“Still hiding in the library?” Phoil asked with a nasty grin as he passed by Dallion in the dining room.

Naturally, Dallion ignored him. The large kid wasn’t worth his time. Getting into conflicts right now would only cause needless annoyances.

“Better make the most of it. I completed the assignment as well.” The boy continued.

It was difficult to say whether he was hoping to gain someone’s favor or was simply spoiled and stupid. As a noble, he probably had a small army of echoes in his domain, instructing him what to do and what not to. The fact that he was ignoring them so eagerly led Dallion to the conclusion that was part of a newly established noble family. All it took was one person to pass the level eighty-mark and a dozen more people would join the ranks of nobility, largely unmerited.

“What about the rest?” Dallion gave him a quick glance, finishing his soup.

“What rest?”

“Did your friends also complete the task?”

The momentary silence suggested that they hadn’t. Meanwhile, the lack of angry outbursts told him that Phoil wasn’t as stupid as he made himself out to be. With a grumble he walked past, going to “his” table where the rest of the posse awaited.

Dallion swallowed the last few spoonfuls of food, then stood up and left the dining room. There was no point in bothering with the dishes—one of the advantages of trying to level up a magic artifact was being granted special privileges.

No sooner had Dallion entered the corridor, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Glancing in the direction, he saw the almost invisible presence of a controlled air current.

“Good to see that you spent your time well,” the fury Palag appeared a step away. “Ready to go on a trip?”

“Has it been four days already?” Dallion asked. For once time seemed to fly by. It felt like only moments ago when he’d promised the apprentice to assist with a matter on the outside.

The polite smile on the instructor’s face made it clear that it had.

“Ready when you are, sir.”

“Good. Let’s go get your gear.”

Getting dressed in his hunter outfit brought back memories. Even with the time spent in the awakened realms, it’d only been a week since he’d gained the magic trait. Looking back, it felt like an eternity. It took Dallion a bit of effort to try to remember the world without all the purple traces of magic.

“Come along, Ruby.” Dallion strapped on the armadil shield to his left hand. “It’s time to go hunting again.”

The shardfly flew off the ceiling—its preferred spot—and landed on Dallion’s shoulder. Splitting into half a dozen instances, Dallion took one final look throughout the room to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, then went back to the corridor.

Palag was patiently waiting outside. Possibly due to that, this time Dallion didn’t change into the ten-year-old version of himself.

“You got permission to disable my seal?” he asked.

“The advantages of being a novice instructor. Let’s go.”

The two made their way through the vast corridors. Soon they were in a section that Dallion didn’t know anything about. The number of mages increased, the magic within them shining so brightly that it almost looked like a skeleton of purple light. Now and again someone would glance at Dallion, the curiosity ringing as loud as a bell. Clearly, novices weren’t expected in that section of the building.

After close to an hour, Palag led them to an alternative exit, leading to a small garden on the other side of the Study Hall. The number of people was a lot less here, and the houses were almost non-existent.

“Have you flown before?” the apprentice asked, air currents surrounding him and Dallion.

“A bit.” Dallion chose not to go into details. No sooner had he done so than the air currents lifted him in the air, dragging him behind the fury. The acceleration was fast, though not as fast as Jiroh’s and nowhere close to what Lux was capable of. As Dallion got a sense of what it was to fly, he almost got sick thinking how reckless he had been in the past.

Ignorance is bliss, he told himself as the buildings of the academy disappeared behind him.

“It’ll take us half a day to get there,” Palag said. “Hold on to your lunch.”

It was a well-established fact that furies enjoyed the freedom of open spaces. This one must have been cooped up in the academy for quite a while, for he was enjoying himself more than Dallion did. However, there was more to it. The fury had made some attempts to block the emotions emanating from him. However, against a skill of eighty there was little he could do. Regardless of how he was presenting this small trip, Dallion was starting to get the impression that it was a lot more important to the apprentice than he was letting on. In fact, there were faint traces of desperation mixed in with the rest of his emotions.

“Can we talk about the task now, sir?” Dallion asked.

“I want you to help me find a creature. Find and subdue.”

That still sounded vaguer than Dallion preferred. “Any details you could give me, instructor?”

“There’s nothing more I can give you. There was a sighting after an expedition. I’ve never seen it in person.”

Expedition? Dallion asked.

It’s a common term for a whole variety of different things, Nil explained. For now, consider it as a standard expedition into an unknown part of the real world.

Got you. “If neither of us have seen it, how will we find it exactly?”

“Magic resonance. The creature’s magic is rather unique. I was lucky to come across it when assisting my mage and have been following it ever since. If it wasn’t for the news surrounding your circumstances, I’d have gone to try and find it on my own, but with your obvious skills on the table, I decided to wait a bit longer.”

It was clear as day that there was a lot more to the story, but as every hunter knew—there were some details that were better left ignored. Dallion wasn’t here to judge, he was here to do a job and hopefully get something in return.

“You said that it would take me a few months to up my rank. Why that long? I already know the basics?”

“You know some of the theory,” the fury corrected. “Usually, it’ll take you that long to gather the necessary magic to up your level to the point that you can become a rank two novice. Why do you think I’ve taught you placing magic in items? For the next few months, you and the rest of the class will be extracting threads of magic bit by bit and placing them in the empty disks you have. Once you gather enough, you’ll consume it and keep on going until you know you’re ready to move to the next stage.”

That sounded beyond boring. Dallion knew exactly what was going on. This was the equivalent of him learning how to make metal ingots before he could forge items. The books in the library focused on that.

“Help me find the creature and it’ll got a lot faster.”

“That’s my reward? Magic?”

“What else do you need?”

As time passed, the landscape underneath went through changes. Fields turned into forests, then mountainous rocks. Using his magic layer vision, Dallion was able to see how large areas were completely depleted of magic, like giant splashes of nothing. To little surprise, the direction they were headed at followed the depleted spots.

When the sun began to set, Palag slowed down, bringing them to the ground.

“Why did we stop?” Dallion asked.

“It’s not safe to fly after dark. There are nasty creatures in the area. Also, I don’t want us to become casualties of war.”

“The war’s reached all the way here?”

A momentary burst of alarm came from the fury. So, things weren’t going as well as everyone claimed. Back south, the only focus of concern was the inevitable civil war of Wetie province. Everyone had heard rumors that fighting had increased further south, but no one knew the exact degree. Even Dallion assumed that it was only the border areas of the northern provinces that were affected. For fighting to have come half a day from the Imperial Capital, things were rather dire. Could that be why the Emperor was tolerating Countess Priscord’s ambitions?

“No,” the fury lied. “We still have to be careful.”

“Hunting is a lot better after dark for someone like me. We stand a better chance of approaching the—”

“We’ll rest till morning,” Palag said firmly. “Have some food and some rest.”

There was nothing that could be done. With a nod, Dallion sat on the ground. A few seconds later, the apprentice drew a symbol in the air, which turned into a campfire. If nothing else, he wasn’t afraid of being discovered by the creature or any non-mages. The fury then cast a few more spells and joined Dallion. Plates of food emerged around the fire, including one full of chunks of water.

Hello, Dallion said as he took a piece of water and put it into his mouth. The fragment instantly regained its liquid form, allowing him to swallow it. Are we the only ones about?

Hello! Hello! A chorus of grass replied, soon followed by other plants among the rocks. You can talk!

Yes, I can talk. Clearly, no empath had been in this part of the world for a long time. What happened here?

Rocks happened. The grass replied. Rocks and monsters. You better watch out! Some are close.

Was that what the fury had brought Dallion to catch?

What monsters?

Black shadows. They slice everything they touch. There were none of them, but then a crack appeared in the ground and they came out.

A crack? Did anyone cause it to appear?

No, it just emerged. It wasn’t there, and then it was.

So much for all Starspawn ceasing to exist with the destruction of the Star. Still, since it was only cutlings, it wasn’t a matter of concern.

Let me know when they approach, Dallion said, and took another chunk of water.

They’re close. They’re close.

Well, tell me when they get closer.

“How large is the creature?” Dallion asked. “Or is that something you don’t know, either?”

“I’m not sure. It’s smaller than a carriage. It might be smaller than a person.”

“Are we hunting it or is it hunting us?”

“What do you mean?”

“If it’s the hunter it’ll charge the moment it sees us. If it’s smart, it might try to set up a trap. If it’s running away, we need to take the initiative.”

The fury remained silent for half a minute, as if going through the options in his head.

“We’re hunting it,” he said at last. “It’s been running, so it’ll continue to run. I’m not sure what it’ll do when it gets cornered.”

“Creatures always attack when cornered. I’ll take the lead. You’ll follow a short distance away, preferably in the sky. If—”

They’re here! They’re here! A chorus of whispers filled the air.

“Fly up!” Dallion jumped to his feet, then burst in fifty instances.

He could already sense the cutlings approaching—a whole pack, mowing everything they ran through.

Lux, keep an eye out, Dallion said. On the second, his bladebow rose into the air, surrounded by blue flames. Meanwhile, Dallion drew his harpsisword and tapped its blade on his knee.

“What’s happening?” the fury asked, unaware of the events taking place.

“I said, hide in the sky. A pack of cutlings is heading this way. There’s at least a dozen of them.”

Two dozen, Lux corrected.

Two dozen were more than Dallion had seen roam in the wilderness. Whatever event had caused them to appear, it must have been considerable. That was a concern for another time. Right now, he had monsters to deal with.