There was much to reflect on now that I had the chance to sit without worrying about an ambush. My actions recently have left me worried. Avoiding danger and attention has been high on my priority list since I started this life. Ending Hector’s life was both morally questionable and didn’t keep in line with my previous goals. Attracting this kind of attention to myself and almost getting myself killed was reckless.

I had spent this life collecting stones to attain the barest minimum magic power to guarantee admission to the region’s academy. To negate those chances by throwing away nearly everything I’ve invested into this body by dying would be heartbreaking. The only consolation I had was that I seemed to collect and keep a tiny portion of my strengths and enhancements from one body to the next. A fraction so small that I hadn’t noticed it until my last life when, as a child, I was stronger than most children four or five years older than myself. Since then, I’ve begun other enhancements, like toughening the skin or bone, to see if those would also partially carry over.

Magic is absolutely critical to being a scholar but is seldom used in combat situations. It is said that with the Stone enhancements one would need to create a magical fire you could instead give your body the strength to throw a rock through two men. However, some rumors I’ve heard in past lives claim that the more knowledge and understanding you have of the processes needed to cast magic, the less power you need to achieve those feats. This works the same as physical enhancement from Stones.

Stone absorption is a simple process at first glance. The Stone simply needed to be in physical contact with a person while they focused on an aspect of their physical selves they wished to improve. This is where the simplicity ended. There was no known limit to how specific improvement could become. Some individuals toughened their skin or added scales, and bone spikes for knuckles, better vision in the dark, faster reflexes, stronger bones, more raw strength. This was the common knowledge every man, woman, and children held, but there was a little more to it. The process became more efficient and required fewer stones, based on your intent and the more understanding you had. For example, I knew that blood naturally clotted around open wounds. Still, I did not understand how this process happened. Suppose I had that understanding at even a surface level. In that case, the process that took more than a dozen hurlock Stones may have been reduced to three or four. Alternatively, it may have been potent enough to completely stop bleeding from severe wounds with the dozen Stones I used. Changes to your body were not always beneficial, though. If I had not specified in my intent that I wished for the blood to begin this clotting effect only after it was exposed to the air, I might have died on the spot.

The power of a Stone was tied to its color. Red was the weakest, followed by yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and finally violet. Stones could also be a mixture of two colors, indicating power somewhere between the two. Orange is four times as powerful as red, and yellow is equal to four orange. So each half-step between colors was an increase of four times. Stones granted a portion of the total power of their original holder, but a lot was lost in the exchange.

As far as I knew, no one understood precisely how magic worked, so unlocking the potential to use magic had taken almost seventy of these orange hurlock Stones. This pit of resources stopped me from becoming noticeably stronger for half a year now. This time could have been spent becoming stronger if that was my goal, but I just wanted to enter the academy. Higher education was currently my only hope at understanding my condition.

So why did I kill Hector or nearly throw my life away for this village? I could understand the village as a deep-rooted impulse from my first tragic life, but Hector had to be something different. I could have called off the duel at any time; the challenge could be rescinded. So why didn’t I abandon it? The answer that came to me was both relieving and a little concerning. I had killed Hector due to deep hatred, not hatred for him but a hatred for the entire adventuring system in this backward kingdom. Better ways of doing things existed worldwide; even neighboring kingdoms didn’t have this kind of issue. In the most extreme example, I could think of, every known tunnel to the surface was surrounded by military fortifications. There was no adventurers guild there because there was no need for one. When the horde dug a new tunnel, the military sent an expedition to collapse it. Having an adventurers guild wasn’t an inherently flawed system either, as long as hunting down monsters wasn’t publicly shamed.

So I took that anger out on one man, which was worrying to me. I hadn’t been the type to lash out in anger in my first few lives, but I could see a trend forming in the more recent ones. Remaining the man I was, the man I want to be, requires conscious restraint from now on. I could only hope this cycle didn’t last too many more lives, or I could find myself a complete stranger from the man I once was. I ignored the whisper of madness, telling me it was too late for that.

I absorbed two of the three Stones for magic and used the last one to strengthen my muscles because I felt a bit too weak yesterday. Then I reluctantly let sleep take me.

*

Cass would’ve liked these people. They worked hard to get the village back in order after the bodies were buried. Hard-working and kind people trying to get by in a dangerous place. I heard plenty of talk about me, thanks to my enhanced hearing. Most of the discussion was kind. I also listened as the adventuring group arrived in town. They claimed to have been held up by a large horde presence, but I knew there was no such organized group in the area. Luckily they believed the story Derrick spread about me leaving before they arrived. After another day, I fully recovered, said my goodbyes to Derrick, and left.

*

It wasn’t time to return to Brunswick; I still wanted to spend another week or so hunting. So I left the area and headed deeper into the woods, searching for more groups of hurlocks that I could engage in favorable conditions. Charging headfirst into eight of them wasn’t really my style, and for a good reason, apparently.

I regularly took on hurlocks in groups of two or three. That was the maximum I could consistently handle without sustaining any serious injury. I healed various scrapes and bruises at a pretty rapid pace. So far, this trip has been profitable. I gained fifteen Stones, including the three I gained from the fight outside the village.

During my hunt, I spotted a thin line of smoke drifting a reasonably short distance away. Campfires were my number one method of finding prey, so I began circling the site to approach it from downwind. When I was almost upon the smoke source, I could tell that it wasn’t a hurlock camp. The smell of a well-seasoned meal was drifting towards me. I knew most of the adventurers that hunted hurlocks, and my curiosity drove me to see who it was. I snuck towards the site while being careful to keep a tree between myself and its source to break the line of sight. When I managed to catch a glimpse of the camp, my suspicions as to who it was were confirmed. I stepped out from behind the tree and spoke. “Hello Taylor.”

A bow with a knocked arrow quickly found its way into Taylor’s hands, he wasn’t usually this jumpy, but we were in the wilds. Taylor had a pale complexion and a tall, lean figure. His real strength was only revealed by the casual ease with which he drew his massive longbow. The bow was how I had identified him. It was made of a wood I wasn’t familiar with and was the darkest brown I’d ever seen. The handle and drawstring were both equally eye-catching, a snow-white string and a grip of ordinary leather but rimmed in silver on the top and bottom. Taylor had always been one for looking sharp, and the rest of his outfit showed as much. His cloak was a beautiful blend of dark green patches. Underneath his cloak, he wore brown leather armor, which was a perfect match for his bow color.

I had done this to Taylor several times over the last few years, and this situation was far from ordinary. A flash of recognition crossed his features before something unexpected happened. He didn’t immediately lower his bow; instead, he took a brief moment longer than was necessary. Then his face changed to a smile, and the bow was lowered as though the pause hadn’t happened. If I wasn’t intimately familiar with Taylor’s reactions to my sudden appearance, I would have dismissed this as an accident. “Hey, Trace! It’s great to see you again, come sit by the fire. How has your hunting been?” I sat almost within arms reach to his right.

“Ah, it hasn’t been the most profitable trip. Only four kills so far, although I’m not done yet. What about you?” I liked Taylor, but I didn’t tell anyone how many kills I had gotten. I turned in just enough to the guild to afford food, repairs, and a place to live. Doing anything else would be akin to telling everyone exactly how strong I was.

“Three so far, but I’ve only been out here for half a week. You came out here much earlier, right?”

“Yeah I’ve been out here for a bit, just haven’t been lucky this hunt. I might call it and head back now, try another spot next time I go out.” I wasn’t lying this time; my luck was shit if you counted the fight at the village.

“Well, you might not want to head in right now. There are quite a few adventurers who’ve been riled up lately about us hunter types. A group of four has been gathering support, and I heard they’re looking for someone matching your unique axe wielding description.” Shit, I knew I’d have Hectors buds after me, but I hadn’t figured the majority of adventurers would be out for blood. Some hunters probably wanted my head too for causing them more trouble.

Actually, Taylor’s hesitation earlier made more sense with this in mind. I was willing to forgive it because he gave me a heads up. “Thank you for letting me know. Is it bad enough that I should consider moving?”

“Man, you know as well as I do that there isn’t anywhere on this side of the continent with better conditions for hunting hurlocks. I don’t know what your motivation for getting stronger is but this is the best place to do it.” He had a point.

*

Taylor and I spoke for a while longer before I headed out. I decided to spend three days hunting on my way back to the city. I could make the trip in a day and a half, but I wasn’t in a rush.

*

After my 69th Stone dedicated to magic, I felt something indescribable shift in my mind. I had unlocked the ability to influence the world around me with magic. The first thing I did was push a small leaf. It fluttered briefly on a branch when suddenly I was unable to continue. The process was very similar to allocating enhancement using Stones, you simply willed something to be different, and reality acquiesced. I understood immediately why this wasn’t used in combat; the Stone cost was truly absurd compared to what I could achieve with it. Now that I had access to magic, I only needed to meet the financial requirement for entering the academy.

I quickly allocated the remaining thirteen Stones into my physical attributes. Strength and reaction times were my secondary focus, with the remaining eleven Stones dedicated to toughening my skin. I drew a freshly sharpened knife across my palm and found it took some force to cause any bleeding. The toughness was similar to treated leather. My entire body was slightly heavier, but it was offset by the additional strength I obtained. I did not want two strikes from hurlock blades to leave me near death from blood loss ever again.

My plans changed; I needed to get enough money to attend school. I needed to hunt.

*

Each kill was refreshing; I made significant progress on my abilities for the first time in ages. By the end of the next week, I felt at least twice as strong and fast as I had been when I encountered those eight hurlocks, I was sure I could take them all on at this point.

I already had twenty heads in my bag when I first set out, kept for emergency funds, and was now approaching fifty. The days flew by, and before I knew it, I was running out of food. It was time to head back to Brunswick.

*

The guard at the gatehouse charged the usual fee, and after calming my nerves, I set off through the crowds towards the guildhall. It was nearly nightfall when I arrived, but the hall didn’t close until midnight anyway. The place had more people than I was comfortable around, but I did my best to avoid eye contact and head for the reception area. Thankfully, Mary wasn’t there, and I was greeted by a man I barely recalled was named Kraus. “Hello Kraus, I’m here to turn in a bounty.”

“Ah, of course, Mr?”

“Trace. I’m also here to pick up the Stone of an adventurer formerly known as Hector.” Kraus’s face became more worried with every word out of my mouth, with Hector's name eliciting the most severe change.

“Ah, well, I can help you with that. Mr. Trace, please place identifying body parts on this sheet.” The sheet looked more like a bloody rag by this time in the day. A mess of stains, both fresh and old, littered its surface. Kraus passed me a yellow-green Stone, which shined much brighter than the orange ones I had been gathering from hurlocks. I instantly absorbed and allocated its power evenly between endurance, strength, and reaction times. Human Stones were worth significantly more than monsters. The difference was theorized to be because of our comparatively enhanced intelligence. This one upgrade was worth around sixteen hurlocks.

I pulled my backpack around and began placing heads on the table. Fifty-four heads later, I stopped. My hunting became easier and easier; the more Stones I was able to properly use. Plus, I already had twenty stored for this occasion.

Kraus had an expression of shock that deepened throughout my display. It wasn’t common for adventurers in this kingdom to have spatial bags, but I assumed that wasn’t the reason for his surprise. Out of my peripherals, I could see several adventures staring with open hostility at me. Angry voices were slowly rising in volume as Kraus counted out my gold. One hundred and sixty-two gold coins entered my pocket, three gold per head. I had almost exactly two hundred gold now. The academy entrance fee was two hundred and fifty. Well, when they opened admissions in two months, I would have enough.

I turned around to see every adventurer in the guildhall standing. Perhaps I should have waited a bit longer before turning in my bounties or just drip-fed them in overtime. Being blinded by excitement for the academy caused me to abandon my usual caution. Oops.