Normally he wouldn’t have even noticed the formation mage, but his attacks were incredible. The man had six inch wide balls with an ignition rune embedded. He lobbed them at larger monsters, using pure strength to propel them hundreds of feet past the kill zone at a spinosaur. The creation exploded in a bright light, and splashed a burning substance across the monster, one that kept burning for minutes. It only took the formation mage one shot to kill it.

Hugo was frustrated that his own burning bombs weren’t unique. He felt betrayed, even though he knew that wasn’t possible. Due to time travel, he knew the sentinel couldn’t have heard of Hugo’s own ammunition. He just wasn’t as special as he thought he was. Well, besides the time travel and body swapping. That was pretty special.

That thought helped him recenter. He didn’t actually care how special he was. He was here to get stronger so he could help save the cities on the wheel. He didn’t even care if it was him that saved everyone. He would be happy if the dean in Reval just took charge and saved the day. He just needed to rank up so he could have choices.

He was glad to be here on the wall. This was much easier than any of his previous culling trips. Being up on a wall during a surge meant that he could pick the large and slow targets, and take them out with one hit. He overheard a few complaints from the other people up on the wall about him not killing his fair share, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t here to make friends or money. He was here to rank up, and he had already hit that goal.

He did concede that he could be doing more to stem the monster tide. He spent most of his mana pool fabricating a few extra basic mithril bolts. The mana rich environment meant that his regeneration was sky high anyway. He could afford to make a new one every fifteen minutes.

Two hours later he was down to one exploding bolt. His shift was almost over and he wanted to make his last shot count. While he waited for more monsters to approach his section of the wall, Hugo stared at the ignition rune on his bolt. He needed to figure out how to make his own. More than half of the rune was embedded in the quartz stone. Using mana sight didn’t help because there wasn’t any mana running through the rune right now. He would just have to ask someone how they did it later.

As the bells rang for the end of his shift, Hugo saw a perfect target for his last shot. It was a momma ankheg. The last time he had seen this horrific insectoid monster, he was on his first culling trip. His team wasn’t strong enough to take the monster on, but now Hugo felt confident that he could kill it with his final shot.

He took careful aim, pushed a bit of mana into the rune, and let the bolt fly. A gust of wind came by at the last moment and diverted his shot slightly. It hit the monster’s arm instead of its head. The explosion still took out a huge chunk of the fifteen foot tall monster.

The monstrosity still lumbered forward though, and Hugo started to debate if it was worth it to make one more mithril bolt. It would empty his mana pool, but then he would have his vengeance.

Before he could make up his mind, the monster exploded into a fiery mess. Hugo turned to glare at the jerk sentinel. First he quazi-steals Hugo’s idea, and now he steals his kill? The nerve of that man.

The sentinel made an apologetic shrug and turned back to the monsters. Hugo shook his head. He would let the man off, he was just doing his job. The fact that he was dozens of ranks higher than Hugo didn’t factor into the equation.

Grumbling to himself, Hugo swung the crossbow across his back. He had learned his lesson from the previous life and included a strap in his design this time.

He stopped off at the north tower before he left and talked to the same clerk as before, “Can I get my earnings before I leave? I don’t live around here.”

“No, sorry. We have to wait for the report from the sentinel lieutenant on kill numbers and your contribution. The best I can do right now is half of the expected earnings for a four hour shift,” she said.

Hugo nodded, “That will be fine. And can I please get that in mana stones?”

She agreed and had him sign for his half payout, six mana stones. It was less than expected, but Hugo didn’t mind. He knew he could always create mithril for the runists if he needed more money. He gave the clerk his home address for the rest of the payment, whatever that ended up being.

Hugo took the long way to the train station. He wanted to stay in the streetlights because night had fallen while he was on the wall, and he knew the train wouldn’t be coming for another forty-five minutes.

Eventually he walked through the same market square he had met Alexandru in during his Cristian life. He saw a few tables set up outside a restaurant with lively music playing inside. Hugo decided to stop for a quick bite. He had a few coppers in his pocket and he wasn’t too far from the train station at this point.

He was shocked to find Alexandru sitting with his friends at one of the tables outside. In retrospect, it wasn’t too much of a surprise since the man probably lived around here. He likely chose this location so he wouldn’t have to walk far to get to the meeting.

Walking up to the table, Hugo said, “Alexandru, what a surprise meeting you here. You never contacted me even though you said you would.”

One of his companions turned to Alexandru and said, “You know this driver?”

A chill ran down Hugo’s back. Driver was a slur for nox, alluding to the fact they used to be slave drivers.

Alexandru turned to Hugo and cocked his head to the side, “Do I know you?”

“Yes, we know each other. You helped me get soulmarked. Thanks by the way,” Hugo said and flickered a blue shield in front of him. He did it to show off that he had a domain now, and to let his speciest friend know that Hugo wasn’t defenseless.

Alexandru perked up and said, “Oh yeah! I did want to talk to you. I tried to get ahold of you earlier, but your parents didn’t leave their home address with the mountain guides. Come, sit with me, I would love to talk and I am sure my friends would be interested in what happened to you.”

Hugo did want to discuss the ritual with Alexandru, but instead he said, “I am not so sure if I want to sit with your friends. I doubt your friends want me to sit here either.” Something about the trio sitting with the ritualist seemed off, and it wasn’t just the insult from earlier.

Alexandru said, “Don’t mind him. These are my ritualist friends, we are studying shimmer mountain together. I am sure they would be interested to hear all about your experience.”

The male mage spoke up, “I am sorry Rainer insulted you, he is a narrow minded idiot. Please stay and chat with us.”

“Hey!” Rainer protested.

“It’s kinda true,” the female mage said to Rainer, then she turned towards Hugo, “Please, stay with us. I will buy you a drink to make up for his rudeness.”

Hugo was glad that they called out their friend’s bad behavior and was tempted to stay. Something still felt off though. Hugo activated mana sight on a hunch. Their mana was familiar. At such low concentrations, they could only be hedge mages. He said, “No, I need to be going anyway. Alexandru, give me an address I can send you a letter at and I will tell you all about it.”

“Ah, you are no fun,” the woman said, “Fine then, be boring and walk back home. We will see you some other time.” She smiled pleasantly.

“Alright, sure. I think I have some paper around here. Unless I can convince you to give me the short version now?” Alexandru said.

“Don’t hold up your friend, he needs your address. Then we can get back to drinking,” Rainer said and held up his beer glass.

Alexandru looked around the table and got out a scrap of paper from his pocket and wrote on it. He must have started to be wary of his friends, and didn’t let them see the address. Hugo thanked him and walked off to the west. He didn’t want them to know he was actually heading south of here. As soon as he walked out of sight, he shivered.

He created a few barrier steps and hopped up to the roof of the corner building. He needed a second to calm down. If he hadn’t thought to use his mana sight, he never would have known who he was dealing with. That had been close.

And what was up with Alexandru? Was he in league with the hedge mages? He said he worked with them on his research. On the other hand, he had helped Hugo in his previous life. Was the ritualist really just an idiot and didn’t know who he was working with?

He shook his head, either answer seemed likely. He needed to get to the train back home. He might as well head there now.

Just before he dropped back down to street level, two people rushed around the corner. It was the hedge mages. They must be after him. Hugo looked back towards the restaurant. He saw two people struggling, but it was too far away to see who was who.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and one man fell down. The other man took off running the other direction. Hugo thought he caught a glimpse of some ridiculous robes. Alexandru must have used his magic to fight off one of the hedge mages while the other two came after Hugo.

Hugo watched as Alexandru ran across the market square, and the hedge mage got up to follow him. He considered hopping down and helping the ritualist get away, but caution stopped him. He just didn’t have enough information here, he didn’t know if this was all some elaborate trap to get him to trust the ritualist.

Splitting the difference, Hugo stayed up on the roof and unslung his crossbow. Deciding on a non-lethal option, Hugo fabricated a small ball with half of his remaining mana. He shot the little ball across the market square. Unused to the flight characteristics of this ammunition, Hugo missed his shot. The round pinged off the cobblestones in front of the ritualist and ricocheted into the darkness.

The hedge mage caught on that he was being shot at, and ducked behind a nearby water fountain. While he hid, Alexandru made his getaway. Hugo shrugged. That worked.

He turned south and headed towards the train station. He kept to the rooftops, creating a hovering barrier when he needed to jump across wide streets. He felt safer up here. Hardly anyone looked up, even when they were chasing someone.

Once he arrived, Hugo settled down on the train station roof and kept watch with his mana sight. He did see a few soulmarked, but no hedge mages. He couldn’t tell if it was because there weren’t any around, or if they were in disguise. He knew they must have some way of hiding from mana sight, otherwise they would have been rounded up decades ago. He made a mental note to ask the dean about that.

Eventually his train came and he slipped aboard. After they got moving, the conductor made his rounds. He was surprised to see him on board, and perhaps more surprised that he had a ticket and wasn’t a stowaway. The train defenders fired into the dark several times on the trip back home. It was clear that Hugo had caught the last train back to Paarl.

He kept vigilant watch, but it didn’t seem like he had been followed home. Eventually, Hugo collapsed in his own bed and slept like the dead.

The next morning he pulled himself out of bed. He needed to get to his apprenticeship. He couldn’t wait until eighthday, he needed more sleep. Completing his morning routine mindlessly, Hugo found himself waiting for the rest of the apprentices to arrive for the work day. Today was going to be a long day.

A pleasant thought made Hugo perk up. He had something fun to do right now. He had rank ups to complete and points to assign. He pulled up his screen to see just how far above rank eight his stint on the wall had gotten him.