The next morning broke and Hugo crawled out of his bedroll. It had sprinkled in the night and it was still blissfully cool. He luxuriated in the quiet morning. There were a few mountain guides up preparing breakfast, but that was it. The last few days had been rough, physically and mentally. It was nice to get some quiet time.

It was easier to remember that this trip would be worth it when he was well rested. By the end of today he would have a spot on the ritual circle at the top of the mountain. He almost couldn't wait for the heartbeat of the mountain to come and his chance for his own soulmark. Everything followed from that mark, it would unlock his stats so he could grow in power. Once he was strong enough, he could get a magic domain. With that domain would come financial security, he would never want for a job. He could be a harvester, mage, crafter, bodyguard, and many others. No matter what magic domain he unlocked, people would pay good money for him to work for them. This was his turning point, the point where everything started to get better.

By the time that the smell of toasted mushrooms and tarrack started wafting down the mountain, more of the camp started waking. Hugo returned to his bedroll and nudged his companion awake. Marion arose, bleary-eyed, and was led by Hugo to breakfast.

They were halfway through breakfast before Marion finally woke up. He tried to chat up his female neighbors, but they were immune to his charms.

Eventually Marion turned his attention back to Hugo and asked, "So, newfound buddy, we haven't talked about domains and builds. What are you going for?"

Hugo shrugged, "It's not like we can choose anything we want. Aptitudes, right? But I have always thought of myself as a warrior."

"Ok, you want to beat people up, but I am asking how you want to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"There is no such thing as a warrior domain, which of the eight real domains are you going for? You know, formation, barrier, light, blah, blah, blah."

Hugo shrugged his shoulders as he chewed. He swallowed and said, "I dunno. I haven't put a lot of thought into it."

"What? Didn’t you ever pay attention in school? How haven't you thought about it by now?"

"Hey now, I was great in school, got all ones last semester," Hugo said. He looked down the mountain, "It's just that I didn't think soulmarking would apply to me. Up until a month ago I had different plans."

Marion nodded, "Ok, yeah. I guess it must suck to have your plans change at the last moment. But this is important stuff. This is who you will be for the rest of your life."

Hugo nodded along, but Marion didn't need any input from him to keep going.

"You said you wanted to be a warrior, right?" Marion said, "But there are a lot of ways to get there. You can be a defender, using the barrier domain to create powerful magic armor. You could be a rune smith, creating elemental swords to take down any foe. Or you could be a one man army, leading a crew of golems into battle with the life domain. Your choice of domain doesn't determine your career choice, you decide how you are going to use it. For example, everyone says that rangers use the light domain, but the best ranger, Elrond the Red, used formation to create endless arrows. There are good options in most of the magic domains, no matter what you want to do. The only one I don't want to get is light magic. Those guys are weird. I am hoping more for formation or life magic. The one opens up a lot of choices, and the other keeps you alive long enough to make choices. Even after you have your domain, you have to choose the right build. Stats matter more than people think. Aaand you aren't even paying attention anymore. I guess you are just going to wing it?"

Hugo smiled and nodded. Marion threw up his hands and left the table. Hugo wanted to care, but he also knew that aptitude had more influence in your domain choice than attitude did. He grabbed his bowl and took it to go get washed. He went back to the bedrolls and cleaned up their camp, rolling up Marion's for him too.

With a sigh, Hugo sat back down and waited for the rest of the camp to get ready to go. The conversation this morning was a bit frustrating. He knew he had to make a choice soon, it just wasn't one that he wanted to make. He had spent the last several years with one path in mind, no choices to be made.

Now he had several important choices to make in the next few days, and even after those choices were made, he still had to make his own way in life. He felt listless. There wasn't one right choice anymore. No ideal choice in any given situation.

Marion wanted Hugo to plan for the future, to set goals. But how could he set goals when he didn't know what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go. He was only here because Sofia felt bad for him and used her connections to get him a trip to the mountain.

Every city had a limited number of passes each year, he was lucky she was able to get one for him. Regardless of what domain his soulmark granted him, it would make him more powerful. Sofia must have liked him more than he thought. Either that or she was in on the betrayal and this was her way of assuaging her guilt.

He shook his head, he knew her better than that. Just because his anxiety said that everyone hated him, doesn't mean that he has to listen to it. Things were going to turn out alright.

The gods must have heard him being positive because they sent Florin his way. The horrid boy and his parents were walking in his section of the procession today. Hugo nudged Marion to get his attention. If they walked faster for a few minutes they would get out of his range.

But it was too late.

"Huge and Mary! Funny running into you two again. Not that I expect either of you to be able to run. I still can't believe Mary can walk, to be honest," Florin said.

"It's Marion," he said quietly.

"Are you sure? You were kind of quiet there. Are you sure about your name? Cus I really think that Mary fits better," he said. Florin's parents were following close behind, but they ignored his antics.

"Lay off him," Hugo said.

"Oh and the boyfriend comes to her rescue once again," Florin said. "Keep quiet, Huge. Mary can defend herself if she wants to. I just think she doesn't want to. She wants to be your girlfriend, she was just born with the wrong parts."

"Shut up Florin. You know that isn't true. It's not like it would be an insult even if it were," Hugo said.

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Florin yelled.

"Florin, not so loud," his mother said softly. "You know your father has a high perception. Please don't make us regret coming along any more than we already do."

The aforementioned father looked at his son disdainfully and continued walking.

Florin immediately quieted and leaned closer to the two boys. "I am going to get you for that," he whispered.

"You are the only one yelling. Worry about yourself," Hugo said quietly.

They could tell that Florin wanted to continue the argument, but glanced at his father and kept quiet. He spent the next few hours staring daggers at Hugo and Marion.

Hugo didn't know why the rich boy bothered. Florin was putting in an awful lot of effort to bully two kids that he would likely never see again. None of the three boys lived in the same city, and it didn't seem worth the effort to hate a stranger that much.

The insults Florin hurled were so dumb too. Huge did sound similar to Hugo, but it wasn't offensive to him. He never worried about being fat. Sure, he was stocky, but a lot of that was muscle. He was proud of the weight he had put on recently, because it meant he was that much stronger. He was a little surprised that Florin didn't insult his facial scar.

That is one thing that Hugo was self conscious about, the thin scar going from left of his eye down to his neck was unsightly. It showed that he was poor enough that he couldn’t afford a healing potion or a visit from a life mage.

Florin's other insult was little better. Calling his friend Mary seemed to bother him a bit, but it wasn't like Marion was effeminate at all. He was just this tall, rail thin guy. Both insults were just so asinine.

Eventually Hugo and Marion managed to extricate themselves from the situation. They drifted to the side of the group of people hiking up the mountain. They were walking in a column about fifteen wide, and the soulmarked guides made up the outside of the column. Hugo was pleased to see his favorite guide walking on the outer edge. Like the rest of the guides, she wore a red vest with golden buttons, but otherwise wore her own clothes.

He didn't know the guide's name, and that was part of the reason he liked her. She didn't talk any more than she absolutely had to. There was none of the inane chatter there was with the other guides. Hugo liked walking near her and not talking.

Halfway through an enjoyable hour of companionable silence, they were interrupted by the guide having to do her job.

They were passing a small ravine when something burst out of it. All black and moving fast, the creature hopped out of the ravine and ran at the line of people. The quiet guide manifested two obsidian daggers, one in each hand. Before the creature could get close, she threw a dagger at it, as fast as an arrow.

Hugo didn't even recognize the shape until it was almost upon them. It was a shimmer insect, an enormous monster created of magic. Seven feet tall and twice that long, the monster churned forward, all six legs pumping. The guide's dagger hit the monster's neck precisely and embedded deep with a squelch. It tumbled to the ground with a spray of gravel. Less than a moment later, it was dead. The magic it was made of quickly unraveled, only leaving behind a burst of blue. The light blue sparkles quickly dissipated.

As soon as the magic was gone, two more shimmer insects took their place. They must have been sneaking through the brush in the ravine, hidden until now. The guide shot out two more obsidian daggers. One monster was instantly turned into a cloud of drifting sparkles, the other insect just lost a few legs and kept coming. She frowned and threw another dagger to finish this one off. The sound of chittering filtered in from the ravine.

"Swarm!" the normally quiet guide yelled. A few red vests leapt over the crowd to join her in staring at the ravine.

It took Hugo a bit to see what she was yelling about. A swarm of the enormous insects were clamoring up the ravine, all attempts at stealth gone. More than twenty monsters leapt out of the brush and headed their way. A few people screamed and rushed up the path.

One of the new guards manifested an enormous blue shield in front of the ravine. Thirty feet wide and half that tall, the semi-translucent shield blunted the insect charge. Before the monsters could go around, he dismissed the shield. Instead, he gave himself light blue armor and two long swords.

A stream of daggers flew into the swarm while the new guard jumped into the fray. Another of the guards stepped up to use his power. Runes flared across his clothing, and he leapt all the way over the attacking insects. He attacked them from behind, each hit with a gloved hand or foot dissipating the monsters into clouds of blue. In less than a minute, there wasn't a single monster left standing. A slight tang filled the air, a remnant of the monster's mana tickling his nose.

Hugo continued walking, looking back at the aftermath of the battle. The attack hadn't scared him, he had gotten used to it by now. He was just wondering what kind of loot the monsters had dropped. That many monsters must have dropped something interesting.

It was usually just a manastone, especially for monsters this low ranked. But Hugo had heard of fantastic loot occasionally dropping. Manashards were possible, or rarely an aspected shard. If Hugo somehow lucked into a grand firecryst, he could pay off everything he owed Sofia for the pass, plus enough left over to pay for four years of the academy. Unlikely of course, but a man could dream.

He glanced up when he heard the omnipresent crunch of gravel going quieter. Then he saw it. A few hundred yards in front of him was the end of the mountain path. It almost made him cry, the end was finally in sight.