Chapter 8

A satisfied burp escaped my lips as I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. I had taken to using my monster form to eat my meals, as the bigger mouth, and greater strength made eating a breeze. I stood up and stretched my newly healed back, reveling in the feeling of my muscles compounding and becoming more dense, of my eyesight sharpening, and the familiar satisfaction as I licked my lips.

My joints popped and creaked, and I wiggled my toes in the snow. The wind was whipping around me as usual, and Ed was prattling on about some nonsense, something about how all gods were chumps, and how if they came face to face he’d give em a nice bop in the nose. Ed was oddly passionate on that point.

I stood up and sighed, life had been good to me for a while. Filling meals, fun hunts, and as much friendly conversation as I could hope for. I stalked back the way I came, humming a popular lullaby from back home. The lilting melody echoed off the stone walls around me, and a smile curved onto my face. I made my way inside of my cave house and settled down next to the fire pit.

I decided that I had been ignoring my magical abilities as well as my physical ones. I had already started to remedy my sword skill, or lack thereof, but my magic skills had been lax. I hadn’t tested the magical side of my new self too thoroughly yet. I settled down into a meditative pose, focusing on my inner “soul”, as usual I couldn’t see my Core but I knew it to be there. I still felt the familiar buzzing of mana, so I had to have one… right?

I scratched my head and sighed again, I didn’t know the details of what had happened to me but there was no point thinking about it yet. I looked back inside toward the small glowing orb floating in a purple miasma, my Center. The purple miasma seemed to be another kind of energy, but it functioned differently than any I knew of. It seemed to only be able to modify my body, similar to the basic usage of a Center, but it felt like I was misusing it, or not using it to it’s fullest.

I had a basic idea of what people did to level up their Center. Some meditated and absorbed and refined energy. Some had help from mages to forcefully level up their core, usually to disastrous results. And some devoured the hearts of their enemies, don’t look at me, I don’t judge. Since I didn’t have a mage on hand, and I knew first hand that heart devouring didn’t seem to affect my Center, I settled on meditation.

I infused my eyes with energy from my Center as a training aid, it allowed me to see energy in the air. They appeared as thin wispy lines in the air, their colors and density would signify their affinity and quantity. The most common in the air around me was, you guessed it, earth. Shocker. I metaphorically reached out a hand to grab some, and was met with slight resistance. It seemed like there was something there in the air, but I just couldn’t reach it.

The feeling was akin to holding out your arm while running, feeling the wind push it back, as laughter bubbled in your throat and the tall grass tickled your legs. Like when Jorn called out your name “Hey! Val come over here, the croakers are hopping along together. Look!” and you would follow, then you would both come across a group of the four legged creatures, hopping along, croaking with each leap. You would start laughing again, then fall back and stare at the boughs above. The sunlight streaming down, tinkling on the creak. You would turn to Jorn, a smile on your face, “I gotta get home soon, ma is cooking some stew, she’ll have a fit if I’m late.” and you would see his smile fall “Don’t worry, we can come again tomorrow” and his smile would com-

I rocked back, stunned at the vivid memory. I had nearly forgotten what it was like to be warm, and loved. I had nearly forgotten my only friend. I didn’t feel like meditating after that, but I needed to. I closed my eyes and swallowed down foreign emotions, before reaching out for the energy again, I didn’t know what my affinity was so I just took all the energy I could reach. It took a while before I managed to grab some strands of energy, but when I did, I felt like I knew what to do. I stuffed them haphazardly into my Center, and felt a rush of energy each time.

After nearly an hour I was sweating rivers. My body was clammy and soaked, and I felt more tired than I had after nearly eight hours of sword practice. I wanted to just lay down and sleep, but I couldn’t neglect my sword fighting either. I stood up and nearly fell over, I picked up my blade and started my training, or abuse, depending on if you asked me or Ed.

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

Reddik stompedd angrily at the front of the column, alone amongst mages. He had left the company of the warrior in the back and middle, settling in with the mages. At least he tried to, the mages ignored him like an annoying itch, they pretended he wasn’t there until he left. Reddik hated the annoying fat warrior in the back, and knew if he stayed to close to him he would do something bad to him. He couldn’t do that, at least not yet.

Thinking about hurting the chubby individual made the corner of his mouth twitch, almost like a smile. He walked forward along the curving stone pathways, he couldn’t tell if he was going down the same tunnel as before but the guides swore they were making progress. After hours of walking down a seemingly endless tunnel, many of the mages shouted out at seeing light up ahead. They picked up their pace and raced out, attempting to be the first back into the light. Once the group made it into the clearing many of them sat down right where they were, groaning about this ache or that.

While the self appointed leader mage called for everyone to get up and move, many just waved him away. The tall man walked around looking for a single individual still standing, and only managed to find a couple. They included a mage, Reddik, and one other warrior. “What are your names?” he asked.

“Reddik”

“I am Vernin, high C rank mage, at your service.”

The unnamed warrior scoffed at him, “And still the enlightened mages use that barbaric ranking system. A wonder anyone can get anything done.” the man, nearly reaching Reddik in height, ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair while sighing.

“Oh? And what makes it so barbaric?” Vernin asked haughtily.

“It may work for the basics, but back in my day we used word that meant something. None of these letter ranks. The lowest was Initiate, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster. Now those words carry weight!” the man’s eyes were bright.

“So what, you use a ranking system from a bygone age and call it something special. Dozens have done the same.”

“Ahhh, but they aren’t special are they?”

“That’s what I said…” Vernin looked confused “Are you daft?”

“But the others aren’t special, this one is!”

“How so?”

“It’s the first!” he declared excitedly

“And you know this how.”

That seemed to stump the older man, “I just do.”

Vernin looked away and scoffed, Reddik didn’t seem to be paying attention, probably thinking about strangling kittens. The leader of this sad group looked relieved it was finally over, he stepped forward “So do you want to tell us your name?”

“Nah”

“Okay….” he rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Well my name is Brent, and I’m the leader. Any objections?”

This seemed to finally grabbed Reddik’s attention, “Actually yes I do, who voted for you and why are you the leader?”

“Reasonable questions. One, the Count chose me, and two, because I’m stronger than you.” he punctuated the statement by stomping a foot on the ground and barking out a harsh word that grated on everyone’s ears. The ground under his leg gave way and seemed to crawl up his leg, latching on like armor. Soon he had his whole leg covered in stone. Reddik gulped at the sight, only a mage could use words of power, and making armor showed high skill and control over his mana.

“Understood.” Reddik cowered slightly, but inside he was fuming, and the vein on his forehead betrayed that face. Brent didn’t miss the look and noted to himself to keep an eye on the towering man. Brent clapped his hands, “Well, let’s be off! It’s time to scout.” he said merrily, activating his tracking spell with a few quick words.

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

“What do you mean the sum of the whole is greater than its parts? That doesn’t have anything to do with why I shouldn’t eat all of the snacks at once.” Ed had recently started spouting nonsense at me whenever he had the chance, it was starting to irritate me. I sighed and stuffed him deep in his pouch, making him quiet. I reveled in the silence and stepped out of my cave. The sun was high in the sky, and clouds drifted across. The stone ground was solid and reassuring underfoot as I stepped closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.

Something about standing on the precipice of it and peering down, seeing the vast world dwarfed by distance always set me to laughing. The same way that kulks tried to fly only for their massive bodies to drag down their ever hopeful wings. I set off merrily down my mountain path, greeting all the landmarks on the way for good luck.

“Morning cracked wall! Howd’ya do stunted shrubbery? Sorry about the husband old pile of rocks, there's always more rocks in the pile!” this continued for a couple minutes as I made my way towards a new area to kill stuff. I had found tracks for another new animal that I had never seen, the thing had really weird tracks, but I wasn’t one to judge.

I set into a sprint, enjoying the feeling of motion. My feet slapped into the stone, making slapping noises as I went faster and faster. The scenery blurred by and I soon found myself at the hunting grounds, but something as different. There were new tracks, but they seemed familiar. Four sets of boot tracks ambled about the area, leaving imprints in the snow dusting. They must have been here recently as the small amount of snow would have been blown away by time. The tracks came in, walked around for a while then went back the way they came.

I might not be the sharpest cleaver on the block, but I pride myself on not being the dullest. I knew there was almost no chance of these being coincidental tracks, I was secreted away on the tallest mountain, in a remote region of it that was blocked off by a labyrinth of tunnels. I needed to know why they were here, so I did what I did best, I hunted.

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

Reddik was bored. They had walked for a while, following the trail that was only visible to Brent. He was dying to fight something, and now he was being told to turn back.

“We have gone far enough from the group, let’s return and come back once we are rested. I feel like the dall’in is close.”

“You feel it?” Reddik asked increduously.

“Yeah, my tracking spell tells me it has been in the clearing recently. Probably hunting.”

“Then let’s go! We can kill it and return!” Reddik nearly shouted.

“No! If the Count deigned to send so many adventurers there has to be a reason. I will not risk myself and my comrades because you got antsy!”

“Fine.” Reddik only managed to restrain himself out of his self of self preservation.

The group walked in silence through the desolate mountain top. The only sounds were of the occasional cough or grunt, and the sound of boots crunching snow. None of the men were too observant of their surroundings, so they didn’t notice when the tracks behind them changed from four pairs, to five.