The forest of Elniah had started to feel like home. Certain trees in the area around the Fangs of Pryviow camp made him nostalgic. He sometimes just sat by the destroyed farm building. He still had the small rabbit toy in his possession, the forgotten doll. Killian didn’t really have a hope of returning the toy to its owner, but it wasn’t in the way either, so he kept it. In his inventory, it stayed the same as it was. After Killian had cleaned it and let it dry, it sat in one of his twenty spaces, waiting. Dack had explained that anyone living in the area had evacuated due to the danger the gnolls had presented. With them gone, people were going to be moving back in.

The reverse was also true. The Fangs would be leaving soon, heading to Fallanar, the closest city in the region. Sanctia DaVaux was the capital of Pryviow, but Pryviow is a huge country. Due to the power wielded by the magocracy, the land was at no risk of being claimed by the smaller powers surrounding it. This meant less time needed to be devoted to a standing army, and manpower could be used more freely.

Which meant, for the Fangs and any groups like them, completing adventuring guild jobs and exploring the world. Monsters, Aspects and even powerful magical artefacts can be created by an abundance of mana in the air. Without combing the land consistently, treasures or dangers that shouldn’t be avoided could be missed. The entire economy of Pryviow, most of the rest of Genia too, was based around the adventuring trade in one respect or another.

Part of Lady Syb’s training, aside from magical theory and combat practice, had been a basic education which Killian had never had before. To start with, his pride rankled when she asked him a question he felt she knew the answer to. Once it was explained calmly to him that teaching was not an excuse for mockery, he tried to listen harder. Still, economic and political understanding was mostly out of Killian’s reach for now.

Before any of that mattered, though, Killian had to prove himself.

The total time since Killian’s rebirth couldn’t have been more than three weeks, but he felt like a completely different person. Makes sense, Killian thought, I’ve been unmade and put back together, right? The thought was interesting, but not unsettling. His time with Genara had been impactful in ways that he was still discovering. Whether it was his rebirth or the Aspects that now fueled his body with power, he changed.

Changed enough to assault the camp of the Fangs of Pryviow? Not a chance, but that wasn’t the actual goal he had been given.

“Go for a long walk in that direction.” Lady Syb had said just after they had started their day. Killian had stopped asking why to the things his taskmaster told him to do. He had instead taken to being overly excited to do what she said, which was less obviously offensive but was clearly wearing thin.

“Yes, yes, Lady Syb,” Killian had begun affecting a sycophantic approach that was far more humorous to himself than anyone else. “Right away, Lady Syb. Off I go, Lady Syb.” Previously, if Killian needed to do anything specific, the instruction would come. After being chastised twice for the insane thought that he might take a waterskin with him on an excursion into the forest, he took to following to the letter.

“Take this, take your bond and the fairy. Walk until night, and then come back.”

“Yes, Lady Syb…” Killian dropped the act, and let the confusion seep into his voice. “Tonight’s scout password is…?”

“Not for you to know. Come see me before sunrise, I shall be in my hut.” With that, Lady Syb gave no further instruction. As the sun fell, Killian sighed. Jol and Pyre had been good company, but they’d all been on edge too. The implication had been clear to Killian, and his companions once he’d explained their situation. They were going to have to prove that they could manoeuvre around the Fangs and break into camp.

As the sun finally disappeared over the horizon, leaving the world a fading purple, Killian realised his mistake. He had decided to wait around eight miles from the camp. The training he had been doing with Dack, the fights against the fungolems and the Aspects that now fueled Killian meant that an eight mile run would hardly get him out of breath. Why then, Killian thought, would he be supposed to travel so far away?

The answer that clarified the situation was loud. With a loud screech and surprising force, Pyre barrelled into Killian and threw him to the floor. A meteor landed next to Killian, smashing apart a large rock that he had been leaning against moments before. A chunk of rock flew into Killian’s left shoulder, the force was more than enough to shatter something. Killian roared in surprise and pain, coursing mana into his shoulder to heal it.

The recovery took only a few seconds, something Killian was becoming increasingly appreciative of. In the small time it took, Killian focused, first looking around and then back at the boulder that had been launched at him. His skin crawled a little, his understanding catching up to what he was seeing before him. The rock removed itself from the crater it had caused, rolling what Killian could easily see were his shoulders.

“Dack. You nearly killed me.”

“Then I guess I wasn’t trying hard enough, Killian.” His helmet was melting into the rest of his stone armour. For the first time, Killian saw a page next to Dack with his Display. Maybe because he was currently aggressive, Killian thought.

-Dacklan Pryvn-

|Human| Bronze

Humans are prolific across most of Genia. They have no particular racial strengths, but no racial weaknesses either.

Disposition - Friendly

He was friendly, apparently. Killian reasoned that this was part of his test then, right as a flash of blue appeared in the corner of his vision. He launched himself backwards with all of his new strength, crashing into and rocking a large tree. A small cube, bright, sparking blue, flew lazily through the air in front of Killian. He looked to make sure no more projectiles were coming, and for the person who had launched it but otherwise didn’t reat.

“Watch out, Kil.” Dack’s voice returned Killian’s attention to his friend. As he looked over, he saw that the blue cube hadn’t continued it’s trajectory. It had instead slowly turned in the air and was now inches from his face. Another last moment dodge, this time coupled with a surprised yelp, saved Killian this time. The cube of energy exploded on the bark of the tree he’d pushed off, Killian’s eyes going wide. A prompt opened and was quickly accepted.

-Quest-

|The Haze Of Battle|

The Fangs of Pryviow have issued a challenge.

Survival is not guaranteed, victory even less so.

Are you capable of being an adventurer? If not, how will you rise higher?

Objective: Return to the camp of the Fangs of Pryviow before sunrise.

Reward: Random Magic Item

He looked at Dack, then at Jol and Pyre who were waiting for him to make the first move. At the same time as Dack shouted the word at Killian, Killian in turn was shouting at the fairy and the phoenix.

“Run!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The forest of Elniah was beginning to feel like a warzone. Killian wouldn’t know exactly, but he didn’t see how they could be any more chaotic than this. Pyre and Jol were zipping in and out of the treeline and canopy, providing distractions and scouting. Using Jol’s shouts, his mental connection to Pyre and all of his concentration, Killian was making his way back to the camp.

He said a thankful prayer to Genara that the fungolems had been kept at bay. It seemed as though every other member of the Fangs were trying to get their hits in though. Twozik had caught him in the knee with a hammer he had thrown. That hammer had appeared in his hands from thin air, but it had weight enough to nearly snap Killian’s leg in two. He threw three feathers in his general direction, but didn’t make them sure-fire hits. He had to preserve his mana for healing. His ring of Will was useful, but it only evened the playing field, any of the others would match him easily.

He glanced at the mana pool in his Display, which looked around a third empty and grimaced. He wasn’t sure exactly how far they’d gotten back towards the camp, but frequent retreats and detours made Killian feel like he should have run straight through it twice by now.

A man who Killian hadn’t met, but had seen walking around the camp, grabbed Killian by the throat. He had been waiting behind a tree, and caught Killian perfectly. He had thick, curly hair that didn’t match the scarred, battle-worn features he otherwise had. The way the shadows moved around him, he must have a stealth or shadow Aspect. Killian was suddenly intensely jealous, which helped his decision to attack. Flaring his phoenix fire into his fingers as he would to cast his feathers, Killian instead continued gathering the mana. Killian’s discomfort was nothing compared to the sizzling that started on the man’s wrist. He dropped Killian with a howl, the seared skin of his arm his new focus.

He shouted out an apology as he continued tearing through the forest. Only twenty paces from where he left the curly-haired man, Killian again had to fight off another member of the Fangs. This time, it was a short woman, one of the hunters that ranged for the day’s meals. Her short, spiky hair grew quickly, transforming into several long tentacles to grab at him. Killian panicked, but Jol acted. His small frame plowed into her chest, making her lose focus and allowing Killian to dodge the whipping mass of hair.

Killian had been able to feel pressure from the people he was avoiding. All the dodged adventurers in the forest behind him were bronze. A level above Killian’s, but not so much that he was overwhelmed. His past, a haze of dodging through alleyways and under the carts or skirts of vendors, had basically built him for exactly this. His forest runs against the fungolems had just honed that, allowing him to use his mana to accelerate his pace and improve his control.

Still, there was a definite gap between Killian and the bronze adventurers. If he’d been surrounded he would have definitely failed already. Instead, the only person who seemed to be able to actually follow Killian in the dark was Dack. He hadn’t forgotten Killian at all, and he seemed to know which way Killian would choose to dodge, or avoid danger. More than once, Killian escaped an adventurer, just to be corralled back towards them by the hulking statue that kept chasing him.

“What do we do Kil?” Jol was surprisingly calm. He watched the forest, the moment of quiet feeling like a trap.

“We need to find the camp. Pyre, set us a beacon.” Killian felt like his right arm was flying away, but without direction they were just flailing around in the dark. Once Killian’s mana ran out, it was over. Taking a few calming breaths, Killian took stock.

His mana had depleted by about half. Once he was bronze rank, it would regenerate on its own. For now, Killian would need to calm his breathing and concentrate for it to return quickly. He didn’t have time for that. He also didn’t know all the rules that the Fangs were playing by.

Were they all out here, one or two left in the camp with Lady Syb? Dack had been nearly ever-present over the last three hours or so, but he’d only seen the other guild members once each. The members who Killian had seen were also not the actual fighters of the group, Dack excluded. Twozik was a blacksmith, the spiky haired woman was a hunter.

That train of thought probably wouldn’t help much, Killian decided, and he was grateful that Pyre interrupted him. She sent an image of the camp, telling Killian she had arrived. They had been heading in the wrong direction, but only for a handful of minutes. Their general heading had been correct to start with, but they’d angled wrong after the second time Dack had tackled Killian to the ground. Pyre saw the forest in a way that Killian did not, and when she sent directions, it felt like a map being placed into his mind.

A map he wasn’t able to share with Jol, but he explained where they needed to go as best he could. Killian continued whispering to Jol, trying to hide their presence. It was another twenty paces or so before he realised the only thing he could do was his own voice. The only thing. Jol had tensed, too, his eyes darting around quicker now. Killian saw the image from his Display before he saw Dack, allowing him to grab Jol and dodge them out of the way.

The ground ruptured beneath him. There was no amount of mana in Killian that would have stopped that from turning him into paste. How was he getting so much momentum? And were they actually trying to kill him? That felt a little paranoid, and probably brought on by exertion, Killian explained to himself. Regardless, there was no victory to be had fighting Dack, one way or the other. Victory lay in the camp which Killian guessed he was about four miles from at this point. He could make it there in around twenty minutes if he kept a pace.

“Thinking a little hard, I think.” The voice was calm, like a boulder weathering a storm. Mycol had appeared like a breeze, Killian didn’t even know which direction he had come from. Instincts shrieked inside Killian, and he raised his arms just in time to catch the incoming blow. His arms were blow off, destroyed and exploded by the force. Surprised that he was still conscious, Killian tried to right himself in the air. Mycol had hit him with a backhand, which Killian had caught with his forearms.

He managed to land and realised that he had been dramatic. His arms were still attached, but they were definitely angled wrong. Killian roared in pain and rage, the last of his mana moving through his broken wrists and mending as much as possible. If they were shattered before, now they were simply fractured. Still, Killian couldn’t afford any more mana to his wounds and he almost cried as he forced the mana away from his wrists. Forced it a little further, producing his feathers.

He wasn’t fast enough to escape these two, and their casual, lazy movements were Killian’s only chance. Dack and Mycol were clearly holding back, but Killian couldn’t afford to do that. He glanced to his mana pool to make certain he wouldn’t leave himself knocked out before putting his destiny mana into the phoenix feathers. They glittered with gold sparkles now, becoming charged. With a glance of his two targets, marking them for his feathers.

His arms didn’t move like they should, and the feathers essentially fell to the ground. The magic within caught them as they were about to sputter onto the floor. The feathers launched themselves at Dack and Mycol, the pair trying to smash the mana as it flew at them.

Killian watched, as surprised as Mycol, as the feather seemed to dodge his movement before plunging itself into his stomach. The fire caught quickly on his immense amount of body hair, and the screams of pain were quick to follow. Nursing his injured arms, Killian didn’t mind that he’d caused some hurt himself. He didn’t turn to see if Dack had a similar problem, Killian took his moment and sprinted as quickly as he could through the forest.

“That was amazing Killian!” Jol was giggling uncontrollably every time he looked behind Killian, which almost lifted Killian’s spirit too. It would have worked if he wasn’t in so much pain, each footfall jarred his arms. He would give anything for a refill on his mana right now. In answer, he saw the small blue circle jump a little, as it seemed to fill on its own. With a warm melody, and a light in the sky, Killian’s relief was as strong as his gratitude.

He and Pyre could share mana. Pyre had a much smaller mana pool than Killian did, but as a being of magic, her pool refilled much quicker. His wrist bones finally stopped throbbing, and he even lost some fatigue as he spent the mana which Pyre had gifted him.

Killian felt exalted. This was power. This was what he’d always dreamed that he could do. Sharing mana with a phoenix, dodging adventurers alongside a fairy? Even with the danger, and the challenge, still before him, Killian whooped happily. Jol and Pyre joined him, a trio of defiance against the Fangs.

“Having fun, kids?” Were they practicing being as spooky as possible, Killian moaned. Dack’s sudden appearance shifted excitement to fear. Especially when his foot caught Killian’s ankle and sent him sprawling, grateful for the soft floor. Killian spun to see the danger, smiling while his mind raced to find escape. The grin on his face was at the scorch of hair missing from Dack’s head.

“Loads of fun, Baldspot. How’s my fire feel?” He’d practiced throwing his fire with Dack to start with, it was his idea to sharpen the flame. Together they’d been amazed as Killian had started to hit targets dead on rather than his attacks not reaching.

“Feels like you’ve got some good teachers.” The rock armour was incredibly reactive, so Dack didn’t need to be cautious. He’d dropped the helmet to talk, and Killian thought the shorn side of his hair actually looked quite good. Were all adventurers models as well as powerhouses?

“Definitely howling sadistic though.” Killian made a show of nursing his wrists, though the pain was almost entirely gone now. He paced slowly, putting Dack between him and the camp intentionally. Pyre took off behind Killian, following his plan with trust. Jol chewed a nervous lip, clearly wanting to get moving.

“It’s how we get stronger Kil. Nothing pushing you? Not trying hard enough.”

“Well, thank you very much then. NOW!” Pyre moved at his command, Killian used his thoughts more than his words. She dived from above full-speed, before splaying her wings. Stopping dead in Dack’s eyeline, she flared. Killian had grabbed Jol and covered him, starting his sprint. Straight past Dack, slipping a flailed rock gauntlet and darting into the forest.

Killian chanced a glance back as they ran. Dack was clearly still dazed, but he roared and started running forward. Exactly as Killian had thought, Dack wasn’t particularly smart before he became an adventurer. He watched as Dack stomped through the forest, praising Killian for his plan but threatening punishment. Killian stifled a laugh and made the rest of the journey quickly and without issue.

He considered himself lucky as he broke the treeline and saw the half-destroyed farm with the campsite in it’s fields. Killian could looked up at the sky. It had changed from black to a dark purple, but he’d made it in time. Ophana had clearly been all the defense the camp had needed, and she gave him a surprised but congratulatory salute, two fingers casually brought to her brown and thrown forward.

Last part was getting to Lady Syb. He made his way to the mushroom cottage, knocking on it’s door. When he received no answer, Killian pushed on the door, it opened easily. The room was empty. Well, full of lavish furnishings and treasures but no goliath in sight. He scanned the camp quickly, looking for any specifically tall women with a fungus motif.

“Pyre, Jol, either of you see Lady Syb?” A thought was formulating in Killian’s mind, and he didn’t like it much. Pyre swept away from her perch on his shoulder and began scouting the camp. Jol went the other direction, much less quiet about it.

“Lady Syb! We won! I’m happy to play hide and spook later though!”

Killian started to nod to himself as minutes passed with no sign of Lady Syb. Final confirmation that lurched his stomach and made him groan came from his Display.

-Quest Updated-

|The Haze Of Battle|

The Fangs of Pryviow have issued a challenge.

Survival is not guaranteed, victory even less so.

Are you capable of being an adventurer? If not, how will you rise higher?

Objective: Return to the camp of the Fangs of Pryviow before sunrise.

Reward: Random Magic Item

Finding Lady Syb is the final test. She could be anywhere.

Reward: Random Magic Item

As before when a quest updated, the previous text was greyed. Before panic set in, Killian traced back to the words she had used. “Come see me before sunrise, I will be in my hut.” Would she have lied? Taking a breath, Killian gave the room a more intense search. There had to be some trick or riddle here, and Killian did not want to lose whatever item he might gain.

Killian opened a drawer of the desk by Lady Syb’s window. Like everything else, it would be incredibly expensive, so Killian was gentle. With the practiced hand, forged by a childhood of sticky fingers, the wood slid quietly. Before he had opened it an inch, he froze. He didn’t know what it would do, but the tripwire he nearly snapped was taut. A blue outline hovered around the wire, which is what had allowed Killian to see it before it was too late. His Discerning Eye ability? Looking for the same glow, he saw a slight sheen on the side of a wardrobe. An indent, which Killian pressed slightly.

The wardrobe fell away, melting into the floor quickly. With its absence, a large gap in the wall was revealed. Right into the willow tree, the leaves of which the mushroom house lived under. Within the large trunk, sat Lady Sybould Ubnoba. Killian didn’t have to complete the quest to know he’d succeeded. The shocked amazement on his teacher’s face was enough. In a moment of theatrics, Killian bowed deeply.

“Rise.” Lady Syb’s pleasantly surprised voice brought a smirk to Killian’s face. “Well done, adventurer.”

“I still have a ways to go yet,” Killian said, completing the quest and retrieving the reward from within. The crystal held in his hand flashed with green and purple runes, a trapped nebula of colour. “Though, I’m definitely getting there.”