“Will this really explode?” Esteban’s eyes shone with interest as he peered into one of the open barrels of gunpowder that Nolan had recently placed on the grass in front of the group. They were camped about fifty metres from the ancient highway that had led them to Malben Valley alongside a slim creek filled with clear, cool water. The ancient highway trailed through a valley that was filled to the teeth with trees, the mood sombre beneath an overcast day.

“With our luck I bet you’ll come to believe me soon enough.”

“Do I get one?”

“Were you ever allowed to play with matches growing up?”

“No.”

He gestured toward the barrel with mock exaggeration.

“Why not?” said Ian. His golden hair had grown slightly shaggy in the weeks since he’d left his homeland, as no natural growth took place in the realm of the glade. “Just tell him how to use it and he should be fine. I mean look at him, Nolan.”

“I know giving explosives to a kid is usually a bad idea, but I agree with Ian. The kid’s killed like twenty animals since we left that fucked up little country or whatever it was. He’s almost died God knows how many times.”

“Sean, giving explosives to a kid is always the worst idea. Besides, gunpowder in this world is a lot more powerful than back on Earth. The chemical reaction’s the same when you ignite it, but all of the ingredients came from this world. Think about it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“What do you mean—are you kidding? There’s Origin Energy in literally everything, so that means that all the ingredients I used spent hundreds of years absorbing it in nature.”

“A lot of herbs and minerals don’t lose their life energies once they’ve been harvested,” Ian explained. “Those are the sorts of things used to make medicinal pellets.”

In the days before they’d left Malben Valley Nolan had left Sean and Esteban to cultivate outside of Talen Village for several hours while he had gone off to Scane to make use of the alchemy facilities of its only half-decent shop. This was the same medium-sized establishment where he’d obtained the resources necessary to concoct the dragonshade pellets. He’d enlisted Ian’s help in compounding a fresh supply of gunpowder which they’d used to fill over a dozen barrels. As his spiritual sensitivity continued to grow he would eventually be able to create the dangerous mixture in a matter of seconds so long as he relied on his internal energies to handle the powders in question.

“Will you give me one when I’m bigger?”

“Yeah, probably. For now just stick to using that knife I gave you.”

A small, dirt-smudged index finger pointed up at Nolan’s face. “I’ll ask you once a month so you don’t forget.”

“Yeah yeah. Just hurry up and wash that blood off your arms, you look like a serial killer.”

Unperturbed by the cold, the boy stepped into the creek and began to wash the gore from his lightly freckled limbs. Sean, who had already finished cleaning his body and clothes, took a large bite from the fat piece of jerky they had purchased in bulk from a few of the general stores in town along with an impressive amount of supplies. “You guys haven’t helped out in the last five fights. He’s a kid. He shouldn’t be facing huge animals like those wolves or that goddamn black lynx-like thing that almost cut me in half. Why does it always have to be us? We’re new to this.”

“Yeah, and this is how you get the hang of it. Besides it’s not like I’d just let you die.” With his growing adeptness at conjuring barrier arrayments of varying size, did they even have to worry?

They shared a quick meal and rested beneath the shade of a large tree for about ten minutes before making their way back to the main road and resuming their rapid sprint. They made good progress in the following hours, covering at least two hundred kilometres by the time they stopped for another rest.

The group had stumbled upon a tiny glade that reminded them of the one that they had called home for many months back in Nia, so they decided to sup at its centre for the sake of nostalgia. Nolan made sure to clear away any critters hiding within the bluegrass by relying on his spiritual sense, which he used to toss them out into the woods. It was nice to dine beneath an open sky while enjoying the gentle caress of the evening wind.

They ran on through the afternoon without saying much to one another, each lost in his own thoughts as the same tree-congested backdrop continued to blur past them like a conveyer belt background in an old-timey movie.

Sean and Esteban had initially shown high levels of excitement at the prospect of sprinting for hours on end at over eighty kilometres an hour, which was much less than what Nolan and Ian were capable of. It wasn’t until they’d encountered a decimated pack of wolves that the two changed their tunes, for this was the moment when they learned that they would have to fend off the majority of the dangerous animals and demonic beasts that they would inevitably encounter throughout their journey.

Evidently a pack of wolves in the middle levels of the Profound Entry stage had descended upon a small group of travellers that had been heading in the direction of Malben Valley. Each of the fourteen people had died to the fangs of a similar number of beasts, though they didn’t go down without a fight as they managed to kill all but three of the hungry predators. These three provided a perfect practice match for Sean and Esteban, who jumped forward to attack the animals while they were in the midst of feeding upon the fallen people.

Esteban had activated the Essence Fusion properties of the pale blue dagger that Nolan had given to him and then frantically pounced forward to stab the jagged blade into the side of the nearest beast. Sean chased after him and slashed the Essence Fusion sword that he had looted from a fallen Enforcer back in Malben, his strike causing the other two wolves to fall back as the injured wolf slammed its body into the reckless boy and sent him tumbling into the nearby underbrush.

Sean had decapitated one of the other wolves with a quick dash and slash, his speed only slightly superior to the beasts despite the fact that his strength was several levels above theirs. Although their cultivations weren’t anything impressive their natural constitutions enabled them to far outmatch a human being in speed, the same way that a regular person could never outrun an ordinary wolf.

Most demonic beasts and wild animals tended to avoid their group the moment that Ian’s aura came to their attention, though many types of creatures lacked a spiritual sense. It was often these animals that harassed the group, though the battles never lasted more than several minutes.

Aside from the occasional encounter with local fauna, nothing truly eventful took place until late into the following day. The group had just shared a light meal and resumed their monotonous movements northward when a small black speck drew Nolan’s eyes to the sky where a tiny silhouette was in the midst of rocketing through the air at a breakneck pace.

“Guys, look up there.”

Everyone maintained their movements as they followed his finger to the fleeting image of the tiny silhouette, though whatever it was that had caught Nolan’s attention seemed to disappear from view just as the others settled their gazes upon the indicated area.

“What?” said Sean. “You see a giant bird or something?”

“I could have sworn that I saw a person—” His words caught in his throat as the speck of colour returned to the horizon, the tiny dot growing larger and more distinct as it continued to draw closer to their location.

“What’s that?” said Esteban.

Sean squinted his eyes. “It looks like it’s coming right at us.”

“This is bad.”

Everyone looked over at Ian, who clarified to the others what it was that they were looking at.

“Nolan’s right, that’s a person. The fact that they’re flying isn’t a good sign for us. You’ve got to be at the Genesis stage in order to fly.”

“Yeah,” Nolan mumbled. Oh, fuck me. As if there’s some motherfucker out here who’s that strong, and yeah right that they’d suddenly head toward us like this.

“Why would they be approaching us?”

“What do you think, man?”

Esteban’s face paled a few shades as he looked between Ian and Nolan, who had just exchanged words. “We’re not going to get robbed, are we?”

Nolan shrugged. “Maybe.”

Now that this unknown cultivator was flying toward them they could only sit still and await his inevitable arrival. As Ian had stated the oncoming individual was clearly at the Genesis stage, which meant that there was absolutely no chance of outrunning them. Whether this person was after a brief word, their belongings or their lives, they would come to find out in the coming moments.

They watched as the distant figure gradually gained distinction, the masculine silhouette of a handsome man with long dark hair and a matching set of black robes. Despite the swift speed with which he approached, neither his hair nor his robes showed traces of the slightest flutter.

Nolan’s heart nearly skipped a beat as his rich brown eyes connected with the deep and cunning pair of pleased black ones that he hadn’t seen since the day that he and Nyla had set off across Verdure after returning from the glade in Nia.

His hair’s a lot longer than before, but that’s definitely him!

He had only ever encountered two elders of the Bloodhand Sect, the woman that had chased him to the Three-River Valley and forced Uncle Grey to intervene at a great cost to the vitality of his soul, and the man that the deadly cultivator before him had killed.

The moment that two leather boots touched down upon the soil without a sound, Ian stepped forward, cupped his hands together and bowed his head.

“My name is Ian Varai. This is Sean, Esteban, and Nolan. We humbly greet you, esteemed elder.”

The others fumbled to follow suit at the behest of Ian’s insistent stares, all save for Nolan.

The man dipped his head ever so slightly toward Ian, sparing the others a cursory if not slightly curious glance but otherwise ignoring them.

Rather than respond he simply stared at Nolan with a dashing smile.

Nolan bowed his head deeply. “I can’t believe we’re meeting again so soon. You saved my life back in Verdure. I’ll never forget the debt that I owe you.”

His friends cast surprised glances in his direction, to which he gave a slight shrug.

“Nolan, was it? That is good to hear.”

A tense silence followed the man’s words, Nolan and his friends unsure as to what they should say.

The man took a deep breath of air and indicated towards the surrounding forest while wearing a refreshed expression. “These skies offer a most invigorating view. To think that I would encounter the young enemy of the Bloodhand Sect while out on my morning flight. You haven’t made use of that talisman that I gave you, so I figured that you were dead.”

“Ah, I was lucky enough not to need to contact you. Also, I’m happy to see that you’re doing well.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying those words? For one so young to have drawn the scorn of an elder of that particular sect, a seated elder no less, it is quite unfortunate. If we’re being honest I didn’t think that you would make it through Hauss considering your relationship with that detestable bunch, regardless of your…irregularities.”

“I was able to make a few breakthroughs thanks to those pellets that you gave me and my friend.” He bowed his head. “Seems like I owe you another favour.”

“It seems that you do. I happen to have another one here, if you’d like.”

Staring at the black medicinal pellet that had appeared over the man’s palm, Nolan hurriedly shook his head. “You’ve already done enough for me. I would only feel ashamed if I indebted myself to you again.”

He spoke as formally as possible, his mind sounding an instinctive alarm within every cell of his body. Although this man had saved him and Nyla in the past, he had also clearly stated at the time that he had only done so in order to indebt them to him. He had claimed that they would grow strong in the future and that once they had reached a certain level he would find them and enlist their help in an unknown matter.