12.4

At the first light of dawn, Team Rectiser departd from where they’ve made camp. With the mission sphere John obtained ahead of the other teams, all of them had agreed to use it to their advantage and complete their tasks as soon as possible as Meastes itself was not exactly the safest.

Their early morning journey consisted of them traversing through swamps, steep slopes, crooked hills and at this very moment dust storms…

“What exactly is the first task again?”

Kirk who was right behind Matilda and Bran asked in a grunt. The gusts of windy sands against his eyes have been driving Bran patience to his breaking point but despite that, he still towered over Cacti with his tall body shielding her from oncoming sandy winds.

“Please tell me we aren’t going to fight ridiculous monsters when we reached there,” Kirk rolled his eyes as he kept a watchful eye on Cacti.

“We are going to retrieve a chalice of sorts, it is just an antique that’s located underground, there should be no problems…” John who was a distance away from Kirk replied from beneath his cowl.

Like the rest of his team John was resisting the tremendous sand wind current, all the while keeping a watchful eye over his teammates on the rear with Aurelius.

“Woaah!!!” John let out a yelp as the sandy terrain beneath him disappeared the moment the stepped foot on it.

Just as he felt he were to be swallowed up by the shifting sands below, Aurelius’ voice came to him with a strong force by John’s arms to keep him from falling “Careful, kid.”

“Y-yeah, thanks…again.”

John looked away from the beastkin, he was still unsure why was the wolf treating him as though he was a child to be taken care of.

It was not that he hated it, but the way Aurelius looked over to him like a guardian whenever John looked like he was about to get himself in to some potential trouble bothered him.

The beastkin had no reason to go out of his way to aid him, but he did so regardless of what John wished for. It was the same before they joined Team Rectiser and when Aurelius carried him from the older parts of Moxnet buildings to the infirmary.

“Hey, Aurelius I was wondering, why are you—”

Before John could pose his question to the beastkin, Bran who was leading them suddenly stopped in his tracks with a hand raised. “The sandstorm is getting worse, let’s stop for now.”

At his command, Matilda set their tent in no time, everyone proceeed to take shelter without wasting anymore time.

“Phew, I’ll neeeeed a clean up!” Kirk declared before rushing to the showers.

Once they were safe from the sandstorm, Matilda and Cacti moved to reinforce the tent’s integrity, leaving John, Aurelius and Bran at the main hall.

“You two, rest up. We probably won’t be travelling for around an hour,” Bran said to John and Aurelius. “I still need to find a better route back to where we departed from…” Bran muttered to himself.

Since all of them had to return to the fortress that John had received their mission spear sometime soon to report to check in with the academy on their progress—after the barrier Prishine placed is lifted of course—Bran was still unhappy that they encountered a few acidic slimes earlier although no one was hurt.

He simply was just unhappy that they had to face monsters that delayed their travels. Who knows that swirled in the mind of Team Rectiser’s leader.

“Sure,” John who was the last to step in the tent replied, dusting himself by the entrance as he waited for the unmoving Aurelius to make room for him.

However, the beastkin had other things in his mind.

Aurelius who still had grains of sands on him suddenly shook his body exactly as a dog would when their bodies became wet, sending all the miniscule sand particles at John.

“H-hey, watch it!”

“Right! Sorry!” An energetic reply came from the beastkin, his tail wagging in excitement, “All these sands on my body just reminded me of the dessert, old habits die hard, haha!”

John made a face at Aurelius and resumed dusting himself, “Yeah listen, about what I was trying to say earlier, I was wondering… Why are you this attached to me? Is it some wolfkin instincts you have that I don’t get, or is it something else, because I am sure wolves don’t just get attached to people just because they helped them once.”

“Ohhhh! So you are wondering about that, I thought you have something serious you wanted to talk about,” Aurelius’ flashed his teeth, his tail started to wag energetically while still busy cleaning himself.

“This is something serious though,” John squinted his eyes at the wolfkin, still weary that Aurelius might send sands in his way.

“You happen to remind of me that I used to have a sister before I was sent away from my clan of wolves. By clan, it is the wolfkin clan, those types of tribes and clans where they have small villages deep in the forest.”

“Yeah, I know beastkin clans. Did your clan also have other beastkin clans as neighbors? From what I know, that’s how it usually went, different beatkin clans would live near each other to prevent higher tiered predators from attacking.”

“Yup, yup, that’s how it was. Though I can’t really recall how many or what other beastkin clans my clan was associated with…” Aurelius’ face contorted into a hard ponder, eventually he gave off a casual shrug, “Oh well, it’s not like I am a part of them anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“For starters, I was sent away to a monastery when I was six? Or seven? Can’t remember the exact age but it was right after my sister turned three, I never saw her after that. You two are pretty similar in age, so I suppose in some ways, you are like a sibling to me”

Noticing Aurelius’ tail had drooped, John quickly spoke “I am pretty sure you can still visit her—”

“Ahahaha, sadly that’s not possible, kid. My clan disowned me after both my parents died on a hunt. According to the village elders, it was a bad omen to the clan so they disowned me to ward off bad luck…”

“Disowned— You mean they banished you for something you didn’t do!?”

John looked at Aurelius with open eyes.

Since beastkins were more family and socially orientated, it was hard to imagine why any of them would be banished for such superstitions.

Aurelius gave a gentle nod, “It was either me or my sister, I was considered half an adult in beastkin years then, that’s why I volunteered to be sent away than my sister who was merely a pup.”

“That is bullshit, how can a tragedy be thought of as nothing but an ill omen, even if its tradition, that’s some high classed bullcrap!” his voice seethed with untold vehemence.

Perhaps it was unvented frustration that John had harbored towards the elves who banished him in a similar manner, perhaps it was because he understood how it felt to have such a series of misfortunes to befall upon his fellow frie—team member here.

But it truly was unthinkable.

Aurelius was a wolfkin, his clan who also consisted of wolfkins just like him, and just like their animal counter parts, wolfkins are supposed to treat anyone who belonged in their clan just like their family.

Like wolves, wolfkins would educate their young, treat their wounded and even aid one another whenever there was any resource shortage.

Is it me or the world is going insane? Even if his family was of lower hierarchy…to be banished over his parent’s untimely death...what is the logic behind that?

“What has happened is now in the past.” Aurelius continued to speak, “I was hopeless for a while but it was not long after a monk found me and, he took me in to his monastery. In there, I was brought up by the monks of the monastery like their own child, they would feed me and teach me the basics of living in the outside world. So when I turned 15, which was the adulthood of most beastkins, seeing that I had no intention of being a monk, the monks permitted me to leave on my own journey.”

“…”

“Ah sorry, I must be boring you, I can’t help but think about my past whenever I am reminded that I had a sister.”

“Nah it’s fine…”

John’s looked into an invisible abyss as he threw himself on one of the sofas of their base, his eyes remained stiff as he turned his gaze upwards.

“I think I had siblings like you in the past, not sure if the memories were positive or negative... Probably the latter, ahahaha, honestly I am not sure,” knowing he can’t recall his past, John let out a small smirk. “If you ever get the chance to see your sister again, you should tell her what happened, I am sure she will remember what you did. Or, if you can’t bring yourself to say it, I’ll help you out, ha!”

Aurelius stared at John blankly, as though he said something that was out of the ordinary. The wolfkin’s body stiffened and paused in his tracks, even his breathing stopped while he stared at John.

“What?”

Beads of tears formed by the cornea of Aurelius’ eye, his stiffened face broke before he moved his arm to shield and wipe his face. Aurelius turned his back to John as he frantically tried to keep the tears from exiting his eyes.

“G-give me a second will you, John?”

“Umm… yeah. Take all the time you need.”

Did I say something insensitive to him? I did call him names when he was trying to get me out of my room to join this aptitude test event thing… I don’t think he’d ever backdown from my words, so it’s not that…

John found himself in a conundrum, he understood that Aurelius meant well, but perhaps the reminder of being separated from his last remaining family was far too painful for him to handle, or perhaps the beastkin had unresolved issues with the clan that abandoned him.

No matter what was the case, he decided that it was best if he apologized to the beastkin.

“Listen Aurelius, I am sorry about bringing something sensitive—”

“N-no! Don’t be!” he quickly turned to John, shaking his hand in thin air while he tried to hide his redden eyes behind his other arm. “I-I just didn’t think you are that kind.”

“Kind? What are you talking about?”

Aurelius shook his head, “It’s fine. I meant to say thanks for asking, I haven’t talked about my sister in a long time, I wonder how she is doing now…”

He is not upset?

Aurelius distanced himself away from John and returned to the entrance, the wolfkin sat by himself as he patiently watched for the sandstorm to subside.

“Maybe I did say something wrong…” John muttered to himself.

“Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t,” Bran appeared behind John commented with an open book in one of his hands. “Beastkins are different compared to humans you know? Sure, they think, speak, walk and talk like most races, but…”

“But?”

Bran’s eyes kept moving along the pages of the book that he held, he gestured for John to wait for a moment before he finished the final words on the page.

“Despite all their developed mind and body, their beastly instincts are still as strong as their fully fledged animal counterparts. Technically, you and I are not that different from them when it comes to our emotions or impulses. Just not twenty-four hours ago you were down in the dumps…” Bran smirked, nudging his elbow against John, reminding John of how he behaved not just a day ago towards Bran.

“Y-yeah…”

“In Aurelius’ case, imagine those sensations you felt amplified five times,” Bran pointed at Aurelius with his chin, he closed his book and grabbed at seat opposite of John. “Wolfkins, like all beastkins are definitely different than humans or halflings, but Aurelius seems to like you a lot more than us, I am sure you have offended him in any way shape or form.”

“Come again?”

“He is a wolfkin, like wolves, they are prideful, overprotective of their herd, and extremely attached to those who they deem as part of their own pack. I still remember that vicious expression he showed me when I suggested that he join Team Rectiser for the aptitude test without any explanation. I thought he was going to bite my head off, ahahahaha!”

John blinked, “Bite your head off? As in, a threatening expression?”

“Oh yeah, he thought I was acting suspicious for inviting him along, but only after Matilda mentioned that we’ve decided to have ‘the John Sarvod’ join us no matter what, he became more docile.”

“Is he someone like that?” John scrunched his face and looked over to the lonely wolfkin by the entrance wagging his tail as he enjoyed the scenery from outside. “It’s kind of…difficult to imagine.”

“I didn’t overhear your conversation much, but I reckon Aurelius is telling the truth when he said you reminded of his sister—”

Bran suddenly stopped himself and moved a hand to his ear, it was the exact motion that John remembered from the magic [Message].

“Yes, Matilda… I see, I see so we are almost out of this sandstorm… Is that so… Yeah, alright, I understand…” Bran suddenly closed his book and straighten his back, “There’s a change of plans, Cacti detected a few wurms tailing us not far behind, so we are entering the undergrounds today as opposed to tomorrow morning. I’ll go get Kirk, tell Aurelius that we are leaving soon…”

“Got it.”

Wurms, though not to be confused with the word ‘worms’ are a gigantic species of the latter. While worms have long miniscule cylindrical bodies and feed on nothing but rot and decay—for the most part as worms are exterminated if found in fresh produce or food.

Wurms however, have the sizes ranging from two modest huts to an entire dockyard, they possessed bodies which are said to be longer than any of the streets of a prosperous nation. Though they are normally dormant and require not much feeding, but once they are awakened from their slumbers, wreckage and havoc will certainly follow in their wake.

As for why they were tailing Team Rectiser, there were a mystery, things such as trespassing their territory, triggering a timed-trap admist the sandstorm, or even simply due to untimely coincidence.

And it also could be none of the reasons above, as wurms are single minded creatures that possessed no intelligent thought, when they had their sights set on something—in their case, set on chasing Team Rectiser as their next meal—nothing could be done to stop their decision.

A large shadow loomed over the barren ground, six members of Team Rectiser could be seen running inside the overwhelming silhouette.

Just when Bran led everyone away from the wurm above them, a second shadow atowered above them.

“Crap, crap, crap! By the Angels!!! They are relentless!!!” Kirk shouted as he helped Cacti to move her feet, “Come on, just a little bit more, I can see the cave to the undergrounds already!”

Right above them head were two wurms the size of a house, one was noticeably smaller than the other but it did not matter when Team Rectiser were doing everything they can just to avoid getting crushed from above.

“Go LEFT!!! NOW!!!” Bran’s command came through, everyone reacted as quickly as they could and moved accordingly.

Not a minute after the command went through, the larger wurm on the right dropped its body to the ground, sending out fault lines along with uncontrollable tremor to the ground, unbalancing all of them at once.

Pssshhh!!!

Dust and dirt erupted from beneath their feet, their bodies wobbled, even Aurelius who was the only person standing in Team Rectiser due to his inherent beast-like strength, could barely maintain his balance.

“Bloody hell…” the wolfkin muttered as he helped everyone to get to their feet.

It was just a matter of luck that the ground beneath them shook strongly and no fissures appeared to swallow them. If it both the wurm attempted to squash them at the same time, the ground might break from their sheer force and Team Rectiser might have been swallowed up by the earth already.

“Let’s keep moving!”

Bran said to everyone as he got to his feet, urging his teammates to move before the second wurm decides to follow the larger one.

However…

Not ten seconds after he got to his feet, the world around him spun and tilted.

“W-wait…”

“I-I can’t stand s-still…”

Bran gritted his teeth, “[Medium Disorientation] huh? These wurms are something else… Cacti!”

At Bran’s call, the shortest member of their team immediately pulled out a pencil sized wand “Of g-good and evil, the balance and chaos, I bestow my protection, [Tipping Balance]!”

A white light came forth from Cacti as she successfully cast her spell on Team Rectiser, immediately undoing all the disorienting effects that the larger wurm had inflicted on all of them.

As soon as they were recovered, everyone resumed their movement towards the cave without a second to lose. They moved as fast as they could in hopes that the wurms would stop chasing after them when they reached underground.

“Why...did they stop?”

Aurelius was the first to notice the oddly calm atmosphere as everyone ran from the wurms like there is no tomorrow.

John turned behind, his eyes caught a glimpse of the larger wurm that caused the earthquake earlier, it was barely moving, apparently its attempts to unbalance them had caused it to become incapacitated.

“No…”

A whisper left his lips when he noticed the smaller wurm who was by a kilometers behind them.

The smaller wurm had lowered its body, retracted its hydrostatic flesh as though it was a spring coil, then it’s circular mouth that was lined with untold number of razor sharp blades for teeth slowly expanded into its full size, ready to consume anything that was in its path.

Somehow, from this distance, his eyes met the wurm’s.

The realization finally hit John.

“It’s getting ready to charge at us…”

Upon hearing his whisper, Bran’s clear voice rang out once more, “Go, go, go, enter the cave now!!!”

Let alone having the time to panic, John and his team burst into a run.

Ba-dump.

As he turned his head away from the sight of the smaller wurm, the world he perceived moved as though it were a series of picture frames.

He saw Aurelius besides him, running alongside with everyone else.

Kirk and Cacti were already in the cave, following them was Bran and Matilda. All of them had stopped by the entrance as they waited for the John and Aurelius to enter.

Bang!

A super sonic boom exploded from behind, the smaller wurm, with its streamline shape launched itself with the speed of sound right in the direction where the entrance of the cave was.

Ba-dump.

“Hurry—"

Just as their feet crossed the border between the underground cave and the outside, the wurm slammed it’s head right at the very entrance to the cave, creating a gale so large blasted John and Aurelius on their backs sending them off their feet inwards.

John moved his arms in front of his face, readying his healing spell to be casted the moment his face hit the rocky grounds of the cave.

“[Feather’s Blessing],” Matilda casted a spell as John and Aurelius were still in the air, instantly damping their momentum as the slowly floated down to the ground like feathers.

“Sis move, [Spike Explosion]!” Kirksten, unable to wait moved in front of Matilda casted an offensive spell at the wurm. Launching a torrent of spikes from his palm and hitting the inner mouth of the wurm that had become lodged against the cave entrance before them.

Boom!

A small explosion triggered at the point where the spikes stuck the wurm, the effects, like the spikes that were launched along with it did absolutely nothing in slowing down the creature lunging at them.

“Not even explosions huh? Bran, you’re right, these are adult wurms,” Kirk said.

Bran made an face, “Only acid or an overwhelming force huh… I can use [Acid Geyser], with my avatar magic I am sure—”

“Don’t!”

“Save that for something else, not for something like this!”

Kirk and Matilda both snapped at Bran for entertaining the thought of him using his powers, it shut Bran up but it did not change the fact that the wurm still had its large mouth blocking the exit of the cave.

“G-guys the wurm…” Cacti squeaky voice called out to them. “I think i-it’s stuck.”

The gigantic creature squirmed as it tried to escape, it’s orb-like pale eyes focused on Team Rectiser in rage as it tried to move it’s moist yet putrid mouth in attempt to swallow them.

“Our one and only exit… Blocked,” Kirk said hopelessly.

“It’s better than being its fodder,” Matilda said, bringing out a light lamp and cast [Continual Light] on it, illuminating the dim cave.

“What’s next?” John asked, he and Aurelius had got onto their feet after Matilda’s magic wore off. “It’s about to get dark soon, but if we go in any further, the chances of encountering more dangerous monsters will increase.”

“I know… that’s why I am still thinking.” Bran dipped his head, his face contorted into a stiff expression. “Kirk, you might not like this, but our options are either stay here and risk agitating the wurm, or we explore the caves during the night.”

“…”

“I-if we stay here, what might happen?” Cacti asked, casting a nervous look at the wurm that has given up on freeing itself.

“Considering how both the wurms chased us together, chances are the larger wurm might help this guy who’s stuck,” Bran eyed at the wurm who was still glaring at all of Team Rectiser.

“Why not just go underground then?” Aurelius said innocently.

“That is a viable option, and if my geological knowledge hasn’t failed me, this place is actually much safer to explore during the night. The only problem is it’s inhabitants, the eternal decays. Hiding from them will be difficult since they have sensitive senses, they are able to sense foreign presence in their territory and will attack us on sight.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Unsure what to do next, everyone became silent. That is, except for Aurelius who asked the question earlier.

“Then, we just have to mask our scent, don’t we?”

“How?” Matilda made a gesture, her face scrunched at what Aurelius was trying to imply. “With scent magic? It takes years to practice and perfect it, I can only use so little, Cacti is more of a druid, she has the aptitude to learn it but normal people don’t learn scent magic unless they want to be in the forensics.”

It was a solid argument from Matilda, scent magic, like many other magic, material magic, measuring magic, temperature magic just to name a few, are deemed to be ‘lesser’ in the empire as they their functionality could just be easily replaced by more conventional ones. So even if Matilda or Cacti happened to know how to use it, it was not though they would be experts on using it.

Yet, the optimistic expression did not change, instead, he shook his head with a smile that showcased his fangs, “That’s not a problem, because John can do it!”

“Me?!”