complimented us for being able to hand him full, intact bodies. The rarity of storage items and skills was no joke. It could also be due to the relatively low level of the area. The primer taught us that dimensional storages were more common in dungeon towns that hosted tier-three dungeons.

We added another seventy-two silver coins to the pouch inside my storage.

I was only called to heal people once. Cedric proved his mettle and adapted to the beast's growing agression. He combined the teams and maintained joint-patrols. With the increased number of people per team, they were able to handle and take down attacking beasts more easily. Warren’s team still joined us every night to hang out.

On our third day, I finally achieved rank one in both my skills. Brelten was surprised. His initial estimate was a five days for one of us to achieve the first rank. Looking inward, I could feel my mana pool was deeper than before. And the increased helped lessen the emptying feeling of summoning my familiars. Not a significant amount, but it was noticeable enough that summoning all three wasn’t as tiring.

Sam achieved her first rank later that night. There were no visual changes to my familiars, but I wasn’t expecting any. I was warned that they’d only really change during a tier-up. They were both happy that they ranked up, though. I could already imagine a day where I would be surrounded by magical familiars.

During my daydream, Zharia casually let slip that her mother was as big as Zhuyin. If Zharia was to have a similar enough growth spurt, I’d be riding on a giant phoenix someday. A thought, that sank its greedy fingers into the recess of my desires.

Later that day, I eventually decided to name the weird star whelp Chomperz. The little guy seemed to enjoy making the sound after sucking things in and would clank his teeth together.

I leaned back and pulled up my status.

STATUS

Name: Cyrus

Race: Reborn ( Felkin)

Age: ??

Tier: 0

Active Skills:

(T:0 R:1)Summon Familiar: Verdant Healer: (Áine)

(T:0 R:1)Summon Familiar: Resplendent Inferno: (Zharia)

(T:0 R:1)Racial Skill: Dimensional Storage: (Chomperz)

Passive Skills:

Perks:

Legacy of the Obsidian Crown

Scion of Calstrax

Demonic Blood

It was nice to know my status would update retroactively according to my wants.

We were both nursing a drink and chatting amiably when a man came rushing in.

Considering how he's dressed--he got to be an adventurer.

His leather was torn up, and he was covered in random stains that varied from red to browns and a couple shades of blues. The man’s rushed entrance brought the room to silence, and we all stared. After catching his breath, he finally looked up.

“We found it. We found the problem,” he rasped out.

Some adventurers stood up and approached.

“What did you find?”

“You found out why the beasts are attacking so much?”

“Well, get on with it.”

The questions were rapid fire, and the poor man shrunk back.

A loud voice broke through the crowd, deep and rough. “Let the man speak first! Everyone wait till he’s done."

He was a large, broad-shouldered beastkin. His head was that of a lion, with a mane of coal-black hair. He was dressed in large iron plates and carried a huge great sword strapped to his back.

The elf smiled in appreciation. He looked around the room, meeting everyone’s eyes.

“Our team was exploring downriver for some herbs, and we found it in a clearing. Guys, it's a wild rift!” he exclaimed excitedly.

There were some shouts and murmurs. His words brought excitement to everyone in the room.

The large beastkin quieted everyone. “And the portal color?”

Just as I thought the elf couldn’t smile even wider, he did. He licked his lips before replying. “The best one of them all. Its portal color is pink. We found a maximum ranked tier-one wild rift!”

The inn’s crowd went into an uproar. I looked over at Sam, but she didn’t know what exactly was going on either. I glanced back and saw Bera’s face. Unlike everyone else who had grinned and showed excitement, hers was set into a grim line. Her fists were white-knuckled and clenched.

I took stock of the room one more time. Whatever was going on, it had to mean something dangerous and important. And I could already feel my blood call out. I wanted to enter whatever it was they found.