Through Cultivation Strength has grown.

Reward: 7 bonus points to Strength.

Through Cultivation Endurance has grown.

Reward: 8 bonus points to Endurance.

Through Cultivation Agility has grown.

Reward: 12 bonus points to Agility.

Through Cultivation Dexterity has grown.

Reward: 7 bonus points to Dexterity.

Skill Up

Body Arts Cultivation has advanced to Rank D.

Reward: 50xp

Heat welled up inside of Alden as he incorporated the world’s energy into his own. Rough, as always, the energy had of late begun to send sparking tingles down the lengths of his nerves. The sensation had worried him, at first, but he dismissed it. The strange sensation had grown no worse since he’d first felt it some days ago.

It did, however, stay longer and longer after each session of meditation. Today, he expected, would be no different.

It was early morning, perhaps only an hour before the sun would rise, yet none had remained asleep for one reason or another. The crackle of the fire Alden had lit some minutes ago, the wet heat, or the thoughts of their current, dour situation. Regardless of the individual causes, they were awake, though not yet ready to begin the day.

Long days had passed since Amice had decided to join him, and each was filled with bloodshed. They were hunting the deserters, those who had been his own men and who had fled when it was convenient. It was the law in Drygallis to kill deserters. What pushed him more, however, was the rage it had instilled in him to be betrayed.

They had found the first two days after the storm, near dead and baking in the summer heat, which had returned even harsher than it had been before the storm. The man had twisted his ankle badly, the flesh having swollen a deep purple by the time they found him. If not for Uhtric he would never have recognized the man. Uhtric seemed to know all their faces.

Alden had opted to give the man a quick death rather than let him rot in the sun. A small mercy. And one he had almost not given.

They found others the next day, those that lagged behind the main group. Five of them. The deserters had opted to stay together when they made their escape, according to them, but left the slow behind as they headed west and north. Those five he killed quickly as well.

The pattern repeated each day until two days before, when they stumbled upon another village. No richer than the one they had stayed at before, they had little but their fields, now half destroyed by the storm, and their animals. Except their horses. Those the deserters had stolen.

Alden sighed. Only a handful of deserters remained, less than ten in total. Easy to catch if they’d remained on foot. By horse, however…

“Quit worrying, sir. If you don’t mind my saying,” said Caldwell. A young, handsome soldier with brown hair and brown eyes, Caldwell was one of the ten that had remained with Uhtric after the deserters fled. Exceptional with a spear, in comparison to the rest at least, and mentally quicker than the others. His most distinct feature, however, were the tales he told of his home city of Coalben. He had a knack for interesting stories, when the mood suited him.

“Lad’s right,” Uhtric said. He whittled away at a piece of wood with his knife, as was his habit. This time it was a shield, sigil and all. “We’ll be slower with the carriages, aye, but they’ve no food for themselves, let alone the horses. We’ll catch up to them in the next few days, I’m certain.”

“I suppose,” Alden muttered. After the Hilvans had been slaughtered, Alden had requisitioned their supplies. A full three carriages, each stocked with as much food and horse feed as they could carry, as well as every piece of arms and armor that remained intact. The rest he’d gifted to the village. A reward for their services, though he felt it was more of an apology.

Of special interest had been the cheese, of which Alden had taken all of. Each day he would place a block of it in the grass before moving onward, in the hopes that the peryton was still around and would follow. A wasteful decision, though one he could afford to make.

Thankfully, his decision had borne fruit.

The creature could be seen close to the horizon every now and again, hovering in the air like a multicolored cloud, wings spread wide. At night, as well, he would hide cheese in the grass as a gift to the beast. By morning, without fail, it would be gone.

“I don’t quite like it, myself,” Caldwell said. “Killin’em, I mean. I had half a mind to join, if I may admit.”

“But you didn’t,” Uhtric said.

“Aye, I didn’t. But I thought about it. Could very well have been my head rollin’ in the dirt alongside theirs.”

“Don’t feel guilty, and don’t feel pity,” Alden said. “A person’s thoughts are their own. If we were punished for our thoughts, I’d have been hanged a dozen times over. Actions are what count in life. Not well wishes, or regrets, or desires, or anything else.”

“Suppose so,” Caldwell said. Prodding the campfire with a stick, he appeared morose, unconvinced.

He had a scar under his left eye, Alden noticed. He’d missed it, before. Curving down the side of his face, the scar was thin and pink, only slightly darker than the rest of his skin.

“The scar,” Alden said, pointing to his own face, “where’d you get it?”

Caldwell smiled, albeit mournfully. “Back in Coalben,” he said. “When my pa was still around. Got into some trouble with one of the gangs there. Well, I say ‘got into’, but more like one of the local jackasses on my street decided I was his favorite punching bag. So pa roughed him up some, and he couldn’t do anything in return. Pa was a miner, and in Coalben you don’t mess with the miners. Their kids, though?”

His eyes glazed over, the fire reflecting brightly in his eyes.

“Cornered me in an alley one day with a knife. I got cocky, threw a punch, and he nearly carved my eye out before I even hit him. But I did hit the son of a bitch.”

Alden could see it from the shape of the scar. Caldwell throwing the punch, his assailant’s blade flashing forward, metal biting into skin and curving downward.

Skill Up

Observe has advanced to Rank D.

New data can now be discerned from targets: Loyalty, Skills.

Reward: 50xp

Loyalty? Skills as well. Useful.

Focusing on Caldwell and Uhtric, their Statuses appeared before him.

Caldwell

Age: 18

Health: 210/210

Mana: 60/60

Loyalty: 80

Stats

Strength: 22

Intelligence: 23

Wisdom: 12

Dexterity: 22

Agility: 25

Endurance: 21

Luck: 10

Charisma: 32

Skills:

Spearmanship Rank C

Swordsmanship Rank D

Horsemanship Rank F

Shieldmanship Rank D

Sexual Ability Rank B

Uhtric

Age: 42

Health: 330/330

Mana: 40/40

Loyalty: 89

Stats

Strength: 32

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 10

Dexterity: 32

Agility: 27

Endurance: 28

Luck: 6

Charisma: 14

Skills:

Spearmanship Rank C

Swordsmanship Rank C

Horsemanship Rank D

Farming Rank D

Shieldmanship Rank D

Sexual Ability Rank D

Their loyalty was quite high, assuming it maxed out at 100. Their Skills, too, were interesting, though nothing extraordinary. Except the one.

Still, the newfound ability soothed him, especially as he turned to Amice.

Amice Witchester

Age: 21

Health: 1500/1500

Mana: 200/200

Loyalty: 100

Stats

Strength: 320

Intelligence: 56

Wisdom: 200

Dexterity: 220

Agility: 378

Endurance: 332

Luck: 15

Charisma: 7

Skills

Body Arts Cultivation Rank C

Swordsmanship Rank C

Spearmanship Rank C

Horsemanship Rank B

Archery Rank C

It was a surprise, and a welcome one at that. He had not expected her to be the most loyal person with him, given her initial reluctance. Sensible, though, once he thought about it. It would take incredible loyalty to betray your country for a single man.

Turning his attention to the rest of his men, he was as pleased as could be expected. Their Loyalty scores ranged from 60 to 77—a decent spread.

“This knight with us,” Caldwell said, breaking him from his thoughts. “I don’t trust her, if you’ll forgive my honesty.”

“Nothing to forgive,” Alden said.

“She’s damn strong,” Uhtric offered.

“And damn fast. And a Hilvan,” Caldwell continued. “How long before she does to us what she did to her own men?”

“She won’t,” Alden replied.

“How can you be certain?”

Alden smiled. “You’ll just have to trust me. I have no more interest in ending up dead than you do. I have a great many things in life that I’d like to achieve, in fact, and she’s the one to help me achieve them.”

“Like what?” Caldwell asked.

“Land,” Uhtric answered in Alden’s place. “Right? You get to own land now, for capturing her. Or converting her.”

Alden nodded. Land was a necessity for his plans, long term. To own any at this stage in his career was good progress.

Blowing wood shavings from his whittled shield, Uhtric looked it over, then tossed it into the fire. “You’re a lucky bastard, you know that sir?”

“I’m well aware,” he said. The truth of that never left him. He was lucky in more ways than he was willing to admit, sometimes even to himself.

Uhtric stood and brushed wooden shavings from his pants, then stretched his hands high. “I’ve been a soldier for ten years now. Farmer, before that, until my parents died and my landlord kicked me off. Soldiers can own land after twenty years of service, did you two know that?”

They both shook their heads.

“It gets reduced to fifteen if they join the Death Guard, which I did just about five years ago now. So in five more years, if I live that long, I’ll get to own my own land. And here you’ve gone and done it in what? A month?

Alden nodded, silent.

Uhtric did not appear angry, despite it all. More sad, if anything. Like a man who had missed out on his dreams.

“Where do you plan to settle down?” Alden asked, hoping to distract him with pleasant thoughts. He did not care to see Uhtric in such pain.

Turning, Uhtric regarded him for a moment, uncertain. “Grovesfield, outside of Galford. It’s where I grew up. Still got family there, too. Cousins mostly. And my brothers and sisters. Might buy my family’s old farm, if the landlord’s willin’ to sell, or else somewhere close enough.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to,” Alden said. Uhtric smiled, then sat.

“I sure hope so. I’m not as spry as I used to be, if I ever was to begin with.”

Silence fell and the sun rose as day broke. It was time to get a move on, continue their pursuit. But, as Alden stepped toward the carriages, he felt a stare at his back. He turned to see Amice, some distance away, red eyes staring intently.

Remaining still, she approached him. “Have you felt anything strange?”

“Strange how?” he asked.

“Hmm… for me, it was like lightning in my veins,” she said.

His eyes widened. Even now, minutes after his meditation had ceased, the tingling sensation had continued. He’d expected as much, but not once had he thought anything of it. Until now.

“I have,” he said. “Even now, as a matter of fact.”

“You must meditate for the rest of the day, then,” she said.

“What?”

A full day? Impossible. The deserters were already far ahead of them, and on horseback no less. The hour or so he had wasted by the fire would have been more than enough for one day.

Amice seemed to understand his thoughts. “We must postpone chasing them,” she said. “You are undergoing the first Tribulation.”

“I can do it after they’re caught,” he replied. He took a step toward the carriages, the discussion over, but a hand of iron stopped him.

“Tribulations are not something to trifle with, Alden. You cannot choose when they occur, and ignoring them will kill you. I can already feel it now, the energy swirling inside you. You must meditate and stabilize the energy.”

He could feel the truth of what she said. The shocking sensation had grown stronger, more intense, faster. A bolt of lightning that traversed the nerves of his body like a railway system, up and down and back and forth in a loop. His muscles began to tremble.

“I’ll do it from the carriage, then,” he said, but Amice merely shook her head.

“Did I not tell you before? Tribulations are dangerous, and not only to yourself. Should you fail, those around you will likely perish as well.”

Sighing, he motioned Uhtric and the others away. They obliged, stepping back a good, if overly cautious, distance.

Dropping into the meditative stance, he began to focus on the electric energy that flowed through him.

Flowing forth from his core, it took only a moment for Alden to understand the truth of Tribulation.

The energy that rampaged inside of him was his own, having leaked from the core of himself that he had not known was there. Like a crystal orb, he could picture it in his mind’s eye. Cracks had formed across the surface, allowing what had been contained within to leak out.

Focusing the energy of the world, he molded it over top of the orb, trying to reinforce it, seal the cracks.

“Good,” Amiced said. Her hand was on his back, and springing from it was her own energy, circulating with his own. “I will do what I can to aid you.”

Seven times. Seven times the orb that was his core was sealed, only to be cracked anew by the energy welling up inside of it. Each time his muscles convulsed, cramping, pulling themselves so taut that his tendons strained painfully to hold them together. Any worse and they would have snapped off the bone.

He didn’t know how long it took. Minutes, hours, a day or more. All sense of time fell away as he focused on his core and the energy within.

It was only after the seventh rampage that he began to feel something new. A different type of energy, looser than what he had felt before. Not mana. Too similar to the energy of the world he had been feeling during meditation, but where that energy had been rough, solid, this energy was the opposite. Smooth, it flowed easily, like water.

Controlling it was second nature to him. There was no struggling with it. Where he willed it to go, it followed.

What was this energy? He didn’t know. Amice said nothing and, feeling her own energy, Alden found that hers did not interact with the smooth energy he was feeling, merely passing it by. She very well may not have even known it was there.

His core inflated once more, its surface cracking here and there, worse than before. Electrifying tendrils of pain shot through his body, his limbs convulsing. Stemming the flow, he felt the cracks spread and widen, ready to explode.

“Focus,” Amice said, not for the first time. Her own energy rushed to stifle the flow, to no avail. Cracking further and further, it was ready to explode.

He had no choice, now.

Focusing on the smooth energy, he pulled it to his core, filling the cracks bit by bit. He willed it to harden, and like ice it froze into place, sealing the cracks. The flow stifled. Wrapping a new layer of energy around his core, a mixture of rough and smooth, he reinforced his core again and again until, finally, the backlash of energy ceased.

His convulsing muscles fell still, sore and throbbing. Exhausted, Alden opened his eyes to the world once more. Day had passed him by, the sun now setting on the opposite side of the horizon. He fell onto his back, gasping, and, feeling the sweat trickle down his skin, wished again for a shower.

Skill Up

Learned Outer Soul Cultivation Rank F

Reward: 50xp

Skill Up

Learned Inner Soul Cultivation Rank F

Reward: 50xp

Notice

The Skills Outer Soul Cultivation and Inner Soul Cultivation have been combined into the Soul Arts Cultivation Skill.

Through Cultivation Wisdom has grown.

Reward: 5 bonus points to Wisdom.

Congratulations!

You have achieved the First Step of the Divine Steps Realm.

Reward: 10 bonus points to all physical Stats.