ã€ŠAether Engineeringã€‹


 Chapter 1

    Chapter 1

    Kreuzan¡¯s Job Shop

    The Engineering City of Verith in the Province of Rork

    Myles sat in a corner of a job shop bent over an aether forge. Sweat dripped down his brow despite the blizzard raging outside. The latest order was a set of 500 small cogs. Apparently one of the local manufacturer¡¯s machines had broken and they could not make the piece without it. Myles looked around at the rest of his crew as they bent over another three forges. In the distance, other crews could be heard carrying out their own tasks. The shop, Kruezan¡¯s, as it was called was always busy fulfilling miscellaneous orders from the local manufacturers.

    ¡°Look lively Mylo! Looks like management is on the floor today.¡± Myles turned back to his half-completed cog; the metal having cooled slightly. Myles reached out and pulled a lever down once to stoke the flames. The cogs were somewhat tricky to hammer out due to the complex design and the need for uniformity. Myles pursed his lips in concentration, ignoring the sweat as it dripped down his forehead. Blow after blow, Myles carefully pulled the metal into the shape of the cog. With a quick comparison to the blueprint that he had hung on the wall beside him, he grinned with satisfaction and plunged the hot metal into the trough he had prepared.

    As Myles set the cooled cog into the product bin, he risked a glance behind him. A tall woman who Myles knew to be Julia Kruezan, the owner of the shop, was guiding a well-dressed man through the cluttered shop floor towards them. Myles silently thanked his crewmate for giving him a heads up. The last thing he wanted was to be caught unawares when the boss was showing around what was almost certainly a potential client. Myles was about to start on another cog when he was interrupted by a shout from Miss Kruezan.

    Myles stopped with his hand half inside the bin where he had been about to pull out a new ingot. That could not be good. The boss was as famous for her high standards as she was for her ability to jump in with any crew at a moment¡¯s notice. Myles immediately dropped what he was doing and turned around to face the boss and her unknown companion.

    ¡°How can I help you Miss Kruezan?¡± Myles asked respectfully. Miss Kruezan remained silent as she approached, rolling her eyes as she pulled her companion away from nearly running into a vat of boiling oil. It was only when she had dragged the gentleman to stand right in front of Myles¡¯ forge that she decided to speak further.

    ¡°Mr. Habe, this is the promising young smith that I mentioned earlier. His name is Myles Redman.¡± Mr. Habe stepped up closer to Myles as if to look deeply into his eyes.

    Stretching out his hand, Mr. Habe suddenly straightened up. ¡°It is good to meet you Myles! It is always a pleasure to meet young men and women who are talented beyond their years. To think that a 16-year-old would be operating a forge with such efficiency. Incredible! Simply Incredible!¡±

    Myles shook his hand quickly and then took a careful step backwards. Myles had never been particularly enthusiastic when meeting new people, but he did not want to offend a potential client, so he offered his best attempt at an enthusiastic greeting. Judging from Miss Kruezan¡¯s amused expression it was clearly a little forced.

    Fortunately, Mr. Habe did not seem put off by the forced response. He reached into the bag that he wore over his shoulder before realizing he might be acting rudely and glanced up at Miss Kruezan for permission. A quick chuckle and nod gave Mr. Hape all the affirmation he needed, and he pulled a piece of paper out of his bag, groaning from the strain of standing up. The paper appeared to be a blueprint of a similar style to the one that Myles had hanging up on his forge already.

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    Feeling a little relieved now that he was back in his element, Myles reached out for the paper. ¡°Do you mind if I take a look at that sir?¡±

    The gentleman gave an enthusiastic grin and handed the blueprint over. ¡°My friend¡¯s nephew is going to be joining the railway soldiers soon so I thought I would give him a gift. Miss Kruezan was kind enough to recommend your services. I¡¯ve always found that tools that have a special story to them always seem to perform better.¡±

    ¡°That sounds great sir! Have you already discussed a timeline?¡± Myles was barely holding back his excitement. Individual commissions came in from time to time, but they had all been assigned to the more senior craftsmen. This must mean that he was doing well for himself.

    Mr. Habe seemed confused by the question. ¡°I actually rather hoped that you could do it in front of me.¡±

    Myles was taken back by this request and was about to say that forging a unique item was a rather slow process and it would probably be quite boring when Miss Kruezan decided to interject again.

    ¡°Of course! I¡¯m sure that you will be able to enjoy the show!¡±

    Myles tried and failed to avoid turning to her to give her a look of incredulity. Having no other choice and being in unfamiliar territory now, Myles decided to start commentating what he was doing.

    ¡°The first thing that I do when I look to start forging something is look at the blueprints to understand what I¡¯m making.¡± Myles glanced down at the blueprints and gave a small wince. The blueprints outlined various moving parts that seemingly had to be sized correctly to join together at certain points. As a whole, it was fairly obvious that it was designed by an aether engineer. Each of the parts was to be made of a specific metal. Myles had been told that aether engineers were so specific since they had to deal with properties other than just the physical ones. For example, the forge he used needed a special metal that was better suited for fire mana. None of that was the issue though. The issue was that it was way too complicated for him to be able to even start gathering the materials he would need without an hour of study. Myles almost threw his boss another look but was able to stop himself this time.

    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± Mr. Habe seemed genuinely curious about the process, so Myles decided to stick with his commentary idea.

    ¡°The blueprint is fairly complicated since it was designed as an aether device. Each part requires a specific metal. It looks like the¡­¡± Myles stopped momentarily considering what to call the bit he was referring to, ¡°¡­primary blade sickle¡¯s retractable tip is made out of basium.¡± Myles almost stopped right there. He seriously wondered how anyone could possibly use a weapon this complicated without cutting themselves to ribbons or considering this was an aether weapon probably also catching themselves on fire while simultaneously freezing themselves.

    Instead of stopping, Myles continued his commentary. ¡°Unlike the tip, the primary blade itself is made of tachium, the secondary blade of farium, and the hilt of¡­¡± Myles looked at the blueprints in alarm. The hilt was made of a metal called channium. Myles was not an expert with knowing anything except for the physical properties of metals, that was not his job. That said, Myles had worked on enough aether related pieces to know that engineers tended to use it for conducting mana. If it were used as a handle, uninsulated as it was, it could deal serious damage just from picking the device up.

    Myles decided that he should probably point out what must be a huge error. ¡°Mr. Habe can I ask you how confident you are in the engineer who designed this?¡±

    Myles did not get the reaction he expected. Instead of looking concerned, Mr. Habe was literally dancing with delight. Miss Kruezan also let out a relieved sigh as if she had just heard great news.

    Stopping his dance, Mr. Habe gave a quick bow. ¡°I apologize for my rudeness, but I had to carry out the test without you knowing you were being tested.¡±

    Myles stared blankly back at him still confused.

    ¡°I am a recruiter for the Veridian family. They pay me to find top talent in unexpected places. I was hoping that you have the potential I was looking for and it seems I was right.¡±

    Myles steadied himself on the table. The Veridian family. If that was the same Veridian family as the one that ran Veridian Enterprises, then he was being scouted by the biggest manufacturer in the entire province. Why would they want him though?

    ¡°You seem a little confused. I noticed an irregularity in the books of a manufacturer and ended up discovering that the unusual spike in profits was caused by higher-than-expected part yield. Meaning that they had fewer defective parts than they expected. I traced that work back to you and I decided to test you to see if you have what I¡¯m looking for.¡±

    ¡°What was I being tested on if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡±

    ¡°The biggest problem that most aether engineers have is seeing past what they are supposed to know to find what they need to know. The fact that you questioned those blueprints means that you have the nature of a successful aether engineer.¡±

    Myles almost started jumping up and down at the implication. As a smith, Myles could be considered a skilled laborer, but he was still a laborer. He did not have the resources to get an education either, so, he was unlikely to ever be able to find a better job. Besides that, Myles had¡­kind of started idolizing aether engineers recently.

    ¡°If you are willing, I would like you to accompany me to my office to go over the details. Your boss,¡± Mr. Habe nodded towards Miss Kruezan, ¡°has already given you leave to accompany me.¡±

    As they left, Myles could not help but return all the confused waves he got with a smile.

 Chapter 2

    Chapter 2

    Kreuzan¡¯s Job Shop

    The Engineering City of Verith in the Province of Rork

    Myles was a yellow-band meaning that he had to wear a yellow cloth band on or over his right sleeve when he was out in public. Mr. Habe let him stop by his locker on their way out to put it on. He seemed to already know about it, so Miss Kreuzan had probably told him. The yellow-band meant that an immediate family member was in a profession that used the aether-space. In Myles¡¯ case, that had been his father. He had been a soldier. The aether-space was a three-dimensional space that is uniquely tied to an individual. With proper use, users are capable of anything from inhuman strength to throwing balls of fire. The aether-space is the only thing that allows the provincial army to fight the more dangerous monsters that roam freely outside of every town and city.

    One consequence of this power is that it does not go away when a soldier retires or deserts. Due to incidents involving ex-soldiers turning to a life of banditry¡ªor worse¡ªall retired soldiers and other individuals capable of using the aether-space are required to wear red bands around their arms when in public. Red bands are both a warning to the people around you and a badge of honor to be worn with pride. Yellow bands are worn by immediate family members for similar reasons.

    Myles¡¯ father was a soldier up until six years ago when he had been killed in the last battle of what everyone had started calling the railway war. Myles was only ten at the time. For the next four years, his mother had been sure to turn the yellow band Myles wore everywhere into a reminder of what he was never allowed to be.

    Myles wrapped the band around the outside of his jacket, pinning it there with practiced ease. As he walked back to the entrance, Mr. Habe gave him an excited smile.

    ¡°After you!¡±

    Myles pushed out the door and into the blizzard, turning around slightly to start following Mr. Habe.

    Mr. Habe gave a quick shudder. ¡°Its cold outside even for Verith in the winter.¡±

    Myles gave a polite laugh. Everyone in Verith liked to complain about the winters even though almost nobody had ever left the city to compare them to anywhere else in the province.

    Mr. Habe glanced at the band around Myles¡¯ arm. ¡°Are you sure you aren¡¯t interested in being a soldier? You know I¡¯m actually looking for a talented soldier too.¡±

    Myles gave a polite denial. He had not actually been that against the idea of becoming a soldier even after his dad died. Myles knew that it was what his dad would have wanted. His mother though had been completely against the idea.

    Just as they were about to round the corner of the shop, Myles heard an ominous growl come from behind him. He turned in alarm. Two monsters tore around the opposite side of the job shop. Myles¡¯ eyes widened. The things were not uncommon monsters, Myles had seen a few of them from the city walls, but no monster ever got into the city.

    They looked like dogs mixed with boars and boasted a pair of sharp horns mirrored by a pair of tusks. The two monsters were quick. Myles began to look for a building he could take shelter in. It was then that he heard a crashing behind him. Mr. Habe who had been lagging behind had fallen over himself in a hurry to get away from the monsters. The first monster¡¯s vision narrowed as it took in the easy kill. Myles found himself flying shoulder first into the monster. The thing¡¯s horn just barely scraped his back as he hit it. The monster was sent flying by the weight into the side of the job shop. The second monster barreled down on Myles as he was thrown backwards onto Mr. Habe. Myles knew instinctively that he couldn¡¯t move in time to avoid its charge. Before he impaled by its horns, it went flying after the other one into the wall with a force that was hard enough to kill them both. Myles was somewhat astounded that the wall held up.

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    ¡°Sorry about that are you alright?¡±

    Myles sat up to find a man in uniform standing by his side, his hand outstretched. Myles took his hand shakily as he realized he was pinning Mr. Habe to the ground.

    ¡°I think we are fine. I took a few scrapes across my back, but that¡¯s it.¡±

    The man let out a deep breath. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that ogren aren¡¯t poisonous then. If it had been a veskel you would be on your way to an early grave.¡±

    Mr. Habe stood up with a flourish and a bow. ¡°There is a reason I told you to go with the ogren you know that.¡±

    Myles frowned. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    Mr. Habe smiled gently. ¡°I told you I am looking for a soldier too. The person I need has to have the potential to be both an aether engineer and a soldier.¡±

    ¡°You mean this was just another test!¡± Myles felt fury rising in his chest. He had just risked his life to save this man. The soldier must have released the monster before running around the corner. Myles took a longer look at the man. He wore a red armband, so he must have been an ex-soldier.

    Mr. Habe glanced at the man. ¡°He passed right? I am afraid I spent most of the test laying on my own face.¡±

    The ex-soldier gave a brief chuckle. ¡°Yeah, he passed. I had to save him in the end, but you were just checking to see if he would willingly choose to fight, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. The client wanted the candidate to be willing to put their own life in danger to save someone.¡±

    Myles felt his eyebrows raise at that. He had passed the test? It didn¡¯t matter anyway though. ¡°I admire the Veridian company¡¯s work, but I can¡¯t trust anybody who goes this far for an interview.¡±

    ¡°The client isn¡¯t actually the Veridian family this time. While I do work with them a bit, I¡¯m actually looking for a candidate for a rather unique academy.¡±

    Myles swept the snow off his coat where he had fallen. ¡°I don¡¯t care who your client is. I¡¯m declining the offer. I¡¯m going home.¡±

    Myles felt a tug on his arm. ¡°Just take the flyer. Its hard to find someone who meets my client¡¯s criteria. If you change your mind, meet me at the railway station tomorrow at noon.¡±

    Myles took the flyer and shoved it into his pocket as he walked away.

    Despite what he said it was still too early to go home. Besides, he had an errand to run. He had planned to do it after work but seeing as he had been given the rest of the day off, he figured now was as good a time as any.

    The Deprios church was a fifteen-minute walk from the job shop. All the children in Verith were given their compulsory education at one of the churches of Deprios. Up until a year ago, Myles had been one of those children too. On the last day of the work week, he always stopped by. While he had been a student there, he had made a deal with the priest. If he helped set up for the weekend sermon, then the priest would give him the old copy of his newspaper.

    When Myles walked in, Father Oswald was still teaching. Myles waited around for about half an hour before they all left. When they finally did, Myles watched as Father Oswald slumped gently back into his chair before he approached him.

    ¡°The kids weren¡¯t being too tough on you, were they?¡±

    Father Oswald hopped out of his chair with a smile. ¡°Myles! I wasn¡¯t expecting you for a while yet! How has work been going?¡±

    Myles chatted idly about his week, avoiding any mention of the events of the afternoon. ¡°Would you like help setting up for the weekend again?¡±

    Father Oswald set Myles to arranging the chairs for the service. The church had been having to use all the chairs for their sermons lately. That meant moving the chairs from all the classrooms. As he toiled, Father Oswald came over to tease him. ¡°This week was exciting. The Astro company just released a new product you know!¡±

    Myles moved to cover his ears. ¡°Please don¡¯t spoil the best part of my week.¡±

    Father Oswald gave a good-natured laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever met someone so interested in aether engineering. If I had the money, I would have sent you to an academy myself.¡±

    The old priest actually had tried to raise enough money to do that a few years ago. Myles changed his mind and decided to tell Father Oswald about the offer he had been given. The old man would have been upset if he only heard about the offer after the fact. Besides, Myles needed someone to talk to about it.

    After hearing the story, the priest had only one thing to say. ¡°You should do it.¡±

    ¡°But Father! You know I made a death vow to never become a soldier. If I were to break that I would be dishonoring my mother!¡±

    ¡°No, if you remember my teachings, a death vow is a single truth. The death vow is made to honor the one wish the deceased made to Deprios for you. I told you this before, but I do not believe that is the wish your mother made for you.¡± Father Oswald put a hand on Myles¡¯ shoulder. ¡°Your mother was stronger than you give her credit for. I¡¯m sure she wanted you to follow your dream more than she hoped for you to not become a soldier.¡±

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3

    Verith Railroad Station

    The Engineering City of Verith in the Province of Rork

    The snow had died down at some point in the previous night. Where before there had been blizzards, now only an icy glaze remained on the city streets. The old baker had always claimed that the railroad station was as much a merchant¡¯s paradise as it was a military compound. Sure enough, the soldiers had left no part of the station unforgotten. While the rest of the city tolerated a thin blanket of snow, the station stood in a disciplined state of cleanliness. This was clearly not a place where even the slightest detail was overlooked.

    Myles had seen the station before¡ªit was hard to miss. The walls towered over the rest of the city. Being twice as tall and three times as thick as the ramparts anywhere else in Verith, the station was visible from anywhere.

    The sight of the station was a stark reminder of how big a decision Myles was making. The station was for two things only: to transport valuable goods and to protect the railway, ensuring that it could run constantly.

    A trip to Candis via train was rare and expensive. Even wealthy merchants would find themselves hard pressed to get a ticket. Myles had never imagined he would be traveling by train. Yet Mr. Habe¡¯s flyer was clear.

    There was only one week until classes started, and the academy was near Candis. On foot, the journey would take at least 2 weeks. Monsters would prey on any travelers brave enough to leave the city walls. The only way they could make it on time and safely was the train.

    Within the bustling station, Mr. Habes looked out of place. Loaders moved large crates from the loading docks onto the waiting train cars. Merchants haggled for better shipping rates at the many counters around the station. Soldiers, walking mindfully around the facility kept an eye out for anything even slightly out of place, their prominently displayed blue bands declaring their authority to the world. In the middle of everything, Mr. Habes casually leaned against a post lecturing three young men.

    The energetic gentleman turned to Myles before he could even get within a dozen paces. ¡°I¡¯m glad you made it. I was worried the train would leave before you got here.¡±

    It was still half an hour before Myles was even supposed to meet Mr. Habes. Father Oswald had said that if he went, he should go early or risk making a poor impression, but this was a little much.

    ¡°I came as early as I was able. It was a tough choice to make, and you gave me little time to make it in.¡±

    Mr. Habes seemed to ignore the excuse entirely, waving Myles over urgently. ¡°I was just telling the others here what to expect.¡± Mr. Habes gave a quick motion towards the train. ¡°We will all be taking the train to Candis. I am coming with you as I have accepted a position as a special instructor at the academy. Once we arrive, I probably won¡¯t be working with any of you four specifically, but in the meantime, I want to get one quick lecture in!¡±

    With that, Mr. Habes launched seamlessly into a lecture on the importance of the railway, pointing out and bringing into focus different parts of the station around them. Myles did his best to pay attention. The lecture was interesting. Mr. Habes might not have been comfortable in the job shop amidst the organized chaos of production, but he was an expert here. Despite that, Myles failed to keep up with the lecture.

    This was it! Myles had spent the last four years reading and rereading snippets in the paper about the newest aether device. Now he would have a chance to become an aether engineer himself! The academy may have focused on developing students into soldiers just as much as engineers, but that was a means to an end. One year in school, two mandatory years of service. That was what the flyer said. Myles could afford to sacrifice two years to the army if he had even the slightest chance of becoming a full-fledged aether engineer.

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    As they stepped onto the train, the pair of soldiers that guarded the civilian passenger car looked at them skeptically but let them pass. The inside of the car was plain. There were no windows, the seats were simple wooden benches, and the walls and floor were thinly insulated metal.

    Myles recognized the insulation material as a common technique that he had been asked to do when he had just started out as a trainee. Insulating the metal was unpleasant work. Myles was forced to throw himself into a bath right after work more than a few times due to the smell. Despite that, Myles had found some small satisfaction in knowing that the insulation was pivotal to an aether device. Without it, excess mana would leak out of the metal causing potentially catastrophic situations depending on the amount of mana contained.

    Mr. Habes explained away the drab interior as Myles wondered at what his insulation work had contributed to. ¡°The car is to put it rather bluntly, boring. What is important here is what you cannot see rather than what you can though.¡± Mr. Habes waved vaguely at the walls of the car. ¡°Unlike most houses in Verith, you won¡¯t find any windows here. The main reason for this is a political one. The railway has many significant military bases along it. The lack of windows is to prevent the general public, and by extension any traitorous elements from learning about the structure and exact locations of these bases.¡±

    The four students took their seats as one of the soldiers assigned to the car urgently waved at them to sit down.

    ¡°Passengers are loaded last.¡± Mr. Habes explained even as he fell backwards into his own spot next to an unamused merchant. ¡°The less time they have on board, the less time they have to cause trouble.¡± Mr. Habes grinned to himself. ¡°At least that¡¯s what a friend of mine told me once.¡±

    The train started moving almost as soon as they were seated. Just as soon afterwards, Myles was standing up again. Knowing that the giant hunk of metal would move and actually being inside it when it did were two different things.

    Mr. Habes calmly dragged him and one of the other new students who had also stood up back into their seats. ¡°There are roughly 280 miles of train track between us and the Candis station. The trip will take us about nine and a half hours.¡± Mr. Habes gestured towards one of the soldiers in the car who had taken a step towards them. ¡°It would be best to try to stay on their good side until then.¡±

    Myles quickly found himself excruciatingly bored. He despised having nothing to do. Even when he was young, Myles had planned out his day so that he would have very little free time. While other kids would goof around the house, Myles would start work on one project or another. Myles¡¯ father had said he could never sit still. At one point when Myles had built a new laundry basin, Myles¡¯ mother had complained about not having anything to do anymore. His father had told Myles in secret that he got that trait from his mother.

    Myles would have talked to the other three students, but by their clothes and bearing, he thought they were all the sons of wealthy families. None of their families would be likely to rate in the same class as the rest of the people on the train, but they were certainly better off than a simple soldier¡¯s son.

    When they were only two hours out, Mr. Habes began a new lecture, an introduction to the school they were attending. ¡°The name of the school is Maston academy. The school is unique in that it is sponsored by a number of politically powerful individuals. Every student including you,¡± Mr. Habes dragged his finger across the four new students, ¡°are sponsored by one of these individuals. Meaning that every student you meet will be here due to either their merits or a truly powerful connection. Before you ask, I am not allowed to tell you who your sponsor is.¡±

    Myles was fine with not knowing who his sponsor was. Whoever they were, they were paying his tuition and that was good enough for him.

    Two hours later, the group of five got off the train. The train had made a number of brief stops, presumably to drop supplies off to the various military bases along the way. Nonetheless, they had arrived in the nine-and-a-half hours that Mr. Habes had promised them.

    It was already dark when they got off the train, but Myles¡¯ eyes were full of wonder as they headed to their hotel. The city of Candis was much different than the city of Verith had been. The buildings were more spread out though they were also taller. Most of them reached to at least five stories, and Myles suspected that many of them went below street level as well.

    Candis was said to have become a trading hub in recent years and it seemed to live up to the name. When they had been in Verith, there had been minimal variety in the products being loaded onto the train. Candis on the other hand had packages of everything from grains to ores and beyond sitting in the loading bay. Beyond that, Myles saw many pop-up stalls, abandoned for the night crowded the otherwise wider streets.

    The city still had a set of walls that were every bit as tall and sturdy as Verith¡¯s. It seemed that monsters were a problem regardless of where you went.

    Myles would only have the one night in Candis and they would be setting out the next morning. From there, it would be a two day walk to Maston in the company of an armed escort and a group of many other students.

    Myles went to sleep with a heavy heart. He would be unable to fully explore the great trading city of Candis, but for some reason, Myles felt like Candis was just a beginning for him. Even if he spent all of his time in the halls of Maston academy over the next year, Myles promised himself that he would explore the entire province once he became a skilled aether engineer.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands Near the City of Candis

    The journey from Candis to Maston was not what Myles had expected. The four students and Mr. Habes joined what could only be called an army of other students chaperoned by heavily armed guards. Each guard wore a red band around their arm, signifying they were trained to use the aether space.

    The guards were not active soldiers, but rather bands of shikari. Shikari made their living by killing the more dangerous monsters that pestered towns and escorting groups from settlement to settlement. There was an old story Myles had heard told in the breakroom back in Verith many times.

    In the story, two common merchants found themselves separated on the road. One ended up in Rork and the other in Candis. The two were supposed to be wed that year, but despite their pleas, the soldiers refused to help them. Eventually, the woman gave her entire savings to a wandering band of shikari in exchange for her safe passage. After the woman left, nobody ever saw her again. The moral of the story was to be wary of shikari. Some shikari are incompetent and some are bandits in disguise. Regardless, putting complete faith in them is always a risk.

    While the railroad connected the three major cities in the province, the only way to travel to smaller settlements was by walking the highways through the voidlands. The voidlands were what everyone called the area outside of the city walls. They might still be in the province of Rord, but it was the monsters that ruled the voidlands.

    The group had left the gates of Candis on the east Candis highway. Along the path, pale blue lights lit the way, reflecting off the melting snow. The lights, called hope lamps, were a ward against monsters. When monsters approached, they felt the effects of a unique mixture of chemicals, mana, and monster cores. As Father Oswald was quick to add though, hope lamps are a feeble barrier. Monsters may be irritated by them, but they could still walk right onto the highway at any given time.

    The shikari set a quick pace. Myles was glad for his time spent behind a forge. Some of the others who had led less physical lifestyles began to fall behind only to be mercilessly pushed on by the guards in the back. The pace did not slow. Staying still with a large group in the voidlands was asking for disaster.

    As the day wore on, Myles found that not everyone was flagging. A girl his own age had kept to the pace, effortlessly plodding alongside him. Myles hadn¡¯t noticed her for some time despite only being a pace away. She must have had the plainest clothes in the entire group. Myles had been teased before for having a plain sense of fashion, but this girl wore a hoodie that looked like it had been bleached of all color and pants to match. If not for her long stark black hair, she would have fallen completely into the background.

    The girl glanced to the side and noticed Myles looking at her. ¡°Hmmm,¡± the girl muttered, flipping her hood up and turning around without losing pace with him. ¡°Let me guess. Rork?¡±

    Myles shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m a Verith guy through and through. How about you?¡±

    The girl kept moving backwards, showing no difficulty as she avoided tripping over the rocks and roots that wove their way through the highway. ¡°I would say Candis, but I¡¯ve really been all over.¡± The girl twirled her finger around, indicating her point. ¡°All the people I met in Verith were more the academic type.¡± The girl nodded towards the back of the pack. ¡°I figured everyone from Verith would be back there.¡±

    If she had actually been to Verith and only met academics, she must have been in a wealthier area of the city than Myles had ever been to. The only ones who could be described that way would be the wealthy. The wealthy could actually afford to get an education. Everyone else had to work with their muscles.

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    ¡°My guess is you only saw a bit of the city then.¡± Myles gestured towards himself. ¡°Most people from Verith work in a factory like me or in the mines. Only the upper-crust could be described as academics.¡±

    The girl gave a slight nod. ¡°Huh, good to know.¡±

    ¡°Can I ask you what your name is?¡±

    The girl seemed to think about it, scratching her chin. ¡°You can call me Rea.¡±

    Myles nodded along, wondering what Rea might be short for. ¡°I¡¯m Myles. It¡¯s good to meet you. I haven¡¯t really met many other students.¡±

    Rea turned back around and retook her spot to Myles¡¯ right. After a moment, she gave a quick glance back towards Myles then looked forwards again, almost before Myles noticed. ¡°Thanks. I¡¯m not really a student though. More of a contractor really.¡±

    Before Myles could ask what that meant, one of the shikari started grilling a pair of students behind them for talking, demanding to know if they wanted to attract monsters. Myles decided to avoid talking after that. No sense in testing if these shikari were the incompetent type after all.

    The next two days passed in a blur. At the end of the first day, they all huddled together to get what felt like maybe an hour of sleep before they left again. The second day was much tougher. Myles began to feel the strain on his body and by the looks of it, some of the people who struggled on the first day were barely moving on the second.

    On the third day, Myles could sympathize. Fortunately, they saw Maston in the distance after just a few hours of walking.

    Maston was tiny compared to Verith and Candis. Where they were huge cities, Maston was a small town. Where the cities had huge stone walls, Maston had a flimsy wooden barricade. Hope lamps littered the area around the town, a desperate attempt to keep monsters from trespassing.

    Maston was centered around a lake. You could visibly see the houses and stores getting nicer the closer you got to the lake and the farther you got from the barricade. Myles noted this arrangement. Mr. Habes had claimed the school would provide him with food and housing, but if he needed anything else, he was sure to find cheaper prices from the stores on the outskirts.

    They got a warm welcome when they came into the town. Myles was surprised at how welcoming the people were. One woman actually had tears in her eyes as she stood and clapped for them. Myles quickly found out the reason for that. Maston academy looked both old and new. There were old brick buildings that had clearly been used for years, but these buildings were dwarfed by the newer buildings. Among the newer additions was a sturdy wall surrounded by a freshly dug moat that was fed water from the lake.

    The academy was like a fortress in the middle of a backwater town. There was no doubting the money that went into building this and by the looks of it, it was the townsfolk who had received the lions share of the profit for building it.

    Myles was pleased to find that as soon as they walked ¡ªor in some cases stumbled¡ª onto the academy grounds, they saw a billboard with sleeping arrangements posted on it. Myles quickly found his name on the board listed with five others. From the looks of it, he would be staying in room 7 in a place called NorthLeaf hall.

    NorthLeaf hall turned out to be one of the old brick buildings. It was appropriately located in the northernmost part of the academy, practically leaning against the newly built wall. Myles stumbled inside, feeling the fatigue of the past two and a half days weighing down on him. He just wanted to sleep. Classes didn¡¯t start for another two days, so he would be able to get as much sleep as he needed.

    The room was empty when Myles arrived. When he stepped in, he found himself in a great room complete with an open kitchen and group study space. The room was shaped like a half circle with eight doors in an arc around the back of the room. Myles ignored the kitchen¡ªthey had eaten on the road¡ªand made straight for the door on the far left.

    The door on the left led straight into a bathroom. Myles decided that he wasn¡¯t that desperate for sleep¡ªthough the thought did cross his mind briefly¡ªand moved on. The next door had a bed in it, and that was more than good enough for Myles. He was out before he even took his shoes off.

    Myles slept through the afternoon and night, not waking up until mid-morning. For a moment Myles panicked, feeling it was much later than he needed to leave for his shift. It all came back to him a moment later when he heard voices chatting quietly in the great room. He was not in Verith anymore. He didn¡¯t have a shift to work. He had a new life to worry about now.

    Myles thought about going into the great room and meeting his new roommates, then he turned over and thought about it for another hour. Myles finally managed to convince himself to go out just after they left. He would meet his roommates soon enough. No sense in rushing things. There were more urgent things that needed to be taken care of first. Namely, he needed to find the cafeteria Mr. Habes had mentioned.

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles found himself in a training room in NorthLeaf hall. The room was right below where he was staying. In the room, sand was packed down into four different depressions in the room¡¯s floor. Myles recognized the design as sparring fields. Back in Verrith, martial arts tournaments were held in pits just like these.

    In three of the pits, Myles and his five roommates stood in anticipation. Over the past two days, Myles had gotten to know each of them to various degrees.

    The one who stood in the left pit with him was Silas Smith. Of all his roommates, Myles had found he preferred Silas¡¯ company the most. Silas was usually reserved, but he had eagerly jumped into the conversation when Myles had brought up his former job. Silas¡¯ father was a craftsman who also doubled as a blacksmith for their town when needed. Silas had quickly proven that while he could perhaps be accused of a lack of passion for creation, a fatal flaw for craftsmen, he was something of a prodigy in business matters. Silas was quick to rattle off the costs and economic factors relevant to procuring any common metal, tool, or wood.

    In the middle pit, Mercy Grove and Jane Cooper stood together, quietly talking. Myles had rarely seen the two of them apart. Their friendship was as odd as it was strong. While Mercy was the daughter of a miller with a penchant for socializing, Jane was probably the least social of the whole group. Actually, it might be more accurate that Jane spent most of her time in her room when she wasn¡¯t with Mercy.

    In the rightmost pit, Kate Kenly and Seth Elias Hall seemed to have decided to make use of the pit for its intended purpose. Those two had been at odds since they had first met. Kate was the first of the group that Myles had met. She had been hanging upside down from a tree as Myles had followed his stomach to the cafeteria. When he had asked what she was doing, she had decided to follow him around and badger him for the rest of the morning as ¡°just retaliation¡±.

    Seth was the first-person Myles had ever met with three names. The name came from his status as a noble¡¯s retainer apparently. Verrith had nobles, but they were little more than wealthy citizens. Myles had quickly learned that the story was completely different in the rest of the empire. Nobles were the governing body. Even in Maston, the Matrake family made all the decisions from who got to live where to matters of defense. The Matrake family had even been an important factor in the changes that had happened in Maston academy. Without their approval, the academy would have been swiftly shut down.

    The whole group had assembled in this room at the behest of a letter that had been slotted under their door. The academy had no entrance ceremony or other direction. They were simply told to assemble in this room at dawn. Based on the few people the group had talked to, it seemed the whole academy had been given similar instructions. Nobody seemed to know exactly what was going on though.

    Everyone turned as they heard the door opening. When they looked, they saw a woman saunter into the room, drinking what seemed to be tea from a cup. Myles recognized the outfit she wore. After all, it was nearly identical to his own.

    The outfit was a greyish-blue set of long pants and a jacket with an attached hood. Emblazoned on the left side of the chest was an insignia of blade piercing through a leaf, the tip pointing directly upwards. A white band went around the circumference of the right arm in the same spot Myles had once worn his red band. The implication had been clear when they had been given the uniforms. The white band was intended to give them similar status to the blue band sewn into the uniforms of most soldiers. Myles could feel that his uniform was not just simple cloth. When he moved, he could feel layers of armored padding sewn into the cloth. He suspected that he would soon figure out why they needed padding in their standard uniform.

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    The woman walked slowly towards the vacant sand arena. Unlike the others, this arena was elevated, clearly intended for use in demonstrations. After a slow sip from her cup, the woman turned towards the group. ¡°My name is Primrose Tomkin. I will be your instructor for the next year as well as your commanding officer the year after.¡± Primrose swept her gaze across them. ¡°I may be your officer, but I am neither an instructor nor a soldier by trade, so please just call me by my first name.¡±

    Even if she hadn¡¯t said anything, Myles would have known she was no ordinary soldier. For that matter she could hardly be called a normal human. Her hair, tied back carefully, was an impossible shade of white. If Myles was back at the job shop, he would¡¯ve bet his own shoes that the hair wasn¡¯t natural. Myles had occasionally seen hair dyes, but only the extremely wealthy could afford the unneeded expense. For some reason though, Myles didn¡¯t get the impression of extravagant wealth from Primrose.

    Primrose continued after taking another sip. ¡°Right now, you are all completely incompetent as soldiers. In the provincial army, a normal squad is comprised of 25 soldiers, and a normal platoon is comprised of 4 squads. By the end of this year, it is my job to ensure the total military strength of you six is equivalent to one of these platoons. In addition, you will each be expected to master one of three vital functions: socio-political interpreter, aether engineer, or monster strategist.¡±

    Kate was the first to throw out a comment. ¡°If you think the six of us will be able to fight 100 professional soldiers in a year then you might want to get your own interpreter.¡±

    To everyone¡¯s shock, Primrose ignored the outburst completely. ¡°I will be instructing you each morning in combat tactics and aether space usage. In the afternoons you will study your disciplines with instructors who are highly capable in those fields. At the end of each month your skills will be tested on a real-world mission. Every third month, a more challenging task will be given that will require everyone here to cooperate.¡±

    Mercy, disregarding the lack of response Kate got, decided to present her own question. ¡°Does that mean we will be doing the monthly assignments by ourselves?¡±

    This question apparently deserved a response. Primrose nodded and took another sip from her cup. ¡°Good question. You will be split into squads of three for these exercises.¡± Primrose pointed first at Mercy, then at Jane next to her, and finally at Seth. ¡°The three of you: Mercy Grove, Jane Cooper, and Seth Elias Hall will be the members of the NorthLeaf company¡¯s squad 13. The rest of you: Myles Redman, Katherine Kenly, and Silas Smith will be in squad 14. All of you will report to me as members of platoon 7. It will be as a platoon that you will attempt the more challenging assignments.¡±

    Something finally clicked in Myles¡¯ head. Everyone they talked to in NorthLeaf hall had almost identical orders to themselves while the few people they had met who lived elsewhere had been given other instructions. That combined with the emblem emblazoned on the chest of his uniform meant that living in NorthLeaf hall had more meaning than just a dormitory. It seemed that they had been assigned living arrangements based on the unit they would be in when their time at the academy was over. In that sense, NorthLeaf hall was more of a barracks than a simple dorm.

    Primrose knocked back the rest of her tea and discarded it to the side without ceremony. ¡°The first thing you will be learning is how to defend yourself. While you will usually be equipped with weapons during combat, I will first be teaching you how to fight with nothing but your own body. There are a number of martial arts I could teach you, but I will be teaching you the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist.¡±

    Primrose flowed more than moved into a palm jab, twisting her arm as she delivered the blow to the air in front of her. ¡°The core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist is a traditional martial form most notably used by a particular group in the Perralin empire proper. The form is made up of fifty steps or moves. What makes this form unique is that each of these move¡¯s transitions seamlessly into any of the others using a specific transition movement.¡±

    Primrose repeated the palm thrust she had demonstrated before, but this time instead of stopping, she took a quick step back, ending much further back than should have been possible. Without stopping, she launched herself a good five feet into the air, coming down on the same spot she had struck with her palm with a brutal kick. Sand flew up in a cloud where her foot had impacted. ¡°The first step, palm thrust, flows well into the fourth step, falling javelin.¡± Primrose turned to face them without a single bead of sweat on her face. ¡°If any of you were knowledgeable about martial arts, you would be screaming about how that move is leaving significant openings.¡±

    Seth seemed to be the only one nodding along to that statement. Everyone else was mesmerized by how easy Primrose had made what should have been physically impossible movements look. She was obviously using her aether space to help somehow, but it was still extremely impressive.

    Primrose seemed to sigh when she realized that only one of her students seemed to have any background in martial arts. ¡°As I mentioned earlier, the core way of the fist is an arcaner¡¯s way of the fist.¡± When a few of her students, Myles included, continued to give her confused looks, she sighed again, more obviously this time. ¡°Arcaner is the term that we use to describe any individual who uses their aether space. Meaning that while this martial form would be totally impractical without the use of one¡¯s aether space, when using it, this form becomes a far better option than the traditional martial forms that many soldiers choose to adopt.¡±

    Myles had a bad feeling in his gut when he saw a wide smile spread across Primrose¡¯s face. ¡°While the core way of the fist is designed for arcaners, you will all need to be in fantastic physical shape for the coursework you will face here, so, today we will start practicing the first four steps without any use of the aether space.¡±

    Myles felt like he might come to dislike his morning classes.

 Chapter 6

    Chapter 6

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles was exhausted and the day had just begun. True to her word, Primrose had put them through their paces. They had spent two hours practicing just the first four steps of the core way of the fist.

    The first step, palm thrust, seemed like the easiest of the moves at first, but nobody seemed able to perform it up to Primrose¡¯s high standards. She would sweep around the room constantly correcting the tiniest details for all six of the students.

    The second step, a low sweep, had Myles repeatedly dropping to the floor to deliver a brutal sweep with his leg. This step was exponentially more exhausting to practice than the first step. Myles had originally entertained the idea of going half-speed to avoid tiring himself out ¡ª it was the aether space and aether engineering classes he was here for after all ¡ª that plan had quickly been thrown away when he realized how serious Primrose was about the training though.

    By the time they had started practicing the third step, half the group had fallen to the floor in exhaustion. Myles, Seth, and Kate were the only ones who didn¡¯t completely collapse although Myles felt like he would¡¯ve been laying on his face in just one more minute, and it seemed that Kate had gone well beyond her limits to stubbornly try to show Seth up.

    They all breathed a sigh of relief when Primrose had demonstrated the third step which she had called the iron turtle. The move was defensive in nature, and as the name implied, it saw the user curling in on themselves. The best part was that the movement involved in it was relatively easy.

    They continued working on the iron turtle for a full hour before they moved on. The last part had been brutal though. When Primrose had demonstrated the fourth step, the falling javelin, she had jumped at least five feet into the air. While it was quickly proven that no one was able to match that inhuman feat, Primrose demanded that they put everything they have into succeeding.

    By the time Primrose had called an end to their martial training, there was no longer anyone capable of standing.

    They were graciously given a short break to ¡°collect themselves¡± before they began their aether space training. Myles found that he was far from the only one who was excited about the promise this training held. While Silas and Jane were casual about the prospect, Kate and Seth were both loudly declaring how much they were looking forward to it. All their enthusiasm was put to shame by Mercy though. While she had been the most exhausted from the training of everyone, now she could hardly sit still.

    After their break ended, Primrose called them all over to the elevated arena she had claimed. At some point during the break, she had managed to procure more tea, so when she gestured for everyone to take a seat in front of her, she had to put down her cup on the sand. As soon as she did, the sand around the cup immediately began to melt.

    ¡°Your first lesson,¡± Primrose began as she pointed at her cup, ¡°is about mana.¡±

    Mercy who had leaped back in shock rather than sitting down finally released a breath. ¡°How were you drinking that!?¡±

    Primrose smiled. ¡°That is exactly my point. Mana is the source of power that arcaners draw from. Mana can only be harvested through one¡¯s personal aether space though.¡±

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    Myles leaned forward. ¡°Does that mean that a different aether space is tied to each person?¡±

    Kate who had taken Silas¡¯ place next to Myles, pointedly sitting as far from Seth as possible, glared. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you already know stuff this basic; you were wearing a yellow band weren¡¯t you.¡±

    Myles turned to reply, others may have been angered by a statement that tactless, after all, it implied that Myles was a threat. Myles had always had to deal with questions like that though. They had stopped making him mad a while ago, it was still bothersome, but Myles had learned it was easier if he didn¡¯t show anger. ¡°My father was a soldier, but soldiers are strictly forbidden from talking about this stuff with anyone. Since some soldiers ignore that order though, the yellow band is a warning that I could be dangerous. I don¡¯t know anything more than anyone else here though.¡±

    Silas and Jane turned unfriendly stares towards Kate. Myles suspected that Silas was just annoyed at the rudeness of the question. Mercy looked a little more than annoyed though. Myles recalled seeing her wearing a red band around her arm before they had all changed and assumed that was the reason.

    Primrose gave a quick cough to regain everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°To answer your question Myles, the simple answer is yes, and the complex answer is no.¡± Primrose looked around for something to write with, but when she realized there was nothing there, she shrugged and started drawing in the air. Wherever she dragged her finger, a clear energy seemed to form out of nowhere to form a drawing. While the energy was clear, it gave off a distinct low glow that allowed everyone to easily see the image.

    In a matter of moments, Primrose had drawn a square directly above her head. ¡°Consider this my personal aether space,¡± she said, gesturing upwards. ¡°As you can see,¡± Primrose leaned over and drew another square over Jane¡¯s head who happened to be sitting closest, ¡°my aether space is completely independent from someone else¡¯s.¡± Primrose paused and then drew two rough lines upwards from the squares. ¡°The complicated part is when you start discussing how mana arrives at each individuals aether space. We don¡¯t really know how this works, but the working theory is that all of our aether spaces are actually part of a greater whole and they each have a channel that connects them to a near bottomless well of mana.¡±

    Seth slowly raised his hand to get Primrose¡¯s attention. ¡°Can you please explain what a mana well is?¡±

    Primrose nodded patiently. ¡°I was just getting to that. A mana well is a method of storing mana that naturally accumulates in your aether space.¡± She stood up, taking another sip from the impossibly hot tea. ¡°The creation of a mana well is the first step in becoming an arcaner.¡± Primrose grabbed a pouch from her things and handed out the contents, what looked to be six leaves, to the six students.

    Seth looked up when he was given his. ¡°Is this an aurik leaf?¡±

    Primrose looked back at him in legitimate surprise. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know that.¡±

    Seth nodded. ¡°They were a major product back in the town I grew up in.¡±

    Primrose took another sip of her tea. ¡°That would make sense.¡± She turned back to include the rest of the class too. ¡°Aurik leaves or as they are more commonly referred to in arcaner¡¯s circles, delving leaves, have a unique natural property of impacting an individual¡¯s aether space when consumed. These leaves will naturally scrape away the surface of an aether space.¡± Primrose gestured to the group. ¡°If you would please.¡±

    Myles shoved the leaf into his mouth. He found that it had a bitter taste and he grimaced as he chewed it into paste before swallowing it.

    When everyone had finished their leaves, Primrose gave a condescending smile. ¡°Congratulations on becoming arcaners.¡±

    Myles looked around to find everyone else was as confused as he was. ¡°In what way are we arcaners now?¡±

    Primrose gave the same smile again. ¡°You will soon find that consuming those leaves has opened up the smallest of cavities in your aether space.¡± She tapped her head and then closed her eyes. ¡°The easiest way to view your aether space for the first time is by closing your eyes and then visualizing a square. In most cases you will see a representation of your aether space.¡±

    Myles gave it a try, closing his eyes and then doing his best to visualize a square. At first, Myles started to panic because all he saw was black space, but then he noticed a small pinprick of a dim light coming from the middle of his vision. Myles quickly focused on that spot and found that he was able to immediately see that portion of his aether space. The spot had all the same properties as the squares Primrose had drawn earlier. It seemed to be clear but was dimly glowing.

    Myles opened his eyes in satisfaction and found that everyone else was as pleased as he was.

    ¡°Back to the tea then,¡± Primrose said hefting her cup, ¡°the reason I am able to hold this despite the heat is thanks to one of the two capabilities you have with a mana well.¡± Primrose lifted her finger again and drew in the air. ¡°The ability of evocation allows you to bring raw mana into the real world by using your body as a conduit. Normally this is not particularly useful, and with particularly volatile mana types, it could even hurt you, but pure mana is different.¡± Before Myles¡¯ eyes, Primrose¡¯s hands and mouth began to glow dimly with the ambiance of pure mana. ¡°Raw pure mana has the unique property of resisting any, and all forces used against it. In this case, the pure mana is protecting me from the heat of my tea. For this reason, arcaners generally call pure mana the universal defense.¡±

    Myles looked on in awe as Primrose took a pointed sip from her cup without the slightest indication of discomfort. ¡°Of course,¡± Primrose gestured towards the students, ¡°you won¡¯t be able to defend against anything as dangerous as a hot drink without more mana. And to do that we will have to look at the second capability you have with a mana well.¡±

 Chapter 7

    Chapter 7

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    As it turned out, the only other thing an arcaner could do with an aether well was to make the aether well bigger. Myles was surprised to find how simple the process was. As Primrose had explained it, all that was required was to use the mana in the well to scrape away at the sides and bottom of the well within the aether space.

    The problem with that was it was hard! Myles spent the first half hour just trying to get the pinprick of light to move. When he finally managed it, he couldn¡¯t seem to move it with enough force to scrape anything away.

    Myles heard a whisper from his right, where Silas was sitting. ¡°Try moving it in a circle as fast as you can.¡±

    After a minute of trying the new technique, Myles managed to scrape a bit of the space around his pinprick of light off. Grinning despite the headache that had started from the exertion, Myles turned to Silas. ¡°Thanks. That seemed to do the trick.¡±

    The rest of their morning class was spent in what would outwardly look like a meditative trance. As they kept scraping away at their aether spaces, Primrose told them that most arcaner¡¯s chose to call this activity delving. ¡°We call it delving,¡± she had said, ¡°because in order to get larger reserves of mana, an arcaner must dig further into their aether space. Not only does this give you access to more mana, but it also has some additional beneficial effects.¡±

    Mercy had asked her about the beneficial effects, but Primrose refused to say anything. ¡°No reason to tell you before it¡¯s of any use to you.¡±

    Myles left the morning class with a splitting headache. For his efforts, Myles could see that the pinprick of light had grown into what Myles had started to think of as a puddle. Maybe it was because of the way he moved the mana¡ªit reminded him of how water might move if you shook the cup it sat in¡ªbut he began to think of mana in the aether space as water.

    His actual progress had both been extremely impressive and entirely inconsequential. He now had what he estimated to be roughly five times more mana than what he had started with. Of course, since he had started with almost nothing, he doubted his gains were really that impressive. Primrose had been sure to tell them that mana was measured in units. After eating the delving root, they each started with one unit of mana. Myles supposed that meant he now had five units.

    After conferring with his other roommates¡ªexcept for Kate and Seth who had both left as soon as they had been dismissed¡ªthey decided to all get something to eat from the cafeteria.

    As they left NorthLeaf hall, Jane burst out in anger. ¡°Can you believe what Kate said back there!¡±

    Myles had never seen Jane speak in anything other than a low voice, so he was momentarily taken off guard.

    Silas sighed. ¡°She was a bit out of line to be honest. Yes, those bands do have their purpose to protect the public, but I expect the people who wear them get unwelcome attention because of it.¡±

    Mercy scratched her head in confusion. ¡°I don¡¯t see why that would be the case. In my hometown, we treated those bands as a sign of respect. My family even gave discounts on our bread to anyone wearing them seeing as how that usually means they¡¯re family of a veteran.¡±

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    Myles started to wish he had grown up in Mercy¡¯s town. In Verith, the bands were certainly a reason for respect, but more importantly they were a reason for fear. When he was just a kid, Myles remembered his mother getting in an argument with a local merchant. When she had started raising her voice, the man¡¯s eyes had slid down to the band around her arm. They ended up getting a great deal that day, but the shop always seemed to be closed when his mother went by after that.

    Myles looked back towards Mercy. ¡°I wish everyone thought like that Mercy. In my experience though, most people are more concerned about whether the person they are looking at is a human weapon or not. Thoughts of honoring or thanking them are far from most people¡¯s minds.¡±

    Mercy nodded sagely if a little sadly. ¡°I guess I could see that.¡±

    They all walked in silence for a few minutes before Jane decided to add another comment. ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll all soon understand what it means to walk around with a band,¡± Jane looked down at the white band wrapped around her arm, ¡°considering we are actually arcaner¡¯s now.¡±

    Nobody seemed to want to add to that conversation further. They finished the walk quickly, the walk to the cafeteria was thankfully a short one.

    The cafeteria was perhaps the largest building at the academy, and that was saying something. The building rose in three connected towers, each with its own entrance. Surprisingly, this was one of the newly constructed buildings. Sitting as it did directly in the center of campus, the cafeteria¡¯s towers seemed to divide the campus into three. Considering that Primrose had mentioned they were in the NorthLeaf platoon, and there were only two other dorms, Myles suspected that this may have been intentional.

    While they had taken to calling the entire building the cafeteria, it was really just the ground floor that served that function. Myles wasn¡¯t sure what was in the rest of the building, but it was off-limits for students.

    As they grabbed their food, Mercy broke the silence with something that Myles had been pretty concerned about. ¡°So¡­I know we¡¯re supposed to have lessons on our discipline or whatever this afternoon, but they never told us what our disciplines are or where we¡¯re supposed to go right?¡±

    Silas grinned as he sat down at a table. ¡°They don¡¯t like giving us much advance notice, do they? How do you think they will tell us this time? Another note or maybe they¡¯ll send us on a scavenger hunt this time?¡±

    Most of the lunch went by with the group making progressively more farfetched guesses at how they were going to be told about their lessons.

    When they finally decided to leave the cafeteria, Myles saw something odd. As soon as they got outside, Myles noticed someone he knew, a surprise considering how few people he had met at the academy. It was Reah. Myles was certain because she wore what looked to be the same impossibly bland hoodie she had worn when they had traveled from Candis. Reah was walking alongside a man whose grey hair was in sharp contrast to his heavily muscled build. The man also had several fierce looking scars. Beyond that, Myles couldn¡¯t help but notice many of the faculty wandering past acting with a hint of deference towards him.

    Reah seemed to somehow feel Myles¡¯ gaze on her and glanced directly at him before quickly turning back. As soon as she had turned back, a tree seemed to rapidly burst from the ground directly behind her. It was no ordinary tree though, the trunk and limbs seemed to be made of pure darkness and flames leapt furiously from its branches. There was something else about it that Myles couldn¡¯t explain. The tree seemed somehow twisted as if it were actively rejecting the laws of nature. Myles shook his head to make sure he wasn¡¯t just seeing things, and by the time he looked up, the tree was gone and so was Reah.

    Myles felt that something was off about Reah. First, she had said that she was some kind of contractor for the academy, and now she was wandering around with what could only be an important member of the faculty with bizarre trees popping up behind her.

    Myles considered that the tree might have just been an illusion, after all, he had heard stories of some people using the aether space to conjure simple illusions. This seemed a little more real than anything he had ever heard about though. More concerningly, if Reah was an arcaner, that raised more questions since she wore no band around her right arm.

    As it turned out, every single one of their guesses had been wrong at lunch. Right before they entered NorthLeaf hall to check if a letter had been delivered to their room while they were gone, a metal pole suddenly shot out of the ground in front of them. The pole shot a letter out of one of the many slots that lined its length. The letter flew right at them. When it landed, the pole promptly retreated right back into the ground.

    Silas muttered as he leaned down to pick up the letter. ¡°Well, that was odd.¡±

    Myles ignored Silas as he ran over to where the pole had emerged. Myles knew with certainty that whatever that pole was, it was absolutely a result of aether engineering. Myles was only somewhat disappointed when he realized that all he was able to see was a metal hole with a covering over it. Myles reasoned that the device would have needed to first figure out that the letter¡¯s recipients were nearby then move several parts to get the pole to rise into position and fire the correct letter. Myles was certain that the device¡ªwhatever it was¡ªhad a larger purpose than just delivering them a single letter. Perhaps it was able to store large amounts of packages. Myles looked around, but he couldn¡¯t see anything that could be used to deposit a package into the device.

    Myles heard a voice from behind him. As he turned around, Mercy raised her voice even further. ¡°Did you hear Myles! You¡¯re going to be late. You and Jane need to go halfway across campus to get to your lesson. Seems they all start in 5 minutes.¡±

    Myles hurried after Jane who had been waiting for him. There was no need to ask what discipline he had been assigned to. He had only come here since he had been promised he would learn about aether engineering after all.

 Chapter 8

    Chapter 8

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles found himself in what was by far the most traditional lecture he had found since he had arrived at the academy. That wasn¡¯t saying too much though. Already tired from his sprint across campus, Myles was bent over and panting as he took in the room he had just stepped into. While there was a blackboard at one end of the room, that could also be said for every other wall.

    ¡°What are those?¡± Jane asked between her heavy breaths.

    It took Myles a moment to realize what she was talking about, but when he did, he nearly burst into laughter. The room was filled with aether forges similar to the one he had used to use at work. Myles found it ironic that he had noticed the blackboards before he had even acknowledged the huge forges.

    As Myles was explaining about aether forges to Jane, their attention was drawn to the large blackboard at the end of the room, and the man who stood by it, quietly writing his name. Professor Hazel it read.

    Myles¡¯ best description of Professor Hazel was that he appeared to be a gentleman in every way stereotypically possible. If Myles had walked into one of the more pretentious universities in Verith, this is the type of person he would have expected to see. The man wore finely tuned spectacles and held himself with such a sense of self-importance that Myles found himself envying the man¡¯s confidence.

    ¡°Ahem ahem.¡± Professor Hazel pushed his spectacles up with one finger. ¡°My name is Professor Hazel. I am an experienced academic with a wealth of experience teaching at the Gralence institute in Verith. You may have noticed the devices around you?¡± When several of the students nodded, confirming that they had indeed seen the enormous, unmissable aether forges, Professor Hazel continued with his introduction, pushing his spectacles up again. ¡°Those are devices called aether forges. Over the course of the next year, you will be sweating over them for half a day, every day, including today. If you understand then please grab your partner and go to one of the forges. There will be instructions for you there.¡±

    So much for a traditional lecture then. Jane grabbed Myles¡¯ arm and dragged him towards the nearest aether forge. Myles looked at it carefully and then nodded in approval. Not all of the forges in the room were the same. Some of the forges were new and had additional features installed into them. Others¡ªlike the forge they had claimed¡ªwere older. They lacked the extra bells and whistles that the newer forges had, but in Myles¡¯ opinion that was a good thing. All you really needed was the basics. Anything beyond a flame and an anvil was simply a distraction.

    The forge had been supplied with two tables and a blackboard. On one of the tables sat two books. The first was an instruction guide to the aether forge. Myles ignored that one¡ªhe didn¡¯t need it. The other book was far more interesting. It was a large volume with lettering on its cover declaring it to be the aether index. This was more interesting, but Myles set it aside as well. Beneath the second book was a simple note.

    There are two books left for you corresponding to the two sides of aether engineering. The first is the mundane. Knowing how to make objects that physically interact with each other is essential to engineering of any kind, and aether engineering is no exception. You should thoroughly familiarize yourself with how to operate an aether forge as it is an essential tool for performing the mundane aspect of aether engineering.

    The second side of aether engineering is the aether part. Every material in existence has two properties called mana capacity and mana flow. These properties are further specified for specific mana types. The second book, the aether index includes the values of these properties for all common materials as well as depictions of the runes that will guide the mana in these materials.

    Your task for the day is to create the simplest possible aether construct using the simplest known material. Create a pure mana storage construct using the first of the eight common metals, basium.

    Myles handed the note to Jane when he had finished reading it. Myles wasn¡¯t concerned about forging basium. There was no metal that he had worked with more, but the aether part had him concerned. Myles remembered how difficult it was to move his mana within his own aether space and shuddered to think of how difficult it would be to put it into a metal object.

    As Jane finished reading and looked up from the note, she asked Myles to help her with the aether forge. They agreed that it would be faster for him to teach her than for them to wait around until she finished the entire manual.

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    Myles walked over to the forge, feeling in his element. ¡°There are two main components to an aether forge.¡± Myles pointed to a lever on the side of the cylindrical forge. ¡°The heat is controlled by this lever. The heat you use depends heavily on the metal that you¡¯re working with. You use the opening here to heat the metal.¡± Myles moved to the front of the forge where there was a protrusion in the shape of an anvil. ¡°Once the metal is hot enough, you use a hammer to hit it into the right shape on this.¡±

    Jane nodded. ¡°Do you have any idea how the aether part of it works?¡±

    Myles shook his head as he walked over to where he had set the aether index down. ¡°This is probably the key to that.¡±

    The two of them looked through the book for a while before they found the basic information they needed. The book was broken up into two sections. One of the sections discussed various materials and their aether properties and the other discussed runes and how to implement them by carving them into the materials.

    Myles wasn¡¯t entirely clear on what the runes did, but they decided to flip to the properties of Basium anyway.

    Myles had heard of the eight basic metals before. The term referred to the eight metals that could be easily obtained from the natural materials in the province. It was actually a rare occasion when someone in his old job shop had the opportunity to work with any metals outside of those eight.

    Unfortunately, Myles was clueless as to what mana capacity and mana flow might indicate. It didn¡¯t help that the numbers given to the properties had been given no units either. The mana type ratios were even more confusing, but they probably weren¡¯t as big of a deal since Myles only had access to pure mana anyway.

    ¡°What do say we backtrack and read the introduction?¡±

    Myles decided to give in. He was eager to jump into things, but it was clear that he would need to get his bearings first.

    It was Jane who figured out the mystery to the mana capacity and flow. As it turned out, the capacity and flow properties determined how mana was stored and moved in an object. Myles had already guessed at that, but the real revelation was the units used. It seemed that instead of using an actual unit, the properties were using efficacy growth delimiters.

    Myles would have liked to claim that he knew exactly what that meant, but Jane had to explain it to him. Apparently, there was no true limit to either the capacity or flow of mana through any given material. That said, some materials were better suited to holding mana while others were better suited to transferring it.

    There was a chart that showed how the whole thing worked. Myles looked back at the capacity value for basium and noted that it was stated as 100. Taking that into account, the first efficacy delimiter was set at 100 units of mana. Before that point, the metal was perfectly efficient at holding the mana. After 100 units were stored in it though, some efficiency was lost such that when additional mana was added, most but not all mana would be stored in the metal.

    The odd thing was that while the efficiency decreased at a constant rate over the delimitations, the value of each delimiter seemed to increase exponentially. Neither Myles nor Jane could figure out the pattern that was at play though. There was clearly a function that was at work behind the scenes, but it was difficult to figure out how it worked, and it didn¡¯t seem to be anywhere in the book either.

    After they were done pondering the table, Jane looked over the book. ¡°So¡­we should be alright to begin right?¡±

    ¡°I think so, I¡¯m not too confident about this whole delimiter thing, but unless you did a lot better in class earlier than I did, we don¡¯t even have 100 mana in between the two of us.¡± Myles tapped the book. ¡°We didn¡¯t see any details about the whole mana type ratio thing, but considering the values are set to 1 for pure mana, I think its safe to say that the default would work here.¡±

    Jane nodded along. ¡°I¡¯m more concerned about how we add mana to the metal. Theory is all well and good, but it won¡¯t matter if we can¡¯t add any mana.¡± Jane looked thoughtful for a second. ¡°I actually had trouble keeping track of how much mana I gained earlier, but I think I only ended up at about five or six units of mana.¡±

    Myles grinned. ¡°I think I¡¯m somewhere close to that too. Would the method to add mana to the metal have to do with runes? I know the book mentioned that runes are what govern the mana in the metal.¡±

    Jane began flipping through the index to find basic runes. They quickly found a storage rune that seemed simple enough. The book advised that it was easier to use the rune if the metal was actually forged into that shape, but it could be simply carved into the metal to get the same effect although it would require more adept mana manipulation to interact with.

    The two of them decided to smith the basium they had been provided with into the rune. Neither of them was exactly confident in their ability to manipulate mana yet. Jane volunteered to do the smithing work herself to get some practice. Myles agreed. He figured that they would probably be working together for a while and it was best to get Jane up to speed with smithing sooner rather than later.

    Even with Myles¡¯ guidance, the process took way longer than if Myles had just done it himself. Nevertheless, they were both satisfied with their product, and looking around the room, they seemed to be significantly further ahead than many of the other groups. Myles smiled to himself. It seemed that his hard work at the job shop had paid off.

    When they had finished, and the metal had cooled down, they set it on their workstation and began discussing. Myles was nervous about whether their mana might interact if they both put mana into the same object, so he eventually decided to quickly make a second metal rune so they could both try.

    A few minutes later, the two of them held their hands over their respective runes. The book had claimed that there would be little to do, but Myles was still nervous. Glancing over, Myles saw that Jane seemed to be just as nervous as he was. ¡°On three?¡±

    Jane nodded and they started to count down together.

    ¡°Three¡±

    ¡°Two¡±

    ¡°One¡±

    Myles put his hand on his rune as Jane did the same. Just as the book had told him to do, Myles closed his eyes and focused on the mana well in his aether-space. This time when he saw that pinprick of light, he felt that he could move it in an entirely different direction. It was a difficult sensation to explain. It felt like a direction that shouldn¡¯t exist. It wasn¡¯t up, down, left, or right, but something else entirely.

    Myles focused on that direction and pushed his mana. Instantly, he felt all his mana leave him. An instant after that happened, an odd sensation came from his hand and he jerked it away from the metal. A second later, Myles put his hand back on it and felt nothing, but he somehow knew that it had worked. He had imbued the metal with his mana. Granted, the metal was only storing his mana, it couldn¡¯t actually do anything with it, but it was still a first step.

    When Myles looked over, he found Jane beaming excitedly back at him. It was a good feeling. Myles had wanted to become an aether engineer for a long time, and now he had finally started.

 Chapter 9

    Chapter 9

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    After they had gotten Professor Hazel¡¯s approval, Myles and Jane left the lesson, still giddy with excitement from succeeding. It was early yet. The lesson was intended to continue for a few more hours. Regardless, the pair decided to head back to their dorms.

    In the morning, they had been assigned the task of setting aside a few hours for delving. Professor Hazel had added to that with an assignment for them to figure out how the batteries they made could be usefully applied in a real-world scenario.

    When they finally got back to their room, a young man who Myles suspected was maybe a year or two older than them stood leaning against their door. The man was in a nice outfit that while seeming expensive, was clearly designed for practical use.

    ¡°It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡± The young man gave a slight bow. ¡°My name is Joshua Maston, the third son of Baron Maston.¡±

    Myles wasn¡¯t exactly familiar with nobles as the title meant little in Verith, but he knew that Baron Maston was the noble in charge of the town, and that probably meant his son expected some form of formal greeting. Unfortunately, Myles didn¡¯t know what that greeting might be anymore than he knew what the noble wanted with them.

    Myles bowed awkwardly and introduced himself. To his relief, Jane seemed even more awkward than him, stammering over her words as she introduced herself. Myles had almost forgotten how shy she was. After spending a few days together, she seemed to act normally enough when around the people in their dorm.

    The young noble seemed to pick up on their unease from their slapped together greetings. ¡°No need to be formal. I actually came to speak with you two in part because you would be less likely to act formally around me than other students.¡± Joshua scratched his head briefly as though considering something. ¡°I have become somewhat curious about this new academy and the implications it may have for this town. How much do you know about Maston Academy?¡±

    Myles shook his head. If he was entirely honest, he knew very little. Everything about the academy seemed odd. ¡°They haven¡¯t shared much with us.¡±

    Joshua nodded sagely. ¡°My father and older brothers are only interested in the economic and political benefits that having the academy here will bring them.¡± He looked down in disgust. ¡°They only seem interested in gaining favor with the powerful people who set this up. I¡¯m interested in trying to understand why they created an academy where all the instructors are such significant individuals.¡±

    ¡°Significant individuals?¡±

    ¡°Your instructor this morning, Primrose Tomkin, is called the White Tiger in some circles. She was part of a mercenary force that single-handedly turned the tide in the war. Professor Hazel, your aether engineering instructor, has been recognized as the greatest aether engineer in the province by many top engineers despite refusing to do anything but teach. It¡¯s not just them either. Nearly every member of the faculty is a major player in the province.¡±

    Jane shook her head in confusion, intrigued enough to contribute to the conversation. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be happy that so much talent is in Maston now?¡±

    Joshua looked around briefly, seeming to be using more than just his eyes. As he did, Myles felt a slight disturbance in the air emanating from him. ¡°Perhaps I would be if they weren¡¯t all eccentrics with their own questionable motives. Also, from what I can tell from the paperwork I could find, the academy is split into three distinct curriculums that each seem to represent the three major factions in the province.  I find that split to be particularly disturbing.¡±

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    Joshua suddenly seemed to react to something unseen. ¡°I have to go.¡± He handed Myles a card with an address written on it. ¡°This is where you can find me if you need me. Please reach out if you notice anything out of place.¡±

    As Joshua walked away, Myles called after him. ¡°What did you mean about three factions?¡±

    Joshua looked over his shoulder. ¡°Ask your roommates. They should know about it since they¡¯re studying politics.¡±

    As Joshua rounded a corner, Jane led the way into their rooms. They were both somewhat concerned about what Joshua had said, but they decided that worrying about it wouldn¡¯t do much good. They would talk to Silas and Mercy who were apparently studying socio-political interpretation. Myles could guess enough from that description to understand that they would be studying politics to some degree.

    If Joshua claimed they would know about the three factions he had mentioned, Myles was inclined to believe him. He seemed to know more about the academy than any of the students did.

    In the meantime, their classes had given them quite a bit to work on. Jane studied the book on aether forge operation closely, vouching to catch up her forging skills quickly, while Myles looked through the aether index for possible uses for battery constructs.

    The study session was made rather lively because of the sense of excitement that hadn¡¯t really worn off from that afternoon. They each regularly stopped the other to ask questions.

    After about an hour of study, nobody else had made it back to the room. Myles decided to take a quick break. He had looked over dozens of different runes that were labeled to be compatible with pure mana. Most of them seemed fiendishly complex both in construction and in imbuing mana. As it turned out, each rune required a unique method of mana manipulation so as to avoid what the aether index referred to as catastrophic consequences.

    As Myles was grabbing a glass of water, courtesy of a construct in their kitchen area which Myles had already studied, Jane walked up. ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering. Why did you decide to come here?¡± She looked somewhat mortified for a second before continuing in a quieter voice. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, of course.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to be an aether engineer, but I never thought I would get the chance. I¡¯m not all that keen on the military part, but it¡¯s worth it.¡±

    Jane raised her eyebrows. ¡°You knew you were going to be an aether engineer before you came here?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Did you not?¡±

    ¡°No.

    ¡°Why did you come then? Did you want to join the military?¡±

    Jane looked thoughtful for a second. ¡°Both of my parents went that route once, and I have some respect for that, so that was probably part of it.¡± Jane shook her head. ¡°Although even if that wasn¡¯t the case, I probably would have taken the offer anyway. I come from a small town, and my family struggled to keep everyone fed. We ran a woodworker shop. My Dad was skilled, but not many people were willing to come to our shop. I didn¡¯t really know any details about the academy, but when I got an offer, I jumped at the chance. It looks like I got lucky. The school actually seems to be legitimate. I wasn¡¯t really expecting much.¡±

    Just as Myles was about to reply, the door opened, and Kate and Seth walked in. Seth gave them a polite albeit stiff nod before heading straight to his room. Kate walked over as though she would join them, but she noticed Jane¡¯s hostile glare and fled to her room too. They had both been carrying what looked to be a huge pile of books.

    Jane clearly wasn¡¯t about to forgive Kate for her comments earlier. Myles had a theory on why that was too. To him, the stares he had gotten from wearing a yellow band had always been little more than an annoyance. For Jane though, Myles suspected it had been more dramatic. She had lived in a small village and her family¡¯s shop had done well until her father had returned from the army. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if the reason her family had difficulty getting customers was because of the bands they wore, marking them as dangerous to the world.

    Myles went back to his studying. He wanted to talk with Jane eventually, but he didn¡¯t know her that well. She had most likely only told him what she had because she had been excited over how well things were going.

    By the time Silas and Mercy walked in, hours after even Seth and Kate, Myles and Jane had come up with a few theories about how their batteries could be used for something practical. They were still somewhat shaky, but they had ironed them out enough that they at least sounded impressive. Most of them revolved around creating a device with moving parts so that multiple batteries could be used. They had gone down a few tangents from that idea, exploring how the same idea might be able to store more mana, change mana types on the fly, or do both at the same time.

    Their lively discussion reached an abrupt end when Silas and Mercy entered though. Myles had come to know the two of them to be the liveliest of the group, but right now they looked exhausted¡ªno, that wasn¡¯t right. It was more like they were in shock. Compared to Seth and Kate, their pile of books was much smaller, but the looks on their faces were alarming.

    Myles thought back to what Joshua had said earlier and followed Silas into his room. He caught sight of Jane doing the same with Mercy. No surprises there, those two had already grown close. Myles was more concerned about what Joshua had said now than ever. If the knowledge he had withheld from them had shaken Silas and Mercy this badly, what was the academy truly up to?

 Chapter 10

    Chapter 10

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    ¡°When I left home to come here, my Dad told me to be careful. He told me that if I left, I would find an ugly world, but I didn¡¯t think I would start seeing its scope on day one.¡± Silas collapsed on his bed. His face was slightly pale, but he seemed better than he had when he had walked into the apartment a moment ago.

    Myles took a seat beside Silas. Just like everyone else here, Myles had only just met him. That said, Silas had been the person he had connected with the most. Leading up to classes, he had provided friendly conversation and just that morning, he had helped Myles as he struggled with his first delving session. If Silas wanted to share whatever he had learned, Myles was all ears.

    When it was clear that Myles was staying, Silas jumped into an explanation. ¡°How much do you know about the Rork province¡¯s government?¡±

    ¡°Not much, in Verith, it was the most influential businesses that made the decisions. There was a committee of representatives called the conglomerate of faces. They handled all of the day-to-day laws and such.¡±

    Silas looked at Myles. ¡°I think I already told you this, but the town I grew up in was relatively close to Rord, the supposed capital of the province. In that area, there is a strict hierarchy of nobles that govern the people.¡±

    ¡°What does that mean exactly?¡±

    ¡°How do you suppose the three major cities of the province interacted with each other before the railroads that connected them were built six years ago?¡±

    ¡°I suppose people had to walk between them.¡±

    A frown settled over Silas¡¯ face. ¡°Actually, they didn¡¯t even do much of that. There was the occasional caravan between Rord and Candis, protected by hired shikari, but even those were rare. Back then, none of the military bases along the railroads, the same bases that keep the most dangerous monsters from entering the heart of the province, existed. It was an even more dangerous journey back then.¡±

    Myles remembered the mystery the odd noble, Joshua, had left him and Jane with a few hours earlier. ¡°Does this happen to have anything to do with the three factions in the province?¡±

    Silas looked up in confusion. ¡°Where did you hear that from?¡±

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    Myles explained about the encounter with Joshua.

    After he finished listening and generally stressing about how Myles had already met a noble from the town¡¯s governing family, Silas shook his head. ¡°I still don¡¯t quite understand. We were told that the province was split into two factions: the nobles from Rord and Candis, and Verith¡¯s Conglomerate of Faces. Six years ago, they worked together to fight a war against a group of other provinces who aimed to destroy the existing railways and the means to create more. Despite that, the province is still at the brink of a civil war between the two factions. There was no mention of any third faction.¡± Silas paused for a moment. ¡°Actually, Instructor Habe was very specific that there were only two factions.¡±

    Somehow, Myles doubted that the Instructor Habe Silas mentioned was a different person from the one who had unleashed monsters on him as a test. Myles was starting to understand why Silas and Mercy were looking so pale. It was hard to imagine that man using normal teaching methods.

    After talking for a little longer, Silas promised he would bring up the question of a third faction the next day. In the meantime, they both decided to keep their eyes open to the differences they could find between the other two curriculums and theirs.

    Myles returned to his room and began the assignment he had been most nervous about, delving. Primrose had told them they needed to form a habit of delving for a few hours every day so that their mana wells could grow at a sufficient rate.

    Sitting down on his bed, Myles once again visualized his aether space. That morning, he had borrowed Silas¡¯ technique for envisioning the mana as water, but that still felt extremely awkward and not just because it was new to him. It felt somehow off.

    Myles thought back to something he had seen in the aether index. There had been six mana types that were mentioned frequently. For each material, they were the types that had stated mana ratios. Myles opened his eyes again to check the entry for Basium.

    Just as he remembered. Pure mana was self-explanatory and not all that useful for him right now. The others were more interesting though. If he considered water as a fluid, then his technique from earlier had relied on visualizing a fluid to make it easier to interpret the formless pure mana. Myles suspected that he would be able to accomplish the same thing with other mana types.

    Myles decided to go down the list. Surprisingly, Myles found that it was a little easier to use force than water as his visualization, but it still felt awkward. It was an odd sensation to visualize force as a substance, but it was easy to move in his aether space. Myles decided to move on.

    Using energy as his visualization was even easier than force. He was able to move it just as fast while avoiding the odd sensation of moving something that shouldn¡¯t have form. Myles decided to make a note of that one before moving on.

    Earth was the worst one yet. It was extremely easy to visualize as having form, but Myles didn¡¯t even know where to start when he tried moving it around.

    Myles skipped over fluid since it sounded similar to water. The last mana type was air. Moving his pure mana while visualizing it as air was easy although somewhat hard to visualize. The real problem was that Myles couldn¡¯t seem to create any kind of impact with air. He figured he would have a lot of difficulty making any progress on eroding the sides of his well away with that.

    Myles settled down fully into the trance this time. He used his energy visualization. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it was a lot more comfortable than the water visualization was.

    Myles spent two more hours like that, slowly grinding away at the walls of his aether well. The energy he envisioned was a pure sort of energy. It gently pulsed against the walls. Myles gradually moved the focus of the energy around the walls of his well and then to the bottom where he slowly ground away, widening, and deepening his aether well.

    The process was painstakingly slow and constantly required focus. After two hours though, Myles felt like he had made much more progress. If he had to guess, Myles would say he had somewhere around 15 mana now. It was extremely hard to tell when his only reference was what he had seen when he had first gained mana though.

    That raised another question. The aether index was extremely specific in the number of mana units that would need to be supplied to achieve an effect. Some runes he had run across had demanded a multiple of a certain amount of mana, and the materials had specific mana point thresholds that needed to be kept in mind.

    Myles decided he would bring up the question to Primrose during their mana training session the next morning.

 Chapter 11

    Chapter 11

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    On the second day, classes quickly pushed all other thoughts from Myles¡¯ mind. In her morning combat training session, Primrose surprised them all by introducing them to evocation, one of the basic techniques that any arcaner could use.

    Evocation was just as difficult for Myles as delving had been initially. Unfortunately, Silas couldn¡¯t give Myles a shortcut here. Evocation required pulling pure mana directly from one¡¯s aether well out into the real world. After nearly an hour of instruction, one of Primrose¡¯s constantly changing analogies finally clicked and Myles remembered what he had done while imbuing the rune with mana.

    Myles tried reaching for that inexplicable direction again. He visualized his mana as energy then tried to move it there. After repeating the same thing several times in different directions, Myles finally felt the familiar sensation of an impossible direction opening up and he used that sensation to move his mana out of his body.

    Myles could barely see the effect of his evocation floating as a blur in the air and it wasn¡¯t even able to resist a nudge from his finger, but it was there. Myles had evoked pure mana!

    Primrose gave little time for Myles to celebrate, quickly giving Myles a set of exercises to perform. The exercises were the same as the first day, he had to perform the first four steps of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist. Primrose wasn¡¯t one to give easy assignments though, Myles was supposed to use evocation in specific ways to cover any openings and generally improve his defenses while going through the steps.

    By the time they transitioned into Primrose¡¯s aether usage class, Myles was completely exhausted. Just like the day before, they spent the entire class delving, but it soon became clear that simply delving in class was not nearly enough.

    Primrose walked around eyeing each of their expressions to make sure they were focused. ¡°Aether well size is the most important way you can improve in the early stages of being an arcaner. By the time you all leave for your first mission, I want you to have hundreds of mana points in your wells.¡± Primrose stopped in front of each of them and gave them a pile of aurik leaves. ¡°Eat these while you¡¯re delving. They won¡¯t have much impact, but every little bit helps.¡±

    By the time they had finished, Myles felt like he had accomplished something. The improvements in his delving process he had made combined with the supply of roots brought his aether well¡¯s capacity to somewhere between 29 and 31 units of mana. That reminded Myles that he wanted to ask how he could measure mana precisely.

    Primrose turned; left eyebrow raised as Myles made his way over. He was struck once again by how strongly she was attuned to her surroundings. He remembered what that young noble had called her¡ªthe white tiger¡ªMyles wasn¡¯t sure where that moniker came from, but he couldn¡¯t help but feel that there was more to her than a humble military instructor.

    ¡°Was there something I can help you with?¡± Primrose raised her teacup to her lips.

    Myles had initially thought that the tea was just something to be used as a demonstration, but she had a cup by her side every time he had seen her since.

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    ¡°Aurik leaf tea,¡± Primrose explained as she saw his gaze. ¡°Even I will take every bit of extra mana I can get.¡±

    Myles nodded. She was certainly committed to those leaves if nothing else. ¡°You said that each leaf has exactly one unit of mana in it right?¡±

    Primrose frowned. ¡°Not exactly. The aurik leaves don¡¯t have any mana in them, but something in their composition targets the membrane of the aether space. The leaves¡­erode what we refer to as one unit of mana from your aether membrane which allows for one more unit of mana to flow into the space left behind.¡±

    That made sense. If Myles thought about the leaves as something of an automatic form of delving, that meant they had some kind of¡­energy in them that wore away the aether space, but it didn¡¯t explain how he could measure the mana he was evoking. ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering, is there any way to accurately measure units of mana?¡±

    Primrose looked conflicted for a moment. She took a few more sips of tea as she considered. ¡°There are actually several methods to do exactly what you ask, but they all require aspects of the aether space that we will not cover until next month.¡± She set her tea down carefully on the ground. The bottom of the cup sizzled as she set it down. It seemed like it was just as hot as it had been on that first day. ¡°It would be unwise of you to try any of these methods before you are ready. It is easier than you may think to deal permanent damage to your aether space.¡±

    Myles decided he would have to postpone those thoughts for now. As a blacksmith, Myles had quickly learned that you had to be forceful sometimes to learn advanced techniques. If this was the job shop, he was used to, he would have found a way to learn the secret, but this wasn¡¯t a job shop, so, he would wait¡­for now.

    Myles met up with Silas, Mercy, and Jane for lunch. They spent some time exchanging tips and notes about their classes. The others, and Jane in particular, were interested in hearing about his conversation with Primrose.

    After lunch, Myles and Jane went to their aether engineering class. This time they did not get out of the class early.

    Professor Hazel seemed like he was somehow able to watch over everyone at once and managed to have each group working on something entirely different.

    Myles and Jane were challenged to work on one of the theories they had come up with to make their batteries useful. Professor Hazel had smiled when they had mentioned creating a device that could use fresh batteries for sustained high mana actions.

    They quickly found out that was his show of approving a new project. If he didn¡¯t approve of an idea he wouldn¡¯t react, but if he smiled, you could expect him to be back in five minutes asking about your project again.

    Myles had no idea how the man could seemingly be wherever he needed to be at any given time, but he was grateful for it. It meant that their project grew far faster than they could have hoped otherwise. He refused to give them any answers, instead, he would point them to their aether index, before giving them a quick lecture on something completely unrelated to their current project.

    For example, as they were trying and largely failing to match up a series of activation runes to initiate a transfer of mana into their contraption, Professor Hazel had pointed out the index¡¯s entry on ray-crystals, describing their many uses with mana batteries for energy type mana.

    Myles got excited for a bit about their potential. He was especially interested in their unique physical properties¡ªhe had never been trusted to smith a ray-crystal part¡ªnobody at his old job shop had.  The topic was interesting, but then Myles realized that they did not have access to either energy type mana or ray-crystals. Still, Jane had somehow managed to latch onto one key element of the mini lecture where the professor had mentioned a few activation runes and their potential structure.

    By the time the day was over they had managed to accomplish very little beyond creating a few odds and ends meant for designs they had long since discarded.

    The rest of the first week passed in much the same routine. Drills on the first four steps of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist made the group more and more exhausted each day. For all their effort, they had only very rarely received Primrose¡¯s approval for even a single move.

    Once they finished with the combat training they moved on to more delving. They may have complained about the long hours spent sitting still and focusing all their energy inward, but they were too tired for that.

    After a short break for lunch, Myles and Jane continued working on their project under Professor Hazel¡¯s constant gaze. Myles was frustrated that they hadn¡¯t been able to produce a functional prototype yet. He was beginning to realize just how challenging aether engineering could truly be.

    For her part, Jane had proven to be a much bigger asset than Myles had originally imagined. She was able to quickly take up the smithing part of the job, and she even proved to have a much more skilled hand when it came to inscribing runes into the forged metal.  She claimed that the skill was similar to carving wood, something she had learned from her father. Myles was skeptical about that, but he was happy for her talent. If a rune was even slightly off, it would fail to function, and they would have to start from scratch again.

 Chapter 12

    Chapter 12

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Sweat dripped down Myles¡¯ forehead as he shifted into the third step of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist. The iron turtle was a deceptively difficult move to pull off. The physical effort and motions were simple enough, but in order to get any use out of it, it required evoking a massive amount of mana.

    Myles stayed in the form for only an instant, blocking the cudgel that Kate swung at him before he smoothly pivoted into the first step, delivering a palm thrust into Kate¡¯s sternum. Despite being off balance, Kate took the blow well, evoking just enough pure mana to avoid any damage. Still, she fell into the sand they fought in, groaning in annoyance.

    She pushed herself up slowly. ¡°Your turn now.¡± Kate tossed the cudgel over.

    Over the past few weeks, their morning combat trainings had evolved from practicing the four steps to actually sparring. Now, they were practicing against weapons. Primrose had insisted they needed to be prepared to fight just about anything. If she had her way, she probably would have brought whole packs of monsters in to fight them, but instead, she had settled for a backpack that was overflowing with weapons.

    The variety had been even more frightening than the quantity. The cudgel was on the tame side. Next to Myles, Silas was sparring with Seth who awkwardly wielded what looked like a halberd except there were blunted blades on both ends, a point that proved quite challenging for Seth. Past them, Mercy defended against Jane who was wielding a chain whip with far more skill than Myles would have expected.

    Oddly enough, the wielder of the weapon was losing more times than not. Myles picked up the cudgel with resignation. Despite Primrose insisting that they needed to swap partners constantly so as not to get used to any one person¡¯s tendencies, Myles had frequently ended up as Kate¡¯s partner. Silas, Jane, and even Mercy had yet to forgive Kate for her comment on their first day, even nearly a month later.

    Jane was by far the angriest. Myles had grown increasingly confident that she had been impacted a lot more than Myles by being a yellow band though he hadn¡¯t worked up the courage to ask exactly how. Silas and Mercy were mostly angry by extension. Neither of them had ever wore yellow bands¡ªtheir parents weren¡¯t arcaners¡ªbut they both took offense that Kate had never thought to so much as apologize for what she had said. For his part, Myles had never been all that offended. The comment had been more than a little offensive, implying as it had that his father had disobeyed laws to teach him to use the aether space, but he simply took it in stride.

    All of that meant that Myles was more than aware of how he stacked up to Kate in combat. The bruises he bore spoke of how much more skilled she was.

    Myles gripped the cudgel firmly, not knowing how to properly wield a cudgel, he adopted a grip he was used to using for a smithing hammer and charged. Kate was gone before Myles even got close. That was the difference between them though. Kate was fast, faster than anyone Myles had ever met¡ªwell aside from Primrose, but Myles suspected there was more to that than simple natural ability.

    Myles jumped back, dodging a falling javelin, the fourth step they had learned. Myles made to swing the cudgel, but Kate had already dropped under the blow, naturally transitioning into the second step, a brutal leg sweep that she delivered with enough force to not only sweep his legs out from under him, but to deal some serious damage to the legs if she hit them unprotected. It spoke to how brutal the last month of training was that Kate fully expected him to be able to react and defend himself by evoking mana at the point of impact.

    Myles¡¯ aether well had grown large enough that he actually could have stopped the kick in place with only evoked mana if he really wanted but evoking that much mana that quickly would be very inefficient and they were nearly done with combat training. Myles decided to take the loss now rather than trying to delve with next to no mana in his aether well.

    Myles had learned the hard way that the less mana you had, the harder it was to delve. Myles much preferred taking a few small blows to spending the rest of the day with a splitting headache from the concentration needed to delve with a nearly empty aether well.

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    After a few more rounds of back and forth, Primrose announced the end to the combat training, but to their surprise, she didn¡¯t instruct them to start delving. Instead, she gently settled down on the ground with her usual cup of tea, calling for everyone to gather around her.

    ¡°Your first month of training is now over.¡± Primrose pulled out a folder from behind her. ¡°Now its time to test what you have learned.¡±

    The six of them leaned forward, hanging onto every word. They had been waiting for this moment with dread. Primrose had made no mention of their monthly tests since that first day. Because of that, Myles had been hopeful that they would get out of it for the first month. It seemed that was hopeless now.

    ¡°Platoon seven, squad 13.¡±

    Mercy, Jane, and Seth all looked at Primrose nervously.

    ¡°You are hereby tasked with aiding the town of Laxtooth. The Candis river has been polluted with disease just upstream from them. It is suspected that a plaugutoise has settled into the river.¡± Primrose sipped her tea evenly. ¡°You are to find it and hunt it down, making the river water pure again.¡±

    Seth¡¯s face had gone pale with the mention of the plaugutoise. Myles knew that he and Kate had been intensely studying up on local monsters. The look certainly did not help with the butterflies going through his stomach.

    Primrose continued without pause for them to digest the information she had just given out. ¡°Platoon seven, squad fourteen.¡±

    Myles looked at Silas nervously. Silas returned the look before turning back towards Primrose. Myles looked over at Kate too, but she was focused completely as if missing even one word could lead to her death.

    ¡°The village of Severence requests urgent aid. Their flocks have taken heavy casualties. The monster responsible strikes by night, leaving slaughtered sheep behind in droves. You are to track down this unknown monster and slay it.¡±

    Myles moved to ask a question, but Primrose put her palm out and shook her head, cutting off a stream of questions from all six of them.

    ¡°That is all of the information I can give you regarding your assignments. You are responsible for arranging for travel and purchasing supplies for yourselves. The academy will give you credit for up to 25 gald in expenditures.¡± Primrose gave Mercy a glare when she tried to ask a question. ¡°You have the rest of the day to prepare. Your assignments begin tomorrow and will last the three additional days until the end of the month.¡±

    All further questions were left unanswered, so, soon after, Myles found himself walking through Maston¡¯s market with Silas and Kate.

    He had been so busy the last month that this was the first time Myles had been in the town since he had arrived. Stepping out of the academy and into the streets was jarring. Where the academy had a mix of old brick buildings and newly built ones, all built on large greens, the town was far less grandiose. The buildings had no gaps between them, effectively serving as additional defensive walls.

    It made sense then that the nicest areas were in the innermost areas of the town. The main market was no exception, located directly in the center of everything, it wrapped around the noble manor where according to Silas, every important government operation took place.

    As they walked through the market, Silas told them what he knew about the village of Severence, noticeably avoiding looking at Kate who walked alongside him. ¡°As I recall, Severence is one of the many villages that supports Candis. I don¡¯t really know a whole lot about Severence in particular, but most of those villages are spread over a large area. They need the space to grow food and raise cattle, but it also means they rarely have any form of protective wall.¡±

    ¡°How do they deal with monsters then?¡±

    Silas shrugged slightly. ¡°It depends on the village. Some of them are important enough to warrant giving them protections from soldiers, others are forced to hire on shikari or retired soldiers.¡±

    Kate spoke up, surprising Myles a little. ¡°They still have to rely on good healers though. If every farmer who got mauled by a monster died, the village wouldn¡¯t have anyone left.¡±

    Silas frowned at Kate, clearly annoyed by how blunt she had been. ¡°Admittedly, healers are usually held in high esteem in places like that. Their services are certainly in high demand.¡±

    As they were talking about healers, Myles noticed they were walking past an apothecary. ¡°Think we should take that as a cue to grab ourselves some medical supplies?¡±

    ¡°That would probably be a good idea.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you out here.¡±

    Myles turned around to find Kate with her back turned, looking everywhere but the store. Silas ignored her and kept walking, but Myles couldn¡¯t help but notice that it almost seemed like she was shaking. That seemed odd. ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    Kate looked back at him with what looked distinctly like a pained grimace. ¡°I¡¯ll go gather food supplies. We should get back as quickly as possible. I want to use tonight to strategize. I have a few ideas on what we might be up against.¡±

    Myles agreed quickly before heading after Silas who hadn¡¯t made much progress. There was a family arguing at the counter. It looked like they didn¡¯t have the money to pay for the supplies they needed. The father looked pale, and Myles noticed his shirt was stained red with blood slowly seeping out from what must have been a bad wound.

    A woman at the counter wrung her hands, pleading. ¡°Please! We¡¯re only five gald short. My husband was jumped by some monster that leapt over the wall. He needs help!¡±

    The man behind the counter sighed, clutching his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry ma¡¯am if it were another month, I¡¯d tell you its on the house, but I¡¯ll lose the shop if I don¡¯t make money right now. These supplies have been getting more and more expensive to get.¡±

    Silas looked at Myles slowly as he walked up. Then came up to him, whispering. ¡°We already determined that food and travel bags would cost us 20 gald, right?¡±

    ¡°Are you thinking¡­¡±

    Silas nodded quietly. ¡°Only if you agree though. We might very well need those supplies soon too.¡±

    Myles shook his head. He remembered how he had felt as his mother was sick and dying, and how much it had meant to him when his dad¡¯s old co-workers¡ªthe ones he had before he joined the war effort¡ªhad pitched in to pay for her care. In the end it was a simple choice. ¡°We¡¯re not hurt yet, he is.¡±

    Silas nodded and stepped forward. They were thanked profusely before the family rushed out of the store, holding on to their precious supplies.

    They found Kate waiting for them at the market¡¯s exit. ¡°Did you get the medical supplies?¡±

    Silas and Myles gave each other guilty looks before Myles explained to her what happened. Kate just nodded before turning around and heading in the direction of their dorms.

    Myles followed uncertain. ¡°Are you¡­mad?¡±

    ¡°No. If I do my job right, none of us will get hurt.¡±

 Chapter 13

    Chapter 13

    The Grand Cathedral

    700 Miles from Maston in the Heart of the Triton Province

    A great slab of solid marble stretched uninterrupted across an otherwise barren land. The slab seemed to have taken command of the world around it. Monsters that roamed the lands beyond it turned away despite sensing a gathering of humans. Where the cracked land around them had fallen apart, plunging ancient homes to the depths, the land faithfully remained intact beneath the great marble slab, not daring to let it fall.

    The slab was perfectly flat, perfectly empty, except for one building at its very center. A great cathedral with buttresses that soared towards the sky, but despite its majesty, it paled in comparison to what lay within. A great figure, itself encased in marble stood nearly tall enough to reach the rafters.

    Standing in front of the figure, a man spread his arms wide as he opened himself up to the guidance of the titan. ¡°The will of the titan remains unfazed.¡± The man spread his sense to the audience before him. He didn¡¯t bother moving his eyes. His connection to the building allowed him to feel the slight tremors they made by shifting about in their seats. ¡°I ask if your faith remains unfazed as well.¡±

    A cry arose from the building, moving the hearts of all present except for one, a young apprentice that made his way along a third-floor balcony. Countless other boys just like him walked among the faithful, handing out chips of marble. Rites they were called, commandments from the titan itself.

    There was one rite in particular that was consuming all of the apprentice¡¯s attention. All of the rites had a fragment of the titan¡¯s will. It allowed them to give the rite to an appropriate member of the faithful gathering. This particular chip though contained more than a whisper of will. It was practically blinding the apprentice with its strength.

    Guiding the apprentice so strongly, it didn¡¯t take long for the chip to make its way to an unassuming man dressed in the traditional garb of a pilgrim. The man silently took the rite from the apprentice¡¯s shaking hands and read its inscription silently.

    Kill number 14 and return to me that which he has stolen.

    The man¡¯s face remained passive as he tucked the rite deeply inside his robes and returned his attention to the service.

    Much later, a man in garb that spoke of an entirely different set of interests than those of a pilgrim made his way across the cracked earth, pondering the marble chip that weighed down his pocket. To him, the chip was as much weapon as it was an order.

    The man was glad to have the weapon for insurance. Going against one of the organization¡¯s enforcers was always a risky prospect. Enforcer number 14, the Ivory Force. It would be a challenge to track him down seeing as nobody knew his true identity. Still, it was common knowledge that the Ivory Force lived somewhere in the Rord province. The man seemed to recall one of his associates mentioning something about several rumored sightings in the Candis East district.

    There was something else to deal with first though. The man looked out across the marble slab where a figure slowly but unerringly walked directly at him. Weapons were strictly prohibited on the great marble slab, holy land that it was. Even the mercenary had left his weapons elsewhere. Doing otherwise would be a death sentence. Despite that though, the approaching figure brazenly held out a great halberd.

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    The mercenary had no doubt as to the man¡¯s intentions and began pulling earth mana from one of his deepest aether wells. The mana traveled in a current through his aether space before reaching a particularly complex looking set of interconnected channels. As the mana was shaped into place within the technique, the mercenary emitted the result. A blade of stone slid seamlessly into his hand. The mercenary was never unarmed.

    As soon as the sword finished forming, the two men rushed at each other, both hoping to end the fight quickly. The mercenary gushed force mana from another of his aether wells. It was one of his smallest wells, but when guided through a simple technique he had burned into his aether space, he could shoot the force from the soles of his feet, multiplying his speed and momentum many times over. In a prolonged fight, the mercenary knew their force mana would quickly dwindle, so, they began the process of converting pure mana into force even as they gushed that same pure mana through the first connector. In the moments before the two men clashed, the pure mana roiled out over the mercenary, turning his ever-present coating of pure mana into a visible distortion around him.

    The mercenary¡¯s reactions proved to be unnecessary though. His opponent used no techniques. Likely he was just an ordinary man, not even an arcaner. The mercenary struck him down, nonetheless. It was impossible to tell the difference between a normal person and an arcaner until they started using mana.

    The conflict was over in an instant, but something was off. The mercenary¡¯s instincts screamed at him, telling him he had made a fatal mistake. If the mercenary had time to consider his situation, he would have noticed the tattoo on the dead man¡¯s forehead. The number 3. Even if he had though, he wouldn¡¯t have remembered what it meant. As it was though, a horribly grotesque black arm emerged from the dead man¡¯s stomach with a brutal punch that shattered the mercenary¡¯s coating of pure mana through sheer force, caving in the mercenary¡¯s chest and sending him flying back through the air.

    The creature that pulled itself from the dead man¡¯s corpse silently walked over to where it had flung the mercenary¡¯s corpse and grabbed a fragment of marble. The creature paused for a moment. Having finished its intended objective, its will went abruptly silent. As it happened though, clutched in the creature¡¯s hand was another piece of will, and so, it abruptly ran off into the night.

    ¡­

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands outside Maston

    Kate knelt down beside a set of tracks. ¡°Ogren tracks. Three of them.¡±

    Myles remembered Ogren. They were the half-wolf, half-boor monsters that Mr. Habe had set loose on him just a month ago. According to Kate, they were also some of the weakest monsters in the voidlands.

    Myles, Silas, and Kate had woken up at the crack of dawn and set a vicious pace, one that would have had them on their hands and knees if not for the brutal combat training they had endured the past month.

    They had been on the road for hours now without a sighting of monsters. Their luck was no coincidence though. Kate had beaten her strategy into their heads the night before. When traversing the voidlands, it was prudent to follow the weakest monsters as they tended to avoid the larger, more dangerous monsters.

    Silas had initially balked at the idea. It was hard to blame him. Willingly following monster tracks of any kind just seemed like an awful idea. Still, it was a small relief to at least know what they were following, what they were getting into.

    The three set out again, racing over the shallow hills. The terrain was unnerving. At a glance it seemed flat, but in actuality the small dips and hills prevented seeing far in front of you. On occasion, they would see signs of monsters, small ones that left tracks that subtly crossed the trail they followed, and larger ones that had left destroyed terrain in their wake. After the first hour, Myles asked Kate to stop telling him what made the destruction. The information was more worrying than useful.

    There was still a distinct tension among the group. Silas was doing his best to keep his personal feelings from coming into their exam, but Myles could tell his friend¡¯s anger was simmering. Myles had trouble not taking his friend¡¯s side. Silas, Jane, and even Mercy had all given Kate fairly overt hints and chances to apologize for her comments on their first day of class. The initial comment Kate had made about yellow bands had only been mildly offensive¡ªexcept to Mercy¡ªbut her blatant refusal to apologize was too much.

    Just as he was thinking, Kate glanced backward from on top of the next rise. ¡°What are you guys doing? Get a move on!¡±

    Silas gave a low grumble of irritation before following. Myles jogged up to the rise, only stopping briefly when Kate¡¯s stance suddenly changed.

    ¡°Behind you!¡±

    Myles looked behind him to find a whole pack of Ogren sprinting down the hill behind them. Myles moved to take position by Kate and Silas, taking up a loose natural stance just like Primrose had taught them to take when they needed to move into their combat stances quickly. Myles closed his eyes for an instant, checking his aether well. He saw that it was full and stood at roughly 150 units of mana.

    It was time to see if he was ready to face a monster.

 Chapter 14

    Chapter 14

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands outside Maston

    A pack of ogren was a rather terrifying sight. Each monster was equipped with a pair of sharp horns above their jaw and a set of tusks at the bottom of their jaw. They looked like¡ªas monsters did, to be based off of an animal, in this case, a wolf. The difference between an animal and a monster was clear though. Where animals are driven by their needs to survive, monsters are only driven by one thing: the instinct to hunt and kill humans.

    Myles prepared himself as the pack, nine ogren as far as he could tell, charged toward his small group. The beasts charged blindly, having spotted their prey. Four of them ran right at Silas who was sitting at the base of the hill, closest to the pack. Myles started towards him, but swiftly changed stances when the fastest of the pack ran right by.

    The core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist emphasized fluidity and flexibility in combat above all else. Myles adapted to the charging monster by moving into the third step, the iron turtle. As he did so, Myles evoked a full 10% of his pure mana to cover his back.

    Myles barely felt the impact as the charging monster rammed directly into him with its two horns and two tusks. The pure mana shield blunted the blow and reduced the force to a negligible level, a level that his defensive stance was easily able to disperse. The result was that Myles wouldn¡¯t be left with so much as a bruise.

    Myles pivoted from his defensive stance into the first step, a basic palm thrust. The blow landed on the side of the beast¡¯s head, stunning it, knocking it back, and pointing those dangerous horns away from him. The moment the blow landed, Myles took a step back, gathered himself, then flung himself into the air, coming down with a vicious kick. Before his training, the move would have lacked the impact to do much, but after a month of training, Myles was able to carefully evoke pure mana, decreasing the air resistance generated from the moves, allowing him to jump slightly higher and come down with significantly greater force.

    Myles felt a sickening crunch under his foot and knew instantly he would no longer have to deal with his opponent. Out of pure habit, Myles performed a sweep as he recovered. It was one of those things that Primrose had managed to ingrain so deeply in them that it was hard not to follow up by throwing a move when off balance. It was because Myles used the sweep purely out of habit and no other reason that he was so surprised when he felt his leg sweep through a set of paws.

    Myles completed his move, returning to a neutral stance and taking account of the situation. He cursed himself when he found himself facing off against two of the monsters. He had been so focused on the one he was fighting; he had missed the other two approaching.  One of the creatures had been tripped by his sweep, but the other came at him too fast for him to press his advantage on the one he had grounded. Myles flowed into the iron turtle stance, blocking the attack just as he had blocked the previous monster¡¯s.

    A palm thrust sent the monster reeling, but the tripped ogren had already jumped back onto its paws. It came from the side, swinging its tusks like an axe. Myles saw the attack from the corner of his eye and managed to flow into a turning sweep that took the thing¡¯s legs out. A hastily evoked patch of pure mana poured out from Myles¡¯ aether well, barely forming in time to prevent the thing¡¯s tusks from taking a chunk out of his torso.

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    The hasty block took its toll though. In order to make a patch big enough to ensure the ogren¡¯s attack was actually met and which was strong enough to actually block it, Myles had to use up a full third of his mana. That left him with maybe a quarter of his aether well left. This fight needed to end quickly.

    Myles slammed a palm thrust down into the ribcage of the felled monster. The blow used up some pure mana to reduce resistance, but in exchange, it ended the ogren. Myles was about to turn to face the monster he had sent reeling when he felt a sharp pain in his left leg. He ripped it back out of instinct and almost stumbled when he tried to put weight on it.

    The monster pressed its advantage. With one of its horns covered in blood, it looked far more threatening, especially considering it was his blood. Myles fell back in a panic, instinctively falling into the iron turtle stance to protect himself. Seeing weakness, the ogren leapt at his back. Right as it was about to chomp down with its fangs, it was stopped by an outpouring of pure mana as Myles evoked all of his remaining mana in defense.

    Myles spun and delivered a palm thrust then followed behind it as it was staggered, delivering another thrust, then another, then another. Without the benefit of pure mana to help him, Myles had a hard time delivering a decisive blow, but he didn¡¯t let the monster recover and it eventually wearied, then succumbed to the beating, going still.

    Myles breathed a breath of relief and suddenly realized how starved for oxygen he was. Despite all the training, Myles still hadn¡¯t been able to remember to force himself to breathe during the fight. At least now that it was over, he could¡ªMyles had a horrible thought. There had been nine of the monsters and he had only killed three which meant¡­

    Myles heaved himself to his feet to get a look around. A heavily bleeding Silas was on the ground at the base of the hill while Kate squared off against the last two remaining ogren. She used her speed to the utmost advantage, managing to keep the monsters at bay, at least for the time being.

    Myles scrambled to Kate¡¯s rescue, half running, half falling down the hill. He was nearly impaled by one of the ogren¡¯s horn¡¯s as he ungracefully stumbled into the fight, impeded by his leg. Fortunately for him, Kate managed to land a quick palm thrust on the thing, forcing its horns out of the way. Myles kept his momentum going, throwing his technique out the window in favor of a rough tackle, the sort that the other guys at his old job shop had used in their little after-work wrestling league.

    The fight was brief but rough. Myles was in no position to use any sort of real fighting form anymore, but the ogren he wrestled with was in an even worse position. It scrabbled its paws against his stomach, trying to find some purchase, but all it found was the outfit he had been given on the first day of classes, and its padding managed to absorb the blows. The ogren had no such luck, and Myles¡¯ blows landed squarely on the monster.

    As Myles pulled himself up, he saw that Kate had managed to finish off the last ogren.  At first it looked like she had been heavily wounded. She was clutching her side as if against some grievous wound. For the first couple of steps she took towards Silas, she favored her right leg, all the while grimacing as if in pain. The look only lasted a few seconds though as she seemed to recover, coming to Silas¡¯ side in a panic.

    ¡°Hurry up!¡± Kate shouted as Myles stumbled over. ¡°I need you to put pressure on his wound. He¡¯ll be fine, but we need to stop the bleeding.¡±

    Myles rushed over and helped her apply pressure to the wound. It looked awful. Silas¡¯ entire side was covered with blood, and more was coming out even as they applied pressure to it. Myles could barely keep his hands steady. ¡°Are you sure he¡¯ll be fine? He¡¯s losing a lot of blood!¡±

    ¡°He would be. If¡­we had the right medication that is.¡±

    ¡°We gave all of our medicine away though!¡±

    ¡°I know!¡± Kate ran her hands through her hair in a grimace. ¡°Right now, we have a bigger problem though.¡± She pointed towards Silas¡¯ bloody side and Myles¡¯ left leg which was bleeding an ominous amount. ¡°We were following ogren tracks, monsters known for their keen sense of smell. They¡¯ll smell the blood on us if we don¡¯t figure out a way to mask it.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t we just kill the whole pack of them?¡±

    ¡°That was¡­probably a different pack.¡± Kate paused for a moment as Silas briefly stirred, gently pushing him back down. ¡°Even if it wasn¡¯t, there are plenty of monsters around us that will come running at the scent of blood. We need to get out of here and find a way to mask our scent.¡±

    Myles looked around at the hilly landscape nervously. It was almost entirely barren. They were nowhere close to the river that went through the lake back in Maston. They were in the middle of the monster-ruled voidlands, injured, and without medicine.

    Myles calmed himself and looked around hopefully. There had to be something they could use. Sweeping his gaze around, Myles saw nothing but rolling hills, dead monsters, and¡­a rusted wagon that was missing two of its wheels lying abandoned near them.

 Chapter 15

    Chapter 15

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands outside Maston

    Myles¡¯ leg hurt badly. He hadn¡¯t noticed it at first, preoccupied as he had been with the fight, but he was having trouble putting weight on it. It didn¡¯t help that he was having to help carry the unconscious Silas and put pressure on his wound.

    Still, he was the one who needed to do it. Kate had evoked thin layers of pure mana to cover all their bleeding wounds in an attempt to block out the smell.

    Myles still had a hard time grasping that pure mana could block out smells. Sure, Primrose had told them that pure mana was considered the ¡®universal defense¡¯, but Myles had assumed that just meant it could block a punch or a fireball. The reality was that universal meant far more things. Pure mana blocked smells, light, wind, and any other force that it came across. Of course, it used up some of its mana for every force it blocked.

    When he had been fighting the ogren, they had eaten through his mana quickly because he had to block the force of their attacks, but without needing to do that, evoked mana could be held in place for some time. Still, Myles had run through his whole supply, so, he wasn¡¯t able to evoke anything until his aether well refilled.

    Closing his eyes, he could see just a tiny bit of mana at the very bottom of his aether well. He still found it easiest to think of the mana as glowing streams of energy. Based on his prior observations, it took a little over an hour for his well to fill up entirely. He would have to leave the evoking to Kate for now. That wouldn¡¯t be a long-lasting solution though. She had been using her mana in the fight too, and even if she hadn¡¯t been, it took more mana to maintain even a thin evocation then could be refilled in the same time.

    Even working together, they would quickly run out of mana, allowing all the monsters in their general vicinity to smell their blood. That was a problem.

    There was a potential solution right in front of them though. An old wagon, the type that was used to haul supplies between towns. If Myles had to guess, the wagon was probably abandoned out of desperation¡ªprobably by a group who had run into similar problems as they had. He just had to hope that it could help them out of their desperate situation.

    Kate peered into the wagon as soon as they got near. ¡°Its empty. No supplies or anything.¡±

    Myles let out a few choice words in response. Without medicine, Silas had little chance of survival. Not to mention, Myles¡¯ own leg might not heal well.

    Kate shook her head. ¡°This is my fault. I thought we could avoid any monsters if we were smart. I thought we might even be able to fight off some weaker monsters.¡±

    Myles took a deep breath, setting his friend down gently on the ground and kneeling to examine the wagon, specifically the metal frame it sat on. The wagon was nothing if not common. It had a wooden top, covered in rough canvas to hold supplies. It might be big enough for three people to climb into if they were desperate enough, and the canvas seemed like it was thick enough to keep most smells contained. The important part was the frame though. The wagon was a common model and so it was no surprise to find that it used the most common metal in existence, the same metal that Myles had spent the last month working with in his aether engineering classes, basium.

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    Myles cursed himself for his lack of foresight. If only he had brought some of the battery constructs, they had made in class, he could have used the basium frame to make a basic evocation construct that could have used the batteries¡¯ power to surround the wagon in a thin layer of pure mana, blocking their scent from any monsters.

    Kate leaned over his shoulder. ¡°What are you thinking?¡±

    ¡°What!?¡±

    ¡°You always make that face when you¡¯re deep in thought. You make it sometimes in training and pretty much whenever you¡¯re working on your engineering stuff.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Myles didn¡¯t realize he made any faces like that. He¡¯d have to check with Silas or Jane. Assuming Silas was still alive when he woke up or assuming Myles wouldn¡¯t get mauled to death by some monster as soon as they caught a whiff of his blood. ¡°I was thinking I could make an evocation construct to hide our scent in the wagon if we had some source of pure mana, but I left the batteries I made back at the academy.¡±

    Kate¡¯s face lit up in hope. ¡°We do have a source of pure mana though. We can use the ogren cores.¡±

    ¡°What now?¡±

    Kate pulled a knife out of her bag. ¡°Wait here and cover your wounds as best you can.¡±

    Myles hastily did as she asked, focusing deeply to evoke the thinnest possible pure mana bandages to place over their wounds. It was a struggle to evoke any mana from his aether well at all. The emptier it was the more of a toll it took to evoke any. By his best estimation, Myles had maybe one unit of mana at best. That would be enough to barely cover their wounds for maybe thirty seconds.

    Fortunately, Kate returned quickly, bringing what looked like a clear jewel with her. ¡°This is an ogren core. Concentrated pure mana.¡± Kate squatted down, handing Myles the jewel, and taking over for him just as his mana finally ran out.

    The core was covered with runes, some of which Myles recognized from the aether index, the book his aether engineering instructor had given him. There was one rune that was repeated throughout the core, one that Myles recognized as a simple containment rune. It was the same rune that he had used when he had first created a battery to store pure mana.

    ¡°Well?¡±

    Myles looked over to Kate. ¡°I think it will work. I only recognize a few of the runes, but¡­¡±

    ¡°Stop. I don¡¯t care how it works so long as it does.¡±

    In a different situation, Myles might have rolled his eyes at Kate, but as it was, he took her protest in stride. ¡°Fine, but just keep your distance alright?¡±

    ¡°What? You need room to concentrate or something?¡±

    ¡°Its more that I¡¯m worried I¡¯ll trigger a rune that will blow me up really.¡±

    That silenced Kate although it wasn¡¯t entirely true. Runes could do a lot in the ways of directing mana, but they couldn¡¯t change the base property of the mana. They wouldn¡¯t be blown up any time soon even if he did fail. Although, if he triggered a rune that caused the pure mana in the core to rapidly expand, they would find themselves slowly suffocating while unable to see or feel anything. It was probably best that Kate just decided to move back.

    Myles spent as much time as he could, keeping in mind that Kate¡¯s mana was draining quickly as she continued to hold evoked mana over the group¡¯s wounds. The process wasn¡¯t easy. The runes were the same as he had used with Jane when they had figured out how to make a device that could evoke pure mana, but he usually carved the runes into hot, soft metal. Here, Myles had to make sure the runes were precisely drawn while slowly shaving pieces of metal from the wagon¡¯s frame with Kate¡¯s knife.

    Kate began estimating how much time they had left until she ran out of pure mana, releasing the smell of their blood across the voidlands.

    ¡°Ten minutes.¡±

    ¡°Five minutes¡±

    ¡°Two minutes¡±

    ¡°One minute¡±

    Kate finally ran out of mana, sagging down in defeat as Myles finished carving the last rune. The time had come to test his theory. Myles jammed Kate¡¯s knife into the ogren core. As it was made up of pure mana, the knife which was made of basium started absorbing the core. Without runes on it though, the reaction wasn¡¯t contained, and the mana was conducted throughout the knife and back out in chaotic ways.

    Myles took a deep breath as the expansion of pure mana he had expected came to pass. It poured out of the knife and into the surroundings. Myles was able to throw himself back far enough to avoid being trapped in the pure mana, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

    Myles didn¡¯t stay still for long as he picked up Silas and heaved both of them into the wagon just as its frame started circulating the mana from the core according to the rules Myles had setup with his runes. The frame started evoking a steady albeit thin stream of pure mana focused on blocking any gaps the wagon¡¯s canvas covering missed.

    With the pure mana bandages gone, Myles and Silas bled freely into the wagon¡¯s rotten wood, but the pure mana surrounding the wagon kept the scent of the blood from leaving, making it harder for any monsters to find them.

    Now they just needed the medicine that they had given away.

 Chapter 16

    Chapter 16

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands outside Maston

    Kate eyed Myles¡¯ wound as she worked. Maintaining the wagon¡¯s construct was more work than they had anticipated. Kate finished stacking the last of the ogren cores in a neat pile while Myles worked on improving how the construct was fed, drawing runes on Kate¡¯s knife to use as a catalyst.

    Myles was explaining how it worked, but Kate tuned him out. The edges of his wound had started turning the particular shade of yellow that indicated monster infection. When left untreated, Kate knew that it could be deadly.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to step out a bit, try to find something for your wounds.¡±

    Myles looked taken aback. Kate wasn¡¯t sure whether it was because she had interrupted his explanation of his construct or whether it was because she was going out of the comparative safety of the wagon into the voidlands, in the dark. Regardless, Kate didn¡¯t stay long enough to find out.

    The moment Kate turned her back on him, she let her face contort in pain. As she crept further from the wagon, the pain faded and Kate felt herself take a breath of relief, her first one in hours. Kate hadn¡¯t felt pain like that in over a month, not since she had left for the academy.

    This time, she probably deserved the pain, it was her who had overestimated the team¡¯s fighting ability and led them into this mess, but Kate didn¡¯t bother chastising herself. Kate knew who she was. When faced with a choice of enduring intense pain or saving someone¡¯s life, Kate was content to run away. It was the whole reason she was here after all.

    Kate returned her mind to the matter at hand. She would need to gather several herbs. Most of what she needed was just basic grasses, things to balance out the strong properties of the one herb she really needed: bliteroot.

    Bliteroot concoctions were one of the few things her mother taught her during the rare times she had managed to force Kate into her clinic. Kate kicked a rock in anger just thinking about that foul woman. She never had believed that Kate was anything other than a lazy girl. Not even when Kate had cried out in pain, grasping her arm just where a patient had broken theirs. Not even when a farmer had been carried in with his side shredded and Kate had clawed at her own side. Not even when a barfight broke out and the stupid son of some soldier had¡­

    Kate stopped that train of thought in its tracks. Right now, she needed to be focused. In the past month, Kate had been taught about the basics of each of the local monsters, including how to identify their tracks. Now, Kate put that training to use, watching the ground, reading tracks, and taking the path with the lowest chance of death.

    Kate kept up her patient approach and managed to find much of what she needed, but she eventually ran into a problem.

    Among the many tracks that crisscrossed the ground, there was one set that presented a major problem. Vexenaughts were an exceptionally dangerous monster. Kate had thankfully never seen one before, but she knew their tracks from both her time gathering ingredients for her mother and from her studies at the academy. It was common knowledge that the monsters sought out bliteroot. It was one of her mother¡¯s rules of foraging to never risk harvesting the stuff when a vexenaught was nearby.

    When boiled and mixed properly with other ingredients, bliteroot was a powerful cure for infection, but in its natural state, it was highly poisonous. Despite their naturally occurring fire mana, Vexenaughts had little interest in boiling bliteroot. Instead, they used it to coat their teeth. The poison from the plants stained the monsters¡¯ teeth a deep black color and it stayed on their breath, causing anyone who came close to risk poisoning.

    Poison was the least of your worries if you came close to the creature though. Unlike ogren who could conceivably be killed without even accessing the aether space, vexenaught were strong enough to fight off an entire squad of the provinces trained soldiers. In the bestiary Kate had been given to study, ogren were considered a tier zero threat while vexenaught were considered a tier three threat.

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    The longer she waited, the worse state her teammates would be in. Kate cautiously started off in the direction of the vexenaught¡¯s tracks. She saved her mana. Considering how well they had handled the ogren, her level of mana would be useless in a fight against a vexenaught, but if she used it carefully, she might be able to sneak around it enough to get what she needed.

    Kate pulled a pair of thick gloves out, wrapping her hands in them. She wasn¡¯t willing to take the time to properly harvest the bliteroot, not with a vexenaught nearby, but the gloves should keep her safe enough from the poison. The gloves would be ruined afterward, but she could live with that.

    Kate stalked along the trail, keeping all her senses finely tuned while knowing it would likely be useless. Vexenaughts had powerful noses, strong enough to smell someone long before they came into sight. Kate felt an involuntary chill. If they hadn¡¯t kept the smell of their blood contained, they all would have been sniffed out.

    Kate stopped before she even crested the top of the hill. The tells were subtle. A lack of fresh tracks, a quieting of the land around her. These subtle tells were the clues she had been studying for the past month though. Just beyond the hill, she would find the vexenaught. Her teacher had repeated time and time again that the best way to know a strong monster was around was to notice the absence of weaker ones.

    Kate evoked a thin coating of pure mana around her body. It took concentration to keep so much mana evoked at once, but she wouldn¡¯t need it for long. As much as Kate wanted to wrap her whole body in pure mana, she couldn¡¯t. Pure mana blocked every force it came across, including air. If she wrapped her whole body, she wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe.

    Kate crawled up the last portion of the hill. It was a steep incline and was covered in strong grasses that poked into her stomach. She didn¡¯t feel the grasses through her mana, but she could feel her mana drain just the tiniest bit every time one poked into her.

    When she finally reached the top of the hill, she almost curled into a ball and rolled right back down the hill. The vexenaught was clearly asleep which was good, but it was also the biggest creature Kate had ever seen. It looked like a fox if a fox was twice the height of a horse and covered in gleaming black fur. From the bestiary, Kate knew that its black fur was dense enough to shatter spears and supple enough to ignore a blow from a sledgehammer. She also knew that the embers that spewed out from its nostrils with every exhale could be turned to a great stream of flame, one that would turn her into a bonfire in an instant.

    Kate took one deep breath before rising to her feet and coating her body entirely in pure mana. With the thing right in front of her, Kate was far more interested in not waking it than she was in being able to breathe freely.

    It took a great deal of control to climb down the hill slowly, but the last thing she needed was to make a mistake that would wake the beast up. Still, Kate managed the descent flawlessly, reaching the edge of the clump of bliteroot that the beast was using as a makeshift nest. She was able to pull a fistful of the grass out and start back up the hill.

    She was halfway up with her lungs eagerly looking forward to taking a breath when disaster struck. Kate saw movement over her shoulder. At first, she thought it was the great beast, but no, it slept on, none the wiser. The movement had come from underneath the vexenaught¡¯s tail.

    In the darkness, it took Kate a moment to realize what it was; a vexenaught pup. The pup gave out a low snarl and started racing after her. Finally reacting, Kate turned and raced up the hill, giving up on keeping her mana evoked.

    It was immediately clear that Kate had no way of outrunning the monster, but she still made a dash for the top of the hill. If she had to fight, she wanted to at least be out of sight of the sleeping vexenaught. As she reached the top of the hill, Kate felt intense heat coming from behind, and she hastily evoked mana along her back, pouring the bulk of what she had in her well into the defense.

    Even gushing out mana, the flame burnt through and Kate hastily stifled her scream with a wisp of pure mana. Heat coursing along her back, Kate threw herself down the other side of the hill in a roll. Before she regained her feet, the vexenaught pup leapt on her, claws extended.

    If the vexenaught was anywhere near as big as its parent, Kate would have been dead in an instant. Instead, Kate managed to grapple the creature and throw it off her, using what was left of her mana to minimize the damage she took from its claws as it windmilled them about.

    As smoothly as she could, Kate executed the falling javelin, leaping into the air and crashing down, putting the full momentum of her jump and all of her strength into a single point on her heel that crashed into the vexenaught pup as it got to its feet.

    The result was far less impressive than Kate was expecting. Protected by its fur, the vexenaught was able to shake off the force of the blow and throw itself backwards. Instead of pouncing on her again, the vexenaught pup quietly began circling her.

    Kate had a hard time keeping up with the vexenaught. It ran around her faster than she could turn, and its black fur made it hard to focus on amidst the darkness.

    There was one advantage to this situation though. If the beast was circling her, it meant that it was studying her, waiting for an opening. As the beast circled her yet again, Kate seemingly turned just a hair too fast, snagging her feet and falling backwards. The monster took the bait, charging forward for the kill. Using the second step, Kate swept its legs then grabbed its neck and twisted hard. The monster¡¯s fur might be able to break blades and stop blows in their tracks, but its bones weren¡¯t nearly as strong, and its neck gave out under the strain.

    Kate didn¡¯t waste time grabbing her things, applying every bit of mana she could to block off the smell of her burnt back, and making a hasty retreat. She was halfway back to the wagon when she heard a great howl sounding out.

    The beast didn¡¯t seem to follow her path, but as she found her way back into the wagon, Kate could swear that each howl seemed just a little closer than the last. Even with that unease, the wall of pain that hit her when she climbed into the wagon almost made her turn around and head back into the voidlands.

 Chapter 17

    Chapter 17

    Candis East Highway

    The Voidlands outside Maston

    The atmosphere in the cramped wagon was tense. Kate had brewed a medicine using the herbs she had gotten the previous night. They had immediately applied them to Silas¡¯ wound. Myles could tell that his friend was already starting to regain a little bit of color. Silas remained unconscious though.

    Myles also had his leg wound treated. Kate had briefly explained that her mother was a doctor of some kind, so, Myles was happy to let her treat their wounds.

    In spite of the medicine, Myles still felt like their problems had multiplied. The vexenaught¡¯s howls could still be heard as it searched the area around them. They were forced to stay quiet on several occasions when they could hear the beast sniffing around just on the other side of one of the hills that blocked the view of their wagon.

    Fortunately, the construct Myles had built into the wagon was able to keep the scent from escaping, so, the vexenaught left each time. Still though, as the hours passed by, the stress accumulated.

    Powering the construct was a constant challenge. While the ogren cores contained a great deal of mana, they weren¡¯t limitless. Myles and Kate poured their mana into her old knife which Myles had converted into a basic battery. Using all their mana, waiting for it to recharge and then using it all again was a strenuous exercise, but it bought them time. At this rate, they would be able to keep the construct powered for at least another day, maybe even two.

    It was another full day before Silas finally woke up. The first thing he did was scrunch up his nose in disgust. The wagon construct was keeping all smells from leaving the wagon after all.

    Myles quickly moved to his side to give him a damp cloth to put in front of his nose before Silas could start gagging.

    Silas took the cloth gratefully while Myles quietly explained what had happened since the ogren pack had come for them. By the end, Myles noticed his friend growing weary and allowed him to go back to sleep.

    That night, the dwindling supply of ogren cores finally ran out. Myles watched in dismay as the nearly translucent barrier around the wagon fell and a wave of fresh air poured in even as the odor that had accumulated in the wagon was finally released.

    Kate hopped outside and began stretching, working on her back. Of them all, she was the least injured. The vexenaught pup she had fought had managed to burn her, but the fabric of her uniform had somehow managed to survive and give her some degree of protection. The result was that the burn that stretched over a large portion of her back was fairly light. Myles had been able to reassure her that the burn would heal without scarring. Burns were some of the most common injuries that had come up in the job shop he used to work at. He had seen much worse burns, although admittedly most of those had been on a much smaller scale.

    Myles limped out after her. His leg had healed quite a bit, but it still hurt to put too much weight on it.

    Silas was the last out and he had to be supported by both of them. His wound still hadn¡¯t completely healed.

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    The three of them staggered forward, each evoking a thin wisp of mana to block off their wounds, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough. They all knew it. They were in no condition to make the journey back to the academy and that was assuming they didn¡¯t run into any monsters, an unlikely scenario.

    Sure enough, before they even got past the first hill, they all heard a familiar roar and the crashing of paws. The three wearily turned around to find the massive vexenaught running right toward them. There was nothing they could do. None of them were fast enough to avoid its charge. It barreled towards them, roaring out a battle cry.

    That was when something odd happened. The monster¡¯s terrifying battle cry turned into a pained yelp mid-charge and the beast sprinted away. Myles eyes widened in confusion for a moment before he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned to find Reah standing there casually.

    ¡°Wh..what are you doing here?¡±

    Reah laughed lightly. ¡°I told you I was doing contract work for the academy right? Turns out I was assigned the job of scoring you on your exam.¡±

    Kate looked at Reah with distrust. ¡°How were you scoring us if weren¡¯t even nearby?¡±

    Reah looked down at the ground and gently shook her head. ¡°I was here the whole time; I just used some light mana to keep you from seeing me.¡±

    Silas let out a surprised cry as he was lifted up from his feet on what looked to be a stretcher of evoked pure mana. ¡°Let¡¯s get moving.¡± Reah turned around, already walking forward, then seemingly as an afterthought made a gesture with her hand and generated a sort of dome around them.

    As they moved forward, Myles was struck with a feeling of awe. The dome around them was constantly shifting, seemingly reflecting the scenery around them. Myles had no idea how it worked, but he could tell that anyone who looked at the dome from the outside wouldn¡¯t notice it at all. They would look right at the dome and only see the normal scenery of the voidlands.

    That suspicion was confirmed as they walked past a pack of ogren that simply ignored them, unable to even sense their presence. Myles was beyond impressed. With the size of the dome of light and the density of the pure mana stretcher, Reah had to be consuming more mana every minute than they had spent keeping the wagon construct powered for two days.

    Myles had found Reah to be an oddity before, but now he knew she was not only an arcanist, but she was an incredibly powerful one at that. Myles suspected that Primrose could probably match the amount of mana Reah was spending, but he couldn¡¯t know for sure. She had only ever used tiny amounts of mana in class.

    The bizarre thing about the whole situation was that Reah didn¡¯t look much older than he was.

    They didn¡¯t stop to rest along the way. At one point, Myles grew too tired to continue on. His leg had started shaking and he wouldn¡¯t have been surprised to find that his wound had reopened. Instead of stopping though, Reah simply evoked another stretcher of pure mana. It was embarrassing, but Myles wasn¡¯t about to complain. The faster they could get out of the voidlands and back into the safety of Maston the better.

    When they finally returned to the academy, Myles was far more appreciative of the town¡¯s meager defenses and the academy¡¯s moat and walls.

    Instead of heading back to their dormitory, Reah instead led them straight to the infirmary. For some reason, a memory of him joking with Jane on their way to their aether engineering class came to mind. They had each taken turns joking about how they had built the infirmary way too big. The building was to be fair enormous, but now Myles had a hard time seeing it as too big. Being one of the new buildings on campus, it wasn¡¯t built out of bricks, instead it was fashioned from some bizarre substance Myles had never come across before. Myles made a mental not to ask Silas if he recognized the material. That wasn¡¯t important now though. What was important was that the massive building was filled with patients.

    The number of injured students was shocking, but in a morbid way, Myles was relieved. At least they weren¡¯t the only ones who had failed their exam spectacularly. They couldn¡¯t kick everyone here out, could they?

    Myles only spent a brief time in the infirmary before his leg was looked at and he was allowed to go back to his dorm room. When he got back, Kate was the only one there. Silas had been forced to spend the night at the infirmary.

    Myles was more than a little worried about the other three they shared their room with. He recalled that Jane, Mercy, and Seth had been given the task of killing a plaguetoise. Myles had no idea what a plaguetoise was, but he remembered Seth going pale when he had heard it mentioned. Considering that he was part of the monster hunting course with Kate, Myles decided to ask her.

    Myles knocked on Kate¡¯s door. Hearing no response, Myles called out then opened it. He found Kate quietly meditating. Myles couldn¡¯t be sure, but her posture and focus definitely suggested that she was delving, pushing her mana well¡¯s barriers and making it even larger.

    Myles grimly returned to his room and started to do the same. It was hard work. Myles felt like everything was made more difficult by having repeatedly emptied out his mana well over the past few days, but that was all the more reason to delve. He needed more mana and he needed to learn how to fight better before their next exam.

    Considering how poorly they had done this month; they would likely need to have a massive improvement for the next test. Myles¡¯ dream of becoming an aether engineer depended on staying here for a full year after all.

 Chapter 18

    Chapter 18

    Checkpoint 37

    The Verith-Candis Railroad

    ¡°We have an unidentified monster attempting to cross the railroad, Lieutenant.¡±

    Lieutenant Garsmith looked to his scout. ¡°We''ll follow protocol. Load a toxin battery into the cannon then we move to intercept.¡±

    The scout nodded, turning to run towards the small gunner team.

    It wasn¡¯t uncommon for unidentified monsters to show up. Garsmith¡¯s team had already dealt with several that week. The checkpoint that he had been assigned command of was in charge of defending about a mile of terrain. They didn¡¯t fight every monster they came across, only the ones too dangerous to allow into the province, the ones whose cores could be harvested for military purposes, or unknown monsters in need of study.

    Garsmith watched with satisfaction as the gunner team carefully loaded the cannon construct onto the tracks. The construct was the most valuable and effective weapon at their disposal. When loaded with different batteries, the cannon could fire out an empowered technique. One of the most universally effective techniques the cannon had was used in tandem with what they called the toxin battery.

    Of course, toxin wasn¡¯t really a type of mana. Instead, the battery was infused with mana from the core of a plaguetoise. Nobody quite knew what that mana was. Garsmith had heard just as many scholars claiming it was a sub-type of water as he had heard argue it was a type of air. Garsmith didn¡¯t care either way. All he cared about was that some clever aether engineer had figured out how to put the mana in a battery.  When used in conjunction with the cannon, it could produce a devastating poison gas attack. It wasn¡¯t quite as terrifying or deadly as an actual attack from a plaguetoise would be, but it was enough to kill 90% of the monsters that were hit by it.

    As the crew finally got the cannon moving along the tracks, Garsmith followed them towards where his scout had spotted the monster. The terrain around the railroad was the most defensible area he had seen in the province. Most of the voidlands throughout the region were filled with rolling hills that effectively blocked vision. Here though, those hills had been flattened out, the excess dirt moved to build up a large mound on which the railroad tracks sat.

    It wasn¡¯t just the terrain that made the tracks defensible. Sure, it was helpful to be able to see any enemy approaching, but that alone would do nothing if resources couldn¡¯t be moved quickly to counteract the threat. Fortunately, the tracks weren¡¯t just limited to use by train. Large constructs like the cannon could be freely moved along the tracks. Beyond that, large numbers of troops could be moved to a point of interest rapidly.

    It didn¡¯t take the team long to cover the half mile distance. Garsmith made sure that the soldiers under his command kept themselves in shape and ready for combat. Normally, there was a long wait before they engaged any monsters. Tonight though, this was not the case.

    The monster that ran towards them was vaguely humanoid, but its body was completely covered in thick black carapace. Where a human would have hands, this monster had long claws, long enough to outrange your average sword blade. None of this alarmed Garsmith, though he did hear some of the men and women under his command muttering in fear. What really scared Garsmith was the speed at which the thing moved. It was faster than any monster Garsmith had ever seen.

    ¡°Prepare armor and aim the cannon!¡±

    Even as Garsmith shouted out orders, he stepped to the front of the group. Unlike his soldiers, Garsmith didn¡¯t need to activate his armor. He always kept it active, moving from his pure mana well through his first connector and into the surface of his skin. The mana would slowly flow around his whole body before returning to the aether space via his first connector. There was virtually no waste in the process, making the technique very useful. While he always kept the armor on, even in his sleep, Garsmith very rarely ever used more than a trickle of mana. He found that keeping the technique largely imperceptible was usually in his best interests, much in the same way that your average soldier wouldn¡¯t walk around in public with a sword in hand.  Now though, Garsmith pushed more power through his first connector, enough to make the mana protrude nearly six inches from his body.

    The humanoid monster continued at its constant pace. The creature ran without moving its clawed arms. Occasionally it would adjust them to keep balance, but it didn¡¯t swing its arms like a human would. The effect was unnerving to say the least.

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    Garsmith settled in with his men, calmly reminding them to evoke pure mana in front of their nose and mouth to avoid any lingering toxin from the cannon shot. Covering their nose and mouth with a sufficiently thick covering of pure mana would prevent them from breathing which was why the pattern they pushed through their first connector to create their armor didn¡¯t cover the mouth or nose. That gap along with the minimal eye and ear protection were the biggest weaknesses of the armor. Pure mana, when thick enough, could block your senses, and a soldier who couldn¡¯t see or hear wouldn¡¯t be very effective.

    Garsmith calculated distances in his head, waiting for the perfect time to fire in order to put the monster in the middle of a cloud of toxin. His gunners looked to him expectantly as he waited. For most monsters he would have fired already, but this thing was so quick that it might escape the toxin if they fired too soon. He decided to wait three more seconds.

    ¡°Three¡­two¡­one¡­fire!¡±

    The cannon blasted out a dense green ball, covered in a thin layer of pure mana. As the ball flew through the air, propelled by the cannon¡¯s built in force technique, the dense toxin rapidly ate away at its covering before it expanded into a green cloud surrounding the monster for 50 feet in any direction.

    Garsmith¡¯s gunners gave out resounding cheers as they hit their mark. None of the soldier¡¯s dropped their armor though. The attack would kill 90% of monsters, but there were always some that could resist the toxin, either by merit of incredible physical resilience or by being naturally resistant to toxins.

    When this monster charged out of the cloud of gas though, it became clear that it had an entirely different way to survive the blast. Evoked pure mana surrounded it, protecting it from the toxin.

    Despite the monster¡¯s unusual ability, Garsmith didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment, roaring out a battlecry and charging forward. He trusted his gunners to reload the cannon with a more effective type of attack. In the meantime, it would be up to Garsmith and the handful of other soldiers present to hold off the monster.

    Garsmith was the first to reach the monster by a wide margin. As he did, he released the mana he had been running through his channels via a technique. The mana well that he pulled from was a sub-type of force that was usually referred to as edge mana. When released through his technique, a barely perceptible blade of force tore through the air. The technique was the most effective tool in Garsmith¡¯s arsenal for quickly killing an opponent. In the past, he had used it on monsters and bandits alike. Regardless of opponent, few could withstand its raw force.

    The monster flared its pure mana up just as the blade came for it. The blade took a noticeable chunk out of the creature¡¯s mana, but it failed to reach the carapace underneath. Garsmith growled in frustration, already spinning up a different technique. Before he could launch it though, Garsmith found himself facing off against the monster while in range of its great claws.

    The creature swung a claw at him with impossible speed. Garsmith barely had enough time to evoke an extra layer of pure mana between himself and the attack. The blow hit with even more force than Garsmith had been able to generate through his earlier technique. It tore though his evoked mana and penetrated far enough through his armor to leave a faint scratch across his arm.

    The monster may have been able to finish him with a second blow if not for the other soldiers arriving to surround the beast. They each released a technique of some sort. Most of them launched waves of force. These were absorbed by the beast¡¯s mana, but they helped to distract the beast at least. One of the soldiers, the same scout he had talked to earlier, released a blinding beam of light. That proved to be even less effective than the waves of force.  The monster was sensing its surroundings somehow, but it wasn¡¯t using its eyesight. The mana surrounding it was too thick for that.

    None of the attacks were nearly as strong as Garsmith¡¯s initial attack, but when combined in masse, the monster was forced to abandon its offence to avoid being knocked off balance. In that split second, Garsmith finished fueling his technique, one that emulated the flames of a vexenaught.

    Garsmith let out a torrent of flames from his mouth. Out of all his mana wells, Garsmith had the most fire mana, but even still, he moved the bulk of his remaining pure mana through his main channel and into a converter.

    The converter was designed to change the normal texture of the mana into the rapidly moving, wavy texture that defined fire mana. The process wasn¡¯t very efficient. For every 4 units of pure mana Garsmith used, he only produced 1 unit of flame mana. Still though, Garsmith needed every scrap of mana he could get to eat through the monster¡¯s thick barrier of pure mana.

    The creature did its best to escape the steady stream of flame as its pure mana was burnt away by the roaring ball of fire, but the other soldiers worked together to slow it down. They launched wave after wave of force to keep it off balance while hastily evoking barriers of pure mana at the edge of the flame, forcing it to take the time to shred through them with its claws.

    Garsmith felt pride for his men¡¯s performance even as he put all of his effort into maintaining his assualt. Their training was showing through. The monster was far stronger than any of them, Garsmith included, but they were holding their own, buying time and wearing the creature down. Garsmith calculated that the cannon should be ready to fire, and he motioned for his men to begin disengaging.

    That was when everything went wrong. The monster slowly opened one clawed hand, revealing what looked to be a small marble stone. In the next moment, marble spikes phased into existence, rapidly growing out of the monster¡¯s carapace. In an instant, the fight was over. The majority of the soldiers were killed instantly, impaled by one of the massive spikes. The few that were lucky enough to be out of the attack zone were showered with marble chips, bringing them to the ground with heavy wounds.

    Garsmith threw himself clear of the blast by evoking flame mana underneath his feet. It probably wasn¡¯t a much better option than taking the attack directly though. Flame mana was highly volatile when evoked in its raw form. The blast that threw him clear of the attack badly burnt his legs and shattered several bones.

    By the time he was able to pull himself off the ground far enough to get a glimpse of what was happening, the spikes had phased out of existence and the monster ran on. The gunner team desperately lined up their shot, but it went well wide.

    Instead of attacking the gunner crew though, the monster just ran on, crossing the railroad tracks and rapidly disappearing into the distance as if intently focused on some purpose.

 Chapter 19

    Chapter 19

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Kate waited patiently until Myles fell deep into a delving trance before quietly cracking her window open and jumping out into the night.

    She dropped to the ground, evoking pure mana to slow her fall. Kate didn¡¯t really have to sneak out, but she also didn¡¯t want Myles to know she was leaving. He wouldn¡¯t stop her, but it would be harder to leave if she had to explain she was leaving for good. They had worked together closely over the last few days, managing to just barely avoid death.

    Kate shook her head. They may have been able to help each other out in that situation, but it had been very painful to go through it. Her affliction had ensured that she had been in near constant pain the entire time. Even tonight, with Myles¡¯ leg wound mostly healed, Kate had still been able to feel that pain. When Silas moved back in, she would have to endure that pain. Then there was the other squad. She would be surprised if they were any less injured than Silas and Myles. She doubted she could endure all that pain for long.

    As Kate walked, she kept a watch around her. Growing up in a rural town with no protection from soldiers taught her just how valuable food and safe shelter could be. Combine that with the instruction she had been given, and she doubted that she would be allowed to leave easily.

    Before she even made it ten steps, a voice whispered into her ear. ¡°Running away already?¡±

    Kate whirled around only to find Reah leaning against a wall nearly ten feet away. Had she really managed to move that distance in the time it took to turn around? She gave off a sense of creepiness that Kate couldn¡¯t quite explain. It was probably her age. She didn¡¯t look any older than the students, but she was leagues ahead of everyone their age in terms of power.

    Kate tried to look Reah in the eye, but the night¡¯s darkness clung to her like a thick cloak, making it impossible to make out where her face was. It must have been some trick using light mana because the night was well lit. The moon was out in force tonight. ¡°I never intended to stay here long. It was just a way to get away. Besides, I doubt I¡¯m the only one leaving tonight.¡±

    Reah didn¡¯t make a move. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking because of the darkness. ¡°When was it that you stopped even trying to make others believe you?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The scouting reports say that you call it your ¡®affliction¡¯: the way you feel the pain of others.¡±

    Kate didn¡¯t respond. She had no answer. How many times had she been laughed out for telling others about her affliction? How many times had they laughed it off or chastised her for being lazy, for avoiding her mother¡¯s clinic?

    Reah leaned forward calmly, the darkness following her. Kate ignored it. She knew that Reah could manipulate the light. This had to be a trick to do with that.

    ¡°Right now, you¡¯re pointedly ignoring the darkness that surrounds me. Its not natural or even logical. Still, you look for a rational explanation for this, but not for why you feel others pain. Do you really think you¡¯re so special that your little affliction can¡¯t be explained?¡±

    As Reah walked towards her, the darkness pulled around them, blocking out the rest of the academy. Reah walked right up to her and tapped her fingers to her forehead. From the spot where she touched there came pain. It was just a flicker, the lightest touch, but Kate could tell it wasn¡¯t her pain. She could tell in the way that she always could that the pain came from her affliction, but that didn¡¯t make any sense.

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    Nobody was close enough for her to feel their pain. Kate looked over Reah, but she didn¡¯t have a single injury. That could only mean that Reah was somehow making her feel that pain. How could she do that though? Surely, she couldn¡¯t do that just by evoking mana, could she?

    Reah smiled at her gently. There was something there that made Kate want to trust her, want to accept her. There was something telling her that Reah was somehow like her. Kate reminded herself that there was no one like her, but the feeling stayed.

    ¡°Stay for just one more night. Pay attention to your class tomorrow. Think carefully and you might start to figure out what your affliction really is. Trust me on that.¡±

    Kate started to protest, but the darkness delicately grabbed her, pushing her back up through her window. When Kate looked back down, Reah was gone, but Kate hard her voice one last time. ¡°I will block your affliction tonight. If you still wish to leave, you may do so tomorrow night.¡±

    It didn¡¯t take long for Kate to settle down and enter into a delving trance. Her mind wasn¡¯t really focused on the process, Kate was a little busy marveling at the lack of pain she felt from her affliction. Sure, she still felt the burn on her back, but she was fine feeling her own pain. Fortunately for her in that moment, delving had become a bit of a mindless activity. That was because she had hit a bit of a roadblock in her delving. When she tried widening her mana well, she had no trouble, but whenever she tried to dig it deeper into her aether space, her mana resisted.

    When she heard three pairs of shoes entering, Kate slowly left her delving trance and walked to her door. By the time she opened it, Myles was already chatting with Seth, Jane, and Mercy. The three of them were each covered from head to foot in bruises. Kate wasn¡¯t sure what could have caused that kind of injury, but she was certainly glad that her affliction was blocked.

    Seth stretched out, trying to work a kink out of his shoulders. ¡°Ran right into the territory of some rock deer. We tried to get past them a few times, but well¡­¡± Seth left his explanation trailing as he gestured to himself and his companions.

    Kate nodded in understanding. Rock deer were known for pelting people with small pebble sized bits of solid earth mana. They weren¡¯t much more dangerous than ogren, so Kate would guess that Seth had followed the same strategy she had tried. Follow a group of weaker monsters and hope to avoid the stronger ones. It was becoming clear that that strategy was flawed.

    ¡°Wait. Where¡¯s Silas?¡± Mercy looked around wildly as if expecting Silas to walk out of one of the corners of the room.

    Myles stepped forward. ¡°He¡¯s in the infirmary. We ran into a pack of ogren and he took a tusk through the stomach. They say he should be fine. He was in rough shape to start with, but Kate treated him, so, he¡¯ll manage to pull through.¡±

    Jane gave Kate a look that was less than friendly. Kate gave an internal wince. She was still mad for her comment that first day. Kate had realized that a while ago, but there hadn¡¯t been much of a reason to apologize. Kate had assumed she would probably be leaving quickly anyway.

    Myles seemed to notice the look and went quiet, appearing to think for a while. Kate knew he cared far less about the comment than Jane did. Actually, come to think of it, Silas and Mercy both seemed more upset about it than Myles was.

    Kate found the whole situation somewhat odd. She had grown up in the uncreatively named Milltown. There had only been one family who wore yellow bands there. For as long back as Kate could remember, nobody had really bothered them. Until the son of the family had started a barfight. Kate shuddered.

    Mercy seemed to pick up on the tension that had suddenly sprung up in the room because she loudly declared that she was going to bed. Mercy was in many ways the glue of their little group, and her declaration sent everyone else wondering over to their rooms too. Before Myles could escape back into his room though, Kate walked over and tapped on his shoulder. ¡°Do you have a minute to talk?¡±

    Kate could tell that Myles just wanted to get to bed, but he nodded his assent regardless and followed Kate back to her room where she sat on her bed. Myles stayed standing. Kate awkwardly realized there wasn¡¯t really a good place for him to sit, so, she stood up again.

    Kate hesitated a second before looking up. ¡°How well do you know that girl who saved us earlier?¡± Kate avoided mentioning Reah¡¯s name. Myles would probably give her a fairer answer if he didn¡¯t understand why Kate was interested.

    Myles was somewhat thrown by the question, but he managed to give a response. ¡°That was Reah. I met her when I came here from Candis. I¡¯ve only talked to her briefly. I was surprised she was that strong.¡± As he responded, Myles looked strangely thoughtful, as if he was thinking of something else that had happened.

    Kate nodded to his answer, slightly disappointed. She wasn¡¯t quite ready to give up though. ¡°Do you trust her?¡±

    Myles frowned in thought. ¡°I¡¯m not really sure. I don¡¯t really know her.¡±

    Kate smiled faintly, managing to hold back an irritated growl. When they had been about to die, Myles had managed to keep up a near constant explanation about his construct, but now he had nothing to say!?

    Kate reigned in her annoyance. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± She looked down for a second then got up. There was one more thing she had to take care of, and it wouldn¡¯t be fair to avoid telling Myles her intentions. ¡°I wanted to apologize for my comment on that first day of class. I know I owe you and Jane an apology, but I¡¯m too tired to give one right now. You mind if I talk with you two tomorrow?¡±

    Myles turned around without saying anything and quietly left the room. Kate really hoped he was just tired.

 Chapter 20

    Chapter 20

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Silas woke up from his stay in the hospital to find Primrose standing over him, her arms crossed. He just barely cracked his eyes, making an attempt to examine the situation before he revealed he had woken up. There were more than a few things that were bothering him, and Primrose had the answers.

    She knew what was going on at the academy, why there were three wildly different curriculums, why the academy was willing to admit students at no cost, and why all the faculty seemed to be so impressive. Most importantly though, Silas was interested in how Reah could possibly be so powerful.

    There was a reason why everyone wasn¡¯t taught to use the aether space and it largely had to deal with age restrictions. Fundamentally, the young were unable to progress far as arcaners. Depending on the person, you were likely to be unable to start seriously delving until you were somewhere between 15 and 16. With that limitation in place, it was impossible to teach the general public how to use the aether space. Most people in the province were already working a full-time job by the time they turned 16.

    That one concept had major ramifications on the society of the entire province. Instead of long training times, soldiers were rushed into battle as soon as they were deemed advanced enough to have merit in combat. With some members of society able to easily overpower others without access to weapons or resources, the system of requiring anyone who may have knowledge on how to use the aether space to wear a colored band around their arm was initiated. Even the noble class held themselves up as the protectors of the province, validating their status by devoting themselves to becoming truly strong.

    Reah¡¯s strength called a great deal into question. She looked no older than 16, but she had casually demonstrated enough power to make her a valuable military resource.

    Myles¡¯ attempt to observe Primrose before their conversation could begin proved fruitless. She noticed almost immediately, but she also didn¡¯t make a move to hide herself behind a mask of calm professionalism like she usually did.

    ¡°I confess that I am disappointed at your team¡¯s performance, Silas.¡± Without the mask that Primrose usually wore, the statement was actually frightening.

    When Silas had first heard that she had been called by the moniker of ¡®white tiger¡¯, he had done research into the name. It was surprisingly easy to learn of her feats. She was in many ways a legendary figure for the province. Though her name wasn¡¯t mentioned in any history lecture, she had played a large part in the relatively recent railroad war and had been employed by the province¡¯s military ever since. She had apparently been born in the Perralin Empire proper and come here to find work as a mercenary.

    Right now, Silas had no illusions that he was looking at the mercenary side of Primrose. Her expression was filled with frustration, and she wielded it like a spear, deftly keeping him off balance, pressuring him to own up to his team¡¯s failure, to explain himself.

    Silas decided to comply with her wishes. Maybe he would be able to steer the conversation in towards the topic of Reah. ¡°We ran into a pack of ogren, but there were too many of them to fight off without injury. By the time we won, we were in no condition to continue the mission.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not interested in what you did, I¡¯m more concerned with what you failed to do.¡±

    Silas felt a slight wave of irritation before he realized he could turn this into a chance to redirect the conversation. ¡°We weren¡¯t strong enough. We might have been able to fend them off without injury if we had as much mana as Reah, but I didn¡¯t even think that was possible at our age. Is there some sort of trick to get strong so quickly?¡±

    A brief look of confusion passed across Primrose¡¯s face, not entirely wiping away the look of frustrated disappointment that she wore but managing to soften it. ¡°Reah? Oh right. I didn¡¯t know she was fond of that name.¡± Primrose gave a slight chuckle of genuine amusement before refocusing on the topic at hand. ¡°Reah is a unique case, and not one where it is my place to discuss. Regardless of that though, I was not discussing your lack of combat strength, but rather your lack of preparations.¡±

    Silas mentally tucked away the tidbits of information about Reah before thinking about Primrose¡¯s response. Ever the master of conversation, Primrose had brought the topic back to where she wanted it. It was this ability to calmly dominate a conversation that had made finding answers to his questions impossible in the past. ¡°What do you mean by preparations? We bought plenty of rations for the mission. We did give away the medicine we purchased away, but in the end, Kate was able to solve that issue.¡±

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    ¡°We will discuss that in class later. For now, I fear that we have gotten ahead of ourselves. I came here to ensure that you did not choose to skip this morning¡¯s class on account of your injury.¡±

    Silas felt his mouth go dry. Their morning class was combat training! With his wound still in the process of healing, it would be reopened in seconds from the intense exercise. Silas couldn¡¯t even walk without leaning on someone.

    Primrose didn¡¯t bother listening to Silas¡¯ protests, instead, pushing him out of bed with a clump of evoked pure mana. Before his knees gave out from under him, pure mana drifted toward him, supporting much of his weight. The arrangement still allowed him to move by himself, but he had to support so little weight that there was minimal risk of hurting himself.

    When they arrived in the basement of Redleaf hall, Silas quickly realize that he wasn¡¯t the only one who was too injured for an intense training session. The group took their spots in the small dueling pits that were the rooms central features.

    Primrose walked up to her spot on a slightly elevated mound at the front of the room. The same frustrated look that was on her face that morning was there now. The group looked away in shame. They all knew how badly they had failed.

    ¡°Your performance in your examinations this month was disappointing, and it will be taken into consideration for your continued enrollment at the academy. That said, I think it important to discuss what went wrong as well as the few things that did go right.¡±

    The group nodded along uncertainly. Silas doubted that he was alone in thinking that they already knew what had gone wrong in their missions.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start with preparation because this is the area in which everyone in this room failed the most. Mercy and Silas, you two have been trained over the last month about the politics of both the local area and the society of our province as a whole.¡±

    Silas nodded in response. It felt wrong to interrupt Primrose¡¯s speech.

    ¡°How did you use these skills to your squad¡¯s advantage during this mission?¡±

    Silas paused. He hadn¡¯t used the skills he had learned from those classes at all, but he had no idea how he could have made use of them.

    While Silas was still thinking, Mercy gave her response. ¡°How could those skills have come into use? We were sent to the middle of nowhere to kill a monster.¡±

    Silas had to agree with that statement. Sure, he had done some research into the town he they had been sent to, but they had never even gotten there, how was he supposed to use politics in the middle of nowhere?

    Primrose shook her head, disappointed. ¡°Let me use the example of another group of students to explain. The group in question follows a different curriculum than you, so, they don¡¯t have team members focusing on politics. Still though, they were able to safely arrive at their destination by pooling their money with another group who was going in the same direction and hiring a passing group of shikari.¡±

    That was interesting. Not only was the tactic quite logical, but Primrose had just acknowledged the existence of the other curriculums within the academy. Since this group didn¡¯t share their politics classes, that probably meant it was one of the groups of nobles. Their curriculum was heavily focused on command and combat.

    Myles spoke up in defense. ¡°That doesn¡¯t really sound like politics to me. Besides wouldn¡¯t hiring others to do the job for you be cheating since this was an exam?¡±

    As much as Silas admired his friend from speaking up, he knew he was wrong. As Primrose responded, Silas thought through the issue silently. To his first objection, hiring shikari may seem like an ordinary transaction on the surface, but it was a lot more involved. Because of the travelling nature of a shikari¡¯s work, it was hard to find information about their reliability. Narrowing down which group of available shikari to use was a skill in itself. A wrong assumption could lead to being extorted for money halfway across the voidlands or a loss of life if the shikari weren¡¯t competent enough for the task at hand. Managing to convince another squad to invest into the plan would also take a degree of skill.

    As for hiring others being cheating, Silas got the impression that the faculty were far more interested in results than process. The whole academy was unusual after all. Nobody here would be bothered by the use of unconventional methods.

    Primrose continued on. She seemed to have something to say to everyone. Myles and Jane both got an earful for not bringing along any of the aether constructs they had created. Seth was made to explain his thought process behind following a herd of rock deer without coming up with suitable countermeasures for their abilities.

    As the time wore on, Silas found a theme. Despite being their combat teacher, Primrose was much more interested in how they used their other skills to carry out the mission. It was a painful process as she went over various hypotheticals and how other students had performed differently.

    The exercise was extremely valuable though, and Silas found himself paying close attention throughout. Each reminder of their shortcomings stung, but it was also followed by advice on how to improve. The main takeaway was that they needed to be more conscious of their skills and use them better.

    When Primrose finally finished discussing their failings, she turned to their successes. It was hard to ignore how few these were. Kate and Myles were praised for how they reacted in the aftermath of the attack, combining knowledge to quickly create a means to make the odds of detection much smaller before using Kate¡¯s unique skillset to prevent infection in her teammates. Mercy was given grudging credit for her leadership in turning the team aside from their main objective, deeming it too dangerous after they were all hurt in the run-in with the rock deer. Instead, they had managed to make their way downstream of where the plaguetoise polluted the water and constructed a rudimentary filtration construct at the entrance of a stream. The result was that the village afflicted by the poisoned river was able to obtain water from the stream albeit at greater risk. Primrose also mentioned that their filtration construct would not last longer than a week.

    After discussing the results of their work, Seth seemed bothered by something. ¡°What will become of the missions since we failed? Will soldiers be dispatched to resolve the issues?¡±

    Primrose shook her head in response. ¡°The missions you were assigned this month were made from requests that could not be handled by the province¡¯s military. There will be no further response to the problems at hand. You can expect a similar situation in most of your monthly examinations.¡±

    Silas felt a surge of guilt. They had originally been tasked with investigating a series of attacks by an unknown monster. Now that they had failed, the attacks would continue. Silas had known the military was understaffed from his class on politics. It was a lasting impact of the railroad war. Still though, this was a harsh truth to face.

    Heads turned down in shame as the reality of the situation settled in. They may have been inexperienced students, but they had been the last hope of an entire village. If they had studied harder or used their skills more effectively, they may have been able to help more. Now, strangers would suffer for their failure.

 Chapter 21

    Chapter 21

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    As the combat lesson wrapped up, Kate began to feel whatever Reah had done to her start to wear off. The pain came in slowly, but every student in the room was injured. The grand total of that pain would be unbearable, but even the little bit that Kate felt now was aggravating.

    Reah had said that she would learn what her affliction was during today¡¯s lesson. So far, the combat lesson had told her nothing about her affliction.

    The usual break between combat training and their aether space lesson wasn¡¯t given today. Instead, Primrose gathered everyone in a close circle around her, asking them to settle into the same delving pose they had used for the past month. ¡°Close your eyes and reach into your aether space. Feel your way to the deepest part of your mana well.¡±

    Kate followed the instruction carefully, ignoring the pulses of pain that came from around her. Kate focused on the bottom of her mana well. Like always, it remained stubbornly in place. If the membrane of the aether space she had dug the well into was dirt, it felt like she had hit bedrock. No matter what she did, the membrane there refused to erode away.

    ¡°By this point you all should have reached the point where you can¡¯t dig your mana well any deeper, correct?¡±

    Kate was surprised to find that everyone in the group was nodding along. She had embarrassingly thought the problem was unique to her.

    ¡°What you are sensing is a natural barrier. These are commonly referred to as subfloors. They occur several times in your aether space as you delve deeper and deeper. We don¡¯t know how many there actually are, but the average human is only capable of breaching 5 of these. Breaching the sixth subfloor requires beyond human capabilities. There have been a few recorded instances of humans being able to overcome this, but, as of yet, there is no reproduceable method of doing so.¡±

    In their delving sessions the previous month, Primrose had stressed the importance of deepening their mana well as much as possible first. Kate had a suspicion that she had been pushing them to reach this first subfloor as quickly as possible.

    ¡°The method of breaching the first subfloor is relatively simplistic, but it is very draining. Within your mana well, start gathering all of your mana and condensing it into a tiny point.¡±

    Kate pulled her mana into the middle of her mana well and began the process of compacting it together. The effort required to do so was great and Kate felt pinpricks of sweat start forming on her forehead. She managed to resist the urge to wipe them away, instead continuing the process of bring all of her mana into one point. At a certain point, when Kate tried to compress more mana into the same spot, some leaked out.

    ¡°If you have difficulty condensing all of your mana, wrap a layer of mana around the entire process and slowly squeeze.¡±

    Kate followed the advice and found that she was able to condense more mana in. Still though, as she kept adding more mana, the effort to do so was rising. Kate was quickly forced to wrap the small ball of condensed mana in more and more layers, each applying pressure to the one underneath.

    Primrose waited for a while, carefully studying the students faces for indications of their progress. ¡°When you are able to condense all of your mana into one spot, channel it into your subfloor and break it apart.¡±

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    Kate finished the process, channeling the tiny point of mana that seemed to fiercely glow in her mind¡¯s eye into her subfloor. Something in her cracked. Where before Kate felt like the aether space was completely separate from her body, now the lines between the two were somehow blurred. Kate held herself together and pushed the ball of mana through her subfloor, tearing it apart.

    As soon as she finished tearing through her subfloor, completely draining her mana in the effort, Kate collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. As tired as she was, Kate was still eager to explore the new feeling that breaking through the subfloor had given. She quickly came to realize that there was what seemed like a hairline fracture where the subfloor used to be. Somehow, Kate could feel herself on the other side of the fracture.

    Everyone finished around the same time. Despite how draining the event was, it took a remarkably short time to accomplish.

    With the entire group was slumped over, Primrose stepped away for a minute to give them a little time to recover. When she returned, she carried the same cup of tea she had drank from during their first class.

    ¡°Congratulations. You have all just stepped fully into the realm of arcaners. How do you feel?¡±

    A collective groan came from the group.

    Primrose took a sip from her cup with what looked like a smile of genuine amusement. ¡°We should continue the class. What you have just done was a significant first step. In Rork, nobody is allowed to act as a soldier in any official capacity until they have broken through the first subfloor. Does anyone have a guess as to why that may be?¡±

    Mercy was the one to respond. The strain of breaking through her subfloor was easy to pick up in her voice. ¡°Does it have to do with the weird crack in the aether space?¡±

    ¡°It does, but I was looking for a more practical answer. Think back to your missions. What were you lacking the most when you were in a combat situation?¡±

    Kate answered immediately. After spending days locked up, feeling every injury her squad had, she had seriously considered the problem. ¡°We lack defense. We can evoke pure mana, but its reactive in nature. When facing great numbers, we have no means of ensuring we can escape the fight without serious injury.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly right. The ¡®weird crack¡¯ that you mentioned is called the first connector. It fundamentally links your aether space to your body. When used with pure mana, an arcaner can keep a highly efficient suit of pure mana around their body. The connector works both ways, meaning you can both send mana into your body and pull mana from your body back into your aether space. This process is called commutation¡±

    Kate had a sudden thought. If breaking through the first subfloor revealed the first connector, did that mean that breaking through other subfloors would reveal other connectors?

    Before Kate could voice her thought, Primrose took another swallow from her cup and continued on. ¡°We call the commutation connector the first connector, but it is technically not the first connector. When you originally created your mana wells, you gained access to the evocation connector. That connector is a one-way connection between your aether space around you. Because it is only one-way, it is far more difficult to perceive.¡±

    Kate reflexively looked into her aether space, trying to find another tear in her aether space, but she couldn¡¯t sense anything.

    Primrose seemed to weigh something for a second before she continued. ¡°What I¡¯m about to tell you isn¡¯t common knowledge within this province. I, myself, only know about it through my training in the proper Perralin empire. I had originally planned on teaching this much later, but¡­Reah¡­told me that this bit of information directly impacted one of you, and she happens to be uniquely qualified to know such things.¡±

    Kate felt a chill as Primrose looked directly at her.

    ¡°Would you mind telling us about your ¡®affliction¡¯, Kate?¡±

    Kate felt the weight of her dormmates¡¯ eyes on her. She had known that this moment was likely to come, but it was hard to talk about it. How many times had she tried to explain her affliction? How many times had she been laughed at, yelled at, accused of avoiding her responsibilities? In the moment, Kate clammed up. Then a hand fell on her shoulder.

    ¡°I think I know what you¡¯re going to say. I¡¯ll support your claims, so, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    Kate looked back to see Myles give her a respectful nod. That was all the support she needed. ¡°When others get injured around me, I can feel their pain as if its my own.¡± It was a simple statement, but she could already see skeptical looks forming on the other students.

    Myles seemed like he was about to bring up a point, but Primrose beat him to the punch.

    ¡°Kate is telling the truth, but what she calls her affliction is in fact a one-way connector. That said, it is not a connector that can be artificially opened¡ªat least not with any method we know of. The evocation and commutation connectors are examples of what are called material connectors. They connect the aether space to the physical world around us. There is another type of connector that is not commonly known. These connectors connect the aether space to the larger aether. One such connector brings in the mana that fills your wells. Kate¡¯s affliction is actually the result of being born with another of these types of connectors open, one that most people do not have open. This connector brings in a trickle of mana from the aether spaces of other people. Since humans have a strong connection between their mind and their aether space, that mana comes bearing certain sensations such as pain.¡±

    Kate wanted to believe the explanation, but she had a hard time. She still wasn¡¯t certain that her affliction could be caused by her aether space. Still though, the explanation had been presented in a logical way. It made sense that the mana the flowed into her aether space had to come from somewhere.

    ¡°Starting tomorrow, you will work with Reah to learn to use your connector.¡± Primrose suddenly produced an incredibly hot flame in the palm of her hand, causing her tea glass to melt. She flung the melted substance at herself. Before it impacted, a thick armor of pure mana started rotating around her body, blocking the liquid, sending it to the sand below which rapidly turned to glass under the heat. ¡°In the meantime, we will work on commutation.¡±

 Chapter 22

    Chapter 22

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Kate found it difficult to commute mana around her. To create the armor that Primrose had shown them earlier, two layers of mana were needed to rotate in opposite directions. With both layers active, the small gaps left in each layer were supposed to constantly meet around the eyes, ears, and mouth, allowing sight, hearing, and breathing to be unimpaired by the armor without sacrificing its defenses elsewhere around the body.

    Keeping two layers of mana commuting through her body at once actually meant that she had to use the connector in four different places, one to send mana and one to take it back for each layer. Beyond that, a single error in the pattern could lead to the gaps not matching up, causing temporary blindness, hearing loss, or the inability to breathe. It was the last that bothered Kate the most. Every time it happened, she started to involuntarily panic and retract all her mana back into her aether space, forcing her to start creating the armor again from scratch.

    The others were having similar difficulties. To their credit though, nobody gave up. It was likely an effect of Primrose¡¯s lecture earlier and their performance in the recent exam. Everyone seemed to be desperate to master the technique, to grow stronger so that they wouldn¡¯t fail so miserably next time.

    By the end of the lesson, everyone in the group was able to maintain an imperfect version of the armor. Occasionally someone would block off their airway and drop their armor, but those incidents had at least grown far less common than when they had started.

    Kate noted how little mana the technique took to keep active. If she had been evoking mana in the same quantities, she would have lasted less than a minute, but by commuting, she was able to recycle the same mana over and over again. Sure, any mana lost while outside her aether space couldn¡¯t be recovered, but unless Kate was suddenly punched or something, the mana wouldn¡¯t be consumed very fast. In fact, even with how small her mana well was, Kate was able to maintain the armor indefinitely provided she could maintain its structure without messing up.

    Primrose had one final curve ball to throw at them by the end of the lesson. ¡°This technique is one of the most important that you will learn. Even as you grow stronger, pure mana commutation will remain your primary defense. As such, I want you to continue practicing the technique throughout the day. I expect each of you to have this technique mastered within the week.¡±

    The task before them was daunting to say the least. Keeping the armor active was a constant mental exercise. Keeping it active at all times was like trying to maintain a slow jog throughout the day. It wasn¡¯t all that fatiguing but continuing to do so for long periods of time would build that exhaustion quickly.

    That wasn¡¯t the only difficult task Kate had to take care of today though. She had promised to give an apology today, and now was her only window to have a sizeable conversation. With that in mind, Kate walked over to where Jane and Myles were talking. ¡°Myles, Jane would you guys mind if we grabbed lunch together today?¡±

    Jane raised her eyebrows in a very unfriendly look. She seemed about to say something when Myles gave her a subtle nod. Instead of whatever she had been about to say, Jane just nodded.

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    The three found an isolated seat in the cafeteria. It was fairly easy to find a table that was out of earshot from others due to the lack of students in the cafeteria. It seemed like there were only 3/4 as many as the previous month. Kate remembered how busy the infirmary had been. It almost wasn¡¯t surprising that there were so few students around.

    Once they all had food, Kate began. ¡°Before anything else, I want to apologize for my comment on the first day of class. By assuming that you knew how to use the aether space, I both displayed a lack of trust in you and essentially called your family criminals. I was wrong to do so.¡±

    Jane nodded slightly, not having touched her food. She seemed less than convinced with the apology. ¡°If that is the case, why did you say what you did in the first place, and more importantly why did you wait so long to apologize? Did you really distrust us for that long?¡±

    Kate shrank in her seat a little. Jane was almost always quiet, but she could certainly hold onto her anger. ¡°I didn¡¯t distrust you for long, and I quickly realized I shouldn¡¯t have distrusted you at all, but I didn¡¯t apologize because well...up until last night, I had been planning on leaving.¡±

    The look of confusion and betrayal that went across Myles¡¯ face hurt a little. They may not have been on perfect terms, but they had worked together to survive in the voidlands. ¡°I knew that the life of a soldier would keep me around injuries too much for me to handle.  I talked to Reah last night though, and she gave me hope that there might be a way to control my affliction. As soon as I decided to stay, I realized that I needed to apologize.¡±

    Jane nodded as if allowing her the point. ¡°I don¡¯t like it, but considering your situation, I suppose I can understand.¡±

    Kate shrank in her chair a little more. The next part would be the real rough part, but if she wanted to be forgiven, then she would have to tell it. ¡°I think that the reason I said what I did relates to my past experiences with yellow bands. I grew up in a small town called Milltown. There were no soldiers there, and only a single family of yellow bands. Apparently, one of the family members had been a soldier that died in the war.¡±

    Kate noticed that a look of sorrow passed across Myles¡¯ face.

    ¡°One day, a young man from this family had a little too much to drink and got in a fight with a few of the other customers. I wasn¡¯t there when it went down, but I felt the results. In the middle of the fight, the man started shooting flames. The entire building caught fire. My mother happened to have me helping her in her clinic at the time. Fifteen people died in our clinic that day. Because of my affliction, I could feel all of their pain. Beyond that though, I could feel the moment they died.¡±

    Kate sat in her seat for a moment without looking up.

    Myles leaned over the table. ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    Kate nodded silently, slowly looking up.

    Jane waited for Kate to pull herself together. ¡°After hearing your story, I understand why you said what you did, and since you gave an apology, I¡¯m willing to look past the issue.¡± Jane raised a finger, then used a stronger voice than Kate had ever heard come from Jane. ¡°That said, if you want me to accept you, you¡¯re going to have to prove to me that I can trust you.¡±

    Myles looked up in alarm, apparently guessing where Jane was going with this. ¡°Jane there¡¯s no way we can ask that. It¡¯s way too dangerous.¡±

    Jane turned to him. ¡°Do we really have a choice? We need monster cores if we want to create any construct that isn¡¯t entirely powered by pure mana.¡±

    Myles nodded in reluctance.

    Kate was starting to get an idea of what they were getting at. The idea made her nervous, but that was sort of the point. She had to prove that she was worthy of their trust. This mission would both prove that and help them with their work. After seeing what Myles had been able to accomplish on their last mission, Kate was happy to take the risk. ¡°You want me to help you obtain monster cores then?¡±

    Myles nodded. ¡°To be specific, we need to get our hands on a few fire cores. Enough to experiment with and create at least two constructs.¡±

    Kate nodded. She would have to do some digging to find a monster that they were both strong enough to fight and that had a fire core. It would be tough, but Kate agreed anyway. She would find them their monster, and she would prove that she could be trusted. She was glad to have something to different to focus on. Kate would take monster hunting over serious apologies any day of the week.

    The trio ate quietly before heading out. As they were about to split ways to head to their afternoon classes, Kate was surprised to get a hug from Jane.

    As they hugged, Jane whispered into her ear. ¡°When you were talking about that day, you were shaking. I thought you might need a hug.¡±

    Kate nodded, awkwardly stepping away from the hug. As she did, Kate messed up the pattern of her armor, causing her vision to go dark. She wasn¡¯t upset though. The thick mana would hide the tear that slid down her cheek.

 Chapter 23

    Chapter 23

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    A slab of basium sat untouched on the bench, the aether forge at their station was left cold. Myles sat with Jane at their station, planning. After their class that morning, they had resolved to create constructs that could be useful for their missions. With the armor they were all trying to master, a defensive construct seemed like it would be redundant.

    Instead, they turned towards studying constructs that could be used offensively. Their professor had refused any group that asked for a blueprint of any kind to create a construct, so, they would have to create their own design.

    The aether index sat before them, opened to a page filled with runes related to fire mana. The two were pondering a troublesome issue. None of the runes could be used safely without infusing them with precise amounts of mana. While the runes they had worked with to create basic batteries before had the same requirement, they had been working with pure mana. When a rune was overloaded with pure mana, the rune failed and released all the mana it had been infused with. That wasn¡¯t a problem with pure mana, but fire mana was highly volatile.

    If they infused a fire rune with too much mana, it would violently explode. If they infused it with too little, the rune wouldn¡¯t be activated. Either way would result in the construct failing. The only way to create a working construct was to provide the exact amount of mana needed to power each rune.

    Unfortunately, they had no means to measure the mana needed. While their mana wells had started off the size of one standard unit of mana, they had quickly grown. At a guess, Myles would put his current capacity somewhere around 155 units. He was far from certain on that though. By nature, delving slowly eroded away at the edges of his mana well. It wasn¡¯t a controlled increase, and it was impossible to keep an accurate record of how much mana you had.

    Myles looked to Jane who was still studying from the book. ¡°We need to find a way to measure our mana.¡±

    ¡°I know, but I¡¯m not sure how to do it.¡±

    The pair heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Professor Hazel had a very unusual style to teaching. Instead of lecturing them, he allowed them free reign to learn and create what they pleased. On occasion, he would wander over to each workstation, asking for a progress report and usually giving a lecture on some seemingly unrelated aspect of aether engineering.

    ¡°It looks like you two are planning something. Do you mind filling me in?¡±

    Myles nodded. It was almost always him who did the talking. Jane had a hard time talking to people she didn¡¯t know well. ¡°We are trying to create a construct that will be helpful for our exam at the end of the month. Since we¡¯re working on mana armor in class, we decided that it would be best to create an offensive construct. We were looking into using fire mana, but we have no idea how to measure a precise amount of mana to infuse them with.¡±

    Professor Hazel scratched his weathered chin. ¡°That is a common problem, but it is also within your capability to solve. I would suggest that you look into mana capacities. That may give you a spark of inspiration.¡±

    Myles had largely ignored mana capacities so far. The ratios determined how much mana could be stored in a cubic inch of material. As you passed certain limits, it would take progressively more mana to store the same amount in the metal. Myles started to feel the slightest bit of inspiration. ¡°Is there a rune that can tell how efficiently mana is being passed into metal?¡±

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    Jane seemed to catch onto the idea as well and smiled.

    Professor Hazel¡¯s eyes gave the faintest look of approval from behind his spectacles. ¡°It is possible to calculate how much mana moves through an object.¡±

    Myles noticed that the answer the Professor had given had not lined up completely with what he had asked. He decided not to say anything about that though. The Professor was most likely giving them a hint on how to move forward.

    The professor seemed to consider their conversation finished and moved onto the next pair.

    As soon as he left, Jane flipped open to the page describing the mana properties of basium.

    After Jane looked the passage over, she glanced at Myles. ¡°You were planning on creating a lot of small batteries, weren¡¯t you?¡±

    Myles nodded. ¡°I thought that if we limited the size of the battery and could tell the moment when it started being less mana efficient to charge, then we could know how much mana there was in it.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense, but the professor mentioned calculating the flow of mana.¡±

    ¡°I think he was giving us a hint.¡±

    ¡°I would agree with that. I think it would be best to focus on the battery first though.¡±

    Myles nodded his assent.

    Jane started tapping her finger against the desk in thought. ¡°We need to be precise down to a single mana unit, so, we¡¯ll need to make sure that the batteries are of the exact right size to hold one unit of mana with perfect efficiency.¡±

    Myles looked at the chart for a minute, running calculations in his head. The general capacity for basium was 100 units of mana for every cubic inch, but he had to keep in mind that fire mana was a sub-type of the energy category, a point that the aether index pointed out at several points in the section on fire runes. That meant that they would need to take the capacity ratio for energy into account.

    ¡°We¡¯ll need to make batteries that are 1/30<sup>th</sup> of a cubic inch.¡±

    Myles nodded. He had come up with the same number.

    ¡°Can we really create a battery that small?¡±

    It was a good question. It was easy to forget the mundane aspect of the process sometimes, but they would have to be the ones to create batteries that small. Still though, Myles thought that he could just barely manage that size. His time spent working in the job shop would come in handy there. ¡°That should be doable.¡±

    ¡°Alright, if we can make batteries that small, the question is how we infuse them with mana.¡±

    The professor had mentioned that they could calculate how much mana moved through an object. If Myles wasn¡¯t mistaken, he had been referring to the mana flow values in the aether index. While a metal could hold a great deal of mana, only a set amount could move through it every second.

    For example, if you had one cubic inch of basium, you could infuse it with any amount of pure mana you wanted albeit with reduced efficiency as the amount exceeded 100 units and even more so as you supplied more and more mana. That said, no matter how much mana you infused, if you tried moving it through another cubic inch of basium, only 25 units of mana would come out the other side for every second that passed.

    That meant that they would somehow need to create a device that could both keep track of time down to the second and a construct that could bring in exactly one unit of fire mana every second.

    The pair spent the rest of the class drawing up various designs to bring everything together. The task was made even more difficult by the need to constantly keep their commuted armor up. By the time they headed back to NorthLeaf hall, they were mentally exhausted, but they had the plans for the design that would allow them to convert an unknown amount of mana from a fire core into a series of tiny batteries that would each contain exactly one unit of mana.

    The device started with the feeder piece. This piece would be inscribed with containment runes that could be powered by pure mana. Unlike how they used containment runes in batteries, these would only limit the direction in which mana could flow. The piece would have the volume of exactly 1/25<sup>th</sup> of a cubic inch, but it would be made to be as long as possible to keep the core¡¯s mana from coming into contact with the rest of the device.

    The feeder piece would carry the mana from the core into the first battery. All of the batteries would be housed in a long tube that was broken into cells by bits of pure mana. The idea to use pure mana to hold each battery up came from the memory of how Reah used mana to create stretchers. Oddly enough, the thought had come from Jane. She had found the story of the event to be far funnier than Myles had remembered it being. Of course, she hadn¡¯t been the one being carried on a stretcher of pure mana.

    The tube would be connected to a pendulum that swung back and forth every second. Myles had once had to create similar pieces when the job shop had been given a large order of clocks. As the pendulum reached the apex of each swing, an attached piece would be caused to move for just an instant. This piece made up half of a rune that kept the pure mana barriers that divided the cells active. Every time it moved, the rune would be temporarily broken, causing the pure mana barriers to drop and the batteries to each fall one cell down the tube with the filled battery falling out the bottom of the tube.

    The design was made, but it would take them awhile to build the device. The main challenge would be the size of the components. Not only would they have to forge the tiny pieces, but they would also have to inscribe them with an intricate series of runes.

    They had to do all of that, design and build the fire constructs themselves, and work with Kate to get the hunt the monster cores they would need to supply their devices. That was a lot to get done in one month, but Myles was willing to put in the work. Sitting in that wagon, he had felt helpless. Myles never wanted to feel that way again. Having a weapon that could shoot fire certainly seemed like a step in the right direction.

 Chapter 24

    Chapter 24

    Grand Fort EastBlock

    The Verith-Candis Railroad

    Rufus Lance wasn¡¯t surprised when he got a call from the acting general. He had been expecting the summons for some time. General Lorn was many things, but unpredictable was not one of them.

    Rufus missed the days when Great General Ford, the unbreakable, had been in charge of Fort EastBlock. He had been far less predictable. Ever since his retirement, Rufus had been a little bored. He almost regretted giving his advice to the man. Still, it might have been worth it to see the duke¡¯s anger.

    The Great General was a man whose power was too great for even the duke to challenge. Still, with how far Ford had taken Rufus¡¯ plan, the duke had nearly gone for him anyway. Rufus was in an especially precarious position. If it were up to the duke, he would have already been replaced, but fortunately, the tycoons in verith were far more reasonable.

    Rufus took his time answering General Lorn¡¯s summons. The man was technically his superior, so, Rufus couldn¡¯t just ignore him, but at the same time, the general hadn¡¯t earned enough respect for him to show up promptly.

    Besides, it was hard to feel as though a message were urgent when you already knew its contents. Rufus¡¯ men had informed him of the event hours earlier which was why he carried a travel bag along with him.

    The whole business wasn¡¯t nearly as important as the general likely thought it was. Sometimes the man needed to relax. Sure, the report had mentioned a powerful marble construct, but that didn¡¯t mean the titan was declaring war on them or anything. Even if that was the case, its not like they would be anything to stop him.

    When Rufus finally wandered into the briefing room, he was unsurprised to see the general speaking with at least ten different officers about some awful event or another. Rufus looked pointedly around the room as general Lorn took his time calling to him.

    When he finally did, the man called out in the deepest, most gravelly voice Rufus had ever heard. ¡°What are you looking for?¡±

    Rufus smiled like a wolf might when a sheep had just stepped right in front of its mouth. ¡°I was just looking for a mattress. I never seem to find you anywhere but here, so, I assumed that you sleep here.¡±

    General Lorn ignored him, turning straight to the matter at hand. Rufus had a hard time believing it, but it almost seemed like the general didn¡¯t like him. Rufus had no idea why that was. He was nothing but kind and generous to the poor general.

    ¡°I trust you already know about the unknown monster that broke through one of our checkpoints.¡±

    The general was learning. Rufus was impressed. When he had first been starting out, the general had been surprised every time Rufus had known the details of a situation. It had been entertaining at first, but the game had eventually gone stale. Now, the man held no doubt that he was aware of the attack.

    On reflection, Rufus realized that he might be drawing such a conclusion from the extremely obvious travel bag he carried over his shoulder. ¡°I imagine that you would like me to track the beast down for you.¡±

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    General Lorn frowned slightly but nodded all the same. ¡°Yeah. I want you to gain what information you can on it.¡±

    There was something else going on with the general¡¯s expression. He had something else he wanted to discuss. Something he couldn¡¯t say around the others in the room. Rufus was surprised to draw a blank for a second before he remembered the report that he had been given.

    It wasn¡¯t something the general couldn¡¯t say around the others, it was something the general couldn¡¯t say around anyone. Rufus tried to give the poor general a reassuring look. He had no need to worry. Rufus was an impeccable servant; he had no need to be told something. He already knew it all. After all, that was the job of the minister of education.

    ¡­

    The Voidlands outside of Hydrabridge

    The heart of the Rork province

    The Ivory Force silently sensed his way through the temporary camp. He could have simply killed the soldiers posted here, but that would be counterproductive. He had no reason to oppose their mission. In fact, he wanted them to succeed. That was why he was here in the first place.

    His job today was to save these soldiers lives. One of his less agreeable associates in the organization had modified one of the constructs. When one of the soldiers tried to use it, the whole squad would be blown to bits.

    His associate considered it to be a subtle method. If the soldiers¡¯ deaths were caused by a malfunction, there would be an investigation team sent, not a team of reinforcements. The idea was to delay the province¡¯s response to the bandits in the north.

    The Ivory Force carefully pulled the construct from its place in the heart of the camp even as he monitored the surrounding area. There were very few arcaners who could match the range of senses that the ivory force possessed. This was rarely important.

    Tonight happened to be a night when senses as good as his came in handy. As he stuffed the sabotaged construct into a bag he had brought for just that occasion, the ivory force felt an entity of solitary will sprint into the range of his senses.

    As he silently left the camp behind to meet the being in combat, he took in its features. Bulky carapace covered the humanoid figure and great claws as long as swords hung at its sides from arms that remained still despite the creature¡¯s high speed.

    The Ivory Force began commuting more pure mana to bulk up the armor around him. The twin curved blades that he pulled from his sides seemed to appear out of nowhere, but he knew they had remained there the entire time. The blades were unadorned with runes. They didn¡¯t need them. The blades were intended to act as catalysts for his techniques rather than additional weapons.

    The creature was fast, but using a little force mana, the ivory force was still able to out speed it. The creature was strong, but his armor could withstand its blows. All in all, the monster was dangerous, but wasn¡¯t a threat to him at least not while he knew it was coming.

    Of course, that was the moment when it happened. Marble spikes pierced out from the monster with incredible speed and power, enough to be a noteworthy threat. The Ivory Force evoked waves of force using a technique. He didn¡¯t just blast the pillars with a basic wave of it. Instead, he carefully hit the pillars from several directions at once, using less mana to break each pillar than he would have otherwise. The distinction was very important right now as the pillars didn¡¯t stop after the first wave. They kept coming in a constant stream.

    The Ivory Force moved forward with waves of force breaking the marble to pieces as fast as it could form. Behind him, he could hear the beginnings of stirrings within the camp along with shouts of alarm. That was bad. He may have been helping those men, but he knew that they would be just as likely to attack him as they would be to help him kill the monster.

    It was fast becoming clear that this monster was no ordinary beast. The carapace that defended it was thick enough that even when he broke through the thick layer of pure mana protecting it, it took next to no damage. The only way to take it down would be piece by piece, applying forces from multiple directions at once to break a limb. With the marble attacks coming at him continuously, there was no time to muster such an attack.

    Instead of continuing an assault, the Ivory Force backed away, focusing on defense and conserving mana. Already, the soldiers had arrived to watch the battle, but they seemed content to watch from a distance. That wouldn¡¯t last for long.

    Evoking air mana was usually not a good combat option. While it could spread over a large area with minimal mana use, it was not much more effective at attacking an enemy than normal air was. There was however one main advantage that air mana had over virtually every other type of mana. It could be used to sense the area around you in detail. It was for this reason that the Ivory Force began evoking large quantities of air mana.

    Much of it was blown away by the force mana or displaced by the marble pillars, but even then, it allowed him to react to the onslaught faster then he could have with sight. The really interesting information came from the few bits of air mana that reached the monster. They showed that the creature was holding a stone of some kind, a construct from which the marble attacks came from.

    As soon as he found the force, the Ivory Force renewed his assault, knocking the stone from the monster¡¯s grasp and halting the marble attacks. From there, he slowly and meticulously broke through the creature¡¯s thick defenses, launching carefully placed blasts of force from each angle.

    As they saw the creature fall, the soldiers came rushing towards him. By the time they reached the site of the battle though, the Ivory Force was already gone.

 Chapter 25

    Chapter 25

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    It had been a week since they had gotten back to the academy. In that time, Silas had been cleared to leave the infirmary, Myles and Jane had almost finished the pieces needed to build their design, and Kate had been busy working with Reah and trying to find a group of monsters nearby that were weak enough to defeat without too much risk.

    The entire group had almost completely mastered commuting their mana now. A week of constant practice had made keeping the armor up almost second nature. The only time one of them would drop it now was if they were suddenly surprised. Of course, Primrose had deemed that would be unacceptable and had instructed them to start trying to startle each other whenever possible.

    The idea had quickly become a sort of game between them. Now, it was more common than not to walk into the dorm room with the lights turned off only to have someone jump out shouting. On one memorable occasion, Myles had walked into the room where creepy music was being played on a flute. After searching the whole place and finding no one, Mercy had tapped him gently between his shoulder blades. Myles had lost his armor that time, leaving it behind as he leapt into the air in fright. Seth had come out a few moments later, holding a flute with a slight smile. Apparently, Mercy had learned he could play and come up with the whole idea.

    There were other memorable moments as well. Silas had managed to recruit another student to help him scare Kate. In retaliation, she had asked Reah to help her get him back. The result was both hilarious and a little terrifying. The illusions Reah had made were a little too real for anyone to be completely unfazed.

    For the entire week, Primrose had held back from pushing them in their physical combat class. Instead, she had them do light exercises while she talked them through various combat scenarios. Today though, everyone could tell things would be different. The entire group had recovered from their injuries. Even Silas who had been the worst off had bounced back thanks to the incredible skill of the doctors who had attended him.

    Primrose put her cup of tea down and the room fell silent. She made such a habit of keeping it around while teaching, the mere act of putting it down was noteworthy. It meant that she had something serious to teach.

    ¡°You have all learned to use the first four steps of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist to a point of sufficient mastery, so, we will be moving on to the next four steps.¡± Primrose eyed them all as she took up a neutral stance. ¡°When in combat, you will be naturally more attentive. This is normally a very good thing. It will often be what keeps you alive. That said, a clever fighter can use their opponent¡¯s heightened awareness to their advantage. Seth, could I get you to volunteer?¡±

    Seth nodded and stepped up to the front of the class, facing off with Primrose. As he did so, the thin layer of pure mana that he kept active at all times rapidly began to bulk up.

    Primrose nodded to him and had him take a defensive stance. He complied, looking watchful. The sparring match started off with a few blows exchanged. Seth made no move to attack, and Primrose only made use of the first step, a simple palm thrust. Even when she varied her approach or attempted multiple strikes, she didn¡¯t break through his guard.

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    As they continued lightly sparring, Primrose began talking in a calm voice, seemingly unbothered as she continued to send blows in Seth¡¯s direction. ¡°Notice how his defense is difficult to break. There are a few ways that you can get around such a defense. The most obvious ways are to either overwhelm him with enough speed that he can¡¯t block all of your blows or use enough force so that even if he were to block, he would be injured. These can be effective tactics, but when you are facing an opponent who is both faster and stronger than you, they are useless.¡±

    Primrose attacked at the same speed she had been the entire time. She sent two blows at Seth, both of which were blocked, before stepping wide to the right, trying to get around him. Seth reacted easily, rotating his guard to protect against a renewed attack. The only problem was that when Primrose had stepped wide to the right, she hadn¡¯t gone to the right. Instead, the step had almost impossibly taken her straightforward. Primrose delivered a soft blow to Seth¡¯s side.

    The sparring match continued. Primrose had long since drilled into them the idea that the fight wasn¡¯t over until either she said it was, or someone gave in. The blow that Primrose delivered used no mana, so, Seth had taken no real damage from the blow.

    Seth tried to go on the offensive for the first time in the spar, but Primrose simply took a step backwards. When she made to retreat another step, Seth eagerly pursued, but instead of taking her backward, Primrose¡¯s step took her around to Seth¡¯s left side. She delivered another palm thrust.

    The fight continued in this way. Seth would try to make a move, but every time, Primrose would somehow end up somewhere different than where she had appeared to be moving the moment before.

    Eventually, Primrose called an end to the fight. ¡°Did anyone figure out how I managed to get around his defense and offense?¡±

    No one had a good answer. They could all tell that there was a trick somewhere in her footwork, but they didn¡¯t know how it worked.

    When no one was able to answer, Primrose nodded. ¡°The trick is relatively simple, but that is also what makes it so difficult to fight against. The move is called the snake step. It works by evoking a small amount of pure mana to block the direction you are stepping in. The result is that your step ends up being redirected in another direction. This is an effective tactic for outmaneuvering an opponent that can work even if they are faster and stronger than you are.¡±

    Myles watched as Primrose executed the snake step slowly so they could watch the execution. Even knowing what to look for, the amount of mana used was small enough to make it difficult to see. Pure mana was semi-translucent by nature, so, it was a challenge to spot in small quantities.

    After she finished demonstrating the technique, she proceeded to demonstrate three other variations. Calling them variations may have been a bit of a stretch though. The movement of the body and the evocation of mana were completely different with each variation.

    Primrose grinned at the frightened looks she had earned. ¡°The snake step is more than a single step. It is actually the fifth through eighth steps.¡±

    The sighs of relief that echoed through the room were noticeable. They were already busy this month. None of them were confident that they would have been able to master another three steps on top of the snake step.

    ¡°The fifth step is called the advancing tiger snake step.¡± Primrose executed the move again. The move had her stepping to the side only for her to end up going straight. ¡°This step will cause an opponent to react, allowing for an opening.¡±

    ¡°The sixth step is the advancing turtle snake step.¡± Primrose stepped forward but ended up moving backwards. ¡°This is a useful movement option when an opponent is moving to counterattack. It can also be used to create space against an opponent who has an advantage in close quarters.¡±

    Primrose showed off the seventh and eighth steps as well. They were respectively called the retreating tiger and retreating turtle snake steps. They proved to serve similar purposes with the retreating tiger step allowing for a flanking movement and the retreating turtle step allowing for a movement backwards. The different starting direction meant that each step would require the use of a significantly different set of movements.

    As they started out, the results were pitiful. Primrose insisted that they commute their armor in its thickest state while practicing the four steps. The result was a far increased challenge. With the armor creating a buffer between the evoked mana needed to redirect their movement and their own body, finding the right spacing was difficult. Even more so since they weren¡¯t able to look down towards the mana when evoking it.

    The group ended up tripping over themselves more often than they managed to stay upright. All in all, it was a poor start to learning the steps. By the time the combat class ended, Myles had sworn to never again feel relief prematurely. When Primrose had told them that they would only need to learn the snake step this month, Myles had thought she was going easy on them. It was becoming clear that was far from the case. Learning their four steps this month would be an even greater challenge than it had been last month, and they had been complete novices then.

 Chapter 26

    Chapter 26

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Kate was growing increasingly frustrated after each lesson with Reah. She kept telling her to try to follow the pain, to embrace it, but that was the last thing Kate wanted to do. Every instinct she had told her to avoid the pain. She had spent 16 years doing that.

    It made no sense. So far, they had done nothing but delve, the same thing she always did in their aether class. It was frustrating. The only advice she was given was to delve and to embrace the pain. Kate didn¡¯t even know how or if she even could do that if she wanted to. It wasn¡¯t like she could feel the pain coming from somewhere in her aether space. Kate was beginning to think that she had been wrong to stay around.

    Reah hadn¡¯t blocked her affliction off since that first day. She claimed she couldn¡¯t teach her if she wasn¡¯t able to sense the pain coming from her aether space. As far as Kate could tell, the whole situation was like running in circles. She had expected to be able to stop her pain, not try to feel more of it. Not that she had managed to do that either.

    After the first lesson, Kate had been happy to stay around for as long as Reah would continue to teach her. Now though, Kate was the first out the door when the class ended.

    Kate had taken to eating lunch with the rest of her dormmates. She had been surprised to find support in Silas. During the first month, he had refused to have anything to do with her. Kate was beginning to suspect that might have been because Silas was too loyal of a friend.

    He had apparently been upset with her for not apologizing to Myles and Jane. Now that she had though, his tune had changed dramatically. He had eagerly jumped into the game of surprises that Primrose had started with her little exercise. Now, the two of them had an ongoing rivalry between them to see who could one up the other.

    Kate had never really enjoyed herself like this before. Sure, she had to take extra care to not go anywhere near the infirmary, but she found that she could withstand the frequent bits of pain she ran across more.

    Still, Kate was stressed about the upcoming monster hunting that she was planning with Myles and Jane. She had spent hours in the bestiary and many more at the edge of the town, looking for the right sets of tracks. So far, Kate had narrowed their choices down to two, neither of which she was completely convinced they could take.

    Kate felt a familiar pain startup and felt herself rolling her eyes. ¡°You have to try harder than that.¡±

    ¡°Right, right, you can feel my pain.¡± Silas came from behind her, walking quickly to catch up. ¡°You know if I had been trying to scare you, I wouldn¡¯t have tried to do it myself. I was just trying to catch up to you. You stormed out of class as soon as it finished.¡±

    Kate scowled, not at Silas, but at her own feet. ¡°I¡¯m just frustrated. I feel like I¡¯ve been failing at everything lately.¡±

    ¡°Do you not remember saving my life. You did that just last week.¡±

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    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have needed to save your life if I had managed to navigate us across the voidlands safely.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re kidding right? That was my fault. I should have figured out a way to get a shikari along with us for protection.¡±

    Kate shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s not the problem now.¡±

    Silas came closer to put his hand on her shoulder. ¡°Is this about the mission you¡¯re planning with Myles and Jane?¡±

    Kate nodded silently. She didn¡¯t bother asking how he knew. Silas and Mercy were both good at reading people. That was probably one of the reasons why they had been selected for the course they were taking. ¡°From my research and scouting, I¡¯ve narrowed the options down to two groups of monsters, but I¡¯m not confident that we can win either fight.¡±

    ¡°What are the options? Maybe I can catch something you missed.¡±

    Kate almost denied the possibility offhand. After the hours of research she had done, Kate was confident that she was something of an expert on the topic, but she stopped herself. Silas was in many ways the cleverest one in their dorm. Sure, he had a lot of competition for the title, but Kate couldn¡¯t deny that he might see something she had missed. ¡°The first option is a group of flamegons. They are a thankfully very distant cousin of hydras.¡±

    Silas froze for a second. ¡°A cousin of hydras!?¡±

    Kate shook her head. ¡°A very, very, very distant cousin of hydras. They¡¯re only like three feet tall.¡±

    Silas took a breath of relief. Hydras were one of the few monsters that were listed in the highest tier of the bestiary Kate had been given. Monsters in that tier were more forces of nature than monster. A single hydra would likely take the combined forces of the entire Perralin empire to even steer away. It was no wonder that Silas was relieved to hear that the flamegons were far less of a threat, but Kate knew that they were still likely too much for them to handle.

    ¡°Flamegons each boast a set of three heads. The monsters are exceptionally slow, but they made up for it in their defense. They can¡¯t regenerate a head like a hydra can, but they are apparently known to recover from minor wounds by rapidly cauterizing their injuries.¡±

    Silas nodded along seriously. ¡°That does sound difficult to deal with. We would need to deliver a decisive blow.¡±

    Kate sighed in frustration. ¡°That would be a great idea, but I can¡¯t figure out a method that we could use to accomplish that. Their scaly hides would protect them from most conventional weapons, and all we have are conventional weapons.¡±

    Silas nodded. ¡°I agree with you that we would have difficulty dealing with them.¡±

    Kate couldn¡¯t help but notice that Silas had included himself in the statement. He really was too loyal of a friend. He might have recovered enough to be able to handle some practice in their combat class, but that was a lot different from fighting against monsters. Kate didn¡¯t bother arguing. They would have to find a way to convince him not to come during the hunt later. ¡°The second option is a pack of cinderwolves. They would be much easier for us to kill since they have about the same resilience as a normal wolf, but they also have too potent of an offense for me to be comfortable with.¡±

    Silas nodded slowly. ¡°What is their offense?¡±

    ¡°Imagine a normal wolf pack. They have speed, pack hunting mentality, and considerable strength.¡±

    Silas looked on in consideration.

    ¡°If you set that wolf pack on fire and give them the ability to spit fireballs, you¡¯ll have a pretty good idea how dangerous these things are.¡±

    Silas cursed. ¡°That would be bad. I¡¯m not sure how well our pure mana will hold out against fire.¡±

    Kate felt an itch from where her burn had healed. She resisted the urge to scratch it. She didn¡¯t need to be reminding herself of how she had fared against the vexenaught¡¯s fireball. ¡°Even with our armor active, the fire would burn through our pure mana armor as easily as dry leaves. I think we could only take one or two hits before we run out of mana, and that¡¯s assuming we take them in the right way.¡±

    Silas shook his head. ¡°It sounds like we don¡¯t really have any options at all.¡±

    Kate nodded her head sullenly. ¡°I think you¡¯re right, but I don¡¯t want to admit it. Having a fire construct along with us would be extremely useful for our next mission. Besides, after what I said at the start of the year, I need to prove to Jane and Myles that they can trust me.¡±

    Silas grinned. ¡°I just came up with an idea. I think we¡¯ve been looking at this wrong.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    Silas smiled widely. ¡°This isn¡¯t a problem we can solve with any more knowledge of the monsters. This is a problem for my skillset.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    They were walking into the cafeteria now and Silas made a gesture around them, indicating the other students. ¡°We don¡¯t have to do this alone. If we would find a fire construct useful, then it makes sense that most of the students here would to.¡±

    Kate was starting to catch on now. ¡°You want to recruit more people to fight with us.¡± Kate considered for a second. ¡°We would need to pay them though, and in case you hadn¡¯t noticed, no one in our dorm is exactly wealthy.¡±

    Silas shook his head. ¡°We don¡¯t need to pay them with money. They¡¯ll work with us for the chance to get their hands on a construct.¡±

    That was it. Kate felt a smile crossing her lips as she grabbed a table. She would need to get Myles and Jane on board with the idea, but it was the first plan that actually had a chance of success.

 Chapter 27

    Chapter 27

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Finding students who were willing to help with the hunt was going to be harder than he had made it sound. While it was true that the other students would value a fire construct, helping with the hunt would require them to risk their lives. That was asking a lot.

    Silas had been investigating the three curriculums the academy used. One of them was comprised of nobles. Unlike the other two groups, their courses focused entirely on command and combat. The second group was made up of commoners. Each of them took the same courses as Silas and his dormmates did, but the difference seemed to be in the focus of combat training. Rather than the training being on making each individual more capable in combat, that curriculum focused on heavily on group tactics.

    That left their curriculum. It was by far the smallest with only half as many students as the other curriculums.

    The other two curriculums seemed to represent the two major factions in the province, the nobles of Rord and Candis, and the conglomerate of faces, Verith¡¯s ruling assembly made up of the most prominent wealthy merchants in the city.

    If that was the case, Silas had no idea what their curriculum signified. As far as he could tell, the students were mostly commoners, but a few nobles had been mixed into the group. Silas was reminded of what Myles had told him at the start of the previous month. He had been approached by the son of the Maston noble family.

    Silas had done some digging and found out the young man was highly regarded. He was oftentimes out of town conducting business, but it was this business that had begun to bring wealth to the people of Maston. He was apparently a large reason as to why the academy had been able to acquire all the resources it had.

    Silas had tried to pay the man a visit earlier that week. His mention of a third faction in the Rork province bothered Silas. Whatever faction this was, Silas had a feeling that their curriculum was tied as closely to it as the other curriculums were tied to the other two factions. Unfortunately, Silas hadn¡¯t been able to see the noble. True to the rumors Silas had heard, he seemed to be out of town on a business trip.

    The difference in the three curriculums was an important consideration for Silas while finding people who might want to join their hunt. The groups that had access to their own aether engineers would want to entrust them with building a construct rather than allowing Myles and Jane to do their thing. That might not be a terrible deal. It would decrease the number of constructs they would have to make. That said, they would need to gather more cores if they did that. If the others all demanded the same amount that Myles and Jane seemed to need just to test the construct, they would likely need to hunt down more than one group of monsters.

    Silas kept that in mind when looking for a group to approach. The ideal group would be from the noble curriculum. Kate had determined that they would need at least three or four additional students to make the hunt a success.

    The problem was that Silas only knew a handful of the noble students. He would need to make a well-educated guess.

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    That was why Silas had started walking around the cafeteria. One group of nobles sitting together caught Silas¡¯ attention the most. The group was having a lively conversation. An argument had broken about between the five of them.

    ¡°I told you we needed more firepower. Your pride got in the way again, Alfred. If we had just done what I suggested and hired those shikari, it would be us who raked in the high scores, not those pompous capital dwellers.¡±

    One of the other students, probably Alfred, pounded the table. ¡°We had no reason to trust those shikari. Besides, they may have earned the high scores, but they didn¡¯t bring honor to their family name.¡±

    A third student glared at Alfred and the first student. ¡°Alfred! Jerald¡¯s right, you are acting like a fool. When it comes time for us to join the army, who do you think they¡¯re more likely to give a command to? The ones who fail with honor, or the ones who succeed without it.¡±

    Alfred cursed. ¡°What do you want to do about it, Vance? Even if we did try to outbid them, we couldn¡¯t get enough money. You know as well as I do that they come from noble families in Rord. Our families just can¡¯t compete with those kinds of finances.¡±

    Silas wandered up. This might just be the right group for his proposal. Everyone else he had seen had been content. Sure, they were all jealous of the top-ranking squads, but for the most part, Silas hadn¡¯t heard any groups sound as dissatisfied as these three. They just might be willing to put themselves in danger for a leg up.

    Putting his hand on their table, Silas made to introduce himself. ¡°Hello everyone, my name is Silas.¡±

    The first noble who had spoken, Jerald, shook his head. ¡°Sorry Silas. I mean no offense, but we¡¯re kind of in the middle of an argument here. Perhaps we could introduce ourselves another day?¡±

    Silas gave them a smile, not so big as to be alarming, but not so small as to be missable. ¡°I happened to overhear part of your argument, and I may have a proposal for you.¡±

    Vance seemed to consider him for a second. ¡°What did you have in mind?¡±

    Silas pulled up a chair. Standing over others was never a great idea, but these nobles seemed to have a chip on their shoulder when it came to status. The last thing Silas wanted to do was to appear to be talking down to them. They might just reject his deal out of principle if he came off as too arrogant, but he also wanted to project a sense of self-confidence. ¡°My dormmates and I are preparing to go on something of a hunt.¡±

    Silas held up two fingers. He had no idea if the three nobles were aware of the differences in the other curriculums. ¡°We have two aether engineers in our group, and they believe that they can construct fire constructs provided they have access to monster cores of the right type. We tracked a pack of cinderwolves in the area around town, but we¡¯re hesitant to attack them with our current numbers.¡±

    Vance and Jerald looked interested, but Alfred looked like he had some reservations. ¡°I¡¯m assuming you want us to help you kill these cinderwolves, but what do you plan on offering us?¡±

    Silas grinned. They weren¡¯t rejecting the plan offhandedly. That meant that they were willing to help if the price was right. ¡°The pack has more fire cores than we need for the constructs, but it happens to be too large for us to take alone. We¡¯re willing to create an additional construct for your use.¡±

    Alfred shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s not a bad offer, but we just met you. How do we know that we can trust you?¡±

    Proving trust would be difficult. The usual way that nobles handled a situation like this was to offer collateral in case they failed to meet their obligations to the other party. They used this to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t lose money on a risky trade deal. If a delivery wasn¡¯t successfully made, the buyer would use the collateral to make up for what they had lost. Unfortunately, Silas wasn¡¯t carrying around anything that he could use as collateral for an aether construct.

    Aether constructs were rather valuable devices. They required aether engineers, a limited commodity, to create and there was an extremely high demand for them, especially for the more effective constructs. That meant that they didn¡¯t have collateral that could match up to the value of the construct. On the other hand, Silas knew that this group would be eager to get their hands on an aether construct.

    Silas nodded calmly. ¡°We can¡¯t offer collateral if that is what you are asking, but I will give you my word that we will get the construct to you. If you would like, I can make that promise in front of the faculty.¡±

    Alfred looked like he was about to laugh. ¡°Even if we did make the agreement with faculty as witness, I¡¯m not sure they would enforce it. Our instructors in particular seem to be very focused on results.¡±

    Jerald stuck out his hand. ¡°You¡¯re looking at the deal with a short-term view, Alfred. If this deal were to work out, we would have a partnership that we could trust. I say we take it.¡±

    Alfred grumbled but admitted the point.

    Silas stuck his hand out. ¡°I think we have a deal. I hope this will be the start of a long partnership.¡±

    After they all shook hands, they talked about the operation plan. Silas was surprised to find that the nobles each had some worthwhile contributions to the plan the dormmates had crafted during lunch. Silas had only gone along with the idea of an extended relationship to appease the nobles, but a partnership with these three might be a beneficial arrangement after all.

 Chapter 28

    Chapter 28

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    There was tension in the air. Myles was surrounded by all of his dormmates as they left Maston through its wooden gate. This was the first time any of them except for Kate and Seth who went outside for their monster hunting class had left the town since they came back from their exams.

    As they left, Myles couldn¡¯t help but remember the shape they had come back in after that. The only thing that kept Myles moving forward was the knowledge that this was a calculated risk. They would have to face even more danger in this month¡¯s exam. If they wanted any chance of passing, they would need to do very well. Primrose hadn¡¯t shared any information with them about their scores, but she had been clear that if their performance didn¡¯t improve this month, they would be in serious trouble.

    Myles felt like he was learning more about aether engineering every day. Getting kicked out of the academy was simply not an option.

    The platoon came equipped for the hunt. Myles and Jane had learned their lesson about lack of preparation well. Seth had managed to scrounge up a number of thick branches that Jane had carved into spear shafts. Myles had made the spear tips, forging in the runes to make a sleeve of pure mana for the wood. He would have preferred the entire spear to be made of basium. It would have allowed him more space for rune work and mana storage. Regardless though, he and Jane had infused the spear tips with more than enough mana to keep the spears in one piece for the duration of the fight.

    In addition to the spears, Silas and Seth had been given shields. They had originally been made from old barrels that Mercy had somehow convinced one of the local merchants to give them. Myles and Jane had spent all of their time between creating the spears and the measurement construct to turn the barrels into effective shields. While the shields were largely made up of the wood from the barrels, they had used the last of their basium allowance to attach a front plate. The rune work for the shields had been fairly complex. While the spears had to be manually recharged, the shields allowed for the attachment of batteries.

    Myles and Jane hadn¡¯t had too much trouble convincing the others to help infuse the batteries with their mana. The result was that Silas and Seth¡¯s shields should be solid enough to hold off any attacks the cinderwolves had.

    The plan was to have the two shield wielders act as a barrier and kill point against the pack of cinderwolves. They would each be paired up with the other two members of their squad who would cover any other angles of approach, keeping the rest of the pack at bay while helping the shield wielder to quickly take care of any cinderwolves that attacked from the front. The squad of nobles that Silas had managed to recruit would be a crucial part of the operation. They were acting as a reserve force that could support either squad as the need arose.

    They met the nobles right outside the gate. Kate, Silas, and Mercy had met with the nobles a few times before to solidify their strategy. The introductions were kept brief, but Myles had already heard everything they had learned about the nobles.

    The tallest of the nobles was Jerald Straff. His family ran a medium-sized town west of Candis called Ventore that served as a hub for merchants to trade or safely spend a night on their way to deliver their merchandise. Apparently, Jerald was the first of his family to formally enter into the service of the province though that was largely because protecting Ventore from monsters took up a great deal of time. The straff family had been blessed with enough children to send one to the army though, so, when he had been offered a spot at the academy, it had been the perfect opportunity.

    Alfred Gazole was from a line of nobles that had very distinguished service records in the province¡¯s army. His family didn¡¯t have any lands, but they were counted among the ranks of the lesser nobility regardless. Alfred might have been a little shorter than Jerald, but years of martial training had made him very strong. Myles could see the ease of which he manuevered around with his spear, a far less crude weapon than he carried. It told of long hours of training over the course of years. It reminded Myles of how some of the more experienced men at his old job had looked while wielding their hammers.

    Vance Boreal was the first son of a noble who controlled a small mining town called Lugrave to the west of Candis. The town had strong ties with Ventore and much of the ore that was pulled from Lugrave¡¯s mines made its way through the town. Lugrave had been in control of the Lu family until they had all been killed defending the mines from a horde of monsters a few years back. Because of their sacrifice, the town had been saved. The citizens had renamed the town to honor the fallen nobles. When Vance¡¯s dad had taken over, he had happily kept the new name.

    The group followed the tracks of the cinderwolves. Kate and Seth had both been able to confirm that there were six wolves in total. Even as they moved, they kept to their formations. Myles and Silas watched out for any signs of monsters even as Kate led them forward.

    It took them about an hour of searching before Mercy raised a cry of alarm. The cinderwolves had sensed them long before they had spotted them and had sprung an ambush. Despite that though, all nine members of the group remained calm.

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    Kate had told them to expect an ambush. It was the reason they had stayed in formation the entire trip here.

    If the cinderwolves were surprised to find their enemies organized and ready, they didn¡¯t show it. They charged in from all sides. Three of them targeted the squad of Jane, Mercy, and Seth. One of them ran straight for the nobles. The remaining two cinderwolves came towards Myles¡¯ squad.

    The beasts were exactly as Kate had described them. Intense flames spewed out nearly a foot around them. In some ways, it resembled the pure armor that Myles commuted around his own body. The difference was that their flames were intended entirely for offense.

    The first of the wolves that rushed at them launched a fireball. Silas managed to move his shield into its path, and Myles was happy to see that the shield withstood the blow. Silas¡¯ commuted armor was able to snuff out the few embers that got past the shield.

    Myles didn¡¯t have much time to admire his handiwork though. The second cinderwolf moved around to the side of their formation, into Myles¡¯ territory. Myles had to trust Kate to help Silas fight the first cinderwolf. It was Myles¡¯ job to keep the second one at bay.

    Myles moved to intercept it, but it was faster. It launched a fireball. Myles reached into his aether space and evoked a patch of pure mana. Between the evoked mana and his commuted armor, the fireball ran out of energy. Myles felt the heat of the monster as it charged forward, following its fireball. Myles gave a thrust with his spear and the beast shied away, circling around their formation.

    Myles risked a glance over his shoulder and found that Silas and Kate had managed to hurt the first cinderwolf. One of them had hit it with a spear thrust, but it was still limping along.

    For a brief window, the cinderwolves padded around their formation, keeping them trapped and looking for an opening to strike. Myles remained vigilant, keeping a solid grip on his spear and commuting his armor through his body.

    The training that Primrose had insisted on seemed to be working. Despite the danger they were facing, Myles¡¯ concentration didn¡¯t falter, and his armor kept commuting through him.

    The fight had gone well so far, but Myles was running low on mana. Blocking that fireball had taken a lot of mana. He wished that he could have made battery powered shields for everyone, but they hadn¡¯t had the time or enough metal to work with.

    The non-injured monster charged towards Kate. Myles moved as soon as he recognized the attack. Kate and Silas both moved as well, rotating their formation so that the monster charged straight into Silas¡¯ shield. Myles dashed forward and speared the beast. The pure mana surrounding the wooden shaft of his spear was just enough to prevent it from catching on fire as he thrust it through the cinderwolf¡¯s flames and into its side.

    Myles could hear Kate fending off the second cinderwolf behind him, but he kept his attention on the monster in front of him. Silas was forced to drop his spear and hold the shield with both hands as the cinderwolf launched a vicious assault.

    Myles ripped his spear free from the monster and stabbed again. The creature grabbed the shaft of the spear with its fangs and tore it in two. Thrown off balance by the beast¡¯s strength, Myles stumbled backward. Silas battled forward and bashed the monster with his shield, putting it off-balance. Without pausing, Silas flowed into the second step, tripping the already off-balance monster. Silas¡¯ armor saved him from the burns he would have had to endure otherwise.

    Myles quickly recovered from his stumble, turning his momentum into a jump and delivering a falling javelin kick into the fallen cinderwolf. His blow hit with impact, stilling the creature. It came at a cost though. The fierce fire that he had avoided with his spear burned at his leg. His commuted armor was able to stop the worst of it and his uniform the rest, but Myles could feel the mana burning away.

    In death, the monster¡¯s flames burned out and Myles stumbled back. He started commuting all of his remaining pure mana, but he could feel that his armor was noticeably thinner.

    Myles turned to help Kate, but the second cinderwolf had already fallen back again. Kate bore a small scratch on her. Her armor seemed almost as thin a Myles¡¯ was. Other than that, though, she appeared unharmed.

    Silas picked up his dropped spear. ¡°We need to finish this monster off then go help the others.¡±

    Kate and Myles nodded, and the three charged towards the cinderwolf. With its injuries, it couldn¡¯t avoid their charge and Silas was able to end it with a spear, blocking its last attack with the shield. Silas noticed the mana running low and rapidly grabbed his spare battery from his belt, attaching it to the shield. Pure mana began rippling around it again.

    Myles looked up to see the rest of the battlefield. The nobles had killed the cinderwolf that had charged them then ran to backup their other squad. With the support the nobles had given, it seemed that they had been able to kill one of the cinderwolves.

    The remaining two bore light injuries as they repeatedly rushed in to attack. As he watched, Myles saw one of the beasts attack Vance who was supporting Mercy. She seemed to have a leg wound of some kind. Seth remained steady as he fended off the second beast with help from Jane whose mana looked thinnest of the group.

    Alfred and Jerald tried to catch the rebuffed monster in a pincer attack, but it somehow managed to dance through their blows.

    Kate dashed forward and managed to land a blow. It hadn¡¯t noticed her in its haste to escape the others, but it seemed to escape the worst of the thrust anyway.

    Seth spun around to help Vance with the beast that assaulted him, just in time to block a fireball with his shield. Myles moved into action even as his friends fought. Without much mana left and with his spear shattered, Myles ran for Mercy, allowing Vance to advance under the cover of Seth¡¯s shield.

    Myles stayed ready to defend Mercy from further attack, but it proved unnecessary. Between the combined efforts of Kate, Silas, Jane, Jerald, and Alfred, their monster fell quickly. The last cinderwolf found itself impaled on Vance¡¯s spear, unable to get past Seth¡¯s defense.

    With all the monsters dead, Jane joined Myles to check on Mercy. She appeared not to be heavily injured. Apparently, Mercy had stepped in for Jane, seeing that her mana was running dangerously low. Seth had done his best to keep the others safe with his shield, but he had been forced to engage one of the monsters. Mercy had taken a claw to her leg. Jane repelled the beast, but their formation would have collapsed if the nobles hadn¡¯t been able to rush to their rescue.

    Myles shuddered, glad that Silas had been able to recruit the nobles. Without them, the group would have almost certainly suffered casualties.

    With Mercy¡¯s injury proving to be minor, the entire group let out a breath of relief. They had managed to get through the fight relatively unscathed.

    Kate had set herself to carving out the monster cores the moment the last cinderwolf had perished. Myles noticed that Jane wandered over and began helping her. The two seemed to exchange a few words and Myles felt himself smiling. He had been unsure if the two of them would ever be able to make up, but it seemed that they were well on their way to being friends now.

    The trip back was thankfully uneventful. The moment they stepped back into Maston, the serious atmosphere vanished, and the nobles insisted that the entire group throw a celebration.

    No one opposed the idea. After their first mission, they had all been dreading what might happen.

 Chapter 29

    Chapter 29

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The celebration the night before had perhaps extended a little too long. Primrose clearly knew what had happened because she asked them questions about their performance the night before as they practiced the snake step. It had been half a week since they had started practicing it, and Myles still had difficulty executing it, much less doing so with enough proficiency to be up to Primrose¡¯s absurd standards. The whole ordeal was only made worse by the late night they had all had.

    During their aether class, Myles was glad to take a break from physical training to delve his mana well. He had to remind himself that he had almost run out of mana in their earlier fight to keep himself from dozing off. Reah was there helping Kate to get a grip on her strange connector. Myles had to wonder if Reah had been watching them throughout their entire fight. That was probably the best bet as to why Primrose seemed to know every detail of their battle.

    Lunch was a somber affair. The entire platoon was tired out. In the past, Myles had avoided using that term. It didn¡¯t really feel natural to describe a group of six people. After last night though, Myles was beginning to feel that the word had started to fit them a little better.

    Myles and Jane walked into their aether engineering class with six fire cores in their hands. The device they had built for measuring and storing fire mana sat already assembled on their workstation¡¯s desk.

    Even including his time at Kruezen¡¯s job shop, this device was easily one of the hardest things Myles had ever forged. That was only from a purely mundane side too. It was very intricate with almost every piece of the design being too small for conventional methods. Myles had been forced to pull out almost every trick that he had picked up from his job to create it. Jane had managed to learn as they went. Without her help, Myles would have still been working on it.

    The process of etching the runes into the metal had been perhaps even more challenging than the forging of the actual pieces. For the first few tiny batteries they created, they were forced to reforge every other one. In the end though, they had forged an even 1,000 of the things.

    Right now, the device remained inactive, so, the batteries were in a bucket beside the tube that would normally hold them with pure mana. Jane activated the device and Myles began feeding the tiny cube batteries into the top of the tube. With every swing of the pendulum, the batteries would fall to the cell below and Myles would drop another one into the top of the tube.

    When one finally got to the bottom of the tube, Jane pressed one of the cinderwolf cores into their feeder construct. As she did, the pair started commuting more pure mana through their armor, bringing it to the same thickness it had been when they had fought the beasts the cores had originally belonged to.

    They had read about fire runes extensively and they had come across numerous references mentioning how volatile fire mana could be when evoked in its raw format. They kept their armor thick, hoping that they hadn¡¯t messed up somewhere.

    When the fire mana ran down the feeder construct and infused the battery, Myles looked up and shared a wide grin with Jane. It worked. They had actually been able to measure out and store exactly one unit of mana, at least assuming their calculations weren¡¯t off.

    The process to store all of the mana in the core took several minutes. During that time, Professor Hazel wandered over to watch their progress with a hint of amusement in his eyes. Some of the other students looked their way as well, but the process didn¡¯t hold their attention for too long. Their device was hardly the only interesting construct in the room.

    By the time the monster core was gone, they had 232 filled batteries. Each battery contained exactly one unit of mana¡ªat least in theory. If they took into account the other five batteries, they likely had access to roughly 1,392 units of fire mana.

    They had waited to design their fire construct until they had a good idea of how much mana they had access to. Now, they would need to figure out a design that could be reproduced at least three times with that amount of mana.

    They also had to take into account any mana that might be wasted with a failed construct. It was nerve wracking to say the least. After what they had been through to get their hands on the fire mana, Myles was adamant that they turn it into something useful.

    They looked back through the section on fire runes before starting their plan. Myles noted some of the more interesting runes.

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    The first rune of import was one that could convert pure mana to fire mana. There were actually several runes that accomplished this, but for their purposes, they could only use the cheapest rune.  This rune was less efficient at converting mana than many of the other runes that would take more mana to power. While many of those approached what the book called a perfect conversion rate of 25%, the rune they could use was able to convert a mere 9% of the supplied pure mana into fire mana. Not only that, but the rune also took a full 303 units of fire mana to power.

    If they used that rune on all three constructs, it would take up 909 of their 1,392 units of mana. That left little to work with and no hope of success if they messed up even once. Still though, without that conversion rune, their construct would have little power and no way to recharge without gaining more monster cores.

    Jane eventually spoke. ¡°I think we¡¯ll have to include that rune. Without it, the constructs won¡¯t be very helpful.¡±

    Myles nodded. They really didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter.

    They continued to look through the runes. They knew from building the measurement device that pure mana containment runes could work with fire mana. That left the runes that would actually initiate the attack.

    There were a number of them to choose from. Most of the runes in the book were way outside the realm of possibility they had with their quantity of mana. There were still a few sets of runes that could be used though.

    One of the rune sets that they seriously considered created a constant but relatively weak stream of flame. It would certainly be an effective weapon, but it was hardly the game changer that they had been hoping for.

    The one that they eventually settled on was the simplest of the rune sets, one that produced a basic fireball. The core rune set cost 155 mana, which was barely within their pool of 161 units per construct. The only problem was that the optional connected rune that allowed for control over setting the amount of mana used in each fireball costed an additional 17 mana.

    Without it, they would be forced to make a choice. They could use the attributes of metal to limit the power of each fireball by carefully controlling the mana flow to the runes, or they could ignore the limiter entirely. If they went for the second option, their weapon could only be used once. It would make one massive fireball, depleting all of its stored-up mana at once.

    That wasn¡¯t ideal, but Myles leaned toward that rather than the alternative. The last thing that they wanted was to create a construct that would only be useful for a month or two until they grew strong enough to make whatever level of power they limited it to obsolete.

    They debated over the topic for a while, but ultimately, they both agreed not to set a hard limit to the constructs power.

    The design of the runes was by no means simplistic, but since they had no need to regulate the mana flow within the construct, the actual shape had little importance. If they really wanted to, they could just put the runes on a slab of metal and make that the construct.

    Jane joked about how funny it would be to deliver the basic slab of metal to the nobles as their reward for risking their lives. Myles had laughed good-naturedly, but that brought up a difficult point. The three nobles had genuinely been excellent partners. It somehow felt disrespectful making their construct without any input from them.

    They spent quite some time talking about the best shape to create the construct in. Eventually, they settled on using a tested favorite, a spear. They quickly realized an ironic problem though. They had used so much basium to create all the tools to get the cores and measure the mana that they were running up against their limit on basium for the month. With what they could still get from the academy, all they could make were spear tips.

    The constructs that they had spent so much time creating would end up looking just like the shoddy spears they had made earlier. Myles ran the math in his head again to make sure that he wasn¡¯t miscalculating, but the hard truth remained.

    The two of them drew in the wooden spear shaft in their meticulous design document with heavy hearts.

    ¡°What is this!?¡±

    Jane cringed beside Myles as Alfred exclaimed at the design they had shown him.

    Myles swallowed deeply, feeling his dry throat. ¡°We¡¯re sorry, but we ran into a limit with how much basium we can use from the academy¡¯s stores.¡±

    Alfred looked apologetic. He seemed to be uncomfortable with how much he had scared Jane. ¡°I apologize for my outburst. I was surprised by the physical design, but for the record, I find the construct itself to be quite intelligently designed.¡±

    Jerald nodded along. ¡°My only concern is that the construct will have limited utility in its current form. It also makes me nervous that the construct is so fragile. Would it not be possible to protect the construct itself with a coating of pure mana?¡±

    Myles shook his head. That was an idea that they had discussed, but they didn¡¯t want to risk limiting the power they could use by crowding the construct with pure mana shields. They didn¡¯t want to hit the mana capacity limit if they didn¡¯t have to. ¡°We can¡¯t do that without more metal to use.¡±

    Jerald nodded. ¡°Hypothetically, what would you be able to accomplish if we were able to supply enough basium to make the spears entirely of metal?¡±

    Myles considered for a moment. ¡°For starters, we could add mana shielding to the construct itself. With care, we could make sure that the mana shield would go down when the construct is fired. That would prevent the shielding from decreasing the power of the fireball. We would just tie the trigger for the shielding in with the ones that activate the fireball. We would also create an independent trigger for the shielding to save mana. The last thing that we want to happen is for the shield to be constantly draining mana when it isn¡¯t needed.¡±

    Jerald nodded. ¡°How powerful could you make the shielding?¡±

    Myles smiled. They might actually pay for the basium. ¡°It could be made as powerful as needed. With the entire spear made of basium, there would be plenty of space to store mana. All you would have to do is infuse it with more pure mana.¡±

    Jerald nodded seeming pleased. He had probably seen how effective their shields had been in the battle yesterday. ¡°I think we will pay for the basium provided you can grant us two requests.¡±

    Myles could feel Silas frowning from where he sat behind him. They were striking a hard bargain it seemed.

    ¡°The first is that you come to us first for any future proposals like this.¡±

    Silas nodded, smiling. ¡°We would have done that anyways. You have proven yourselves to be reasonable people.¡±

    Jerald smiled back. ¡°The second is that you use the control rune for our spear. If my calculations are correct, there should be just enough fire mana leftover to power that rune on one spear.¡±

    Myles hesitated. By their estimate, that was true, but not all monster cores had the same amount of mana in them. He didn¡¯t want to promise something he couldn¡¯t deliver.

    To Myles¡¯ surprise, Jane quickly explained that.

    Jerald smiled. ¡°Very well. We will take our chances then.¡±

    Silas stepped forward and gave each of the nobles a handshake. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you.¡±

    Vance smiled ironically. ¡°I never though I would be buying basium.¡±

    Alfred laughed. ¡°At least you¡¯ll know where to get it.¡±

    Vance nodded. ¡°That I do.¡±

 Chapter 30

    Chapter 30

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The last week and a half of instruction proved to be extremely tiring. In the mornings, Primrose would put the platoon through rigorous training that more than made up for their late start in combat training that month. Myles did so many repetitions of the snake step in its different forms, he had to actively stop himself from using it outside of training.

    Their aether space class proved intense as always with Primrose introducing the basics of other mana types. She described how there were five main type of mana that could each be considered subtypes of pure mana. The group was drilled in intense detail about the differences between each of main types to the point where Myles thought he would never forget them.

    Force mana was constantly in directional motion. Primrose described it as having a very rigid structure. In the aether space, it essentially took the texture of a series of flat walls, each following the last with the exact same motion. Primrose described the evocation of force mana to be generally useful for movement and combat.

    Energy mana was similar, but instead of flat walls all moving together, its texture had rough tendrils that chaotically leapt over and around each other. When it came to energy mana, chaos seemed to be a theme. When evoked in its basic form, energy mana was highly unstable, often resulting in explosions.

    Apparently, most subtypes of energy mana followed the same rules. Primrose had demonstrated that by evoking fire mana within a bubble of evoked pure mana. The resulting explosion had made Myles very glad that Primrose had thought to seal it off. It also made him give more credit to the runes they were using on their fire spears. Without the appropriate runes, their spears would simply blow up, un unideal scenario.

    Earth mana was less about texture and motion than it was about density. This type of mana had to be packed down tightly to maintain its integrity. Primrose said that it was highly useful in a variety of situations. Its density allowed an arcaner to use it as a defensive or offensive option. Additionally, it could be used for mobility or traversal.

    Primrose told a story of an arcaner using earth mana to build a bridge. As she told them how the bridge had allowed the arcaner to escape from a horde of monsters, Myles got the distinct impression that Primrose was telling a story about herself.

    Air mana was the complete opposite of earth mana. It needed to be free to roam. This was one type of mana that Primrose praised for its utility. While it was next to useless for either attacking or defending, it could be used for perception. Because air mana wasn¡¯t very dense, it could be evoked over a large area even with little mana. If an arcaner was skilled enough, they could potentially perceive their surroundings by the way air mana interacted with the world.

    Fluid mana was perhaps the most unusual of the mana types. Its density was as important to it as to either earth or air mana, and it needed the proper density to exist. Beyond that though, fluid mana also had a distinctive motion that was in many ways more confusing than either force or energy mana.

    Primrose had fewer stories to tell them about fluid mana than many of the others. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t used quite as frequently. She told them that this was largely due to the lack of utility in its evocation. While it wasn¡¯t unstable like energy mana, it also just wasn¡¯t that useful. That didn¡¯t mean that fluid mana was without benefit though. Some of the more controlled techniques that Primrose described sounded very useful. When asked how they were pulled off though, Primrose smiled and told them they would have to wait to learn that.

    Primrose went through the intricacies of each type along with many of their more common subtypes even as the group was made to delve. They were all required to repeat the information back from Primrose¡¯s randomly posed questions, so, they were forced to learn to listen and delve at the same time.

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    Kate had it worse than most since she was still being tutored by Reah. From what Myles could tell though, she had started making some small progress on her ¡®affliction¡¯. That seemed to keep her extremely motivated, a trait that she definitely needed.

    Lunch was largely spent theorizing what tasks they would be assigned for their end-of-month exam. Kate and Seth insisted that they would be sent to hunt monsters like last time though they never agreed with the other on any of the possible monsters suggested. Those two seemed to have trouble getting along when they were face-to-face.

    Mercy had proposed a theory that they would instead be sent after bandits. She claimed that now that they had unlocked the first connector, the same level as was minimally needed for active-duty soldiers, they would be assigned to face off against deserters or weak bandits.

    Silas seemed to think that it would be a completely different task from last time, but he was resistant to offering a specific suggestion.

    Myles and Jane didn¡¯t participate in the debate at all. Instead, they got some preciously needed sleep.

    True to his word, Vance had been able to find and supply them with the basium they would need to forge the three aether spears. Now, all of their spare time went into working on the spears. They had no room for error, so, they were meticulous about every step.

    From their current use of mana, it was looking like the nobles would get their wish for a spear that could be used to send out marginal bursts of flame. They were just slightly ahead of their estimated mana amount due to the second core they drained being on the larger side in terms of mana capacity.

    All that meant for Myles and Jane was more work though. They had to account for the hours it would take to perfectly engrave the rune that allowed for varying power output into the noble¡¯s spear. It was no exaggeration to say that all of their time was accounted for.

    The worst part of the daily routine was the nights though. Primrose had declared that it wasn¡¯t enough that they could commute their pure mana armor around themselves at all waking hours, so, now, they all had to maintain it as they slept too.

    The problem was that doing that was nearly impossible. For the last couple of days, the dorm room¡¯s common area had been transformed with blankets and pillows. The blankets were actually used for their normal purpose, but the pillows were used as projectiles more often than for head support.

    One would go flying across the room whenever anyone fell into too deep of a sleep, losing their armor. The group quickly found out that Silas was the heaviest sleeper of the lot. Even a barrage of pillows wouldn¡¯t wake him up. Nobody was particularly willing to move from their positions though, so, they tended to throw whatever was close at hand, usually something much harder than a pillow.

    The added incentive of avoiding harder objects seemed to be effective as Silas had been the only one to show any significant improvement. Everyone else simply paid for their incompetence with a lack of sleep.

    All that meant was that when Primrose finally told them she was giving them their monthly assignment, she got six blank zombielike looks.

    Myles quickly replaced his blank look with one of attentiveness when he finally processed what she was saying.

    Primrose took a sheet out of her folder. ¡°Squad 13.¡±

    Mercy, Jane, and Seth stepped up nervously.

    ¡°You will be heading to the east. A town called Timberhelm lies there. The town¡¯s main function is to provide a steady supply of drakewood for the use in forts across the Verith-Candis railroad. The wood is unique to the area and highly resistant to many types of arcaner attacks. The town is currently experiencing a very violent workforce strike. The conglomerate of faces has asked us to send you to attempt to resolve the problem in a less¡­confrontational manner than the soldiers they will soon be forced to send.¡±

    Mercy nodded nervously. Myles didn¡¯t envy them their task. He had no idea how they could possibly convince the workers to stop their strike. Not to mention, if Primrose described the situation as ¡®very violent,¡¯ Myles was afraid that the town was likely an all-out warzone. Still though, Myles could see the determination in the eyes of his three friends.

    Primrose pulled the next piece of paper from her folder. ¡°Squad 14.¡±

    Myles stepped up alongside Kate and Silas.

    ¡°Your exam this month will be to head north to Hydrabridge.¡±

    Myles recognized the name from a mini-lecture Professor Hazel had given him and Jane last month. As he recalled, there were mines there that brought up ray-crystals, a unique material that was extremely useful for aether engineering with energy mana.

    Primrose continued without a pause. ¡°When you arrive, you will meet the minister of education, a man called Rufus Lance.¡±

    Myles noticed that Primrose¡¯s face gave an involuntary twitch as she said the man¡¯s name. Whoever this man was, Primrose did not like him.

    ¡°You will find Mr. Lance at a temporary command base setup in the area due to recent events. He will personally brief you on your mission there.¡±

    Primrose seemed like she had finished talking, but Reah gave her a look from where she was sitting in the back of the room. Myles had been so tired; he hadn¡¯t even noticed her when he came in.

    Primrose seemed to sigh slightly. ¡°I¡¯m not usually one to give out warnings since you are meant to gather information about missions yourself, but I will make an exception here. Be weary of Rufus Lance. He will act in any way he can to make you put your guard down, but make no mistake, he is one of the most politically dangerous people in the province. He is also among the strongest arcaner¡¯s in the province¡¯s army.¡±

    Myles felt a sense of unease run over him. The other squad¡¯s mission had sounded terrifyingly difficult, but at least they had an idea of what they were walking into. Myles would be walking towards one of the most dangerous men in the province to help him with some unknown task.

 Chapter 31

    Chapter 31

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Silas walked out of the mission briefing with two major goals. The first was to gather information on their destination, Hydrabridge. His second was perhaps even more important though. Primrose had warned them about the minister of education who was to give them their actual mission.

    Primrose never gave warnings. Even when she had given the details for their first mission, Primrose had sent them off with confidence. The memory of returning from that on a stretcher was still far too fresh for Silas to ignore a warning. He needed to learn everything he could about this Rufus Lance.

    There was no better place to accomplish both goals than the academy library. The library was one of the more remarkable buildings on campus. Silas had come to think of it as a representation of the academy itself. It was one of the new buildings, but it had still been built right in the middle of the academy where the buildings were closest together. The result was a building that snaked its way around through the gaps in the older buildings that surrounded it. Much like the academy itself, it seemed completely absurd, twisted, and confusing¡ªat least until you looked at it closer.

    At first, Silas had thought the building¡¯s designer had blundered their way through the project, forgetting to provide space for doors until it was too late. The only way to access the library was through one of the three tunnels that led into it from the surrounding buildings. Since then, though, Silas had noticed other odd details like how the library had no windows, and how it seemed to be built with sturdier materials than any other building. Eventually the details added up to a bigger picture. The library was intentionally built as a fortress.

    Silas suspected that the books it contained were a large part of why the building was so protected. Every book here was handwritten, and there were more books on one shelf than Silas had seen in the entirety of his life. Silas strongly suspected that the library was one of the most complete in the province.

    Mr. Habe had introduced Silas, Mercy, and the others focused on studying politics to the library early on. He had insisted that research was a crucial skill needed for politics. That advise was proving true now as Silas quickly gathered and read through books on the politics, geography, and economics of Hydrabridge ¡ªall seemingly boring things except when they had the potential to keep Silas¡¯ teammates alive.

    Hydrabridge was named for the unique nature of the town. A system of bridges crossed the many crevasses that cut through the town like scars. It was in these crevasses where the town¡¯s famous mines were located. In addition to the unique ray-crystals that could only be found underneath Hydrabridge, more common metals came out of the crevasses of Hydrabridge than any other mine in the province.

    Hydrabridge was ruled by a noble lord much like every town in the province not controlled by Verith¡¯s conglomerate of faces, but unlike most towns, that lord was changed every few years. The lord was seemingly always a former soldier who had earned nobility through some great deed, and they were always retired to a small town after three years.

    Silas couldn¡¯t find a reason for the pattern. His only guess was that other nobles were worried about the political power a noble of such an important mine would have. That still didn¡¯t seem quite right though.

    Silas considered the problem for a while, but when he caught himself staring into the light construct and being absorbed by the monstrous shapes made by the shadows around the edges of his table, he decided it was time to move to his second topic of study.

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    Silas quickly confirmed that there was no minister of education position in the government¡ªnoble or conglomerate. With a sinking feeling, Silas put his books back and moved to a section on the structure of the province¡¯s military.

    In the times Silas had visited the library, this section was almost always filled with noble students. Today though, the section was completely clear. Before he had started training to notice such details, Silas probably wouldn¡¯t have noted the change. Now though, Silas was able to guess the detail meant the nobles had also been assigned their tasks for the month, a potentially useful nugget of information.

    The books Silas selected were less helpful than he would have hoped. He was able to confirm that the Ministry of Education was a part of the province¡¯s military, but the authors always seemed to shy away from the topic of what the ministry was responsible for.

    Silas paid careful attention to the time. Without windows, it would be easy to lose track, but someone had thought of that, installing a massive clock in the middle of the library. The clock was so big that it actually served as a pillar that the building¡¯s stairway spiraled around.

    Every hour, the clock would make a great deep sound though no bell could be seen. The haunting noise could be heard throughout campus, seemingly carried by the same pipes the instructors often used to send messages.

    When Silas heard the sound of the bell, he realized he was out of time. He had a meeting to attend.

    Ominous clouds had built up while Silas had been in the library. The air had a distinct chill to it. The kind that made the whole world feel like it was standing on a ledge, readying itself to pour into motion, crack into storm.

    Silas pointedly ignored the chill air and made his way towards the academy forges. It didn¡¯t take long for him to find who he was looking for. Myles and Jane stood talking intently with three metal spears leaning against the wall next to them.

    Good. They had managed to finish on time. Silas grinned and waved to the pair. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡±

    Myles grinned and made a face that Silas recognized. Silas immediately looked to Jane for help. Unfortunately, she was no help at all. Around the dorm, Jane was usually quiet. That made it too easy to forget how well she managed to bounce off others. It usually happened with Mercy, but it was at its most extreme when it was with Myles. The two seemed to amplify each other¡¯s excitement.

    Normally, Silas would be happy to endure his friend¡¯s onslaught of enthusiasm. Silas wasn¡¯t willing to wait today though. He held up a hand. ¡°We need to deliver the third spear to our friends. Is it ready?¡±

    Myles frowned slightly but nodded, shrugging to get Silas to follow him. When he spoke again, his enthusiasm didn¡¯t seem to have died down at all. ¡°We finished earlier. We were just testing to see how the spears handle. We didn¡¯t have much opportunity for that while we were making them.¡±

    Silas nodded. ¡°How much fire can they produce? Will we be able to count on them in a fight?¡±

    It was Jane who answered this time. ¡°The maximum output is theoretically unlimited.¡±

    Myles smiled eagerly, pulling out one of the spears. ¡°With our mana limited to pure, we had to build in a rune that can convert the mana type to fire. As a result of the inefficiencies, the output is limited to roughly one-tenth of the mana we put into it.¡±

    Silas gave a grim grin. They had shown him the designs, but Silas had been uncertain the result would match up. ¡°This will be a huge help. Even if the process is inefficient, we should be able to use it once or twice during the mission. We might actually have a shot of completing our missions this time.¡±

    Myles and Jane became suddenly somber. Jane looked down at the ground. ¡°Yeah¡­right.¡±

    Silas frowned. ¡°You guys are ready for the mission, right? This is important. There could be serious consequences.¡±

    Myles held up a hand placatingly. ¡°Of course, we¡¯re ready. We were just focused on the engineering is all.¡±

    Silas forced a smile. It wouldn¡¯t do to push too hard. Myles and Jane knew what they were doing. ¡°Shall we start moving to the meetup with our friends?¡±

    As the three of them started to gather their things, to head to the meeting, Mercy suddenly showed up and dragged Silas away roughly.

    Silas groaned from annoyance. ¡°Are you trying to scare me into dropping my armor again or something? Why did you drag me away?¡±

    Mercy looked at him in confusion for a second before shaking her head. ¡°No. I saw that interaction earlier and was a little worried. You could¡¯ve given them a bit more patience you know. They worked hard on that project.¡±

    Silas sighed. ¡°I guess I¡¯m just a little on edge from this morning.¡±

    Mercy gave him a light punch in the arm, too light for Silas to feel through the mana commuting around him. ¡°In politics you must always act your calmest when your nerves at their worst.¡±

    ¡°Quoting Mr. Habe now? I could have sworn you weren¡¯t paying attention when he said that.¡±

    Mercy gave him a confident smirk. ¡°Looks are the best deceptor.¡±

    ¡°Never mind. He never said that.¡±

    Mercy¡¯s confidence failed her. ¡°I thought you¡¯d buy that.¡±

    ¡°I knew you weren¡¯t paying attention!¡±

    Mercy frowned. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s just do this.¡±

    Silas nodded, regaining some semblance of composure. The next step would be important. Depending on the assignment their noble friends had been given, perhaps very important.

 Chapter 32

    Chapter 32

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Jerald Straff looked out across campus from his position in the entrance courtyard. A strong wind had started to pick up, wildly tousling students, whipping their hair every which way. To their credit, each of them continued their preparations without pause.

    Jerald was pleased to see his fellow students move with purpose. It was not lost on him that nobles were not the only students at the academy with clever plans. The students from other curriculums were busy making their own preparations, preparations that despite what many nobles in his course believed were quite inspired.

    Of all the people Jerald had met before moving here though, the four that walked towards him now had the potential to be the most valuable to him. Despite only being here for two months, the two aether engineer trainees, Myles and Jane, wore uniforms that were marred in permanent grease stains. They were clearly willing to get their hands dirty to do a job. Jerald could appreciate that.

    Jerald had a different kind of respect for the other two. They were people to be wary of. Mercy¡¯s ability to get along with anyone almost instantaneously was easily overlooked or put aside as her just being social. Jerald recognized it to be a powerful weapon though. He had seen major noble alliances forged because of simple friendships before.

    Silas may not have been as immediately likeable as Mercy, but he had a peculiar focus and drive to him. Jerald guessed that he was the type of person who would be unrattled by sudden changes, like one of those fancy aether construct arrows that would change direction midflight.

    As they got closer, Jerald felt his face pull into a slight smile. The distinct shape of a spear shaft could be seen poking out from behind Myles¡¯ shoulder. Aether constructs were a rare and valuable commodity in the Rork province, especially to nobles. The bulk of aether engineering knowledge was kept in the engineering city of Verith where it was jealously guarded by the city¡¯s conglomerate of faces.

    Many nobles had invested in training aether engineers of their own, but as of yet, none of these engineers could come close to matching the true masters of Verith. It was the biggest piece of leverage that the conglomerate had. The trains they made and maintained were what kept trade between the three major cities flowing. Their knowledge of weapon constructs greatly reduced the number of soldiers needed to defend against monsters.

    There was value in forming connections with talented aether engineers. Jerald had grown up watching his father grow their family¡¯s influence by carefully managing what resources flowed through their town of Venture. Knowing what to invest in and how long to hold onto it were critical. Jerald was hopeful for his investment into this relationship.

    Silas started speaking at the precise moment he left the hearing range of all the other students around them. ¡°As promised, we brought the spear construct. You¡¯ll find that all your specifications were implemented.¡±

    Jerald gave a satisfied nod, waving Myles off as he took the spear out to give a demonstration. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary, I have every confidence in your craftsmanship.¡±

    That was a lie. Jerald had virtually no confidence in the pair of aether engineers. How could he? The only time he saw their work was when they fought the cinderwolves. Even then, they had only used the most basic of constructs constructed from rather shoddy materials. Still though, relationships weren¡¯t formed from questioning everything you were told.

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    Jerald felt a stab of alarm when he saw Myles¡¯ expression darken. He hadn¡¯t expected it since Myles had been so utilitarian during their conversations so far, but it was clear now that he was passionate about his aether engineering work. Perhaps more passionate than he was for the military.

    Just as Jerald was about to rectify his error, he caught the look of satisfaction in Silas¡¯ face. Jerald remained silent and thought. There was something he might be able to use here. As close as Silas and Myles seemed to be, their interests were clearly different.

    Myles was obviously here to learn aether engineering. That left the question though. What was Silas¡¯ goal. Why was he here?

    The moment passed and Silas moved the conversation on quickly. ¡°We were just given our monthly assignments. Half of us are headed north to Hydrabridge. The others are going¡­¡±

    Jerald could see where this was going, and he liked it. Behind him, Alfred practically licked his lips in excitement. Jerald may not have had ties to him or his family prior to being assigned to the same group as him, but Jerald had been pleasantly surprised with his combat sense. He knew the value of numbers.

    Alfred stepped forward, with a very wide and sloppy grin. ¡°We are actually headed North ourselves. I believe that we could find a route that allows us to travel most of the distance together.¡±

    Jerald fought back a wince. Alfred may have been knowledgeable about combat, but coming from a newly created noble family, he lacked knowledge on proper noble behavior.

    Fortunately, they were not dealing with nobles today and the four here didn¡¯t look even remotely bothered by Alfred¡¯s behavior.

    Out of nowhere, an older voice cut through the conversation. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend doing that.¡±

    Without years of experience dealing with arcaners as part of the nobility, Jerald probably would have jumped out of his own skin. The newcomer had approached without making a sound. Jerald turned around and quickly figured out why. A thin sheen could be seen wrapping around his body, a dead giveaway that he was commuting pure mana. The pure mana would have absorbed the impact of his feet hitting the ground, allowing him to walk almost silently.

    The young man spoke with a powerful feeling of authority, and it didn¡¯t take Jerald long to figure out why. He wore a dueling coat emblazoned with the crest of the Maston family. At his side was a traditional curved blade used in the art of noble fencing. With all of that put together, Jerald knew he was talking with the third son of the Maston family.

    The man had more than his fair share of rumors among the nobility. Almost all of them referred to his rather eccentric fashion choices. The dueling coat and noble fencing blade were both symbols of an archaic faction of nobles that had taken certain aspects of a noble¡¯s duty to the extreme. This faction¡ª Jerald believed they had called themselves the shining knights¡ªhad sworn a long list of oaths including such things as never lying and defending the people they ruled to the death. They had also pressured other nobles to swear the oaths as well. Needless to say, they were not remembered fondly by the nobility.

    Jerald pulled himself from his musings as Silas got straight to the point. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t recommend traveling together. Why? Having six people shouldn¡¯t be enough to attract any additional monsters.¡±

    The noble nodded. ¡°On most days, that would be true.¡± He pulled his head back, pointing towards the sky which was covered in ominous storm clouds. ¡°Out in that storm though, things are different.¡±

    Something clicked in Jerald¡¯s head, a story he had heard as a child. ¡°Are you saying that¡¯s an aether storm?¡±

    Joshua Maston grinned. ¡°That is exactly what I¡¯m saying. I¡¯ve only had the misfortune to have traveled through two of them¡ªthey¡¯re not very common¡ªbut they are dangerous. The wind will be so strong, the rain so thick that monsters will stop trying to use their normal senses, switching to their aether senses instead, including¡­¡±

    ¡°Their ability to sense humans.¡± Silas interrupted.

    Joshua nodded. ¡°Basically yes, though from what we know about monsters from studying their cores, it would probably be more accurate to say they make use of some unknown combination of high-level connectors.¡±

    Jerald considered that for a second. He wasn¡¯t aware of any such research, but he supposed that the Maston family¡¯s son would be more likely to know about it. He may not have been the heir to the family¡¯s title, but he was perhaps still the most famous among his brothers. Joshua was known to be a powerful arcaner who frequently traveled on family business.

    Jerald was caught off guard when Joshua turned to Silas. ¡°I heard you asked for me while I was away?¡±

    Silas nodded then gave a nervous glance towards Jerald. ¡°I was hoping to continue the conversation you had with my teammates last month.¡±

    Joshua seemed to catch the glance. ¡°That will take some time.¡± Joshua ran a hand through his hair as though in stress. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that will have to wait till later. I need to see the headmaster about some business I was conducting on the academy¡¯s behalf.¡±

    Silas nodded along and Jerald smiled generously. It was hard to believe that Joshua was really quite so stressed, but Jerald didn¡¯t want others to think he was wanting to eavesdrop, so, it was bet to just let it go.

    Before Joshua continued his walk across campus though, Silas did get one last question in. ¡°I was told you were in Hydrabridge. How were things when you left?¡±

    Joshua laughed good-naturedly. ¡°I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to find that out for yourselves. I wouldn¡¯t want to interfere in your exam.¡±

    Jerald left to return to his dorm soon after. He had left Vance there working on preparations for their own assignment. Even as he walked, Jerald began infusing his mana into the spear. After all, he would need to test it before they left.

 Chapter 33

    Chapter 33

    The Northern Byway

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    When they returned to the dorm, the sky finally broke open, unleashing the worst rainstorm Myles had ever seen. Throughout the night, the rain beat against the roof without remorse.

    Between the storm and the knowledge that they would be heading back to the voidlands soon, sleep was almost impossible to come by. The two spear constructs began to quietly make their way around. Without a word, each member of the dorm would take the construct and infuse as much mana as they could into it.

    Aether wells were tapped empty until the morning arrived. The morning light never came though. With encouraging looks, the two groups of three parted at the doors of their dorm, heading away from each other in the thick of the rain.

    Myles was soaked before he had taken ten steps. His commuted armor could block out the rain, but with the density and force of the storm, the battering of the rain would slowly wear through his mana. Instead, Myles went without.

    As they plodded down the trail, there was little hope of any clever ploys with tracking. Their clothes were somewhat resistant to the rain, but they still grew heavy quickly. Mud squelched over boots and into socks.

    Kate encouraged them, telling them how the rain would be to their benefit. The thicker it was, the harder it would be for a monster to spot or smell them. They crept on, guiding themselves through the dark landscape by the occasional flash of one of the many sparsely set flickering hope lights that lined the byway that meandered its way north, past a handful of small villages, and up to Hydrabridge.

    Myles had made the casings for hope lights by the dozens when he had lived in Verith. They were meant to deter monsters by releasing foul smells, sounds, and sights that only monsters could perceive. Their effectiveness was minimal though. They were a hope, little more than a prayer on the road. The thick rain likely offered better protection by blanketing senses.

    Myles was constantly vigilant, looking out into the rain and straining his ears for any unexplained disturbance in the downpour.

    Hours ticked by sluggishly. At one point, Myles thought he saw a cluster of lights off to one side of the road and wondered if it was a village obscured by the deluge. He became less sure when Silas insisted that he could see the outline of houses on the opposite side of the road only five minutes later.

    Kate continued to lead them, keeping the whole group on alert.

    About an hour after the lights, they heard their first sign of monsters. It was Silas who noticed them first, motioning for Kate and Myles to be silent. Sure enough, they heard a heavyset body crunching through a field of tall grass to their right.

    The trio each started commuting their armor. The pure mana that flowed around them helped to silence their footfalls. Instead of pattering loudly against them, the rain was swept naturally to the side, flowing off of them without a sound.

    They took a long detour to the left that cost them some time. It was exacerbated by the difficulty they had in finding the road again. Eventually though, they got back on track, and no one complained about the delay. Last month, they had learned that any monster could spell their failure. Even if they won the fight, a single injury could call more monsters and force them to seek shelter.

    Myles glanced over his shoulder more than once, wondering if Reah was tailing them on this assignment too. It was impossible to tell. He had seen how capable she was firsthand. Even if she was right next to him, Myles doubted he would ever realize.

    As night began to fall, the rain seemed to grow even stronger with it. Winds assaulted them, forcing them to constantly wipe the rain from their eyes.

    Myles noticed the storm getting fiercer with each step. He kept pushing forward wiping the rain from his eyes.

    ¡°Brace yourself!¡±

    Myles heard Kate¡¯s shout and reacted immediately, beginning to commute his pure mana around him while at the same time moving into the third step, the iron turtle. Just as he managed to move into position and evoke a thin wall of pure mana to further protect himself, a wall of water crashed into the group.

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    Even with his evoked pure mana and his commuted armor optimally positioned with the third step, Myles was knocked down, rolling head over heels. The wall of water felt more like a brick wall that had been sent hurtling towards him than anything else.

    Myles threw himself back onto his feet. For a second, he was disoriented from the fall, but he quickly took stock of the situation. A great hawk was pinning Silas to the ground. He had managed to pull out his shield, and had it between him and the bird, but it didn¡¯t look like the shield would last long. The hawk¡¯s beak came down repeatedly. The shield¡¯s pure mana supply already seemed to be mostly drained from the initial impact. Silas was desperately evoking his own mana to defend himself, but with each strike, the monster tore off a chunk of wood.

    Myles charged forward, pulling the spear construct from his back and charging with it. The hawk must have seen him coming because it sent a portion of the shield it had torn off and threw it right at him. The storm seemed to fling a portion of its strength behind the wood and Myles was forced to dive to the side to avoid it.

    Myles wasn¡¯t entirely successful though. He felt the projectile clip his left hip. If he hadn¡¯t been commuting armor, he definitely would have broken something. As it was though, he got away with what would likely turn into a nasty bruise.

    As Myles rolled through the mud to his feet, he evoked a layer of mana over Silas¡¯ shield. The hawk broke through it with its next strike, but the mana weakened the blow just enough to allow Silas¡¯ commuted armor to keep the monster¡¯s beak at bay.

    As fortune would have it, that was just the moment they needed. Kate had managed to rush it with one of the spears they had used against the cinderwolves. To Myles¡¯ frustration, the beast took to the sky faster than any hawk he had ever seen. The storm seemed to cocoon it, pushing it faster than what should have been physically possible.

    It wasn¡¯t done with them either. It whirled around in midair, looking for an opening. As it did, Silas tore through his bag and found a pure mana battery that Myles had made with Jane. He attached it to the shield, effectively recharging it. Though much of the wood had been torn off, and some of the metal frame seemed to be bent, the shield still produced a layer of pure mana.

    ¡°Myles,¡± Kate shouted, ¡°use the spear!¡±

    Myles was already one step ahead of her, planting the butt of the spear firmly into the mud to keep it steady. The spear¡¯s fire mana should be able to do considerable damage to the monster, but it could only be used once. Myles took a deep breath and put his finger on the activation rune. With just a sliver of pure mana put into the metal underneath the activation rune, one of the containment runes would be momentarily deactivated, allowing the mana they had supplied ¡ª which had been converted into fire mana ¡ª to be drawn from where it was stored into the spearhead where the rune they had forged into the metal and primed with fire mana would evoke the mana into a raging fireball.

    Myles dropped his commuted armor, not wanting to accidentally infuse the spear with the sliver of mana it needed to activate. That seemed to be the opportunity the monster had been looking for. It dove faster than any bird Myles had ever seen right for him, taking a portion of the storm with it.

    If the hawk had chosen to attack Silas or Kate, Myles doubted he would have been able to hit it with the fireball, but with it coming right towards him, Myles couldn¡¯t miss. He infused the spear with a trickle of mana then started commuting his armor again. A painful moment passed as the beast continued its dive then Myles felt a wave of heat as a ball of fire a little larger than his head sizzled through the rain and burst against the monster¡¯s wing.

    The hawk gave a visceral roar of pain, a roar that sounded closer to what a lion might produce. Even through the pain though, the monster pushed itself forward using the force of the storm to account for the wing that crackled with flame. Myles could see pure aggression in its eyes. Despite all of that, Myles ran forward. The beast adjusted its course, crashing towards the position where Myles was going to be, only Myles¡¯s body moved to the side, following the trajectory of his snake step.

    Even though Myles avoided the great hawk¡¯s talons and body as it landed, he couldn¡¯t avoid the portion of the storm it had been commanding. Myles was sent flying from the wall of water, his armor enough to keep him from being crushed, but not enough to keep him in place or unbruised.

    Myles pushed himself to his feet in time to see Silas and Kate snake stepping around the fallen monster, delivering shallow cuts with their spears. Even with one wing ruined, the creature was still fast. It flung itself around with the force of the storm. It mostly focused on Kate since Silas still held the remnants of his shield.

    Myles watched with horror as Kate¡¯s foot sank too deeply into the mud, causing her to stumble. That was the only error the fallen, pained hawk needed. It was on her in an instant, flinging itself into her.

    Myles reached into his aether space looking to evoke a barrier of pure mana but found he was empty. He had commuted every ounce of his remaining mana to protect himself from the monster¡¯s dive, and it had all been consumed by the storm the great hawk had carried with it.

    Kate wasn¡¯t helpless though. She had her own pure mana, and she was the fastest in their entire platoon. Before the beast hit her, she had already twisted into a hasty semblance of the iron turtle and evoked enough mana to block the beak and talons that came at her. She still went down hard, the full force of her protective mana not enough to stop the monster¡¯s reckless leap entirely, but Myles didn¡¯t see any major injuries.

    In attacking Kate though, the monster was left open. It turned towards Silas far faster than Myles could believe considering it was bleeding from a half dozen cuts and only had one working wing. Silas had the advantage though and he was able to block what little strength the monster was able to conjure in that instant with his shield. In the same instant, Silas rammed his spear through the monster¡¯s neck, finally silencing it.

    ¡°What¡­was that?¡± Myles breathed.

    Kate gave a pained groan as she pulled herself onto her knees. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it was a stormhawk. I just read up on them last night. They¡¯re supposedly only found in aether storms.¡±

    Silas pulled his spear out, the rain washing it off almost immediately. ¡°Do they cause the storms or something? That thing looked like it was controlling it?¡±

    Kate frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. It might be helping something stronger or maybe working with a whole bunch of others.¡±

    Silas looked up in panic as he picked his pack off of the ground. ¡°Does that mean something might come looking for it?¡±

    Kate shrugged. ¡°Maybe?¡±

    Myles walked over to the stormhawk and hastily carved out the monster¡¯s core, a dark blue stone that Myles hastily shoved in his own pack. ¡°Let¡¯s not take that chance. Can you guys keep moving?¡±

    They both said they could though Kate seemed to be putting on a brave face. They had all taken on a lot of bruises. Myles¡¯ whole body hurt, and he couldn¡¯t imagine what Kate must feel like having to feel the whole group¡¯s pain.

    The squad continued their journey and felt the storm decrease in power until it was back to the level, they had spent most of the day walking through. Myles hoped that was a sign that no more stormhawks were nearby.

 Chapter 34

    Chapter 34

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Silas was tired, drenched, shivering, and caked in mud when Hydrabridge finally came into view lit with a dawn tinge. The storm continued, but Hydrabridge had pulled through the worst of it.

    Silas had been expecting a town much like Maston, but this was not the case. Where Maston¡¯s walls were made from a hodgepodge of whatever wood could be found, Hydrabridge was more of a fortress. Its walls were higher and stronger. Though it was technically made from wood, that wood had a familiar shimmer surrounding it, pure mana. At the base of the town¡¯s walls, monster corpses could be seen laying in the grass. Drawn in by their focus on sensing humans no doubt.

    ¡°Those walls aren¡¯t aether constructs.¡±

    Silas and Kate both turned towards Myles at the same time.

    ¡°What do you mean they aren¡¯t constructs?¡± Silas asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re surrounded by pure mana!¡± Kate added.

    Myles shook his head. ¡°They¡¯re made of wood. Wood is almost never used in aether engineering.¡±

    Kate raised an eyebrow. ¡°Why not? Wood seems like a much easier material to work with.¡±

    Myles sighed. ¡°Wood is alive¡ªor at least it was at some point¡ªthat makes things more complicated. Each individual piece of wood has different properties even if they come from the same tree. If you put the wrong rune on, things can go unpredictably wrong.¡±

    Silas knew that the military took control of the vast majority of mined metal across the province. He was starting to see why. ¡°How do things usually go wrong?¡±

    Myles grimaced. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of a group of engineers who tried to make armor constructs out of a potent form of drakewood. When they carved a fire rune into the wood, it came alive, grew branches and strangled them.¡±

    Before Silas had managed to get that picture out of his head, he saw a flicker of motion on the top of the wall. As the figure came into view, Silas had already dragged Kate and Myles behind a nearby bush, a thorn bush to his annoyance.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? It¡¯s just a guard.¡±

    Kate was right. On the top of the wall, a guard walked along keeping a close eye on the area outside the walls. The blue band that circled the arm of his uniform showed he was no hired shikari or part of a citizen militia. This was a trained provincial soldier.

    Silas kept the others quiet with a gesture and closely watched the soldier. Primrose had warned them to be on guard around the minister of education. Silas intended to go into that meeting in the most controlled manner possible.

    As the guard walked towards their hiding spot, Silas noticed the guard¡¯s body tense up. Only a moment later, the guard was turned towards them, palm raised in a threatening gesture and pure mana already commuting through his body.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there? Show yourselves!¡±

    Silas walked out and gave a quick salute in traditional military fashion. It was a poor imitation to be honest. He had never been taught the proper way to salute, a detail that seemed a lot more important when a trained soldier seemed to be on the edge of attacking him. ¡°We have orders to report to Rufus Lance. We are students from Maston academy.¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    The soldier took them in. His posture didn¡¯t relax, but he must have made note of their uniforms complete with white bands around their arms where the soldier had a blue band. ¡°Strange time for trainees to come to Hydrabridge.¡±

    The proclamation was made with such a neutral voice that Silas couldn¡¯t tell if the soldier believed them or not.

    Without a pause, the soldier took out a metallic device and pointed it at the sky. A yellow flare went up into the air and two more soldiers appeared on the wall a moment later. When they came around, the first guard hopped down from the top of the wall, he landed with only a slight bend of his knees from what must have been at least a two-story fall.

    Only when he got closer did Silas notice the two stripes on the soldier¡¯s band. They had chanced across an officer.

    The man walked towards them confidently though not with arrogance. He didn¡¯t drop his commuted armor for an instant. Silas noted the guards red hair as being somewhat unique.

    ¡°I am Lenas, an officer tasked with ensuring the security of Hydrabridge. We are currently on high alert due to the storm and recent events. You will walk with me around the city walls. I will take you to the minister¡¯s camp. They will be able to validate your identities there.¡±

    Lenas¡¯ words gave no room for argument, but despite that, Silas could see from the man¡¯s tone that he wanted to see the best in them. Silas had no illusions as to how far that might get them though. The bags under Lenas¡¯ eyes spoke of a long shift. Silas was reminded of the remnants of monsters he had made note of at the base of the wall. He redoubled his intentions to comply with the man.

    Being escorted towards Rufus was about as far away from the situation Silas desired as was possible, but there were still some factors that Silas could control. Silas, Myles, and Kate, all introduced themselves to Lenas and made sure to remain in his sight and generally act as relaxed and compliant in the situation as they possibly could.

    The walk took some time and as they passed multiple gates, Silas quickly realized their destination was not in Hydrabridge itself. What awaited them when they came around to Hydrabridge¡¯s northern side was still surprising though.

    A temporary camp was setup a few hundred yards to the north of Hydrabridge. There, soldiers milled about in a disciplined but urgent manner. A large flag with the image of a book surrounded by a blue diamond loomed over the camp hoisted on a large pole.

    The two soldiers who had been following them along the top of the wall joined them as they moved out of its shadow.

    Silas felt distinctly awkward as they were escorted into the army camp. They were able to resolve the situation quickly though. It seemed that the camp¡¯s guards at least had been informed to expect the trio.

    Before he turned back towards Hydrabridge, Lenas leaned in and spoke in a kind voice. ¡°Sorry for doubting you. Wasn¡¯t expecting trainees to be sent through an aether storm just for some practical experience, especially now.¡±

    Silas, Myles, and Kate, all gave him assurances that they understood before Lenas turned to walk away. He seemed to think twice about that though and turned back to them for some parting advice. ¡°If you¡¯re going to see the minister you should be forewarned. The mask can be a bit intimidating.¡±

    Silas didn¡¯t have long to wonder what that message meant. They were quickly marched into the command tent, right under the flagpole that held the banner of a book.

    Upon walking into the tent, Silas felt completely out of place. He, Myles, and Kate were all seeping water, and covered in mud, not to mention the numerous bruises they had accrued from their encounter with the stormbird.

    In stark contrast, the three people in the tent were all wearing pristine, seemingly freshly laundered uniforms. Their combined presence certainly came across as intimidating. On the left, a powerfully built woman with a spear that seemed to be made entirely of a silver metal, and completely covered in runes, was stooped over a table covered in reports. On the right, a man stood leaning against one of the wooden beams watching them neutrally. He had no visible weapons on him, but some detail about him seemed daunting. His commuted armor, Silas realized, was what that detail was. It wasn¡¯t made of pure mana like the other two in the room, and it whirled around him with ferocity.

    The one that immediately drew attention though was the man in the center who faced them with his hands behind his back. The man was slim of build, but that was about all Silas could tell of his features. His face was covered with a mask that seemed like some sort of dark wood.

    The image of a roomful of strangled engineers returned to Silas as he looked at the mask. It was covered with three large glowing runes scrawled across the mask in white paint where holes should have been for the eyes and mouth. The rest of the mask was covered in a complex web of runes too, but those were so close to the color of the mask that Silas could barely make them out.

    The worst part was that Silas could feel the mask having an effect. The air in the tent felt heavier, almost hostile. Silas found himself having to resist the urge to start commuting pure mana in resistance.

    ¡°Welcome!¡± The masked man spoke in a bright cheerful way so adverse to his appearance that it immediately put Silas off. ¡°I¡¯m so happy you could¡­What Are You Doing Here!¡±

    As the masked man said those words, he whipped out a sword that Silas hadn¡¯t even seen a moment ago and charged forwards. Silas started to move into the iron turtle, but he wasn¡¯t nearly fast enough. Before he had even reacted, the man had passed between him, Myles, and Kate, and swung his sword at the empty space near the tent entrance.

    Silas had a brief moment of confusion before the blade was intercepted by a scythe seemingly made of pure darkness held by a familiar figure.

    Kate reacted first. ¡°Reah!¡±

    Even with her quick reaction speeds though, Kate was too slow to do anything. The two soldiers who had been standing at the edges of the tent had already moved between the trio and the fight between the masked man and Reah. Seeming to be more interested in keeping them safe than helping the minister.

    The minister of education drew back. ¡°Why Are You Here, Reaper!?¡±

 Chapter 35

    Chapter 35

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    The minister of education drew back. ¡°Why Are You Here, Reaper!?¡±

    Kate watched as Reah backed up towards the exit of the tent. There was fear in her eyes. The look on her face reminded Kate that she was the same age as them.  Her hands snapped up into defensive positions, and she allowed the evoked scythe in her hands to dissipate. Her eyes trailed towards the sword held in Rufus¡¯ hand.

    At that moment, the woman who had been looking over papers when they entered stepped forward, her spear gleamed silver in her hands.

    Reah acted instantly, evoking a bubble of pure mana around the woman¡¯s eyes, nose, and mouth. The woman faltered for a second, suddenly unable to see or breathe. The woman attempted to step back, but the bubble of mana followed her easily.

    Kate felt a moment of confusion at that. Last month, she had managed to coat her body in mana and sneak up on a monster, but that hadn¡¯t been done so smoothly. She had actually been slowly evoking wisps of mana around her body, allowing them to dissipate at the instant she moved forward, and at the same time evoking another thin layer of pure mana to replace it as she moved. She had only managed to accomplish even that because she had been moving very slowly. Reah must have had something allowing her to pull this off.

    As casually impressive as it was, the woman wasn¡¯t deterred for long. She brought one of her hands towards her face and tore through the mana. Kate knew she must have evoked some type of mana to destroy the bubble, but the motion was too fast to tell.

    Reah¡¯s back was against the tent¡¯s exit, and she was half-turned. ¡°What¡¯s going on. I came here to watch them. I¡¯m just doing my job!¡±

    Kate opened her mouth to help Reah¡¯s case, but the masked man had already put one arm up, stalling his subordinates. ¡°My apologies. I forgot that our old aurora had loosened your leash.¡±

    Reah¡¯s expression went slack, and she looked down at the ground. ¡°No harm done.¡±

    ¡°My name is Rufus Lance, Minister of Education.¡±

    Kate looked at the man in astonishment as he held his hand out to her to shake. Lenas had been wrong. The mask wasn¡¯t the intimidating part, it was the man underneath. She doubted she¡¯d ever understand what the man was thinking, mask or not. One moment he was trying to kill someone, the next, he was making cordial introductions. The man¡¯s pace was unsettling.

    Kate shook his hand, but her eyes never left Reah who had moved to stand uneasily in a corner of the tent, hood pulled over her head.

    Silas was the one to keep the meeting moving, shaking Rufus¡¯ hand last, he was the first to make introductions. Before he could finish those introductions though, the minister had already turned around and walked back to Reah. Silas let his introductions trail off awkwardly.

    ¡°It has been quite a while since we last met. You must have grown at least a foot.¡± The minister leaned back and let off a laugh that seemed full of warmth.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­good to see you again too.¡± Reah ventured. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t mind telling an old friend why you tried to kill her would you?¡±

    ¡°Oh right!¡± Rufus snapped his fingers as if just remembering something. ¡°That¡¯s part of why I asked these fine students here today.¡± The masked minister gestured towards himself like Kate had seen parent¡¯s summoning their kids. ¡°Everyone gather around!¡±

    Kate shared an uneasy glance with Myles and Silas, but all three of them huddled into the corner. The woman with the spear rolled her eyes, and the man with the strange looking mana gave a slight snort before returning to what they had been doing.

    Kate was more than happy to let those two move away. You would never guess it by looking at her, but the woman was wounded. Kate could feel the pain. By her guess, it was a cut across the back, one that should have landed her in the hospital.

    Kate silently thanked Reah for what felt like the thousandth time in the last two weeks. The exercises she had been showing her had helped to lessen the pain that she felt through her affliction. Reah had kept telling her to ¡°follow the pain¡± and given her advice on how to do that.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Now, Kate could feel something above the membrane of her aether space. Kate thought of it as something of a slowly bending tree branch reaching out and into¡­something. Not even Reah seemed to know everything, and if Kate¡¯s guess was right, Reah probably had at least one ¡®tree branch¡¯ of her own.

    With everyone in the corner of the tent, Rufus finally put on a serious face¡ªat least Kate assumed his face was serious. His voice was much more serious in any case.

    ¡°Right now, there are two major issues to deal with in the area.¡± Rufus held up two fingers before dropping one. ¡°This camp is dealing with one of the issues. You don¡¯t need to concern yourself with it.¡±

    Silas frowned at that but didn¡¯t say anything. Rufus was somewhat unpredictable. He was obviously being that way on purpose, but they had no idea how he might react to anything differing from whatever script he was writing.

    Rufus rolled his shoulders. ¡°The issue that you do need to concern yourself with is the appearance of a certain kind of unique tree root that has been discovered in several of the deepest tunnels under Hydrabridge.¡±

    Kate noticed that Reah flinched when Rufus mentioned the tree roots and raised an eyebrow at her. Reah didn¡¯t notice though. She was looking directly at Rufus¡¯ dark wooden mask, seemingly trying to pierce through it with her eyes.

    ¡°That¡¯s the reason you attacked me then?¡±

    The minister nodded. ¡°Honestly, it makes me very nervous for you to be anywhere near the mines or even the town walls.¡±

    Reah took a breath. ¡°I would be more than happy to stay away from those roots, but I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re sending these three into the mines.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s my best play at the moment. The noble in charge of Hydrabridge is not willing to allow us to investigate the situation.¡± Rufus¡¯ voice turned hard. ¡°To be blunt, I have no agents that I believe will be successful in sneaking into the mines using conventional methods, and I lack the authority to investigate without the noble¡¯s cooperation.¡±

    Kate was fed up with the two-way conversation. ¡°Do you mind explaining things to us? What¡¯s the big deal with these roots? Why can¡¯t Reah go near them?¡±

    The minister turned towards her. ¡°You have been studying monsters for the past two months. How to kill them, how to track them. Tell me, where do monsters come from?¡±

    Kat didn¡¯t know what he was getting at, but it was safer to play along. ¡°Nobody really knows. They just appear.¡±

    Rufus sighed dramatically. ¡°The first lesson of learning is to question everything. Monsters don¡¯t just pop into being. They don¡¯t just randomly attack people. Those are lies fed to keep the populace safe, comfortable, and helpless. If you want any hope of succeeding in your mission, you are going to need to be smarter.¡± Rufus leaned forward, and Kate¡¯s eyes instinctively traveled the surface of his mask looking for some expression. She didn¡¯t find one. ¡°Let¡¯s guess again.¡±

    Kate racked her brain for any clues, and she was surprised to find a theory floating up to the surface, one she had dismissed months ago. It had first come to her when her instructor had talked about monster cores. He had mentioned that the runes used in aether constructs were originally derived from those found on monster cores. ¡°Are monsters¡­created by someone?¡±

    Rufus tilted his head. ¡°That is one of the more disturbing theories, and I can think of one or two possible candidates if that were the case, but it is just one of many possibilities. To be honest, we don¡¯t know the full truth about how monsters are created.¡±

    Silas put his hands to his chin. ¡°If we¡¯re to question everything, how can we simply accept that as an answer?¡±

    Rufus gave a small chuckle. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t. I am personally of the belief that someone out there knows this particular secret, but unfortunately as of now, I am fairly confident that nobody within our province has that information. We do however know where some of the more dangerous monsters are created.¡±

    Reah looked to Rufus. ¡°Would you allow me to tell this story?¡±

    ¡°I highly doubt anyone could be more qualified to tell it.¡±

    Reah nodded. ¡°Further to the north, right in the heart of our province, there is a dead zone. You will find no civilization there anymore. In the middle of this dead zone there are two structures of great significance that have stood for centuries. One of these is manmade, the former capital of the province. It rests in ruins now, the victim of a hydra that brought death and destruction throughout the continent. The second structure has been there even longer.¡±

    Reah closed her eyes as if picturing something. Everyone remained silent. ¡°There is a great depression in the earth, a hole deeper than any valley in the province, and miles wide. Rising from this depression and filling it completely, there is a great tree that blocks out the sun. Its branches burn with fire, shadow, and darkness. Within its branches, fleshy cocoons dangle, the starts of some of the most dangerous monsters you will ever encounter. The tree has such significance that it warps reality, infecting the minds and aether space of any who draw near. If irritated, it can release terrors on the world. One example being the hydra I spoke of.¡±

    Kate looked into Reah¡¯s eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve been there?¡±

    Reah looked at her feet. ¡°I lived within the trees influence for years, one of many¡­subjects in an experiment of sorts.¡±

    Rufus took a deep breath that punctuated the silence. ¡°We are afraid that the tree may have influence over our young reaper. She will not be allowed to follow you on your mission.¡±

    Myles shook his head in annoyance. ¡°Why do you keep calling her reaper?¡±

    ¡°That,¡± Rufus walked back towards the table filled with reports, ¡°is a story for another day. What we need to discuss is your infiltration.¡±

    Rufus picked up a piece of paper from the table and tossed it to Silas. ¡°Tonight, there will be a group of twenty bright-eyed youths hoping to find work within the walls of Hydrabridge. It seems that my men conveniently miscounted though, allowing for three more spots.¡±

    Silas looked up from the report he had started reading. ¡°You want us to sneak into Hydrabridge as workers and investigate these roots. You realize we¡¯ve already been seen by some of the guards, right?¡±

    ¡°To be specific, I want you to determine the level of threat these roots may pose to the mine¡¯s productivity, and nudge things in the right direction for us if possible.¡±

    Rufus moved further into the tent. ¡°I had heard that you were caught by Lenas, a rather disappointing start really.¡± Rufus suddenly gave a dismissive motion. ¡°What a conundrum. I wish you the best of luck.¡±

    The man who had resumed his position leaning against the tent pole, suddenly snapped to attention. ¡°You have been dismissed. Please exit the command tent.¡±

    As Kate turned to walk away, she couldn¡¯t help but get in one last spiteful whisper. ¡°You could at least tell us how we were caught the first time.¡±

    ¡°Wind mana.¡± The woman with the spear spoke without looking up from the table despite Kate¡¯s whisper being inaudible. ¡°Those decently proficient with it can use evoked wind mana to sense things nearby them, usually a space somewhere around 100 yards in any direction.¡±

    As they left the tent, some of the soldiers were kind enough to lead the group to some beds. Kate was brought to a different tent than the two boys. Before they separated though, she fed Myles¡¯ spear with all the pure mana she could afford. She had no idea how they¡¯d manage to sneak a spear into Hydrabridge, but she was determined to try.

 Chapter 36

    Chapter 36

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Despite how tired he was, Myles had a hard time sleeping. It wasn¡¯t the accommodations. They were pleasant enough. The problem was their mission.

    Myles had never been one to lie. Sure, he had told the occasion small fib when he was younger, but those were few and far between. His father had raised him to have integrity, and when he had died in the war, that integrity had benefitted him more than anything. The community had helped him, raised him up.

    Myles had left the community he had grown up in though, and it was starting to become clearer and clearer just how different his new reality really was. He was risking his life on a regular basis to fulfill his dream. Last night, he had fought a hawk that had been able to control a storm, when evening came, he would be sneaking into a heavily guarded mine to investigate whether it was filled with horrible monsters.

    Myles rolled over and gripped the spear that lay beside him. It was the culmination of his effort up to this point. It was the first construct he had made that he was completely proud of, and it had already saved his life once.

    Myles didn¡¯t pour any mana into it. Their entire squad had already poured their mana into refilling it.

    This was what Myles was meant to do. He was meant to create tools that could help others. He wasn¡¯t meant to fight monsters or assume a false identity. He was in a situation where one was dependent on the other, but that didn¡¯t mean he would do more than what was needed to open the path to his dream. There was no use dying.

    Myles rolled back over and finally managed to fall asleep. He dreamed about home, Verith. Father Oswald talked to him about the latest article on aether engineering, the older men at the job shop showed him their tricks.

    When Silas shook him awake, the bruises from the fight the previous night, and the muscle aches from walking for a full day and night came back to him. Myles pulled himself up in spite of the pain. It was time to head into Hydrabridge.

    It felt odd waking up in the evening, but all things considered, Myles supposed sneaking into a walled town was probably best done at night.

    When they had made their way out of the camp, receiving salutes from the soldiers charged with watching the perimeter, the group remained quiet until they were about two-hundred yards out. None of them knew the details of how sensing with wind mana worked, or how common of an ability it was.

    Only when they had reached well past the supposed threshold did Silas start talking. ¡°Did you notice anything strange when we were talking with the minister?¡±

    That felt like a loaded question. The entire encounter had been strange. The mask had stood out to Myles, but that was obvious.

    ¡°The woman,¡± Kate said, ¡°she was injured pretty badly. Had a nasty cut on her back.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    Kate shot him a venomous look.

    Silas rubbed his head awkwardly. ¡°Sorry.¡±

    Myles kept pace with the others. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you noticed something, Silas.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I would say I noticed something in the meeting, but I did find it odd that Rufus was so surprised when Reah showed up. Primrose said that he had specifically asked for us after all.¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Myles thought about that. It did seem suspicious now that he thought about it. Myles¡¯ working theory was that the minister of education was a nice title for someone with responsibilities similar to a spymaster. The vagueness surrounding the role in all the books Silas had looked at and their current mission pointed to that. It seemed unlikely that he didn¡¯t keep tabs on the academy. Joshua Maston had told them that there were quite a few significant figures there after all. Myles frowned maybe Joshua was one of the agents Rufus had mentioned. He had been to Hydrabridge recently after all.

    It wasn¡¯t their squad¡¯s job to worry about those kinds of things though. Silas had a bad habit of looking into things too deeply.

    Myles decided to change the subject, refocus the group. ¡°Are we planning on trying to sneak the spear in?¡±

    Silas grinned. ¡°I came up with an idea for that.¡± He reached behind his pack and grabbed a tool that looked something like an oversized pickaxe. The pick itself was the normal size, but the wooden shaft was longer, and there was what looked to be a net attached on top of the pick. ¡°I asked around the camp a bit and managed to find this. I guess it had something to do with whatever they were investigating.¡± Silas pulled on something on the side of the shaft, and it opened up, revealing a hollowed-out space inside. Silas¡¯ spear was already in there, and it looked like there was enough room for at least two more.

    Myles gave a broad grin. ¡°You are a born smuggler.¡±

    Silas laughed. ¡°I¡¯m practically Grishwald the traveler.¡±

    Awkward silence followed.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way you haven¡¯t heard the story of Grishwald! They told it all the time at school. He was a legend. Travelled half the continent, spreading the word of the church. The noble smuggler, Grishwald the traveler.¡±

    Something finally clicked in Myles¡¯ head. ¡°You mean Gerrick the wanderer! We had stories of him in Verith.¡±

    Kate just looked on.

    Silas stared at Kate. ¡°Nothing? Not even an inaccurate version of the story?¡±

    Myles ignored the jab. It wasn¡¯t the first time they had found differences in common things like childhood fables. It was Myles¡¯ private opinion that the priest who had taught Silas had a poor memory for names.

    Kate grimaced. ¡°I never went to school in our church. My mother insisted on a hands-on approach. She wanted me to be a surgeon, a healer just like her.¡±

    Myles frowned. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that didn¡¯t go well with your affliction.¡±

    Kate nodded morosely. ¡°I tried to learn at first but being around the clinic was too much. All the injured¡­I ran away more days than not.¡±

    Silas put a hand on her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that.¡±

    Kate elbowed him in the side. ¡°If you¡¯re so sorry, mind moving away from me? You¡¯re covered in bruises you know. They hurt.¡±

    ¡°I noticed.¡± Silas grumbled, but he still backed away.

    The group needed to sneak around to the east side of Hydrabridge where they were to meet up with a caravan returning from Verith. The group had borrowed a few sets of clothing for the mission. They hadn¡¯t thought to pack anything but their uniforms but wearing those would have been like announcing their identities. The group was also lacking any bands around their arms.

    This made Myles distinctly uncomfortable. It was strange not wearing a band around his arm. He had worn a yellow band for most of his life. It was just another layer to their deception. They didn¡¯t want anyone to know they were arcaners. Of course, by law, the three of them had to wear either blue bands signifying that they were arcaners associated with the military or the white bands that were unique to Maston academy.

    It was just one more thing that could potentially land them in hot water. They may have been on a mission, but Myles somehow doubted how willing Rufus would be to admit that he had ordered them to sneak in. Myles wasn¡¯t sure what the punishment for that was, but it wouldn¡¯t matter, the punishment for an arcaner not wearing a band in public was death. It was deemed too expensive to keep arcaners locked away.

    Myles wasn¡¯t eager to die, and neither were his squad mates. They kept well away from the walls, hiding as best they could by moving through patches of tall grass. It took a tense few minutes, but none of the soldiers who walked along the walls rose an alarm.

    Eventually, the caravan came into sight, right on time. Something was off though. The report Rufus had given them had said there would be ten wagons, all stocked with supplies. Myles only saw six though. It also looked like there were far fewer people in the caravan than they had expected.

    ¡°Just our luck,¡± Kate whispered, ¡°the caravan must have run across monsters.¡±

    Silas cursed. ¡°This will make it harder to slide into the background. With less new workers, we¡¯ll just stand out that much more.¡±

    The group abandoned their stealth and walked right into the midst of the caravan. The guards were loyal to Rufus, so, they didn¡¯t make a fuss as the group wandered in, taking places among the few workers remaining. Five Myles counted feeling sick. There were supposed to have been seventeen new workers with the caravan, now there were only five.

    The guards may have known about the plan, but the workers were just people. When they found three new members among them, they were immediately suspicious.

    It was an old man who approached them first. His face was scarred, but his body was strong. He was clearly no stranger to hard work, and Myles could immediately tell this man was respected among this group.

    ¡°Here to join the rest of us in Hydrabridge?¡± The old man asked.

    Silas nodded amiably. ¡°We heard there was work that needed doing here. Metal to be mined for the Verith engineers.¡±

    The old man scoffed. ¡°Welcome to the group. The names Paulo. You don¡¯t have to hide why you¡¯re here. You¡¯re the same as us right. Desperate enough to risk our lives to start over.¡±

    One of the men behind Paulo groaned. ¡°Must be more desperate than us. Crossed the voidlands without an escort by the looks of it. Can¡¯t believe they made it alive.¡±

    Silas put up a hand. ¡°Not desperate. Eager. My sister was killed by monsters about a year ago. The soldiers weren¡¯t recruiting anywhere near me, so, I figure this is the best way to keep that from happening to anyone else.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a fool, boy.¡± Paulo shook his grizzled head. ¡°This is no place to find some weird feeling of honor. You take the first trip back to your hometown.¡±

    Myles leaned over to Silas. ¡°What are you doing? We¡¯re trying to blend in. Your story¡¯s going to make us stick out.¡±

    Silas moved along, leading the small pack of desperate workers like he was the eager boy he had said he was. ¡°We don¡¯t really have a chance to blend in. I¡¯m just trying to make sure we stand out in the right ways.¡±

 Chapter 37

    Chapter 37

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    When the caravan reached the gates, the soldiers who had been traveling with it turned to follow the wall around to Rufus¡¯ camp. Silas had figured that this would be the case, there wouldn¡¯t be much point to their mission if his men could so easily get into Hydrabridge.

    Silas was subtly on the lookout for Lenas and the two soldiers who had been with him. They had gotten an up-close look at their whole group. That was a serious problem. If any of them happened to cross paths, they would be found out.

    Silas took a calming breath. The gate guards had finished managing the paperwork, and the gates were being pushed open.

    As Silas stepped through, he was awed by the sight. Chasms cut through the ground every dozen feet. In most of these, Silas couldn¡¯t see a bottom. Wooden bridges crossed the numerous gaps in the stone, lined up, they formed nine distinct paths around the town.

    There wasn¡¯t a single plant to be seen within the walls. There was nothing but rough gray stone. Most of the houses were made of wood. The ones on the surface were well put together, but Silas could make out much shoddier lodgings positioned on ramps down to the depths of the chasms below.

    The storm had clearly hit the town hard. Stone was still soaked in most places with many puddles forming where the stone had a depression. The result was a very slick surface. One of the new workers that came in with them cursed as he lost his footing and almost slipped right into one of the chasms. Thankfully he was able to regain his footing, but it was more than enough reminder to watch your step.

    Outside of the slick stone, it looked like the storm had brought down one of the bridges. Carpenters milled around it even this deep in the evening. Silas even saw a priest of Deprios helping out. A red band around his arm showed the priest was an arcaner. Perhaps he had some technique that would help with the reconstruction.

    The caravan was led to a truly massive building made of the same strange wood as the walls. Silas guessed it was where the ore was stored. A truly massive man came out of the building¡¯s front door. The man wore armor covered in runes. Two bands circled his right arm. One was red, the other was blue and covered in stars.

    ¡°I am Wald Matrick, baron of Hydrabridge, and commander of her defenses.¡± Baron Matrick walked around the group of eight new workers. The others from the caravan went about stabling the horses and starting to unload the wagons.

    Silas couldn¡¯t help but feel uncomfortable. He knew that Wald would be a formidable arcaner, one they would be fools to get into a fight with. Like all the dukes of Hydrabridge, Wald Matrick was a commoner who had made his way up through the military, earning enough achievements to warrant being made a noble and being put in charge of one of the province¡¯s most important mines.

    ¡°Now that you are here in Hydrabridge,¡± Silas flinched back on instinct. The commander¡¯s voice was as deep as it was fierce, ¡°You will be protected. I personally guarantee your safety for as long as you remain within these walls.¡±

    Silas could hear breaths of relief coming from several of the men behind them. It seemed Paulo had been right. These men had been desperate. A promise of safety likely sounded like an invitation to stay in Deprios¡¯ citadel.

    Baron Matrick pointed toward the chasm behind them. ¡°In exchange for safety, we demand devotion to your work. Work that helps guarantee your own safety as well as the safety of many in the province.¡±

    The group of workers was sent staggering off into the dark, following a soldier who held a torch that she lit with a burst of evoked fire mana. It seemed the Baron hadn¡¯t been joking about devotion. Even in the dark of night, Silas heard the distinct sound of picks breaking through stone.

    At first, Silas hoped the soldier would be leading them into the depths to start a mining shift of their own. Unfortunately, that was not to be. She headed down a ramp, but Silas could easily tell they were heading towards an area filled with large wooden buildings. A likely place to house newly arrived workers.

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    That was not ideal for Silas. The longer he stayed in Hydrabridge, the higher the chance was that they would be caught. He briefly considered working with Kate and Myles to overpower the guard and rush into the chasms, but that was a foolish idea. Even if they did manage to knock out the guard, the other workers would raise a ruckus and alert any nearby soldiers. Not to mention, they had no idea where the roots they were looking for were actually located. Without knowing that, they might find themselves wandering through the depths of the chasms for hours until a group of soldiers caught them.

    With that in mind, Silas turned to his second plan. Gathering information. Most importantly, they needed information on the location of the roots they were looking for. There was no way Silas could ask about that directly without drawing suspicion though.

    They also needed information on the movements of the soldiers, particularly Lenas and the other two guards who had seen them earlier. Of course, asking about guard movements directly wasn¡¯t an option either.

    Silas walked up to the soldier as she guided them carefully down the slick stone ramp. She let him approach without a second thought. Silas realized he was close enough that he could knock her out with a single palm thrust to the side of the head. She wasn¡¯t commuting any mana.

    Silas shook that from his mind. He didn¡¯t need his combat training right now. He needed his political training. Mr. Habe had spent an entire lesson on how to interact with soldiers in various situations. One of the approaches he had recommended for getting information out of soldiers was to compliment them while their guard was down. Soldiers were just people after all. Show admiration for them, and they would be willing to tell you information you might not hear otherwise.

    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Dean,¡± Silas ventured in a cheerful tone, making up a fake name, and gluing an admiring smile to his face, ¡°this is kind of awkward, but I¡¯ve always wanted to meet a soldier.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± The soldier turned toward him slightly. ¡°Have you never met a blue band before?¡±

    Silas twisted his thumbs nervously, an emotion he had no trouble displaying at the moment. ¡°I came from a small village. We never had any soldiers stop by. I always admired them from the stories though. Protecting people form monsters¡­¡± Silas gave an emotional gulp, strangled by grief, the grief was another emotion Silas brought up easily.

    The soldier looked at him in concern. ¡°Did you lose someone?¡±

    ¡°My sister. She went out with a caravan. It was guarded by a hired shikari, but it wasn¡¯t enough.¡± Silas felt a twinge of anger enter his voice. ¡°The caravan was found later. Nobody made it.¡±

    ¡°The names Lira.¡± Lira put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I have some idea how you feel. For me it was my brother.¡±

    Silas looked at Lira more closely. She was only a year or two older than him. He felt a pang of sympathy, but also realized his opportunity. ¡°Do you normally serve as a guide to miners here?¡±

    Lira winced slightly at the question. ¡°Not normally¡­but we have been having some difficulty with some of the miners recently. We rarely let them leave you see.¡± Lira looked down into the depths of the chasm. ¡°Recently some of the miners started rebelling, spreading word that we were forcing them to stay here, calling it slavery and other nonsense. Some of us have been tasked with keeping an eye on things to try to defuse the situation.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t let people leave?¡±

    ¡°We do,¡± Lira clarified. ¡°There is a process though, and we can only let out a certain number of people. We need to keep the mine operating properly.¡±

    Silas grinned. ¡°I heard that this mine was important for supporting the soldier¡¯s guarding the railway!¡±

    ¡°Exactly!¡± Lira smiled. ¡°We need the metal for aether constructs. Without those, we wouldn¡¯t be able to defend the railways. The voidlands would be filled with more dangerous monsters.¡±

    ¡°Are you always assigned to go into the chasms then?¡±

    ¡°The baron keeps us on weekly shifts. We swap out for different roles at the end of the week.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be confusing, always reporting to a different person?¡±

    ¡°Not really. The officers don¡¯t swap roles, so, we always know who to report to.¡± Lira gave a kind smile. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m assigned to the chasms more often than not. I¡¯m one of the few soldiers who volunteers for it.¡±

    Silas kept up the conversation but knowing that they had until the end of the week was crucial info. Since the soldiers who had seen them were assigned to guarding the wall, there would be minimal risk running into them when they were in the mines. Of course, they would need to leave the town at some point, and Lira implied that wasn¡¯t so easily done.

    Lira left the group inside one of the large buildings designed to house workers. Inside, there were rows of beds. Silas immediately threw away any plans of trying to sneak into the chasms that night. The building was too open. One of the workers would be sure to notice.

    Most of the new workers went straight to bed. Silas supposed it had been a long couple of days for them. Silas found a bed close to Myles and Kate and they stayed up longer than the other workers, whispering among themselves.

    ¡°Someone was getting close to that soldier.¡± The corners of Kate¡¯s mouth turned up in a mischievous grin. ¡°I think they might like you.¡±

    Silas felt his face flush slightly.

    Myles rolled his eyes. ¡°We¡¯re risking our lives here and you¡¯re making taking time to tease Silas?¡±

    Kate whispered back. ¡°Not much we can do besides wait. Besides, someone has to tease him, keep him honest.¡±

    Silas was the one rolling his eyes now. ¡°I was getting us information you know.¡±

    Kate leaned forward. ¡°Well?¡±

    Silas explained to them what he had learned about the soldiers changing shifts once a week.

    The group took that information in and began considering ideas on how to escape.

    ¡°We know that at least Lenas can sense us with wind mana.¡± Myles contributed.

    ¡°Right, we should probably assume that if we go over the wall, we will be sensed.¡± Kate flexed her fingers. ¡°Unless we make a distraction of some kind.¡±

    Silas leaned back on his bed. ¡°There is a lot of metal here. Maybe we could make a that could create the distraction.¡±

    Myles nodded. ¡°That¡¯s possible. Right now, the only core that I have is the one from the stormbird. It has water type mana which isn¡¯t exactly ideal for a distraction, but I may be able to make it work. I need to research runes and the like though, come up with a design of sorts.¡±

    The group didn¡¯t have any better ideas, so, they changed positions, blocking Myles from sight as much as possible while he took out his aether index and scanned its contents, considering different options for distractions.

 Chapter 38

    Chapter 38

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    They were woken bright and early by a horn sounding throughout the town. A few minutes later, Lira walked into the hall. She had returned to guide them down into the chasms where their first day of work would begin.

    The journey was perilous. Myles had seen how deep the chasms seemed to reach, but the scale of the mining operation was just beginning to hit him. They passed carts filled with metal. Myles saw all of the basic metals as well as a few that even he didn¡¯t recognize. He found himself dreaming of what he could do with all of the metal.

    He pushed those thoughts out of his mind though. The descent they made was perilous. While the stone here was drier than it was on the surface, there were no railings keeping them away from a fall that would surely result in death. Even as they advanced down the sides of the chasms, walking along ramps that had been cut into the stone generations ago, the morning light did not pierce far enough to make out the bottom of the chasm.

    Lira seemed to be determined to lead them to the very bottom though. They just kept moving downward. Eventually, the sun¡¯s light grew dim. Shortly afterward, Myles began to see torches attached to wall every dozen feet. At one point, they saw a tired looking woman wandering between the torches with a lit torch of her own. She would replace any torch that had burned out.

    Silas had brought the strange pickaxe that concealed the group¡¯s weapons and Myles was surprised to see that this tool seemed common. They several of the more experienced miners with the same tool. Its use remained a mystery though.

    Finally, after what must have been an hour of walking, the group was brought into a well-lit building where a group of soldiers was camped out.

    ¡°I brought the new arrivals.¡±

    A massive man arose from a chair lethargically. ¡°Last I heard there were twenty workers. Why is it that I see only eight.¡±

    Paulo stepped froward. ¡°We were attacked on the road sir.  Most of us didn¡¯t make it.¡±

    The man looked down at Paulo as if at a particularly nasty wart. ¡°Did I ask you lowlife?¡±

    Lira pulled Paulo back in line gently, a look of distaste written clearly across her face and seeping into her voice. ¡°These eight are all that remain officer Rolance.¡±

    The officer, whose blue band Myles could now see was decorated in the same fashion as Lenas¡¯ gave no reaction to the disgust that Lira openly displayed towards him. ¡°Hmmm.¡± The man quietly muttered to himself, stroking his double chin thoughtfully. ¡°This will make reaching our quota all the more challenging.¡± Rolance gave a sloppy grin. ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll have to assign them to duty in the depths.¡±

    One of the nearby guards stirred uneasily. ¡°Officer Rolance. That duty is usually reserved for our specially trained miners. The depths have grown dangerous, too dangerous for anyone unable to¡­¡±

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    Rolance cut him off. ¡°Perhaps you are right. It wouldn¡¯t do to lose all of our workers.¡± Rolance sat back down with a sigh of comfort. ¡°We must make up for lost labor though and the depths are the only place we can find a decent amount of ore nowadays.¡±

    Paulo bravely moved forward again. ¡°It would be my honor to carry out this duty on behalf of my fellows.¡±

    Rolance laughed, a sickly sound. ¡°It seems I misjudged you, old man. You may be a lowlife, but at least you have spine.¡± He moved his head around the room. ¡°Does anyone else wish to join this old fool?¡±

    Silas moved forward, loudly declaring that he would go with. Myles saw his line of thinking. Rufus had told them he thought they would find the roots in the deepest tunnels. Here was a golden opportunity for them.

    Myles stepped forward at the same time as Kate, each volunteering for the role.

    ¡°Perhaps this group is more worthwhile than I thought.¡± Rolance scratched his head. ¡°Too much bravery is foolhardy though.¡± He swept his hand around gesturing at Kate. ¡°Girl! You¡¯ll stay behind.¡± Rolance looked quizzically at the guard who had spoken up earlier, clearly trying to remember his name. ¡°As my¡­subordinate mentioned, it¡¯s dangerous in the depths. The other three will serve well enough.¡±

    Myles felt panic grip him. It looked like Rolance planned to keep Kate from going into these depths with them. That was a serious blow to their mission. Not only was she another combatant to help them, but she was also their expert on monsters. If anyone could keep them alive against potential monsters spawning amidst these roots, it was her.

    Myles gave Silas a quick glance, but he just subtly shook his head. Myles acknowledged it. He knew they couldn¡¯t risk arguing here. It would look suspicious and likely get them nowhere. Still though, he didn¡¯t like it.

    Rolance was about to send them on their way when Lira cleared her throat. ¡°Would you allow me to accompany them into the depths? I could keep them safer.¡±

    Rolance pounded the arm of his chair and gave off a low fierce growl that made the soldiers around him wince. ¡°Did Lenas put you up to this? I¡¯ve told him at least a dozen times that I won¡¯t send soldiers down there. The miners who work there don¡¯t want us watching every little thing they do, and few of my soldiers are eager to risk their lives down there. We will be leaving things as they are.¡±

    Lira gave a salute. ¡°As you command sir.¡±

    Lira guided the rest of the group out, taking Kate with her. As they did so, Rolance stood up from his chair with an effort that Myles couldn¡¯t help but be annoyed by. The man was clearly out of shape, a trait that by the looks of the soldiers he was in charge of was not doing him any favors.

    When Rolance motioned him, Silas, and Paulo to follow, Myles couldn¡¯t help but feel a spike of surprise. He had expected Rolance to send one of his men to guide them.

    They went on a short trip through a tunnel that led into one of the other chasms. At the bottom of the chasm, they came across a cluster of houses surrounding what appeared to be a hole leading even further underground.

    Rolance stopped as they reached the outer cluster of houses. ¡°I¡¯ve brought you some new recruits.¡±

    A middle-aged man walked out of one of the houses, a pickaxe lain across his right shoulder. In spite of himself, Myles couldn¡¯t help but feel intimidated. Years of hard labor had honed the man¡¯s physique. He looked to be about the same size as Rolance, but where much of Rolance¡¯s size was aided by plenty of fat, this man looked to be built entirely of muscle.

    Myles found it strange to think that he could almost certainly beat this man in a fight. Even though every fiber of Myles¡¯ body cried out in warning at the thought, he knew that was the case. His pure mana would make it so the man¡¯s blows would fall short, and his months of physical and martial training meant he was confident he could deal serious damage in return.

    The man looked Rolance straight in the eyes for a minute, neither flinching. ¡°We¡¯re happy to take them.¡±

    Rolance shrugged and walked away.

    ¡°Welcome to the depths.¡± The man intoned, his voice drawing in their attention. ¡°The most dangerous part of the mine.¡±

    Paulo frowned. ¡°We¡¯ve just arrived. Could you explain what makes the depths so dangerous?¡±

    The man gave a frown. ¡°It seems the overseers have fallen lower than ever.¡±

    ¡°What was that?¡± Paulo asked.

    ¡°The names Samuel.¡± Samuel stuck out his hand, giving them each a firm handshake as they introduced themselves. ¡°I¡¯m the foreman around here. Grew up in the mines of Hydrabridge same as most of the people who mine its depths.¡± Samuel gestured for them to follow him.

    The group lowered themselves into the massive hole, a maneuver that meant climbing down what was nearly a sheer cliff onto a thin ledge. While they descended carefully, Samuel hung off the side of the wall with one hand, casually talking. ¡°The depths have to be respected. While the rest of the mine has you breaking your back by busting up stone, you at least get to do that on a flat surface. Here, you¡¯ll be risking your life trying to do the same work on thin ledges. You get used to it eventually, but we¡¯ve had a lot of newbies fall before that.¡±

    Paulo looked pale as he clambered carefully down the wall. ¡°You¡¯re saying there¡¯s no solid ground anywhere down there?¡±

    Samuel chuckled. ¡°There are a few tunnels that lead off the shaft. I wouldn¡¯t go near them if I were you though.¡±

    Myles frowned. ¡°Why not?¡±

    An enormous growl suddenly burst forth from somewhere far beneath them. Samuel grimaced as he kept Paulo from losing his grip from the surprise. ¡°That¡¯s why.¡±

    ¡°Monsters,¡± Paulo said disbelieving, ¡°How are there monsters down here?¡±

 Chapter 39

    Chapter 39

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    ¡°Lillian. I have something to tell you.¡±

    Lillian basked in the morning sun as she walked through the voidlands west of Hydrabridge. She didn¡¯t have the heart to tell the man who walked beside her that she had taken on a new name. It was he who had given her the name three years ago.

    Reah stopped in her tracks, looking on the face of Rufus Lance for the first time since he had pulled her from a different life. He held his mask in his hand, one of the three ivory masks given to the most important military figures in the province, artifacts handed down since long before either of them was born. He was never supposed to take off that mask.

    Rufus¡¯ eyes showed signs of strain, his face was downcast, clouded in frustration and sadness. ¡°Your name has come up a great deal recently.¡±

    Reah turned towards him fully. A feeling of dread in her heart. ¡°The organization?¡±

    Rufus simply nodded. It was all it took to crush Reah¡¯s dreams. Suddenly she was as scared as she had ever been. ¡°Why!¡± She screamed. ¡°I¡¯ve done nothing but follow the empire¡¯s demands! There have been no warning signs!¡±

    Rufus looked at the ground. ¡°The organization has as many lines of reasoning as there are stars in the sky. I don¡¯t know the reason for this though. I have no answer for you.¡±

    Reah felt her heart beating hard in her chest. She found her gaze drawn to each bush around her. She instinctively evoked wind mana all around herself. The extra perception did nothing to reassure her. She knew perfectly well that if the organization was talking about her, she would soon end up dead or worse. ¡°Is that why you dragged me out here with you? To make things easier? To let them kill me?¡±

    Rufus put his mask back on. Instantly, Reah cut her own emotions off too. It was so much easier to do that when you could pretend you weren¡¯t with another human.

    A voice came out of the mask. ¡°We¡¯re not out here to fight the organization¡¯s assassins, Lillian. We¡¯re here to deal with troublemakers that seek to bring chaos to the province.¡±

    Reah felt a spike of anger rising up through her chest. Why should she help with these troublemakers? Why should she help to protect the province? Why did everyone else get to have an ordinary life aside from her? She pushed those feelings down. That wasn¡¯t who she was. She had never had control over the most important parts of her own life, but that didn¡¯t mean she couldn¡¯t make the lives of others better. That was what her heroes would do. Primrose would do it; General Ford would do it; even Rufus would probably do it.

    Reah took a deep breath then asked for details.

    ¡°We¡¯re dealing with troublesome opponents. Someone hired a pair of imperial auroras to stir up chaos, consume our resources.¡±

    Reah frowned. ¡°That¡¯s not why you¡¯ve been here investigating. You¡¯ve been looking into the incident with the ivory force.¡±

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    ¡°Absolutely! It was lucky chance to be honest. I never would have discovered them if the ivory force hadn¡¯t given us such a loud message.¡±

    Reah sincerely doubted that. From what Reah could tell, Rufus played a very dangerous game. He balanced threats to the province on a daily basis. The thing about Rufus though was that he was good at his game. Nobody liked him¡ªReah included. He lied constantly to his own people. Every company in the conglomerate of faces had suffered damages from his lies. Every notable member of the nobility had had their reputation tarnished in some way by him. The duke of the province had a particular hatred for him. Reah knew that he tried to have Rufus thrown from office three times in the last three months. Despite all that, Rufus remained in his position. The province needed him because he was so good at what he did.

    Rufus shook his head at her.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You look so serious. Its almost like someone just gave you a death threat.¡±

    Reah glared at him. ¡°You tried to kill me just last night.¡±

    ¡°That was just a joke. You never would have been hurt by an attack like that.¡±

    Reah privately disagreed. He had hit her hard. Reah very much thought that he had wanted to kill her. He had probably been thinking of it as a mercy. There were only two things that the organization might do to her. Of those choices, Reah¡¯s preference very much was death. Better that than becoming a puppet of the tree.

    ¡°There it is again. You just look far too serious.¡±

    Reah groaned in annoyance. ¡°I feel like I have every right to be a little serious. If we¡¯re out here to fight auroras, we¡¯ll need every scrap of strength we have. Neither of us are quite skilled enough to match one.¡±

    ¡°You have killed a far more powerful opponent before.¡± Rufus pointed out. ¡°That is why they call you the reaper.¡±

    ¡°I took him by surprise along with nine others. We should all have been too young to evoke more than a puddle of mana. We attacked him from inches away, and I was still the only survivor.¡±

    Rufus nodded slowly. ¡°You make some good points. Perhaps I should talk you through the situation a little more.¡±

    Reah took a breath. Imperial aurorae were the Perralin empire¡¯s own elite certified mercenaries. She had only ever seen one imperial aurora in action, and they had been skilled enough to take on a small army.

    Reah was a much stronger arcaner than anyone else her age. She could count herself among the most dangerous arcaners in the province, but the province was just one small backwater place in the empire. The standards to be among the strongest in the empire proper were much higher.

    Though he rarely showed his personal strength, Rufus was probably slightly stronger than Reah, but still not in the league of an aurora.

    ¡°Two days ago, we ran into some bandits to the north.¡± Rufus gave a cursory scan of their surroundings, a mostly symbolic gesture since he was evoking wind mana. He would sense an ambusher long before he saw them¡ªalthough Reah did know of a way to avoid detection even when intruding through another¡¯s evoked wind mana. ¡°The bandits were attacking a small village, one too small to have any soldiers stationed there.¡±

    Reah winced. Almost all bandits were arcaners in some form. Most commonly, they were deserters unwilling to do their duty. When they attacked an unguarded village, they usually just raided some of the supplies, but if things went poorly, things could quickly turn into a nightmare.

    ¡°When the bandits were interrogated, they confessed they had been ordered to attack the village. We found three other villages nearby. Each of them had seen brutal raids.¡±

    Reah considered that for a moment. ¡°You think this pair of aurorae is behind the attacks? Forcing bandits to do their bidding?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a possibility. We don¡¯t actually know if there are any aurorae in the area. Its just the working theory based on what the bandit told us.¡±

    ¡°Who would hire aurorae to get bandits to do such a thing?¡±

    Rufus rolled his shoulder. ¡°If there really are aurorae, I would guess that their goal is to cause a distraction, force us to move our resources away from the borders.¡±

    ¡°Just to weaken the borders?¡±

    Rufus shook his head. ¡°I think its more likely that someone is attempting to sneak something past the border.¡±

    Reah felt something click in her head. If the aurorae¡¯s goal was to cause a big enough distraction to pull soldiers away from the railway, killing the minister of education would be a good way to do that. ¡°We¡¯re bait.¡± She whispered.

    To her right, Rufus gave an imperceptible nod.

    The nice morning sun had suddenly become far more ominous. Reah redoubled her efforts, concentrating on her evoked wind mana, looking for something specific. She felt it a moment later in a few different places. Slight disruptions as some of the particles making up her wind mana were moved by an outside force, diverted slightly form their predetermined path. It wasn¡¯t as obvious as if the wind mana was actually bumping against the people, but it was still clear to Reah that they were being followed by arcaners with light mana.

    When she used her eyes to detect their followers, she saw nothing. It was relatively simple to turn nearly invisible with careful use of light mana techniques. Evoked wind mana was much harder to fool though. The combination of light mana and wind mana was a popular one for arcaners focused on stealth. Reah knew instinctively that none of the five people she sensed around them were auroras. If the auroras came, Reah wouldn¡¯t sense them coming.

    The ones following them were Rufus¡¯ men, agents of the minister of education. They were to be the jaws of the trap.

 Chapter 40

    Chapter 40

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    When Kate had been left alone, she knew she would have to support the others in any way she could. Unfortunately, there was little she could do. Lira led them across the bottom of the chasm, and into a long tunnel.

    The heat began to gather quickly. Torches were spaced closer together to provide more light. The noise was incredible. Not only did Kate hear the deafening sound of pick hitting stone, but she also heard the constant talk of workers as they moved around in teams.

    The tunnel was full of traffic. Runners were constantly passing them, carrying jugs of water, refreshments for others who were hard at work. Multiple carts filled with stone were being pushed by small teams along the wooden track that had been built into the ground. Everyone Kate could see looked exhausted even though the shift must have just started.

    When they finally arrived at the end of the tunnel, Lira quickly helped to put her in a group with a handful of experienced miners who showed her the ropes. Kate quickly found that while the work was relatively simple, there were plenty of tips and tricks that made the process of breaking through rock easier.

    The rock they were digging into had already been fractured, and Kate didn¡¯t have to wait long to find out how. Soldiers weren¡¯t just standing around doing nothing. They would rotate shifts, each disappearing further down a thin branch of the tunnel where heat would soon pour out of.

    Kate was confused as to what was happening until one of the miners in her group explained it to her. ¡°They¡¯re using fire to weaken the stone. Makes it easier on us.¡±

    So physically exhausting was the work, Kate couldn¡¯t imagine trying to dig through the rock without it having first been weakened. As time passed, Kate was reassigned to help run water for her group. She was shown the way to a nearby spring.

    On her trip to the spring, Kate realized that regardless of whether she was digging or carrying water, she was under constant watch. Soldiers were always present for mining operations. They were far outnumbered by miners, but they had placed themselves in clever positions so as to keep an eye on everyone. There were plenty of moments where she left the sight of one of the overseers (as she had learned the miners cynically called them). None of those moments were anywhere close to where metal was actually being mined or handled though.

    During the night, Myles had come up with a plan to distract the guards along the wall. From their experience two nights ago, they knew that Lenas, the officer in charge of the security of the wall was very cautious. It would be a serious challenge to get over the wall without being detected.

    They already knew that evoked wind mana could be used for detection. That would make it difficult to sneak out without a plan. A distraction could potentially work, but none of them had wanted to bank on any distraction they created being enough to get Lenas to make a mistake.

    The plan they had eventually settled on was to hitch a ride concealed in one of the wagon caravans that brought the mined metal out of the town. If they hid under the metal, the guards probably wouldn¡¯t be able to perceive them with their wind mana.

    The problem with the plan was that the wagons were kept under guard. Fortunately, Silas had picked up on a particular detail from his discussion with Lira. She had told him that her least favorite job was guarding the wagons as Lenas would make use of those guards to supplement those patrolling the wall in the event of monsters trying to attack the town.

    The solution they had come up with was to use the stormbird core they had taken to create an aether construct that would shoot out water mana. With any luck, the wagon guards would be drawn away, thinking the water mana was an attack by some monster. The three of them would then sneak into the wagons and pass through the gates unnoticed.

    With Rufus¡¯ men being the ones put in charge of the caravans once they left Hydrabridge, it stood to reason that they would be able to talk their way out of any hostilities as soon as they escaped.

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    In order to make the aether construct, they would need metal. Myles had made designs for most of the basic metals that would serve their purposes, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to etch runes properly into any but the softest metals. That meant that they needed to get their hands on either some basium or channium.

    Kate was eager to get her hands on the metal while Myles and Silas were in the depths, where presumably the roots that Rufus had spoken of were located.

    As the hours slipped past, Kate kept her eyes and ears wide open, looking for a way to get her hands on the metal she needed. Her first thought was the pickaxes, but while their heads were metal, they were made from a far harder metal than they could work with. Besides, the pickaxes couldn¡¯t be taken from a workstation.

    Halfway through the day, Kate heard an enraged shout come from behind her. One of the new miners she had come in with was holding a broken pickaxe in his hand. It looked like the wooden shaft had broken. He was looking at his hand, eyes slightly moist. A large splinter looked to have penetrated deep into his hand.

    While one of the miners in the man¡¯s group helped him remove the splinter, their runner took the broken pickaxe and walked back down the tunnel in the direction of the chasm.

    ¡°Would it be alright if I took another shift as runner?¡±

    The runner for Kate¡¯s group looked at her sympathetically. ¡°Sure thing.¡± The man grinned, patting her on the shoulder as she left, voice full of encouragement. ¡°Your body will get used to it eventually.¡±

    Kate couldn¡¯t help but feel a little bit of guilt. She could easily tell that the man¡¯s body had not grown used to the work. A slight twinge of pain came to her through her affliction whenever he swung the pickaxe. If anything, his body was slowly breaking down from the repetitive motion and physical effort.

    Kate followed the other group¡¯s runner out of the tunnel. When they strayed from the typical path runners took, Kate glanced around herself. Seeing nobody, she followed, sticking to the shadows as best she could. Kate quickly realized how out of her element she was down here. She had learned to move carefully and largely undetected through the voidlands but moving through a mine filled with soldiers and other miners was a harder task.

    Kate was quickly discovered by a soldier who was guarding a cart, one of the same designs they had seen carrying metals up to the surface on their way in. He nodded amiably to her, and Kate returned the nod, trying her best to look like she was supposed to be there. Kate almost managed to round the corner before he called out.

    ¡°Hey.¡±

    Kate turned around, feeling a hint of dread. ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Are you one of the miners they¡¯re reassigning to the channium vein?¡±

    Kate paused awkwardly, looking at him blankly. ¡°I¡¯m new here.¡±

    The soldier moved towards her. ¡°You were told to get a new pickaxe, right?¡±

    Kate realized that was likely the only reason she would be headed this way. ¡°Yes.¡±

    The soldier smiled at her gently. ¡°They¡¯ll be sending you to the new vein they just uncovered. Rolance wants the metal out as soon as possible. When you get there can you deliver a message for me?¡±

    Kate felt her palms grow sweaty, hoping the message wouldn¡¯t be important.

    The soldier continued talking and Kate nodded at the right moments. She wasn¡¯t listening too carefully. She knew she would never actually deliver the message. Besides, she was noticing two important details. The first was that the soldier wasn¡¯t commuting mana. Kate knew that was typical. Even at the academy, their group had been an unusual case for training to constantly commute mana, even in situations that seemed safe. The second was that the cart behind him wasn¡¯t empty. It was filled about a third of the way with metal, metal that based on the soldier¡¯s account was likely channium.

    A grim plan began to form in Kate¡¯s head. If she could sneak up on the soldier, his lack of commuted armor meant she could potentially knock him out with one blow. From there, it would be a simple matter of concealing a chunk of the metal until she could give it to Myles.

    Kate took a breath, giving one final nod to the soldier and followed in the footsteps of the runner with the broken pickaxe.

    The process of grabbing a pickaxe was fairly simple. She wasn¡¯t required to sign out the pickaxe or anything. A soldier posted near the equipment asked for her reason for grabbing it, but her simple lie, inspired by the cart guard¡¯s line of thinking, was accepted without serious thought.

    Kate moved quickly, stashing her new pickaxe behind a stack of wooden crates just outside the cart guard¡¯s field of vision. She would need it to be sure she would succeed in knocking the guard out in one strike. If she failed to do that, his commuted armor would protect him from further blows, and she would be caught.

    After stashing the pickaxe, Kate continued her water run. After all, she didn¡¯t want to be gone for a suspicious amount of time when she was about to knock someone out.

    Kate spent her next shift with the pickaxe in a state of constant concern. She began to realize how many things could go wrong with her plan. Her pickaxe could be discovered. The cart could be moved.

    Kate did her best to keep those thoughts out of her head. She focused on digging her way through the rock, swinging the pick over and over again. The repetitive work didn¡¯t help to make time pass faster, but eventually her turn as runner came again.

    Kate found the pickaxe exactly where she left it. The guard was looking straight ahead. Kate recognized the look he had and couldn¡¯t believe her luck. He was delving. Kate supposed he must¡¯ve been bored from doing nothing but standing by a cart all day.

    Kate crept up to him carefully, being careful to stick to the shadows, out of his line of sight. He would be focused on delving, but Kate doubted he would be completely oblivious.

    As she drew up behind him, Kate braced herself then swung. The metal pickaxe hit the guard directly in the side of the head. A flash of intense pain hit her, and she fell to all fours, grabbing at her head. A wave of nausea rolled over her. It took all of her concentration to avoid throwing up the meager meals she had been given.

    A moment later, the pain passed. Kate slowly pushed herself to her feet. The guard was out cold. Kate moved over to the cart and grabbed two chunks of metal from the top. She hid one behind the crates where she had stowed the pickaxe earlier. The smaller chunk, Kate slipped into her pocket. She wasn¡¯t sure if the smaller chunk would be as easy to work with, but she didn¡¯t want to take the risk of the larger piece being discovered.

 Chapter 41

    Chapter 41

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Reah walked beside Rufus through the fields west of Hydrabridge. She kept her evoked wind mana active, pulling it around with her as they wandered. Normally, evoked mana couldn¡¯t be manipulated once it was in the world. The third connection allowed one to alter mana that had previously been evoked. While it was easiest to alter mana you had evoked yourself, there was really no difference between the mana one arcaner evoked and the mana another arcaner evoked.

    If he chose, Rufus could alter the way her mana acted. Of course, to do that, he would have to forge a connection to her wind mana with his own evoked wind mana. Doing that was especially challenging with wind mana since it was hard to locate.

    The invisible agents that Rufus had following them were doing exactly that. When Reah¡¯s wind mana hit an object of any kind, she could feel that impact in a similar way to how other arcaners could feel if their evoked pure mana was hit by some force. Through practice, one could take the information gathered from those many impacts and form a rough picture of their surroundings. Rufus¡¯ agents had been specifically trained to alter another¡¯s evoked mana before it hit them. When used against the average wind mana user, that would effectively prevent them from being discovered.

    In order to do that, they were obviously a cut above your average soldier. For one thing, they had to have delved deep enough into their wind aether wells to gain access to the alteration connection. Considering that they were maintaining invisibility as well, they would have done the same with light mana.

    Despite the agent¡¯s impressive ability compared to the province¡¯s average soldier, Reah could still sense them through her wind mana if she paid any sort of attention. Reah had grown up with the need to remain undetected. Every day she had spent under the boughs of the burning tree was a day in which detection would have meant certain death. Over the years she had spent there, Reah had seen plenty of others meet a horrible fate. It had been a horrible experience, but at the very least, Reah couldn¡¯t deny that it had produced results. She was more finely tuned to wind and light mana than just about anyone.

    Now, Reah¡¯s ability to both sense others within her field of evoked wind mana and obfuscate her own presence when under another¡¯s were a whole league higher than any of the agents Rufus employed. Rufus himself was another matter though. While Reah still thought her ability to obfuscate her presence was higher than Rufus¡¯, his sensing ability was almost supernatural. Reah privately thought that his skills with wind mana were being greatly enhanced by the mask he wore.

    The ivory masks were a point of great secrecy. The two masks that remained in the hands of the military had their capabilities hidden from all except those who wore them. The third mask had been lost long ago. Rumor had it that a certain enforcer of the organization wore it now, but Reah had never met them to be able to tell with certainty.

    As they walked across the open plain, Reah kept her eye on Rufus for any reaction. He was the most likely to sense the aurorae if they approached.

    The day dragged on with them aimlessly hiking through the area around Hydrabridge. Just when Reah had begun to think that the talk of aurorae must have been nonsense, five objects hurtled through her wind mana. Each of these objects¡ªby their shape Reah guessed they were sharpened stone projectiles¡ªheaded right at one of the five invisible agents that Rufus had planted around them.

    Without a moment¡¯s hesitation, Reah evoked a wall of pure mana in the path of the stone heading towards the agent nearest to her. When the projectile sheared through her barrier and into the agent she had tried to shield, Reah knew they had found their aurora. In the initial attack, all five of the agents fell to the ground. Three of them were dead, killed instantly by the stones sent their way. The one nearest to Reah had survived, though he had been seriously injured, his commuted armor must have been enough to reduce the impact of the stone in conjunction with her wall of mana.

    On the other side, the agent closest to Rufus had met a similar fate. In the next moment, Reah moved light and wind mana from her aether wells and into her channels. In a single second, the mana had been pulled into a technique, a special area carved into her aether membrane that allowed for the rapid use of mana in a complicated way that would normally take up much of her attention.

    The particular technique that she used was a combination of light, wind, and pure mana. The light mana generated a detailed duplicate of her. The technique itself actually used an advanced application of commutation to take an impression of her. She then evoked that same mana, creating an image of herself as she was in that exact moment. Within the technique, wind mana continuously moved through it. A thread of light mana that was used to alter Reah¡¯s image was being slowly evoked during the duration the copy was active.  That thread of light mana wasn¡¯t only needed to alter Reah¡¯s image, it was also used as a pathway along which the wind mana in the technique could travel.

    The amount of wind mana used in the technique was negligible. It was there solely to alter any evoked wind mana that approached the illusory copy. After all, light mana had no physical form. If an opponent on the level of an aurora felt their evoked wind mana pass through what their eyes told them was a person, they would instantly realize that they were being tricked. The technique¡¯s wind mana prevented that by altering any wind mana that approached the copy in much the same way the agents had done earlier.

    The pure mana was used to create a defensive shell around the image, taking on the appearance of commuted armor. Without that layer of protection, any arcaner could tear her fakes apart with a simple evocation of mana.

    Reah produced two of these copies in the first second of combat. At the same time, Reah moved light mana into the first technique she had ever developed, invisibility. This technique worked in a more simplistic fashion, but it also required more of Reah¡¯s attention. She had to semi-manually maintain an illusion of her surroundings such that when someone looked at her, they would see what was behind her.

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    To an outside observer, it would appear as if Reah had just split into two with one of her copies stepping forward slightly to the left, and the other stepping slightly to the right. Their attention would be focused on the two copies, trying to determine which one was real. In that time, Reah could sneak up on them and slit their throat.

    Against an average opponent, that would work. When put into practice against an aurora it seemed insufficient. A slight instant after the real Reah went invisible, an old man walked out from behind a cluster of bushes. At the same moment, wind mana gushed out of him in a torrent.

    The air felt thick. Reah found her own wind mana draining at an alarming rate as she used it to delicately alter the wind mana approaching her while also supplying her techniques with more mana than she had anticipated needing.

    While the man who faced them was clearly quite old, that did not mean he was any weaker for it. A wall of small sharp stones appeared around him, each similar to the stones that had been launched in the initial volley. The speed at which they moved around the man indicated to Reah that force mana or something similar was being used to propel them.

    Rufus was the first to make an actual attack, launching a simplistic if powerful fireball at the aurora. The impact was minimal. The man didn¡¯t even bother evoking pure mana. The stones that surrounded him suddenly interlocked in a dozen layers. The massive ball of flame impacted the shell of stones and was swept to the side. Even in their interlocked state, the stones were hurtling around the man at impossible speeds.

    Rufus¡¯ attack wasn¡¯t wholly ineffective though. Fire mana was a staple in offensive techniques for a reason. It was particularly effective at wearing down an opponent¡¯s defense. That remained true here. While the stones seemed to part the fireball, through the field of wind mana that Reah kept evoked, she was able to pick up on several of the stones disappearing, an indication that the evoked earth mana had been damaged enough to destabilize.

    Not missing a beat, the cloud of stones moved, carrying the aurora towards one of Reah¡¯s copies. While the stones completely blocked Reah¡¯s image of the old man, she had managed to slip some particles of wind mana through the stones.

    These particles were being altered of course, but Reah was reasonably confident that the man was still in the stones. The reason being cognitive limit. While an arcaner could theoretically use a plethora of techniques at once, each of them required some amount of attention to maintain. The more manual effort someone had to use on a technique, the closer they would draw to their cognitive limit.

    In the moment, Reah was really only relying on instincts to reach that conclusion, but those instincts were finely honed from years of sensing with wind mana. If she had the attention to spare, she would realize that those instincts were being driven by the movements of the stones. She would have realized that not all the stones were being moved in preset patterns.

    Even without that explicit knowledge though, Reah fought with her instincts. As the cloud of sharp stones descended on her copy, Reah cut off the light mana from the copy, causing it to go invisible. She then pushed even more mana into her technique, generating two more copies, each one step away from the original copy. Even with the light mana cut off, Reah continued using alteration with wind mana around the spot where her original copy had been, baiting the aurora into believing that was her real body.

    Rufus didn¡¯t stand still during this exchange. He continued to chew through the aurora¡¯s supply of earth mana by destroying the stones with fireballs. He also launched several more subtle attacks using sword mana, a subtype of force mana that moved in a specific cutting motion. While these attacks were less damaging than fire mana, they also had a higher chance of sneaking through the stone defenses. This meant that with each attack, the aurora had to manually adjust the patterns of the stones around him, keeping him distracted and forcing him near his cognitive limit.

    The aurora was a highly experienced combatant though. He recognized what Rufus was doing and changed strategies quickly. He suddenly abandoned his stone defense, launching the fast-moving stones out in every direction.

    Fortunately, it seemed that the aurora had taken Reah¡¯s bait. The stones while seemingly shot out indiscriminately were actually carefully aimed. The bulk of them whirled through the air, attacking her invisible copy as well as the two new copies she had created. Each of these copies were torn apart from multiple angles, the pure mana that she had given them not nearly enough to protect them from the onslaught.

    Another large cluster of stones was sent towards Rufus. Reah was struck with amazement when he managed to pull through the volley largely unscathed.

    The aurora¡¯s attack had devastated the battlefield. Only one of Reah¡¯s copies was still standing, and as she watched, the aurora sent several stones that he had kept in reserve hurtling towards it. Rufus continued to be assailed by stones being sent at him from multiple angles, effectively forcing him to stay on the defensive.

    Despite all that though, two things had fallen into Reah¡¯s favor. Her actual body had managed to dodge all of the stones meaning that she remained completely hidden, and the aurora no longer had a stone defense. All he had left was his commuted armor.

    In an instant, Reah was upon him, evoking her entire aether well of sword mana into one focused attack around her right hand, enough to pierce through his commuted armor around the neck and kill him instantly.

    Reah was certain that she had remained undetected throughout the brief fight, but somehow, something told the man to move at the last possible second. Reah¡¯s technique cut through the armor that he commuted around his neck, but instead of dealing a killing blow, it only cut a shallow wound along his nape.

    Her attack failed. Reah found herself in hand-to-hand combat against the aurora. Though Reah was by no means unskilled in hand-to-hand, she was sorely outmatched. If Reah had had any doubts about whether the man was an aurora, they would have been crushed here. The man¡¯s movements flowed, one into another, too fast for Reah to defend against. Reah recognized the form immediately. The core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist, the signature style of imperial aurorae. This man executed the moves with far greater proficiency than any of the white tiger¡¯s students she had grown to know.

    Reah was on the ground, her legs swept out from under her. She desperately rolled to the side, but it wasn¡¯t enough. The man landed a palm strike on her arm. Reah evoked pure mana to defend herself. At the moment of impact, a hidden dagger that looked to be made of wood moved from where it had been strapped under the man¡¯s wrist. Driven by force mana, the wooden dagger broke through her evoked mana, and then her commuted armor, driving deep into her arm.

    Reah screamed with pain, barely conscious of the man ripping the dagger out and flinging it into the distance. As the dagger was flung far away, powered by force mana, Reah saw a bright red flare pop up where the knife may have been.

    With Reah momentarily incapacitated, the aurora flung himself into combat with Rufus.

    When Reah finally managed to fully regain her senses and pull herself to her feet, she saw Rufus already on the ground surrounded by an impossibly thick barrier of pure mana. The aurora made a few soft attempts to break through the barrier, evoking flame, stones, and more.

    Nothing broke through though. Seeing Reah move back to her feet, the old man gave a hearty laugh. ¡°I should have expected such a prominent official to have such a defense.¡±

    With those words the man vanished, launching himself away with a burst of force mana.

    Rufus pulled himself up groaning. For her part, Reah held her injured arm carefully. Looking around, Reah felt defeated, but she knew that was not entirely true. From the viewpoint of the ministry of education, this had been a massive success. Though three agents had been killed and two others severely injured, Rufus had survived. Not only had he survived, they had discovered that the rumors of imperial aurorae were more than idle words.

    Rufus pulled himself to his feet, a sour look on his face. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not good.¡±

    Reah agreed. Even putting aside the danger of the aurora they had faced, the very concept of being up against an aurora was bad. The imperial aurorae were mercenaries, but they could only take contracts approved by the empire itself. That meant that the empire had put their support behind an enemy of the province. As Rufus had put it: that was not good.

 Chapter 42

    Chapter 42

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Samuel split up the group almost immediately after giving them the basics of their job. He took Paulo with him, deeming him to be the most at risk to the dangers of the depths.

    Hours after their work began, Myles found himself laying down on a ledge, mining below him with the strange pick that Silas had brought. At last, the tool began to make sense. The main mine shaft that made up the depths was filled with ore. The problem was that it was exceptionally difficult to get to most of it.

    The challenges presented by mining the vast open area with minimal flat ground had been overcome through the design of a unique pickaxe. The idea behind it was to find a ledge of some sort nearby ore. From there, the uniquely designed pickaxe could be put to use.

    The long wooden handle of the tool allowed for greater reach. The net underneath the head of the pickaxe was used to actually collect the ore. Without it, stone and ore would tumble down the mine shaft. Not only would the ore be lost, it also ran the risk of hitting other miners who were working below.

    Organization and safety did not seem to be a priority in the depths. The miners were rewarded for taking risks to collect more ore. From what Myles had seen, the depths were where the ambitious chose to work. Myles and Silas had heard stories from the other miners of how particularly successful men were given permission to leave the city. Sometimes those men were even provided an escort to the place of their choosing.

    Other murmurs they had heard over the course of the day made them especially cautious. Almost everyone in the depths had been born and raised in Hydrabridge. Silas had pointed out that Rolance had been more than happy to send outsiders into the depths. That begged the question of where the other outsiders were.

    Myles had filled in the blanks. Between conversations being cut short whenever Myles and Silas drew near and the distinct lack of outsiders, it was easy to assume that those raised in Hydrabridge were banding together. The other workers Myles reasoned didn¡¯t last long. Either through a lack of support or more¡­direct action.

    Myles and Silas were determined to remain on their guard. This was an area that was very definitely not welcoming to anyone born outside of Hydrabridge. Not even soldiers were allowed inside the depths. In a way, it was something of a colony within Hydrabridge. They took turns with one of them doing the work of mining and the other keeping watch.

    More than once, this strategy had proven beneficial. On three separate occasions throughout the day, stone had plummeted towards them from above. On each occasion, the pair had been able to clamber out of the way in time only to hear a half-hearted apology called down from above.

    They both agreed that they needed to accomplish their mission as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that was made difficult by two factors. The first was that they were under constant watch. Wherever they moved, they would be followed. They found that there was always a team of miners almost directly above them.

    The second problem was the monsters. The tunnels in the shaft were largely avoided. That was for good reason. Periodically, they would hear terrifying noises echoing out of them. They would need to be prepared before they ventured down one of the tunnels. They would also need to make their selection carefully. There was no need to risk their lives without reason.

    A loud bell suddenly started tolling, Myles looked up and noticed the lights carried by all the miners begin to climb slowly out of the shaft. ¡°Quitting time?¡±

    Silas shrugged. ¡°It would probably be best if went up to see for ourselves.¡±

    The climb out of the depths was brutal, and it was made all the more so by how much climbing the two had already done that day. In the time spent mining the depths, ropes and handholds had been hammered into the stone. Even with those though, the climb out was exhausting.

    The pair brought all the ore they had gathered in the last trip with them. Throughout the day, this ore had been given over to the more experienced miners who handed it over to the soldiers. By his estimation, Myles guessed that the miners were getting the credit for the ore that he and Silas mined, reaping whatever rewards the soldiers gave in turn.

    Myles was happy to go along with things though. They weren¡¯t here to earn rewards after all. They were here to find what they needed and get out.

    ¡°What kind of idiot do you take me for?¡±

    As Myles pulled himself back into the mines proper, he heard Rolance¡¯s voice echoing loudly. Samuel was standing across from him, all but physically blocking the officer from entering the camp that surrounded the depths.

    Rolance gathered up his body. His face was the image of rage. ¡°Who else would knock out one of my guards?¡±

    Samuel remained unfazed. ¡°Like I told you. It had nothing to do with us.¡±

    Rolance snorted. ¡°I have given you everything!¡± He held up three fingers, ticking them down. ¡°We have trained you. We have given you a place to call your own. You have a way to leave if you want. How can you possibly still harbor such discontent?¡±

    Samuel¡¯s eyes turned dangerous all of a sudden. Before now, he had seemed to be even tempered, but for just a moment he looked at Rolance with nothing short of hatred. With his next breath, that died away. ¡°This wasn¡¯t us.¡±

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    ¡°You are walking a thin line, Samuel.¡± Rolance waved his hand at the foreman. ¡°I have worked hard to work with you. I have been patient, but I will not entertain any nonsense that risks the lives of the soldiers who risk their lives to keep your people safe!¡±

    With those words, Rolance left. With him, seemingly all overseer presence left too.

    As the miners settled in, Myles realized with a start that night had fallen outside. They were so deep underground that there was minimal difference.

    Myles looked around hopefully for any sign of Kate, but just like every time they had surfaced before, Kate was nowhere to be found.

    Without being given any kind of guidance, Myles and Silas found a set of sleeping bags to curl up in. Concerningly, neither of them could see any sign of Paulo.

    Myles felt eyes on him as he laid in the dark. He remained as still as possible. The thought occurred to him that the miners near them may have been waiting for him and Silas to fall asleep, just waiting to pounce.

    A few hours into the night, miners slowly began to get up. One by one, they silently crept out of the rough building that the pair had settled in. It took nearly half an hour for every occupant of the building excluding Myles and Silas to leave. As soon as they did, Myles pulled himself out of his sleeping bag. Silas rose beside him without a sound.

    It didn¡¯t take the pair long to discover the miners¡¯ whereabouts. Looking down into the shaft, they could make out several lights as the miners clambered their way down to one of the tunnels.

    Myles followed Silas¡¯ lead down into the depths. Unlike the miners, Myles and Silas didn¡¯t have the luxury of a light to work with. If they had tried to use one, the miners would realize they were being followed in an instant.

    By the time they reached the entrance to the tunnel, all the miners were already out of sight.

    Myles moved forward along the course stone wall, careful to stay out of view. A stray glance, even a flicker of motion, would put the men on guard. Silas slid along the wall behind him. Myles quietly thanked Primrose for her thorough training. The pure mana they constantly commuted around their bodies limited the friction against the stone, making for a mostly silent approach.

    It was funny. Ever since walking into Hydrabridge, Myles had gone without commuted armor. Using it now gave a layer of security, something to ease his nerves that had been frayed from his time in Hydrabridge.

    Myles pulled closer and closer until he could start to make out a gruff voice. ¡°How can you even think of abandoning the plan now?¡± Myles heard a sudden rocky crash and envisioned the man kicking loose shale apart. No, not just any man. Myles recognized that voice. It was the foreman, Samuel, only now, he sounded much angrier and much more genuine.

    A voice replied back with firmness, though nerves broke through. ¡°The whole place is crawling with soldiers. We can¡¯t win this fight right now!¡± Myles didn¡¯t recognize it, but it sounded like it could belong to any one of the young men they had come across in the depths.

    The foreman gave an annoyed sigh. ¡°We already talked about this. I can¡¯t contain the creature much longer! We need to use it now. The other soldiers, the ones camped outside town, have turned down every request made by the baron. They don¡¯t care what happens here!¡±

    Myles heard the same young man speak up again, this time with a raised voice. ¡°You may have contained that monster, but you can¡¯t control it. It¡¯ll be us that suffers. How many of our people will it tear apart before it even attacks the overseers, how many before it kills the baron.¡±

    Myles heard an angry roar, then a heavy groan and envisioned the large-muscled foreman delivering a heavy body blow. ¡°We¡­have¡­no¡­choice.¡± Each grim word was punctuated by another groan, each more pained than the last.

    There was some stirring in the other miners, but none of them stepped in. It seemed everyone there thought the same way as the foreman. They wanted to release this monster and lead it to kill the baron who oppressed them.

    Myles listened carefully as the young man pulled himself back to his feet. A series of wheezing gasps let him know that the man¡¯s pain wasn¡¯t superficial. ¡°I won¡¯t let you do this¡­my little sister¡­,¡± the man¡¯s words were cut with pain fueled grunts, ¡°¡­I¡¯ll tell baron¡­if I have to.¡±

    Myles could hear the young man try to limp off, but the scuffling on the rough stone around him, and the sound of a loose board being kicked aside indicated that he had been blocked off.

    Myles felt something brush past him and saw Silas stepping out around the corner with a fearsome expression on his face. Myles made a desperate grab to pull him back into hiding, but Silas must have predicted that because he used a small snake step to avoid the grab, sending Myles stumbling out into the open, carried by his momentum.

    There were more miners than Myles had guessed, at least a hundred of them, and they had all turned toward him and Silas. The miners¡¯ gazes passed across their unfamiliar grim faces, taking not of the shimmer from the pure mana they commuted around themselves.

    Myles could see the hostility form in the miners as they all clearly came to the same conclusion.

    ¡°You should not have come here.¡± Samuel spoke. His eyes glittered, reflecting that same dangerous look he had given Rolance earlier.

    At his words, the miners ran at them.

    The fight didn¡¯t dissolve into the beating that Myles had expected. Instead, Myles found himself able to move between the miners, throwing their attacks off by frequently snake stepping. When a miner was lucky enough to land a blow, it was absorbed by his commuted armor. On the other hand, whenever Myles landed a blow, it would drop the miner he hit.

    There was no space to use the spear Myles carried on his back, recovered from inside the long hilt of Silas¡¯ pick. Myles was alright not using the spear. He had no interest in killing someone.

    Despite all his training, Myles quickly found himself overwhelmed. He had a hard time understanding what Silas was thinking. They couldn¡¯t win the fight, yet Silas was making his way into the crowd instead of retreating.

    Myles did his best to follow. Three miners mobbed him as soon as he made the first step. Myles flowed into the second step of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist, sweeping the legs of all three miners. He then snake stepped forward and to the right, sending two more men who were trying to catch him crashing clumsily into the ground. The same movement took Myles out of the pack and right up against the tunnel wall.

    Myles continued his movement, running up and bouncing off of the wall, moving into a flying kick that sent a large miner to the ground. Realizing that there was no time to avoid the miners that followed after, Myles dropped into the iron turtle, absorbing multiple blows.

    Myles could feel his pure mana stop the attackers in their tracks. Each of them drew up confused by the sensation of their fists coming to a sudden stop. That gave Myles the opening he needed to move past them.

    Myles finally got a picture of Silas¡¯ plan. As he saw him out of the corner of his eye. Silas was helping the young man that Samuel had been beating to rise to his feet. That was not to be though. Samuel was there, and a swing from the pickaxe he had grabbed forced Silas to let go and back up.

    Myles was shocked to see a rock wall pop into existence to block Silas¡¯ counter. Training, Myles realized, Rolance had said he had given the miners training. Myles realized with horror that Rolance had meant training in the aether space.

    Samuel was an arcaner. Myles rushed to Silas¡¯ side with renewed vigor. For their part, the miners grew more passive, none of them were eager to take on Myles. They had begun connecting his abilities to those of the soldiers.

    That worked out to Myles¡¯ favor. He was able to reach Silas who was still fighting against Samuel.

    As it happened, Samuel was on the backfoot. While Rolance had clearly taught him some aspects of being an arcaner, Myles guessed he had foregone a full education, instead picking and choosing the tools he gave him.

    In particular, Samuel only seemed to be capable of evoking what Myles assumed to be earth mana. In a one-on-one fight, Samuel would have lost swiftly to Silas who was far better trained. Unfortunately for Myles and Silas though, Samuel was not the only one who had been trained to evoke earth mana.

    About fifteen of the miners who had been standing in the back of the crowd, closest to Samuel raised their hands. Fifteen walls of earth mana closed in around Myles and Silas. Myles looked for a way out of the encirclement.

    Finding no easy solution, Myles finally drew the spear from his back. ¡°Back off!¡±

    The threat was less effective than Myles had hoped. The walls remained in place. Thin walls of earth mana were little barrier to a metal spear though. Myles tore through one of the walls, emerging with a sweep of his spear that caused miners who had begun to encroach on them to back off.

    Myles noted with annoyance that Silas was picking up the young man again. Why he would do that, Myles had no idea. They were already in the middle of an impossible situation. They had maybe knocked out fifteen of the miners. The rest were still in perfect condition for a fight. Myles¡¯ mana was already starting to run low.

    The miners weren¡¯t willing to approach yet. The spear that Myles held made sure of that. The only feasible way for Myles to fight his way out of the situation was to activate his spear. He wasn¡¯t willing to do that though. These were humans, not monsters. If he sent a fireball hurtling into this crowd, it would cause untold carnage.

    Myles slowly raised his hands in a gesture of peace. ¡°Can we talk this out?¡±

 Chapter 43

    Chapter 43

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Deep below the surface of Hydrabridge, light was hard to come by. One tunnel in the mine shaft the locals had come to refer to as the depths was filled with that light though. Climbing this far down wasn¡¯t possible with an open flame. Instead, the light that revealed the violent scene in the tunnel came from aether contructs.

    The lamps were simple constructs. They contained fire mana and when a switch was flipped on them, that fire burned in a very limited fashion, producing a dim glow. Nearly fifty of them must have been brought down into the tunnel. Silas had observed each pair of miners bring down a lamp.

    The miners of the depths were many things, but they weren¡¯t wasteful. Silas shifted the young man he had pulled onto his shoulders. The man had been beaten horribly. Silas expected that his ribs had been cracked, and he was covered in more bruises than Silas himself. That was saying a lot coming from someone who had been pinned to the ground and beaten by a stormbird not two nights before.

    While there must have been a large number of lanterns in the area, the tunnel was currently only being lit by a handful.

    Silas counted the lanterns with half his mind as he paid attention to Myles with the other.

    Samuel barely stopped himself short of laughing when Myles suggested negotiations. Silas could see the very moment when that laugh was stifled. It just so happened to coincide with a second look at Myles¡¯ spear.

    Had he not noticed the runes that Myles had forged into the weapon, Silas was certain that the foreman would have chosen to ignore the truce Myles offered. He would have trusted in his numbers and overwhelmed the two arcaners.

    Instead, Samuel drew up short, holding his arm out as if to keep the miners at bay. ¡°Why should we parley with overseers of that swine!¡±

    The word swine brought an unbidden image of Officer Rolance to Silas¡¯ mind. The officer¡¯s heft made an image of the man as a pig particularly easy to call up. Be that as it may, Silas was not in agreement with the murderer¡¯s insult.

    Officer Rolance certainly hadn¡¯t displayed the same level of nobility as other soldiers they had met in Hydrabridge like Lenas or Lira. That was, however, exactly why Silas imagined the baron had assigned him command of the mines.

    If Lenas had been given command, Silas had little doubt that he would struggle to make the calls needed. A soldier like him was more sympathetic than Rolance, but commanding in the mines required if anything, a lack of sympathy. After all, at the end of the day, the military wasn¡¯t here to help the people. They were here to ensure that metal continued to flow into the hands of aether engineers. While more lenient policies may have improved the lot of the people of Hydrabridge, those same policies would mean fewer constructs, more dead soldiers, and greater danger everywhere in the province.

    Myles looked around at the miners, especially those who surrounded Samuel, the pseudo-arcaners. ¡°We aren¡¯t overseers. We¡¯ve only just arrived yesterday.¡±

    A quiet murmuring swept gently through the miners. Confusion showed on several of the faces, more common on the young men in the crowd. Many of the older members of the crowd were less willing to listen to some stranger, especially one who shared many characteristics with the soldiers who watched them so carefully.

    One of the pseudo-arcaners near Samuel whispered in his ear. Samuel simply shook his head, cutting off the man¡¯s attempted communication. ¡°Some of my compatriots believe you are with the new group of overseers, the ones who rolled up to the gates of our town.¡± Samuel gave a slight laugh. Silas realized he was giving a performance. His words weren¡¯t for negotiation with Myles. They were for galvanizing the group of workers around him. ¡°I should remind everyone that the baron has begged for their aid, taking a knee and asking the leader of these other soldiers for more security. He was shot down! The baron is nervous. He knows he cannot contain our anger, and we know that he will receive no aid!¡±

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    That was interesting news. Rufus had led them to believe that he had some sort of disagreement with the baron. Silas may have been concerned had he not doubted Samuel¡¯s ability to gather accurate information. The man did, after all, live in an isolated community at the very bottom of Hydrabridge¡¯s mine.

    Three lanterns were on the wall they faced. Three more were mounted directly opposite. Two odd lanterns were held in the crowd. With that information, Silas was ready to start his plan. With the miner¡¯s attention largely taken by Samuel, there would be no better time.

    Hauling the young man with him, Silas walked up to Myles. ¡°I¡¯m going to extinguish the lanterns.¡±

    Myles gave a subtle nod.

    Silas evoked eight balls of pure mana. In an instant, the tunnel was plunged into complete darkness. With the dark came chaos. More than one miner attempted to scramble for their lantern. Shouts of alarm were mixed with the sounds of miners tripping over each other. The echo that came from the tunnel only added to the panic.

    Silas grabbed Myles¡¯ arm, firmly dragging him further down the tunnel. In the earlier fight, they had passed through the bulk of the miners. Now, they had no time to pass back through. Their only option was to push further into the tunnel.

    Some of the pseudo-arcaners were able to realize there was still a threat in the room. Silas heard three sets of footsteps pattering against the stone, lunging for them. Myles met the charge. Seconds later, three large men hit the ground.

    Silas and Myles made good their escape as the first lanterns began to light. Among those who had got their hands on a lantern was Samuel. The dim orange glow of his lantern sparked off his eyes which appeared like embers in the dark tunnel.

    The man was smart. He didn¡¯t rush them right away. He gathered his men, calming them. Before long Silas knew, there would be a party of miners chasing them.

    Out of spite, Silas evoked one more ball of pure mana around Samuel¡¯s lantern.

    Luck played out for Myles and Silas. It seemed this tunnel split off. As soon as they rounded the corner, the minimal glow of the lanterns showed what looked like a shadowy labyrinth. At least five different paths led out of the tunnel.

    Two of them were major passages. The other three looked more like crevasses, large enough to fit a person, but small enough to make that person wonder if they might not find themselves at a dead end around the next bend.

    Myles made the choice, rushing into the crevasse on the far left. Silas followed.

    Before long, they heard the echoes of the miners advance behind them. They must have taken the larger passages because their voices quickly faded into the distance.

    Hearing this, Silas set the young man they brought with them down. He was barely aware. While Silas had been carrying him, Silas had felt the man pass out on his shoulders.

    The group sat there in the dark for some time. Myles tried to speak, but Silas cut him off with a hasty whisper, waiting for the miners to give up completely.

    Tick tick tick. The sound of water rhythmically hitting stone was all that continuously pierced the darkness. Occasionally, Silas would catch the sound of quiet breathing beside him from Myles or the young man who had sat in a stoic, pained silence. It might have been Silas¡¯ imagination, or a trick of stone walls, but Silas could swear the occasion growl or snarl made it to his ears as well.

    After an hour, Silas finally decided that it was time to have a discussion. He turned to the young man. ¡°What did you mean about the foreman keeping a beast down here. It sounded like he wanted to use it to attack the soldiers stationed here.¡±

    A pained gasp was all that came out at first. Silas waited Patiently. Eventually with hesitance the boy spoke. ¡°At the end of one of the tunnels here, he keeps a monster sealed up.¡± The boy gave a shudder. ¡°Its larger than anything I¡¯ve seen down here, and its breaking free of the trap Samuel caught it in.¡±

    All of a sudden, Silas heard a noise from above. A familiar growl. An instant later, a horrible wet tearing sound came from the direction of where the young man had been sitting. A warm splatter hit Silas and he reeled back in disgust and horror.

    Silas grabbed the spear from his back and thrust forward, knowing that the young man was already dead, torn apart by whatever monster had leaped down on them.

    Impact came to Silas in the form of a shudder through the wooden haft of his spear. The monster gave a pained sound. When Myles lanced it through with the spear he held, the beast gave its death throes.

    The incident wasn¡¯t to end there though. Though it was too dark to see your own fingers in front of your face, Silas¡¯ hearing had been honed through the time in the dark. Now, he could hear more growls from above. By his estimation, a pack of Ogren had snuck up on them.

    ¡°Run!¡± Myles shouted and Silas agreed. The pair shot out through the maze of narrow stone walls. Silas ran directly into wall after wall, accumulating bruises and making plenty of racket for the pack to follow.

    After only a minute, the pair ran into what seemed like a larger room. Silas turned around. This would be a good a place as any to make a stand. He listened carefully to the noise of claw on stone, judging the right time to thrust his spear.

    Once again, Silas felt impact, but he was soon forced to let his spear go as another of the ogren leaped over the beast behind it, letting out a fierce roar. Its claw slapped against Silas¡¯ cheek. If not for his commuted armor, his face would have been torn to shreds.

    As it was, Silas fell back in surprise. Even surprised and in the pitch black, Silas¡¯ training came to bear. He swept about him with his leg, knocking down two of the beasts.  Behind him, Myles rushed to his aid, skewering one of the fallen creatures.

    The battle lasted only a short while after that. While they were unable to see, Myles and Silas¡¯ commuted armor was able to protect them from the wild blows the ogren managed to land. The fight continued to the very last monster. Even after the beasts must have realized they were outmatched, they flung themselves greedily towards them, looking for a killing strike even if it meant their own demise.

    At the end of the fight though, the two young arcaners came through physically unscathed. The bottleneck provided to them by the narrow crevasse had meant that only one or two ogren could push through at once.

    Silas dropped to his knee shakily as he heard the last of the beasts fall. In the heat of the moment, Silas had lost all sense of direction. He had no way of knowing which way led out of the maze they had seemingly found themselves in.

    The dark felt more oppressive than anything Silas had faced before. Here they were, lost in a maze of tunnels deep beneath Hydrabridge, covered in blood from the young man they had been with, someone whose name Silas had never even learned. The situation felt hopeless.

 Chapter 44

    Chapter 44

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    The day passed into night without event. By the time Lira collected her to make the ascent out of the mines, Kate had seen no sign of Myles or Silas. She begged Lira to let her see them, but Lira just gave her a sympathetic smile.

    ¡°They will bunk by the entrance to the depths tonight.¡± She had said.

    Kate was left with nothing else to do but climb back towards the surface and reclaim her bunk. The empty bunks that were set alongside her felt like a memorial of sorts.

    Throughout the day, Kate had heard horrible stories of the depths. The miners in her group had told her that she should stay away if at all possible.

    ¡°I heard half the new ones fall to their deaths within the hour.¡± One of the members of her group had said.

    ¡°No,¡± the most senior of the group had commented, ¡°it¡¯s the monsters that get them. I used to pass by the entrance every day on my old duty. Every morning I would hear noises like growls and teeth gnawing on stone coming out of there.¡±

    None of the miners seemed to know exactly what when on there, but they all agreed that it was incredibly dangerous. Kate was worried, and she determined that whatever happened, she would be heading into the depths after them first thing tomorrow.

    ¡­

    The dark room stank. If Myles could see, he supposed it must have been covered in blood. If Kate were here, she would have been yelling at him and Silas to leave. She would have told them that the blood would be like a beacon to other monsters.

    Kate wasn¡¯t here, but Myles still left the area behind him as quickly as possible. Already, they could hear the sound of more claws scraping against stone, and the growls were ever present. In many ways, it felt they were being circled by monsters. Myles desperately hoped that was his own imagination conjuring horrible thoughts from the paranoia brought on in the dark.

    For what felt like hours, he and Silas wandered together through the seemingly endless interconnected tunnels and crevasses. At this point, they were hopelessly lost. Their only real hope was to stumble across an area they recognized. That was a vain hope though considering they wouldn¡¯t be able to see the space to recognize it.

    Supplies were another problem. They had left everything except their spears which they had strapped to their backs far above.

    In what Myles imagined had to be the first hours of the morning, they came across the faintest of glows. There was something sinister about it, but they followed it to its source, nonetheless.

    What they found sent a spark of alarm through Myles¡¯ chest. They had come across what they were looking for. A root broke through the wall on its way further down. The root itself was in perpetual flame. It was on fire yet didn¡¯t burn. The flame itself felt wrong, twisted in a way. Orange flames were shadowed with what looked to be black shadowy fire. The black flames followed the same movements of the rest of the flame only a second later.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The image was eerie. It brought back a memory from right after he had started at the academy. He had been following Reah when he had seen it. A flaming tree. That memory brought with it certainty that they had found one of the roots that Rufus had told them to investigate.

    They investigated what they were able. The root they had found was only visible for a short way, but they followed it everywhere they could. In several places, it cut through the stone, seeming to find no difficulty in piercing through the tough rock.

    The most alarming thing they found were for lack of a better word, cocoons. Some of them were filled, seemingly with an early version of monsters. Myles saw claws, teeth, and other horrible things that he didn¡¯t want to think about. They also found some of the cocoons split open and empty.

    Myles thought about the ogren they had fought earlier, wondering if any of them had come from these cocoons.

    A detail that Myles found especially interesting came in the form of an ore vein. The root had wound itself around the metal in intricate fashion. It took Myles a moment to recognize that the way the root had grown seemed to form runes. The runes themselves, Myles didn¡¯t recognize, but he determinedly memorized the shapes. Rufus might be interested in learning of them later.

    All in all, they weren¡¯t able to make any sense of the root. It was hard to tell what intent it had. Clearly it was producing monsters and seeking out ore, but to what end?

    Myles couldn¡¯t answer that question and honestly looking at the root, he had little interest in doing so.

    ¡°Think we have enough information to bring back to Rufus?¡±

    Silas nodded idly. ¡°We should be good on that front. Now we just need to find that beast the foreman has.¡±

    Myles looked at his partner. In the light of the roots, it was a threatening sight. Myles could see Silas¡¯ head going to place that Myles had no interest in following.

    ¡°Are you mad? Why would we try to find the beast that Samuel thinks can destroy the soldiers here?¡±

    Silas turned; his eyebrows raised in annoyance. ¡°We can¡¯t not do something.¡±

    Myles shook his head adamantly. ¡°We¡¯re not soldiers Silas!¡±

    Silas turned in a fury. ¡°That is what we are training to be. How can you ignore that!¡±

    Myles shook his head in disbelief. ¡°I¡¯m here to learn to be an aether engineer! I¡¯ll fight through whatever I have to do to get there, but there is no reason to take unfounded risks. If we try to fight whatever beast they have sealed away, we will die!¡±

    ¡°So, you¡¯re a coward then.¡± Silas shoved Myles back.

    A fire seemed to light in Myles¡¯ chest. ¡°What¡¯s your problem? Do you want to die? What good will that do anyone?¡±

    ¡°If that monster gets out, it may kill hundreds.¡± Steel entered Silas¡¯ voice now. Myles had never seen his friend like this. ¡°If we don¡¯t do anything those lives will be forfeit.¡±

    Myles suddenly realized Silas had never told him why he had come to the academy. Myles had always just assumed that Silas wanted to learn. He was a naturally curious person after all. Now, Myles was starting to have doubts.

    ¡°I knew that you had no interest in becoming a soldier.¡± Silas shook his head and took in a breath filled with stress. ¡°I thought that was because you didn¡¯t understand things. I thought that when push came to shove, you would step up to the plate. I thought you were a good person. I never would have thought you would abandon the helpless to die.¡±

    ¡°We are the helpless ones here.¡± Myles pleaded with his friend. ¡°We can¡¯t move mountains. We¡¯ll warn the soldiers of course, but I don¡¯t see what else we can be expected to do.¡±

    Silas tore a chunk of the flaming root off the wall, bringing it away in his hand. ¡°I¡¯ll go alone if I have to. I swore to myself that I would do everything I could to keep that tragedy from happening again.¡±

    ¡°Silas!¡± Myles got his friend to turn back towards him.

    ¡°That story I told Lira. It was true Myles.¡±

    ¡°The one about your sister?¡±

    ¡°I remember how every morning, I used to wake up to her voice. She used to sing while she set up our family¡¯s shop. I used to get so mad. She was a terrible singer.¡±

    Myles stood silent. Silas had never talked about his family except in a vague sense. All Myles knew about them was that they were craftsmen of some sort. Silas himself had always been more interested in the merchant side of things. Myles knew he had been in charge of getting hold of the raw materials his family needed.

    ¡°I was supposed to go on the trip that my sister left on. I got sick though. She stepped up to fill in for me and then never came back.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Myles wasn¡¯t just trying to placate Silas. He did know what it felt like to have a family member return and never come back.

    ¡°The shikari the town hired to find them came back with the bodies.¡± Silas closed his eyes, looking upwards. ¡°I remember how we had to look through the wagon they brought back so that we could find all of her to bury. Whatever monsters that caravan ran across had torn her apart. She wasn¡¯t the only one either. Everyone in the caravan had been torn to shreds until they were barely recognizable.¡±

    Silas looked back down, catching Myles¡¯ eyes. ¡°I swore not to let that happen again. We¡¯re the only ones who might be able to prevent something even worse from happening here. You¡¯ll have to finish this mission alone.¡±

    With that, Silas turned his back and left. Before he knew it, Myles had torn off a chunk of the root for himself, noting how the flames didn¡¯t burn his hand. His own footsteps dogged Silas. ¡°I¡¯ll come along this time.¡±

 Chapter 45

    Chapter 45

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    When the morning came, Kate noticed an edge in the air. The soldiers were very displeased. When Lira told her that someone had apparently knocked out one of the soldiers, Kate tried not to look too guilty.

    Once again, Kate made the long journey into the chasms. Most of the new miners looked dead to the world, exhausted. Kate played up he down exhaustion to match.

    The day began and Kate was assigned as runner first. It was the perfect time to slip away and find the rest of her squad. Before she could ever do that though, Kate saw someone walking through the mines that she didn¡¯t expect. Paulo, the old man that had been assigned to the depths with Myles and Silas.

    From everything Kate had heard, no one was allowed to leave the depths without specific permission from Rolance. Something seemed off here.

    Kate followed behind at a safe distance. The older man made his way around the chasm, seemingly wandering aimlessly. Kate saw him stop multiple times, seemingly stopping to stare at guards. Kate¡¯s suspicion only increased.

    Eventually, Paulo did make his way to the entrance to the depths, giving some kind of note to the soldier who stood guard.

    Kate readied herself to sneak past the guard. Myles and Silas had been down there alone for too long. It was time to find them.

    ¡­

    ¡°You dare take me for a fool! We¡¯re releasing that monster now. It¡¯s the perfect time.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you think that it would be better to wait. In time, I can guarantee you control of Hydrabridge. If you strike now, you¡¯ll accomplish nothing.¡±

    Silas watched quietly from a crack in the ceiling. He and Myles had walked through the night before finding this place. It was a tight squeeze, but the well-lit room below them had been a beacon considering they had little more light than the root fragments they had taken.

    Now, those same roots were obscured from sight with pure mana. The light they produced would have been a dead giveaway to their presence.

    Below them were Samuel, his pseudo-arcaners, and inexplicably Paulo. It was hard to say who Paulo was anymore. For all intents and purposes, he seemed to be helping Samuel with his revolution. He wasn¡¯t with Samuel though. He seemed to have just met them.

    Silas considered that Paulo could be one of Rufus¡¯ agents, but that seemed unlikely. It seemed if anything as if Paulo was here representing an entirely different agenda, one that Silas found to seem more calculated.

    For all the destruction Samuel might cause by releasing his monster¡ªand Silas did believe the monster would cause destruction in the mines if the noises coming from behind the heap of boulders in the back of the room were any indication¡ªultimately, there was too strong of a blue band presence for him to realistically wipe out them all.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Your guarantees mean nothing. Already, I fear Rolance may be on to my plans. Waiting is not an option.¡±

    Paulo eased his neck to the side and gave a slight smile. ¡°You speak of the two arcaners who came in with me no?¡±

    Samuel nodded uncertainly. ¡°They¡¯ve evaded my search all night. I suspect that they may have used some arcane trick.¡±

    Paulo raised his hands. ¡°Now, now, based on your description I think we can assume these children are relatively new to the business of the aether space.¡± Paulo grinned to himself. ¡°Much like yourself.¡±

    The reminder was a subtle threat and it worked, especially when Paulo evoked a spiked stone that spiraled ominously around him. The speed that the evoked stone moved at was terrible. Silas realized that not even his commuted armor would be able to stand up to it.

    ¡°Speaking of those two arcaners though, I believe I have a present that you may find interesting.¡± Paulo snapped his fingers.

    A distortion appeared in the air behind him. Suddenly, a girl appeared, from the look of her clothes, a miner. Silas had a hard time making out any details from this far. They had moved into position well outside of range of any wind mana use. They weren¡¯t cautious about Samuel or his half-trained goons sensing them with such a trick. Paulo though, Silas had no trouble believing he could use wind mana.

    It was only a second later that Silas realized who the girl was.

    ¡°This girl was with the other two when we entered the city. I believe her name was Kate.¡±

    Samuel took a greedy step forward. ¡°We can use the girl as bait. The other two will be sure to come.¡±

    Once more, Paulo held up his hand. ¡°I would not be so sure of that. I happen to be familiar with the man who leads those camped outside this town you love so much. His subordinates will prioritize their mission above all else.¡±

    ¡°Then you think these three were all sent by those outsiders?¡±

    ¡°I am certain of it.¡± Paulo leaned down towards Kate, producing something from a pouch on his side. Whatever was in the pouch, it woke Kate up as soon as she got a whiff of it.

    ¡°Where am I?¡±

    Kate stood up shakily, casting her eyes around the room. It was then that Silas got an idea. He stuffed his blood-covered shirt in his mouth, grabbed his spear from his back and prepared himself, waiting for the right moment.

    Paulo steadied Kate before she could fall, seeming an instant just like the reliable kindly man they had first been introduced to. That feeling was belied by the cold, professional look that held constant on his face.

    That look was what made Silas¡¯ idea shrivel and die. He had intended to cut himself. Kate¡¯s affliction would have alerted her to their presence through the sharp pain. Now though, Silas was certain that Paulo would catch any stray glances Kate made. The man was clearly no fool.

    That left the question though. How could they save Kate. No plan came to Silas¡¯ mind no matter how much he thought on the matter. He had to think of something though.

    ¡°If you wish to set your monster loose, I will not stop you.¡± Paulo tapped his foot on the ground. A moment later, a chair seemed to rise up from the ground.

    The old man eased back into the chair as confident as could be. ¡°To tell the truth, I infiltrated this mine for other purposes. Your little scheme just may prove useful to me.¡± Paulo let his hand drop onto the armrest, tapping a beat with his fingers. ¡°You can consider it as something along the lines of a pleasant find.¡±

    ¡°Your arrogance astonishes me.¡± Samuel looked at the man in his chair. ¡°To me, I see you as little better than the overseers. If I give in to your demands, you¡¯ll just stab me in the back later.¡±

    Paulo nodded. ¡°You¡¯re probably right. My actions aren¡¯t entirely my own you see. I have employers that I have to answer to. If they were to ask me to kill you, that is what I would do.¡±

    Samuel looked down at the ground. ¡°If you are truly giving me an opportunity to choose, then I must ask you to leave at once.¡±

    Paulo gave a weary sigh. ¡°I had hoped I could bring you around, but I suppose I should have seen your stubbornness. One parting piece of advice. Sometimes in life it¡¯s better to count your blessings and just keep plodding on. Leave talk of revolution to others.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve spent my entire life under the heel of one oppressor or another. I will not sit by like a cow and¡­¡± Samuel growled his words in anger, his expression spoke of how impertinent he thought this man before him really was.

    ¡°I¡¯m no sage,¡± Paulo interrupted, ¡°my advice is just what it is. You can ignore it as you please.¡±

    Without another word, Paulo stood up from his chair and left everything behind, casually strolling out of the massive chamber.

    There was nothing but silence for some time after. Eventually, Samuel turned to the men behind him. ¡°Let¡¯s start moving these boulders.¡± Right as he said that a massive force hit the other side of the piled boulders. Several of them were actually knocked back.

    The men looked at the boulders grimly. For a moment, Silas hoped that they would give up on the idea of moving them. After all, doing so would likely spell their own deaths. Silas had underestimated their will though. These men truly thought they were doing good. It disgusted Silas.

    Here, the residents of Hydrabridge may have been worked hard, but it wasn¡¯t truly done in an unfair way. They were able to leave if they wanted to. Why they would though was beyond Silas. One could live with their family in relative safety here protected by a small army of blue bands. To Silas, that safety seemed like a boon that was worth the hard labor. Better to be worked hard and be safe then live a softer life in constant fear, never knowing when you might lose someone.

 Chapter 46

    Chapter 46

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Kate was still disoriented from waking up in what appeared to be a massive stone cave. A group of miners was moving a huge mound of boulders, largely ignoring her as she stumbled around groggily.

    The last thing that Kate remembered was trying to follow Paulo into the depths. She had assumed he was a harmless old man. Based on the conversation that she had woken up to though, that was not the case.

    None of those things concerned Kate at the moment. What did concern her was what was behind the massive pile of boulders. Whatever it was, Kate was going to be face-to-face with it soon.

    With each boulder removed, the remaining pile was knocked back further and further. The monster on the other side more than willing to bust its own way out. Already, Kate felt like the monster would emerge any minute.

    She wracked her brain, trying to come up with some idea of what the monster might be. None of the possibilities were good. As they increased in size and strength, monsters also tended to gain in threat level. The size of the creature she imagined must be behind that mound was quite simply not something she had a chance to handle.

    That meant that the only choices available to her were to run or to stop the miners from clearing any more of the boulders. Before she could make up her mind, she felt a familiar feeling behind her. Pain, but just the right kind of pain, the right pattern of bruises.

    ¡°Kate!¡±

    Kate turned around and saw Silas running towards her, followed close behind by Myles. Kate couldn¡¯t help but feel a wave of relief. She had been afraid that her friends had been injured somewhere, or, had run into a group of monsters and been overcome.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°No time,¡± Myles shouted, ¡°we need to keep that mound in place.¡±

    The three ran towards the miners, but just at that moment, the mound burst open. The beast that emerged was wholly unfamiliar to Kate. The closest thing she could associate it with was a chimera, but while chimera¡¯s shared the body of a goat, a lion, and a snake, this beast was altogether different.

    Most of its traits resembled that of a mountain goat. Kate had only ever seen a painting of the animals, but she knew they were well known for their climbing ability. The mountain goat part of the beast had a pair of horns that seemed altogether more threatening than what she remembered from the painting. Two pairs of what looked to be antlers seemed to grow out of each side of its neck, intertwining around the neck after which they wove around the rest of the beast¡¯s body. The things visage was quite like that of a goat wrapped in woven armor.

    If the monster¡¯s strange traits ended there, Kate would have been comparably pleased, but unfortunately they did not. Right behind its neck, a great pair of wings rose. To Kate¡¯s eyes, the wings looked to be those of a small dragon¡¯s. While they weren¡¯t covered by the antler armor, they looked to be covered in scales that if they were anything like dragonkin scales would be virtually impenetrable.

    Where the goat¡¯s body should have ended, a great serpent rose. This too was covered in scales. Taken as a whole, the beast was smaller than Kate had anticipated, it was likely small enough to fit through the main tunnel that led into the chamber at the very least.

    That didn¡¯t diminish its strength in the slightest though. As it emerged, it sent the boulders that hadn¡¯t been moved sailing through the air. Some of the more unfortunate miners were crushed. To Kate¡¯s surprise, some of these tried to evoke what looked like earth mana to stop the boulder. The boulders simply had too much force behind them though.

    The monster set about itself. It used its horns as a weapon and as she watched in horror, one of the miners was bitten in half by the thing¡¯s tail. Before long, none of the miners stood before them. Even Samuel, the man Paulo had spoken to was skewered through by the beast¡¯s horns. Before the monster, none of them had stood a chance.

    The monster didn¡¯t stop with them. The moment the last miner had been killed, it turned its attention to Kate and her friends.

    ¡°We must get rid of the wings!¡± Kate shouted.

    ¡°If it can¡¯t fly, it may be stranded here.¡± Silas agreed.

    Kate wasn¡¯t entirely sure if that was the case. The monster was literally half goat after all, but she wasn¡¯t keen to dash the one hope they might have at survival.

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    Kate wasn¡¯t given much of a chance to think. The monster charged towards Silas, contemtously leveling its horns at him in a charge. By rights, Silas should have died instantly. The creature was far faster than Silas.

    Fortunately, they had a trick for dealing with speed. Silas stepped forward to meet the charge and Kate knew that he would be evoking an almost imperceptible barrier of pure mana to guide himself unexpectedly to the side. Sure enough, Silas snake stepped forward and to the right, just barely getting out of the way in time to avoid being impaled.

    In the next second, Silas attempted to use his spear to slash at the beast¡¯s side as it changed the direction of its charge. The spear caught on the antler armor, failing to pierce through. Caught on a ridge in the armor, the spear was pulled in two directions as the beast moved past Silas. The spear splintered. The stress was too much.

    Silas had forgotten about the snake behind the beast. Kate had not though. Even as it reared up to bite at Silas, Kate landed a falling javelin. The kick wasn¡¯t nearly enough to actually hurt the snake, but it managed to hit with enough force to send its attack wide. The snake bit into the ground, angrily tearing up a chunk of stone.

    In the next moment it was gone, chasing after Myles. For his part, Myles had moved away, obviously trying to line up a shot with his spear construct. He hadn¡¯t been given nearly enough time though. He was forced to abandon the attempt, adopting the same starategy Silas had used before.

    This time though, the monster was ready. As it ran towards Myles, its steps slowed, coming to a dead stop as he tried to snake step. The only thing that saved Myles was a well-timed dive over its horns. Even still, it connected with his foot mid-dive.

    Myles was commuting his armor at full strength, so the glancing blow was weakened considerably. Still, when Myles tried getting to his feet, he gave a cry of pain and fell.

    At that point, Kate reached the beast. With its attention on Myles, the goat head ignored her. The snake was ever-present, watching the goat¡¯s back. It struck like a bolt of lightning, too fast for Kate to even attempt to dodge, so, she moved into the iron turtle, evoking pure mana at just the right spot.

    The defensive position saved her, but it came at the cost of most of her mana. Kate found herself being flung through the air by the remaining force of the attack. She hit the ground hard and groaned.

    This was not working. Silas had rushed to Myles¡¯ defense, bodily throwing him out of the way of an attack before dodging backwards himself. Even with two targets to distract it, the goat was very nearly landing killing blows.

    Kate threw herself back onto her feet, again charging towards the beast¡¯s back. This time though, Kate made the charge with a series of consecutive snake steps. The snake struck again, but wasn¡¯t able to lock down its target. Kate jumped onto the beast¡¯s hind leg and clambered up faster than the snake could recover.

    The beast felt her as she pulled herself onto its back and it freaked out, bucking its legs into the air to throw her off. Kate kept ahold though. The antlers that wove around the creature¡¯s body to serve as armor also served as a great handhold.

    Myles forced the beast to back away by threatening its eyes with the point of his spear. It quickly realized that the spear was no threat to it though. As if in an automatic response, ice mana was evoked in thick sheets over its eyes, too clear to block off its sight.

    Kate took the moment of opportunity she was afforded, leaping her way towards the wings higher on the creature¡¯s back. For the first time, the monster showed what those wings were for. In just three beats of its wings, Kate found herself clinging to the monster¡¯s back as it soared around the top of the chamber.

    There was nothing to do except cling desperately to the antlers. Kate¡¯s commuted armor managed to prevent any of the sharp protursions from piercing into her body as she was tossed about. Eventually, Kate was able to make it to the beast¡¯s wings. She clumsily tackled one of wings, holding on to it for dear life as the monster took an uncontrolled spiral from the sudden interference.

    As they came in for the landing, Kate realized that the beast was going to roll on impact. She threw herself out from under it, coming into an unctorlled roll herself. She had been flung free of the massive beast, avoiding being crushed underneath its bulk.

    Taking to the air had been a mistake for the monster. Unable to recover, there was little it could do as Myles dashed towards it, spear at the ready. He thrust at one of its wings but found as Kate had feared that the scales were too hard for the weapon to penetrate. Myles wasn¡¯t deterred.

    He hastily found a chink in the armor where the wing came out and made a second thrust. The goat howled in pain. A moment later, Myles activated the construct. A fireball came out of the tip of the spear which had been embedded in the beast¡¯s flesh.

    At point blank range, the construct did considerable damage to the area around the wing. The snake had reacted to the pain that radiated throughout the beast¡¯s body and it twisted itself around, making an attempt to tear Myles off it.

    Kate evoked the last shreds of her pure mana to block the attack. Her mana slowed it, but it would never have been enough if Silas hadn¡¯t had the same idea. As it was, the snake¡¯s head striking as it was from an awkward angle came to a dead stop against the evoked mana.

    The group didn¡¯t stick around after that. They had already used up most of their combat resources. Without another charge from the spear construct, they would likely die before doing the slightest damage to the monster again. All three of them made a dash into the tunnel.

    The goat was on their heels quickly. Despite its injury, it remained faster than them, and it closed the gap quickly. As it did, Kate felt Silas reach out and grab a handful of her shirt, dragging her sideways.

    ¡°This way!¡± Silas shouted, dragging her into a narrow crevasse, a thin path that Kate would have obliviously run past.

    Kate and Silas both pushed themselves further down the  path. Myles was a step behind them. The blow to his foot slowing him down considerably. Kate felt the pain radiating out of it with each step and realized he must have broken his ankle.

    Before he could squeeze into the crevasse, Myles was forced to turn and face the creature again. Kate¡¯s heart leapt into her throat as the beast barrelled down at Myles in ffull rage.

    The rage was what blinded the monster though. Where before it had been able to think and slow down to counter the snake step, this time, it continued down the tunnel at full gallop. Myles evaded its horns by a hair. The snake struck as the beast roared past, but by that time, Myles had managed to leap into the crevasse.

    The three moved quickly through the maze of cracks and small tunnels, quickly moving away from the monster. All three of them were panting, the fast pace of the encounter too much for them. Kate did what she could for Myles¡¯ ankle which didn¡¯t amount to much.

    She noticed with some surprise that Silas remained quiet. He looked to be thinking. ¡°What are the odds that thing can climb out of here?¡±

    ¡°Are you afraid it will attack the mines?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Kate nodded. It made sense. The monster would be looking for any human it could find. That would naturally lead it to the mines above. That was provided that it could climb. Kate was confident that Myles¡¯ construct had done enough damage around the base of the beast¡¯s wing to prevent it from flying, at least for the time being.

    That left the crucial question though. Could the beast climb?

    Kate hesitated for a moment. ¡°I think there¡¯s a good chance it can climb.¡±

    Silas cursed. ¡°We need to warn the soldiers above before it starts out. If we can get to Rolance, we may be able to get a proper defense mounted before that thing gets out.¡±

    Myles shook his head. ¡°I have another idea.¡± From his pocket, he took out something that glimmered with a deep blue. It was the monster core from his pocket.

    Kate protested. ¡°We need that to get out of Hydrabridge.¡±

    Myles shook his head. ¡°This is our best chance to kill that thing without casualties. It can¡¯t fly so it will have to climb.¡± Myles gave a grim look. ¡°What do you think would happen if something caused it to fall off?¡±

 Chapter 47

    Chapter 47

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Myles mind was racing a mile a minute. Kate had given him a small chunk of channium to use. Channium was the softest of the eight common metals. This was a crucial detail since Myles had no tools for creating an aether construct. He hadn¡¯t expected to need them while on a mission.

    Inscibing runes into the metal was a crucial part of the process when creating an aether construct. Anything less than a perfect representation of a rune had the potential to derail the entire construct. Normally, Myles would spend significant amount of time directly forging the rune into the metal. If he couldn¡¯t do that, a careful carving of the metal with proper tools could suffice.

    Now though, the only tool that Silas had available to him was his basium spear. It wasn¡¯t exactly an optimal tool for this kind of work. In addition to that, Myles had to carve the runes from memory. He had reviewed the ones he needed for his design previously, but that had been two nights ago now. He thought he remembered them, but a slight edge of doubt hindered him.

    Time was also against him. For all they knew that horrifying goat monster was already on its way up the main mine shaft that made up the depths. Kate guessed that it would probably take some time for it to realize that there were large numbers of people gathered above it, but it would realize eventually.

    Myles kept himself as calm and focused as he could. He moved more quickly than usual, but he restrained himself from moving too fast. It would do no good to finish early but end up with a useless device.

    The design that Myles used consisted of one major rune and a variety of containment runes that were put in place to make sure the device would only activate at the proper time. The premise behind the device was relatively simple. The water mana would be placed in one area of the metal chunk. This area was surrounded by containment runes that kept the mana from moving away from that area in any direction that weren¡¯t supposed to.

    The containment runes were placed so that when mana entered, it would travel to the rune that would consume the mana for evocation. The rune that Myles had chosen was the water mana equivalent to the rune that he had used on his spear. When water mana was moved into it, the mana would be evoked in a geyser.

    Myles finally finished the runes, a bead of sweat on his forehead. He quickly moved into the process of priming the runes. The short minutes that had passed had allowed his aether well to refill slightly, but he was still forced to get help from Kate for this part. One by one, each of the containment runes were primed with pure mana. Myles felt a wave of relief when the final rune activated, knowing by the way his mana was infused into the metal that he had transcribed the containment runes correctly.

    All that was left was the geyser rune. Unfortunately, Myles wasn¡¯t going to be able to prime that rune in advance. It required water mana to prime. Their only source of water mana came from the stormbird core.

    They would need to prime the rune at the same time as they activated the construct. Myles lacked both the mana and the time to create an activation rune as he normally would. That meant that as soon as the water mana was infused from the core into the construct, the construct would activate. This meant they would only get one shot and they would need to prime the geyser rune at the time of activation.

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    ¡°Hurry!¡± Silas called. They had sent Silas ahead to scout out a route they could take to reach the main shaft. ¡°That thing was about to start climbing.¡±

    Myles cursed, stuffing the half-finished construct in his pocket and breaking into a run. Kate helped him out, allowing him to lean on her as support. Even with that help though, the reckless pace they took through the narrow tunnels was torture. With every step, Myles¡¯ ankle gave a hot burst of pain. Still though, he pushed on.

    The depths appeared to have been completely abandoned. Myles supposed that Samuel had made his people evacuate, knowing that the monster would attack anyone it could. That meant that when they arrived, the main shaft was almost completely dark, lit only by the light of the flaming root that Silas held in front of him. At first, Myles¡¯ heart fell. He assumed they were too late. The monster had already climbed out of the depths.

    When he heard the hiss of a snake and rock tumbling down, Myles realized they were simply too far away from the beast to see it.

    The climb was far more brutal than the run had been. Myles had to effectively make the climb with only one foot. He didn¡¯t trust himself enough to put weight on the foot. If he did and it gave out, he would be sent plummeting into the abyss below.

    The group set a viciously reckless pace now. The monster might still have been in the main shaft, but it was already high above them. The only advantage they had was the many ropes, handholds, and short ladders that had been installed by the miners previously.

    Myles indicated a ledge high above them. ¡°We¡¯ll make the shot from there.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be directly below it there.¡± Silas shouted. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s for the best?¡±

    Myles didn¡¯t respond. He didn¡¯t know if that was for the best. He knew they would need to activate the construct from a ledge. If they tried to do so while hanging off the wall, the force of the construct would knock them off. The ledge Myles was aiming for looked to be the only option they would have.

    When they finally reached the ledge, Myles was keeping himself up by little more than willpower. Every muscle in his body shook from the rapid climb. He could barely feel his foot anymore.

    There was no time to think about that though. Myles took the construct from one pocket and the core from the other. With a single blow against the rock, the core cracked open, releasing mana into the air. Myles delicately raised it to the geyser rune until he thought it must be primed.

    He looked to Kate and Silas. They both gave him resolute nods and moved to brace him. As soon as they did, Myles put the core next to construct, guiding the mana into the metal.

    There was virtually no difference between when the metal began taking in mana and when the geyser of water was pushed out of it. For a horrible second, Myles thought they were going to be pushed right off the ledge. Fortunately, though, Silas managed to stabilize them further by pulling against one of the ropes that had been attached to the wall.

    With their position secure, Myles had another horrible realization. His aim had been off. The geyser was hitting the wall to the creature¡¯s left, and he was running out of mana in the core. Myles frantically adjusted, causing the geyser to slash across the stone, its force breaking apart stone. At the last possible moment, the force of the geyser slammed into the creature¡¯s hoof where it clung to the wall.

    Not only was the hoof shaken loose, much of the rock wall was blasted apart as well. High above them, the beast began its fall. For just an instant it appeared as if the monster might save itself. It slammed its tail into the stone wall where it hung for a short moment until the snake lost its grip.

    By the time the creature hurtled past them on its plummet down into the abyss, Myles, Silas, and Kate had all managed to move out of the way.

    A collective wheezing took over them as they each realized they had been holding their breath. The tension left Myles¡¯ shoulders and he collapsed onto the ledge.

    Kate sprawled down next to him. ¡°Now we just need to get out of here.¡±

    Silas leaned against the wall. ¡°Anyone have a plan to accomplish that one?¡±

    Nobody spoke. The plan had been to use the stormbird¡¯s core to cause a distraction. Without that distraction, their whole plan was in ruin.

    A horrible moment passed over the group.

    ¡°I was able to steal another piece of channium. I don¡¯t have it with me, but maybe we could make another distraction with it?¡±

    Myles was already shaking his head. ¡°That won¡¯t work. The only mana type we would have to work with is pure. Pure mana simply wouldn¡¯t be enough to cause a distraction?¡±

    A noise from above alerted them to something. Suddenly, someone new dropped onto their ledge. ¡°I may be able to help with that.¡±

    Myles backed up so far, he almost found himself falling from the ledge. Standing right there with them, Paulo stood with a kindly smile on his face.

 Chapter 48

    Chapter 48

    Hydrabridge

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Myles pulled himself to his feet, commuting that little bit of extra mana through his body. Not that Myles felt it would do a whole lot of good if Paulo decided to attack them. It was a real possibility that he might too. His goals were clearly not aligned with theirs. For Myles¡¯ part, he hoped that Paulo would leave them alone. At this point, their mission was effectively over. As far as Myles could tell, killing him, Kate, and Silas would serve little purpose at this stage.

    Silas who was the only one who hadn¡¯t taken a seat after the desperate climb stepped towards Paulo in a way that Myles found a tad aggressive. ¡°What do you mean you can help us? Why should we place any trust in you?¡±

    Paulo stood in their midst, seemingly unfazed by their sudden reaction. He lifted his hands up, lowering them in a calming gesture. ¡°Look guys. We¡¯re in the same boat here.¡±

    Kate tilted her head to the side. Then responded with dead seriousness. ¡°We¡¯re definitely not in a boat.¡±

    Myles shook his head to himself. Kate had some big holes in her knowledge.

    Paulo smiled back gently though the smile didn¡¯t quite reach his eyes. ¡°Figure of speech. I meant we¡¯re both trying to leave Hydrabridge.¡±

    Silas¡¯ eyes narrowed, but he held his tongue, instead shooting a look towards Myles. Myles took that as a signal. Normally, Silas would take the lead when talking with strangers, but he had already set an aggressive tone with Paulo. If they were to get out of this situation, they would need a more tempered approach.

    ¡°You¡¯re proposing that we work together to get out of here?¡±

    Paulo shook his head. ¡°Working together implies that you would bring something to the table that would benefit me. I had something closer to a business arrangement in mind.¡±

    Myles felt alarm bells go off in his head. If Paulo wanted a business arrangement, that meant he would expect payment of some kind. Still, with the stormbird core used up, they had lost their best chance to get out of Hydrabridge. When the soldiers or even the other miners found out about what had happened, they would be hunting Myles and his squad. ¡°What are you proposing?¡±

    Paulo laughed. ¡°You seem to think that I¡¯m going to ask you for some nefarious favor, but that¡¯s not the case.¡±

    Myles leaned forward. ¡°What¡­¡±

    Paulo stretched out his arms and turned towards Kate. ¡°I knocked one of you out and brought you to an enemy as a gift. At the time I thought it might have tipped that foreman¡¯s mind in my favor, but unfortunately, he was driven by too much hate. He didn¡¯t think things through logically.¡±

    Myles hesitated for a second, making sure Paulo was done. ¡°I don¡¯t see what that has to do with the arrangement you¡¯re proposing.  I suppose you might owe an apology to Kate¡­¡±

    ¡°Precisely. I owe an apology to you. I¡¯m a mercenary after all. I can¡¯t very well walk away giving a potential client a bad taste in their mouth. Besides, based on what I saw of your scuffle, I suppose that your teacher is or was once in the same order as myself.¡±

    Myles¡¯ tension was beginning to lift now. His training prevented him from actually lowering his guard, but he was starting to feel a little less like he was about to be murdered. He had heard that Primrose was a big deal. He remembered being told that she had once been known as the white tiger. Out of a sudden impulse of curiosity, Myles almost asked Paulo if he knew Primrose. He stopped himself short though. It looked like Paulo was willing to help them now. Dropping a name would only give Paulo more information.

    Paulo took the pause as agreement. ¡°We should leave quickly. Samuel had his people quietly evacuate before he released the enaira. The whole plot will be discovered soon. When that happens, it will make things slightly more complicated.¡±

    The trio soon found themselves climbing after Paulo up the mine shaft. Strangely enough, the climb was actually made easier by the rock that had been shattered by their aether construct. Much of the looser material had fallen into the abyss below, leaving only the stronger rock and metal which stood out in various points, making far-better handholds than they had expected.

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    Paulo cast an illusion over the entire group for the duration of the climb. This proved a worthwhile tactic as they soon noticed a growing group at the edge of the hole that led into the shaft. The group was a fairly even distribution of miners and soldiers. Regardless of job, they all seemed baffled. Myles realized that their battle had been anything but quiet.

    When they pulled themselves out of the mine shaft, finally finding themselves on secure ground, they saw that the crowd had swelled in size. Rolance was pushing his way through the crowd, howling orders at the soldiers to get things under control.

    For a moment, Myles was concerned about Rolance noticing them through evoked wind mana. Myles was certain that this would be a time where Rolance would be employing such a technique. When Myles turned towards Paulo to voice his concern though, Paulo just gave him a calming gesture.

    By the time they made their way through the crowd, Rolance had already started moving things back towards the status quo. Myles found that both a relief and a little vexing. They had risked their lives to keep the monster, an enaira as Paulo had called it, from wreaking havoc. Now, it seemed that the whole situation would be swept aside in less time than it had taken them to actually fight the beast.

    The journey out of Hydrabridge was entirely uneventful. Even though many of the soldiers were on high alert, not one of them was able to notice the group as they walked right past them, out of the mines, and right over the top of the wall. Myles remembered how Rufus had claimed that none of his agents would be able to infiltrate Hydrabridge in such a simple manner. It was another reminder of just how dangerous Paulo was.

    Paulo led them all the way to Rufus¡¯ camp, only dropping the illusion that he had spun around them when they were well within eyesight of the sentries.

    The very moment the illusion dropped; Myles found half a dozen weapons pointed at him. He looked around, but as expected, Paulo was nowhere to be seen.

    Myles was quick to kneel on the ground, throwing his hands into the air. Kate and Silas following him without delay. Myles mused to himself that they were starting to make a habit of being brought into custody by provincial soldiers.

    Fortunately for Myles, Silas was back to his role as negotiator. Myles was more than happy to let Silas take over, appeasing the sentries and swiftly getting them an audience with Rufus.

    When they approached Rufus¡¯ tent, Myles instantly knew that something had changed. Where before, there had been three people in the tent with little activity, now the whole area was bustling. Messengers streamed in and out of the tent, running to various parts of the camp where soldiers looked to be prepared for action.

    Concern peppered Myles, but when they entered the tent, they were quickly dragged off by Rufus without room for a single question. ¡°Follow me.¡± He had whispered, the urgency in his voice leaving no room for inaction.

    A smaller tent had been set up to the side of the main tent. Here, nobody was coming or going. When they walked in, there was only one person to greet them, but they were sitting in the back of the tent, away from the sun that made its way through the tent as they were, it was hard to make out who it was.

    ¡°Hey there.¡± Reah said with a little grin on her face.

    ¡°Hey there.¡± Myles responded, matching the grin with his own. For some reason, it had just hit him that they had accomplished their mission. They had done everything they had been asked to.

    Kate rushed forward, pulling up the sleeve on Reah¡¯s sweatshirt. ¡°You¡¯re hurt! What happened?¡±

    Myles glanced at Rufus suspiciously. The minister had tried to kill her when they had first arrived. Had he done something again?

    Rufus caught the look from behind his mask. ¡°Not this time. I was fighting with her.¡±

    Myles shivered. He hadn¡¯t even said anything, and the minister had still managed to respond to the exact question that had been on his mind.

    It took Myles a moment to realize the implications of what Rufus had said. They had fought someone strong enough to injure Reah. Myles would have been hard pressed to believe it if he hadn¡¯t seen a possible candidate with his own eyes.

    ¡°Paulo.¡± Silas whispered under his breath.

    Rufus turned towards him; his interest clearly piqued. ¡°What did you say?¡±

    Silas took care of most of the explanation about what had happened during their mission. Myles and Kate were only asked to clarify certain points that Silas hadn¡¯t been present for. The group also handed over the root samples they had been using to light their way. Reah noticeably flinched away when she caught sight of them.

    At the end of the explanation, Rufus seemed to be deep in thought. ¡°You¡¯ve done better than I could have hoped. I¡¯ll have to send you back with my highest commendations.¡±

    Myles took a breath. That should have been all that mattered to him. He would be able to continue studying aether engineering with a good score for the mission. Silas had been right though¡ªat least to a degree¡ªMyles couldn¡¯t just continue to ignore what was happening around him in order to single-mindedly pursue becoming an aether engineer.

    This mission had made it clear. The safety of the province and everyone in it were very much dependent on the whims of the powerful. If Myles didn¡¯t make it his business to at least stay on top of things as a soldier should, he and his friends might end up dead from the plot of someone like Paulo.

    ¡°The one who hurt Reah was Paulo wasn¡¯t it?¡± The timing made sense. He and Silas had noticed that Paulo had gone missing sometime during the previous afternoon. Kate had seen him coming back into the depths the next morning. With Paulo¡¯s abilities, he could have easily been the culprit.

    Rufus considered the question for a moment. ¡°I think it likely was. The man you described was almost certainly an imperial aurora.¡±

    Silas took over the conversation again. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious! Aren¡¯t they directly affiliated with the Perralin empire? Why would they work against us?¡±

    Rufus sighed. ¡°I know I told you to question everything you¡¯re told, but I didn¡¯t mean it quite so literally. I can¡¯t just give you access to confidential information.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Silas slouched his shoulders in exaggerated disappointment.

    Rufus gave another sigh, and a book was suddenly flying through the air towards Silas. ¡°You are far too manipulative for your own good. I won¡¯t give you the answer you want but seeing as how you seem to have been involved with a rather dangerous individual, I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt to give you the information you need to recognize other threats.¡±

    Silas tucked the book away. Myles gave him a curious look, but a shake of Silas¡¯ head kept him from fulfilling that curiosity.

    ¡°Well. I¡¯m busy. Feel free to grab a nap before you head out. You¡¯re welcome to use this tent for the next few hours.¡± With that, Rufus headed towards the door.

    Before he could leave though, Kate put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°You relieved Reah of her duty to the academy when you had her stop following us, right?¡±

    Rufus turned back around, a hint of amusement in his voice. ¡°That is technically true.¡±

    Myles caught Kate¡¯s plan. He leaned forward towards Reah. ¡°Do you want to go back to the academy with us?¡±

    Reah gave him a shy grin that easily reached her eyes. ¡°I would like that.¡± It was the happiest Myles had seen her.

 Chapter 49

    Chapter 49

    The Northern Byway

    The Voidlands North of Maston

    Keeping awake was a struggle. Days of getting only a small amount of rest had left Myles groggy. The world seemed to move slower than it should have. While the group was moving, Myles found it easy to keep himself awake and alert. As soon as they stopped for a short rest though, Myles had caught himself staring off into space, looking across the craggy ground aimlessly. Myles had barely avoided falling to sleep where he had leaned against a boulder.

    Now that they had stopped for another rest, Myles borrowed the book Rufus had thrown them. The book was more binder than anything. It was filled with hundreds of sheets of paper, each individually tied into the book¡¯s binding. Each page consisted of a single entry covering a threat to the province. Some of these were major threats, others were simply dangerous criminals.

    As Myles looked through the book, an entry near the front stood out to him.

    Identity: Galan Rocksmith (commonly uses the moniker Char) formerly General Rocksmith

    Individual Threat Level: 5

    Abilities:

    Galan is known for his high capacity of fire mana. It is known with certainty that he has access to the sixth connection in his fire aether well. His primary method of attack is by summoning firestorms to consume large areas. The intensity of these blazes is too great for the average soldier¡¯s pure mana to protect them for long. This quality makes Galan particularly effective against large groups of weaker combatants. Galan also has access to a variety of other mana types including wind, force, and pure mana. His pure mana in particular is in such great quantity that damaging him would require an attack of great magnitude. He is experienced with using wind mana for sensing anyone in the vicinity. If he is within eyesight, it is safe to assume he already knows where you are.

    History and Crimes:

    Galan was formerly a general of the province in good standing. He was one of the highest-ranking members of the military. Many of those close to Galan believe that he was driven mad when he was provided with false information, causing him to send a large contingent of his men¡ªincluding one of his sons¡ªto their deaths. Regardless of the reasoning, Galan¡¯s crimes against the province are extensive. In the years preceding the railway war, Galan took on the name of Char and rallied a large group of deserters to his banner. He acted as bandit overlord, ordering his men to pillage and loot villages throughout the province. Galan himself was confirmed to have killed over a thousand before the province was able to catch up to him. Attempts to discover the number killed by those he led proved entirely unfruitful. The chaos generated was simply too great. An effort consisting of a large band of elite soldiers specifically selected for the mission was able to thwart his last assault. Galan fled from the battle and has not been seen since. While there have been rumors that Galan left the battle injured and may have died, without undeniable confirmation, it is imperative that he be assumed to be alive.

    Conclusion:

    As with all high-level threats, priority should be taken to inform your superior officer of any sightings. Do not engage. Galan is an arcaner whose strength cannot be matched by a small force. Any sightings should be passed along the chain of command.

    Myles gave an involuntary shiver. The entry was accompanied by a sketch of the man. It was an eerie visual. While every soldier Myles had ever met maintained good hygiene, Char seemed to take it to a whole different level. His beard was immaculately trimmed, every strand of hair was precisely in place.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Despite that, the man in the picture seemed wild in a way that Myles had only ever seen from the beggars who braved the most dangerous of alleyways back in Verrith.

    It was the first time Myles had seen the likeness of Char. The history of the event had long since been ingrained in Myles¡¯ head though. Char was at once both a figure granted reality from the history lessons taught by Father Oswald and a childhood nightmare.

    When he was younger, it had been Char that his mother had warned him about. She had invoked his name whenever Myles had been too lazy, every time he found a quiet nook to read in or tried to run off with friends before taking care of chores. She had claimed that Char still hid in the shadows, targeting children who failed to do their chores. She had told him that he despised those who were lazy whether that was in verifying information or doing housework.

    The ruse had worked. Myles had been terrorized by Char as a child. He had imagined him as some sort of demonic figure with spikes sticking out of his back and big red eyes.

    The rendering in the binder was somehow more terrifying. The idea that someone who had committed such horrid acts could be presented here in such unblinded reality was daunting. It made him suddenly feel much more real, his unconfirmed death much more suspicious.

    Char may have been one of the more recognizable entries, but Myles was shocked to find that there were plenty more entries with threat levels that matched or even exceeded his.

    Fortunately, not all of the entries were tied to such dangerous people. Myles found himself skimming through again and forced himself to open to a random page to start reading. The last thing he wanted was to fall asleep while blankly skimming the pages. That would be no better than if he hadn¡¯t tried reading at all.

    Identity: Venrigh Lelave

    Individual Threat Level: 3

    Abilities:

    Venrigh primarily utilizes sword mana. His techniques allow him to rapidly move several sets of sword mana around him. He has been known to be capable of fighting and killing multiple advanced opponents at once with this ability. Based on evidence left at scenes of attack, it is also suspected that Venrigh has several other techniques reliant on sword mana. While he appears to be heavily dependent on sword mana in combat, it should be noted that it is likely he has additional capabilities.

    History and Crimes:

    Venrigh is a criminal wanted throughout the Perralin Empire. He has committed many heinous acts including multiple assassinations of minor government officials in various imperial provinces. At this time, all of the available information on him is tied to his enrollment paperwork for the imperial army. It is suspected that much of the information he provided was false. Indeed, investigations revealed that his provided name was connected to a man who was found murdered along with his family. The name remains in use as the man has used it in every known crime since.

    Conclusion:

    Venrigh should be considered a serious threat, however it is suspected that he could be overwhelmed by a sufficient force. As such, action should be entrusted to the officer in charge of the area. Rapid response is recommended.

    ¡°Its time to head out again.¡± Reah pushed herself up, favoring her healthy arm.

    Myles closed the book, snapping himself out of a reverie with a will of effort.

    The group had set a more reasonable pace on the return trip. Reah was constantly keeping a cloud of evoked wind mana around them.

    That mana felt like an extra line of security. Reah would be able to sense and warn the group of any incoming monsters well before they actually neared the group.

    Still, the slower pace was less than ideal. They had to maintain it though. Reah¡¯s injury was bad enough that they were forced to stop on multiple occasions to rebandage it. Even if it hadn¡¯t been for the injury though, Myles, Kate, and Silas were all having a hard time moving forward. Between their wounds, the exhaustion from pushing themselves for so long, and their general lack of sleep, the three of them were struggling.

    If they had been forced to make the trip alone, they would have stayed at the camp outside Hydrabridge longer, resting until they were back in peak condition. That wasn¡¯t an appealing option though. Despite the safety the camp offered, its activity would have made resting a challenging prospect, not to mention that they hadn¡¯t felt entirely welcome there.

    The soldiers were clearly unsettled by their presence. None of them had seemed very friendly. At most, Myles and his squad had been treated with a professional demeanor. Myles had been reminded quite a bit of how he had been looked at by the people of Verrith for being a yellow band. Now, their white bands seemed to spark the same feeling of unease.

    Myles supposed he could understand that. Soldiers wore blue bands, citizens who could use the aether space wore red, and family of blue or red bands wore yellow. White bands were traditionally reserved for those who could use the aether space but didn¡¯t fit into the other categories. Most commonly, this pertained to church officials or embassies from the empire proper to collect tribute.

    Myles couldn¡¯t have blamed the soldiers for eyeing the white bands that encircled the arms of the uniforms he, Kate, and Silas wore. Myles himself had wondered why they hadn¡¯t been given blue bands. He had simply marked it as another oddity of the academy though, something he hadn¡¯t needed to concern himself with.

 Chapter 50

    Chapter 50

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Returning to Maston was a somewhat surreal experience. Part of that came from Myles¡¯ state of mind. A state that could best be described as swimming through molasses. It was hard to think he was so exhausted.

    Only part of the surreal feeling came from his mind being exhausted, the rest of it was a combination of the activity at the academy and the time of their arrival. They had left in the late afternoon the day before. Now, they were arriving in the early evening.

    Students walked around the campus like normal. Though some of them had wounds, many of these seemed to be on their way to healing. In his exhausted state, it took Myles a second to understand why.

    Myles had been gone for five full days. Everything had moved so quickly that Myles hadn¡¯t been given a chance to think about the implications. Most of the students would have already returned, having completed their own missions.

    Now, Myles felt out of place as he, Silas, and Kate headed to their dorm. They split up with Reah who made her way around the campus, heading to the infirmary where she could hopefully have her wound looked at by expert eyes. She had been given attention back at Hydrabridge, but they had lacked tools and the journey she had undergone hadn¡¯t done her any favors.

    There was no sign of Jane, Seth, or Mercy when they came back to the dorm. They had clearly already returned though because the twin of the aether construct spear Myles carried on his back was propped up in the common room.

    Myles took the shortest path possible to his bed, throwing his gear down and not bothering to change out of his clothes. Myles was asleep before he even flopped onto the mattress.

    ¡­

    Myles woke with a start, nearly headbutting Jane. Fortunately, Jane was swift to step out of the way. Myles took a breath and looked around. He was in his room, right where he had flopped down. It was morning, meaning that Myles had slept through the night.

    ¡°Good morning.¡± Jane gave him a smile that looked to be fighting hard to not widen further. Myles noticed a nasty bruise on her face, right below her right eye.

    The bruise was what finished the process of waking Myles. It was like a bucket of ice-cold water had suddenly been thrown on him. It hadn¡¯t just been Myles¡¯ squad that had been sent out on a mission. Jane¡¯s squad had as well.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Myles asked, looking around frantically.

    ¡°Things went well.¡± Jane waved aside the question. ¡°More importantly, how are you doing? We got back a full day before you. We were worried that you¡­¡±

    As Jane trailed off, Myles pushed himself to his feet, realizing with some embarrassment that he was still dressed in the uniform he had been travelling in. ¡°We all made it out ok¡ªactually Reah got hurt pretty badly.¡±

    ¡°Reah?¡±

    Myles blanched, remembering that Jane hadn¡¯t seen them since they had parted at the dorm. ¡°Reah was there. She followed us¡ªjust like last time.¡±

    ¡°You guys managed to escape something that hurt her?¡±

    Myles stumbled over his words; his brain was still scrambled from waking up so suddenly. He tried to explain what had happened, how they had been separated from Reah, how she had been injured during that time, how they had met the person who had done that, and how they had been with Paulo when they entered the city.

    Myles¡¯ best efforts only served to grow a strong look of confusion on Jane¡¯s face. Just as he trailed off, finally acknowledging to himself that his rushed explanation would need to be totally reworked, a familiar face popped around his doorframe, it bore a mischievous look that Myles had only seen a handful of times before.

    Silas walked into full view with a teasing grin. ¡°Remind me to never have you tell a story. If you had been talking like that with Paulo, we¡¯d have all been dead by now.¡±

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    A voice muttered something about how they could arrange for Silas¡¯ death if he kept talking so loudly from the other side of the common room. Jane gave a short, uncontrolled burst of laughter as she heard Kate¡¯s very surly, very tired mutter.

    Myles couldn¡¯t help but join in. It was good to be back and enjoying the others company. It was good to feel truly safe again.

    They had been woken with enough time to spare to get cleaned up, something that Myles found himself especially grateful for. The opportunity to wash off was something that Myles hadn¡¯t been afforded while he was away. The result was a rather vulgar scent wafting out from him that Myles had to expend some effort to be rid of.

    Only a few minutes after the group had finished their preparations, a knock came from the door. Seth walked over to it, peering through the peephole before he opened it. Just a month ago, Myles knew that Seth would have opened the door without checking. Caution had begun to permeate the group. Each of them was feeling the effect of the missions they had been sent on.

    To everyone¡¯s surprise, it was Reah at the door. Myles was relieved to see that she looked well. It seemed that a bit of sleep and proper medical attention had done her wonders.

    ¡°Are you all ready to head down?¡±

    It was the first time that Reah had ever walked with them to their morning session with Primrose, but Myles found that it felt natural. Reah may have been leagues ahead of them all in both ability and experience, but they still had a lot in common.

    Primrose was already waiting for them when the group of seven walked into the room. It was a somber group that padded into her class. Not one of them had forgotten about her harsh criticism of their performance in last month¡¯s exams.

    ¡°Just like last month, I think it will be prudent to discuss the things you did right as well as the mistakes you made throughout your mission.¡± Primrose cracked her neck idly. ¡°Let¡¯s start with squad 14, shall we?¡±

    Myles grimaced. Even knowing they had done well; it was hard to not feel a little nervous.

    ¡°For the most part you did well. You learned from last month¡¯s mission. The preparations you made in both gathering intel about the political situation of your destination as well as crafting an aether construct to bolster your combat strength show that you put stock behind my criticisms.¡±

    Myles nodded, sharing a proud look with Silas and Kate.

    ¡°The preparations you made helped you overcome a powerful foe on your way to your destination.¡± Primrose held up a finger. ¡°You doubtless would not have survived the encounter without the preparations you made, or the fruits of your combat training earned through painstaking devotion in this class.¡±

    Myles found himself nodding. The spear he had made with Jane had allowed them to ground the stormbird. Even then though, he couldn¡¯t argue that the use of snake stepping in particular was essential to that victory. As it was with them avoiding the beast¡¯s attacks, they had walked out of the fight with little more than a collection of painful bruises. If they had made just one more mistake, an imperfect snake step could have resulted in a major injury or worse.

    ¡°Kate¡¯s foresight to gather knowledge on monster¡¯s that commonly appear in aether storms in advance helped her to be more effective in the situation.¡± Primrose gave a faint click of her tongue. ¡°However, that effectiveness could have been applied to the entire group if that knowledge had been shared prior to the attack.¡±

    Kate hung her head, probably realizing that Primrose was right. Myles gave her a sympathetic smile. Kate may have been the one who had been called out for making the mistake, but he and Silas were equally guilty of not sharing knowledge. Now that he was thinking about it, if Myles had given Kate instructions on how to make the runes needed for the construct he had planned to use, they wouldn¡¯t have been forced to create the water construct so quickly. The odds of it failing would have been lower and they could have been in position to knock the enaira off the wall as soon as it had started climbing.

    Primrose continued, giving them a look of satisfaction that Myles had only ever seen on rare occasions. Usually when they had executed one of the steps she taught in a way that bordered on reaching her standards. ¡°Due to extenuating circumstances, your specific actions while completing your main objective cannot be properly evaluated, but you did accomplish that goal. You also helped to prevent an adjacent incident, providing additional value.¡±

    Myles gave himself a mental high-five. Primrose rarely gave out anything even remotely resembling praise. Her simple admission that they had completed their task and more besides felt good, better than it would have coming from almost anyone else.

    ¡°If you had to say, what is the biggest thing you earned over the course of the mission?¡±

    Silas stepped forward bravely, fulfilling his role as the squad¡¯s de facto voice. ¡°Its important to consider what motivates your allies. If you don¡¯t, you may find that they disagree with you at the most important of times.¡±

    Primrose gave an amused grin. ¡°I think that Mr. Habe would be proud of that sentiment. What about you Kate?¡±

    Kate was caught momentarily off guard. Even after recovering, she didn¡¯t rush into an answer, instead contemplating her response. ¡°We lack two important tools. We were put into a serious disadvantage because we lacked offensive options, and we couldn¡¯t avoid detection from more accomplished arcaners.¡±

    Primrose nodded along. ¡°I think that¡¯s a fair analysis. We will be working to remedy both of those shortcomings this month. How about you Myles?¡±

    Myles had started thinking about his answer as soon as Primrose had asked the initial question, so, he had a response ready. ¡°We have to commit whole-heartedly to everything we do. If we don¡¯t, even something we deem to be less important may cause our deaths or the deaths of others.¡±

    Myles felt Primrose give him an inquisitive look before silently nodding to herself. ¡°In your current situation, I think that may have been the best thing you could have learned.¡±

    From there, the discussion turned to the other squad¡¯s performance. This lasted a good deal longer with Primrose going into depth looking at each of their actions and mistakes. For the most part, Primrose¡¯s comments were positive. The group had been sent to help find a more peaceful approach to ending a violent workers strike. In some ways, their situation had been similar to the one Myles, Silas, and Kate had dealt with.

    They had also made good use of the aether construct against a variety of monsters they had run into. Most interestingly, Myles learned where the large bruise he had noticed on Jane¡¯s face came from. Apparently, she had been trying to assist one of the workers, dropping her commuted armor to blend in. When she had offered help, she had been attacked.

    In the end, the affair had been resolved through force. There had been deaths, but the groups involvement had allowed for those to be dramatically reduced. The workers had been a loyal group, wholly unwilling to discuss anything with soldiers. Jane, Seth, and especially Mercy used their youth and lack of blue bands to their advantage, more easily loosening tongues. Unable to get the workers to back down, they had given the soldiers sent to quell the riots crucial information.

    With the information in hand, the soldier¡¯s had brought the situation under control with minimal casualties.

    Myles could tell though that those casualties weighed heavy on the minds of his friends. The bitter tone that crept into Jane¡¯s voice was especially concerning. Jane had always been kind. It must have been a hard decision to give up on showing that kindness.

    For her part, Primrose asserted they had taken the right course. ¡°You will often find that people will stubbornly hold firm to their beliefs. Often, it is impossible to do that which feels like the right thing. It is a harsh lesson to learn that you may need to weigh what is right with what needs to be done.¡±

 Chapter 51

    Chapter 51

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    ¡°Aether wells, channels, converters, and techniques. The combination of these four structures makes up an aether system.¡±

    Primrose had left them with no break. After they finished discussing the examination missions, she had skipped combat training, jumping right into her class on the principles of the aether space. In the past, this class had been mostly centered around delving. They had used it to expand their aether wells, increasing the amount of pure mana they had available for use.

    Now, the days of delving seemed to be a thing of the past. They were still expected to sacrifice time to delve on their own, but now the classes were focused heavily on learning the theory they needed to start becoming true arcaners capable of using other types of mana.

    ¡°An aether system exists within your aether space. You can think of the aether space as a three-dimensional cube of unlimited size. Each aether space has an origin point that sits on top of the cube, directly in the center. The further you reach from the origin point, the harder it becomes to delve or scape away the aether that makes up the cube.¡±

    Myles found the theory to be relatively straightforward. In many ways, what they had been doing was similar to digging a well in the outside world. The difference was that while most wells worked by tapping into and collecting water that flowed underground, aether wells were gradually filled from the mana that sat above the aether space.

    The distinction did make Myles slightly annoyed with whoever had decided to call them aether wells. In Myles¡¯ mind, it would have been simpler to call them aether holes or maybe hollows, but he supposed that just didn¡¯t sound as good.

    ¡°You are already familiar with aether wells.¡± Primrose spoke with a calm voice, patiently walking them through the process. It was at odds with her usual fast-paced teaching style that emphasized repetition. It meant that this was important, likely something that could not be taught through simple repetition.

    ¡°Aether wells serve two major purposes. The first is to gather and hold a supply of mana. The second is to gain access to the lower connections. These connections are accessed by increasing the depth of your aether well. You are already familiar with the first two connections, evocation and commutation. The first allows you to move mana from your aether space into the outside world. The farther away the location is that you wish to evoke mana, the more time it takes. The amount of time it takes can be roughly approximated to the speed of an arrow flying at maximum velocity.¡±

    Myles looked around the room. Everyone was hanging onto Primrose¡¯s every word, ingesting the information. None of them were any less bright than Myles himself. After all, every single one of his dormmates were hand selected and were being given the education for free with the sole caveat of the year of required service after graduation.

    Primrose continued the lecture, carefully scrutinizing her six students to make sure they were keeping up. ¡°Commutation is a connection between the aether space and the bounds of one¡¯s body. In commuting mana around one¡¯s body, you are moving the mana around the absolute outer layer of the human body. Commutation is an efficient use of mana as unlike evoked mana, commuted mana can reenter the aether space. Because of this unique quality, commutation is often referred to as a two-way connection.¡±

    Primrose gestured towards Kate. ¡°In rare cases, an individual may have what we call higher connections. Unlike the traditional lower connections, higher connections are not connected with the aether space. Instead, these connections are above in what we refer to as the mana space. We have limited information available on the higher connections, but we do know two major details about them. The first comes from the symptoms of higher connections. Would you mind reminding the group of how your ¡®affliction¡¯ works, Kate?¡±

    Kate cleared her throat, looking nervous. She had already talked with each of the dormmates about her affliction, but Myles knew she didn¡¯t like to speak on it. From the panicked look in her eyes and the few stories she had shared about her mother, Myles suspected that she still had an irrational feeling that she wouldn¡¯t be believed.

    ¡°Whenever someone is nearby me, I am able to feel any pain that they do.¡± Kate scrunched her forehead up in the way that Myles noticed she sometimes did when she was thinking. ¡°I can always tell the difference between pain that is caused by injuries to my own body and pain that comes from someone else. The pain isn¡¯t any lesser when it comes from someone else.¡± Kate paused again, seeming to try to find the right words. ¡°The pain just feels¡­different.¡±

    Primrose nodded. ¡°Thank you. The symptoms that you mention are consistent with what many individuals with higher connections speak of. Not every person with a higher connection feels the pain of others, however they usually gain some phantom sense connected to other humans. One commonly used example comes from an individual who felt a strong surge of attraction whenever someone in their vicinity was particularly attracted to another.¡± Primrose gave no indication of noticing the faces of her students going red. Myles managed to cut his own thoughts short, but he could see how such an ability could be quite troublesome.

    ¡°The point,¡± Primrose paused to allow her students to focus back in, ¡°is that we believe the higher connections are connections between the mana spaces of different people. Beyond that broad conclusion, the only thing we know about higher connections is that they cannot be intentionally created through delving. The only two documented methods of obtaining higher connections are by being born with them or being exposed to the burning tree for great lengths of time.¡± With the last, Primrose nodded towards Reah who had taken a space near the six students.

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    Seth nodded to himself calmly, seeming as ever to be completely collected. ¡°Aether wells allow for the storage of mana and access to further connections then. If that¡¯s the case, what benefits do the other structures you mentioned have?¡±

    Primrose nodded to him, accepting his question. It was a particular quirk of hers that Myles and the others had caught onto. Primrose allowed them to ask her questions at any time when she was lecturing. Primrose only chose to answer certain questions though.

    ¡°Aether channels allow for the movement of mana throughout the aether system. The wider a channel is delved; the faster mana can be moved through it. In effect, they are tunnels through the aether space that link the aether system together.¡±

    Myles thought he was starting to see the bigger picture. If channels were used to move mana between aether wells, it stood to reason that converters were a means to convert from one mana type to another. After all, what was the point of moving mana if you couldn¡¯t use it to resupply a type of mana you were running low on. It was effectively equivalent to the conversion rune that Myles and Jane had used to allow them to take pure mana for use in a fireball. That rune had been inefficient, only converting 9% of the pure mana into fire mana. Myles knew that the more advanced runes could convert a quarter of the pure mana into fire mana.

    ¡°What are the conversion rates for converters?¡±

    The question slipped out without much thought. This seemed to be one of the questions that would go unanswered though. Primrose didn¡¯t so much as bat an eye at the question, completely ignoring it. Myles couldn¡¯t say he blamed her. He felt that he was getting a step ahead of himself.

    Myles did notice that Jane gave him a knowing look. She had probably jumped down the same line of thought he had. They had spent a considerable amount of time working on those spear constructs. It was little surprise that both of them had immediately drew the comparison.

    Primrose continued with the preset route of her lecture. ¡°Through the use of channels, one can expand outward more rapidly than by attempting to simply expand their aether well. This is an important quality as it is needed to create additional aether wells.¡± Primrose held up a hand in a sign of caution, drawing Myles and the others in. ¡°One of the common mistakes made is creating a second aether well too close to the original. It is important to place the wells far enough away that they will not impede each other¡¯s future growth.¡±

    Myles could imagine the temptation. The closer a second aether well was, the shorter the connecting channel had to be. That meant less delving, a time-consuming activity. Building out a proper aether system was starting to sound like a task that would take a monumental amount of time. He was beginning to see why most soldiers weren¡¯t as strong as your average noble.

    Nobles were given the time to delve. For the most part, their role was to protect the towns they controlled. Soldiers on the other hand were constantly being sent into combat to fight off monsters. They would have far less time to devote to building out a proper aether system.

    ¡°Creating an additional aether well is usually only useful if that aether well is of a different type. That¡¯s where converters come in.¡± Primrose held up her hand, evoking a huge boulder-sized patch of pure mana in the air. ¡°Converters are structures that are specifically designed to switch between mana types. They are all designed differently, but the general rule is that two units of mana are needed to produce one unit of the mana¡¯s subtype.¡±

    A small burst of flame came out of Primrose¡¯s hand. ¡°I just used a converter to switch the same amount of pure mana I evoked into fire mana.¡±

    Mercy moved her head to the side, following the demonstration with obvious interest. ¡°Fire mana is a subtype of energy mana, correct?¡±

    Primrose gave another nod of acknowledgement. ¡°That is correct. Pure mana is the parent type of energy mana and energy mana is the parent type of fire mana. That means there is a two-step difference between the two mana types that I evoked. That equates to needing 4 units of pure mana to produce one unit of fire mana.¡±

    Those were better rates than Myles had anticipated. It almost made him feel like his spear construct would become irrelevant when an investment in building out an aether well of fire mana would be more efficient. Of course, it would take a significant amount of time to delve enough to be able to create an aether well with enough fire mana to produce a comparable effect to the spear. Besides, he could always use pure monster cores to fuel the spear. There was no alternative to regain lost mana other than waiting for the mana to trickle into the aether well.

    Primrose continued with her demonstration, evoking another patch of pure mana into the air. While still sizeable, this was nowhere near as large as the initial pure mana that she had evoked. ¡°Conversion can be used in the reverse manner as well. For every four units of fire mana, one unit of pure mana can be created.¡±

    Myles could see a bigger picture now, and his mind raced, thinking of things in much the same way as he did when designing a construct. If he created a channel from his current aether space, how long would it have to be to not impede the growth of either his existing aether well or the newly created one? Myles couldn¡¯t find a clear answer. To find one, he would need to know the potential maximum size he could grow his aether well. While he was at it, Myles would need to discover the exact dimensions of his current aether well.

    Myles supposed he could theoretically measure the total mana he had in his aether well by using the device they had created to measure out exact quantities of fire mana. He would need to adjust the calculation to account for using pure mana rather than fire mana, but it could work. Unfortunately, knowing the total capacity of his aether well didn¡¯t do much to help him with discovering its dimensions.

    Myles still felt it was something worth doing. The more he could connect the precise quantity of mana he evoked or commuted to its effect, the more he could improve the efficiency of his defense. By adding carefully prepared constructs that he created on top of carefully developing his own innate abilities, he could boost his combat ability exponentially.

    Myles put a stop to his tirade of excited thoughts. There would be time to examine things once the lecture was over. For now, he needed to pay attention.

    ¡°The final structure is also the most complex. Techniques are designed for the purpose of creating intricate effects with minimal cognitive effort.¡±

    This was the line that finally brought confusion to the group. Myles had a hard time understanding what he had just heard.

    Primrose seemed to see the confusion in her students. ¡°Every time you evoke mana you have to concentrate to do so, correct?¡±

    Myles nodded along with the others. That seemed obvious. The evocation didn¡¯t just happen. It was something he had to actively do. It was the same thing as moving his arm. If he didn¡¯t will his arm to move, it wouldn¡¯t.

    ¡°If you were just evoking a small patch of pure mana about the size of a stone you would have no problem, right?¡±

    Myles nodded again, unsure what the point was.

    ¡°Now imagine you¡¯re in a fight and you need to defend precisely against a large number of stones being shot at you at high velocity. How many do you suppose you could block with pure mana at once?¡±

    Myles didn¡¯t have to think about that much. He would struggle to block more than a handful at once. He would be forced to rely on his commuted armor to stop the rest.

    ¡°A technique that uses wind and pure mana may be able to detect the stones approaching and automatically evoke a supply of pure mana to the correct position to block every stone with nearly perfect accuracy.¡±

    Myles was beginning to understand what Primrose had meant by ¡®cognitive effort¡¯. He could only do so many things at once. A technique then was a pattern that he could repeat without too much thought. It was similar to how he could walk while barely processing that he was doing so. There was a pattern to walking. He could walk while focused on other things by simply following the pattern, supplying the energy he needed at the right times to move his limbs.

    Using techniques Myles realized would be similar to walking. Once the technique was created, he would just need to supply it with the mana it needed. It would handle the rest, allowing him to focus on an ongoing fight.

    ¡°We will look into techniques more next time. In the meantime, do not attempt to do any delving outside of increasing the capacity of your existing aether wells. I cannot stress enough how important it is to carefully plan your aether system.¡±

    The group was left thinking as they headed towards the cafeteria to grab lunch together as had become their custom.

 Chapter 52

    Chapter 52

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles was almost always sweating when he was working the aether forge. It made sense for him to be. The forge put out intense flames that were able to melt metal. Not only was his forge hot, but there were also dozens of other forges, each manned by a pair of students.

    Myles had grown accustomed to the heat though. The job shop he had worked at had the same level of heat. From what Myles could tell, heat had a tendency to bottle itself up, lingering in place for far longer than just about anything else. Most people would find it uncomfortable, but Myles embraced it. It was just one of those things that had to be. In any case, it beat trying to scrape runes into metal with the tip of a spear.

    ¡°Myles?¡±

    Myles turned towards Jane. She had seemed withdrawn throughout the session, studying from the aether index rather than discussing ideas with Myles. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for Jane to become withdrawn. She did that on occasion, sometimes choosing to work alone. Something about this was different though.

    ¡°What is it? Did you find something?¡±

    They had been working on coming up with a solution for evaluating the exact dimensions of their aether wells. So far, they had made little headway.

    Jane shook her head, her hair which had grown longer in the last few months was thrown around with the rest of her head. ¡°No. I was just thinking that you¡¯re fairly religious, right?¡±

    Myles found himself somewhat taken aback by the question. He didn¡¯t consider himself all that religious. Back in Verrith, he had certainly spent quite a bit of time within the church, but very little of it had been spent practicing the Deprios faith. With a start, Myles realized that he hadn¡¯t even stopped by the church in Maston. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say I¡¯m overly religious.¡±

    Jane shook her head. ¡°Never mind then.¡±

    Myles couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit curious. Jane had been quiet ever since she had woken him up that morning. Now she was suddenly asking him about how religious he was.

    Myles leaned against the table where Jane was studying. ¡°I think that it might be a good time to check out the church here now that you mention it. Care to join me?¡±

    Jane hesitated for a moment as if weighing with something. ¡°Yeah. That sounds like a plan.¡±

    After that they turned back to their research. The problem with measuring an aether well¡¯s dimensions was a simple one. Aether wells existed within the aether space of a person. For all intents and purposes, they were separated from the outside world with the exceptions of the lower connections.

    It wasn¡¯t too difficult to measure the amount of mana evoked. Even with commutation, it would theoretically be possible to test for quantity. As far as Myles could tell though, those approaches were entirely useless for finding the dimensions of an aether well.

    As Myles¡¯ thoughts grew more frustrated, he found himself becoming distracted. His mind couldn¡¯t help but wander to their upcoming trip to the town¡¯s church.

    The church of Deprios was synonymous with religion in the province. Not only did the churches teach most of the province¡¯s children, but they were also centers of community. In Verrith, Myles had met most of his co-workers from events held at the church even before he had started working.

    The church had another side to it though. No priest would teach an uninducted more than the very basic tenets. What the people worshipped was not for the people to know. The church taught blind faith in the truest sense. The people prayed to Deprios, but only those of the church had any idea what that meant. For everyone else, Deprios was a symbol, a force or being of some kind that they hoped would look over them through the worst times.

    Myles and Jane left earlier than usual that evening. There was no church on academy grounds, so, their trip took them into Maston itself. It was remarkable how little Myles had seen of the town. He had been kept incredibly busy, almost always working towards improving himself. Still, they found their way with little trouble. They were traveling through the nicest area of town where the roads were wide and street signs were plentiful and well maintained.

    Maston¡¯s sole church was located at the edge of the city, right on the water¡¯s edge. It was a straightforward building with few adornments. The symbol of Deprios, a single feathered wing was emblazoned on the front of the wooden building in black paint. The rest of the building had never been painted.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    A rough brick pathway led from the main road to the church¡¯s entrance. On either side of the path, high fences blocked off Maston¡¯s graveyard. It was a striking message. For all the emphasis on blind faith, it was clear to everyone who had ever entered a church that death was a core component of the Deprios faith.

    Each and every tombstone in that graveyard would be engraved with writing, sacred writing in script of the church¡¯s own design. Only those who had sworn their lives to the church could read what the message said. Reading it wasn¡¯t the point though. Those who the writing applied to would know what it said.

    Myles had only had two of his own lines sculpted into gravestones. One had been set on his father¡¯s grave when he had been a small child. The other had been carved into his mother¡¯s grave. The two messages were vows made to the dead, promises to fulfill the wishes most dear to them.

    In spite of the graveyards surrounding the church, the space was an area of happiness and community. As Myles walked with Jane along the pathway towards the church, a group of children ran around, chasing each other, smiling and laughing, their parents looked on while chatting quietly together. In the early evening, warm lights came from inside the large windows set in the church walls, the sun was setting, lending a pink glow to the air.

    ¡°Should we head inside?¡± Jane was looking at Myles for confirmation.

    With a nod, Myles led the way into the church. They were barely a handful of steps in when a young woman ran up to them wearing the signature outfit of a sister, a simple, comfortable looking black dress emblazoned with the symbol of Deprios in red. A red band encircled her right arm. ¡°Are you students from the academy?¡±

    Myles returned the smile. ¡°Yes. This is our first time here. I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ve been caught up in our studies.¡±

    The sister gave him a gentle touch on the arm. Not feeling the gesture, Myles realized he was commuting pure mana. It had become a habit that he kept up at almost all times of the day. He hastily stopped commuting mana, returning it all into his aether well. Jane seemed to notice and followed suit.

    ¡°I¡¯m Sister Liza. If you would like, you are free to use the prayer room in the basement. We¡¯ve had a number of students come in the last few days.¡± Sister Liza stepped towards Jane, laying a hand on her back in a half hug. ¡°It brings me no joy to see so many sad faces. I hope some prayer and reflection will help to settle your hearts.¡±

    With that, Sister Liza was off, making her way around the church¡¯s main building, greeting and laughing with the people of Maston.

    Myles was able to find the basement easily enough. The prayer room as it was called was a simple room with no adornment. Its main feature was the quiet. None of the noise from those talking above reached down here. Small metal inlays in the wall allowed for a constant thin coating of pure mana. It was a practical use and Myles suspected that Sister Liza¡¯s duties included keeping the constructs supplied with pure mana.

    Myles held the door, letting Jane lead the way inside. Instead of moving to take a seat on the ground, Jane hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure of what to do. As soon as Myles moved to take a seat though, Jane moved to follow.

    Myles spent some time in the room. It was a nice thing to be left with his thoughts. There was plenty he had to sort through. The thing that weighed on Myles most was the death he had seen in Hydrabridge. There was the youth that had been gored to death by ogren mere feet away from him. Then there were the men who the enaira had killed in front of his eyes. In spite of the foreman¡¯s misguided plan, Myles couldn¡¯t claim the man, or his followers had been wholly evil. In his mind, Myles knew that they had been trying to do something good, at least in their own minds.

    Myles could relate to the men more than he wanted to admit. Like them, he had only been given a set number of choices growing up. Myles had worked in the job shop for far less time than any of those men had been mining. Even so, he had felt frustration. Frustration that he couldn¡¯t become more. Would Myles have been able to keep moving forward with that frustration building constantly inside him for years? He wanted to think so, but it was hard to say for sure.

    After a while, Myles made to stand back up, but he saw Jane still looking deep in thought, a bitter expression worn on her face. Not wanting to disturb her, he settled back in, this time delving his aether well rather than his mind.

    It was late when the pair finally made to leave the church. The crowd above was gone completely.

    ¡°A file has been placed with the reaper¡¯s name on it.¡± A deep masculine voice whispered above them, barely reaching Myles, but stopping him in his tracks, nonetheless.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it. Its terrible. How could they?¡± Sister Liza¡¯s voice cracked with emotion. ¡°She¡¯s so young.¡±

    The deep voice spoke again. Myles held Jane in place. ¡°You feel for the girl?¡±

    Sister Liza took a breath. ¡°In some small way I can relate to her. I think all she really wants is to be accepted, to live a normal life.¡± She continued in a frustrated whisper. ¡°I¡¯ve seen her patrolling outside town.¡±

    The man gave a grunt of assent. ¡°I saw her out there tonight. She was killing monsters that had drawn too close to town. I would guess she¡¯s saved lives in just the short time she¡¯s been here.¡±

    ¡°Please tell me that you¡¯ve not come to kill her.¡± Sister Liza¡¯s voice had a note of pleading in it.

    ¡°It might be best if I did. She can¡¯t be allowed to become a second Salen.¡±

    Myles slowly moved up to the edge of the staircase, commuting pure mana once more to keep his steps silent. Looking around the corner, Myles saw a powerfully built man, in his early thirties. There was nothing especially noteworthy about the man¡¯s appearance except a fair number of scars that crossed along his arms and neck.

    Far more important than his appearance was the white band that looped his arm. On the band, the symbol of Deprios was painted in crisp black lines. The band being fashioned in such a way left little doubt to his identity. A paladin of Deprios. Myles had never seen one in person before. They were said to be powerful arcaners. While many of those who swore themselves to the church¡¯s service were taught to become arcaner¡¯s, the paladins were given the unique privilege among the church¡¯s servants to engage in combat.

    Sister Liza stepped towards the paladin. ¡°If you¡¯re not here to kill her then¡­¡±

    ¡°There is to be a meeting tonight.¡± The paladin pulled on his white band, yanking it off. ¡°I aim to infiltrate it. If I know who to look out for, I may yet be able to save her.¡±

    Sister Liza breathed in. ¡°There have been rumors lately. They say dangerous people have been seen nearby.¡±

    The paladin nodded his head, pulling out a plain red band and pinning it around his arm in place of the white. After that, the man spoke, but somehow despite all of his other words being audible, he seemed to speak just a bit too quietly this time for Myles to pick out the words.

    ¡°Be safe.¡±

    With that, the paladin turned and left through the front door.

    Myles felt Jane lean into his shoulder. ¡°We need to follow him.¡± There was a form of steel in Jane¡¯s voice that Myles hadn¡¯t expected, but he found himself agreeing with her whole-heartedly.

    What he had heard implied that someone wanted the reaper dead. Myles had only ever heard that name used for one person. When Rufus had attacked Reah, he had named her reaper. That detail had been one of the few things Myles had been able to get across to Jane in the morning.

    The paladin might find them out with wind mana if they followed. Myles knew full well that was a possibility, but in that moment, he felt the risk was worth it. He wouldn¡¯t be able to forgive himself if he did nothing now and she ended up dead.

 Chapter 53

    Chapter 53

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The paladin walked quickly through the streets. At a cautious distance, Myles and Jane followed. They were moving towards a poorer section of town, heading towards the town wall. Here, the buildings were closer together, the streets narrower.

    Myles and Jane were glad for the extra cover. They had to keep close to the paladin for fear of losing him. Myles was also watching the man carefully, looking for any sign he suspected he was being followed. If he used wind mana, suspicion would fall on Myles and Jane quickly. The sun had set and very few of the town¡¯s residents still wandered the streets.

    When he had been hiding outside Hydrabridge, Myles hadn¡¯t felt a thing, not even the slightest feeling of unease. He knew that at that time, he had been discovered by evoked wind mana. By extension, Myles supposed he had no real way of knowing if was being watched right now through wind mana. He thought he wasn¡¯t though. The entire trip, the paladin had made no indication that he thought he was being followed.

    At one point, the paladin stopped by a seemingly unremarkable house, rooting around under the stairs for a moment. When he emerged, he carried a small black cloth bag.

    That was the only stop that the man made. Other than that, he set a brisk pace. Before long, he arrived at his destination.

    The building the paladin walked into could be kindly referred to as rundown. From what Myles could see, it looked to be an old tavern of some kind. The only indication of its former purpose was a half-rotten bar that curved around the building¡¯s interior. Interior might have been a strong word. The building had gaping holes in its walls and the ceiling had caved in at multiple points.

    The point of interest wasn¡¯t the dilapidated building itself though. The paladin largely ignored that, so, Myles did too. The important thing was where the paladin went, and that meant the cellar.

    Myles found it a strange choice for a meeting. The building itself seemed like it had been quite small. Surely the cellar couldn¡¯t be all that large either.

    With that in mind, Myles and Jane waited, assuming the paladin would emerge again. He did not. Instead, Myles watched as two others went down into the cellar as well.

    ¡°We won¡¯t learn anything if we stay up here.¡± Myles took a step forward, intending to sneak into the cellar.

    Someone grabbed Myles from behind, covering his mouth so he was unable to scream. Normally, grabbing someone with commuted armor would be impossible. Pure mana would resist any grip. Unable to gain purchase, the hand would slip off. This hand did not grasp pure mana though. That had been destroyed.

    Tiny waves of blunt force broke Myles¡¯ commuted armor apart around where the hand gripped him. Myles tried to change the pattern of his commuted armor to avoid the force, but it followed. He tried to turn around to look at the face of his attacker, but whoever it was had evoked pure mana that resisted him, keeping him confined.

    Out of the corner of his eye, Myles could see Jane beside him in the very same position, held by the attacker¡¯s other hand. Myles again tried to block the hand that held him, this time attempting to block off the waves of force with sheer quantity of pure mana. Myles evoked half of his pure mana in a tiny patch around his face. It was blown apart in an instant.

    ¡°You have no business here.¡± The attacker¡¯s voice was inhuman, deep to such an extent that it was almost incomprehensible.

    Myles tried to bite his captor¡¯s hand, but his teeth made no progress, stopped by the pure mana that was being commuted around the man.

    A moment later Myles felt himself wrenched from the ground and flung. The side of nearby house stopped his movement. Myles slipped to the ground dazed. Something landed on his shoulder, and he realized it was Jane¡¯s arm. She must have been thrown at the same time.

    It took him a second to get his bearings. A man stood before him wearing a mask, one that could have been the twin to Rufus¡¯. This man was not Rufus though. His height was different, taller by at least a few inches.  Two swords hung from the man¡¯s hips, ready to be drawn. Dark clothing with long sleeves and a hood covered his entire body.

    ¡°You have no business here.¡± The man repeated himself in that inhuman voice. ¡°Get lost and I won¡¯t kill you.¡±

    It was no idle threat. This man had torn apart their defenses with ease. If he had wanted to kill them, Myles and Jane would have already been dead.

    ¡°We do have business here.¡± Jane stood up, favoring her right leg.

    ¡°Oh?¡± The question sounded ominous coming from that horrible voice.

    Myles pushed himself up too. ¡°We¡¯ve heard a friend is in trouble.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± The man stood absolutely still, giving no indication of his thoughts. ¡°You do realize you¡¯re being watched, right? You may not see them, but dozens of eyes are on you. They were all waiting, watching to see what you would do.¡±

    Myles looked around him, but he saw nothing. Either these onlookers didn¡¯t exist, or they were well-hidden.

    ¡°They call me the Ivory Force. I am a leader of sorts here.¡±

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Myles looked on, unsure of what to say in response. The wise thing to do was leave. Myles didn¡¯t want to do that though.

    ¡°Do you wish to go downstairs?¡± The Ivory Force gestured towards the entrance to the cellar. ¡°You would understand nothing of what you here down there. The curse keeps our matters secret from those who are not members.¡±

    Myles peered at the man before him. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Take out that book you have on you and turn to page 77.¡±

    Jane was the one who had the aether index with her, secured safely in her pack. The only book that Myles had on him was the book Rufus had given him. He opened it, looking for the page the Ivory Force had mentioned. It was better than running.

    Myles found the spot he was looking for, but there was a problem. Between the 76<sup>th</sup> and 78<sup>th</sup> entry, there was no page, no other entry. ¡°There¡¯s nothing here.¡±

    ¡°Exactly my point. You are dealing with something that you cannot understand. We are always present, working, yet we go unnoticed. You have been led to us unknowingly, unsure of who you are dealing with.¡±

    ¡°Then tell us.¡±

    The voice rang out again. ¡°You intrigue me. You have more conviction than most. Perhaps you would make for good candidates. Very well. With my authority as the 14<sup>th</sup> enforcer of the organization, I hereby induct you as members. Myles Redman, Jane Cooper welcome.¡±

    Myles was taken aback. The man knew their names. ¡°You¡¯re inviting us to join your organization. What is this organization.¡±

    The man moved, almost disappearing for a moment. The next instant, he stood behind them again, holding them by their napes. Myles felt his head pushed down slightly until he was looking at the book again. It was turned to the 77<sup>th</sup> entry.

    Identity: Unknown (Has earned the moniker The Ivory Force)

    Individual Threat Level: (at least) 4

    Abilities:

    Information on the Ivory Force¡¯s capabilities are hard to come across. It should be noted that much of what is stated is based on evidence from the victims he has killed or hearsay. There are two unique abilities that are most commonly associated with the Ivory Force. The first is his strong ability with wind mana. In combat, Ivory Force has always been known to wear a mask that lacks eyeholes, even before he began wearing the ivory mask that has since become his namesake. This has led to many hypothesizing that he is blind or otherwise lacking in visual acuity. Some speculate that this has allowed him to rapidly gain proficiency in wind mana. This theory is backed up by appearances at a young age. Ivory Force¡¯s other signature ability is likely linked to force mana. It is unknown how the technique works, but it seems that Ivory Force is able to attack from numerous different directions at once. Many victims have been found with broken bones that seem to have been caused by two powerful forces pushing in opposite directions.

    History and Crimes:

    The Ivory Force is the 14<sup>th</sup> enforcer of the organization. As such, his crimes include an extensive list of organization affiliated activity. In particular, Ivory Force has been involved in nearly every high-profile organization related incident within the province of Rord in the last five years. He has been linked to numerous assassinations, nobles being his most frequent targets. The Ivory Force has also gained a reputation as an artifact hunter of sorts. It has been confirmed that he has somehow discovered the long lost third ivory mask, an item that is powerful both for its capabilities as an aether construct and its presence in the history of the province.

    Conclusion:

    The Ivory Force is an exceptionally dangerous opponent that should not be engaged without a large force. That said, his association with the organization makes mobilizing such a force a virtually impossible task. The best way to deal with the Ivory Force is to gather a small group of elite personnel who have been inducted into the organization. That is also an unlikely scenario since the identity of the enforcer has yet to be uncovered. As such, priority should be given to uncovering his identity.

    Myles was terrified. This man was incredibly strong. Probably at least on par with someone like Paulo.

    ¡°Put these on. We¡¯re going inside. You won¡¯t want anyone else to know your identities.¡±

    Myles felt a mask being pressed into his hand and he followed the instructions he was given, donning it hastily.

    The cellar was nothing like Myles had anticipated. For one thing, it was much larger than he had expected, outsizing the dilapidated building above it. It left Myles wondering if that bar had just been a cover for the one below.

    There were about a dozen men and women scattered around in a handful of small groups, or like the paladin they had followed here simply standing alone. Everyone here wore a mask with the sole exception of the bartender who stood behind the bar, carefully polishing his glassware which already gleamed in the low light brought by flames produced by several constructs behind him.

    When they walked in, there was a slight stirring in the room. Myles had to assume that was because of the enforcer who walked behind them.

    The atmosphere in the room was tense yet warm. Many of the bar¡¯s patrons were openly carrying weapons, and Myles suspected the ones who weren¡¯t were probably just hiding them. Despite the bar, Myles didn¡¯t see anyone actually drinking. It almost seemed like the bar was only there to help ease the mood, and it did ease the mood. There was something about the easy smile of the bartender and the slow, calming melody that was being played that made the place seem like more than a hole in the ground filled with potential murderers and assassins.

    A few more minutes passed, and more people showed up. To Myles¡¯ surprise, a student was one of those. The student shot them a glance but didn¡¯t approach. For that matter, nobody approached their little group. Myles couldn¡¯t blame anyone. The Ivory Force was standing right over them.

    Eventually, the bartender clapped his hands. ¡°Shall we start this thing?¡±

    There were some general murmurs of agreement from around the room. Myles looked around him. More than twenty people were here. From what the paladin had said, the meeting was supposed to be about Reah. Myles felt like he had something stuck in his throat. He doubted he and Jane could fight off even one of the people in the room¡ªwell maybe the student, but they were a mystery.

    The bartender reached behind him into a cabinet. Myles half expected him to pull out a bottle of strong whiskey or something, but instead he pulled a piece of paper. ¡°Well then. The first matter of business will be regarding the upcoming tribute payments.¡±

    ¡°Hold on.¡± A woman wearing a rabbit mask who had entered after them spoke up. Myles noticed that she had chosen to stand in the same group as the student. ¡°Should we not first discuss the new recruits our honored enforcer decided to invite in on a whim?¡±

    Myles was surprised to hear a sneer in the woman¡¯s voice. It seemed that Ivory Force wasn¡¯t the most popular.

    From behind him, that same unnatural voice spoke up, bringing Ivory Force¡¯s response. ¡°You speak as though I¡¯ve never met these two before. I would recommend tempering your tone, Hare.¡±

    The woman coughed as if clearing her throat though Myles couldn¡¯t help but feel it was fake. ¡°You would have us think they were putting on an act, Ivory?¡±

    ¡°We have a busy schedule.¡± The bartender said, pouring himself a drink. ¡°Hare, Ivory, if you want to derail the agenda feel free to leave.¡±

    ¡°I would never dream of it, Arnold.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Ivory. Now back to business. I believe you were in charge of the details dragon?¡±

    The paladin who now wore a mask with the visage of a dragon nodded his assent. ¡°Candis will be receiving the collectors in two months¡¯ time. It¡¯s expected that the empire will be sending aurorae to do the deed.¡±

    A man who stood by himself and wore a mask of a star with a crack down its middle started cursing.

    The bartender, Arnold, rolled his eyes. ¡°We all know how you feel about aurorae fracture. No need to get so upset about it.¡±

    The room remained quiet until finally Hare broke the silence, a hint of annoyance in her voice. ¡°I¡¯m not sure it would be wise to try anything if its aurorae we¡¯re dealing with.¡±

    The paladin shook his head. ¡°I would have to agree. If we¡¯re going to take the tribute, it would have to be before it changes hands. I for one would much prefer dealing with the Candis army rather than aurorae.¡±

    Fracture gave a snort. ¡°The aurorae would come after you anyway. They don¡¯t fail to finish a job. Half of them are members of the organization too. They would probably find you before you managed to leave the city.¡±

    The paladin shook his head. ¡°You suddenly have such a high opinion of aurorae? Are you sure you¡¯re not just against the idea of stealing the tribute? Afraid of what it might do to your precious province.¡±

    ¡°Indeed Fracture. You really must start looking beyond Rord. The organization is about more. We¡¯re trying to improve the whole world after all.¡± Hare had leaned against her table, looking down at Fracture from across the room.

    The conversation continued deep into the night. Arnold hadn¡¯t been kidding about the agenda. With each topic, information was exchanged and debated on. For the most part, the only ones who spoke were Arnold, Ivory, Hare, Fracture, and the paladin. Myles got the feeling that they were something akin to leaders in the area. It was hard to figure out much though.

    Importantly, the one topic that Myles and Jane had been expecting never came up. Reah¡¯s name was never mentioned once.

    After the meeting was finally over, Myles and Jane remained frozen in place. One by one, each of the members approached the bar, spoke into Arnold¡¯s ear and then received a file from the cabinet behind the bartender. After that, they would leave.

    Ivory Force ended up being the last one to approach the bartender, roughly shoving him and Jane aside as he made his approach. When he left without a glance back, Myles breathed a sigh of relief.

    Myles and Jane shared a quick look and then made their way towards the exit. Before they could leave though, the bartender spoke. ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going?¡±

 Chapter 54

    Chapter 54

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going?¡± The voice caused a chill to run down Myles¡¯ spine. He felt his worst fears being confirmed. Whatever this organization was, they weren¡¯t about to just  let two unknowns leave.

    Myles slowly turned around, facing the bartender. ¡°We¡¯re not allowed to leave, then?¡±

    Arnold gave a good-natured chuckle. ¡°It always surprises me how afraid newbies are.¡± He gestured to two of the stools in front of his bar. ¡°I think we should have a talk.¡±

    Jane looked at him suspiciously. ¡°Why should we trust you? We could just run.¡±

    Arnold raised an eyebrow. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend that. Some of those who left will be waiting for you to leave. They¡¯ll want to follow you and discover your identities. From there, they¡¯ll keep tabs on you, waiting until you can become a useful pawn.¡±

    Myles weighed their options. He decided to take a seat. Arnold was probably right. Some of the others had shown a certain interest in them.

    Arnold put his hands on the counter. ¡°First things first. I want to reassure you that the organization isn¡¯t evil.¡±

    Myles couldn¡¯t help but furrow his eyebrows behind his mask. ¡°You¡¯re a group of assassins, killers, and thieves. You discussed doing truly horrible things tonight.¡±

    Arnold scowled. ¡°We use what tools we need to, but do not misunderstand, not a single person here tonight was truly evil. Each of them is trying to fulfill the organization¡¯s mission.¡±

    Jane leaned closer, keeping a close eye on their surroundings for possible escape routes. ¡°And what is this mission of yours?¡±

    ¡°Simple. The organization has long been devoted to improving the world, making it a better place for humanity. We are those who work for the future.¡±

    Myles frowned. ¡°It seems to me that you¡¯re failing.¡±

    Arnold sighed, taking a drink from his glass, downing a little bit of wine. ¡°Making the world a better place is a broad objective. Many of our number pursue interests that conflict with each other, causing disagreements that get people killed, cities burned, and nations destroyed.¡± Arnold held up his glass to the light, angling it perfectly to make it sparkle from the flames that burned behind the bar. ¡°For every failure the organization has made though, our sins are still outweighed by good. We have pathed the way for success. In this province alone, our work has borne fruit. When I was still young, monsters ravaged the land, far stronger ones than what we have wandering outside now. Now, a great barrier both protects and unites the people.¡±

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    The great railway. Myles had heard it spoken of like that before. In its creation, the province had at once created a safe means of transport between the three greatest cities in the province and created a great barrier. Soldiers could be moved along its length at high speeds, allowing them to intercept more monsters than ever before. Through trade and cooperation, the soldier¡¯s had been equipped with more powerful aether constructs too. The result was an area cordoned off that was kept safer than most any place in the world.

    Of course, Myles knew that the railroads hadn¡¯t been a perfect solution. There were still plenty of dangerous monsters that were able to either sneak past the barrier or were simply created in the province. Besides he had never heard of this organization¡¯s involvement in that.

    ¡°You¡¯ve heard of the railway war, right?¡±

    Of course, Myles had. His own father had dies in the war when he was young.

    ¡°The armies of three surrounding provinces forged their way across the voidlands, eager to attack the upstarts.¡± Arnold set his glass of wine down. ¡°You, see? Before the railroad was built, Rord was one of the weakest, most insignificant provinces in the empire. Our lowly position meant minimal support from the empire and increased tribute payments. In other words, the province was stuck in an endless cycle. We couldn¡¯t grow stronger because we had no resources, and we had no resources because we were too weak.¡±

    Myles knew all of this perfectly well. ¡°It wasn¡¯t the organization that did that though. It was the aether engineers of Verrith. It was them that created what was needed.¡±

    Arnold shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s a na?ve look. Do you know how our army managed to defend against three other provinces?¡±

    ¡°The railroad let us transport soldiers quickly. We were able to match each attack with a larger force.¡±

    ¡°Now think about it more carefully. Why do you think the other provinces would wait for the railroad to be built before they attacked?¡±

    Myles paused. It was a good question. Why hadn¡¯t they attacked as soon as they heard the railroad was being built. There were records indicating it had taken years to finish building it.

    ¡°Coordinated attacks were conducted on three provinces. Crucial supplies needed to mobilize armies were stolen, politicians supporting a war effort were assassinated. This was all done by the organization. All done to improve life here.¡±

    Arnold moved over to his cabinet again, pulling out two files. ¡°Everyone who has ambitions eventually find their way to the organization. We count thieves, murderers and assassins among our numbers, true, but we also have kings, religious leaders, and heroes. Take this.¡±

    Myles grabbed one of the files offered to him. Inside was detailed information on a variety of subjects, requests for aid in missions, and more.

    ¡°I¡¯m an informant, one of countless men throughout the world who has taken on the role of collecting information from organization members and redistributing it. If you need information, seek out an informant. You can find a list of all the organization¡¯s hideouts in the province. Stop in whenever you need something.¡±

    Myles found himself dumbly scratching his head. He had no idea what to make of this organization. They seemed disorganized and divided, but perhaps they could be useful.

    ¡°Hey Arnold,¡± Jane spoke, ¡°do you have any information on Reah? We heard there was being targeted.¡±

    Arnold¡¯s face went pale. ¡°There are certain things that only senior members of the organization are allowed to be given. I assume you heard that from Ivory since he should be the only one who knows about those orders. The truth of the matter is that we were given a mission from the higher ups, one that only senior members can have access to.¡±

    That was frustrating. Right now, that was the only information they really cared about.

    Myles stood up, looking at the door. ¡°Do you think they¡¯re still waiting out there?¡±

    Arnold chuckled softly. ¡°I suspect that they¡¯ll spend all night out there waiting.¡± Arnold gave them a wink. ¡°Don¡¯t worry though we have a second exit.¡±

    Arnold moved over to one of the kegs that had been placed in the corner of the bar. With a rapid series of movements, he twisted and turned the keg in its entirety. It was done so quickly that Myles had to believe the keg was empty. He didn¡¯t see how it could be done otherwise.

    In one of the walls, a door opened where none had been before. It looked to be a tunnel of some sort.

    ¡°One more thing before you leave.¡±

    Myles turned around, already halfway out the door.

    ¡°The organization is protected by a curse of sorts. Nobody really knows how it works¡ªprobably some technique used by one of the higher ups. Regardless, it prevents anyone outside of the organization from understanding any information related to the organization.¡±

    Myles almost scoffed at the idea. After all, the power that arcaners used was very logical. There was no way anyone could gather enough mana in their aether space to perform a technique like that. Still, Myles remembered how he hadn¡¯t been able to read the entry on The Ivory Force until he had been inducted as a member. It was another reminder of just how little Myles knew.

 Chapter 55

    Chapter 55

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    On the second day of the month, the dormmates walked into combat training to find an unexpected sight. Reah was stretching. The sand pits in the room had been set up for sparring matches.

    As Silas walked in, he said something that Myles felt was probably a good vocalization of the group¡¯s thoughts. ¡°I have a bad feeling about this.¡±

    Reah pulled out of her latest stretch, waving at the group. ¡°Hey guys. Are you ready for training?¡±

    Primrose clapped her hands from the front of the room, bringing everyone¡¯s attention to her. ¡°I¡¯ve decided to have a unique lesson today. I¡¯ve had you all spar against each other before, but I think you need more variety. After all, the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist is about flexibility. You can¡¯t expect all of your opponents to fight exactly as you do.¡±

    Reah grinned, casually stepping into one of the sandpits and placing her hands on her hips. ¡°Primrose asked me to take part in the lesson today.¡±

    Primrose brought her hand in front of her mouth. If Myles didn¡¯t know better, he would have said that she was suppressing a giggle. As it was though, Myles was fairly certain that she was entirely unaffected by the proud tone that Reah had taken.

    ¡°Right.¡± Primrose said after a moment. ¡°Do we have any volunteers for taking the first sparring match against Reah?¡±

    Nobody in the room volunteered themselves. All of them were confident in their decision too. After all, Primrose had always taught them to avoid fights they knew they couldn¡¯t win. She had told them that there was usually a more clever solution to the problem that didn¡¯t involve risking their lives. In this case, every one of the students saw the best way out was to simply not volunteer.

    Primrose seemed to realize she had left something out. ¡°Reah won¡¯t be able to use anything but pure mana. Even then, she¡¯ll be limited to evocation and commutation only up to the amount of mana you guys have.¡±

    Still, nobody stepped up for some time. Under Reah¡¯s hopeful, eager gaze Seth eventually broke down though, much to Myles¡¯ relief. He had felt himself wavering just slightly. A moment or two later and he might have found himself as the first one to have his face shoved into the sand.

    Out of the entire group, Seth was perhaps the best-suited to the fight. He had claimed the title of best overall fighter from his peers. His speed wasn¡¯t quite as impressive as Kate¡¯s and his technique was slightly inferior to Mercy who seemed to move with impossible precision, but his physical strength was greater than anyone else.

    Seth stepped into the ring with due caution. He may have been slightly ahead of the others in wins throughout their sparring match, but they all knew that Reah had them beat in experience. The group generally expected Reah to be some martial arts expert.

    When Primrose motioned for them to start, Seth was the first to charge in, probably hoping to catch Reah off guard. He led with the first step; a palm thrust. It was a reliable opening move, less destructive than the falling javelin, but also far safer to use. At the very last moment when Seth was about to make contact, he released his commuted mana around his palm.

    It was a move that had taken Myles quite some time to use so smoothly. Releasing commuted mana was more complicated than it sounded. Since commuted mana was constantly moving, what Seth was really doing was causing a momentary gap in the commutation, timing it perfectly so that the gap reached his palm at the moment of impact. If you failed at executing the move, your own pure mana would simply soften the blow.

    For all of the training that went into the strike, it still missed. Reah danced backward, moving with far less expertise than Myles had expected. Seth saw the same thing and chased after her, pressing his advantage. A moment later, he was eating sand.

    It took another moment for Myles to realize what had happened. Reah had evoked a thin wire out of pure mana as she had stepped backward, all the while drawing Seth¡¯s attention towards her by pretending to be on the back foot. It had been a clever trick and it had worked as intended.

    The fight was far from over though. While Seth had been sent to the ground unexpectedly, his feet caught up by the pure mana, he had been trained for being in a bad situation. Primrose was nothing if not meticulous in training. There were several times during sparring when she had forced one of them to start a fight in an awkward position.

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    Seth swept out with his leg, aiming to trip up anyone who approached while he was down. It was the classic counter. It would have been predictable to any of the students, but Reah hadn¡¯t attended most of their practice sessions.

    The outstretched leg very nearly tripped Reah, but her instincts served her well. She was able to dodge at the last possible second, jumping towards Seth with her knee extended.

    Seth was forced to evoke mana to block the attack, stopping her knee at the point of contact. Without missing a beat, Seth made to step straight towards Reah. The moment before he made contact, a thin wall of pure mana was evoked in the way of his step. Seth embraced the pure mana, letting it guide him to his right, avoiding a counter that Reah had been about to throw.

    Seth found himself in a good position and he moved to throw another palm strike. Reah wasn¡¯t done showing them her tricks though. A globe of pure mana suddenly appeared around Seth¡¯s head. It was a genius move to be sure. Reah was still forced to take the blow from Seth, but much like him, she was able to block it with evoked mana.

    For his part, Seth found himself in a serious bind. With his head trapped in a hollow globe of pure mana, his senses were effectively cut off. He couldn¡¯t see and Myles suspected that his hearing would be muffled too, with sound only being able to penetrate through the gap around his neck. Seth tried to duck out of the mana that enclosed him, but Reah had evoked it with too much precision. It was almost skintight, leaving only the smallest gap.

    The force of Seth¡¯s duck was easily absorbed by pure mana. Seth made to break through the sphere by effectively trying to punch himself in the head, but right before his fist impacted the sphere, Reah delivered a devastating kick to Seth¡¯s back, breaking through Seth¡¯s commuted armor and earning herself the win.

    Seth collapsed to the ground, throwing his hands up in surrender. For her part, Reah helped him out of the sand, giving him a pat on the back. ¡°Well fought.¡±

    Primrose walked up to the pair, nodding at them before turning to the rest of the group. ¡°Can anyone tell me how Reah fights?¡±

    Kate stepped forward. ¡°She used pure mana to give herself an advantage. First with the tripwire move then again with the sphere.¡±

    Primrose nodded. ¡°This is an example of the inventiveness that I would like you all to have when you fight. The steps that I teach you are general purpose moves intended to optimize your combat ability and quickly put enemies, even groups of arcaners out of commission. It is an effective style, but it is intended as a base to grow off of. Combat between arcaner¡¯s relies heavily on their use of mana, their weapons, and other factors such as terrain.¡±

    The group nodded, giving their assent. It was a very similar lecture to what they had seen before. The addition of Reah¡¯s demonstration made it seem much more important though. Myles mind raced, thinking through counters to her moves. The tripwire could be jumped over, but that had the potential to be a bad move. In the air, you would be unable to move. Reah would simply step in and deliver a blow. Unless¡­Myles grinned, an idea popping into his head.

    It may have been unfortunate timing because the grin came at just the time when Primrose swept her gaze over him. ¡°Myles. You¡¯re up next.¡±

    Myles stepped into the arena again, preparing himself. He would open up the fight much as Seth had, hoping that Reah would react the same way.

    ¡°Begin.¡±

    Myles moved forward, pushing himself to move as fast as possible. This time though, Reah held her ground. Myles continued his charge, delivering a palm thrust that was swept to the side with an arm. Myles moved into the iron turtle, spinning to show his back which was more easily protected with evoked mana. He caught a kick from her and continued his spin, delivering a crushing leg sweep that forced Reah to retreat much as she had in the fight against Seth.

    Myles pursued, wary of any evoked traps Reah might create. He was wise to be cautious. A tripwire appeared on the ground. Myles jumped over it. Just as he had expected, Reah changed direction in an instant, throwing a punch at his side that would have been nearly impossible to block in his position.

    Myles had realized he didn¡¯t need to stay in the same spot though. He evoked a wall of pure mana in much the same way he did when using the snake step. His movement wasn¡¯t anywhere near as smooth here. This was after all his first time attempting the move. The improvised move wasn¡¯t perfect, but it did work.

    Myles¡¯ jump was diverted just far enough to avoid Reah¡¯s fist. Myles didn¡¯t miss a beat, flowing into anther leg sweep as soon as he touched the ground. Having committed to her punch, certain it would land, Reah was unable to move out of the way. She went crashing to the ground.

    Myles moved to land a final blow, but Reah was far from done. Myles saw something out of the corner of his eye. His brain immediately registered it as movement and Myles instinctively swung his head around, his training having hardwired the patterns for fighting multiple opponents at once into his brain.

    Of course, this was simple bait. Reah had known Myles would be distracted by what turned out to be a sliver of pure evoked mana. Its sudden appearance had given it the illusion of movement.

    Myles was only distracted for a moment, but Reah was fast to recover, throwing herself into a tackle. Myles attempted to counter, but the steps he had been taught did not provide him much of an edge in a grapple.

    Myles found himself on the ground. Two powerful punches to the gut later and Myles¡¯ commuted armor gave out, giving Reah the victory.

    Much as she had with Seth, Reah helped him to his feet. ¡°Well fought. You surprised me with that jump move.¡±

    Despite the loss, Myles found himself smiling. He usually didn¡¯t find too much enjoyment in sparring, but Reah seemed to be having a blast, and her energy was contagious.

    Primrose clapped again. ¡°That is what I was hoping to see. You came up with a counter for a move you had never seen before.¡±

    Myles grinned. ¡°It was rather sloppy though.¡±

    Primrose nodded emphatically. ¡°Of course, it was. Practice is what lends you the ability to move with certainty.¡± Primrose gestured towards Reah. ¡°As you saw though. Adding the occasional improvised move can catch an opponent off guard, especially one who knows your normal patterns.¡±

    The lesson continued on with Primrose starting to point out different reactions they could take to Reah¡¯s seemingly endless supply of creative evocation techniques. All in all, the lesson was far more entertaining than most of their combat training lessons. Myles felt himself growing, starting to think on his feet more as he fought.

    Reah looked happier than usual, grinning throughout most of the morning. He remembered Siter Liza¡¯s words the night before about Reah just wanting to be accepted. He supposed that this was about as close as she had gotten. Here she was sparring and training with a group her own age. Sure, she was beating all of them up, but she still seemed to be having a great time. Myles frowned. Perhaps he was wrong. Reah might have just been enjoying beating on them.

    Regardless of the reason, Myles knew he had to have a conversation with her about what he and Jane had heard the previous night. As soon as they had returned, the pair had tried explaining things to their dormmates, but it seemed that the informant hadn¡¯t been lying. Their friends had acted like they were just talking some gibberish about aether engineering. Myles wasn¡¯t sure if he hoped that Reah would react differently. If she didn¡¯t, she wouldn¡¯t know her own life was in danger. If she did, that would mean that she was a member of the organization.

 Chapter 56

    Chapter 56

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    ¡°How did you hear about that?¡± Reah was surprised.

    Myles felt his heart sink somewhat and soar in other ways. He and Jane had pulled Reah to the side, telling them what they had heard the night before. Unlike their classmates, Reah seemed to know exactly what they were talking about. From Myles¡¯ understanding that meant that she must be a member of the organization.

    Reah gestured frantically towards Primrose who came over.

    ¡°What¡¯s this about?¡±

    Reah relayed the story of Myles and Jane¡¯s encounter the night before. By the end of it, Primrose was nodding along. ¡°I had actually intended to try to get them inducted into the organization at some point.¡±

    Myles found himself reeling. ¡°You wanted us to join?¡±

    Primrose again nodded. ¡°The organization offers quite a bit to people in our field. In most missions, information is critical. The organization has access to more information than just about any informant you would find outside their ranks. It also allows for certain insights that would be otherwise beyond your reach due to the curse.¡±

    Myles found the logic to be sound. He didn¡¯t trust anyone within the organization, but he supposed Primrose was right about the advantages being a member offered. Besides, as far as Myles could tell, there wasn¡¯t exactly an option to quit the organization.

    ¡°The matter related to Reah is one such instance where being a member is beneficial to preemptively gaining information. The intel was leaked a while back and the academy has been able to take certain countermeasures.¡±

    Jane shifted her weight nervously. ¡°Is the paladin we followed one of those countermeasures?¡±

    Primrose frowned. ¡°He is not. His presence seems the most alarming. By his actions, I would guess that he led you to the meeting. That also brings everything he said to the sister into question.¡± Primrose put up a cautioning hand. ¡°This is a matter that I would not like you to become more deeply involved in. People like Ivory Force are best avoided until you grow strong enough to face them.¡±

    Myles and Jane happily agreed with Primrose¡¯s sentiment.

    ¡­

    The break between combat training and their aether space studies was short lived. Primrose was eager to get them started planning out their aether systems.

    ¡°We left off discussing the basics of techniques, the last of the primary structures that make up one¡¯s aether system. Before I mentioned that they were the most complex of the structures. Could anyone try to guess why?¡±

    Seth was the first to volunteer, seemingly eager to make up for his loss against Reah earlier that morning. ¡°Techniques are used to have an effect outside of the aether space, in the world we live in. That means that they would need to be somehow built into aether wells since the depth of an aether well allows for the use of the lower connections.¡±

    Primrose nodded. ¡°You¡¯re partially correct. Techniques do need to have access to connections which does mean that they need to be designed with your existing aether system in mind. That said, we do not generally delve techniques into our aether wells but rather around them, using channels to create some separation.¡±

    That was interesting. Myles could see the need to build techniques at the needed depth, but that raised a question of how a technique would remain relevant with the unlocking of additional connections. For example, if a technique was delved into his aether space before he had unlocked commutation, it would be too high for him to commute any of the mana that was going through the technique. That would limit his flexibility somewhat.

    ¡°There is far more to a technique than simply considering the depth at which to place it. A technique can be considered to be a combination of multiple structures put together. For example, if you have a technique which utilizes both flame and earth mana, channels would need to be delved to connect the two mana types, bringing them together.¡±

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    Silas gave a slight frown as Primrose finished her point. ¡°What would be the benefit of bringing together multiple mana types?¡±

    Primrose gave her usual acknowledging nod, indicating that the question would be discussed. ¡°There are a variety of reasons. In this case, the most likely answer would be to create a composite mana type. Composite types are formed from the combination of multiple mana types within the aether space. By combining mana types, you can create more intricate effects. The composite type of fire and earth creates a mixed effect. Upon first evoking the combination, it will be in the form of energy, easy to move and having many of the properties of fire. As it continues to be exposed to the outside world, the fire mana will be overcome by the more stable earth mana, causing it to solidify.¡±

    Myles raised his eyebrows. He could already think of several useful applications of that composite type. He imagined himself throwing out fireballs that would solidify behind the enemy if they dodged, gradually cutting off escape routes. He might even be able to alter the ratio of the composite, or even create a construct of some kind that could utilize the composite itself.

    Primrose gave them a second to dream before she cut them short. ¡°Composite mana types can be very useful, but they have more than a few drawbacks.¡± Primrose raised a finger. ¡°They take more time to delve due to needing complex aether infrastructure in their own right to properly combine.¡± Primrose raised another finger. ¡°The process of combination consumes a significant amount of mana before it can even be used.¡± Primrose lifted a third finger. ¡°Perhaps most importantly, it takes time to form composite mana types, time that you do not always have in a fight.¡±

    Myles felt his passion die down somewhat. He could still see composite types being useful, but their drawbacks made it so they weren¡¯t an instant path to power. After all, what good would a composite mana technique do him if he took a fireball to the face while he was trying to prepare his own attack.

    Primrose continued on. ¡°Composite types are simply one example of using multiple mana types together. There are other styles of techniques that can combine them together in unique ways or use them separately but allow them to interact in a clever way.¡± Primrose shook her head. ¡°I tell you this now to get you thinking. Much like the many unique ways you saw to use pure mana this morning, your combat style can be drastically changed by the use of different techniques.¡±

    Myles found himself nodding. It was obvious that he would need to hit the library at some point to research various possible combinations. He was getting excited. Almost everything he learned here could also potentially relate to studies into aether engineering.

    Primrose looked toward Reah for something. Reah gave her a brief nod. It seemed they had planned something out beforehand.

    ¡°Techniques are something that I want you all to consider, but in all likelihood, they will be the last of the structures you create. This month, I want each of you to focus on creating two new aether wells. One of them will be of a type that you choose.¡± Primrose put up a hand. ¡°I recommend doing some research into a variety of mana types, not just the basic types that we covered last month.¡±

    Myles and the others all nodded, already thinking about what type of mana they would choose.

    ¡°I give you this choice since historically, arcaners perform better when they are able to use mana types that are more natural to them. I hope you will each do thorough research, considering how the mana could be used to create techniques in the future.¡±

    Reah started walking towards the front of the room where Primrose was.

    ¡°The second type of mana you will be creating an aether well for is predetermined for a reason. Can you tell me how many people are in this room right now, Kate?¡±

    Kate looked around, confused by the question. ¡°Eight.¡±

    Primrose shook her head. ¡°How many people are in this room, Reah?¡±

    ¡°Nine.¡±

    Myles looked around, taken aback. No matter how he looked at it there were only eight people. The six students, himself included, Reah, and Primrose. There was nobody else¡­visible. Myles realized his own mistake as soon as he thought about it.

    ¡°Hello.¡± A young man suddenly appeared right next to Kate, giving her a serious fright. ¡°My name is Dresden.¡±

    Myles had heard Dresden¡¯s name mentioned before. He was supposedly Reah¡¯s equivalent for the other squad, watching them on their missions and reporting back with their scores.

    Primrose shook her head. ¡°Your normal senses cannot always be trusted. A commonly known technique of light mana can easily render an opponent invisible. Even without light mana, your senses may let you down. There are countless ways in which an arcaner or a monster can fool your senses. If you rely only on your existing senses, you are effectively blind.¡±

    Myles could see where this was going. In Hydrabridge, they had been given trouble by one particular type of mana that had allowed soldiers to sense them. It very well could have caused them even more serious problems if not for Paulo helping them escape.

    ¡°Wind mana.¡± The whisper came out of more than one of the students¡¯ lips.

    ¡°Correct.¡± Primrose said. ¡°Wind mana is an invaluable tool for any self-respecting arcaner. Its properties allow for enhanced senses. The mana cost per square foot of evoked wind mana is far less than any other type of mana. This unique quality allows for a form of sight¡ªor more appropriately feel¡ªby becoming attuned to each particle of wind mana, reacting to anything that it bumps into or is destroyed by.¡±

    Reah stepped forward. ¡°Many arcaner¡¯s make the mistake of believing wind mana is a simple skill. It is not. A talented enough arcaner can use it to fight in absolute darkness. An even more capable arcaner can use their own wind mana to push another¡¯s away, sneaking up on them even through the thickest cloud of wind mana.¡±

    Primrose nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve asked for both Reah and Dresden to help me instruct you on its use. They are both experts who will push you until you are at no disadvantage when fighting in pitch blackness. They will push you until even they struggle to sneak up on you. Anything short of that is unacceptable.¡±

    Myles took a breath. He was starting to feel overwhelmed, his list of things that needed to be done seemed to be growing by the minute. Creating two new aether wells would require hours of delving not to even mention the time he would need to spend in the library, or the time needed to try to master wind mana. On top of all that, he needed to prepare aether constructs for the next mission.

    ¡°You may head out early today.¡± Primrose held their gazes for one more second. ¡°Tomorrow, we will start learning the next four steps in the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist.¡±

    Myles barely resisted shooting Primrose a dirty look. Their schedule was starting to feel impossible. He suspected that sleep was going to become a distant memory for him. He sighed. In Verrith, he had been able to get plenty of sleep. He missed those days, but he was also eager to get stronger. As he was now, Myles couldn¡¯t even help his friend knowing that they were being targeted. Right now, he was just in the way. That needed to change.

    The group raced out of the room. It would be a quick lunch today. Myles could see the fires in his companion¡¯s eyes. Jane in particular no longer held a mask of regret. More than anyone else, Jane¡¯s eyes were blazing with determination. Determination to get stronger.

 Chapter 57

    Chapter 57

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Having been released from Primrose¡¯s class earlier than expected, Myles was able to buy himself a full hour of free time with a quick lunch. Of course, even with being given free time, Myles had no interest in taking it. There was too much to look into. Myles quickly made his way to the library, finding a book on mana types.

    Primrose had told them that they would each be able to make their own choice of mana for one of their new aether wells. Myles had every intention to make the most of it. Not only would access to a new type of mana give Myles more combat choices, but it would also give him more options for aether engineering. In fact, the group of six had already committed to each choosing a different type of mana for this very reason.

    With Myles and Jane leading by creating designs, and the whole group ready to use their own mana to infuse constructs, the group had the ability to bolster their abilities by a significant margin. The biggest question that remained was what mana types everyone would choose.

    Myles opened up his book. It was a basic encyclopedia of mana types with an in-depth guide to common techniques and such. Myles had felt that it would be a good place to start.

    ¡°Hey there.¡±

    Myles looked up, surprised to hear someone speaking in the library. The librarian was known to be ill-tempered and watchful. Most of the students who had been bold enough to speak up around her had been quickly remedied of that fault.

    Dresden was no student though. The librarian flew out of her seat fast enough to send her chair slamming into the ground, but Dresden just gave her a charming smile that seemed to deflate her anger. The librarian gave a little grumble, bent down to throw her chair back into place, and sat down with a huff.

    Dresden pulled up a chair beside Myles, giving him a friendly pat on the back. ¡°Lee Muneric¡¯s Encyclopedia?¡±

    Myles nodded, briefly glancing down at his book to confirm the author¡¯s name. He hadn¡¯t even considered who had written the book. After all, he wasn¡¯t exactly likely to know who any of the writers were.

    ¡°Muneric¡¯s one of the capital¡¯s noble families.¡± Dresden explained. ¡°You won¡¯t have much luck looking through there. Most of what you¡¯ll find is what¡¯s supplied to your average soldier. None of the information is wrong per se, but there are certainly some things left out.¡±

    Myles found himself listening intently. Dresden had a particular charisma about him that made him easy to listen to, easy to trust.

    ¡°Personally, I¡¯d suggest looking into a book titled ¡®The Alrence Society Research Collection¡¯ its old and somewhat dense, being made up of mostly unedited research notes, but its much more expansive. You¡¯ll find more than just everyday knowledge there.¡±

    Myles nodded slowly. ¡°I appreciate the suggestion, but who exactly were the Alrence Society?¡±

    Dresden winced slightly. ¡°To tell you the truth, it was actually a group of rogue arcaner¡¯s who hid themselves away, most of them were pretty bad people. They spent half a century running tests, trying to find out every secret they could. Eventually, the Church of Deprios caught up with them, used their paladins to wipe the society off the map. You won¡¯t find much left of them, but the church saved their notes at least, compiling their knowledge.¡±

    Myles couldn¡¯t help but feel nervous about that. The church had wiped this group off the map. That had to mean they had done something truly deplorable. The church almost always avoided conflict. Myles had only heard of a handful of instances where paladins had actually been involved in combat. It was the army that took care of bandits and the like. ¡°Is it safe to rely on that stuff?¡±

    Dresden laughed. ¡°I should think so. I started off by looking at those notes. It helped push me further than any of my peers. Of course, most of them didn¡¯t have access to materials like that, but that¡¯s just how the world works.¡±

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    Myles nodded uncertainly. ¡°Ok. I guess I¡¯ll give it a look.¡±

    Dresden smiled. ¡°Keep up the good work, kid. You¡¯ll go far if you keep going at your current pace. If you ever need anything, I¡¯ve got your back.¡±

    It was odd. Myles had only met the man a few hours ago, but his couldn¡¯t shake the feeling he had heard his voice somewhere before.¡±

    Myles eventually set his encyclopedia aside and searched the shelf for what Dresden had recommended. It was quite the search. The academy had several copies of most of the encyclopedias on mana types and techniques. Myles only found one copy of the research note collection he was looking for though. It was an old book, spined with aged leather. The pages inside felt frail to the touch, but the ink was still clear enough to read.

    Myles brought it to his table, slowly opening it up. He found the title to be more accurate than he had anticipated. There was no introduction or even an index to help him find things. The entire book was just a collection of research notes.

    A general compilation of common findings among the energy mana class

    The energy mana class, classified herein as being subtypes of the basic energy mana type or subtypes at least stemming from the energy mana type, have proven to have some common qualities or characteristics. The below is a short summary on some of the more compelling of the aforementioned.

    It has long been postulated that the evocation of mana types in the energy class have a defining characteristic of initial velocity. While tests with some mana types such as fire mana and light mana have supported the theory that evoked mana from the energy class will naturally move in a fixed direction, other mana types within the energy class do not share this property. There has been some success in further dividing mana types of the energy class into categories of velocious and avelocious, terms that have seen greater use in the years leading up to this compilation.

    Myles stopped reading to palm his temple. On a first read, he had been able to pick out very little of what was being discussed. Myles remembered that Dresden had warned him it was dense. It seemed he hadn¡¯t been joking.

    Myles finished reading the passage, rereading carefully until he was certain that he understood what he had read.

    He could easily tell that the passage related to general characteristics of energy mana and its subtypes. That was why he had chosen to start here in the first place. He was most interested in the energy mana type. Fire mana in particular was a strong option. It had proven effective in combat, and Myles would also be able to use it for forging aether constructs without the use of an aether forge. It would be an invaluable resource for building new constructs while away from the academy.

    There were a few things from the passage that stood out to Myles. The first of these points was that several subtypes of energy mana behaved in a wildly different fashion from how he was used to his pure mana behaving. Frustratingly, he learned that fire mana would naturally move in a straight line away from the person who had evoked it. That destroyed his idea of using it as a mobile aether forge. It was mentioned that alteration, seemingly one of the other lower connections, could be used to keep the mana in place. That sounded like it would take up quite a bit of Myles¡¯ focus to do, and he hadn¡¯t even delved deep enough to allow for alteration of pure mana. It would take quite some time before he was able to use alteration with fire mana, leading him to scrap his plans of choosing that type.

    Myles learned a handful of other interesting tidbits too. Energy mana and its subtypes had a tendency to be very mana dense, meaning that they were sort of the opposite of wind mana which took very little mana to evoke over a large area. The upside of that was that most energy subtypes were very destructive. Fire was the example that had been given there. Apparently, it was one of the most efficient mana types for destroying pure mana.

    Myles found that he was learning quite a lot despite how obtuse the notes felt. Myles wasn¡¯t left with much time after reading the overview of energy mana. He had read through the entire thing despite not understanding all of it.

    The information they had given on commutation of energy mana was especially confusing to Myles. He simply had a hard time understanding what practical use it would have. Myles wasn¡¯t especially keen on commuting fire mana through his body for example. That sounded like a fairly terrible, likely painful idea. There was some discussion of layering pure and energy mana through commutation, but it just sounded like nonsense to Myles.

    Myles found himself alternating between the encyclopedia he had initially grabbed and the collection of notes. This allowed him to quickly skim through and understand some of the basics for quite a few subtypes of energy mana. The notes took longer to get through, but there were some important details in them that the encyclopedia left out. There was also some information in the notes on mana types the encyclopedia completely lacked.

    In the time he had, Myles made note of a handful of mana types that he found especially interesting for further consideration. Light mana topped the list. Dresden¡¯s performance from that morning was still seared into Myles¡¯ mind. Apparently, invisibility was a more advanced technique, so, Myles wouldn¡¯t be able to use it right away, but it seemed to be very useful when paired with wind mana which he would be learning anyway.

    Some of the other types he took an interest in were sound mana and lightning mana. Sound mana sounded pretty terrifying in a way. Since most people didn¡¯t cover their ears with their commuted armor so they didn¡¯t lose their sense of hearing, sound mana was often unguarded against. An arcaner who made use of it could potentially send a whole group of enemy arcaner¡¯s to the ground, eardrums bleeding.

    Lightning mana was one of the types that wasn¡¯t mentioned in the encyclopedia at all. Myles had been hopeful that the omission had been intentional, a case of nobles trying to keep one of the better mana types for themselves. He had been disappointed to realize that they probably hadn¡¯t included it because it was mostly just an inferior version of fire mana. Lightning mana was much more mana dense than fire mana, but its destructive ability wasn¡¯t correspondingly higher. Still, Myles found himself attached to the idea of throwing around lightning bolts. He hadn¡¯t made it through all the notes on that type yet either.

    Myles had become so engrossed in the search for the perfect mana type that he probably would have missed his aether engineering class if Jane hadn¡¯t also come to the library. As it was, Myles found himself yanked away from his table.

    Myles put both of his books back onto the shelves. The books were far too valuable for the academy to let students take them out.

    As they made their way to aether engineering, Myles found himself using Jane as a sounding board, theorizing how they could use different mana types in different constructs. Jane threw in at least as many good ideas as he did. The process got them more and more excited. By the time they reached their aether forge, they were discussing what different composite mana types would do and ways they could force them to combine within a construct.

    Their ambitious conversation turned out to be a terrible mistake though. As it turned out, Professor Hazel was always keeping an ear out for ambition.

 Chapter 58

    Chapter 58

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    ¡°I don¡¯t see how a construct with a composite of fire and earth would be useful though. I read that Fire mana is really mana dense. Its best used as an offensive weapon.¡±

    Jane shook her head in exasperation, moving her hands around to emphasize her points, trying her best to get Myles to understand her vision. ¡°That¡¯s exactly why it would work so well. You would be forced to dodge the fire, then when it solidified, you would be trapped. We could set them on a delay¡­¡±

    Myles sighed. They had been debating the best way to create an aether construct with the composite mana types that Primrose had mentioned that morning. They had started the moment they stepped out of the library, and now they were still talking about it beside their aether forge.

    It was frustrating. Jane was adamant that composite mana was the way to go, but Myles didn¡¯t see the benefit, at least not with fire and earth. ¡°It would be far more useful to look into other composite types.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Professor Hazel was standing over their station, arms crossed behind his back. The man was like a walking dictionary for aether engineering. Myles wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he could spout off more information than was in the aether index, the huge book they had been given at the start of the year.

    ¡°We were just discussing composite mana types.¡±

    The look that suddenly entered Professor Hazel¡¯s eyes made Myles regret what he had said. ¡°Fascinating. Aether constructs with composite types are generally more useful on a smaller scale.¡± The professor looked them over. ¡°It¡¯s an advanced topic, but I can see the passion in your eyes. Alright I¡¯d like you to work out a prototype.¡±

    Myles felt himself deflating. For the most part, Professor Hazel was content to run his classes like a workshop, thinking it was fastest for his students to learn by doing. Typically, he would make rounds, giving each group pointers to keep them learning. When he grew interested in something though, he would occasionally give a group an actual assignment.

    Myles had seen what these assignments were like. Last month, the pair working next to them had been given an assignment. They had been pestered almost constantly by the Professor and driven to work on the project for long hours. They had worked even more hours than he and Jane had last month, and they had been building the fireball spear constructs.

    Jane gave her brightest smile. ¡°We only just heard about it in passing this morning. We only know of the composite of earth and fire mana.¡±

    The smile had no effect. Professor Hazel wasn¡¯t deterred in the slightest. ¡°Ah. That can be a useful combination in a construct.¡±

    Myles felt Jane prod him with her elbow. Glancing over, he saw her give him a victorious smile, her point from earlier vindicated. He ignored her.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe that its all that effective without the proper support though.¡± Professor Hazel frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think you have the knowledge to create a useful construct with that composite yet.¡±

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    Myles gave Jane an elbow of his own, accompanied by what Myles was confident was a perfectly innocent smile, no gloating involved at all. Jane gave him a slight glare.

    ¡°Ah!¡± Professor Hazel snapped his fingers. ¡°I think I have the perfect composite. It should be more beginner friendly, and the right construct could help you out quite a bit on your next mission I should think.¡±

    Myles felt his curiosity rising. There was another composite that would be easier for them to make a construct with?

    ¡°A composite of sound and ice mana will do the trick I think.¡±

    Myles considered it. How would those two mana types work together.

    ¡°Sound mana is exceptionally useful for constructs intended to distract or stun enemies.¡± Professor Hazel smiled slightly, probably remembering some construct he had designed before. ¡°It takes an exceptional amount of mana to deal any real damage to an enemy though. That¡¯s why composites are so useful with sound mana. You see, when sound mana is evoked, it has a tendency to expand outwards rapidly. That makes ice one of my personal favorite types to work with for a sound composite.¡±

    Myles was starting to get a picture in his head. He remembered how Primrose had made them try to shock each other into losing focus and dropping their commuted armor. A sound mana construct could achieve the same effect, probably far better than any of the surprises they had come up with. Sound mana drops the enemy¡¯s commuted armor, explodes outwards, then loses energy, transforming into the more stable part of the composite, ice. Without commuted armor, ice would coat them, trapping them in place.

    Professor Hazel walked over to their copy of the aether index, flipping to a section towards the middle of the book. It was a point that was noticeably further than anything Myles and Jane had looked at before.

    ¡°Please see me at the end of the day. I¡¯d like to see what design you come up with.¡±

    Myles and Jane pored over the new section of the index. Everything there was more intricate than they had imagined. The runes had more lines running off them and required more mana to power than anything they had seen before. From what Myles could tell, they would need to carefully time the arrival of the two types of mana and the quantity they arrived in. The book described how different ratios of the mana types would interact differently, producing a mana that would lean toward one type or the other.

    If they added three units of sound mana for every one unit of ice mana, the resulting burst in sound would be too great, expanding farther than they wanted before turning to ice. The ice, too spread out would be ineffective for restraining the target.

    Myles frowned. He had been anticipating them using some kind of projectile as the body of the construct. That seemed difficult though. The burst of sound would need to be small, likely not reaching even a full body in size. It would also need to reach the ear of whoever or whatever they were fighting. It seemed too much to ask for him or his other dormmates to suddenly gain enough skill with whatever projectile they created to hit the exact right spot potentially in the midst of combat. No, a projectile wouldn¡¯t work for this.

    ¡°We could create it as a form of trap.¡± Jane mused, seeing the same problems Myles had.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. We would need to secure the construct at height off the ground. Triggering it would also be a problem.¡±

    Triggering a construct to activate was almost always a crucial problem. Here, it was looking to be even more challenging than usual. Not only did they need the construct to be in a practical vessel, but they also needed to match the timing of when the mana combined.

    Myles considered trying to make the construct into a spear again. The range the spear offered gave certain advantages for the type of mana they were using. A user could move the spear into position with more accuracy than a projectile. It would also allow the user to have some distance, preventing the burst of sound mana from reaching the construct¡¯s user. There was a glaring problem though. Timing.

    According to the aether index, they would need to guide mana into the rune used to combine the two mana types, this was most efficiently done by using two different metals. In theory, a single metal could be used, but in order to get the right ratio of composite for their attack, they would need to bring more ice mana into the rune than sound mana. This could theoretically be done by using containment runes to limit the flow of sound mana. The problem was one of efficiency. As more mana is added to a small area, it becomes more costly to push mana into the space. The base power needed to activate a rune remains in the metal, meaning the more runes on a construct, the less efficient its mana use.

    A spear is effectively one metal slab. The runes would need to be focused on the point of the spear to reduce the time between triggering the construct and when the attack is actually made. After all, in a fight, a spear that you had to prime several seconds in advance would do little good. If you weren¡¯t able to land an attack at the exact time, everything would be lost.

    ¡°Do you think we could store the mana after we combine it into a composite?¡±

    Jane shook her head, pointing to a section that Myles had missed. ¡°Look here. Its says that storing composite mana for long will decrease its effectiveness, the sound mana and ice mana will gradually destroy each other, losing mana and corroding the metal itself.¡±

    Myles pursed his lips. This was going to be an interesting challenge.

 Chapter 59

    Chapter 59

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The afternoon felt lazy. Kate had to shake off her drowsiness. It was a common problem she had. Right after lunch, she had a tendency to grow lethargic. Now was not the time for that.

    Monster hunting was a challenging class. Unlike those of her friend¡¯s, the class didn¡¯t always take place behind the walls of the academy. Sure, they often spent entire days listening to Granite, their grizzled former shikari instructor, go over the weaknesses of certain monsters or theories on the best way to avoid danger in the voidlands. Those days were becoming less the norm lately though. Today was definitely not one of those days.

    Kate stood outside the gates of Maston in what they called the safe area. While it was technically part of the voidlands, there was a ring of safety around the city. Apparently, some of the faculty at the academy had taken it upon themselves to clear an area of monsters, not allowing anything to approach the town. Occasionally, the odd ogren would wander into the area, but at the very least, monsters weren¡¯t common.

    ¡°Listen up all you brats!¡± Granite gathered their attention. He was a huge man with a rough beard and plenty of scars to speak of. Apparently, he was once an accomplished shikari. Kate had no idea if Granite was his real name or just a nickname he had picked up along the way, but it fit him well. The man was tough as stone, stubborn as well.

    Granite swung his finger around the group of gathered students. ¡°I¡¯ve looked over the reports on your missions and I have to say I wasn¡¯t impressed. Not recognizing common monsters, not knowing how to fight them, even getting surrounded by packs of the beasts. Have you no shame!¡±

    Kate lowered her head. She thought she had done a reasonable job. She hadn¡¯t recognized the enaira, but she had looked it up after getting back to the academy. It was an uncommon monster, usually not appearing in the province.

    ¡°Recognition, planning, and execution!¡± Granite shouted. ¡°These are the three things you must be able to do. We¡¯ve mostly worked on recognition up to this point, but now I need you to start on the planning and execution side of things. How you fight a monster matters. Knowing its behavior patterns, its natural weapons, and any techniques it may possess is crucial. You there, Terris, how would you handle a pack of ogren?¡±

    The boy who had stood towards the front of the group quietly muttered a response that Kate couldn¡¯t hear.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t hear, but I know you¡¯re wrong because you¡¯re a buffoon!¡±

    Terris flinched back and Kate heard some of the group start to snicker. She couldn¡¯t help but clench her fist. She had been laughed at for most of her life, her ¡®affliction¡¯ turned into a joke. As she had run from her mother¡¯s clinic, screaming in pain, the others had pointed at her laughing. She could still remember the jokes she had heard about her ¡®theatrics¡¯.

    ¡°You think that¡¯s funny! As far as I can tell, you¡¯re all buffoons, inexperienced, ignorant buffoons.¡±

    The group fell silent.

    ¡°I won¡¯t have any of my students staying that way forever though.¡± Granite gave them a confident smirk. ¡°Split into groups of four, now!¡±

    The group scrambled into action, no one wanting to incur Granite¡¯s anger. Kate and Seth immediately gravitated towards each other. They didn¡¯t exactly get along all that well, Seth was just a little too proper for Kate¡¯s liking. He had a habit of keeping his uniform spotless and doing everything by the book. His habits made Kate want to beat him in everything. She didn¡¯t like the idea of someone like Seth who tried to act perfect at all times beating her.

    Despite her misgivings though, Kate wasn¡¯t exactly in any place to spurn his cooperation. As irritating as he was, he knew his stuff. If Kate had a guess, Seth probably would have found a way to read up on the enaira. If he had been there, he would¡¯ve been spouting off trivia throughout the fight. She doubted it would do him any good, but he would know it.

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    The other problem was that Kate hadn¡¯t really socialized with anyone outside of her dormmates. She had never really bothered with people in general before coming here. As far as she could tell, they brought more pain than anything else. At any one time, just about anyone would have at least a few small injuries.

    When Seth reached her, he started scanning the group around them. Kate knew he would be looking for the strongest people around. That was just how Seth worked. He would always take the route with the highest chance of success. Today, Kate had other ideas. She dragged a protesting Seth through the crowd until she found who she was looking for, Terris.

    The boy hadn¡¯t earned himself any friends from being singled out earlier. To begin with, he and his partner who Kate imagined was his dormmate much like Seth was hers weren¡¯t anything special. Among everyone there, she had to say they were probably on the smaller side, not exactly someone you wanted to team up with if you made your decisions logically. ¡°Do you want to work with us? I¡¯m Kate.¡±

    ¡°That would be great.¡± Terris mumbled, holding out his hand. Kate gave it a good shake.

    Seth seethed a little in the corner of Kate¡¯s eye, but he still introduced himself politely enough. As it turned out, Terris¡¯ partner was named Tullis. Kate had noticed they looked similar, but she suddenly realized they weren¡¯t just similar, they were identical.

    ¡°Looks like you¡¯re finally done.¡± Granite strode through the group, seemingly unable to stay still long enough to finish speaking. Heads turned, spinning to track him. ¡°Today we¡¯re going to be hunting down an army of gestouds. I expect each group to return with the core of at least one of the beasts. You¡¯ll be watched by the same people who grade you on your exams. Go!¡±

    Some of the groups raced off, but most chose to take their time. The groups who had raced off were probably thinking of getting to the monsters before the rest had a chance to take them out. To anyone who knew their stuff though, it was a foolhardy idea.

    ¡°Terris, Tullis. Would you mind sharing your capabilities with us?¡±

    The pair nodded eagerly, answering Seth¡¯s question. ¡°We can only use pure mana so far, but we¡¯ve been trained to use these.¡± The pair each pulled out an identical set of short swords. For each of the twins, the weapons were unbalanced in size. The sword they held in their right hand was the larger, boasting a length about equal to one of their forearms, a negligible size considering their small stature. This sword looked to fold in on itself, allowing it to be more mobile. The weapon in their left hand looked to be more dagger than sword, but its thickness likely made it the heavier of the two.

    Kate eyed the weapons with interest. She wasn¡¯t sure how the twins would use them, but at a guess, she would imagine the foldable sword was used for quick slashes or stabs, probably used to wound and weaken. The heavier, smaller blade would be what would do the killing. Its heft looked perfect for cutting through defenses and delivering a brutal blow.

    For their part, Kate and Seth had taken up the fireball construct spears. They had little mana in them at the moment, everyone had been too distracted to contribute much towards recharging them. Still, Kate felt they would have some merit in the fight to come.

    Gestouds were a kind of large frog monster, reaching about the size of a bull. They usually travelled in a group (or army), but upon reaching a body of water, they would split up, each striking out on its own to bury itself at the water¡¯s edge, waiting for someone to come by.

    A gestoud, even just one by itself would be a considerable threat to their group. Its primary methods of attack were from the two organs on its back as well as its massive canines. Kate had found the images of the creature¡¯s to be unsettling at first. As far as she was concerned, frogs, even massive, monstruous frogs had no business growing fangs. Like it or not though, gestouds did have fangs, and they used them to finish off their prey.

    The gestoud¡¯s primary goal was to ambush its prey with the organs on its back. They were a sort of tube that the beast could freely aim, releasing a powerful blast of sound. Stunned from the noise, the gestoud would put its fangs to good use.

    It would be a disastrous twist of fate if they were ambushed by one of the monsters, so the group carefully went over the information on them again, paying special attention to the tracks they left.

    By the time their group headed out, most of the others had already left. The four used the tracks left behind to judge where they could go. Their best bet was somewhere on the water¡¯s edge that was as far away from any others as possible. The last thing they wanted was to come across a gestoud that was already wary from hearing sounds of battle nearby, or the voices of its fellows as they met their ends.

    It took them awhile to find what they were looking for. They were forced to venture about an hour out from Maston before they found tracks. Calling them tracks was generous. Gestoud¡¯s were ambush killers. Their ambush wouldn¡¯t have much effect if there was a clear trail leading up to where they laid in wait. To that end, gestoud¡¯s used their stubby tails to disturb and smooth over any tracks they made.

    This made the effort of tracking difficult. The water¡¯s edge wasn¡¯t some beach like Kate had heard of in whimsical stories. It was a bank of tall grass rooted in soggy, marshy dirt. Tracking here without clear prints was exceedingly difficult. The challenge was made even harder by the group¡¯s inability to communicate.

    They had no idea when they might come across the gestoud, so, they had changed the pattern of their commuted armor, bringing it up and over their ears. The move was critical for protecting themselves from a sudden sonic attack, but it also meant that they couldn¡¯t hear each other speak. They had to rely on gestures when they found the direction the trail continued in.

    By the time they found what they were looking for, the sun was already on its way down. In the dwindling light, they almost missed the slightly upraised mound, Kate having to be pulled back by Tullis.

    Kate was able to tell the difference between the two twins only through the patterns of their injuries. Ever since Reah had started teaching her to manipulate her mana space to minimize the pain that came through to her, Kate had a much easier time identifying the source of that pain.

    In this case, the wins didn¡¯t have any major injuries, but they did have enough for Kate to tell them apart. Terris had a bad bruise on his back that throbbed slightly and slight twinge to his left ankle, probably a sign it was recovering from a bad twist. Tullis had a different set of pain points altogether.

    The group crept up to the mound, moving slowly and relying on their commuted armor to decrease the sound of their approach even further. The plan that they had come up with relied on getting close to the buried gestoud without it noticing.

    Kate breathed a sigh of relief when they all got into position, using gestures to indicate they were ready. Terris had taken on the most dangerous role, creeping into close range of the beast, preparing to strike.

 Chapter 60

    Chapter 60

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Terris was in position over the mound, twin blades in hand. Thanks to the detailed information in their books, they knew exactly how the gestoud would be buried. Kate signaled her readiness and was followed close behind by both Seth and Tullis.

    Terris gathered himself up, leaping onto the top of the mound. Terris¡¯ blade flashed in the remaining sunlight. With a roar of pain, the gestoud revealed itself, blood coming from where Terris had cut through one of its most powerful weapons, the tubelike organs that directed its sound blasts.

    Terris tried to stay on the beast¡¯s back to cut off the other tubelike organ, but the monstrous frog was too strong. Terris was sent skyward, launched by the beast¡¯s strength. Before he even hit the ground, the gestoud had swiveled around. The organ on its back pulsed, launching a sonic attack towards its enemy.

    Kate evoked pure mana around Terris¡¯ head, defending him against the blast. The defense held and a moment later, Terris hit the ground, throwing his weapons to the side to avoid impaling himself.

    Kate pulled out her spear, the same one Myles had used back in Hydrabridge. She moved forward in a charge, but she was too slow. The gestoud launched itself with its powerful legs, soaring over her head. Kate immediately moved into the iron turtle, evoking mana around her ears.

    She was just in time. A wall of sound blasted over her, tearing her pure mana apart. The wall was followed by another, then another. As she started to panic, her pure mana depleting, the gestoud was finally forced away by a fireball blasting into its side.

    Its attention swung to Seth who had used their other spear construct to singe the beast¡¯s hide. It roared its defiance, moving its remaining sound organ to line up a shot. It was too slow though. Tullis had caught up, swiping at it with shorter weapon. The thick dagger cut through easily, destroying the gestoud¡¯s ability to launch sound attacks.

    The gestoud ignored Tullis who hastily moved out of the way as the frog charged towards Seth, fangs ready. Seth managed to snake step to the side, avoiding the charge, but he was struck by the desperate creature at the last minute, launched from a kick delivered through its long hind legs.

    Seth rolled through the mud, grasping at his back. Kate grimaced. He had been commuting quite a lot of pure mana, so she guessed that he would be fine, but he had still been hit hard.

    Kate rushed forward again, activating her spear mid-sprint.  A fireball shot out, hitting the gestoud squarely in the side of the head, its skin drying out as it crackled with flames. It was gone before Kate got close enough to deliver a killing blow with her spear though. Kate growled with frustration. She needed to move faster.

    Tullis was well-positioned and managed to waylay it before it could sink its fangs into the stunned Seth. Tullis dodged its strikes, keeping it at bay with an impressive defense using his two weapons. Terris joined his brother, landing a few shallow strikes to the gestoud¡¯s hind legs.

    The beast tried to turn, but the sudden pain from its hind legs and the ligaments that Terris had torn through kept it from reacting. As Kate closed the distance, Terris clambered on top of its back from behind with a series of agile bounds. It made to swat him, but that just opened it up to an attack from Tullis. He dashed in, sliding through the mud underneath the thing¡¯s neck and slicing up. A fountain of blood came from its neck at the same time Kate finally reached it, plunging her spear deep into the gestoud¡¯s chest. It went still

    After they had checked on Seth who seemed to be mostly ok, just shaken up, they got to work on extracting the monster¡¯s core. It took them more time to do than Kate had hoped. As it turned out, the gestoud¡¯s core was further back than they had realized. By the time Kate managed to pull the core out, night had fallen.

    The group wasn¡¯t concerned about getting the core back to Granite in time. After all, the man they knew was much more interested in the job getting done right than he was in how fast it was done.

    As they made their way back, Kate found herself walking next to Terris. ¡°Hey.¡± She said tentatively.

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    ¡°Hey.¡± Terris replied in a mumble. It seemed that much of what he said came out that way.

    ¡°You did great out there. I was amazed at how you were able to dash up on that thing¡¯s back like that.¡± Kate meant the praise. She was the fastest among her dormmates, but not even she would have been able to pull that off so quickly.

    Terris seemed to get some measure of confidence from Kate¡¯s word, straightening up just a little. When he spoke again, it wasn¡¯t so much a mumble. ¡°Tullis and I have always been quick. I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s why we were scouted for this.¡± Terris gestured around them. ¡°We were given a lot of training though too. From the moment we arrived, we¡¯ve been run through all kinds of obstacle courses. Our combat instructor is determined to make sure we can fight on any terrain. He pushes us crazy hard.¡±

    Kate grinned. ¡°I can relate. We¡¯re constantly¡­¡±

    Kate was interrupted by Tullis. ¡°Look guys. I think someone¡¯s approaching us.¡±

    Kate frowned. It seemed odd that anyone would try to approach them out here. None of the other student¡¯s should have been this far out.  Sure enough though, the figure of a man could be seen in the distance, slowly walking towards them.

    ¡°Everyone, run!¡±

    The shout was Reah¡¯s voice, and she suddenly appeared before them. By the time Kate had deciphered her words it was too late. She felt a sudden sharp distinct, blazing pain, the pain of a neck being snapped. It wasn¡¯t Kate¡¯s neck, but the pain was just as bad. A moment later, Kate fell to her knees, dragged down by a sensation she had only felt once before.

    A cacophony of images poured across Kate¡¯s mind. A woman in the mask of a rabbit, a smiling father, throwing a ball with a twin brother. The memories were being pushed by something, something indescribably horrible. A twisted darkness pushed itself into Kate¡¯s mind, bringing with it a cold that seemed to freeze her into place.

    This was a feeling that Kate knew. The worst feeling, she had ever known, worse than any injury that had come into her mother¡¯s clinic, worse than anything she had felt since. It was all consuming, and it didn¡¯t let her go. She tried to block it off with the techniques Reah had shown her, but it was useless. A wave of darkness tore through her, crashing into her mind, relentlessly scattering the existence of a human, disintegrating it. She didn¡¯t come to until the process had finished, until every last trace of that human was wiped away, obliterated.

    The first thing that Kate saw was Terris. Where right before he had been standing next to her talking, now he was face down in the mud. His neck wasn¡¯t just broken, it was shattered. It hung loosely from his torso, jaggedly curving in the wrong direction.

    Kate couldn¡¯t do anything. All she could do was rock back and forth, holding her knees and shuddering there in the mud. She didn¡¯t have the sense to run or even the sense to look around her. For all she knew, she would feel that horrible sensation again, this time for herself.

    A long time seemed to pass by before Kate felt any change. Eventually, a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. Reah¡¯s voice whispered in her ear calmingly. ¡°Its ok Kate. Its over. You¡¯re safe.¡±

    Kate slowly came to, eventually climbing back to her feet. Her aether well was completely drained. Kate had a vague memory of evoking all of her mana, surrounding herself in a shell, trying to protect herself.

    Reah helped her to her feet. An older man stood by Tullis who was sobbing uncontrollably, unable to look away from his brother¡¯s body. Seth was left to carry Terris as they made their way slowly back to Maston.

    Seth was remarkably gentle, carrying Terris with great care. His face was filled with a complex look of intense rage, sadness, and regret.

    Kate supposed her own expression simply looked dead. She had no emotion to give right now. She felt that she was utterly spent. She didn¡¯t even dare to think. She wanted to avoid the memory of what she had been through.

    ¡­

    Silas was on his way back to the dorm after having dinner with Mercy when he heard a commotion. He listened carefully, gathering that it was coming from the entrance to the academy.

    As part of his training, Silas had been told to pay attention to things like this. Mr. Habe had said that whenever emotions ran high, significant changes happened.

    Myles and Mercy pushed their way through a small crowd to see¡­Kate, Seth, Reah, and a boy that Silas didn¡¯t recognize being steered by an older man, maybe a teacher. In his arms, Seth carried a body.

    Silas felt his heart start beating faster, worry coming over him. ¡°That¡¯s Kate. What¡¯s wrong with her?¡±

    Beside him, Mercy shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    Kate looked horrible. She was shaking too bad to even stand up on her own. Reah was having to half-carry her. Silas made a decision, pushing his way forward to give Kate another shoulder to lean against.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± He whispered into her ear. ¡°Hurt anywhere?¡±

    Kate didn¡¯t respond, just shivering.

    Silas flinched back as a man landed on the pathway having leaped over the gathering crowd. The man had an air of undeniable authority to him coupled with a distinct strength. ¡°Move along!¡± The man shouted, and the crowd dispersed, unwilling to disobey him.

    As the crowd of students walked off, Silas heard a handful of whispers. From them, he gathered the term unbreakable general, and his heart jumped into his throat. The unbreakable general had been the man who had led the province¡¯s armies to victory against impossible odds in the railway war. He was said to be the strongest arcaner in the entire province, a man who had reached the very peak of human strength.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get this taken care of shall we.¡±

    ¡­

    By the time Myles and Jane got back to the dorm, things had settled down. Kate was in her room with Reah who had yet to leave her side. Seth had been waiting for the pair to get back, not wanting to give a full recounting of events more than once.

    Myles felt sick as her heard the story. It was so sudden, so indiscriminate. Some random person had just walked up, killed Terris from a distance and ran away? There was no sense to it.

    Reah walked out of Kate¡¯s room, gesturing for them to call down. ¡°Kate had a hard time of it because of her higher connection. She felt Terris as he was dying.¡±

    Myles closed his eyes. He couldn¡¯t imagine what that might feel like.

    Later that night, Reah pulled Myles and Jane to the side. ¡°I wanted you to know that we figured out who did this.¡±

    Myles paused. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you tell the others then?¡±

    Reah shook her head. ¡°I can¡¯t, or rather they wouldn¡¯t be able to understand.¡±

    Jane took in a choking breath. ¡°The organization?¡±

    Reah nodded. ¡°It was one man in particular, someone who you met.¡±

    Myles had a feeling he knew where this was going. He felt like he could hear that inhuman voice again. He had claimed that he would have killed them. Myles hadn¡¯t realized just how serious the man had been.

    ¡°It was the enforcer, Ivory Force.¡±

 Chapter 61

    Chapter 61

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Maston academy did not stop classes when Terris was killed. Myles found it somewhat callous. Even Kate who had been badly shaken up the night before was made to attend class.

    ¡°We have combat training to prevent deaths.¡± Primrose swung around, eying each of the dormmates with fervor in her eyes. ¡°When you graduate, you will be expected to be able to fight monsters like that. It is what you are being trained for.¡±

    Myles hadn¡¯t seen Reah since the night before. She wasn¡¯t here now. He supposed that might be for the best. They already knew that the organization was after her. After Terris, they probably wanted to keep her in a more secure area.

    ¡°Today we¡¯ll start by introducing the next four steps in the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist. Myles, care to join me?¡±

    Myles moved into the sandpit that Primrose was standing in, quickly throwing off his worries. He would need to be focused.

    ¡°Ready yourself.¡±

    Myles nodded, taking a natural stance. Primrose started out with a palm thrust then moved into a leg sweep. Myles dodged both without too much difficulty. Primrose had executed those same much faster before. Myles dodged a few more moves, each of them seeming to be slower than usual.

    Myles realized he was being baited into attacking. Normally, he would be hesitant to do so, but this was a demonstration. After dodging the next sequence, Myles launched a palm strike of his own. This was clearly what primrose was waiting for. She stepped into his guard, pushing his arm to the side in a flurry of movement. In the next moment, a palm thrust slammed into him.

    ¡°Counters like that are popular in martial arts. They allow you to quickly turn the tables and gain an advantage in battle.¡± Primrose shook her head. ¡°This kind of counter has no place in the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist though. Does anyone know why?¡±

    There was some general shaking of heads.

    ¡°The core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist is a set of steps that each serve a purpose in a variety of situations. How do you suppose that same move would work against a monster.¡±

    ¡°Not well.¡± Myles supplied.

    ¡°Usually not.¡± Primrose agreed. ¡°It may have some utility against certain monsters, but as a rule, it will not work. Instead, we have a different step that takes care of that. Myles come at me again.¡±

    Myles approached quickly, delivering another palm thrust, nearly identical to his first. This time, Primrose reacted differently. She still moved forward, but this time, Myles¡¯ arm wasn¡¯t pushed aside by her arm. Instead, she purposely went to ground, doing a half roll under his guard then throwing herself up, bringing her leg around his neck pulling herself back up while throwing him to the ground.

    Even from the ground, Myles found himself in awe. The move was a fabulous showcase of athleticism, timing, and technique.

    ¡°That is what we call the twister counter. It is the ninth step of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist.¡±

    Myles felt his draw drop. He had no illusions of thinking he could pull that off. One look from Primrose though and Myles knew how serious she was. They would learn to pull it off. They would keep practicing until they could do it.

    ¡°As you saw, counters are very effective, oftentimes allowing one to finish off their opponent instantly if they can predict their movement.¡± Primrose paused. ¡°For students like you who are very predictable, that is an unacceptable weakness.¡±

    Primrose gestured Myles forward again. It was beginning to get a little old. He was starting to feel like a punching bag.

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    ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to be able to pull the twister counter off right away, so you can just rely on the basic counter.¡±

    Myles wasn¡¯t sure he would be able to even pull off the standard counter on his first attempt, but he wasn¡¯t about to throw one of his friends into the fire. Kate and Seth were probably the ones most likely to succeed, but they had enough on their mind. Myles squared himself up, ready to execute.

    Primrose came at him, leading with a palm thrust. Myles stepped in, sweeping his right arm out to push hers away, then attacking with a palm thrust from his left. He was so close; he was almost certain his attack would land. It did not.

    Primrose evoked a tiny amount of pure mana, a small enough amount that Myles would have easily broken through if he had hit it head on. As it was though, the slip of mana was angled such that his elbow ran against it and was guided to the right, barely missing Primrose. In the same movement, she pivoted around him, delivering an elbow to the back of his head.

    Myles¡¯ commuted armor absorbed the blow, but the point was made.

    ¡°The tenth step.¡± Primrose announced. ¡°The slip cutter.¡±

    Myles considered the movement. On first look, it seemed easier to pull off when compared to the twister counter. That was perhaps deceptive though. After all, the mana that would be evoked would need to be placed in an instant. A different attack would mean a different placement of the evoked mana.

    ¡°The eleventh step is similar to the tenth. The difference is in the usage. The tenth step is a defensive technique that requires close proximity. The eleventh step is for use against multiple opponents. Silas come up here, please.¡±

    Silas joined Myles in the sandpit. They exchanged a nervous look. Primrose had never sparred with more than one of them at a time.

    ¡°Come at me.¡±

    The spar took a little longer this time. Myles was used to fighting alongside Silas, so they immediately moved, flanking her. Every time she tried to press the attack, the one being attacked would drop off, letting the other threaten from behind.

    Primrose gave a commentary. ¡°This is good. Attacking from multiple directions at once is the most common and often most troublesome tactic you¡¯ll encounter when facing multiple opponents, be they man or monster. Its also exactly the situation the eleventh step is intended to counter.¡±

    Primrose again charged at Silas. Myles chased her back. Even if she managed to take Silas out in a single strike, Myles would get a free attack in before she could turn around.

    Primrose didn¡¯t take down Silas right away though. Instead, she twisted to the side, pulling her ankle around Silas¡¯ and swinging himself around to his back. The move would have been physically impossible, but Primrose supported her body, keeping it from falling with a small amount of evoked pure mana. In the end, Primrose had fully pivoted around Silas, driving an elbow into him much as she had against Myles. The difference this time was that Myles was there.

    Myles tried to get to Primrose before she could recover, but it proved to be impossible. Silas was standing between Myles and Primrose.

    There was no real explanation needed. They all saw how the step worked. It was an effective way to get out of a bad situation.

    ¡°The twelfth step is perhaps the most effective way to take down an opponent provided a few conditions are met.¡±

    Myles felt a little relief when she had Silas join her for the last demonstration. He was less than keen to continue getting beat up. Primrose had been pulling her punches, so its not like it had physically hurt, but it certainly hadn¡¯t helped Myles¡¯ self-esteem.

    Primrose made the first move, delivering palm thrusts, leg sweeps and even a falling javelin. Silas held his own, keeping his guard up and relying on snake steps where needed. Then it ended. Primrose delivered a swift and brutal kick to the head. If Silas hadn¡¯t been commuting pure mana, he would have been knocked out.

    ¡°When your opponent is conditioned to think you¡¯re going to attack them low, they¡¯ll lower their guard. When they do that, a blow to the head can end a fight in an instant. Of course, if you¡¯re fighting an arcaner you¡¯ll need to combine the kick with some kind of evoked mana to break apart their pure mana.¡±

    After the demonstration, Primrose split them into pairs to practice the twister counter and slip cutter steps. It was slow going and Primrose was forced to reset them almost continuously, describing where they were going wrong and showing them how to correct their mistakes.

    Myles found the twister counter to be at least as difficult as it looked. Even only practicing against one attack, Myles had a hard time getting the timing right. Primrose explained how they could alter the pattern of their commuted armor to increase or decrease the speed of their roll on the fly. Pure mana had the quality of creating less contact with the ground, allowing one to roll faster. On the reverse side, by adding gaps in the commuted armor, it was possible to slow down the roll.

    On the rare occasions when they were able to execute the twister counter with some degree of success, the partner wasn¡¯t able to react in time to perform a counter to that, finding themselves unexpectedly laid out.

    Halfway through combat training, they switched gears to working on the eleventh and twelfth steps. It was here that they had some level of competence, their previous skills and combat experience coming into use here. The use of pure mana as support was similar in many ways to how they used it while snake stepping. Their attempts were still clumsy, but it was a far better start than they had with the other two steps.

    The twelfth step was the simplest in execution, yet it was here that Primrose was harshest, calling out even the slightest of mistakes. Eventually, Myles supposed that they would reach this same stage with other steps, but he had a hard time imagining their skill growing enough for Primrose to not chastise them.

    By the time the end of combat training was called, the group found themselves on their hands and knees, breathing heavily. Every single one of the steps they had been practicing were physically intensive. The twister counter in particular had made Myles¡¯ shoulders burn after the first few attempts. They certainly had their work cut out for them.

    There was a quietness to the group during the break that Myles had rarely seen. The reason why was easy to figure out. The group was far from over the events of the night before. Even Myles had to willfully push it out of his head. The trouble for him was that he had no idea what motive the enforcer could have had for killing a simple student. Terris wasn¡¯t a noble or otherwise from an influential family of any sort. Him and his brother were or had actually been a part of the same curriculum as Myles¡¯ dormmates.

    Myles kept his eye on Kate in particular. The way she had reacted was beyond scary. She had been completely out of it. Even now, there was a deadness to her eyes and Myles didn¡¯t think she had spoken to anyone that morning.

    The quiet, contemplative atmosphere made Myles appreciate the hard pace of their morning session. While they had been training, Myles had partnered with Kate. She had been focused and alive throughout the session.

    All in all, the group was still in shock from the incident, but they were pushing through it.

 Chapter 62

    Chapter 62

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The rest of the first week was a whirlwind of activity. Primrose had them start delving their aether space, creating their first channel with the goal of eventually opening up an aether well for wind mana. The process was slightly different than delving an aether well. For one thing, there was less grinding away at the edge of the aether involved and more just throwing waves of mana against one spot, creating a narrow passageway just under the surface of the aether membrane.

    Myles continued his research into additional mana types. As he took a second look at the notes for lightning mana, he found one unique advantage that might be useful to him. The advantage was only mentioned briefly, and even the notes that Dresden recommended him had minimal studies on lightning mana. Nevertheless, it intrigued Myles. The characteristic for evoked lightning mana to manipulate and sometimes draw in certain kinds of metal was mentioned as an aside more than anything, but Myles couldn¡¯t help but imagine him manipulating constructs remotely with lightning mana.

    Perhaps the reason Myles had grown so attached to the idea of lightning mana had to do with how poorly his and Jane¡¯s work had gone on building out the composite mana construct. They knew how they wanted it to work but finding a viable way to trigger the construct was a huge challenge. They had thrown about various ideas. Almost every type of weapon they knew of had been discussed to some degree, but problems remained.

    The construct had to be triggered well in advance of activation, needed to be kept at a distance from the user¡¯s own eardrums, and needed to have a size and shape allowing for the needed runes and mana capacity.

    Combat training was as brutal as ever. Every morning, the group walked down to the training hall with aching muscles. They made some progress on learning the steps, but the ninth and tenth steps continued to give the entire group trouble. The ninth step simply demanded so much of the user¡¯s body that it was exhausting to practice. The tenth step proved to be a challenge in reflexes and adaptation.

    To make matters worse, Primrose was far from content having them practicing the counters solely on human opponents. She had found a way to simulate monsters too, cobbling together wooden dummies for use. Eventually, after one too many of these dummies broke, a common occurrence considering how often the dummies rammed home, Primrose gave up on them. That didn¡¯t bode well for the dormmates though. The next day, they found the dummies replaced by statues of different monsters, each made up by evoked earth mana and directly manipulated by Primrose herself. At times, it felt as though Primrose had a little too much fun with her new creations.

    Throughout the week, there remained a depressing cloud over the group. Terris¡¯ death was still fresh in their mind, especially so when they discovered that Tullis and the other members of their platoon stayed in the same building.

    It was out of respect that Myles and the other members of his platoon all cleared their schedules to attend Terris¡¯ funeral at the end of the week.

    When the ceremony came, it was an overcast evening. Sister Liza stepped out of the church, helping to carry the casket. Traditionally, it was the deceased closest family who would carry the casket out, but exceptions had to be made. Tullis was the only family who could make it. Their parents were both alive, but even if they had been able to make it in time, the journey was simply too dangerous. The last thing anyone wanted was for Tullis to lose the rest of his family in their attempt to cross the voidlands.

    Myles was reminded of his mother¡¯s funeral. Back then, Father Oswald had helped carry out the casket. Myles had been distraught at the time, his entire family gone. The community had come together then, providing them their support. It was only thanks to them that Myles had managed to move on.

    Here, the turnout was fairly low. With their busy schedules, not that many students had gotten to know Terris. Still, those who had made a point of showing up.

    The paladin Myles and Jane had followed was the one to perform the ceremony. He was technically the highest-ranking church official present in Maston, but it still felt off putting. The man did his duties well, so, there was little room to complain, but from someone who presumably had some connection to the murderer, the quality of the ceremony hadn¡¯t felt like the biggest issue.

    Jane held Myles back when the ceremony, whispering in his ear. ¡°Let it go. No good will come from confronting him. We¡¯re here to show support anyways.¡±

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    Myles took a deep, calming breath. He knew Jane was right. It was best not to get involved with the paladin. He was much deeper into the organization than they were. Primrose¡¯s deduction that the man had led him and Jane to the meeting seemed to make a bit of sense as well. It was hard to imagine the paladin not using wind mana the entire time they had tailed him. The stories Myles had grown up with made paladins out to be exceptionally powerful arcaners. Of course, in the stories, those paladins were always highly honorable, saving children and fighting off evil. They didn¡¯t seem to meld well with a man who may have intentionally led a pair of students into a shady group whose members murdered for seemingly no reason.

    Reah was present at the funeral as well. It was the first time that Myles had seen her since the night she had told him and Jane what had happened. Throughout the ceremony, her face was a storm of emotion. Myles couldn¡¯t help but detect more than a little anger in the mix.

    Unable to go after the paladin and not sure what he could say to Tullis or his platoon, Myles walked over to Reah. He felt it odd that she had chosen to stand by herself. ¡°How are you doing, Reah?¡±

    ¡°How do you think?¡± She snapped.

    Myles was knocked off guard. He had never seen Reah react so strongly, so short-tempered.

    ¡°Sorry.¡± Reah backpedaled, looking towards the ground in instant regret. ¡°I¡¯ve just been feeling on edge lately. I don¡¯t quite feel like myself.¡±

    ¡°You know, if you want to talk, I¡¯m more than willing to listen. Just let me know. I¡¯m sure Kate and Silas would both be happy to help out as well, Jane too.¡±

    Reah nodded. Myles noticed dark patches under her eyes. At a glance, she still wore her bandage too. It looked to be bleeding through somewhat. Myles suddenly thought back to what Sister Liza had said. She had talked about how Reah was always patrolling around the town, killing monsters that got too close.

    ¡°You¡¯re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?¡±

    Reah gave him a weird look. ¡°What are you worried about me or something?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­yes¡±

    Reah shook her head, seeming momentarily confused. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about me.¡± She gave a bright smile before she remembered where she was. ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with far worse than this.¡±

    When Myles returned to the dorm, he borrowed Rufus¡¯ book from Silas again. He wanted to check for more entries on organization members. He found them, and he was surprised by just how many he found. There were dozens of entries for criminals associated with the organization. In fact, almost half the book was filled with these. Myles still couldn¡¯t see how he had missed so much.

    Most of the organization members were weaker than the Ivory Force, but two entries at the very front of the book made Myles raise his eyebrows in alarm.

    Identity: Unknown (Enforcer No. 3 of the organization) most commonly referred to simply as three

    Individual Threat Level: (at least) 6

    Abilities:

    Enforcer no. 3 of the organization should be considered to be one of if not the greatest threat to the province. Records exist of small nations being overcome by this individual¡¯s manipulative efforts. Little is known about the abilities of Enforcer 3, but that is largely irrelevant due to the scale of power estimated by authorities in the Perralin empire. At a rating of at least 6, this individual has gone beyond the normal human limits of strength that can be acquired by an arcaner.

    History and Crimes:

    Any list of crimes that could be drafted would likely be woefully insufficient. As a single digit enforcer of the organization, three is active on an international scale. Much of the pain caused by the organization throughout the world can and should be attributed to three¡¯s orders. In regard to the Rord province, three has only recently been suspected of involvement. These suspicions largely come from a small number of attacks perpetrated by strange monsters bearing the number three somewhere on their body. As of yet, these attacks seem to have no cohesive purpose. No concrete evidence exists that three is moving against the province.

    Conclusion:

    If three were to mount an attack on the province, the entire provincial army should be mobilized. In such an eventuality, ambassadors will be sent to the nearby provinces as well as the Perralin empire for aid in the conflict. Victory would not be assured without aid. By a traditional rule of thumb, those who have reached a level of power beyond the limits of humanity can usually be matched with a large force of powerful arcaners. This is one of the reasons why the province maintains a large standing army.

    Identity: Laurence (Enforcer No. 7 of the organization)

    Individual Threat Level: (at least) 6

    Abilities:

    Laurence is a comparably well-known quantity when compared to other single digit enforcers. Laurence has staggeringly powerful attacks rooted in fire mana. Attacks made have been known to cover miles of terrain, creating ashen plains in an instant. It is also thought that Laurence lived for several centuries, implying that he has found some means of extending his life, a wholly foreign concept to traditional knowledge of aether space usage.

    History and Crimes:

    To describe Laurence as a criminal would perhaps be an injustice. To many, the man is known to be a defender of humanity. He is one of only a handful of individuals who have been known to engage monsters on the scale of dragons or hydras, steering such beasts away from the most populated of areas. While Laurence has been known to burn down large areas of foliage, in most cases, reports have indicated that these areas were infested with disease-ridden plants. After burning down such areas, plants inexplicably seem to regrow, eventually flourishing more than ever before. Some speculate this is some supernatural quality of Laurence¡¯s fire mana. For all Laurence¡¯s qualities, he is part of the organization and as such bears some degree of responsibility for many of the large-scale disasters caused by the group. It should be noted that surveillance reveals that many run-of-the-mill members of the organization view Laurence¡¯s orders with disdain, believing that his ideals and views have had little success in their implementation.

    Conclusion:

    It is unlikely that Laurence will mount an attack on the province. Certainly, he has not made any such attack before. That said, there are rumors that Laurence may have originally been born in the area near the Rord province. The rumors come from Laurence occasionally openly wandering around the province¡¯s voidlands or at times attending public events. Due to the ¡®curse¡¯ of the organization, this has not caused mass panic. That said, if you see Laurence within the province avoid confrontation or offensive comments at all costs. In the unexpected event of an attack on the province, standard protocol for a large-scale attack should be followed.

    Myles found that he was less alarmed than he thought he might be. From the sound of it, the two single digit enforcers operated on a worldwide scale. The odds of them becoming involved in Rord was about as high as a dragon suddenly attacking. It wasn¡¯t impossible, but it seemed unlikely. Besides, Myles had no trouble putting them out of his mind. After all, in a morbid way, if they did attack, there wasn¡¯t much Myles could do to change anything.

    The thought of a man of almost mythical power just walking around the province was certainly an interesting thought. Myles got the sudden desire to meet the man if he got a chance.

 Chapter 63

    Chapter 63

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles scratched out yet another half-complete design with his quill. The page was covered with similar drawings, each abandoned. A full week of having his best plans torn in half had made Myles very critical. The problem today, Myles knew, was the ideas were just rehashes of what had come before.

    Jane peered over his shoulder, fingers playing across her chin. ¡°Versatility.¡± Jane scanned the room, looking for some inspiration. ¡°Versatility.¡±

    The word sent a nasty shudder down Myles¡¯ spine. It was Professor Hazel¡¯s favorite criticism, and it was frustratingly vague. They had made designs focused on being more accessible, constructs that could be used by anybody in any situation. Those had been torn to shreds faster than anything else.

    Myles absent-mindedly stroked the end of his feathered quill, dropping his commuted mana just around his fingertips. It was good practice for improving control, but it was really more of a bad habit, something he couldn¡¯t resist whenever he had a quill in hand.

    It didn¡¯t make sense to Myles. Why did they need versatility. The only ones who needed to use the construct were them. Shouldn¡¯t they design something to suit their needs, not something that anyone could use?

    ¡°You¡¯re going to damage it again.¡± Jane warned with a concentrated frown, nodding towards two quills on the desk that had suffered damage to their feathers. They still worked, the feather was just decoration, useless for writing. Still though, the ones without the feather felt slightly off somehow, their balance changed.

    Myles paused. That was it! The feathers of a quill were pruned just right for balance. They weren¡¯t useless. They weren¡¯t actively helping with writing, but they were still doing something. Myles had thought the professor had meant their construct needed to be usable by anyone, but that wasn¡¯t what he meant by versatile. He was telling them they could make something that was more, something with feathers of its own. A construct that could do more than evoke composite mana. ¡°Jane!¡±

    Myles explained his line of thinking, and a smile pierced through, the concentrated frown vanishing before his eyes. She took the chair beside Myles, grabbing the paper he had been using earlier. She started to draw.

    Myles looked over the sketch. She was scratching what looked like a disc into the paper. Next came a line that cut across the inside, a handle Myles realized.

    Jane started talking, her back still bent over the design. ¡°If we find a way to rotate the handle, we can adjust the flow of mana meaning¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­we can switch functions on the fly.¡± Myles finished the thought, his mind already moving rapidly. With a concept like this, they could put multiple functions into one weapon, each making the others more dangerous. ¡°We¡¯ll need to design the containment runes for the handle first. What metal should we even use for this?¡±

    ¡°Basium. If we were just storing mana, we could use densite, but I want it to move quickly too. Basium is a good balance.¡±

    Myles nodded, accepting the choice. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I want the handle to be bigger.¡± Myles leaned over, adjusting the size in Jane¡¯s diagram. ¡°Basium doesn¡¯t have the highest mana capacity. We need to leave room for more mana.¡±

    After about an hour of back and forth, they settled on a design for the handle. The real challenge was devising a way for it to move around inside the disk. It needed to be able to latch onto certain points, spots where mana could flow from the handle and into the disk. Depending on where it latched onto the disk, a different function would activate.

    They were forced to scrap the idea of single metal handle. Instead, they split the handle into two rods, leaving a bit of space in the middle. A thin outer wood covering would surround, providing form, a brace to keep the handle from falling apart. When the handle was locked into place, the space in the middle, between the rods, could be used to hold a battery construct, providing a means to imbue mana into the rods. With a strong enough squeeze, springs would retract the rods inward, unlocking the handle from the disk, and ejecting the battery.

    Building such a device would be a serious challenge. Myles could already see the hours it would take to bend each of the springs into the right shape. Jane seemed confident she could carve the wood covering, though Myles knew they would need for it to fit perfectly with the other pieces.

    Even after they got all the pieces to work together, the wood and springs would need to be coated in a specially made grease to ensure mana wouldn¡¯t leak into them from the rest of the construct. The grease was the same substance that was used in hope lamps. Myles had brewed it before back in his early days at the job shop. He was glad it was premade here. The ingredients weren¡¯t¡­pleasant.

    Jane leaned over, smiling at the page with satisfaction. ¡°That should do it.¡± She pointed towards the sketch of one of the rods, accidentally bumping Myles in the process. When they first met, she would never have done that. She really had grown more comfortable recently. ¡°We¡¯re using a channel rune to send the mana from the battery construct into the two rods, right?¡±

    It was a rhetorical question. Myles took the hint, pulling their copy of the aether index open to a diagram of the channel rune.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Professor Hazel required all their designs to be very specific. That meant they had to include written versions of each rune tailored to their construct along with the rest of the design.

    The channel rune was made up of three major components. The base rune itself specified the behavior of mana. In this case, movement. A set of nine modifier sub-runes defined a box where the rune would have influence. Finally, a type-specification sub-rune indicated the mana type the rune would affect.

    Since their channel rune was designed to move pure mana from a battery towards the outer end of their handle, the type-specification sub-rune would logically correspond to pure mana. The other modifiers were a little trickier. They each had to be calculated based on where the central-most point of the rune was inscribed into the metal. Channel runes also had a directional element to the area they affected. If you inscribed the rune facing the wrong direction, mana would flow the wrong way. Fortunately, Myles and Jane had already calculated the numbers.

    Each rod was 12 centimeters long, 3.5 centimeters wide, and 3.5 centimeters tall. The channel rune was carved into the top of each rod 2 centimeters from the innermost point, pointed outwards. The channel rune on either rod needed its box of influence to overshoot the rod it sat on by 7.5 centimeters, or half the size of the space between the rods. This was what allowed the handle to pull mana from a battery. A rune¡¯s box of influence could manipulate mana of any material that was directly touching what the rune was inscribed on, so, even though the battery was a separate piece from the rod, its mana could be moved by the rune. After the mana made its way out of the battery, it would need to travel an additional 4.5 cm through the rod. All of that resulted in a channel rune that Jane wrote carefully into the design.

    As Jane put the finishing touches on the channel rune, Myles was already flipping through the aether index. He knew what came next, the containment rune. When the mana was pulled from the battery and into the rod, they would need a way to catch the mana, hold it at ready near the disk.

    The containment rune would be inscribed into the top of the rod 2 centimeters away from the outer end. Essentially, the rune¡¯s box of influence would start where the channel rune¡¯s ended. It would then go on to cover the remainder of the rod. Even as Myles found the right page, Jane was already referencing it. Before long, another carefully drawn rune was added to their design.

    With one final flick of her wrist, Jane finished the containment rune. ¡°Now for the fun part.¡±

    Myles grinned eagerly. ¡°We already know we¡¯ll be evoking a composite of sound and ice mana as a stunner of sorts. That gives us three more functions to decide.¡±

    ¡°Three more? How do you figure that?¡±

    Myles snatched the quill from Jane¡¯s grasp with a flourish that was¡­completely necessary. With a few quick lines, Myles drew eight symmetric prongs around the outside of the disk. Nothing said aether engineering like a classic gear. Gears were present in all of the greatest designs. All of those days spent looking through the small handful of articles about new aether constructs, Myles had been marveling, imagining designing his own constructs.; gears were truly¡­

    ¡°Oh, I get it. A shuriken! That works perfectly.¡±

    Against his will, something had snapped in Myles¡¯ mind. He could no longer see the construct as a gear. Myles turned a pair of dead eyes towards Jane. Never mind that shuriken¡¯s classically had four blades not eight, never mind that this construct would be far bigger than any shuriken, never mind other reasonable logic. The construct was a weapon. It wasn¡¯t a gear. It was a shuriken.

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Jane stared at Myles, her grey eyes failing to comprehend the vision she had just shattered, ¡°¡­are you alright?¡±

    Myles shook his head, firmly reminding himself that what they called the construct wasn¡¯t important right now. He needed to focus on what it could do. ¡°We can consolidate each function to the spikes.¡±

    Jane tapped Myles¡¯ hand, signaling him to pass the quill back. She carefully traced a line along the disk from the bottommost spike to the topmost. ¡°The mana will come out both ends of the handle. We could just replicate the function on both sides to move mana around the disk, but¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Myles asked. He had been planning on doing exactly that. It was the easiest solution.

    ¡°I¡¯m concerned that the construct wouldn¡¯t be properly balance if we did things that way.¡± The corners of Jane¡¯s mouth gave a brief twitch. ¡°We used to have an axe-throwing competition in my village.¡±

    Myles kept silent. Jane rarely talked about her life before the academy. He had no idea where she was going with this, but he trusted she had a point.

    Jane smiled fondly. ¡°I was never allowed to participate¡ªmy family wasn¡¯t trusted¡­¡±

    ¡°The yellow bands?¡± Myles interrupted.

    Jane nodded. ¡°My parents both had red bands. It scared everyone off. Nobody liked to come near my father¡¯s shop, and we were kept at arms distance.¡± Jane shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s not the point. One year, a passing shikari saw me watching. He told me all about the technique needed.¡± Jane paused for a moment, shaking her head again. ¡°Anyways, when you throw an axe, it rotates because of the way its head is weighted.¡±

    Myles nodded, starting to get the picture. If they attempted to replicate the same function on opposite spikes, it would work, but the resulting construct wouldn¡¯t be very easy to wield.  ¡°What if we make the disk one giant channel? We could make half of each spike out of densite and the other half out of channium. Densite¡¯s heavier than channium, so, that should give us an effect like the head of an axe, right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea.¡± Jane made a note on the diagram. ¡°We¡¯ll need to use a series of interlocking channel runes to make that happen though.¡±

    Myles gave a brief nod, his attention already elsewhere. A moment later, Myles had found what he was looking for. He laid the aether index out once again, patting its page with his hand.

    Jane gave the page some consideration. ¡°Yeah. Using channium for the disk would make sense. It will move mana around quickly, but will it hold up from a physical standpoint? I¡¯ve never worked with anything besides basium before, but I¡¯ve heard channium is a bit weaker.¡±

    Myles waved away the concern. ¡°It might not be able to stand up to someone attacking it, but, it shouldn¡¯t have any problem otherwise.¡±

    Jane shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s still a concern though, right? I could see a monster swatting it out of the air.¡±

    Myles winced. There was no way channium, or even basium for that matter would be able to take an attack from something as powerful as a stormbird. Not to mention whatever else might be out there. ¡°Why don¡¯t we use one of the functions as a sort of commuted armor for the construct?¡±

    Jane nodded. ¡°Think we can make it work similar to the shields we made for the cinderwolves?¡±

    They kept talking for some time about what the other functions should be, but they came to the conclusion that they simply lacked the time and resources to do anything more than the first two functions before the end of the month.

    Right as they were about to start on the design for the stunner function, Myles heard a pointed cough come from behind him. Myles turned to find Professor Hazel already peering intently over his shoulder. ¡°I always love to see dedication from my pupils, but I think working any longer will only harm your productivity tomorrow.¡±

    Myles looked around the hall, suddenly realizing that Jane and he were the only ones left. He hadn¡¯t even noticed how late it had gotten.

    Myles started to get up to leave, but Professor Hazel stopped him with a slight nudge. Although it felt like little more than a nudge, Myles realized he had been commuting armor. Professor Hazel must have used considerable force, otherwise Myles wouldn¡¯t have felt a thing. It just felt slight because the professor had enough control to know exactly how much force to use.

    ¡°Your design today is much more interesting, though I do have one question for you.¡± Professor Hazel held up a hand. ¡°Projectiles have a flaw in that they¡¯re difficult to retrieve in combat. How are you planning on overcoming that?¡±

    They hadn¡¯t discussed that, but an answer came unbidden to Myles¡¯ lips as if on instinct. ¡°A rope.¡±

    Even as he said it, Jane had shouted out a different answer. ¡°We¡¯ll guide it with a loop of pure mana.¡±

    Professor Hazel gave himself a slight grin. ¡°Your platoon is in the process of each choosing a new mana type to delve, correct?¡±

    Myles nodded, feeling a little confused.

    ¡°Come; walk with me.¡± Professor Hazel gestured towards the door. ¡°I would like to discuss your choices. I may have some insight.¡±

 Chapter 64

    Chapter 64

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles woke up with a lot to think about. The shuriken construct was at the forefront of his mind of course¡ªhe couldn¡¯t get it out of his head. What mostly preoccupied Myles though was his conversation with Professor Hazel. The man had made some points about his choice of mana type that had flipped Myles¡¯ conceptions upside down. Now, Myles had a much harder choice to make.

    With all of that in mind, Myles found himself stepping into the training hall well ahead of schedule. He figured he could fit in a good session of delving. So far, Myles had spent the whole month delving out a channel leading from his pure mana well to a converter. Just the other day, he had finished the process. Now when he looked inside himself, Myles could see the faintest of glimmers coming from his new mana well, and it was growing rapidly. By passing the mana from his pure well down the channel and through the converter, he could overflow his wind well, drastically speeding up the process of growing it.

    Myles yanked open the door to the training hall to find something unexpected. Reah was hastily rebandaging her arm, her face contorted in pain. Myles caught a glimpse of the wound. On instinct, he rushed forward to help, but Reah must have been surprised because she quickly yanked her cloak back on, flinging herself away. Myles backed off, trying to give her the space she needed. He had never seen her react like that, but he knew she¡¯d had a tough life. He had probably just caught her off guard.

    Despite his thoughts, after a few moments, Myles began to feel something was off. Reah was continuing to glare at him even after he had backed off. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone.¡± She shot at him, a serpent¡¯s bite in her voice. ¡°You saw nothing.¡± Between her eyes and her voice, Myles found himself taking one more step backwards.

    To be honest, Myles wasn¡¯t sure what he had seen. From the brief glimpse he had got, the wound had looked badly infected. There had been something black seeping under her skin where she had been stabbed. Crimson tendrils had branched around her shoulder towards the neck. He couldn¡¯t have seen that though. Her wound had healed. Even Kate who could sense people¡¯s pain had remarked on how well it had healed.

    ¡°Oh. Hello Myles!¡±

    Myles turned around. He had to admit. He couldn¡¯t remember ever being so happy to see Seth. Unlike Myles, who rarely woke up early, Seth was an early bird. It wasn¡¯t a surprise to see him here.

    Seth gave Myles¡¯ shoulder a squeeze. ¡°Since we¡¯re both here, want to go a quick bout or two?¡±

    Myles wasn¡¯t exactly keen to fight Seth first thing in the morning. He had taken to the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist more naturally than anyone. More than a few of the bumps he had gotten through training had come from Seth.

    Myles gave a glance at Reah who seemed to have recovered. She still wasn¡¯t exactly smiling, but she looked to be closer to her usual self. Seth caught the glance too. ¡°Would you be interested in joining us, Reah?¡±

    Reah nodded eagerly. That was what made Myles drop his worries. There was no way Reah would choose to spar with an injury. Myles must have just been seeing things. It was early after all, and Reah was skilled with light mana. Maybe she had just been practicing?

    By the time the others made their way into the hall, Myles had fought with Seth and Reah three times each. All he had to show for it was a single win over Seth that probably should have been called a draw if Myles was being honest with himself.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    The morning continued to prove strange. Primrose was never late, but today, she was nowhere to be seen. Despite that though, the roommates didn¡¯t waste time. They launched themselves into practicing the new steps of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist.

    There was a lot more intent behind practice nowadays. Even without Primrose looking over their every move, Myles found himself disparaging his own form. Advice came from every direction, and Myles gave as good as he got. The whole group understood just how valuable this time was. When they were sent out for their exams, the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist made the difference between success and failure as well as life and death.

    Primrose didn¡¯t leave them to their own devices for the whole morning though. Eventually, she stumbled into the hall, pulling Dresden along behind her. The way they held themselves reminded Myles of the way some of the older, more established employees at his old job shop had come to work the morning after a festival.

    For the remainder of the morning class, Primrose seemed more subdued than usual. Her regular standards didn¡¯t slip in the slightest, and she had no trouble calling out their mistakes, but she was softer while she was doing it.

    That all changed when it came time for their instruction on the aether space.

    ¡°Everyone gather around.¡± Primrose gave a heavy sigh. ¡°Your exam for this month was decided last night.¡±

    That sent Myles into an immediate panic, he turned towards Silas, eyes wide, hoping he had heard something Myles hadn¡¯t. Unfortunately, Silas looked just as confused. It should still be too early for their exam.

    The group burst with questions. Mercy could be heard over everyone, demanding to know what they were supposed to do. Even Kate who had been quieter than Myles had ever seen her over the past few days was practically bouncing from foot to foot in anxiety.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± Primrose said with another deep sigh and a subtle grab of her head that Dresden mirrored, ¡°I¡¯ll explain if you give me a moment.¡±

    The group backed off, giving Primrose time to take a weighty pause that certainly didn¡¯t help Myles¡¯ nerves. Eventually, Primrose started talking. ¡°There is still some time before the exam, that much has not changed.¡±

    Myles gave a breath of relief. That time would be precious. That time meant more practice, deeper aether wells, and hopefully a finished shuriken construct.

    Primrose continued, seemingly unbothered by the relieved intakes of breath around her. ¡°This exam will be different. You¡¯re not going to be hunting monsters, you¡¯re going to be hunting arcaner¡¯s.¡±

    People. Myles had to pause to think. They had fought against some of the miners back in Hydrabridge, but that had been a fight to escape. This sounded different¡­

    ¡°Specifically, you will be tracking a group of deserters from the provincial army that have recently stooped to banditry.¡±

    Myles felt his stomach settle uncomfortably. The punishment for any serious crime committed by an arcaner was death. It was too dangerous and costly to imprison someone like that. They weren¡¯t being sent to track or apprehend these deserters; they were being sent to kill them.

    Primrose looked each of them in the eye closely, holding her hand next to her heart as she did so. Myles found her gaze pierced deeply. ¡°I did not sign up for this position to send my students off to kill people.¡± Primrose¡¯s face roiled in pain. Myles suddenly realized what had sent her and Dresden to the bars last night. ¡°That said, this is something that has to be done.¡±

    Dresden nodded somberly. ¡°The plea came from the minister of education. Bandit activity in the center of the province has increased dramatically. The minister believes that a certain former imperial aurora has been riling them up, likely to force men away from the border to deal with the issue.¡±

    Primrose took over again, silencing Silas¡ªwho had looked to be interjecting¡ªwith a glance. ¡°Reah and myself have been included as part of the strike force aiming to take out the rogue imperial aurora.¡±

    Of all people, Jane was the one to speak out. ¡°Reah is going! Can¡¯t she stay behind?¡±

    Primrose turned her head, giving Jane an odd look. That only lasted a moment though. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You will all still be appropriately evaluated.¡±

    Myles knew that wasn¡¯t why Jane was worried¡ªor at least not the main reason. It was concerning not to have Reah along. Jane was thinking about what they had overheard the paladin talking about though. Myles shot her a glance, warning her not to speak further. Jane glared at him for a brief moment before looking at Primrose again and smiling. It was hard to imagine a safer place than at Primrose¡¯s side. She was absurdly skilled and more than likely quite powerful too. Jane¡¯s acceptance stilled Myles¡¯ nerves. He still wasn¡¯t sure how to approach things with The Ivory Force.

    The man, whoever he really was, had just murdered a student. Seth and Kate had been right there too. He just as easily could have killed them. Then again, something similar could be said for Myles and Jane he could have killed them for trying to sneak into his meeting, but he had chosen to induct them into his organization instead. Myles privately thought the man must have some specific agenda, but he had no idea what it might be. Silas and Mercy were the ones who were good at this kind of thing. If only he could explain things to them.

    Myles shut down any more thoughts about Ivory Force. Just thinking about their upcoming exam made Myles feel a little sick. He couldn¡¯t handle anything else right now. Myles dialed back into what Primrose was saying.

    ¡°You should know that fighting arcaners, even deserters with half-complete training, is a whole different situation than fighting monsters.¡± Primrose took her index finger and pressed it into the side of her head, right next to her eye socket, clearly pointing. ¡°Arcaners are much more likely to take unconventional approaches, to deceive your senses, play on your conscience, or simply ambush you. I tell you this to emphasize just how important your training will be in the time we have left.¡±

    Ah, Myles thought to himself. It was time to start training with wind mana.

 Chapter 65

    Chapter 65

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    It seemed logical, Myles thought, to learn a new sense in a fresh environment. After all, navigating somewhere familiar is simple, even blindfolded. Myles would have expected to be training somewhere unnaturally cluttered, maybe with treacherous footing. Considering Primrose was in charge, Myles half-expected wherever they went to be covered with pitfall traps. He could see himself mastering the art of feeling around himself with wind mana only to realize too late that he wasn¡¯t paying attention to what was under his feet. Thankfully, that was not the case.

    The building Primrose had led their group to looked from the outside to be a typical training hall. It was built recently, made from wood, not the weathered brick of the old academy. When Myles walked through the door, he found the interior to be even less interesting. Only two things stood out about the hall. The first being that it was completely empty, not the kind of empty with a broom or some other random thing shoved up against a wall¡ªno, it was totally barren. Myles only noticed the second detail after he looked down (maybe the pitfalls were concealed). The floor was unnaturally flat and seemed to be a single enormous plate of rock.

    Primrose, who had led the way into the hall, spun on her heels, seemingly freed from her early morning headache. With a rare smile on her face, she spread her arms. ¡°So, what do you think?¡±

    The group¡¯s silence was eventually broken by a short yawn from Jane who quickly covered her mouth. Reah quietly laughed into her hand from the back of the group.

    Primrose¡¯s smile vanished into disappointment. ¡°I suppose I should have expected this. Myles, what are the connections between your aether space and the outside world?¡±

    Myles was caught off guard. ¡°Um¡­we¡¯ve discussed evocation and commutation. Evocation is the connection between your aether space and your immediate surroundings. Commutation connects your aether space to your body itself. There are also higher connections that exist in the mana space above the aether space.¡±

    Primrose nodded. ¡°That is correct, but those are not the only connections that exist. Putting the matter of higher connections to the side, there are six connections in the aether space, each requiring an arcaner to delve exponentially deeper into their aether space to gain access.¡± Primrose swept her hands out again. This time when she did so, the hall¡¯s floor rippled, twisting itself into shapes that burst into the air before settling back down. ¡°This hall was created with the very last connection. We call it actualization. Normally mana dissipates on its own, but arcaners who have reached the limit of human strength can stabilize it.¡±

    Myles felt a great deal more overwhelmed. Now that he looked closer, he could see what he had missed before. The floor looked just like earth mana. It wasn¡¯t any particular type of stone, instead, it took the form of the most generic sort of rock he could think of.

    ¡°Now,¡± Myles looked up to find Primrose grinning, ¡°lets put some blindfolds on.¡±

    Primrose didn¡¯t actually bother to give them any blindfolds. It was a simple enough process to change the flow of their commuted armor so that it passed over their eyes, blocking light. Myles sometimes used this pattern when he was trying to sleep.

    Evoking wind mana felt different than pure mana. It was less concentrated, and it had a tendency to spread out and wander. It also barely drained Myles¡¯ new mana well. Even with a mere fraction of the mana he had in his pure well, Myles had no trouble maintaining a gradual evocation.

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    Being able to evoke wind mana, and being able to use it to sense your surroundings were two very different things though. When Myles evoked pure mana, he had never really tried to retain his focus on it. Now, Myles found himself overwhelmed juggling the task of paying attention to his evoked mana while constantly evoking more out of his aether space.

    With a start, Myles realized that he had just been standing still. He took a step, trying to sense his surroundings, then he took another and walked straight into something slippery, pure mana.

    ¡°Uh.¡± Silas mumbled.

    Myles scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Of course, he would immediately run into someone. Myles tried to focus on his wind mana again, but even knowing Silas was right next to him, he couldn¡¯t sense him.

    Myles felt a tap on his shoulder, not through his skin, but rather through the slight disturbance in his commuted armor. It was exactly the type of thing he was trying to sense with his wind mana.

    Myles heard Dresden¡¯s voice in his ear. ¡°You¡¯re spreading your wind mana too far. You¡¯re not going to be able to feel the whole building at first. Just concentrate on the space a couple inches away from your body.¡±

    Myles nodded, already changing his approach. His wind mana still moved the same way when he evoked it, but Myles stopped trying to follow it out so far. He imagined a space around him, kind of like an extension of his commuted armor. When the wind mana left that space, he stopped paying attention to it completely.

    The change was immediate and drastic. It wasn¡¯t that Myles was better able to sense his wind mana impacting against the people around him. Instead, it was the realization that he didn¡¯t have to let go of all his wind mana. Some of it never made it out of his range. Which meant that the mana that didn¡¯t make it out of his range was hitting something inside it. In this case, it was being stopped by Dresden¡¯s commuted armor.

    Myles started moving forward again, this time more confidently. He quickly realized that Primrose was putting the actualized mana to good use. He could feel the rough shape of walls around him. Thankfully, the walls weren¡¯t moving, so, Myles took his time navigating through them, relying completely on his wind mana.

    After a few minutes, Myles had realized that he was in the middle of a maze. He had already run into a handful of dead ends. For all of that though, Myles had started to feel slightly more confident in relying on the feeling his wind mana brought him. Myles felt a surge of excitement as he found a gap in the walls that seemed to head towards the other side of the hall. Myles assumed that was where the end of the maze was. They hadn¡¯t actually been given instructions to solve the maze, but Myles would be bothered if he didn¡¯t find the solution.

    Myles walked confidently down the new pathway. Not a moment later, he found himself stepping out into nothing. Myles groaned to himself. He only fell for a moment, and his commuted armor easily absorbed the impact of the fall, but Myles struggled to push his embarrassment down. He had considered Primrose throwing pitfall traps at them, but he still managed to fall in one.

    As Myles started to pull himself out, a task made more difficult since he was being overly cautious to avoid a trapped rung¡ªleaving a ladder imbedded in the side of the pit seemed suspiciously kind¡ªMyles felt something land on his head.

    Myles was confused for a moment by what his wind mana was telling him. That confusion quickly vanished when he heard Jane¡¯s voice. ¡°Hello uh¡­sorry for landing on you.¡±

    Myles gave a small laugh. ¡°I guess she got both of us.¡±

    Jane pulled herself out of the pit. Myles followed. One of the rungs was, in fact rigged to make someone who tried to use it fall. Neither of them was tricked a second time.

    ¡°So,¡± Myles asked, ¡°have you figured out a way to finish the maze.¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Jane whispered in frustration.

    Myles had a hushed conversation with Jane. He found himself easily falling into a rhythm. They normally worked together on their aether engineering projects, but the efficiency they had built there translated well.

    Between the two of them, they had covered quite a bit of ground. Primrose must have made the maze large enough to cover the entire hall. They both quickly agreed to work together to solve the thing.

    The passageways were just wide enough that the two could walk through them side-by-side. Myles restricted his mana even further, evoking it only on his left, relying on Jane to cover their right side. They locked hands to keep from being separated and each followed their own wall. Their pace was much faster like this. Myles no longer had to meander around to find any potential passageways.

    The pair made sure to evoke some wind mana downwards. They found a few more pitfalls, each of which they managed to skirt around. At one point, they did run face-first into a barrier they could have easily ducked under, but they adapted to that as well.

    When they finally made their way out, Myles was sure they would be the first to finish the maze. Working together had dramatically increased their speed after all. Myles switched the pattern of his commuted armor again. A line of four students smiled smugly at him and Jane.

    Mercy gave a kind-spirited giggle. ¡°Took you two a while didn¡¯t it.¡±

    Myles frowned. He pulled his hand away from Jane¡¯s quickly. ¡°How did¡­¡±

    Before he even finished Silas stepped forward, shaking his head. ¡°We all just climbed over the walls.¡±

    Myles took a deep breath. Why hadn¡¯t he done that? It seemed so obvious in retrospect.

    Primrose motioned with her hand, and the whole maze collapsed back down to the perfectly flat floor. ¡°We¡¯ll be practicing wind mana every day until your exam. Don¡¯t forget to delve tonight either. You¡¯ll want access to another mana type before then too.¡±

    The group listened carefully, acknowledging everything that Primrose said, knowing it was almost time for lunch. Myles¡¯ thoughts were already jumping forward though. He had a construct to finish designing.

 Chapter 66

    Chapter 66

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    After eating a quick lunch, Myles and Jane walked straight to Professor Hazel¡¯s class. Technically speaking, they were early, but students always arrived well before the start of the official class time and often left late. Nobody so much as gave them an odd look.

    When they reached their station, Myles quickly unrolled their partially completed designs. Jane placed a few spare lumps of basium onto the corners to keep the parchment flush with the table. They forced themselves to study the plans with fresh eyes. It was difficult. Now that it felt they were onto something, Myles could barely contain his enthusiasm. He knew though, it was that very excitement that would make them miss an obvious mistake.

    Eventually, Myles was satisfied with the review. They had only really sketched out the handle in any detail. It was, after all, where everything stemmed from. The only part of the surrounding ring they had finalized was how it connected with the handle.

    Depressions in the inside of the ring allowed for the handle to latch on at specific points. When the handle wasn¡¯t locked into place, it would be held within a metal track that wound its way along the inside of the construct.

    Jane made eight evenly distributed marks along the edge of the track. ¡°If we¡¯re going for four functions like you suggested, we¡¯ll need to put the depressions here.¡± Jane hesitated for another second before adding another set of eight marks. ¡°I like the idea of adding resting positions between each function too.¡±

    ¡°That should be feasible.¡± Myles nodded, already thinking about how to implement the various functions. They were starting with just two¡ªthey had to limit themselves somewhere if they wanted any hope of having the construct ready by their next exam.

    The first was a simple application of pure mana that would mimic commutation. It would keep the construct protected. Even metal wouldn¡¯t last long against the type of onslaught an arcaner, or a decently strong monster for that matter, could unleash. In a pinch, they could even use the construct as a shield of sorts.

    Unfortunately, simple was a very relative term in aether engineering. They still needed to consider the physical dimensions of the construct, and ensure every rune was placed in the right spot with the precise subrunes to match. They planned on placing the runes to accomplish that objective on the blades themselves.

    Jane¡¯s suggestion from the previous night had already been lightly sketched into the designs. Half of each spike would be made of channium while the other would be made of the far heavier densite to ensure the weapon could achieve proper rotation when thrown.

    Commutation functions were well-charted territory. The typical design focused primarily on three runes. The first was a commutation rune. Myles pulled the aether index open, flicking through to the right page.

    The commutation rune would be useless by itself. It would evoke mana just fine, but that mana would be lost in an instant. Instead, conventional wisdom was to use an anchor rune to reabsorb unused mana back into the construct where it could be funneled back to the commutation rune for reuse, effectively mimicking an arcaner¡¯s commutation.

    Making the two runes work together was easier said than done. By itself, the commutation rune released all its mana at once. That wasn¡¯t good enough here. They needed to maintain a constant flow of mana around the construct to keep it protected at all times.

    The solution to the problem presented itself after a thorough perusal of the aether index.

    With that in mind, the pair turned to deciding on the dimensions of the outer disk. In theory, the smaller they made the disk, the shorter the time it would take for the mana to return to the commutation rune, and therefore the more mana they could have actively protecting the construct at any given time. They were fairly constrained by the length of the handle which could extend to a length of 39 cm and retract to a length of 24 cm.

    It was Myles¡¯ suggestion that was eventually adopted. He had advocated for the depressions the handle would lock into to be 4 cm deep. They opted to coat the sides of that 4 cm section in the same grease as the wooden portion of the handle and the metal track to simplify things. Accounting for the gaps in the metal the depressions represented would have made calculating the movement of the mana through the disk much more difficult and prone to error.

    In total, the width of the disk would be 14 cm of which only 10 cm would be left uncoated and capable of holding mana. That gave the central point of the usable portion of the disk a circumference of 141.4 cm.

    Jane looked over the budding blueprints with a look of satisfaction that Myles couldn¡¯t help but share. He dragged them towards himself, comparing them to the pages of the aether index he had open. ¡°We¡¯ll need channel runes to move the mana from the handle into the disk itself.¡±

    Jane nodded, picking up a quill and carefully drawing them into place. On the side where they planned to place the commutation rune, Jane sketched a channel rune whose box of influence would run all the way across the disk from where the handle locked into position to the leading edge of the spike. The other side just had a channel rune to pull the mana into the disk. Jane also began work on carefully sketching the series of channel runes that would send mana around counterclockwise.

    Myles noted with satisfaction that the only rune Jane added a type-specification to was the one that would lead to the commutation rune. It was a clever little detail that ensured any pure mana that reached that point in the disk would be pulled out and moved into the siphoned containment rune. As a general rule, the more specific a rune, the more priority it would have.

    While Jane took on the labor-intensive channel runes, Myles grabbed a new piece of parchment and started to work on the plans for the siphoned containment rune. Of the whole set, it would be the easiest to make a mistake on. The rate at which it released mana had to be set to allow just enough time for the mana to return before the rune was left empty.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Set the rate too high, and there would be gaps in the flow of mana, leaving the construct defenseless for the duration. Set the rate too low, and less mana would be moving around the construct at a given time, weakening the defense.

    It was here that the choice to use channium to build the disk showed fruit. Pure mana could speed around half the construct in about 0.7 seconds. Even taking into account that they planned to place the anchor rune at the furthest spike, by guiding the mana through the channium half, it would only take somewhere around 0.76 seconds in all.

    Myles chose to be cautious and round that number up to 0.8 seconds. As far as he was concerned, he would rather the construct have slightly less protection than risk it being hit when it had none at all. In terms of the rune, that meant that they could allow it to siphon off 1.25 times its contents every second and still expect the mana to return in time for reuse.

    The rune itself would be engraved on top of the spike which they planned to forge 8 cm wide with an 8 cm length. The center of the rune¡¯s origin would be centered and about 1.5 cm away from the disk. Myles carefully drew the rune, frequently referencing the examples in the aether index¡ªthen he stopped, and a silly grin broke out on his face.

    ¡°Jane, we don¡¯t need to pass the commuted mana back through the disk at all.¡±

    She looked up with interest, leaving her work for the moment. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°We can just commute it right back.¡±

    Jane frowned. ¡°Would that even work? Wouldn¡¯t the two streams of commuted mana run into each other or something?¡±

    Myles thought about it for another second and realized he had no idea what would happen if two separately evoked sources of pure mana collided. ¡°Would they cancel each other out, or combine, or¡­¡±

    Jane gave a wry grin. ¡°Want to test it?¡±

    Myles was already grabbing one of the spare chunks of basium and heading for the aether forge. Half an hour of work later, and a newly forged construct sat on their desk with matching sets of commutation runes and anchor runes on either end of a thin metal bar.

    Jane raised her eyebrow at Myles from across the table, and with a small nod, they both pushed mana into their side of the construct. The result was¡­interesting. The mana didn¡¯t cancel itself out, but it didn¡¯t combine in some huge blob in the middle either. Instead, the two streams of mana crossed through each other, creating what looked to the eye like little rapids all along the rod.

    Myles and Jane stared at each other in curiosity before Myles slowly reached out to grab the construct, making sure to commute an extra dose of mana around his hand. The moment he grasped the rod, it slipped through his fingers. He tried to pick it up again and got the same result. The reaction didn¡¯t seem to be doing anything harmful to his commuted armor, so Myles dropped the armor around his hand for a moment. This time, the rod flipped out of his hand. Jane tried to catch it, but it found its way out of her grasp as well. When it landed on the floor, it didn¡¯t stay still, instead, it slid and slid and slid. It only stopped when the friction wore through all its mana. By then, it was already halfway down the hall.

    Looking at the rod¡ªwhich had landed under another group¡¯s station to some surprised murmurings¡ªJane looked back to their blueprint. ¡°Ok. So, let¡¯s not do that then¡­I¡¯ll finish the blueprints if you want to..uh.. ¡± Jane trailed off, turning abruptly away with a mouselike look as a student held the rod construct up high, turning his head to try to find a culprit.

    Myles stepped forward, a guilty look on his face. Inwardly though, he was very glad they had run that test. He had a horrible image of being ambushed by monsters, and activating a finished shuriken construct only to have it slip from his hands and cut off a toe or something. Still though, Myles grinned to himself, this might be just what he needed to get his friends out of the mood that had fallen over them.

    ¡­

    A good ten minutes later, Myles returned from one of the worst scoldings of his life. Jane was hard at work on the blueprints. Looking over her shoulder, Myles saw the siphoned containment rune had already been penciled in.

    The commutation rune was also nearly finished. Jane scratched a line from the base of the spike to the center of the rune, specifying the distance as 4 cm. Myles began to look over the work as well, making sure the rune¡¯s box of influence overlapped that of the siphoned containment rune. The commutation rune needed to evoke the mana as soon as it was released. The rune¡¯s anchor point would be set at the very point of the furthest spike to ensure that the entire construct would be covered in pure mana upon activation.

    That effectively finished off the first function. They hadn¡¯t drawn all the channel runes into the blueprints, but that was the easy part anyway.

    ¡°So, now we get to create the function to evoke a composite of sound and ice mana.¡± Myles tapped his fingers against the desk, leaning in closer, his energy climbing back up again.

    Jane tapped their desk thoughtfully, pulling the aether index open to its entry on the composition rune.

    It was going to make things challenging to be sure. The rune itself was just that: a rune. They wouldn¡¯t have much more trouble etching it into the metal than any other rune. The complications came with the need to evoke the unstable mixture right away and in getting the ratio just right.

    The solution for the first problem was thankfully straightforward. The composition rune had a higher degree of influence than the evocation rune, so if they overlapped the two runes¡¯ boxes of influence, the evocation rune would only take into effect after the mana was converted. That would also ensure there was no gap between composition and evocation that could cause mana rust or other problems. The second problem was where the nightmare lay.

    Myles put a hand through his hair, twisting to try to shake loose something in his head that would give him an easy answer. He found nothing. ¡°In theory we can match how fast the sound and ice mana get to the composition rune by creating channel runes through different types of metals¡­¡±

    Jane nodded, looking wide-eyed at the several pieces of parchment in front of them that were attempts at doing just that. ¡°Its just not that simple though. We could do it if we just needed to match how fast the first bits of mana arrive, but that¡¯s not good enough.¡±

    Myles pointed to the containment rune on the end of the handle. ¡°This is the problem. The mana stores itself evenly throughout the containment rune. The further from the disk it is, the longer it takes to move into the disk.¡±

    Jane agreed silently, and the pair stared at their designs. They had already penciled in conversion runes to change the pure mana that sat in the handle into sound and ice with the 2 cm section closest to the densite side of the spike being converted into ice and the remaining 1.5 cm being converted to sound mana.

    The ice mana was moved directly across the disk and into the densite of the spike via channel runes. The sound mana on the other hand was moved into the disk itself and allowed to flow through the universal channel there to the other side of the shuriken where it would be moved into the spike¡¯s channium and then finally arrive on the other side of the construct just as the ice mana was flowing into the densite. The problem was the numbers just didn¡¯t match.

    Looking at the ice mana first, it was a subtype of earth mana and had mana flow values to match. The mana stored right next to the disk would only have to move through 10 cm of channium which took about 0.15 seconds. However, the ice mana stored at the furthest place from the disk had to move through 7.5 cm of basium. With basium¡¯s poor earth mana flow ratio of 0.3, that would take a whole additional second. Creating a massive gap between when the first mana arrived and when the last mana did.

    The sound mana was even more complex with it needing to travel through a series of connecting channel runes. Their best attempt to make everything work had resulted in the fastest sound mana arriving at 0.81 seconds and the slowest at 1.13 seconds.

    In order for the composite rune to not cause severe mana rust¡ªa substance that would reduce construct performance and in extreme cases cause unintended behavior such as explosions¡ªit needed the correct balance of ice and sound mana at all times. That simply was not possible¡­

    Myles grabbed Jane¡¯s arm in excitement as he caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. The same siphoned containment rune that they had used for the commutation function had an optional subrune that could cause a delay from when mana arrived to when it started to be released.

    Jane grinned and gave a breath of relief when she reread the description. ¡°If we make siphoned containment runes for both mana types and set the same release rate for both, the ratio will match at all times. We just have to set the delays correctly.¡±

    With some light math which after having worked for most of the day on the construct felt slightly torturous, Myles and Jane were able to figure out that the delays were 1 second for ice mana and .34 seconds for sound mana. In addition, because the siphoned containment rune was actually higher in influence priority than even the composition rune, they were able to wrap the composition rune and evocation rune¡¯s boxes of influence around the siphoned containment runes.

    That just left drawing the two siphoned containment runes, the composition rune, and the evocation rune into the blueprints. They quickly decided to place them all together on the spike in a pyramid arrangement. The sound containment rune¡¯s origin would be 1 cm from the base of the spike and 1 cm counterclockwise from the middle of the spike. The ice containment rune would be 2 cm counterclockwise from that. The composition and evocation runes were sketched in equidistant between the two containment runes being 2.5 cm and 4 cm from the base of the spike respectively.

 Chapter 67

    Chapter 67

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    Myles¡¯ brain felt like mush after finishing the blueprints for the shuriken construct, but he walked with confident energy. At his side, Jane walked swiftly to match. ¡°Are you sure you want to do this? Shouldn¡¯t we be delving?¡±

    Jane was right. Their whole team was falling behind the schedule they were meant to maintain. The group had barely managed to delve their channels long enough to start up their wind wells. They were all supposed to get a start on a new well before the end of the month, and they would need every bit of the power that came with that to fight the bandits they were meant to hunt down.

    Myles kept up his pace, storming into Northleaf hall¡ªat least his version of storming which was closer to most people¡¯s calm and orderly¡ªat least Jane noticed the change. She looked a little taken aback by his mood which he felt guilty for, but tonight was a night to make things happen.

    Myles led Jane to Reah¡¯s room. The group had quickly picked it out. Reah might have been secretive and abnormally skilled at stealth, but it was hard to keep people you know from finding out you live directly below them, and she had never tried to keep it a secret.

    Myles knocked on the door a full three times before Reah answered. ¡°Um¡­hi¡±

    Jane¡¯s eyes opened wide, and she subtly shuffled back and slightly behind Myles. Reah didn¡¯t seem the same person as usual. She was missing her usual air of¡ªnot traditional or blatant confidence but maybe comfortable defensiveness. She looked unsure of herself and that put Myles on the backfoot.

    Myles scratched his head, trying to pull his thoughts back together. ¡°Do you want to join us for some pure mana jousting?¡±

    Reah looked at him blankly, and a slight breathy, barely noticeable chuckle came from behind him. Myles knew there was the tiniest of smirks on Jane¡¯s face.

    Putting his hands up in a waving gesture, Myles tried to explain himself. ¡°Seth told me about a game some of the nobles he knew played. Apparently, they rode horses at each other and tried to knock each other off using wooden sticks.¡±

    Reah rolled her shoulder a little. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I would call that a game¡­¡±

    Myles wasn¡¯t sure what that meant, but he pressed on anyway. ¡°Jane and I were testing something for the construct we¡¯re building, and we realized that when pure mana moves against pure mana, its slick. We figured we could use that instead of horses and¡­¡±

    ¡°And you want me to evoke the mana?¡±

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Jane shook her head. ¡°We want you to join us.¡±

    ¡­

    Mercy stood in the spot of their little training room that Primrose usually lectured from. ¡°Welcome one,¡± she intoned in an unnaturally deep voice, sweeping her hands out, ¡°welcome all to the first ever pure mana jousting TOURNAMENT!¡±

    The crowd of six snickered to themselves. Even Kate, who had withdrawn into herself for the last few days, let out a smile at Mercy¡¯s antics.

    ¡°For our first bout we have Ser Silas VS Ser Myles. Contestants ready your horses!¡±

    Myles looked at his friend from across the room and gave a wide grin. He just shook his head in a I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this kind of way. In between them sat a solid sheet of pure mana thick enough for them to stand on shoulder to shoulder. The whole group had contributed to its creation though Reah had admittedly given the most.

    Silas mimed mounting a horse, and waved to a nonexistent crowd, earning a burst of laughter from Kate. Myles just prepared himself carefully, finding just the right angle to make his approach.

    ¡°Knights charge!¡±

    Myles rushed towards the lane, commuting pure mana around his knees, and leaping onto the sheet. That was where the planning stopped. He slid uncontrollably past Silas. The pair both made a swipe at each other, but for all their training in hand-to-hand combat, they were used to having solid ground beneath their feet. Both of them promptly slipped onto their backs and rolled the rest of the way.

    The crowd¡ªsuch as they were¡ªwas roaring with laughter, and Myles had to grin to himself. There were more happy faces here than he had seen from his friends in a week. Nobody would normally accuse him of being a purveyor of foolish ideas, or even being someone who would actively put together a social event of any kind, but he was more than glad for leaving his comfort zone tonight. He was less glad for the wall that was¡­

    The laughter redoubled as Myles smacked into the wall. With the force he hit, his friends might have been in worried silence two months before¡ªbut commuted armor had its benefits, namely a distinct overall decrease in bruises.

    ¡°And they¡¯re both unworthy of being knights. Who oh who could replace these jesters. Hmmmm¡­¡± Mercy stroked her chin with her thumb in overdramatic fashion. ¡°Why, the fair damsel Reah looks quite ready to enter the fray, and the evil, vile, villainous dark knight Seth, enemy of¡­¡±

    Seth made a rude gesture at Mercy, but it was playful. Myles had to admire Mercy for her bravery. Seth was a great guy, but it was hard to tease him, he was usually so serious. For her part, Reah didn¡¯t look particularly ready or comfortable with the situation. Kate gave her a friendly nudge though, and that decided it. Reah stepped forth, moving to the wall Myles was still crashed up against.

    The second joust was much more impressive than the first. It looked like Reah got the upper hand, landing a solid shove on Seth, but he managed to push her with his leg as he was flung to the side. They both landed on the ground with Seth tumbling into one of the sand pits they used for training.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡± Mercy¡¯s voice changed again, taking on an impression of some kind of macho man.

    Myles walked over and gave Reah a hand up. When he looked up, Kate was already making her way toward the jousting lane, one arm around Jane¡¯s shoulders.

    Outwardly, Jane was protesting, but Myles could see in her eyes that she wanted to try it out. He couldn¡¯t help but remember her story about the axe throwing competition. She hadn¡¯t participated in that.

    Mercy wasn¡¯t Jane¡¯s best friend without reason. She caught that look in her eye too. ¡°Our final bout of the evening will be between two of our meanest looking competitors. In one corner, we have the woman who¡¯s always covered in soot, and in the other we have the gorilla who killed a vexenaught with her bare hands!¡±

    Kate let go of Jane to give Mercy a glare, and Jane added hers to the mix shortly after. Despite the theatrics, the pair took their positions without any further delay.

    Myles was secretly hoping they would make fools of themselves like he and Silas had, so, when they too managed to wind up on their backs, he exchanged a quiet high five with Silas.

    It was a breather that they all needed. After a few more jousts, the tournament such as it was ended with no desicive victor, and a roomful of mostly humbled faces recalling particularly comical falls, but everyone left with much lighter hearts.

    ¡­

    Not two hours after he had knocked on Reah¡¯s door, Myles was back in his room, attention focused on his aether space, using what little wind mana he had in his second aether well to expand it. As he bore into the walls and floor of the well, little bits of membrane vanished, bit by bit he was getting stronger.

    When his wind mana was exhausted, he switched his mind over to his pure mana well and moved it in a familiar pattern, digging a new channel in the opposite direction of the first. Lightning mana, he thought, his feelings settled. It may not have been the optimal choice for combat, but it had other interesting capabilities. He had to dig the channel first though, and that would take time, time and persistence.

 Chapter 68

    Chapter 68

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    In the morning, Myles trained in martial combat. He drilled the new steps of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist under Primrose¡¯s watchful eyes, slowly improving his form. In between sets, he sparred either with one of his dormmates, Reah, or one of the varied artificial monsters Primrose puppeteered with earth mana.

    Halfway to lunch, they moved to that barren hall and trained their use of wind mana. Day after day, they ran through a maze of obstacles blindfolded, each day a new maze with new traps and tricks. Reah and Dresden would sneak up on them in and out of class, manipulating their wind mana to make it harder for the dormmates to detect them, and giving them a light tap on their shoulder, the only sign they had ever been there.

    In the afternoon, Myles and Jane worked on the shuriken construct. Myles had been so proud when Professor Hazel had approved the design and given them permission to build the thing. He loved the process. The long hours spent at the forge held more meaning to him now than they ever had before. That was good because the design they built demanded a harsh timeline. The sheer number of runes they had to etch into the metal was daunting, and each one had to be perfect.

    In the evening, Myles delved with a fervor. He desperately wanted more wind mana. Practice with it was invigorating, and the bigger his aether well, the more he could spare to sense his surroundings.

    It was only in the deepest part of the night that Myles had time to further his second channel, but he pushed hard to make the most of that time. Having lightning mana ready to evoke from his aether space, even a little bit, would give him an offensive option he had been missing in his previous missions.

    About a week passed before the routine was broken by Primrose walking into their training hall with a piping hot cup of tea cradled in her hands. Usually, she¡¯d put the tea down to start on drilling the group, but today, she waved a hand behind her.

    A board of earth mana appeared in the air. With a slow but deliberate movement of her hand, she evoked writing onto the board with another mana type¡ªsome darker looking mineral maybe. Myles watched the words as they appeared and spelled out: small unit combat tactics.

    Primrose gave her tea a brief sip, sighing in appreciation. ¡°You will all be working together for the upcoming mission, so, I think it is about time we go over some basic tactics that can be employed with a few extra hands. Notably,¡± Primrose turned to the board again, scrawling out two new lines, ¡°scouting and dragging.¡±

    Myles stretched his body, sore after so many consecutive days of training. Scouting seemed like a straightforward enough concept, but he had no idea what dragging could mean.

    Another board appeared beside the first with an additional wave of Primrose¡¯s hand. On it, she evoked six dots of that odd mana type she was using for writing. ¡°There are two basic forms of scouting that are typically used. The first is the use of wind mana.¡± Primrose drew a circle around the six dots. ¡°This is primarily a defensive tactic meant to provide some additional knowledge of a group¡¯s surroundings. You should think of this as a bubble of sorts, its effective at preventing most ambushes, but provides little else of value.¡±

    Silas, looking at the board, shook his head. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be more effective to make the bubble inconsistent with some areas more concentrated than others.¡±

    Myles recognized that as a basic anti-stealth option. Manipulating another¡¯s wind mana to avoid detection was a difficult feat, but as Reah, Dresden, and Primrose had proven, skilled arcaners could accomplish it. The simplest way to counter that was to evoke your wind mana in an unpredictable pattern.

    Primrose gave a slight smile. ¡°You¡¯re thinking the right way but using that method for long tends to require constant concentration. Over a long journey, that can be draining.¡± Primrose drew a smaller circle inside the first. ¡°The easier method to achieve this is to have multiple layers of wind mana evoked by different people. It provides much the same effect as using an abnormal pattern but is much easier to maintain.¡±

    The whole group nodded along. This was just a new way of thinking about using their wind mana.

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    Primrose raised a finger, and two of the dots on the board began moving around. Myles looked on with jealousy. Manipulation seemed like such a useful ability. He couldn¡¯t wait until he had delved deep enough to make use of it himself.

    ¡°The other method of scouting is more proactive and involves sending small groups, usually of two ahead to discern the whereabouts of particularly troublesome monsters and other information of interest. This allows the main group to choose an optimal path.¡±

    Primrose drew another pair of circles around the two dots, and Myles along with the rest of the group nodded their understanding, needing no further discussion about why those circles were needed.

    Primrose paused for a minute to drink her tea again and let everyone process the information. If Myles had his guess, they would start practicing maintaining the multiple layers of wind mana needed in addition to their other skills in their regular training sessions.

    The tea found its way back onto the ground and a third board appeared beside the first two. Primrose didn¡¯t even bother waving her hand this time. Again, six dots appeared on the board, this time, all the way to the lefthand side.

    ¡°Dragging is a process used to conserve mana.¡± Primrose pointed to the middle of the board, and two caricatures of ogren popped up. ¡°If you run into a pack of ogren, what would your first instinct be?¡±

    ¡°To fight them.¡± It was a simple choice, ogren were much faster than any of them were, so there was no running away.

    Primrose nodded. ¡°Correct, but what I would propose is that not all of you are likely to be needed to fight off a pack of ogren¡ªanymore at least.¡±

    Myles grimaced, it really hadn¡¯t been that long since a pack of ogren had done some serious damage to him and Silas.

    Primrose moved her hand and two of the dots moved towards the ogren. With a snap of her fingers, the caricatures vanished. ¡°Dragging involves having only a select few members of a unit take care of any fights that may occur, allowing the others to remain fresh in the event that a larger threat emerges that requires more strength to deal with. This same principle means that even in missions that may require greater skill, or more mana to accomplish, weaker arcaners will always be an asset.¡±

    Myles nodded. It made sense. He had wondered for some time why the average provincial soldier wasn¡¯t given the same training as them. This was part of the answer, but Myles knew at least one other part of that came down to aether constructs. It didn¡¯t take any special strength to use an aether construct, so, it made sense they sent new recruits on with only a little martial training and the ability to commute mana to protect themselves.

    The lesson ended there, and Myles found himself back to practicing forms again. He sparred with Kate and Reah for a long slice of the morning as well before the whole group moved on to their training in wind mana. In an unexpected twist, Primrose led the group outside the gates of Maston, into the rolling hills of the voidlands.

    As he expected, the group was paired up into duos and instructed to practice the method of scouting Primrose had mentioned before. Myles paired up with Silas, and they set about evoking their wind mana. It was a struggle. They were both used to evoking a sphere of wind mana around them, so, the part that Myles started on, creating a sphere around their immediate vicinity was simple enough. It was Silas who had the hard part, evoking mana over a wider area while leaving a hole in the middle where Myles was covering.

    Dresden gave them insightful pointers here and there paired with a few light jests and a bit of teasing. By the time he and Silas were able to evoke and maintain the scouting sphere, and reliably maintain it, they both had smiles on their faces. Dresden felt like something of a big brother, he reminded Myles of some of his older friends at the job shop. Of course, that feeling was somewhat ruined when he blindfolded them, moved a distance away and started lobbing rocks at them from every angle.

    With their improvement from delving, Myles and Silas were able to maintain their scouting sphere for about half an hour. Considering it only took about an hour for his mana wells to refill, that was already good enough for their full group of six to keep a scouting sphere up at all times so long as they kept to a steady rotation.

    Once they arrived back in Maston, the group grabbed lunch as usual. On the way, Silas and Mercy gave them a rundown of what they should expect from the area their bandit quarry was known to inhabit. Apparently, the towns beyond Hydrabridge, in the center of the province, were small and sparse, largely focusing on being self-sufficient, though they did supply some food to the few military outposts stationed along the twin mountain ranges¡ªcollectively called the scar¡ªthat cut through the heart of the province.

    Kate and Seth added to that, remarking on how monsters regularly ventured out from the scar, and providing a list of monsters that they should be on the lookout for.

    The moment lunch finished, Myles and Jane made a dash for their aether forge. Much of the construct had already been forged, but there were still plenty of tasks to be done. Myles focused on carefully reheating the construct in the aether forge and engraving additional runes onto its surface. Jane focused on her work with the handle.

    Getting the wooden casing for the handle right had proven a challenge just as Myles had expected, but this was where Jane¡¯s background came into effect. The speed and skill with which she carved was awe-inspiring, and Myles could see the dedication her father must have had to the craft, and the effort he must have put into teaching her.

    By the end of their session, they were finally able to fit the disparate pieces of the handle together. Myles and Jane gave each other a resounding high five as they watched her wooden casing interact with the springs he had forged, causing the basium bars they had worked hard to engrave with to move in and out.

    That moment of celebration was short-lived as Myles realized the next step would be coating the springs and casing in grease to prevent any mana from escaping the construct. He really did not like that grease. It was made largely from melted monster fat and smelled absolutely vile. He had worked with more than he had ever wanted in the job shop, but what had to be done had to be done.

    That night, Myles made another breakthrough. His channel to his new mana well had finally reached a sufficient length. Now, he just had to delve a converter, and he could finally start working on his lightning mana well.

    Myles wanted to push on after that, but he had already pushed too hard. He collapsed back into his bed and was asleep in moments.

    He slept so deeply that night that he didn¡¯t hear the pained voice of his friend who slept one floor below. Not that he could have. She had evoked nearly all her considerable reserves of pure mana, sealing the walls and ceilings of her room. She silently fought alone in a delving trance, knocking tendrils of aethereal black and red flame aside with sheer willpower, keeping them from finding the cracks in her mana space that had only grown and expanded since she was young. As she did so, the wound in her shoulder seeped, and she was forced to change the bandage once again.

 Chapter 69

    Chapter 69

    Maston Academy

    The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

    The morning that he was set to head out on his exam, Myles was in a training hall, holding the brand-new shuriken construct with a bandolier of mana batteries thrown over his shoulder. In front of him, a target stared him down.

    In a smooth motion, Myles pulled one of the batteries from the sling, popping it into the handle. After a second, Myles squeezed down on the wooden casing. He felt a little resistance from the springs they had used, but with a firm squeeze, the handle retracted, and the battery popped out, landing on the floor. Myles spun the device using the muscles in his forearm, and then timed the release of his grip so the handle stopped in place, locking into the grooves corresponding to the commutation function.

    A moment later, pure mana coated the construct. It was quite a sight. Since the mana was on the outside of the construct, as opposed to traditional commuted armor, the light was blocked before it reached even the outermost layer of metal, meaning it now looked like Myles was carrying a blurry, massive shuriken-shaped mess rather than the metal construct he knew was in his hands.

    Jane, with pure mana commuting over her ears, tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a sign they had agreed upon earlier. Unable to keep the eagerness off her face, her mouth moved as well. ¡°Ready?¡±

    Myles nodded, acknowledging the sign since he was protecting his own ears as well. With a twist, he rotated the handle into one of the neutral slots they had added to the construct before taking another battery and sliding it in. He then gave another jerk of his arm, to slide the handle into position at the stun function, pausing for a brief moment before throwing.

    It would seemingly take some practice to get used to throwing the construct¡ªat least he and Jane hadn¡¯t been very successful so far¡ªso Myles didn¡¯t leave anything to chance. As he threw, he evoked a thin line of pure mana that started between the handle and disk of the shuriken and ended at the target.

    The construct followed the line, effectively using it as a track. Just as it reached the target, a wave of frost burst in a sphere around the shuriken, coating the straw with patches of ice. Myles grinned to himself, letting his pure mana fall away from his ears.

    In theory, he didn¡¯t need that extra protection since the sound mana didn¡¯t make it very far before turning into ice mana, but he wasn¡¯t too keen on testing that theory out considering how loud the sound would be.

    ¡°Are we all ready to go then?¡± Silas leaned against the doorway with the rest of their group. Kate and Seth held the twin spears that had saved their lives last month, primed and ready with fire mana. Mercy bore half of their supplies in a pack, and as Myles gave a resolved nod, Silas picked up the other half, swinging them onto his back.

    With a heavy heart, Myles passed the shuriken construct to Jane who had her own set of batteries. She took it by the handles and clipped it into the specially made harness she wore on her back, a twin to the harness Myles¡¯ own.

    They left through Maston¡¯s gate minutes later. Jane, Seth, and Mercy made up the outside of their formation, forming a spearhead pointed forward. Myles moved inside the protected center of the formation with Silas and Kate. With every step, he felt trickles of the tiny wind mana particles tapping against his pure mana from the bubble Jane and Mercy were currently keeping active.

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    They were an hour and a half down the highway before Seth who was maintaining the outer layer of the groups wind mana gave the whole group a signal. The six of them all ground to a halt, and Myles tensed, ready to enter combat if necessary.

    Seth pointed down; the sign Primrose had drilled into them for a minor threat. Seth and Jane peeled off to the east, drawing spear and shuriken. Myles evoked wind mana, using it to identify the threat. Five ogren were approaching from the other side of the east-facing hill.

    The first three of the beasts swept over the crest, mouths salivating onto their oversized tusks. They were met by a spinning wheel of blades, and a small explosion. All three of the monsters stopped in their tracks. A moment later when the sound mana turned to ice in the air, the three ogren fell to the ground overwhelmed by the sudden sensory input and the rapid change in temperature.

    Seth met the other two as they rushed past their twitching brethren. With a spear thrust that pulled heavily from the footwork of the first step, Seth drove his weapon through one of the beasts, then immediately pivoted, performing a snake step that took him clear of the second and delivered another clean thrust.

    Jane pulled the shuriken from where it had fallen, and quickly used the spikes they had honed to a fine edge, dispatching the three shocked and disabled ogren.

    The group finished extracting the cores, using one of them to restore the battery Jane had used in her attack. Myles admonished himself for thinking it seemed like a bit of a waste. It had been a good opportunity to test the construct in actual combat. Besides, two months ago, he, Silas, and Kate had their entire mission derailed from an encounter just like this.

    The group moved along again, this time with the formation reversed. Myles had taken the shuriken construct back from Jane with the change.

    As the day moved on, and the sun gradually changed position in the sky, the rolling hills became craggier terrain. Their destination for the day was a small town just shy of Hydrabridge, but even unhampered by the rains they had pushed through last month, it would take them until late in the evening to arrive.

    The group endured a few more attacks, but none of the fights required more than two to deal with. At least until Myles felt something bump into his wind mana.

    He gave an immediate shout of alarm and did a full turn from his position at the front of the group. He had been evoking the inner layer of their scouting sphere, so whatever was there was just feet away from their group. When he turned around, he saw nothing.

    Silas who had been evoking wind mana in their outer layer started to evoke mana in a closer and denser pattern. His eyes also went wide, and a moment later their whole group had pulled back. Weapons pointed at the empty space that held something, something that was very much manipulating their wind mana to obfuscate itself. Even knowing it was there, Myles couldn¡¯t get an idea of its size or shape.

    ¡°Whoa, whoa!¡± A familiar voice rang out. A moment later, Dresden appeared before them, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. ¡°I guess I can¡¯t hide from you all day anymore, huh?¡±

    Myles almost cried with relief. It had been one thing trying to sense Dresden and Reah back in the safety of the academy. It was another thing entirely to barely feel an unknown and invisible threat suddenly pop up. A chill ran down his spine. Dresden must have been feet away from them for hours, and they had only just sensed him, and barely at that.

    ¡°Well, I had planned to reveal myself this evening, anyway. Primrose gave me orders to help with your bandit hunt.¡±

    The group let out their collective breaths. As one, spearpoints moved away from Dreden¡¯s direction, and stances relaxed. Myles moved the shuriken he held in his hand back to the harness on his back.

    There wasn¡¯t really a need for an explanation. Dresden had followed Jane, Seth, and Mercy through their previous two exams. He did reassure them that Reah wasn¡¯t also out there following them though he admitted it bitterly, his pride apparently wounded.

    The group continued on, still on high alert, but feeling much safer now that Dresden was confirmed to be with them, and capable of stepping in if they needed him to. They didn¡¯t end up encountering any more monsters before they reached their destination, the town of Gardax.

    Silas and Mercy had warned the group it was a somewhat rough town, and they were right, at least in terms of those present. A majority of the sparse crowd on the streets had red bands around their arms, and the looks of shikari on their faces.

    It made sense, the town¡ªor if Myles was honest the pair of inns surrounded by a wall¡ªwas located at a logistics crossroads that Hydrabridge¡¯s presence had created. There were quite a few smaller mining operations in the area as well, and Myles doubted they had the same level of military presence that Hydrabridge did. There would be more than enough work for shikari to make some good coin.

    The group made it to their inn and rented two rooms using the mission funds they had been given. Nobody had the energy to delve, but they made sure to all expend at least a big chunk of their remaining mana, adding it to the mana that was already sitting in the batteries, bringing each of them closer to the maximum capacity they could hold¡ªat least at maximum efficiency.

 Chapter 70

    Chapter 70

    Garax

    The Voidlands near Hydrabridge

    Myles moved from bed to bath to chair in a tired haze. The inn they had chosen had its share of comforts, and when their whole group had fallen into chairs¡ªstill half-asleep¡ªthe innkeeper had laid down plates stacked high with eggs, toast, and even a few strips of bacon.

    The group dug in, relishing the meal, and knowing they would soon be moving again. Dresden finished his plate well before anyone else, and with a charming smile to the innkeeper to deflate any bad feelings, he started laying out weapons on the table.

    At least Myles assumed they were weapons. They were certainly constructs though he didn¡¯t recognize the runes on them. His hand stopped midway to his mouth, leaving eggs hanging from his fork as he leaned over in interest, nearly butting heads with Jane as she did the same.

    Dresden laid his hands on one of the constructs. ¡°This is a combat flare, intended for communication across the voidlands for certain operations. The provincial army uses them fairly regularly, especially around the capital where they¡¯re manufactured.¡±

    Ahh. That made sense. That was why he hadn¡¯t recognized the runes. They weren¡¯t in the Verrith style. Now that he looked closer, he could tell there was nothing that looked like a proper sub-rune. Without those, you needed wholly different runes to adjust the rune¡¯s box of influence¡ªor in this case probably something more akin to random shape of influence. If Myles had to guess, the¡­

    A tap on his shoulder came accompanied by Mercy¡¯s voice. ¡°You better keep eating if you want to finish.¡± With a blush, Myles turned back to his food, and his fork which was still poised midair. He would have time to look at the flares on the road, but right now, he really wanted to finish his breakfast.

    Dresden continued describing the flares even as Myles returned the majority of his focus back to his food. He described how each of the four flares produced a different color, yellow for caution, used to warn another group that a monster¡ªor other target¡ªwas coming in their direction. The flare which was a cylinder with three fins was supposed to be placed on the ground before you folded in the fins such that they were touching the cylinder. After a few seconds, it would launch into the air, its direction determined by which fins you folded in. In the case of the yellow flare, you were supposed to launch it in the direction the target had left in.

    The other three flares would produce red, blue, and green light respectively. The red flare was reserved for more dangerous threats, and was a warning used to inform other groups to avoid a dangerous threat. The blue flare was used to request reinforcements. The green flare was used to indicate a completed objective, or the start of an operation.

    By the time the explanation was finished, Myles had finished his breakfast and was busying himself strapping on his equipment. The leather harnesses he and Jane were using to carry the shuriken construct, and the batteries it needed had been made by Silas and Mercy working together. Silas¡¯ family had come from a family of artisans, and he knew his way around leather. Mercy may not have had the same training, but Silas had claimed she had somehow accomplished more than he had.

    Either way, for having put them together in a week, they were impressively comfortable to wear. They were not, however, the easiest things to get on. They required quite a bit of loosening and tightening of straps.

    As he worked, Myles shot a few last looks at the constructs. The fins were each marked with two runes that resembled evocation runes, and the cylinder itself seemed to be marked with a hybrid between a containment rune and a conversion rune. If Myles had to guess, the rune on the cylinder would convert pure mana into light and force mana which would then be used to launch the construct and produce the color needed.

    All too soon, the whole group was ready and moving again. Garax quickly fell out of sight behind them, and not long after, the walls of Hydrabridge came into view. The group gave it a wide berth. The last thing they wanted to do was spend time there answering awkward questions about what happened a month ago.

    After Hydrabridge passed them by, the road they followed became more rugged, the hope lamps they had become used to became far more uncommon. As they reached the top of an especially large ridge, a line of impossibly large rock stared them down.

    The group, with the exception of Dresden, stopped in their tracks, just staring in awe at the structure that stretched into the clouds and ran the width of the horizon. ¡°The scar.¡± Silas whispered as the rest of them stared wordlessly.

    Myles had learned about the scar of course, he had even seen it on maps, but seeing it in person, even at a distance was something words or scratches on a map could do no justice to. It was twin mountain chains that cut an uninhabited lane across the entire province, and according to legend, extended across the entire continent, further than even the reach of the entire Perralin empire.

    Myles looked at it, and remembered the image Reah had shown him all those months ago, a flickering tree made of light mana, and burning with eternal black and red flames. He remembered the roots he had seen in the depths of Hydrabridge that had given birth to monsters, and he knew that tree had to be nestled away from the world, hidden from view in the scar.

    A chill wind blew across the top of the ridge, and the group hastened down its other side. The terrain here was worse than anything they had seen before, and their pace slowed considerably. Loose rock, sometimes the size of boulders, but usually much smaller than Myles¡¯ feet covered the ridges that pressed in around them. The ground beneath their feet was better, but not by much.

    Twice, the group had to take detours where the road had been covered by an avalanche of shale. Around them, they could hear the occasional unnerving growl or call that the whole group assumed to be distant monsters. Despite that, none approached them for some time.

    It was Kate who gave the shout of alarm. Unlike yesterday when every time a monster had intruded on them, a signal had been given that it was a minor threat, today that signal did not come, instead a different signal came. Kate twisted her hand upwards, revealing her whole palm, the signal for all hands prepare.

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    Myles nervously prepared himself, thickening the flow of his commuted armor, and moving the tiny amount of lightning mana he had been able to delve around in his new aether well, making sure he was prepared to evoke it. As he did that, the shuriken construct shot off the harness, and into his hand. A battery from his bandolier made its way into the construct, and a moment later, pure mana poured out around it. Another battery found its way in as Myles squeezed down on the handle, rotating into a neutral space.

    With himself, and his weapon primed, Myles began evoking wind mana in the direction Kate had indicated. He felt his wind mana impact on four separate forms. The first three were relatively small, a little bigger than ogren, but not by too much. Whatever his wind mana was hitting on them didn¡¯t feel like fur, or any kind of hair. It felt much harder, firmer. The three monsters were moving at speed behind the ridge, clambering over stone with ease, heading behind the group.

    The fourth form was much larger and headed to flank their group from the opposite side of the other three. For most of the beast¡¯s body, Myles felt that same hard sensation. Around the creature¡¯s stout tail though, he felt something else, a strong source of mana of a type he was familiar with. Ice.

    ¡°One Tobu-Sudaven and three lesser Sudaven!¡± Kate called out. From the center of the formation, Seth nodded his agreement.

    Kate pulled to a stop, turning to the group, sending a few stones around her feet skittering off in the process. ¡°Tobu-Sudaven are dangerous hunters. Expect their claws and teeth to have ice mana commuting around them. Their tail is the real danger though. Get hit by that, and you¡¯re done for.¡±

    The group nodded, already moving into position. From their position in the center of the group, Seth led Jane and Mercy on a charge backwards, aiming to cut off the three lesser beasts¡ªor rather raptors. As the lesser sudaven crested the ridge, Myles realized the hard substance his wind mana had hit was scales, and the monsters ran on two legs with another two being used for balance and tipped with sharp claws.

    His attention was pulled away as a high-pitched clicking came from in front of the group. And Myles moved into formation with Kate and Silas. ¡°When you get a chance, stun it, but don¡¯t expect it to be as effective, the Tobu-Sudaven is naturally resistant to the cold.¡±

    Myles nodded, acknowledging Kate¡¯s advice. Their goal here was going to have to be slowing the monster down. They needed to give Kate enough time to use the spear she was carrying. It only had one shot, and while all three of them had delved out the start of a new aether well with offensive mana, the amount they could actually evoke was pitiable¡ªmaybe enough to wound but not much more.

    The clicking grew in pace as they finally caught sight of their opponent. The lesser Sudaven may have been raptors, but this monster was far too large for that term to feel fitting. Its huge tail alone was longer than Myles was tall. An icy vein ran through the center, ending in a spike of ice that Myles felt could be flying at them with a twitch of its tail.

    Kate turned toward the threat, calling one last piece of advice. ¡°It can use wind mana, so don¡¯t expect any attacks from behind to catch it by surprise.¡±

    Myles cursed, and moved forwards beside Silas, picking out a path along the most stable rocks he could find. The Tobu-Sudaven started the fight by smacking its tail into the ground. The vein in its tail glowed brightly with ice mana, and when it hit the loose rock in front of it, that ice mana exploded outward, launching a wave of stone and ice.

    Myles and Silas responded by evoking a thick wall of pure mana that stopped the attack in mid-air but drained a huge portion of their aether wells. Silas peeled off to one side and used a particularly large and stable stone to leap high into the air, coming down on the monstrosity¡¯s tail with a well-executed falling javelin. As he did, Silas also evoked a ball of water mana at the point of impact. The result was a blow that knocked its tail downward, setting the Sudaven off-balance. The ball of water mana froze in place, wrapping the tail with a trail of ice.

    A claw swept towards Silas, but he moved into the iron turtle right as he landed, accepting the blow with a sizeable shell of pure mana. It was barely enough to hold, and Silas¡¯ tenuous footing gave way beneath him.

    The creature¡¯s balance was already recovering, and its tail arched over its head, preparing to launch that ice spike at Silas¡¯ prone form. Before it could though, Kate jabbed forward with her spear. With an astonishing feat of agility, the monster stepped out of the way, and Kate was forced to abort her thrust, barely avoiding unleashing the fireball she had been about to launch.

    As a result of the dodge, the beast¡¯s tail rapidly moved back down, spinning. Myles shouldn¡¯t have been visible to the monster at the time, but he felt wind mana hitting him, and even as the giant raptor turned to dodge, it turned the movement of its tail into an attack.

    It was muscle memory that saved Myles. Before his mind had time to react, he fell to the ground, falling under the tail, and landing with his palms against the rough rock. He used those palms, twisting the strength of his whole body to push himself back up and clinch his legs around his opponent¡¯s tail. Normally, he was intended to throw whatever he clung to in order to finish the twister counter, but this monster was too big for that. Instead, Myles twisted sideways, using his whole body to wrench the tail in a painful direction.

    The beast gave a pained clicking, and Myles recognized he was about to be thrown. Ice mana from the tail rampaged, digging into the commuted armor around his legs. Myles let go quickly, but not before evoking the entire contents of his lightning mana well at the base of the tail. The Tobu-Sudaven cried out again. Myles didn¡¯t have much lightning mana, and it barely even breached the creature¡¯s scales, but the base of the tail was not a comfortable place to be given a sudden shock.

    The monster reeled, and Kate took advantage, thrusting at its head with her spear. It again dodged away, but this time, Kate¡¯s speed let her keep up, drawing her thrust short, pivoting, and sending her foot moving in trajectory to catch the fleeing head. With that kick came a plethora of force mana, and it all crashed into the beast¡¯s skull with a hefty thud.

    The monster, clearly swaying on its feet, bent its powerful legs. Before Myles could properly react, stone shards burst from the ground. If Myles hadn¡¯t been commuting pure mana armor, he would¡¯ve been skewered a dozen times over. As it was, the fragments stopped at his skin, none of them leaving so much as a scratch.

    The great monster landed a dozen paces away, its distance allowing it to shake off their attacks and regain some composure. Myles didn¡¯t give it much time, evoking a trail of pure mana, and squeezing the handle of his construct. With a shout, he threw the shuriken with as much strength as he could muster.

    At the same time, the beast twitched its tail, the massive spike releasing and flying towards Silas. Myles and Kate both contributed their pure mana, and together with Silas, they built a wedge of pure mana in what could only be described as a tactic inspired by Reah¡¯s unconventional fighting they had all suffered from over the last month.

    The wedge wasn¡¯t enough to stop the spike in its tracks, but because of the shape, by the time it punched through, it was out of alignment, tearing through the commuted mana around Silas¡¯ arm and leaving a bloody, freezing streak instead of impaling him through the chest.

    A cloud of sound mana exploded from the shuriken, consuming much of the beast¡¯s head. The ice mana didn¡¯t do much, but the sound mana was still able to stun the beast, its claws automatically swiping at the sides of its head. It was enough because an instant later, a massive fireball, fueled by a whole month of spare pure mana, barreled into the creature, decimating it in an instant.

    Kate ran over to help Silas, grabbing a pack and pulling out various medicines and bandages they had purchased in Maston. Myles turned to the other fight that was unfolding behind him.

    Two of the lesser Sudaven were on the ground, brutal spear wounds indicating their cause of death. The last was pressing Mercy who was snake stepping backwards, struggling with her opponent¡¯s speed, and dodging flashing teeth and sharp claws all accompanied by the glint of ice mana.

    Myles stepped forward to assist, but it was Jane who arrived first, crouching into a palm thrust that the lesser sudaven somehow dodged. A claw swung out at Jane, but it was redirected to the side by a bit of pure mana. The monster which had put its full body behind the strike whipped past jane who shot her elbow back, smacking into the back of the thing¡¯s head with a burst of a very specific subtype of earth mana, basium mana.

    The raptor fell to the ground, the back of its head a mess of blood. Seth quickly stepped in, putting the monster out of its misery with a thrust from the spear he carried.

    The group took some time to recover, allowing Dresden to step in and scout their surroundings for more monsters using his wind mana. Silas had been given the only injury of the fight, and Kate continued his treatment. Seth and Mercy worked on extracting the cores while Myles and Jane went over the damage to their resources.

    The two batteries Myles had expended from his bandolier were able to be refilled by the ogren cores they had picked up yesterday, and Kate¡¯s spear got everything that was left over. Even using every core they had picked up, the amount of mana in the spear was a big loss. It would still have enough mana in it to do some damage, but if they wanted an attack like what had killed the Tobu-Sudaven, they would need to rely on Seth¡¯s spear.

    Unfortunately, all the cores they gathered from their downed foes were ice mana, useless for refilling the reserves of the flame spear, and because of the way they had built the shuriken construct, useless to that as well. Still, they loaded those cores in a pack. You never knew when excess mana might come in handy.

    Once everyone was ready, and Silas was properly bandaged, the group left again, pushing forward towards what they knew would be a tense night.

 Chapter 71

    Chapter 71

    Highway to Nowhere

    The Voidlands north of Hydrabridge

    The night set around a fatigued group as they trudged along a road that was growing increasingly rugged and unfriendly with each passing step. There were no towns or villages for them to stay in here. The heart of the province was ironically lacking almost any civilization, so they trudged on, none of them wanting to sleep in the middle of the voidlands.

    Their destination was a small village near the base of the scar that grew food for the small handful of military bases that ran across the mountain range. The village, Emanfall, had been experiencing raids from bandits for years, a consequence of its remote surrounds which made for a perfect hideaway for army deserters as they dodged the mandated death penalty that came with their actions.

    That was all a full night and most of a day¡¯s trek away though. The group ate as they moved, and Dresden pulled a pack of nuts from his own bag to share with the group. ¡°These are Cessnog nuts. They have something in them that helps you stay alert.¡±

    The nuts were passed around, and after a little while Myles felt his fatigue pushed back somewhat. As the night dragged on and got darker and darker, there was little chatter, but hands patted backs as the members of the group passed each other. Every time the group that was dragging rotated to the center of the formation, high-fives were exchanged, marking their progress. All of it helped alleviate the fear.

    They were attacked about once every two hours, but thankfully none of these monsters posed too much of a threat. In one of the fights, Myles picked up a handful of bruises after being knocked from his feet and into the loose rock that seemed to cover everything. Some of the others suffered minor injuries from a pack of cinderwolves whose fireballs had lit up the night. Still, they were managing themselves well enough.

    The attacks would have been far more dangerous without their newfound skill with wind mana. Even with it, fighting with low visibility was difficult and prevented anyone from growing comfortable. Myles would have liked to collect the monster cores, but there was simply no way they could without better visibility.

    By the time dawn was near rising, they had grown used to constant monster calls. Roars, eerie clicks, and howls regularly cut through the landscape. Myles didn¡¯t think he could be bothered by it anymore. He was wrong. ¡°AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi¡± The sound resounded across the ridge, echoing everywhere, a sound too human for a monster, but too inhuman to have ever come from a person¡¯s throat. Myles felt a strong arm grab him from behind and tug him under the shadow of a ridge, practically tackling him.

    Dresden did the same for the others, evoking light mana when they had all huddled together, using what was almost certainly a technique to make the whole group invisible. It suddenly felt like Myles was entirely alone, the only clue that the others were still here was the steady rhythm of fearful and confused breathing.

    ¡°AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi¡± The laughter made Myles¡¯ heart seize in his chest. There was a hysterical madness reigned in and controlled by a deep melancholy. ¡°AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi¡± From the top of the ridge, rocks fell, bouncing against those below, rolling through cracks. A dark green foot, barely visible in the thick night hooked the ridge above with clawed toes.

    A dense pressure came over him¡ªwind mana, not something imagined¡ªbut of the kind he had only felt when Primrose had demonstrated her skill. Myles felt that they would be noticed for sure, but he didn¡¯t feel a single particle of wind mana bounce off his commuted armor. Another moment passed and then the green foot unlatched, and the pressure stopped. Dresden gave a strained cough, and Myles gave him his silent thanks.

    Slowly, the laughter receded. Nobody moved until it was completely gone. Finally, Kate whispered, her voice hoarse. ¡°What was that?¡±

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    Dresden stopped using his technique, and Myles¡¯ friends appeared before his eyes. ¡°That,¡± Dresden said his voice scratchy, ¡°was a goblin, and there is precious little you should fear more.¡±

    ¡°That was no monster.¡± Seth said, his hands on his knees. ¡°It was too human. The way it evoked wind mana, it had thought behind it! Discipline even.¡±

    Dresden shook his head sadly. ¡°It was human once, probably still has some in it too, but it doesn¡¯t have any will left.¡± Dresden¡¯s lower lip curled down in a half-snarl. ¡°It¡¯s just a husk, cursed to leap at its master¡¯s command.¡±

    Myles thoughts drifted to Reah. He knew she had become an arcaner earlier in life than she should have because she had spent her life exposed to the burning tree, and he guessed that had something to do with her higher connections. He didn¡¯t think she¡¯d been born with that like Kate had. From the sounds of it she hadn¡¯t been the only one exposed like that. Myles had assumed that the rest had just been killed by monsters, but¡­

    ¡°AGhighighihihi.¡± It was distant, so distant now. Myles shivered.

    The night turned to day, and among the broken landscape, they kept going, eating Cessnog nuts in liberal quantities to stay alert. The monsters attacked with a vengeance as if they knew the group was nearing their destination.

    Mercy and Seth got in a vicious fight with what Kate identified as a Ratarna. It was a grotesque, bloated rat that seemed to peel out from the side of a cliff they passed underneath. The pair had fought well, but other rats, each equipped with sharp teeth had climbed from the Ratarna¡¯s folds, threatening to overwhelm them with numbers. Jane had eventually been forced to step in and use three different batteries to stun the entire horde. The whole group had participated in the cleanup.

    The small rats had cores too small to be worth harvesting, but the Ratarna itself had given a sizeable core of pure mana¡­that had been promptly spent refilling the batteries they had expended.

    It was nearly evening on the second day when they reached Emanfall. The first thing they saw was a large plume of flame rising into the sky¡ªtoo large to be normal. The exhausted group popped more Cessnog nuts in their mouths and ran.

    There are so many of them. Those were Myles¡¯ first thoughts. The flame was a bonfire which had been set up outside a graveyard to give a place for the grieving community to gather. Around it, men and women sobbed out names, and a child hollering endlessly.

    A priest of Deprios went from person to person, offering what comfort he could, and making notes that Myles knew would eventually be carved in stone, promises to the dead, vows to uphold what they had held dear. Myles felt his own eyes grow wet as the scene brought memories of Father Oswald putting a sympathetic hand on his shoulder before he left for the catacombs to inscribe his vow into his mother¡¯s tomb.

    This wasn¡¯t just the funeral of one person, it was at least a dozen, probably more. A long line of bodies were laid out on the ground, each carefully covered by a cloth. The work of the sister who bore watch over them no doubt.

    Myles felt out of place, coming to Emanfall like this. On top of two of the bodies, blue strips of cloth were displayed respectfully. Beside him Myles heard Jane swallow hard.

    An old woman who had been tending to the bonfire moved in their direction, motioning them to meet her away from the grieving. ¡°Do you seek shelter?¡±

    Dresden nodded to the woman, the rest of them struggling to do much of anything. ¡°For now, we need rest, but not for long.¡±

    The woman nodded, leading them down a path. Walking across the ground, Myles realized it was the first fertile soil they had seen in hours. They followed a thin strip of it down into a rock formation, a set of cliffs that kept opening until they found themselves in a basin of sorts. Through a crack in one of the cliffs, water poured out, running along the ground for a time before slipping back into the rock on the basin¡¯s opposite side.

    Along that waterway and throughout the basin, crops grew everywhere¡ªnot just in the fields¡ªthe supports for homes did double duty as trellises, allowing vines laden with fruit to wrap around them. On roofs, further gardens had been set up. The only paths to get around were the patches of stone that nothing could grow on.

    The group wound their way around the village. The small barracks that the old women led them to was maybe a dozen paces from the entrance, but it took them nearly a minute to traverse the maze to get there.

    The old woman smiled at them as they looked around in amazement. ¡°It¡¯s quite a place isn¡¯t it. We grow everything we can. We end up eating plenty of it, but plenty more we trade to the soldiers who guard the scar.¡± The old woman¡¯s voice grew hoarse as they passed a patch of greenery that had been turned to char. ¡°Two nights ago, bandits came for us with torches and swords in hand. They cut and burned our people just the same as the plants.¡±

    They soon came to the barracks themselves which stood eerily empty. The only building without foliage on its roof, since it had a watchtower instead. Dresden looked at their guide. ¡°I have to ask¡­¡±

    The old woman had tears in her eyes. ¡°The two who lived here were like family to us all. They were outnumbered six to one, yet they didn¡¯t hesitate. They gave their lives, and they stood until every bandit had fled.¡±

    ¡°If only we had come sooner.¡± Dresden lowered his head in a practiced motion, and Myles lowered his head as well though he couldn¡¯t match Dresden¡¯s form. He wasn¡¯t sure that was a bad thing, but he admired the man¡¯s strength regardless. Myles had been lost from the moment he had seen that smoke.

    The old woman left them with mumbled words of forgiveness. ¡°Living here, we know what we¡¯re getting into. We still find worth in that.¡±

    The woman¡¯s words rang hollow and sad in Myles¡¯ ears, but he could think of nothing to say. The group ventured into the barracks and found enough beds for all of them. Dresden dropped into one of the beds, and Myles followed suit. He nearly fell asleep on the spot, but he noticed one set of footsteps climbing the stairs. After a moment, Myles pulled himself to his feet and followed.

 Chapter 72

    Chapter 72

    The Barracks in Emanfall

    The Shadow beneath the Scar

    Footsteps climbed the watchtower of the barracks, and Myles followed even though he was exhausted from staying up for two days straight. It was crazy behavior that no one else would follow. Myles almost laughed at himself as behind him, he heard another set of footsteps, then another, then another, then another, then another.

    Myles reached the top to find Seth sitting on the banister, his feet waving over the open air. He hopped up and joined him. Beside him, Jane sat down, then Silas, Mercy, and Kate all joined in, sitting in a line on the wooden banister, kicking their feet in the air.

    Seth gave a slight grimace. ¡°You guys are too much.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jane asked.

    ¡°It just, it¡¯s a lot¡­.¡±  Seth kicked the banister. ¡°I used to live in a town called Keryngrove. I worked for the noble family that ran the place, and they all died.¡±

    It was the type of succinct explanation Myles would expect from Seth, the guy who more than any of them always approached things logically, leaving his emotions aside.

    ¡°They weren¡¯t always the best; they certainly didn¡¯t make everyone happy. They had a hand in every business, everyone¡¯s life. Between that and training, they did little else. I know because I was responsible for arranging their schedules¡ªthe eldest son¡¯s at least.¡±

    Myles started. He hadn¡¯t been expecting his friend to elaborate more. He¡¯d thought they¡¯d just sit here for a bit and give him their company.

    ¡°One day, monsters rushed into the town square. I was with Galan at the time¡ªthe Lu family¡¯s eldest¡ªwe were taking inventory of some harvest numbers.¡± Against Myles¡¯ arm, Seth gave a slight tremble. ¡°Ogren, Cinderwolves, Vexenaught, and others climbed through a massive hole. Galan shoved me behind him and told me to run, but I only made it as far as the other villagers¡±

    ¡°Seth.¡± Mercy was sitting on Seth¡¯s other side and gave him a hug which he gave little reaction to.

    ¡°Galan. His younger sister. His younger brother. His father. His mother. They all gave their lives in that square, and only they died.¡± Seth¡¯s voice had a hint of pride in his voice as he finished, his words getting quieter and quieter. ¡°I didn¡¯t know how much of an honor it was to serve them until it was too late. I didn¡¯t want to serve another family.¡± Seth paused, swallowing hard. ¡°I left that life, and everything I had grown up knowing. I was afraid I¡¯d never be capable of doing something genuinely good. After seeing this,¡± Seth gestured towards the flame that was still visible, shielding the grief-stricken from the chill evening air. ¡°I want to protect the innocent. I want no other innocents to die.¡±

    ¡°I still don¡¯t want to kill them.¡± Jane looked down at the charred ground. ¡°What those bandits did was horrible, unforgiveable, but¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­they¡¯re not the same as monsters.¡± Myles finished for her. He pictured the foreman far beneath Hydrabridge who had believed he was fighting for his fellow miner¡¯s freedom. ¡°People aren¡¯t monsters. When they do evil things¡­when they take action against someone else¡­¡± Myles trailed off, having trouble completing the thought, his mind an exhausted mess.

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    Kate jumped in as if it was planned. ¡°¡­they do it because they can only see the good, the good they want to be doing.¡± Kate shifted on the banister ¡°, or they don¡¯t want to do something, but they¡¯re afraid of what happens if they don¡¯t do it.¡±

    Silas shook his head, feet held steady. ¡°I don¡¯t know that we have a choice. Its not as if we can capture these bandits. I don¡¯t even know if we can kill them. They¡¯re arcaners¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­and I refuse to let any of you die.¡± Mercy looked each and every one of them in the eye. ¡°We only show mercy if we can. No matter what happens, we all come back alive.¡±

    One by one, everyone nodded in agreement. Myles took a pause, looking around at his friends and nodded as well. He still wanted to save whoever he could, but he wasn¡¯t about to leave the responsibility he had been given here, and he wasn¡¯t going to let any of his friends die.

    The whole group was about to get up when the banister gave a loud crack. Trained for months, and having spent days in the voidlands at constant risk of attack, the six of them reacted right away, taking the optimal route away from the danger¡ªand they all leaned back, falling to the floor in a pile.

    A moment later, while they were still pulling themselves from the floor, Dresden burst through the door. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Are we under attack? Did the bandits return?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t especially funny¡ªobviously¡ªbut at the look of alertness and fury on Dresden¡¯s face, the group started rolling around on the wooden boards, shaking with laughter. A bittersweet expression came over Dresden¡¯s face as he told them to ¡°get their butts in bed.¡±

    ¡­

    The next morning, the group woke up late, but alert. ¡°Alright. Tomorrow morning, a green flare will be sent up by Primrose.¡±

    The group gave a start. Kate, busy turning a sock over in her hands, looked up and summed up the group¡¯s feelings.  ¡°Uh¡­what?¡±

    ¡°The bandits we¡¯re tracking aren¡¯t the only ones hiding out here, and we¡¯re fairly sure they¡¯ve been given the means to communicate.¡±

    ¡°Given¡­¡± Silas muttered. ¡°Given by Paulo.¡±

    ¡°Yes. That¡¯s the idea in any case.¡± Dresden cracked his neck, and proceeded to stretch out, his body apparently stiff from the unfamiliar bed. ¡°The rogue imperial aurora has been instigating trouble in this area wherever he can.¡±

    ¡°Alright. So, we need to be ready to attack when the green flare goes up. Which means we need to find these bandits before tomorrow morning.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right Mercy.¡± Dresden nodded. ¡°One thing to add before we head out. I¡¯m sure you already know this, but any kind of arcaner is dangerous in a fight. You have more training than these bandits will have, but they have more experience, they have you outnumbered, and they will show plenty of resourcefulness once they are put into a corner.¡± Dresden scratched his head. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m here to even the odds, but I¡¯m focused on stealth more than outright combat. If things go bad, I may not be able to save you. Use your training. Don¡¯t let things go bad.¡±

    The group agreed, but Myles couldn¡¯t keep his hands from getting a little sweaty. He knew what he was doing, the previous night had helped him sort out his feelings on the matter, but actually doing this was not going to be easy. It was going to be dangerous.

    ¡­

    The late morning air whipped past the group, and Myles felt the enormity of their task on his shoulders. It was only as he stared out from the gate of Emanfall, across a solid surface of rock that ran for miles that he realized how hopeless their task was. Find them by the next morning¡ªthey¡¯d be lucky to find them with a full year to search. Its not as if Dresden was about to lean down and give them all a lesson on tracking. There were no tracks. Outside of Emanfall, everything was solid stone.

    Dresden leaned down, staring at the ground, and for a moment, Myles thought he was somehow going to point out some kind of scuff mark or maybe reveal to them all the wonders of scent mana¡ªsurely that wasn¡¯t a thing. Instead, Dresden just gave a sigh. ¡°Well, Primrose was right as usual, there is no way I could hope to track anyone here.¡±

    The group sagged a little, but Dresden wasn¡¯t done. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing we brought along an expert then.¡±

    Myles looked around unsure. Kate and Seth had both been given some training in tracking, but they weren¡¯t exactly likely to pick up a trail here.

    ¡°Kate.¡± Dresden put a hand on her shoulder gently. ¡°I know this is going to come out sounding bad, but I also know that Reah has been working with you. The only way we¡¯re going to find anyone out here is with your higher connection.¡±

    Kate looked around her in a slight panic, but she took a deep breath, in and out. She closed her eyes, frowning, then that frown became even worse. After a moment she raised her right hand the whole group held their breath, expecting her to point. Then she slapped herself hard. A sob came from her.

    ¡°Kate!¡± Silas was rushing forward at once.

    ¡°Reah trained me every day for two months. She walked me through everything step by step.¡± Kate kicked the ground in frustration. ¡°She even talked to me a little about her own higher connection, what it meant to her. I know I can do this, I want to do this, its just a little pain, nothing like I¡¯ve experienced before¡­¡±

    Dresden shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m calling this. We¡¯ll have to find another way. I¡¯m not about to torture you to make this mission easier.¡±

    Kate whirled around and glared. ¡°Not¡­happening.¡±

    The group stood there, unable to do anything for what felt like minutes. Eventually, Kate¡¯s knees locked, and her whole body went ramrod straight. Slowly, her arm extended, pointing to the northwest. ¡°Found them. All twelve of them. Can you imagine, every single one of them has some scrape or bruise. Why can¡¯t anyone be a little bit considerate?¡±

    Kate led them unerringly. They had to skirt around the occasional cliffside that blocked them, but it still took barely an hour for them to find their prey. In a cave that they quickly confirmed only had one exit, the bandits sat around their camp, chatting barely a mile from Emanfall.

 Chapter 73

    Chapter 73

    Bandit Camp

    The Voidlands near Emanfall

    Myles felt his stomach eating itself. Not from hunger, they had plenty of rations to last them as they staked out the bandit¡¯s camp. It was nerves, horrible, horrible nerves. Hidden on top of the cliff the bandit¡¯s cave was set into and only blocked from view by a few boulders, they were close enough to ensure none of the bandits abandoned camp by the morning. But that also meant each moment was tense. They couldn¡¯t justify talking about anything except essentials, and their plan had long been laid out.

    The night ticked by so slowly, it felt like it would never end, like they would be stuck waiting for morning for years, afraid of making any noise. Even still, the hours moved along. As the sky began to get lighter, the pressure Myles felt grew and grew.

    ¡°There it is.¡± Kate finally whispered.

    In the dawn¡¯s light, a pillar of green light cut through the sky, visible even across miles of terrain, toned red from the sun¡¯s rise. In the background of that light, the mountains of the ravine rose closer than Myles remembered them being.

    Myles turned around and made the movements he had been preparing for the last several hours. He sped over one of the boulders, reached the edge of the cliff and then dropped. Normally, the fall would be too far to come away from without injury, but as they fell, Dresden evoked a thick sheet of pure mana beneath them.

    Myles made sure to adjust the pattern he was commuting armor with to ensure the soles of his feet were clear of pure mana. The last thing he wanted right now was to start slipping. They landed directly behind the bandit¡¯s sentry who had been pacing for the last few hours and was staring at the green light in the sky.

    Primrose had been adamant about them learning to commute mana at all times; the sentry had not learned the same lesson. The moment Dresden landed; he drew the curved blade at his side and drew it across the man¡¯s throat. The sentry staggered on his way to the rough almost clublike sword he¡¯d left leaning against the cave mouth, falling in a pool of his own blood. Dresden hadn¡¯t even used any mana.

    It was at that point that Myles started evoking wind mana. Inside the cave, he felt not the sleeping forms they had been hoping for, but a group rushing for weapons, commuted armor already spinning up. That didn¡¯t change the plan though. A dozen paces in, the cave¡¯s entrance narrowed into a tight bend that limited how many could rush in at once. It was probably why they had chosen the place as a hideout.

    Unfortunately, the bend was only defensible from the bandit¡¯s side. If they rushed to the bend to seal their opponents in, they would be met by a series of murder holes and traps. And so, they were at a stalemate. The bandit¡¯s little fortress gave them an advantage, so they were shuffling around in there, ready to defend it, but Myles¡¯ whole team could use wind mana, and none of them were foolish enough to charge in.

    The stalemate could have lasted days, but Dresden had other ideas. Myles dropped the pile of brush he had spent much of the previous day gathering onto the ground in front of the entrance, and the others followed suit. Leaning down, Dresden used a spark of fire mana to set actual fire to the brush.

    They didn¡¯t need to worry about what direction the smoke was going. With the amount of wind mana the group was evoking into the cave, there was an almost palpable breeze, and it took the smoke right into the cave, and down to where the bandits were positioned.

    They hadn¡¯t been sure how long the bandits would choose to last in the smoke, but the answer was not long. Myles could feel through his wind mana as one of the larger bandits raised his thick sword, motioning for the others to follow him.

    It was a quick decisive choice, and the bandits rallied together behind this leader. For Myles and his friends, this was the worst-case scenario. They had been hoping their opponents would come out coughing and wheezing, instead when they emerged from the smoke it was with a coordinated charge fueled by war cries.

    The first few moments were chaotic. Dresden evoked a mighty fireball, launching it at the charging bandits as they pulled out the cave entrance. A solid wall of pure mana was the response, dulling most of the attack. Some of the flame still bled through, licking at commuted armor, evaporating and thinning defenses. A particularly dense gout of the remaining flame reached clear through the mana around one of the bandit¡¯s legs. The woman fell to the ground with an anguished cry, but quickly began pulling herself to her feet.

    At the same time Dresden had launched his fireball, six of the bandits evoked their own much weaker attacks. Dresden, with impressive awareness, was able to manipulate the two fireballs out of the way, but four bolts of force mana whipped past him.

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    One of those bolts came right for Myles, and unable to dodge, he was forced to evoke nearly a third of his pure mana to cover himself. The bandits continued their charge, and Myles was forced to snake step to the right. That step caused a blade to miss, and a man, maybe four years older than Myles staggered past him. Dropping down with a practiced motion, Myles swept the man¡¯s leg before he could recover.

    Another bandit, this one with a scraggly beard, swung his blade at a low slant from the side. Myles never would have blocked the attack if he was fighting with just his eyes. With the information from his evoked wind mana though, he was able to shift position into the iron turtle just in time to block the attack, evoking more pure mana in the process. The scraggly man wasn¡¯t bothered, his other hand curved around, accompanied by flame mana and struck Myles in the stomach.

    The heat was awful, melting his commuted mana there to nothing. Thankfully, that took most of the flame¡¯s strength, but a crawling sensation on his skin meant some made it through. That was a lesser concern compared to the fist that followed, knocking the wind from him, and lifting him into the pure mana he had just evoked to block the man¡¯s sword.

    As he was rebounding back to the ground, Myles heard the start of a shout in Jane¡¯s voice. ¡°Myles! Your¡­¡±

    At the same moment, something was disturbing the wind mana to his left, and he could see a shock of bright, blond hair coming at him quickly. Myles evoked more of his pure mana which he was rapidly running out of to block a thrust that stopped mere centimeters from the side of his head.

    ¡°¡­ears!¡± Jane finished.

    It took Myles nearly half a second to process that, in which time, he evoked two more chunks of pure mana, rapidly draining his mana well. The first guided a second thrust from his blonde assailant to the side. The second went into a thick shield on his right aimed to block a follow up slash from the bearded man. The blade stopped again, but the man¡¯s offhand shot forward once more, seizing around Myles¡¯ throat. Fire mana melted the defenses around his neck, and by the time he registered Jane¡¯s warning and pulled pure mana over his ears, the heat had chewed through most of his reserves.

    A cloud of something rocked his pure mana with force, and the grip on his neck loosened. Myles pushed backwards, and then felt the expected cold, digging through his remaining wisps of pure mana in places.

    The scraggly bandit fared much worse. His mouth was opened wide. When the sound mana hit, the shock of it must have collapsed his commuted mana because his beard was coated in patches of frost. Myles could see blood dripping from one of the man¡¯s ears. Only his eyes moved, peering between Myles and the hand that had fallen unbidden to his side.

    Myles moved forward partially out of instinct partially from fear-fueled anger, his body moved the right way, drawing him into the first step of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist. With a twist, he brought his palm into the man¡¯s throat, evoking lightning mana as he did so. The man¡¯s eyes stopped moving and grew dim.

    A sick feeling came over Myles, but he shoved it down. Beside him, a foot and a whole load of evoked basium mana slammed into his blonde attacker¡¯s head, caving it in.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Jane¡¯s voice shook like crazy.

    Myles gave her a brief nod. He didn¡¯t really feel okay, inside or out, but the fight wasn¡¯t over. The man who Myles had knocked down earlier had been shielded from most of the shuriken¡¯s effects and he was levering himself to his feet.

    Beyond him, Dresden was fighting off three attackers of his own, including the woman who had been burned earlier. A body lay nearby¡ªone of the bandits. Silas, Kate, and Mercy were exchanging blows with another two bandits in close quarters while Myles saw Seth being pounded from two directions by force bolts.

    ¡°You¡¯re not using your cursed toy again.¡± The man, pulling himself up from the ground, kicked the shuriken construct behind him. ¡°Let¡¯s see how tough you are without it.¡±

    The answer was not very, and Myles could tell the man knew that. His commuted mana was thick around him, and Myles and Jane had no answer for that. His lightning mana was spent along with the vast majority of his pure mana. Jane had most of her pure mana still, but not much they could use offensively.

    The man swung his blade in front of him, and Myles retreated backwards. Jane tried to make a break around him, but the man launched a small force bolt at her, and she snake stepped away. Myles tried to snake step to the side, but the man predicted it, swinging his blade like a club, evoking enough force mana to break through what little pure mana Myles had left. He would¡¯ve died then and there if Jane hadn¡¯t evoked her own pure mana to his defense.

    The man let out a focused growl, moving to cut Jane off again. She ducked under his attack, moving into a leg sweep, but the man wasn¡¯t off-balance this time, and he let his commuted pure mana absorb the blow without a problem.

    Another blow came down, and Jane dodged out of the way again. She wouldn¡¯t be able to do that for long though. Myles thought over his options, desperately, but he didn¡¯t have many. All he had was wind mana, and the few scraps of pure mana still commuting around his body.

    Jane used her pure mana to divert the bandit¡¯s blade and sent an elbow into the back of his head. This too was absorbed by commuted armor. A moment later, she took a force bolt to the leg and cried out. It was then that Myles stopped commuting the last of his pure mana, instead evoking it, not in Jane¡¯s defense but in a thin bucket around the man¡¯s head.

    Plunged into darkness, the man frantically tore the bucket apart with force mana, but Myles was already making a dash for the shuriken construct. He barely made it in time. The man¡¯s stride was much longer than his. He launched force bolts, but Jane poured what had to be all of her pure mana into evoking a series of barriers.

    The moment he felt the wooden grip in his hand, Myles spun around, yanking the construct up in a guard. The bandit¡¯s blade slammed into the shuriken¡¯s, hitting with force mana behind it. Myles clutched the grip, holding on for all he was worth. The pure mana running around the construct proved sufficient and the blade was stopped.

    From the harness on his chest, Myles loaded a battery into the construct, intentionally choosing the one he knew was lowest on mana. He waited a second, an eternity with sword blows raining down on him. The pure mana being commuted around the construct was his only lifeline, and with each blow, more and more of it vanished. With a squeeze, Myles moved the handle into position. More sword blows rained down, and the pure mana flickered and gave out.

    Right before the final blow landed, the loudest noise Myles had ever heard rang in his ears, then he was overcome by cold. His muscles just paused. He tried to command them, to move them, but nothing happened. Across him, for the second time in as many minutes, Myles saw a bandit stunned and frozen in place centimeters away. He heard a crunch and a thud, and the bandit was gone.

    It took nearly a fifteen count for Myles to start regaining control of his body. When he did, he turned to look at the rest of the fight but by then, it was already finished. All that was left was the burning brush that had somehow been kicked around the whole area, and the bodies of broken bandits.

    His friends were scorched, bruised, and bleeding, but they were all alive. Myles fell to his knees.

 Chapter 74

    Chapter 74

    Bandit Camp

    The Voidlands near Emanfall

    When Myles fell to his knees, he shut down. His stomach hurt badly every time he shifted, but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to check on the burns. Frost still lay in patches on his skin, but he didn¡¯t have the energy to find warmth. His eyes just bored into the ground, with vaguely defined thoughts bouncing around his head, each carrying emotion, but no substance.

    ¡°Dead.¡± Myles heard from somewhere, and he managed to lift his head up. Dresden kneeled down next to another bandit, a young man with distinct amber¡ªalmost yellow eyes, checking for a heartbeat. ¡°Dead.¡±

    Dresden made his way around what was until recently a battlefield. The pulse of each bandit was checked and every time, there came the pronouncement of ¡°dead.¡± Myles didn¡¯t track Dresden¡¯s progress with his eyes, but he could still tell the exact moment when he kneeled down next to the man with the scraggly beard. ¡°Dead.¡±

    Myles sank deeper into himself; his thoughts grew more violent. Guilt wracked him; his own thoughts berated him.

    Eventually, Myles was brought back around by someone placing a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Show me.¡± Kate commanded.

    Myles pulled his ruined tunic up, exposing his stomach.

    ¡°It could be worse.¡± Kate gave a breath of relief, ¡°Silas pass me the burn ointment?¡±

    Myles hadn¡¯t even noticed his best friend standing there, trailing behind Kate with the pack that held all of their medical supplies. ¡°Are you two alright?¡± The words left Myles¡¯ mouth without him thinking.

    ¡°Better than you are. They just rushed you¡­¡± Silas choked up a little. ¡°Thank goodness you took that onslaught so well.¡±

    ¡°It could have been worse,¡± Kate said, her face fierce as she spread ointment across Myles¡¯ burns ¡°, but it¡¯s not good. If Jane was even a tiny fraction of a second late in responding, your burns would have been worse than I could do anything for.¡± She patted him on the back. ¡°I have no idea how bad that frost is for you, but it can¡¯t be good.¡±

    Myles nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll try to get warm then.¡±

    Near the cliffside, Jane and Mercy had started a little fire. Seth sat propped against the rock, his expression pained. A thick bandage was wrapped around the two fingers on his right hand. As Myles approached, he waved it gently. ¡°Messed up my hand.¡±

    From across the clearing, Kate called out. ¡°Your finger¡¯s broken! You won¡¯t be using that hand for at least a month.¡±

    Seth grimaced as he put weight on his left leg, but he stood up, only for Mercy to press him back down. ¡°Take a minute.¡±

    Myles had to agree. Seth was covered in bruises, and his commuted armor was effectively gone.  Not that any of their group had much mana left.

    Myles collapsed there by the fire, all of his dormmates eventually joining around. At one point, Dresden took a flare, placed it on the ground and launched it straight into the air. A line of green stretched from the ground into the sky. Mission success. It didn¡¯t feel like they had been successful to Myles.

    Dresden wandered away a distance, and shortly after, there came the loud sounds of rock breaking. He¡¯s digging a grave, Myles thought, at least we can do that.

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    The process went quickly. It wasn¡¯t a large grave, or a nice one, but at least it was something. Myles pitched in, working with Silas to gently move the bodies one by one, placing them into the ground. When they were all neatly ordered, Dresden gave their whole group a nod and dropped an enormous slab of stone on top. ¡°Well, that¡¯s that.¡±

    ¡°What about their final wills, should there not be vows made.¡± The words burst from Myles unbidden, and he knew they were wrong before they left his mouth. How could they know the final wills of these people, they didn¡¯t know them. All he knew was that they had fought for their lives, but that will, he and his friends had been forced to deny. If they hadn¡¯t Myles told himself, there would have been more graves to dig in Emanfall. It didn¡¯t make things feel better.

    Myles felt Dresden¡¯s arm wrap around his shoulder briefly. ¡°I¡¯m proud of you.¡± Dresden said. ¡°All of you. Something like this is never easy, but what you did had to be done.¡±

    The group filtered back to the campfire, and they watched green flares appear one after the other, each seeming a distance away.

    ¡°There should be one more.¡± Dresden murmured.

    They waited and waited, but no flare came. Then, nearly two-thirds of an hour after their own flare had been sent up, a line of blue arced through the air from the east. It came towards them, and the whole group watched as its arc finished just north of them.

    Dresden began looking around before Myles could process what the blue flare meant. It came to him as he felt Dresden¡¯s appraising gaze roll over their group. A blue flare meant a request for reinforcements.

    ¡°We¡¯re in good enough shape.¡± Dresden turned to the dormmates who were still reeling from their experience, bearing wounds, and still recovering the last of their mana. ¡°Barely.¡±

    Once the decision was made, they moved quickly. Myles had his harness back on in under a minute, and he clipped the shuriken construct to it. Kate and Silas were equipped with the two spear constructs since Seth could no longer wield one with his broken finger. Both of the constructs had been used in the earlier battle.

    As they ran, Myles and Jane worked to replenish the spears, moving mana from their remaining batteries into them. It was a balancing act. They kept two batteries each fully charged. If they were fighting more bandits, they would need all of their constructs operational.

    The spears themselves had much less mana than they would have liked, but there was only so much they could do. There was only so much mana to go around.

    They reached the point where the flare¡¯s trail had ended without incident, and there was nothing there. The whole group went tense. Myles looked around them for places someone could hide, but they were on a flat sheet of rock, nothing around them. His wind mana picked nothing up¡ªwait that wasn¡¯t true. He felt something, and it felt like it was materializing from nowhere.

    ¡°We¡¯re not alone.¡± Dresden called and the whole group turned to the west. Some twenty yards away, the shape of a human figure was slowly coming into visibility.

    From Myles¡¯ right, Jane whispered in his ear. ¡°I really don¡¯t like arcaner¡¯s that use light mana.¡±

    Myles nodded, but his head froze when he recognized the form in front of him, and his hand went to the handle of the shuriken construct. Two swords hung from the man¡¯s belt, well crafted, and made in s distinct style. Looking up, instead of a face, there was a mask, eerily familiar to Rufus Lance¡¯s, but this was not the minister of education checking on how his operation was going, this was the Ivory Force, enforcer for a criminal organization, and more recently murderer.

    The man held up his hands. ¡°I¡¯m not here as your enemy. I came to provide my sword arm because to be frank, where you¡¯re going, you¡¯ll need it.¡±

    Dresden practically snarled at him and reached for the curved blade at his side. ¡°What do you know!¡± Myles pulled the shuriken construct clear of his harness.

    ¡°Wait!¡±

    The voice cut through the situation, and as one, the dormmates paused, accustomed to listening to that voice in training. All eyes moved to the east where a familiar figure was moving towards them. At first, Myles thought Primrose had chosen to wear some bizarre fashion because her clothes were dyed in red and purple. A moment later he realized it was all blood. ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to turn down assistance, no matter what kind of scum it¡¯s offered from.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Dresden asked.

    Primrose cursed at her feet. ¡°I was with Reah as planned. We took out the bandits, and as we expected, old man Paulo came out to play. We were ready for him, but not the small army of goblins he brought with him.¡±

    Myles was taken aback. The white tiger. That was the nickname he¡¯d heard. He knew she was a former imperial aurora, just like Paulo, and beneath Hydrabridge, he¡¯d seen how powerful, how skilled of an arcaner he was, but that goblin had terrified Myles. The pressure had been so much. There was no possible way all of that purple blood had come from¡­

    ¡°I chewed through them, but Paulo took something from his pocket, and Reah just collapsed.¡± Primrose looked at Dresden square in the eyes. ¡°I would swear he had a clipping from that bloody tree. By the time I¡¯d put the children out of their misery, he was running off this way.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been too soft.¡± The ivory force growled from behind his mask. ¡°I despise taking lives, but I do it when it¡¯s needed. Your ¡®Reah¡¯ has been a threat to the whole continent for years. Now the tree wants its own emissary. I don¡¯t need to tell you why we can¡¯t have another Salen, no matter the cost, do I? Are you prepared to get your hands dirty, and do what¡¯s necessary?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Myles pushed into the conversation. He didn¡¯t understand exactly what was going on¡ªwhat children Primrose had put out of their misery, but he wasn¡¯t just going to sit by as a criminal tried to convince someone he admired to kill his friend.

    ¡°The boy¡¯s right.¡± A new man, decked out in light metal armor coated with runes, sprinted towards them breathing hard. After a moment Myles realized he recognized him as the paladin they had run into in Maston. Had he been with one of the other groups? ¡°If we kill the girl, then we would be committing a travesty.¡±

    Primrose raised her head to look at the new arrival. ¡°If the church is willing to help with this, I won¡¯t complain, but we have to move now. We¡¯ll take sin¡¯s mine, and¡­we¡¯ll do what we have to.¡±

    With that she took off running and left everyone to follow after.

 Chapter 75

    Chapter 75

    Entrance to Sin¡¯s Mine

    The Base of the Scar

    As Myles and his dormmates fell into line with the group, he was feeling distinctly helpless. Everyone here was leagues stronger than him and his friends were. From Primrose to Ivory force to the paladin that ran alongside them, and even Dresden. Fighting together, Myles doubted he and his friends could put up much of a fight against any of them. What use did they even have here? He might have stopped running and just turned around if Primrose wasn¡¯t sounding like she was prepared to murder Reah.

    ¡°Should we really be taking them along with us?¡± Dresden asked, gesturing towards Myles and his companions.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Primrose spoke, her voice brooking no doubt. ¡°We¡¯ll need every scrap of strength we can muster to deal with Paulo, and we can¡¯t slow down. If they can drag for us, even for a little bit, it¡¯s worth risking them.¡±

    The Ivory Force gave a grunt of acknowledgement. ¡°Kate¡¯s going to be especially invaluable if we want to track down Paulo and Reah. We¡¯re not likely to even find them otherwise.¡±

    Myles clinched his fist at the murderer¡¯s words. The man knew Kate¡¯s name and was practically demanding she do something she very much had trouble doing.

    ¡°Myles, Silas, and Jane¡­can you three drag for us.¡± Primrose spoke the command with uncharacteristic gentleness.

    Myles peeled to the outside of the group¡¯s formation as he ran, starting to evoke wind mana around them. He felt his mana interacting with Silas¡¯ and made sure to keep his own in a tighter sphere. The last thing they needed right now was for him to let go of his focus.

    ¡°Do you see that darker spot in the rocks?¡± Dresden asked, pointing as he ran towards one spot at the base of the enormous line of mountains they were charging towards.

    Myles gave his acknowledgement. ¡°I see it.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the entrance to Sin¡¯s mine.¡± Dresden spoke as he ran, words coming out quickly. ¡°Fair warning before we get there, the place was refurbished a few years ago, and you¡¯re going to find some of the decorations disturbing. Stay on your toes anyway. The place serves as a pass into the scar and its going to be filled with monsters.¡±

    Myles nodded, but Silas had a question of his own. ¡°If it reaches into the scar, and I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s where the burning tree is, why wouldn¡¯t there be a military base there. Wouldn¡¯t we want to keep the monsters from breaking out.¡±

    Primrose spoke up. ¡°There is, Silas, but¡­¡±

    Before they could speak further, there was a flash of fire, and a series of what looked like huge explosions. They were too far to really see what was happening, but their view was unimpeded. The flashes lasted for about a minute before they died down.

    ¡°They lasted longer than I expected.¡± Dresden whispered, emotion lining his voice. ¡°We can¡¯t let that courage go to waste.¡±

    Myles kept moving forward, overwhelmed by the sight that was getting clearer and clearer. The base was in ruins, buildings set aflame, and walls torn to pieces. Nearly eight minutes after the explosions, they reached its cobblestones.

    There were maybe a dozen people here, and everyone Myles saw was beyond helping. Several of the soldiers were slumped over large aether constructs which were clearly intended to be pointed at the pockmarked wall that dwarfed the base but had somehow been rotated to point in the opposite direction. It was clear they had put up quite a fight, but their opponent was Paulo.

    ¡°We¡¯re pushing through.¡± Primrose gave the command, and Myles ran on.

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    They passed into the mine, and immediately came across a horde of monsters some fifty strong¡ªa horde of dead monsters. Each wound Myles saw was delivered directly to a vital spot. There was a minimum of carnage, and yet, every monster lay dead. The efficiency of it was startling.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope they slowed him down.¡± The paladin cried as they ran through.

    They weren¡¯t even through the carnage when Silas shouted out. ¡°We have incoming¡ªOgren¡ªat least thirty.¡±

    ¡°Keep them off us.¡± Ivory force snarled. ¡°We can¡¯t afford to slow down.¡±

    Myles peeled off to the right and started feeling the ogren with his wind mana. They were approaching in small packs from just about every side tunnel he could see. Myles scowled, realizing the group wasn¡¯t going to get clear in time.

    The first pack of ogren that made it into their tunnel made straight for Dresden. Myles had to sprint at them to cut them off. Even still, some of them were just going to run around him. The moment stretched on, and Myles came upon an idea. He applied that bit of inspiration immediately, evoking a thin patch of pure mana on the ground. Without slowing down, he ran right onto that mana, leaving his commuted armor around his feet. As expected, he slid, so, when he stopped to execute a leg sweep, he didn¡¯t stop, slipping straight into the pack and bowling them over.

    Dresden and the rest didn¡¯t stop, beating a rapid pace in pursuit of Paulo. Through his wind mana, Myles could tell that Silas and Jane were still here with him, but they were busy handling ogren on the other side of the tunnel.

    Instead of righting himself from the spin, Myles pulled the shuriken construct from his harness, and executed a palm thrust¡ªor rather a modified version of a palm thrust that plunged one of the construct¡¯s spikes directly into an ogren. That was one monster down with another four getting back to their feet in this pack, and at least one more pack coming.

    Myles changed the pattern of his commuted armor, removing the mana from the soles of his feet. The pure mana surface he had created still felt odd since it was absorbing the impact of each step instead of acting as a proper floor surface. Fortunately, the ogren had to deal with the same problem, and it slowed them from getting up right away. Myles took advantage to deliver another palm thrust, killing another of the beasts.

    The three remaining monsters struck with a fury, but Myles snake stepped between and past them. Before they could recover from their charge, Myles leaped into the air, twisting tightly, and landing feet first into one of the creature¡¯s heads. It crunched beneath his foot. Upon landing, a quick leg sweep sent the two remaining beasts to the floor again. Before he could press his advantage, the second pack arrived. Warned by his wind mana, Myles was able to awkwardly spin away and retreat, but now he had seven ogren moving to surround him.

    It was at this point that Myles was forced to rely on his commuted armor. He just didn¡¯t have a better answer for dealing with so many at once. Horns and tusks chipped away at his mana as he moved through the group. One ogren leapt at his throat and Myles evoked a tiny slip of mana to redirect it past him. He launched the arm holding his shuriken backwards and drove a spike into its neck.

    The fight continued with Myles employing all of his skill and training to take as few hits as possible and deliver precise attacks in turn. The number of monsters slowly dwindled, and thankfully, others didn¡¯t rush in to take their place. By the time Myles straightened up after delivering one last palm thrust, his pure mana well which had just finished replenishing from the fight with the bandits was down by a third.

    Silas and Jane were both finishing with their opponents as well though Myles did give Jane a hand. Silas had a spear, so, he was able to kill the beasts without much difficulty, but Jane was effectively unarmed, so, she¡¯d only been able to take down some five of the beasts.

    It felt like minutes had passed since the fight began, but in reality, it had only been about thirty seconds. As the last of the ogren fell, Myles looked up, and he could see the rest of their group disappearing around the corner in the distance.

    Myles, Jane, and Silas moved off in pursuit. It was grueling, the pace the group was moving at was already quite fast. Trying to catch back up after having just fought a veritable horde of ogren stretched Myles and his companion¡¯s endurance past its limit, but they forged on, their breath coming in ragged heaves.

    They didn¡¯t come across the entire group when they rounded the next corner, but Seth and Mercy were fighting another pack of ogren and a pair of cinderwolves that had apparently found them as well.

    Mercy must have been given the spear that Kate was carrying, because as they approached, she snake-stepped around a fireball from one of the cinderwolves and finished it off with a spear gleaming in her hands. For his part, Seth was showing why he was considered the most skilled of the dormmates as he fought off four ogren, a fifth already lying broken, largely without the use of a hand.

    As they passed them by, Jane peeled off to provide support, but Myles and Silas just ran straight through. Another bend, and the main group still wasn¡¯t in sight. They did see a poster though, the same variety that Myles remembered seeing as a child for teaching basic things like the alphabet. This poster wasn¡¯t for teaching the alphabet, instead it had pictures of a child hiding from a variety of monsters with one showing a child evading a pack of monsters by climbing roots that were depicted with a familiar looking red and black flame.

    In the same area, there were dozens of sleeping pallets stacked on top of each other with plentiful red stains. Surrounding all of that was a metal fence with three locks secured to it.

    ¡°Deprios,¡± Myles muttered as he passed.

    As they maintained their sprint, they came across hundreds more pallets and Myles¡¯ feeling of sickness increased even more. He imagined Reah, as a little girl, curling up in one of those pallets, trembling, waiting for the next time she was forced to march into the scar. Had she done everything that poster had shown, hiding from monsters here¡ªclimbing among the roots and branches of the burning tree¡ªthe very source of monsters, her only defense, her ability to hide.

    Primrose had spoken of putting children out of their misery while she was covered in purple blood. With every palette, and every poster they passed, Myles grew more certain. So many children had died here, taken from their families, from where Myles had no idea. Those who died may have been the lucky ones. That goblin they had seen, Dresden had said it was human once.

    Myles was gripped with anger, anger for what must have happened here, but also with the terrible fury that Reah had made it through all of this, and somehow lived. Lived, and now she was being taken back.

    The fury kept Myles going, and as they rounded another bend, Kate and the rest came back into view.

 Chapter 76

    Chapter 76

    Sin¡¯s Mine

    The Base of the Ravine

    A roar, deeper and more intense than anything Myles had heard before shook the stone overhead as Myles and Silas finally pulled even with the main group.

    ¡°We¡¯re about halfway through.¡± Primrose commented. ¡°We have to keep pushing. We must get to Reah before Paulo gets her to the tree. If he does, it will be too late.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re still in the mine I think.¡± Kate said against clenched teeth. ¡°Reah¡¯s hurting. She¡¯s hurting in a way I¡¯ve never felt before.¡±

    Nobody spoke on that, just continuing to rush forward. Heavy breathing was coming from the entire group now, and Myles had a stitch in his side that was hurting with every step. That was just compounded by the burn on his stomach, and his other minor injuries. He tried to put all of that out of mind and just put one foot in front of the other.

    At one point, a single ogren ran at them, hissing ruthlessly, and Myles had to step aside and deal with it. It was telling about his condition that the effort to catch back up was the bigger concern rather than the brief fight.

    On and on they ran, and Myles¡¯ feet began to ache from repeatedly smacking into the smooth, carved stone. Silas peeled off to deal with a monster on the other side. They rounded bend after bend, and the roar they had started hearing only grew.

    ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong, then that¡¯s an Urfernal.¡± Primrose spoke smoothly, apparently barely short on breath. ¡°Dresden if it comes to it¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll split off and deal with it.¡± Dresden said, his own voice interwoven with some light strain.

    Myles didn¡¯t have to wonder what an Urfernal was for long. As they turned another bend, they came into a large cavern with daylight on the other side¡ªor at least what Myles took for daylight. What actually came through was corrupted. Sure, it was light, but that light was tinted a dark red and sometimes it curled unexpectedly into shadows.

    In the middle of the cavern was the biggest monster Myles had ever seen. It had the look of a bear, but its muscles were proportionally far bigger than they should have been. Its dark fur was covered in what looked like some pale oil with globs of it condensing into spheres at random points. Its eyes were shaded in fire and lit by shadow in a pattern that reminded Myles very heavily of the roots he had seen eternally burning beneath Hydrabridge.

    On its right flank, by its foreleg, a green hand ending in long, clawed fingers swirled around the fur. Myles tracked the claw back, looking at the purple¡ªnot tattoos, but designs, or maybe veins, since they were beneath the skin¡ªthat glowed, refracting against the floor. The stylized veins extended up its arms, beneath its plain shirt, and then out to the base of the goblin¡¯s neck. From there Myles¡¯ eyes moved up to the young face¡ªit was a girl around his own age. Everything about her face was human except for the eyes which matched the behemoth beside her closely.

    ¡°You¡­seek¡­to...interfere¡­as¡­usual.¡± The girl¡ªno goblin said, pure mana moving out and around her in a pattern distinctly like commuted armor. The commutation didn¡¯t quite work as it should though with some of the mana tearing away from her, bursting into sparks of flame that shriveled into shadow. ¡°Humanity¡­is¡­ever¡­obstinate. Always¡­forgetful¡­that¡­you¡­live¡­for¡­our benefit. Your¡­friend¡­will¡­be¡­an¡­emissary¡­of¡­peace.¡± The goblin coughed into its hand producing blood, the muscles in its throat writhed, seemingly repairing themselves.

    A second passed before the Urfenal moved, opening its massive maw. ¡°THE BETTER¡­TO¡­EXERT¡­MY¡­WILL. MY¡­GROWTH.¡±

    A drop of sweat rolled down Myles¡¯ spine, and he realized he and Silas were the only ones who had stopped moving. Primrose, Ivory Force, the paladin, Dresden, and Kate, with Primrose¡¯s hand pulling her along, had all charged straight ahead, ignoring the two-headed monologue.

    As he watched, the entire group became invisible. The Urfernal moved with terrifying agility, blinking back to cover the mine¡¯s exit and swinging a massive paw in front of it. The paw hit something invisible, and one of those pale spheres burst into flames that Myles could feel across the cavern. The paw rebounded off of whatever it had hit¡ªMyles couldn¡¯t tell with his wind mana¡ªcrashing into the wall with an explosion, sending shrapnel everywhere.

    A burst of force mana went off under the goblin¡¯s feet, and its fist moved forward towards the empty air with a flash of flame-riven shadow. It impacted against something, and a moment later, the light mana bled off Dresden¡¯s form as he became visible again, bent around the goblin¡¯s fist. Fortunately, Myles could see plenty of pure mana between the fist and Dresden.

    Myles took one of his two remaining batteries from his bandolier, loading it into the shuriken construct. As he did, he ran forward, circling around to the right side of the cavern.

    Dresden¡¯s leg came up, trailing a heap of force mana, and the goblin leaned back, bending at the hip until her hands touched the ground. Dresden¡¯s attack missed and the goblin returned fire with more force mana, and a kick of her own that took her somersaulting backwards. Dresden raised his arms in a guard, commuting a ton of pure mana into them that absorbed the kick. He was still pushed back by the impact¡ªright into the path of the urfernal¡¯s descending maw.

    As the urfernal¡¯s jaws started closing, Myles squeezed on the handle of the construct, ejecting the battery onto the ground, and rotating the handle to activate the commutation function.

    Dresden pushed his arms out with a blast of force mana, resisting the closing jaws for a brief moment before blasting himself clear of the behemoth¡¯s descending bulk with yet more force mana. As the beast slammed into the ground, some of the pale spheres along its stomach burst with fiery explosions that shook the whole cavern. More shrapnel exploded out as the stone floor was blown to pieces.

    Myles shifted the handle of the shuriken construct into a set of nocks without a function and loaded his last battery in. His only shot for contributing to the fight had to be the goblin. Myles motioned to Silas who nodded, ready with spear in hand.

    As Dresden flew away, the bulk of the Urfernal blocked him from the goblin¡¯s view. He threw a hand up mid-flight and evoked what looked like two boxes of force mana, stitched together with a thin layer of pure mana, clearly a technique of some kind.

    The two boxes soared over the Urfernal until one of the boxes bored through the pure mana, hitting the other box. The two boxes sharply changed direction, forming into one big bolt of force mana that rammed into the goblin from overhead, catching her unawares. Myles saw it break right through her pure mana, slamming into her shoulder. Myles let out a silent cheer.

    With the amount of force mana in that bolt, Myles knew his shoulder would have been blown into pieces along with most of his body, but the goblin was clearly made from something else, its shoulder merely vibrated from the impact, popping loose from its socket.

    Still, it went to the ground in pain, focusing its efforts on putting its shoulder back into place. Dresden was busy dodging blows from the Urefernal as it threw its bulk at him however it could, but Myles saw an opening. Rotating the handle of the shuriken to the stun function, evoking a line of pure mana, and throwing with everything he had.

    Myles threw the shuriken from the goblin¡¯s blind spot, but she must have been evoking wind mana around herself because she spun around, bringing her good arm around awkwardly to swat the shuriken out of the air with a burst of force mana. It wasn¡¯t enough though. The force mana tore the pure mana apart, but there was a lot of pure mana. The commuted armor covering the construct came from a battery charged with more mana in it than Myles¡¯ entire aether well held.

    The shuriken continued on, its course unbothered by the huge blow it had taken. It careened right at the goblin¡¯s head before exploding with sound mana that turned into ice mana. Just like the bandits, the goblin¡¯s commuted armor dropped the moment it lost its focus from the thunderous sound, leaving it defenseless as the mana turned into ice. The goblin dropped back down to one knee. Its muscles tried to move but faced with a sudden drastic change in body temperature, the muscles just seized up instead.

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    Silas was there just as the goblin fell to her knees, thrusting his spear forward right into her chest. He used the same footwork they had drilled time and time again for the palm thrust. As the spear pierced the goblin¡¯s skin, Silas activated it, unleashing a massive fireball. As he did, Myles evoked all of his lightning mana, sending it right at the goblin¡¯s head. He felt it strike home.

    Rest in peace, he thought, feeling more sadness than accomplishment. You deserved better.

    Myles turned back to the Urfernal which was still pursuing Dresden as he focused all his efforts on escaping its grasp. Even as Myles watched, Dresden evoked a series of the same technique he had used on the goblin, each blasting away from him. As he threw himself backward to barely clear a swing from the beast¡¯s arms, all of the techniques changed direction at the same time, crashing into the monster¡¯s thick neck from six or seven different directions.

    The urfernal dropped, blue and black blood coming from its mouth. This time, Myles didn¡¯t keep his cheer to himself.

    The cry was hardly out of Myles¡¯ mouth before he felt three things happen with his wind mana. The first was three figures breaking through the edge of his wind mana as Jane, Mercy, and Seth all ran into the cavern. The second was the goblin standing up with a quarter of her torso missing. Strands of muscle moved around, rapidly reattaching themselves. ¡°Aghighighihihihiiii¡± The goblin laughed, her eyes burning, and her voice dripping with hysterical pain. The third was the urfenal.

    It propped itself up with its forelegs, pushing its maw wide, and breathing a firestorm. The flames rotated around the cavern, and Myles moved into the iron turtle, evoking massive amounts of pure mana to defend himself. The fire mana evaporated his defenses, and Myles hastily evoked more and more.

    By the time the fire let up, the whole cavern was aflame, Myles¡¯ pure mana well was sitting below a third full, the goblin had blasted herself at Mercy with force mana, and all of the pale oil that was in the Urfernal¡¯s fur was now burning with intense flame, turning the massive monster into a moving fireball, a moving fireball that had grabbed Dresden in its jaws.

    The goblin reached Mercy while Myles was still recovering. Mercy reacted well, dropping into the iron turtle, but the goblin wasn¡¯t aiming for her. She swiped out with a hand surrounded by force mana. All of the tremendous force smacked into the haft of the spear Mercy was holding. Unlike the shuriken construct, Myles and Jane hadn¡¯t thought to add a commutation function to the spear, so all of that force smashed into the construct.

    The spear construct flew from Mercy¡¯s hands, flying across the cavern. Myles watched it go, saw it bend on itself from the force of the blow. Will it still work? The question ran through Myles¡¯ head as the spear clattered against the cavern wall. He wasn¡¯t sure. He thought it would. Most of the evocation functions were in the head of the spear not the haft, but the whole spear was warped, the boxes of influence from each rune might not be pointing at the right place anymore. Even if it did work, Myles knew, the construct would be junk afterwords.

    All of that ran through Myles¡¯ head as he charged at the massive flaming behemoth. It was a simple calculation. He might die right here and now from running at the thing. The entire remainder of his pure mana would barely be able to survive the intense blaze that surrounded it, a single hit, even a glancing blow from one of its paws would spell a very grisly death for him. On the other hand, every one of them was guaranteed to die if they couldn¡¯t save Dresden.

    Dresden struggled in the beast¡¯s jaws, using force mana to push back, manipulating the flames it tried to breathe on him, so they spewed out its nose instead. The fire that burned around the beast chewed into his pure mana with every passing moment though. Dresden couldn¡¯t manipulate that because it wasn¡¯t fire mana, it was actual fire fueled by that pale oil in its fur.

    Myles raced forward, and Silas came by his side. Before Myles could even think of a plan, Silas¡¯ commuted armor grew thinner and thinner, until it was gone. What are you doing, Myles thought in a panic. Oh right. A moment later, commuted mana ran along Silas¡¯ skin again, but it wasn¡¯t pure mana, it was water mana.

    The commuted mana was much thinner around Silas than it had been before. The reason for that wasn¡¯t hard to grasp. Normally, Silas wouldn¡¯t have had enough water mana to even pull this much off, but he had taken the contents of his pure mana aether well, including his commuted armor, passed them through the channel he had delved through his aether space, and through the converter there. There would be loss there, Myles knew, but unlike his own lightning mana, water mana was a direct subtype of pure mana, meaning for every two units of pure mana he sacrificed, he would get one unit of water mana in return.

    Myles pulled to a stop just beyond the reach of the blaze that surrounded the urfernal. It was at that point that he stopped evoking wind mana. It was a tough choice to make. Wind mana gave him an invaluable extra sense, but right now, Myles needed all of the pure mana he could get, and like water mana, wind mana was also a direct subtype of pure mana.

    Even with the decent ratio of two to one, and a wind mana well that was still about half full, only a trickle of pure mana came through the connected channel and into his pure mana aether well. His wind well was simply much smaller than his pure mana well, a fact that he cursed.

    The urfernal, like most monsters, had little concept of strategy or restraint, so, instead of retreating, it moved forward. A massive paw swung towards Silas as he rushed in. The water mana that was commuted around him worked wonders as a defense against flame, but it was next to useless as a defense against anything else.

    Myles had nowhere near enough pure mana to block the urfernal¡¯s blow, but he did have enough to redirect it, just enough for Silas to slip through. Myles evoked a massive slip of pure mana, sending it not at the paw, but at the joint in the beast¡¯s foreleg. It was the same technique as Myles had spent hours training, the first part of the slip cutter, the tenth step of the core arcaner¡¯s way of the fist, just on a much larger scale. Unfortunately, that scale came with a much bigger cost, Myles¡¯ pure mana plummeted to below a tenth of his total, leaving him with dregs, but Silas was through.

    He bounded up to the behemoth¡¯s jaw, using footholds of pure mana, scraps he must have saved for this very purpose. The water mana around him boiled from the intense heat, but it was a highly efficient defense from the flames. As Silas reached Dresden, his commuted mana thinned slightly, and with a palm thrust upward, Silas evoked water mana right into the behemoth¡¯s nose.

    The beast cried out, its jaw loosening slightly. Dresden took full advantage of the change, pushing his way from the monster¡¯s jaws with a burst of force mana. He flew backward from the impact, grabbing Silas from the air as he flew.

    The urfernal roared its defiance, bodily throwing itself at Dresden. Silas scrambled away, his mana all but depleted. From his side, Dresden drew his curved blade, and as he did, a wall of force mana solidified in its wake. Solidified, not just appeared.

    Myles had no idea how that worked, but he was certain the mana came from the sword, not Dresden himself, meaning it was a construct, and one whose function Myles couldn¡¯t even begin to puzzle out. The urfernal¡¯s charge stopped cold, its enormous head slamming into the wall of force mana and rebounding back. Dresden began evoking more of that force mana technique he had used before.

    Myles turned away from the fight. There was nothing else he could do. Either Dresden would take out the urfernal, or they would all die. Myles and all of his friends together simply didn¡¯t have the firepower to even wound the thing.

    Near the entrance to the cavern, Jane, Mercy, and Seth were fighting for their lives. Force bolts spun out from the goblin, seeking their targets only to be stopped or redirected by one of Myles¡¯ friends evoking pure mana. His friends were being battered with no real offensive options available to them.

    Jane evoked a shield of pure mana over Seth, but a moment later it was broken through by the swing of a green arm. Seth dropped to the ground under the punch, landing his hands firmly behind his head with a grimace, and heaving himself back into the air. His legs locked around the gobin¡¯s neck, and he pulled through, using the muscles in his core to throw.

    The goblin ignored him, letting herself be thrown while flinging out force bolts. Most of the bolts were again redirected, but one found its way to Mercy¡¯s leg, and she fell to the ground with a cry.

    Myles clenched his teeth and pounded his way across the cavern towards where the shuriken construct was still laying on the ground, a thin veil of pure mana still moving around it. When he was steps away, he heard a warning from Jane. ¡°Myles duck!¡±

    Myles dropped to the ground, and a force bolt shaved across his back. He moved to keep running, but between him and the shuriken, there now stood a green figure, illuminated from inside by purple energy, eyes aglow with flames with a sad, almost pleading look on her face.

    Myles faced down the goblin with nothing but the dregs of his pure mana, and he did the only thing he could think of, evoking a long, thin sheet of pure mana, and leaping onto it, knees first. It had only been a few days ago when he had slid at Silas like this, and they had both wound up tumbling into walls face first. Since then, though, Myles had been through fight after fight and gained more combat experience than he had ever hoped for. Just a few minutes ago, he¡¯d used this odd characteristic of pure mana to slide through a pack of ogren, surely, he could¡ªMyles flipped onto his back as he reached for the shuriken construct.

    The world tilted upside down, then sideways, then well, Myles wasn¡¯t sure what direction at that point. He ignored all that, focusing on his arm, and the hand extended. He desperately grabbed out, and by some good fortune, his fingers found a wooden handle.

    Myles recovered, bounding up, construct in hand. A fist was flying at his face, force mana and sparks of black and red flying off of it. In the span of no time at all, Myles saw Reah running beside him on his first trip through the voidlands. He saw Kate returning to a wagon, her face an expression of pain, showing him the bundle of herbs that meant he would survive. He saw Silas beneath Hydrabridge, jumping in front of a massive monster, willingly putting his life at risk, knowing how much carnage it would cause to those living and working above. He saw Jane working beside him, building the construct that had saved his life more than once, a smile on her face, and he saw Dresden¡ªwait no. He actually saw Dresden in front of him, his sword moving, and blocking the punch.

    A moment later, he was gone, leaving a wall of force mana to block off a flaming hulk of muscles while manipulating half a dozen bolts of force away from him, and evoking focused shields of pure mana to block a flurry of punches. With each step, he sent more techniques into the air, and they formed a thick ceiling of their own, hovering over the fight ominously.

    Myles evoked the last of his mana into a thin cord of pure mana, and threw the shuriken, not at the goblin, or even at the Urfernal, but at his partner. Jane gave a start as she felt the shuriken flying towards her, but she didn¡¯t flinch. It still had pure mana around it, so, it wasn¡¯t like she would be impaled if she fumbled the catch. He didn¡¯t have to worry about that though. She caught it in her hand, popping in a battery as she did.

    The construct was already set to stun, so, Jane whipped it right back around, evoking another line tying it to the goblin who was still fighting Dresden.

    Before it could reach is destination, Dresden finally ran out of mana, instead of being redirected, force bolts pounded at his commuted armor. It held under the onslaught, and Dresden¡¯s techniques fell to earth, pounding the urfernal in one spot on its back until one of the bolts broke through, digging a hole right into the behemoth, and destroying its core in an explosion of mana. The goblin wasn¡¯t spared either, taking blow after blow that must have shattered the bones in its body.

    It blasted itself forwards with force mana though, one clawed hand curled with strength. Dresden evoked pure mana, but it was torn through. He moved his remaining commuted armor into a precise defense, but that too was torn through. And the clawed hand went straight through his chest.

    Not a moment after Dresden fell to his knees, the shuriken construct went off, and the goblin, her arm still being pulled from his chest froze motionless. From nowhere, Silas rushed forward, bent spear in his hands and rammed the twisted construct into the goblin¡¯s torso, unleashing another massive fireball. Mercy, Jane, and Seth all attacked with a fervor, unleashing mana at her.

    A tense moment passed, but the goblin didn¡¯t get back to her feet, and neither did Dresden. Myles rushed to his side along with everyone else there.

    ¡°Do me a favor.¡± The man grunted, blood coming from his mouth. ¡°When you get Reah back, when you get back...read this.¡± He reached into his jacket pocket, producing a letter.  With that, Dresden collapsed to the floor. His hands were cold.

 Chapter 77 [End of book 1]

    Chapter 77

    Ruins of the lost Capital

    Beneath the limbs of the burning tree

    Myles pulled away from Dresden¡¯s body, feeling intense emotion for the second time that morning. He couldn¡¯t put his thoughts into words, but right now, he didn¡¯t have to. He followed his friends as they moved outside of the cavern.

    As Myles left the mine, the first phrase that popped into his mind was: that¡¯s not possible. He was torn on where to direct that phrase though. One option was the pair of fighters that dueled in the sky. Another option was the horde of at least thirty goblins that were being held at bay by two people, but Myles¡¯ mind quickly settled on the tree.

    Calling the burning tree a tree was like calling a stone a mountain. In fact, the tree was handily bigger than the mountains that stood all around it. It would have towered over them if it wasn¡¯t burrowed down in a crater that itself probably could have fit several mountains stacked on top of each other.

    It looked like the tree was tens of miles away, but overhead, branches sent the shadows around them burning and writhing. Roots burst from the ground¡ªor rather the knee-high pile of ash that coated everything. The roots varied wildly in size; the smallest ones were as thick as Myles was tall while the larger ones were too large for Myles to fully comprehend them as the same thing he might trip over in a park.

    In the unworldly shadows and light, ruined buildings of elaborate design pierced the landscape, pushed up against roots; strewn along the mountainside.

    The worst were the pods, pulsating among the branches and roots of the tree like so many tumors. As Myles watched, a monster emerged from one of the pods high above, clawing and scratching its way through.

    Myles stepped out, his head swiveling at the sights. That was when the pressure hit him. It came from his aether space, or rather above it, as an outside pressure pushed and crept in. The pressure was subtle and slow, but it was a type of invasive that Myles reacted to instinctively, pushing back on it with a great deal of willpower.

    As they made their way down a steep slope, Myles began to see the fight in the sky more clearly. Unsurprisingly, it was Primrose and Paulo. They were surrounded by countless pieces of what looked like glass, some the size of boulders, others smaller than Myles¡¯ fingertips. The shards swirled around Primrose, serving as both a means of defense and offense. Every second, dozens of them clashed with the stones her opponent had evoked around himself. Between the two, blasts of fire, ice, water, and a half-dozen other things clashed. Leaping around inside that entire storm of techniques, the two former auroras fought hand-to-hand, faster and more skillfully than Myles could ever have dreamed possible.

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    Below them and further up the slope, the paladin and Ivory Force fought back the swarm of goblins while Kate struggled to make progress through the ash, slowly plowing up the slope with Reah thrown across her back, laboriously deflecting the occasional bolt of force that made its way towards her.

    Myles and his friends rushed down the slope, not to help fight of course. Even with full strength, they would have struggled to fight against one of the goblins below, and they weren¡¯t at full strength. They would probably struggle to block a single attack even if they all worked together. Myles¡¯ three aether wells were bone dry, not a scrap of mana in them. No, they rushed down that hillside, and helped Kate move Reah.

    Every moment out in the open was a grueling affair. Myles was already bone-tired and wading through knee-deep ash while helping to carry Reah was no easy feat, but the invasive pressure was so much worse than that. With every step, it drained Myles¡¯ willpower just to keep it away. By the time they¡¯d pulled Reah back over the threshold of the mine, and that pressure eased, Myles collapsed to his knees.

    Not far behind them, they heard the hysterical laughing of goblins mixed with the sounds of crackling fire mana, human shouts, and more than a few things Myles would struggle to describe. Even still, it took Myles a good long while before he managed to swivel his head around to take a look. When he did, he saw something large falling from the sky towards them.

    It didn¡¯t take long for Myles to identify what was flying at him. It was Primrose, moving at a pace that would kill him when she landed. As she flew, she left a trail of glass shards that knocked each of the techniques that pursued her out of the sky. Layers of pure mana began manifesting around her, slowing her descent into a controlled fall until finally, she landed on her feet, sliding backwards into their midst and evoking a titanic shield of pure mana over the entrance even as Ivory Force and the paladin made their own fighting retreat inside.

    Myles made to get to his feet again, but he stumbled, his legs feeling weak and lethargic to his commands. Then something gave and Myles found himself falling towards the ground, his vision narrowing in on itself.

    ¡­

    ¡°We stand here in memory of Dresden Vangar, in the hopes that the wisdom he gained in life, and the wishes he yet carries for those of us who remain be honored. We stand here that his greatest will for each of us may become a part of us.¡± Sister Liza¡¯s kind voice spoke, seeping into the small group of people in Maston¡¯s graveyard.

    Myles felt the words wash over him, a letter lying open in his hand. In his throat, a lump the size of an apple refused to be swallowed down. He hadn¡¯t known Dresden long, but the man had been a warm, gentle hand on his back for every turn he had taken, and that hand hadn¡¯t left when the going got tough. It had stayed, and so, quietly, Myles made the third vow of his young life. One to my father who I never got to know, one to my mother who left too young, and one to a big brother whose protection never wavered.

    Myles looked down at the letter in his hand.

    You may have wondered why a mercenary given the highest recognition of skill from the empire itself settled down in a backwater province. As a soldier, I wondered the same thing, and unlike those with more sense than me, I asked her. For some reason, even though the questions of others had been turned aside, mine was answered. ¡®To cut down a tree¡¯ she told me. It took years longer before I approached the tree for the first time at the minister of education¡¯s side, but when I saw a little girl, curling up in his arms like it was her first time ever being hugged, and I saw an enormous city cast into ruins beneath its shadow, I sought Primrose out again. I never did learn why she had set a goal so misaligned with reality, but I gladly served as a blade for her to use to pry out what knowledge we could. This letter is my ¡®just in case¡¯ because all of you never agreed to be trained for what Primrose intends you to do. I made my decision, but you deserve to make your own.

    Myles mouthed his vow quietly, hearing murmurs from his friends who had all read the letter too. The words were a form of respect for the man who had fought and sheltered them, but each of them had thought them over for a long time. ¡°I vow to cut down that tree.¡±

    End of book 1