The flight back to Lanport was uneventful, though he did go a little off-course and had to follow the coastline back. The little disc’s light pointed towards the dungeon and keeping it behind him just meant he was moving directly away from it, in any direction. There were no real landmarks in the forest, and he’d exited the dungeon a few hours before dawn, so he couldn’t even rely on the sun’s position for approximate directions. He’d been lucky that his initial estimate of direction had been relatively good.

He arrived back at the Academy shortly before dawn and spent some time in the gardens meditating. I need to find an item that will let me see invisible creatures. I need to get a good blunt weapon. And possibly an elemental weapon or two. Meeting a creature that was almost impervious to blade damage was both unpleasant and enlightening. A group might have a variety of options in facing such a creature – individuals are more specialized, at least normally. I’m fortunate that elemental, spirit, and mind swords exist, and that I can swap them in and out of my pocket space at will.

The cat – well, the fight went better than the first one, where Antoni and Mairi died, and Pyotr came close. But it felt more workmanlike than inspiring. I didn’t beat it because I was better at anything, I beat it because it had no answer to Mind Spikes and instant regeneration. Its Space affinity techniques were better than mine, it was stronger and faster than me, and I couldn’t see it when it Blinked away. Wait - am I upset that I’m winning fights by outlasting my opponents instead of defeating them with perfect attacks? At the same time that I’m upset that I couldn’t outlast that huge lizard monster? I should be rejoicing that I can face those things and live. My instant healing and mobility are massive strengths. I cannot afford to get in the mindset of needing to win every fight through clever swordplay. Some monsters simply can’t be dealt with that way. Perhaps most of them. I was better at Mind magic and Healing than the cat. It was better at Space magic than me, and was bigger and stronger, but I still won. It shredded my back and cut my balls off, but I regenerated instantly. I’m not sure why I’m focusing on that. I’ve lost and regenerated limbs. That should be more traumatic. And yet.

Maybe I need a little break. I should sit on the beach and watch the waves for a while. But first, I have classes to attend and skills to improve.

During Monster Identification class, Duncan asked about the huge lizard. “It was about ten meters long and had a tail with a stinger on the end. I couldn’t hurt it with piercing, slashing, mind, or spirit attacks. It had very good Decay affinity Techniques, at least three of them. And it was tremendously strong.”

Before the instructor could answer, one of the students from the magic academy said, “You were probably just too weak. That’s what happens when daddy gives you a pile of technique stones and some captured monsters to train on.”

“Enough, Pierre!” the instructor snapped. “Sorry, Duncan, Pierre is a sheltered idiot,” she continued. Argh, no, don’t insult the spoiled brat, it’ll rile him up. “Pierre, that might be enough to get someone to level thirty, but I assure you no one gets to level one hundred without countless fights against incredibly dangerous monsters. And I know that Duncan has fought more than most people many years older than him.”

Pierre glowered. “Idiot? I’ll have you dismissed from your position for that.”

The instructor sneered at him, “You go do that, then. Now. Go on, get out of my classroom.” Not helping!

Pierre gripped a pendant hanging around his neck. A moment later the door burst open and two Level 80 Warriors entered the room, hands on their swords. “Seize the instructor,” Pierre said. “Take her to my father.”

Well, that escalated quickly. Duncan released his aura, and everyone in the room felt the weight of it. The guardsmen drew their swords and leapt to put themselves between Pierre and Duncan, though they didn’t appear very confident. The instructor grew pale but stood her ground. The other students in the room sat very still, or moved to the edge of the classroom, away from Duncan and the target of his ire.

“Stand down,” Duncan said to the boy’s retainers. “If you attempt to approach Madame Leroux, I will disable you.”

“Kill him! He’s attacking my mind!” shouted Pierre. The guards raised their swords.

Duncan focused his killing intent on the three. The guards blanched. Pierre shat himself, a reflexive action prey animals used to make themselves unappealing to predators, then collapsed to the ground. “Take him and leave,” Duncan said to the guards. Trembling, they picked the boy up and left.

“Sorry about that,” Duncan said to the room, suppressing his aura once more.

The instructor laughed wryly, shaking her head. “Back to your seats, everyone. The excitement’s over.”

“What was that?” asked a young woman, a Level 22 Mage. “You went from being a weird high-level student to the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. And you didn’t even move or pull out a weapon.”

Duncan looked at the instructor, who said, “He stopped suppressing his aura. As we grow more powerful and more dangerous, we develop an aura that lets other predators and monsters know not to mess with us. At about level fifty, it starts to become uncomfortable for low level people to be in the presence of that aura, so we all are taught to suppress it.”

“I knew that, and I’ve felt high level auras before,” the student replied. “But that was far beyond any aura I’ve felt.”

“Then Duncan is far more dangerous than anyone you’ve met,” said the instructor. “More than anyone I’ve met, for that matter.”

“Who was that boy, anyway?” asked Duncan.

“Pierre Chevrolet,” the instructor replied. “His family has a virtual monopoly on the wool trade in the mountains to the West. Rich and sheltered. Spoiled, evidently.”

“Do any of the rest of you have high-level bodyguards stationed in the hall outside?” Duncan asked the rest of the room. He was answered with snorts and laughter.

“They’re a status symbol. His family is old nobility. He’s a nephew of the current head of the Chevrolet clan. Not important to the family, but the whole family is guarded like that. Apparently, they have a lot of ancestral feuds with other families in the region,” explained the instructor.

“Can he make trouble for you?” asked Duncan.

“He can. It’s unlikely he can get me removed from my position, but he can apply pressure in other ways. My family may have to move if he’s serious about it. But I think maybe he’ll focus on you.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Duncan. “He can’t do anything to me. I have no friends or family in the empire, no reputation to attack, and if he sends someone to kill me, I don’t fancy their chances. I suspect it’d be counterproductive to notify his family that if anything happens to you or yours, I’ll go after them. So, if they do come after you and you feel the need to relocate, I will pay your expenses and get you settled wherever you choose to go. You antagonized him by trying to placate me, after all.”

“What happened at the end?” another student asked. “Your aura was scary, but Pierre shat himself there at the end before he collapsed. The guards looked like they thought you were going to kill them, even though you didn’t so much as twitch.”

“I spiritually oppressed them. If releasing my aura is a passive way of threatening them, oppressing them spiritually is the active version. The guards were just doing their job – I didn’t want to kill them or cripple them, so I made it clear to them just how dangerous I am.”

“And that’s enough on that topic,” said the instructor. “To answer your original question, I would venture a guess that the lizard you encountered was a greater forest drake. They are distantly related to dragons, but far weaker, of course. Still, they’re almost impervious to harm. They move slowly and survive mostly on ambient mana, so they don’t eat their way through the world. And so, when people encounter them, we just run away. They rarely give chase.”

“Have they no weaknesses?” asked Duncan.

“Some say that each one has a weakness to a specific element, but that’s unsubstantiated rumor,” the instructor replied. “Now, in the few minutes remaining in class, let’s get back to the original topic, if we can.”

Duncan wrote a note to the headmaster, explaining what had happened, and expressing his concern for the safety of the instructor. He dropped it off at the administration building and went to his lesson with Master deBouteville. As they warmed up, he gave her a quick description of his visit to the Hidden Forest dungeon.

“You do get some strange encounters!” she said. “Did you get the cat parts appraised yet? That should tell you what it was.” Oh yeah, good idea. Training went well; he felt like his Blade Sense was coming along nicely.

As his lesson ended, a staff member approached him with a message tube. The parchment inside read “Bente needs to see you – urgent.” Duncan Blinked into the sky, summoned a sword, and shot off into the city at his top speed.

He arrived at his manor house to find Bente waiting for him at the door, a bag at her side. She hugged him and said, “The dead king sent more dead people to help the dead wizard. They will be here soon, and if I’m here, they will…” she started to cry.

Duncan knelt down to look her in the eyes. “No one is going to hurt you. Where am I taking you?” He had every confidence in her knowledge – she’d been right on every occasion she’d predicted something so far.

“A big temple,” she said. During his days fighting undead in the city, Duncan had come across quite a few temples. Many were small shrines to individual gods, but the entire pantheon was worshipped together in larger temples as well. The largest temple wasn’t far from the keep, and Duncan decided that was a good place to start.

“Clear the property,” he said to the guard standing by. “Everyone gets the evening off. No one remains.” The guard nodded and stepped inside. Duncan picked Bente up and grabbed her bag. “Let’s get you someplace safe then.”

He flew across the city, guards looking up at him, but not pursuing or raising an alarm. They had a list of all the permitted flyers, and he was becoming well-known among the guards for his actions against the undead. Healing the wounded elite watchmen when the Lich attacked the orphanage and rescuing several groups of rank-and-file guards during the initial uprising had earned him a lot of goodwill.

He landed on the steps of the temple, and the two decidedly non-ornamental guards (both Level 102 Warriors) stepped forward, spear tips not dropping to threaten, but no longer at parade rest. “We need to talk to someone in charge,” said Duncan.

“Someone will escort you in momentarily,” the guard on the left said. “Please wait here.” Duncan nodded, setting Bente down.

A minute later, a small man, a Level 80 Priest arrived and said, “I will escort you to the Archdeacon now,” and gestured for them to enter.

The temple was both more majestic and less ostentatious than Duncan had expected. They walked through a great hall with vaulted ceilings, and a dozen or more shrines set off to the sides. The ceiling was covered in a great mural, and each shrine was dominated by a life-like marble statue of exquisite craftsmanship. The seating was of plain wood, with brass handrails evident. The lighting was magical – there was no source for it that he could see, but the entire area was well-lit.

The priest led them through the entire length of the hall, then through a small door in a corner. They went down a long passage and came to a door at the end. The priest knocked softly, then opened it and stood to the side. Duncan led Bente into the room, where the same priest he’d seen at the Academy ball sat behind a rather plain desk.

The archdeacon stood as they entered, “The young man from the Academy whom the Lich targeted so aggressively. And a young lady whom I do not recognize,” he nodded to Bente. “What brings you to my office at this hour?”

“The dead king is trying to hurt me again,” said Bente. “The dead wizard has failed him twice, so he sent someone scarier.”

The archdeacon raised an eyebrow at Duncan. Duncan said, “I found Bente when I was flying over the city ten days after the initial undead attack. I asked her what she was doing out and she said the dead men were attacking. So I accompanied her back to her orphanage, and killed two undead animators and four bone knights that were skulking around. The following night, I killed another animator and two more bone knights a block away, and then I found the Lich and two bone golems attacking the orphanage itself. I killed all three of them (though the Lich didn’t stay dead, obviously). The day before the attack at the Academy, Bente told me the Dead Wizard – the Lich – was going to come after me because I was stopping it from getting at her. She shared her soulgem information with me, so I bought a manor house here in town for her to stay in and hired guards who could evacuate her if the Lich or its minions showed up. Today, she contacted me to say that more undead were coming for her, and she needed to get out of the manor. She told me to bring her here.”

“A fascinating story, and I will want to hear more of your own story soon, but for now…” He came around the desk and knelt before Bente. “Hello, Bente. My name is Josef. Would you be willing to show me your soulgem information?”

Duncan opened his mouth to speak, but Bente squeezed his hand and said, “It’s okay Duncan, Josef is going to be a friend.”

A few moments later, Josef said, “And you are sure they’re coming after you tonight Bente?” When she nodded, he said, “Both of you follow me, please,” and led them out into the hallway. He waved to a guard at the end of the hall and projected, “Sound the alarm, Ingrid. Imminent undead assault on the temple.”