Octavius clenched his right fist around the haft of his spear. It seemed that James hadn’t learned his lesson. He looked Caster directly in the eyes.

“When did you notice he was gone?” he asked.

Caster frowned, “You mean James? Five minutes ago. Why?”

Shaking his head, Octavius explained. “Because he took your spellbook. I’ve met him before; he’s a real piece of work,” he said, “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

With that, he quickly entered the clearing he’d been given. Stepping carefully over the tripwire he’d rigged at the entrance, he sidestepped the hidden pit right behind it. If anyone noticed the tripwire and stepped over it, they would almost definitely step into the hidden hole. He doubted it would hurt someone, but it would make their presence known and slow them down.

Once he was inside of the clearing, he hung his shirt to dry and placed his self-repairing armor beside it on the ground. Looking down, he inspected his chest and arms.

He had many scars across his body. There was a faint bullet scar on his right arm. The scars left by the wolf on his first day within the tutorial were already nearly invisible on his left shoulder.

He also had fresh wounds too. Cut, scraps, and bruises covered his body from the long battle earlier that day. With them healing at an unnatural speed, he considered himself fully operational. His health might be only around eighty-five percent, but it hardly hindered his movements.

Walking over to his tent, he pulled it aside to reveal where he slept. A few furs covered the hard ground, and the thrall’s pillow was laying on top of them. He pulled the furs aside, which revealed recently disturbed soil. Digging his hands into the ground, he shoveled an inch of dirt away and revealed his rucksack.

After he opened a large pocket, he removed a black t-shirt. It was in good condition, with only one tear that he had repaired himself. It was a good deal in the market, and he needed a second pair of clothes. He then removed a metal knife. It was sharp but single-bladed and rather short. It was one of the thralls’ knives from the night before.

After throwing the shirt over his head, he replaced his rucksack into the hole and covered it once more. He unfurled the animal fur and covered the disturbed ground. Looking at the pillow he’d gotten from the thralls, he paused for a second.

He stood and walked over to his armor and removed a circlet of small, yellow flowers. Some of the petals were stained with blood, but he ignored it. Instead, he returned to his tent and gently placed it inside.

His eyes traced over it for a moment before he stood. Letting his face fall back into a cold, determined expression, he put the leather armor on piece by piece. Once he was standing in full armor once more, he strapped the thrall’s knife to his belt and hefted his spear.

He pushed the entrance of his cleaning out of the way and stepped over the tripwire once more. Caster was waiting for him with an uneasy look on his face.

“Ok,” Octavius said, “Bring me to your clearing; let’s see what I can find out.”

Octavius wasn’t an investigator, but he knew that people always left hints. That was doubly so for something spur of the moment like this seemed to be. After all, James couldn’t have known that Caster would ask him to watch the spellbook, nor that Caster would even have it.

From Octavius’s understanding, the current whereabouts of the spellbook were only known by its original finder and whoever was using it. Not even the council knew who had it. They only knew who did have it and who would eventually get it. There had been attempts to steal it before, after all, and its owner had to satisfy his paranoia before he agreed to lend it out to others.

As Caster led him toward the northern section of the Sanctuary, he spoke. “Why’d you think that James took it? He was a police officer.”

Octavius blinked at that. “What? I think it was him because he tried to kill me once,” he explained, “What does his being a police officer have to do with it?”

Caster stared at Octavius, incredulous. “What do you mean he tried to kill you?!” he shouted, drawing some deal of attention to them.

Shrugging, Octavius downplayed the issue, “It was on the first day of the tutorial. I made it out better off than him, so it’s fine.”

He was surprised by how well Caster was taking the revelation. Caster was the type that respected authority figures. He guessed that even after only knowing him for a day, the younger man considered him to be more authoritative than James.

As they walked, Octavius took the opportunity to ask the mage about something that had been bothering him. “Caster, are you sure that you can’t control your mana?”

Caster was caught off guard by the off-topic question but nodded. “Yeah,” he affirmed, “I’ve tried meditating since the tutorial began, and I saw the mana stat. I can’t seem to make it do anything.”

Octavius frowned slightly. “You can, though,” he explained, “That’s how I killed the Lord of Beasts. I controlled my mana to fill the dagger.”

Caster stopped walking and stared at him, “What?”

The soldier nodded. “Yeah. I used my spear and that dagger to practice,” he said, “They draw on your mana, and I figured that I could stop it. I mean, it’s my mana. I even got a skill from it.”

Caster stared off into the distance while muttering under his breath. “Stop the flow of mana… maybe trying to cancel a spell once it’s started… no that’d take way too much mana. What about the ring? That could work…” he trailed off and looked at Octavius, “Is the mana draw like with the illusion rings?”

When Octavius nodded, the young man seemed to brighten. Even the gloom that had followed him since the spellbook had been stolen disappeared. “I’ll start practicing tonight,” he nodded seriously before his eyes widened, “Oh! I wonder what this means for casting spells! Maybe you could modify them? Could you create new ones? Probably… What would that entail, though? It would probably require a lot of wisdom… Hmm. Oh, wait!”

Octavius turned his head back to the excited mutterings of the mage.

“You have a high will stat, right?” the young man asked. When Octavius nodded, he continued, “Maybe will is important for controlling mana! That could explain why more will makes casting faster!”

Octavius continued to walk while the young man muttered continuously under his breath. Eventually, Caster turned down a side road, and Octavius followed. They passed three separate clearings before Caster walked up to one and pushed the animal skin door aside.

Octavius could see why Caster thought there had been a struggle. The dirt was dug up in patches, and the ashes from the firepit were spread everywhere. The tent was knocked over and spread wide on the ground. There were notebooks scattered across the grass.

All in all, it looked too much like a massive struggle. Any struggle that could’ve caused this much distress to the clearing would’ve been heard by the nearby civilians. Turning around, Octavius walked back onto the dirt path.

Peering in both directions, his eyes laid upon an old man sitting in front of a clearing. His wrinkled fingers dexterously guided a bone needle through an animal skin over and over, sewing a tear shut. Octavius walked over to the older man.

“Hello,” he said, “I was wondering if you could help us? It won’t take more than a few seconds.”

The old man looked up and peered at Octavius through squirted eyes. “I don’ see why not,” the man shrugged, “What can I do fer ya?”

Octavius blinked at the slight accent. I suppose the speech skill lets me speak and understand all humanoid languages subconsciously. Does that mean I am subconsciously assigning an accent to him?

He shook his head; that wasn’t what he needed to focus on at the moment. “I’m Octavius, and this is Caster,” Caster waved slightly.

The man nodded, “I’m Jim.”

“Ok, Jim, it’s nice to meet you,” he said, “Have you been here all morning?”

Jim nodded and scanned Octavius’s face as if looking for something.

“Did you by any chance see or hear a fight around here this morning?” Octavius asked. The man looked at Octavius like he was an idiot, and he clarified, “A fight around here. In that clearing specifically.”

Jim’s eyes followed the length of Octavius’s arm and toward Caster’s clearing. “Nope,” the man said, popping the ‘P’ sound.

Octavius had been expecting that. “Did you see anything suspicious?” he inquired.

The man tilted his head slightly, then nodded. “Yeah, now that ya mention it,” Jim said, “Some guy came outta that lodging looking real sketchy like.”

Caster opened his mouth to speak, but Octavius shook his head. “What do you mean by sketchy?”

Jim frowned at him. “I know when someone’s lookin’ sketchy. I was a cop for twenty-three years!” he sighed, “He was movin’ fast, but trying to make it seem like he wasn’ in a hurry.”

“Did he have anything with him?” Octavius asked, “And where did he go?”

The old man nodded, “Yeah, he was carryin’ a big ol’ book. He headed straight to the east. Thataway.”

Octavius smiled and thanked the man before turning and following the direction he pointed. He and Caster followed the path until it branched off in two directions. One of them led toward the middle of the Sanctuary, while the other would end at the main exit for the eastern section of the Sanctuary.

Octavius thought for a moment. Where would he go? He’s obviously fleeing the Sanctuary. He’d need food and supplies. I’d bet he would leave through the east, far away from the battle, and he doesn’t have to cross the stream and risk damaging the book.

He turned to Caster. “I’m going to go after him and see if I can track him down before he gets too far,” he said, “I’ll meet you at the kitchens in two hours, ok?”

Caster nodded, “Alright. Just… please get that book back.”

With that, Caster turned firmly and walked back towards his clearing to clean up. Octavius, on the other hand, set off at a run down the eastern path. In his mind, he recalled the map of the defense he and the leaders of the Sanctuary’s Guard had developed that very morning. They had to account for the possibility of sneak attacks by the beasts when they assigned guard teams to their duties.

The rest of the Sanctuary had very few guards to protect it, so they had been judicious in assigning them. The border with the most guards, besides the north, was the east. Even though they hadn’t encountered many beasts from that direction so far, it was the only side of the Sanctuary that wasn’t protected by the stream.

He pictured the locations of the wooden blocks in his mind, looking for where James would have slipped through. The guards’ locations were hardly secret, especially not to an Ex-Captain of the Guard with connections.

There were exactly three spots that Octavius could think of that would have allowed James to escape into the forest without being seen. Two of them were much further south. Being further from the frontlines of the battle, they would be the safer choice, but James was in a hurry.

Octavius broke into a sprint as he ran towards the charred remains of one of Robert’s burning log traps.

This tree had been felled and left to rest where it did so. After all, the tree was seven feet in diameter. A guard team had been assigned to the area, where they would use the log as a vantage point. The hole in the Sanctuary’s defense was made up of three large bushes that were a hundred feet to its south. If one was careful, they could sneak right past the guards.

Octavius didn’t even attempt stealth as he barreled toward the bushes. He dug his heels into the ground as he reached them and looked them over. On the side farthest from the log, he saw exactly what he was looking for. There were signs if one knew where to look.

On the outstretched branches, he found a broken spider web. It was noticeably damaged even while the spider worked to repair it. That meant that it had been disturbed recently. The ground in the area was relatively solid, but the grass, leaves, and detritus would keep a print for at least a little while.

He bent and walked forward slowly until he saw the shallow outline of a human’s shoe standing out slightly on the detritus. Increasing his pace, he moved to the next one, and then the one after that.

Now that he would be in at least some amount of danger, he considered spending his stat points but decided that he needed to carefully consider what to do with them beforehand. He frowned slightly and put four points into perception. The tracks became slightly clearer on the ground, and his pace increased.

Soon enough, he got a feel for James’s path. The man was traveling in a straight line. The footprints were noticeably deeper than he would have expected for someone of James’s size while walking. That meant that the man had left himself vulnerable to being tracked in return for increased speed.

Probably didn’t think anyone would know where to start tracking him so soon, Octavius decided, That and he wanted to get as far away as possible in case the beasts overran the Sanctuary.

Octavius moved quickly and carefully through the forest. He would scan the ground every couple of steps, looking for footprints or other signs of James’s passing through. The golden sunlight reflected off the grass and leaves, making the scene almost tranquil as the sounds of birds singing and animals moving returned. The unnatural silence that had settled over the forest throughout the Emergence was over.

His steps were quick, and light as James’s trail became more defined with every footprint. He was catching up to his prey. He’d been following the trail at a run for the past hour and had covered much more ground than James in that time.

Octavius’s stats were higher than James’s in almost every regard. Even though he had yet to assign most of his new stat points, the twenty free points he got from the dungeon set him four levels worth above the stats we would otherwise have had.

He guessed that James would probably take a rest soon. The man didn’t know he was being followed, so he would hardly push himself to the point of becoming fatigued. Stat debuffs like that would make the forest even more dangerous to anyone, but especially someone like James.

Octavius slowed when the smell of smoke reached him. There was a fire nearby, and James likely lit it. He fell into a crouch and advanced on the smell. Creeping forward, the sigh of James sitting in front of a small fire came into view. The man had a large tome open in his lap and was reading intently.

Octavius closed his eyes and activated his illusion ring. The air shimmered around him for a split second; then, he was gone. He crept silently forward until he was standing behind James.

He had given the man a way to survive. The man had still decided that stealing to gain more power was worth the risk. Octavius had no words to say to him and no need to give him the chance to do something unexpected that he would get if a confrontation began. The deal that had allowed James to keep his life was broken.

Octavius thrust his spear forward carefully. He didn’t even need to activate a skill for it to punch through the man’s back. He carefully avoided pushing the spear too far into the man. Damaging the book with blood would be a bad idea. A wet gurgling sound came from James’s open mouth, then he collapsed. As the man fell, he spun to face Octavius, and his fear-filled eyes widened when he saw that no one was there. Then, he went limp. Octavius deactivated his illusion ring and looked down at the dead man.

You have slain James - Human (F) (Lvl 9) and gained 141 EXP (1/2)(9)(1)(.25)(1.25)(100)

Gently, he reached down and lifted up the book. It was large and bound with wood covers. A damaged leather veneer was atop the wood, giving the book an ancient impression. He used identify on it.

An Introduction to Air Magic: Windblade (Rare) - A primer on magical knowledge. This tome contains knowledge of the spell Windblade.

Octavius closed the tome and looked down at James. Even dead, the man looked sallow and angry. The past week had obviously not treated him well. The soldier sighed and began to pat down the body. There was a chance that the man stole something else of value.

He found three mana potions and two health potions on the man, as well as a single empty vial with a green colored residue. The man also had a waterskin, a pouch filled with dried meat and other food, and a folding knife.

Octavius took them all and turned away from the man. He had no need, nor even a want, to bury the man’s body. The animals would dispose of it, and he would reenter the cycle of life.

Breaking out into a sprint, he covered ground quickly on his way back to the Sanctuary. He still had much to do before the day was out, and it was already past two in the afternoon.

I still need to speak to Robert about the thralls, ask Caster to let me read the spellbook, assign my new stat points, and check on Ava, and all before the ceremony tonight, he grunted and increased his speed.