《Heaven's Awakening》 Prologue – A new beginning (edited) ¡°Quick, block him!¡± ¡°Damn it, are we going to fail here?¡± Though these words were said, nobody moved a muscle as if the whole situation lacked any urgency. Green flames swiftly coalesced in front of a prone figure''s raised left hand, aimed straight at the pope. The prone figure''s body was impaled straight through the chest on the ground. The thick armor encasing his body was horribly bent, cracked and burnt all over from multiple magical attacks from the intense fight that occurred before this figure''s current wretched plight. Arrows riddled his body and the figure had his right arm badly mangled. However, the prone figure had a cruel, gloating smile as the green flame shot towards his target. Suddenly, a wide man in simple brown robes appeared in front of the pope. The man contained the green flame that was aimed at the pope within a glowing purple sphere. However, the spherical barrier was unable to withstand and contain the immense power of the fire, shattering after a short moment of containment. With all the mana that he could muster, the wide man rapidly drew runes in the air with his mana and began to glow. A glowing purple barrier encased both the man and the fire within. This time, the purple barrier had hints of gold. The proximity of the flames prevented him from isolating the flames from his body. The barrier withstood the flames which started to consume the man as he was the only target within its range of destruction. The sorrowful voice of the pope resounded in the once grand hall that was wrecked from the intense fight that happened prior to this event. ¡°By the might of the pantheon, smite thy foes and bring justice to the fallen!¡± As the pope completed her plea to the pantheon of gods, a light shone out and a hallowed scepter formed out of thin air and smote the prone figure that shot the green flame. The sound of crushed bones, accompanied by a sorrowful wail, was followed by silence. The pope knelt beside the burnt and half-destroyed body of the man who protected her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried soundlessly and clutched the corpse. ¡°What is there to be sad for? That man was just an NPC buff slave. Whether he survived or not doesn¡¯t have any repercussions to the quest line does it,¡± someone muttered to his party members as if he had not seen the immense power that the man displayed to protect the pope. However, in the silence, his words were as clear as day. Incensed by the words, the pope glared through her tears at the person who muttered and roared, ¡°Fool! That was Gwydion, the wandering magus! The strongest magus to ever exist in this world! To dare say he was ''just a slave''! Oh my old friend, my dear old friend¡­¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The bunch of players were stunned. To think that the mysterious wandering magus... the strongest magus in this VR game was in their midst and they had absolutely no clue. Furthermore, with such a deep connection to the pope, the rewards that these players would receive for joining with the church to kill the 5th emperor of destruction, foremost leader and twisted extremist of the evil god, would surely be affected. There had also been the possibility of being rewarded by Gwydion himself. However, what was done, was done and could not be undone. Gwydion was dead and gone. No one could do anything once an NPC passed on. They could not be revived like players through spells or resurrect in towns. Meanwhile, all Gwydion could feel as he embraced death was a sense of victory. The look of fear that the emperor of destruction had as he saw the scepter of the gods appear was priceless. That, and he had managed to save his dearest friend from falling to the desperate sneak attack by the emperor. Moments later, just as Gwydion closed his eyes, a cry that seemed to originate from the depths of his soul sounded out. He heard faint mutterings in an unknown language followed by soft coos. Everything was a blur in front of Gwydion as he tried to move his seemingly paralyzed body, thinking he was headed to hell for not putting all his trust in the pantheon of gods. However, Gwydion immediately relaxed as he realized that steady but gentle arms embraced him. A warmth could be faintly felt from around him as he felt like he was being wrapped in a mother¡¯s embrace. ===== Author''s notes: Beginner writer here, and this is my first story. I have been lurking around royalroadl for a while and finally decided to make a fiction of my own. I hope this fiction is interesting enough. I accept criticisms, but please make sure that criticisms are constructive and not just the plain old "this sucks". Please make sure to mention what the heck sucks and what possible improvements I could make to allow you readers to enjoy the story better. If reception of this fiction is bad, I might just discontinue this fiction to save people from wasting their time on this fiction and to save myself from wasted effort. Please kindly leave a properly typed out review for reviews that are 3 stars and below. Otherwise I would think that the community reception for this fiction is simply poor and just stop writing this whole thing. Edit (07/05/2016): Added more details to make the prologue flow better. Slowly "rewriting" the story by refining it and adding more details as necessary. Chapter 1 - A new world (edited) For the first few times in between bouts of unconsciousness, Gwydion awoke in desperation and felt that same cry that reverberated throughout his body that had happened after his death. Each time, he felt a sudden exhaustion after the cries ended, causing him to sink back into unconsciousness. Gradually, he began to calm down when he awoke. As he did so, the crying seemed to have accompanied his desperation and died down when he calmed down as well. With regained composure, Gwydion decided to feel his surroundings with his mana sense as he could not open his eyes for some reason and was also unable to control his limbs well. Deep in a meditative state, Gwydion was ecstatic to feel the abundant and pure mana that fluctuated throughout his surroundings. Then, he used this sense to observe his body and realized that it was that of a newborn. Pure and unadulterated. He was not surprised by how clean this body was. All infants were like empty bottles waiting to be filled by the rich mana that surrounded them, resulting in their different affinities at adulthood unless specifically trained to handle all elements. However, despite having such a dense in the surroundings, Gwydion knew that his body could not handle anything beyond natural absorption of the surrounding mana. His body was too weak as a newborn. It was way too undeveloped. Therefore, he decided that the first thing that he needs to practice was getting used to his developing infantile senses and body to conquer developmental milestones, along with the ability to sense and control external mana. *** A year had passed since Gwydion''s discovery of his current plight. Gwydion steadily cleared his physical developmental milestones. It also turned out that mana sense and control was tied to his past self and he still retained his previous proficiency. He instinctively felt that his mana sense and control was tied to his soul. At present, while Gwydion had a mature outlook on life, his communication skills were abysmal. Due to clashes with his previous language, he had a hard time grasping the nuances of this new language and could not learn it simply by listening. He truly had to learn it from scratch. Gwydion had focused on language from 6 months old to a year old to reach his current language skill, which was the ability to say, at most, 3 to 4-word sentences that made sense. Over this course of time, he learned that his name was different from his original. He was called Braiten. His parents'' names eluded him because with the sweet undertones that they had when they called each other, he was sure that they were pet names or alternative names such as honey or dear. There was one time where he had called his mother in the exact way that his father had. Immediately, he found himself face to face with his father and his father made Braiten repeatedly call his mother, "mother" until half the day had gone by. Braiten''s parents were a loving couple. Perhaps too loving as they romped around the house and in front of a "sleeping" Braiten no matter the time of day and too often at that. Braiten was impressed by how active they were and the emotional connection that the too loving couple shared in their "alone" time. Besides the lustful display that Braiten had been receiving, he noticed that unlike himself, his blue-haired parenrs never ate. He had been fed breast milk initially before transitioning to mashed but surprisingly delicious vegetation. However, his parents never put food in their mouths. On the other hand, his parents always fell into a meditative state after their nightly intimacies and a large concentration of mana surrounded them. Surprisingly enough, none of the mana entered their bodies and yet they looked like they were sufficiently nourished. *** Another year flew by and Braiten was finally able to speak fluently. With the growth of language came teachings from his parents. The very first thing that they taught him was the meditative state that they had gone into every night and the existence of qi. It was what they called a cultivation method. A way to gather power to strengthen the body and use qi for martial arts. The name of this cultivation method was called <>. Although <> was the most common cultivation method and anyone could learn of it, it held the most mysteries. One of them was that it was able to help elevate anyone through bottlenecks as long as one cultivates until the absolute peak of their current level of strength. Another mystery was that it was able to be practiced with any and all other righteous, Human cultivation methods. Therefore, it could be used as a tool to push pass bottlenecks while faster cultivation methods could be used as a base. Yet another mystery was that <> was purely a breathing method unlike other cultivation methods which utilized specific flows of qi. One did not need to be in a specific pose or run qi in a specific way through specific channels when practicing <>. The individual who wanted to practice this method merely needed to be in a meditative state when using the breathing method. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. However, <> was not without its flaws. It was the slowest cultivation method in existence. No matter how weak a cultivation method was, none were as slow as <>. Braiten''s parents told him to only and solely practice <> as there were many hidden benefits to purely practicing the method. When one reaches the first level of basic cultivation using <>, he or she will become extremely healthy and many impurities of the body would be expunged. The lifespan of the individual would also increase by 20 years. This was the equivalent of the result from practicing other cultivations and reaching the tenth level of basic cultivation. The next three levels of basic cultivation gave even more benefits to the body and extended lifespan by 20 years for each level. Upon reaching the fourth level, one gains immunity to disease and sickness. At the fifth level, one''s age starts to regress until they looked like they were in their early twenties on top of a large increase in strength and endurance. Another 20 years of lifespan is also added. At the sixth level of basic cultivation, one did not eat and merely needed to cultivate once each meal time to replace food. This again was on top of a lifespan extension and gains in physical capability. The seventh level of basic cultivation results in needing to cultivate for food only once a day instead of at every meal time. Of course, there were the usual physical improvements as well. Knowledge of further advancements was left to Braiten to learn as he advanced in cultivation. His parents had notified him that the cultivation method would engrave the benefits in his soul so he would know of them instinctively. Braiten knew that his parents were beyond the seventh level of basic cultivation. They had mentioned that their ages were well beyond most cultivators even though they did not specify what the numerical values were. They had also mentioned that their cultivation reached a point where their lifespans reached until the end of time. Other than the cultivation method, Braiten was taught many things and given huge, thick books written by his parents on each subject. Braiten''s parents seemed to have caught onto Braiten''s maturity and intelligence. He had never shown his true intelligence and they had never asked of it, but Braiten''s behavior was too different from regular infants. However, they never questioned him and instead, showed greater love towards him. From pharmacology to outdoor survival skills, Braiten was taught each subject meticulously. Braiten''s parents believed in exposure and experience and often created many interesting hands-on exercises for him. Braiten also learned of his parents'' names. His father was called Ingram and his mother was called Amellia. Their family name was Celestine, but they warned Braiten not to reveal their family name carelessly. *** Years flew by and Braiten grew rapidly in knowledge and cultivation, shocking his parents. He displayed a maturity beyond his years that had only tempered even more with his parents'' rigorous education. On Braiten''s eighteenth birthday, Ingram and Amellia hugged their child and said that they''ve thankfully been able to teach him everything that they needed to and more. They expressed that they loved him with all their heart. With that said and done, his parents vanished from where the stood. From here onwards, Braiten''s journey throughout this new world was finally about to begin. === Author''s notes: Just so you guys know, the benefit that <> gives per level is equivalent to having practiced ten levels with other cultivation methods within the same tier. Strength and endurance go hand in hand. Strength is the amount of power your body can output. Endurance is how long your body can last and how much strength your body is able to endure without breaking down. Endurance has no relation to defense! And readers, please give feedback asap so i can correct anything if need be or change my style. Thanks for reading! Edit (07/05/2016): Rewrote some portions so that it''s clearer. I see why people were upset over my previous writing. There really were sudden "barebones" areas in the story that needed serious changes. It should flow better now. Chapter 2 - A new home (edited) On a hot and blistering sunny morning, a man cloaked in a simple, brown mantle stepped into the town of Aermagh. The young man had shimmering blue hair and average looks, and even though the mantle was slightly baggy, it was easy to see that the young man had a slim figure giving him a scholarly look when combined with his delicate features. The young man asked several locals for directions and began walking towards a large building with many armor-clad men and women walking in and out. The large building looked clean and well-maintained. The atmosphere that it exuded was welcoming and homely. A modest sign hung at the entrance of the building with the words "United Guild" written on it. Upon entering the large building, the young man looked around before joining the queue to a burly, fearsome-looking receptionist with three long scars across his face. The young man went over because the queue was the shortest. "Welcome to the United Guild. My name''s Wiatt. How may I help you, sonny?" The fearsome-looking man asked with a moderately soft voice and a friendly tone when the young man had reached the receptionist''s desk. The contradicting image, voice and tone startled the young man for a split second before he replied calmly, "hello, I''m Braiten. I would like to register as a member of the United Guild, please." Seemingly delighted for some reason, Wiatt started unloading information with a more enthusiastic voice. "Of course, of course. As long as you''re not a criminal, the United Guild would welcome you with open arms. Adventurers and mercenaries are open to all, and you''re in luck as we currently have vacancies among the auxiliary members as well. Adventurers take care of miscellaneous tasks from gathering resources to scouting to fending the town off from monsters. Mercenaries are given tasks that involve humans, from helping the guards enforce laws in town to escorting merchants to subjugating bandits. Auxiliary members are those like myself and take care of administration within the guild. The guild also provides mentors for newcomers at a price. Your mentor will teach you the basics for a month. It''s up to you if you want it or not, but it''s highly recommended regardless of the position you want. What would you like to register as?" "Adventurer, please. In case you would deter me due to my looks, I''m a cultivator." A layer of qi surrounded Braiten for a moment before disappearing as quickly as it came. This indicated that Braiten had reached intermediate cultivation. Considering his youthful looks, this feat was praiseworthy. Most around their twenties would be in the eighties and nineties of the basic cultivation tier. Nodding, Wiatt gave Braiten a paper to list his personal information. Braiten filled all of the places carefully, leaving out his family name but truthfully mentioning that his parents were missing. Braiten also noted that he would like to hire a mentor. Finishing up with the paper, Braiten handed it over to Wiatt and was made to make an oath to the Heavenly Way that the information that he had provided was the truth without hiding anything damaging to the guild. The glow originating from the oath faded away peacefully, indicating that Braiten was indeed honest about the information provided and did not hide anything malicious. Wiatt scanned through the paper while feeling satisfied, but was surprised as Braiten''s nearly completed personal information indicated that he was of common birth. As a person of common birth, reaching an intermediate cultivation by twenty without the rich resources of high birth meant that his cultivation talent was quite high. Someone with his accomplishment in cultivation should be drawn into the guild and carefully nurtured to become quality manpower that the guild needed. Should his talent be known among martial sects, a first-rate martial sect would definitely invite him with open arms. If he does not join a first-rate sect, the second-rate sects would use all sorts of methods to forcefully make him join. He might even be killed in the process. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "Alright, everything''s in order. Your guild plate will be out by noon, tomorrow. The guild plate does not cost anything at the moment, while the cost of hiring a mentor is one gold. The cost can be taken out of your earnings throughout the duration of the month, so there is no need to pay immediately. However, if you decide not to continue to be a guild member during the one month, you will be required to pay in full in addition to 50 silvers for the guild plate. If you''d like to pay the one gold mentorship fee now, this is your chance." Braiten hesitated for a moment, and ended up digging around his pockets before forking up a gold to the surprised Wiatt. One gold, while not a large sum, was not small either. A month of work as a beginner adventurer or mercenary was just barely over a gold unless you were lucky enough to attain an easy, highly paid task. It was also worth three months of wages as a beginner auxiliary member. Work outside of the guild typically resulted in needing a year or two to earn that amount. Knowing that Braiten had not committed crimes to earn that goal due to the oath, Wiatt felt somewhat sympathetic as he thought that Braiten worked extremely hard before trying to become a guild member. To have earned the necessary expenses for a mentor before starting out showed that Braiten seriously researched and worked to become an adventurer. Most who paid the one gold beforehand tended to eventually turn out to be the best adventurers they had in their guild branch. Accepting the gold coin with one hand, Wiatt leaned over the counter and spoke in a quieter voice, "kiddo, just a small warning. Be careful when you show that you''re of the intermediate tier. With your age, that kind of talent will attract trouble when martial sects know that you are unaffiliated with any powers. Now, take care, boy." A little touched by the burly receptionist''s concern, Braiten nodded and made his way out of the United Guild building. He asked several guild members for directions to a decent inn and was given quite a selection. Choosing the closest one, he made his way there. Along the way, Braiten mused to himself, "Aermagh''s atmosphere is really good unlike many of the other towns. As a frontier town, everyone has to work together. Perhaps this would be a new home for me. It''s been a hundred years since dad and mom disappeared. I wonder where they are now..." === Author''s notes: Just a slight introduction for the start of this arc. I will be writing this story with a style similar to those writing fantasy/magic. However, I aim to use the normal xianxia/martial arts elements in combination to produce an interesting(hopefully) story. By the way, did you guys notice? Besides town names(which were from a name generator), I have chosen each character''s name based on their meaning to relate to the character''s personality, role or background. Edit (07/05/2016): Most of the story remained the same. I have corrected quite a number of mistakes that had not been pointed out before while changing a few sentences better the flow of the story. Chapter 3 - A new job (edited) In the middle of the night, Braiten was hidden among the clouds. White runes shimmered in the moonlight and floated around his figure, complementing his equally shimmering blue hair. A large concentration of mana and qi surrounded him. The qi saturated his qi channels and strengthened them. Unlike other cultivation methods, <> flooded up to 200 future channels and strengthened them all together. Perhaps this was why <> was such a slow cultivation method. This could also be the reason why it could help people breakthrough bottlenecks easily. Mana was also steadily being absorbed by Braiten. It went through the pores of his skin and into his qi channels, before being refined by <> and then released to the rest of his body to be stored. He did this not only to replenish the mana that was consumed for maintaining the flight magic, but to expand his reserves ever so slightly. This process prevented excess mana from rampaging throughout his body. It was really a wonder that <> could be used in conjunction with mana absorption in such a way. There was a number of differences between mana and qi. Mana was stored in the body while qi was housed in the dantian. Mana could be used at a long distance on its own with the right runes while qi had to originate from the body to conduct long range attacks. Mana required no channels to be used while qi required channels to be unlocked to be utilized. At the first level of basic cultivation, there is only one channel in each limb, the torso and the head. Each successive level of cultivation adds one more channel to each location, thereby increasing the density of qi able to reach those locations. At this moment, the number of qi channels that were saturated within Braiten was 400. This indicated that Braiten was at the hundredth level of intermediate cultivation. Slowly but surely, the number of qi channels increased by one. Along with the increase, a large amount of mana was sucked from the air into Braiten''s body. Braiten had reached the first rank of advanced cultivation. At that moment, information rushed into Braiten''s brain. The information originated from the depths of his soul and Braiten could feel the cultivation method engraving it into his very being. Instinctively, Braiten knew that the benefits he had received from <> were increased strength, endurance and mana capacity by approximately one fold. However, there was one more benefit that shocked Braiten greatly. Upon reaching the first level of advanced cultivation, it also brought to him an infinite lifespan. "To think that advancements in <> was so closely linked to understanding the laws of nature itself. Just understanding an iota of it takes a long time. No wonder people find this cultivation method slow. It was only through my understanding of magic from my previous world that I was able to have a greater understanding of nature which allowed me to rapidly cultivate at first. Still, this cultivation method provides earth-shattering benefits. Poison immunity at the tenth level of basic cultivation and having no need of sleep when I had reached intermediate cultivation. Now, after attaining advanced cultivation, I can probably live as long as my parents if I''m not killed," Braiten sighed to himself as he slowly but stealthily floated back to his room. It was Braiten''s first night in Aermagh. After dealing with the administrative necessities of becoming a member of the United Guild, he had immediately booked a room at the closest recommended inn and flew high into the sky once the sky darkened enough for him to avoid people''s sights. Runes made from mana could not be seen by the people of this world, so he just had to ensure that the shadow spell cast on him camouflaged him against the night sky. Practicing <> seriously often results in a huge accumulation of qi around him. The amount was always as if someone was about to breakthrough in cultivation level. This would usually attract a lot of attention. To counter that, Braiten spent his nights cultivating in the sky and expanding his mana capacity in conjunction. Braiten also came up with a way to go into a semi-meditative state and cultivate, minimizing the amount of qi that gathered around him. The amount of qi could be easily hidden with the enchantments that he made on his mantle. Throughout the hundred years from his parents'' disappearance, Braiten had been wandering the continent. He spent a lot of time understanding the culture of this new world while searching for his parents. He learned that there were four factions in this world. These consisted of regular citizens, the nobles and royalty of each country, the martial society, and finally the people of the United Guild. Regular citizens are people you would expect to see everywhere. They were those who had little martial prowess and were around the lower levels of basic cultivation. They kept the cogs of society moving and made up the bulk of people in this world. The nobles and royalty were people who governed each country within the continent. Their martial prowess and cultivation levels depended on their governmental position. At most, their cultivation levels would be at the intermediate cultivation tier. The martial society were martial artists that belong to martial sects or were rogue cultivators that followed the martial way. Their aim was to go against heaven to achieve immortality. Their martial prowess tended to be high and they would use almost any means to achieve their goals. The strongest among the martial society were those among the high levels of advanced cultivation. Finally, there is the United Guild. The aim of the guild was to expand human civilization beyond the single continent that they were on. They also had the aim of delving deep into danger zones in the continent to scour their secrets for the betterment of humankind. Some of those from the martial society join the guild so as to attain various treasures. Heavy restrictions are placed upon these individuals so as to prevent them from bringing grudges from the politics of the martial society into the guild. The members of the guild were divided into four groups. The name "United Guild" came from the unity of these four divisions. They are the adventurers, the mercenaries, the auxiliary members and the journeymen. Journeymen were the best of the best within the guild. They had higher martial prowess than those of the martial society despite having slightly lower levels of cultivation. This stemmed from their constant exposure to danger in the danger zones and tackling the difficult environments in sea battles. To be promoted to a journeyman, one has to reach an S rank of the division they belonged to. Auxiliary members that transition over to be journeymen were given training to ensure that they could survive on the field without burdening the combat-oriented personnel. Braiten chose to join the United Guild to gather strength and comrades to explore beyond the current continent that they were on and perhaps, one day, see his parents again. He also chose to join the United Guild because they respected freedom and allowed you to take side jobs to earn a living as long as you do not involve yourself in criminal activities. For now, Braiten had to focus on integrating himself into this community. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. As the night went on, Braiten focused on practicing magic. He studied the runes in hopes of gaining new insights into the natural laws to improve his cultivation speed. This also allowed the control of his magic to reach new heights compared to his previous world. Fine control back then was never a strong suit of his. He enchanted himself with brute strength or relied on pure force of magic to subdue any who stood in his way. Braiten took advantage of his immense magical might back then and it was all that he needed to survive. The only reason he was not discovered by the "immortal adventurers" of his old world was due to challenging the most dangerous areas that existed. Morning came quickly as Braiten studied his magic. Soon, it was close to noon and Braiten made his way to the United Guild. The moment he entered, a ferocious but smiling Wiatt waved his guild plate at him in greeting. The United Guild seemed emptier at this timing as there were no queues formed at the receptionist counters. "Welcome back, sonny. Everyone had gone out with their tasks now. It''s easier for us to conduct administrative duties at this time. Here''s your plate, just inject a bit of qi in it and it will merge into your dantian. You can take it out whenever the need calls for it," Wiatt said as he patted Braiten''s shoulder jovially and passed the guild plate over. Turning around, Wiatt walked into the receptionists'' backroom and dragged a seemingly drunk and slovenly female guild member out. Though her appearance was untidy, it was easy to see that she was a beauty. Her long dark purple hair was tied up in a ponytail. Her piercing yellow eyes and angular features gave her a look of elegance despite the state she was in. Smacking her back sharply but not forcefully to perk her up, Wiatt introduced the woman with an apologetic tone, "this here''s your mentor, Dashurie. She may not look like much seeing as she''s been drinking throughout the night due to personal circumstances, but she''s one of the best mentors that we have. I wish I could get someone else for you at the moment, but she''s the only mentor available right now." Braiten understood that things do not always go the way you want it to, so he simply nodded and introduced himself to Dashurie. He kept it brief, merely mentioning his name and his goals. He kept his tone polite, just as a junior greets a fellow senior. He did not mention the state she was in and did not kick a fuss as others his outward age would do. Dashurie''s expression turned sharp for a moment, before grabbing the bottle at her waist and taking a swig as she said lazily, "Greenie, I will work you to the bone so that you do not die like my girlfriend did yesterday. You will not get complacent like she did and you will not make a single beginner''s mistake by the end of my training. Damn! I did not get to blow off some steam with my other two girlfriends last night due to preparations for you. You better give me my effort''s worth." Braiten''s mind blanked out at that. He did not know whether to be shocked over the open declaration of hostility or the open declaration of personal matters to a complete stranger. Silence reigned among the trio until Wiatt coughed lightly. This helped Braiten to wake up from his stupor as he inclined his head towards Dashurie while keeping eye contact and said, "yes, mentor. I will persevere through my training in hopes of becoming a decent adventurer. Please give me your guidance." Dashurie merely stared at him lazily and nodded before dumping a stack of papers into his hands. "Read this. First ten pages are the do''s and don''ts of being an adventurer and guild member. Make sure you remember them and commit them to heart. I will constantly remind you of them througout your training. The next five pages are a list of missions you have to complete. I have reserved them for you. I wrote alternative deadlines so make sure you adhere to the new deadlines. The deadlines are tighter, so use your head and complete them before then. Your first five tasks are menial tasks such as cleaning and basic courier duties that are shared with the mercenaries. Don''t belittle these tasks as they might just be your bread and butter if there is a lack of monster subjugation and scouting requests if you ever get to them." Braiten gave an affirmation as Dashurie made a complete switch from one of laziness to a stern, serious manner. After his affirmation, she took a swig from her bottle and dragged herself towards the receptionists'' backroom. "I will wait here as you complete those first few tasks. No point babying you for tasks that do not require any specialized skills or advice. You have up until the end of today to complete them. Now, hop to it!" Dashurie gave a careless wave and called out. Then, she disappeared into the backroom. Wiatt just gave a shrug as he turned back to his paperwork. Braiten sat down at a corner of the guild and began reading through the stack of papers seriously. He mentally organized what he had to do for his first five tasks, and then turned to read the first ten pages. It contained not only simple "do''s and don''ts", but also contained a wealth of information from an experienced adventurer. There were precautions, etiquette, unsaid rules, and many other tidbits that could only be gained through months of experience if he did not have these papers. ''No wonder she''s one of the best mentors. To come up with this in a single night is just amazing,'' Braiten thought as he memorized the text in his hands at lightning speed. It took Braiten a mere ten minutes to go through everything. Afterward, he approached Wiatt to officially begin his first tasks. Wiatt was surprised when Braiten''s bearing changed from a neophyte adventurer into one that was almost like a seasoned neophyte. The change was so sudden that Wiatt nearly wanted to pinch himself to see if this was a dream. With that, Braiten finally takes his first steps into carrying out his new job. === Author''s notes: Introduction of the mentor! More info dump and world building! The story remains slightly more serious for now, but I will try to lighten it up a bit in the next chapter. I will try to write funny portions too. I''m not a funny person, though. (T.T) I forgot to mention in the past chapters that the other cultivation methods do not give the extra bonuses that come with the physical upgrades and life expectancy bonuses that <> gives. For example, the disease immunity, poison immunity and agelessness. <>, while slow, provides the cultivators who dedicate themselves to the method ways to extend their lives beyond the norm so that they too can reach the peak of cultvation as well. Of course, one needs talent, luck and diligence to succeed. Edit (07/06/2016): Tried improving this chapter but saw little that I could improve on as I wanted the style to remain roughly the same where I don''t have full-on dialogue all the time. Chapter 4 - A new record (edited) Under the blistering sun, a building was being made. There was nothing special about it. It looked similar to the buildings around the neighborhood. However, this building was completed in less than a day. In fact, it only took an hour to complete. Not only that, the building was exactly the same as it was in the blueprints. All measurements were made perfectly. It was so perfect that one would have thought it was the blueprint granted life instead. A group of shocked construction workers stood quietly at the scene. The original task was merely to have a low level adventurer help with carrying materials to the construction site. Along the way, one of the workers got injured. To think that the very adventurer that took up the request immediately replaced the worker and started working at demonic speed. It was so shocking that the rest of the workers just stood there, mouth agape at the scene that happened before their very eyes. Even after it all, the coordinator just stood there stiffly, pen in hand unable to pen down the grade for the task he posted on the guild request board. A slightly fatigued but satisfied Braiten looked at his handiwork once over. The faint glow of a non-elemental magic rune that increased his speed floated around Braiten as he moved quickly inside and around the house to make sure everything was perfect. This perfectionist streak of his was something he attained when his parents disappeared. It was what he used to cope with the stress of suddenly losing his parents. It was through losing himself in the act of doing and the feeling of attaining mastery that he was able to drown away his sorrows. To this very day, just this act of doing was able to keep him in a very joyous mood for a while. As he once again appeared before his employers for this task, the coordinator finally regained his wits. The document immediately gained an extra ¡®A¡¯ on it. The original reward of five silvers was immediately doubled to ten silvers. Upon completion of tasks, adventurers were graded by their employers from A to F. An F grade meant that the adventurer failed utterly and quite severely at that. It also meant that the adventurer¡¯s guild had to compensate the employer for the damage caused. This results in serious consequences to an adventurer¡¯s career. An E grade meant that the adventurer failed, but no compensation was needed. A D grade meant that the task was fulfilled, but it was shoddily done and barely passable. A C grade meant that the task was well-completed, but was not considered exemplary. A B grade meant that the task was completed thoroughly, but was within the bounds of the task. An A grade meant that the adventurer had gone over and beyond expectations in completing the task. It also requires employers to give additional rewards to the adventurer. Usually, the additional reward given is an additional five percent, nothing as drastic as doubling the reward. Furthermore, B grades were more common place as employers did not need to give additional rewards. This also meant that the minimum completion of tasks to rank up as an adventure is from the number of B grades obtained. 2 C grades equates to a B grade, and 4 D grades are worth a C grade result. E and F grades are counted as failures so they are naturally not counted towards promotion of adventurer ranks. Braiten took the task report and reward from the coordinator¡¯s hands happily as he gathered the other four task reports to double check that everything was in order. The coordinator had tried to convince Braiten into joining their construction company just as the previous four employers tried to entice him. However, he gently refused and thanked the coordinator for having him help out. With that, he went on his way with a bounce in his step towards the United Guild building. *** Ten minutes later, a happy Braiten walked into the United Guild building. Wiatt was staring at Braiten with a strange look on his face as Braiten bounced all the way to the receptionist¡¯s counter. Accepting the papers from Braiten, Wiatt started to freeze upon seeing the reports. Soon, he stood there with a face not unlike a Haniwa statue. A much less drunk Dashurie coincidentally came out of the backroom and upon seeing Braiten and the frozen Wiatt, she took the papers off Wiatt¡¯s hands and began to ruffle through them. Slowly but surely, she froze and her expression was exactly the same as Wiatt¡¯s. Seeing the strange looks on both faces, Braiten broke out of his joyous mood and asked while laughing inwardly at his two senior''s reactions, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you two feeling alright?¡± That immediately broke Wiatt and Dashurie out of their stupor, to which Wiatt began hurriedly, ¡°No, no. Everything is alright. It¡¯s so absolutely, perfectly alright that I am shocked that you had A rank for all of your first requests. What kind of mons-¡­¡± Dashurie interrupted Wiatt with a smack to the mouth and just said, ¡°Well done, keep this up. If you go on like this, you¡¯ll be a fine adventurer one day.¡± Despite knowing that he had overachieved, Braiten decided to just go along with the flow and let himself get back into his elated mood, bouncing up and down a few times. This earned a couple of questioning looks from the two in front of him. ¡°Is there something you¡¯re happy about, kid?¡± Wiatt¡¯s voice interrupted Braiten¡¯s mood. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Huh? Oh, it¡¯s just that it¡¯s good to finally get some work done,¡± Braiten quipped as he returned to his happy mood and took out the papers that contained the next tasks that he was supposed to complete. Seeing the enthused look on Braiten¡¯s face as he looked at his next tasks, Wiatt and Dashurie looked on with pity. Knowing of Braiten''s seemingly common background, the duo thought that he must have lived a hard life and work was hard to find in the past for him. That also meant that the gold that he paid as mentorship fee was extremely hard earned. The misunderstanding deepened for Wiatt as he remembered that moment of hesitation that Braiten had before he paid that one gold. Dashurie patted Braiten¡¯s shoulders and told him to meet her at the guild building after sun up as she looked at him with slightly softer eyes. She also mentioned that they were going to complete as many tasks as they could regardless of the schedule with the reason that being efficient and fast is a good habit for adventurers. With that, Wiatt and Dashurie saw Braiten off. After seeing Braiten off, Wiatt began to organize the papers and file them under Braiten¡¯s name. Just as he was about to put Braiten¡¯s file away, he felt something was off and paused. Then, he began taking the reports out again one by one and reading them over. Task #1: Message Courier. Send mail to their respective owners in town. Report: E rank adventurer Braiten successfully sent given mail to their respective owners. Additional ¨C Urgent mail was also handled by him and promptly handed to the proper recipient. Total amount of mail ¨C 201. Task handled within half an hour. A grade. Task #2: Clean Public Bath. Make sure that the public bathhouse is extremely clean. Report: E rank adventurer Braiten cleaned the public baths extremely thoroughly. Additional ¨C Maintenance of public bathhouse was also completed. Task handled within an hour. A grade. Task #3¡­ Reading through the tasks, Wiatt¡¯s face grew sterner. He grabbed Dashurie out of the backroom and brought her to the five reports laying at his counter. ¡°All of these requests require many hours to complete and it took him only four hours in total. He would have been lucky to even finish by the end of the day and he went over and beyond to complete each task with an A grade,¡± Wiatt said to the disgruntled Dashurie with a hushed tone. Dashurie was highly aware of the type of quests that she had prepared for Braiten despite being drunk throughout the night and morning. Outwardly, she showed calm but she was in total shock inside throughout the whole exchange earlier. It was all she could do just to tell Braiten to keep it up. It was only when Wiatt had asked about Braiten¡¯s odd mood that she regained her calm. The task completion speed for Braiten went beyond what others had been able to compete with when doing similar tasks. No matter how accomplished an adventurer or mercenary was, they have never been able to complete such tasks with this degree of proficiency. This was definitely a new record throughout this branch of the United Guild. Perhaps a new record throughout the whole United Guild, even. Dashurie just sighed as she told Wiatt sternly, ¡°don¡¯t mention this to anyone. Don¡¯t even tell that kid that what he pulled off was highly abnormal. You said that the kid was talented, had potential and drive. All the preparation I did was to bring him down a notch and make him taste some hardship to test his resolve. That was all for naught. I thought he was a cocky brat seeing as you interrupted my mourning and told me to teach him ¡®well¡¯. My expectations were completely blown away and in a completely different direction. You won¡¯t be able to imagine what I was feeling when I looked through those reports. We need to nurture this talent carefully.¡± With that, Dashurie whirled around and went into the backroom. She arranged the materials she was going to use tomorrow in her equipment chest and left the guild for her home. Once she stepped out the door, her pace quickened. ¡®Finally done for today... I hope that there''s enough time to spends with my girls,'' she thought, expecting her two girlfriends to be in the mid-coitus in a marathon pleasure session to keep their minds off their girlfriend''s death. *** Meanwhile, in Braiten¡¯s room at the inn, several bundles of ropes lay at Braiten¡¯s side. A large basket lay at his feet as he weaved several separators to be used with the basket. Whistling happily as he carried out his preparations for the next day, Braiten decided to cultivate a bit longer tonight. Little did Wiatt and Dashurie know that Braiten already had plans to excel for his upcoming tasks. He hopes to gain the attention of experienced personnel and advance through the adventurer ranks quickly. After all, one of his goals was very personal and he would need all the help he could get when he transitions over to a journeyman. === Author¡¯s notes: By the way, Braiten may seem OP as shit now, seemingly high level, eternal life, magic and him getting A ranks all around. However, he¡¯s actually not that strong. As with all xianxia, there are stronger beings lurking out there. Hope you guys enjoy this release. Thanks for reading! Edit (07/06/2016): Made this easier to read, hopefully. Chapter 5 - A new comrade (edited) ¡°Good, make sure to keep your vigilance about you when you skin those bunny-foxes. Just because you¡¯re in an empty area near the town gates does not warrant a moment of complacence. Ambushes can come at any time and you should be prepared to drop what you are doing to defend yourself.¡± Despite the stern words, Dashurie had gone through shock after shock. There was no lack of precaution on Braiten¡¯s part. Every action was calculated properly and his demeanor was exactly like that of a seasoned beginner adventurer. All that Dashurie could say was something along the lines of ¡°keep up the good work¡± as everything after the basics came from experience. Dashurie was also stunned by the proficiency that he completed his tasks. Every attack with his dagger was simple, sharp, clean and seemed like they came out of a martial scroll. All his opponents were either knocked out or killed in one blow. Braiten had also outdone himself when he gathered herbs for one of his tasks. The herbs were perfectly extracted from the ground and no damage was done to any part of the plants. Even the most seasoned adventurer had trouble extracting herbs as one or two portions of the roots would be damaged in the process. Dashurie rubbed her temples as she gazed into the distance and helped Braiten with looking out for any possible dangers. She was not even sure why Braiten had requested a mentorship despite his skills. Seeing the perfectly skinned bunny-foxes beside him, she sighed once again. What Dashurie did not know was that Braiten would have had almost no clue of what precautions to ensure post-battle had he decided not to acquire a mentor even though he was proficient in skinning and the likes. Coming from a VR world previously, monsters had set territories and looting could be done on the spot way before monsters respawned. Therefore, people back there would be safe as long as they cleared the monsters in the area quick enough. Furthermore, after coming to this world, Braiten utilized magic to camouflage and protect himself as he skinned and gathered the items. Ultimately, he was only mimicking the behavior of other adventurers that he had observed as he scouted the area together with Dashurie prior to the hunts. With smooth motions, Braiten tied his gains on the large basket that he carried. He looked up at the sky and asked Dashurie if they could head back to town to rest as it was just about time for lunch. Dashurie nodded and just as they were about to make their way for the town gate, they heard two strange shouts. ¡°Wah! Help! Somebody!¡± ¡°Quick! Throw stones at them. Maybe we¡¯ll get lucky and slow them down!¡± The desperate voices of a male and female were heard nearby. Braiten and Dashurie turned to look over just in case danger was headed their way. They were greeted by the sight of a young man and woman in worn-out leather armor running away from three enraged bunny-foxes in the direction of the town gates. Bunny-foxes should never to be underestimated. They looked cute and seemed to make great pets with their adorable bunny bodies and ears along with their fox head and fluffy tail. However, they were known to be highly aggressive creatures. They were fast and had sharp claws and teeth that could shred through even light-plate armor. Most adventurers would make sure that they had equipment strong enough to tangle these buggers or make baited traps to avoid confrontation entirely. They either used those strategies, or they were martial sect adventurers that tackled them with martial skills that focused on speed. These two greenies were clearly unprepared for the ferocity and speed of the bunny-foxes. Braiten¡¯s brow wrinkled. He definitely wanted to help them, but knew from reading the ¡°do¡¯s and don¡¯ts¡± that helping them outright now would be detrimental for their future. If Braiten helped out directly now, the two may have expectations of receiving help from other adventurers and tackle other missions that were beyond them whilst unprepared. This may also put other adventurers at risk. Braiten soon calmed himself down and quickly made a decision. He squinted his eyes in concentration and mana extracted from the earth formed a rune in front of him. The rune was injected into the ground in front of Braiten and it emitted an almost imperceptible pulse as the earth shifted. The earth below the foremost bunny-fox dipped ever so slightly, causing it to trip. The bunny-fox stumbled and collided into the second which skidded across the ground, obstructing the third. As this happened, Dashurie whipped her head around and looked at Braiten with a dumbfounded expression on her face. The pulse should have been nearly undetectable, and she had almost missed it. It was only due to her being attuned so closely to earth-attributed qi and her role as mentor and scout in the guild that enabled her to be barely sensitive enough to feel the pulse. If it were any old earth attribute martial artist, they would surely miss the pulse or at most have thought they had imagined it. Another large factor that contributed to her notice was the events that played out in front of her very eyes. Braiten knew that he had been found out when he felt Dashurie¡¯s sharp gaze lock onto him. He did not bother explaining his ability as he shrugged and walked towards the town gates. Knowing that each kept secrets of their own, Dashurie did not bother questioning and quietly followed Braiten to the gates. The two duos had reached the gates at the same time. Braiten and Dashurie looked calm and composed while the other two were gasping for breath and sprawled on the ground as they managed to scramble to the safe vicinity of the gates. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Damn it, Eron! I shouldn¡¯t have listened to your crazy ideas about gaining ¡®experience¡¯ in real combat! We nearly got killed!¡± The young woman spouted out in anger as soon as she gained her breath. ¡°Bu-¡­¡± ¡°But nothing! That was dangerous, and a waste of time. Every single second we spend out there risking ourselves is a second of cultivation wasted. It¡¯s better to reliably increase our cultivation for next month¡¯s competition instead of playing around in dangerous places! I¡¯m going back to the inn to cultivate. Don¡¯t bother saying another word.¡± With that off her chest, the red head stomped towards a shabby looking inn near the town gates. The young man, Eron, hung his head as he started to drag his feet in the direction the woman had gone towards. ¡°You know, you could hire a mentor from the United Guild just for this month,¡± Braiten directed that comment towards the dejected man. ¡°Huh? What does that have to do with improving my martial arts?¡± Eron blushed at realizing that he was shouted at in a public location as he turned to face Braiten. ¡°Martial arts is not just about cultivation and martial skills. It shares a lot of similarities with daily affairs. Things like positioning, preparation and forethought. Martial arts were derived from the observation of the natural way,¡± Braiten said all of this offhandedly and motioned to Dashurie that they should make their way back. As Eron processed what he had just been told, his eyes suddenly glinted with new light. He felt he had just learned of something very important that would affect the future of his martial journey. ¡°I will consider it seriously!¡± Eron called out to Braiten as he rushed towards his inn to contemplate over what Braiten had just said. *** A short walk later and Braiten found himself near the United Guild building with Dashurie in tow. Dashurie threw a suspicious gaze at Braiten and stated, ¡°You sure know a lot about the martial way considering your common background.¡± Braiten just shrugged as he replied, ¡°It¡¯s just a way of life. I spent a lot of time observing people.¡± Braiten¡¯s reply immediately made Dashurie swallow the words that she was about to say. She remembered the time when she saw Braiten staring excitedly at his next few tasks. Then, she imagined a young and ragtag Braiten, with his parents missing, sitting in the corner of a street staring at people working while yearning to earn a living. ¡°We¡¯re here. Go ahead and rest inside. I¡¯ll be heading off to submit the materials to their respective employers. I should be back by the time lunch has ended,¡± with that said, Braiten left with a skip in his step. That happy gait of his made Dashurie look on at his disappearing figure pitifully as she made her way into the guild. *** Along the way to the employers, Braiten had covertly used a small-scale water magic to wash the materials. This resulted in a lot of commotion when he brought the materials to the employers. The clean, high quality materials brought over was more than enough to earn him an A rank, but he went beyond by helping each employer to store the materials. With his friendly and jovial interaction, it was enough to earn Braiten a generous bonus on top of the normal rewards. *** Back at the guild, Braiten brought the reports over to Wiatt and Dashurie both of which, upon reading the reports, ended up with twitching eyebrows as they tried to calm themselves down. ¡®To think that he can still earn A ranks with these tasks!¡¯ Dashurie practically screamed in her mind. Wiatt was just staring at the reports without moving a muscle besides the twitching eyebrows. His thoughts just whirling about in his head without focus. After nearly a minute of pretending to read the reports and staying frozen, the two nodded as Wiatt began filing the reports in Braiten¡¯s file. *** Time passed quickly as Braiten completed more tasks efficiently and carefully. It ended with him completing three days-worth of tasks by the time evening hit. Dashurie had run of advice by the time half the day had passed and she just oversaw Braiten¡¯s work. Dashurie was seriously considering just grabbing Braiten and shoving him into a dungeon to be able to properly teach him something. Night passed as quickly as day and soon the sun was rising. Braiten made his way over to the guild and saw Dashurie waiting there with a familiar young man next to her. When Braiten approached the duo, the familiar young man smiled and stretched his hand out for a handshake as he said, ¡°Hello, my name¡¯s Eron Aylward. I¡¯ll be learning under Miss Dashurie alongside you. Thanks for the advice yesterday, comrade.¡± === Author¡¯s notes: A new character! Slowly adapting to a lighter atmosphere for the story and a slightly different style of writing with decent amounts of dialogue. Bits of action will slowly increase as things come by and I get used to writing. I will try to add depth to the story as it progresses as well. Hopefully it would be enough to satisfy you readers later on. I''m trying to build the initial cast and get to the nitty gritty. Edit (07/06/2016): Lightly edited to have things make more sense. Did not know how much I could change to make the story better. :/ Chapter 6 - A new party AN: Thinking of fleshing out some events before this when I have time. Going for college soon and haven''t had much time to do so this month. =/
In the dark of the night, the forest was beset by near complete darkness. There were only pockets of light that managed to filter through the tiny holes in the trees¡¯ foliage. Three figures were moving silently in that darkness. A faintly glowing strip of luminescent plant was wound around each person¡¯s upper arm to identify each other¡¯s location and a slim male figure was leading them on through the most even part of the forest to prevent any stumbling. The way the slim man knew the even ground was uncanny, as if he could see perfectly within the near impenetrable shadows of the night. Slowly, the trio crept closer towards an unshaded portion of the forest. The unshaded portion was fairly wide and silvery moonlight shone down upon this area of the forest. In the middle of this unshaded portion lay a single flower. It reflected the moonlight in all its glory and was like a single brilliant flower amongst a field of grass despite the many flowers that were clustered around it. This beautiful flower was precisely the target for the trio. Knowing that all roses were not without its thorns, the other two members of the trio began circling the bright enclosure in search of any signs of danger. Soon, the two of them circled about three times before returning to the slim man. The duo shook their head, signaling that they found no signs of inhabitants around the vicinity of the flower. Just then, the slim man heard something from above and immediately felt that something was awry. He quickly tugged on his two party member¡¯s waists and jumped backwards as he pulled with surprising strength. He had moved just in time as two giant figures fell onto their previous position from the treetops. A resounding blast interrupted the calm and silence of the night. The impact on the ground sent slight shocks to the roots of the surrounding plants, shaking the foliage above. Light penetrated through the gaps in the foliage and revealed bits of a couple of bear-like creatures that had black scales instead of fur. These beasts were called black mambears. They often inhabit the treetops, balancing with amazing precision despite their weight and large, muscular size. They also moved with surprising silence when they wanted to. They also housed deadly poison that could easily kill intermediate cultivators in mere minutes. The slim man could feel his two party members shudder through his hands that were still encircled around their waists. The slim man freed them from his hands and one of the party members began to glow a silvery sheen like a beacon in the dark forest. The glowing man walked cautiously towards the two giant beasts. This glowing man was Eron. Due to insights into the advice that Braiten had given, he had made rapid improvements the past week and quickly advanced to the intermediate cultivation tier from the hundredth level of basic cultivation. Presently, his qi had a silvery color due to him finding his natural elemental affinity, which was metal. After he had learned of his natural attribute, Eron began to fight up front instead of constantly mingling in the middle ranges of close combat. He started taking advantage of his qi¡¯s naturally high defensive capabilities to draw attention away from monsters and beasts by pressuring them from an extremely close range. Furthermore, he had been forced to correct the flaw that most martial artists had. An extremely fatal flaw that made following the martial path seem ridiculous if there was no benefit to the higher cultivation levels that martial artists are able to achieve. ¡°!¡± A tender voice called out as streaks of flames ran along the arms of the final member of the team, revealing a thin female with flaming red hair. This was precisely the weakness of almost every single martial artist. They shouted their attacks when they wanted to concentrate on using them. Saying it was something like a mantra or a spell¡¯s chant to put themselves into a state of focus to use their skills. However, this manner of constantly announcing your attacks was absolutely ridiculous in an actual fight. It takes too much time to use on the fly and enemies would be well aware of how you were going to attack. Braiten felt a strong urge to smack his own face in embarrassment as he took a quick glance towards the final member of the party. It looks like it would take more time for her to get used to carrying out martial skills without announcing them aloud in a panic. Rather than interrupting the girl, Braiten enchanted his body with a simple overall physical enhancement. He then shot towards one of the black mambears and stabbed towards the bear¡¯s eyes. Braiten¡¯s speed exceeded the black mambear¡¯s expectations and reaction speed. His dagger easily sunk deep into the eyes of the black mambear, reaching the brain. Before the black mambear could even cry out, Braiten sent a pulse of mana using the dagger as a medium. He formed a mana bullet that shot towards the bear¡¯s brain. With the brain crushed, the bear immediately stopped moving and dropped to the floor heavily. In the meantime, Eron was doing his best to parry the bear¡¯s attacks with his metal-attributed qi layer and shield. The single handed spear in his right hand ever so ready to strike at a moment¡¯s notice. Just then, the flames that the third member of the party was gathering had finally gotten as big as a fist. ¡°Eron! Watch out!¡± The woman shouted as she threw the pitiful fist-sized ball of flame at the black mambear. The ball of flame harmlessly smashed into the black mambear and the flames splashed towards Eron, who barely managed to move out of the way of the initial shot. Fortunately, Eron¡¯s shield was placed in between himself and the flames. However, the flames temporarily blinded his sight due to the difference in light. This allowed the black mambear to smash directly into Eron, sending him careening off to the side and into a nearby tree. ¡°Eron!¡± The woman shouted out as she desperately tried to gather another fist-sized ball of flame. The black mambear turned to charge at the woman. Just as that happened, Eron suddenly leapt from his prone position and struck with his spear like a viper. His spear pierced right through the eye of the beast as metal-attributed qi flowed along the spear and condensed at the tip. A moment later, the condensed qi exploded outwards and destroyed the brain of the black mambear. Exactly in the same way its fellow beast died, the black mambear slumped onto the ground. Confirming that the beasts had indeed been finished off, the trio walked cautiously into the clearing to claim their prize. *** ¡°Is she still sulking?¡± Dashurie asked with a small, impish grin on her face. Dashurie was observing the trio from start to finish as they completed the task. Of course, she was aware of the presence of the black mambears the moment the black mambears had started stalking the trio. She was happy that Braiten had finally shown that he was lacking something. His strong sense of danger allowed him to detect when opponents ambushed, but he was still too inexperienced when it came to noticing when he was being stalked by the beasts and monsters of this world. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The trio had been stalked by 4 different groups of beasts before being chased away by the pair of black mambears. This called for a lesson for the trio once the girl has stopped sulking. ¡°Well, I think it can¡¯t be helped that Isolda had panicked. She¡¯s still new to all of this and joined us just when the task difficulties had gone up. She still needs to learn the ropes which you had learned this past week since you started,¡± Braiten gave his opinion in an attempt to comfort the depressed woman. Isolda Fiammetta initially thought that Eron was being very foolish. He had stuck by his original plans of tackling adventurer missions to grow stronger instead of just cultivating. On the first day after she had scolded him, he came back to the inn too tired to cultivate. Isolda looked on at him with ridicule in her eyes. However, Eron soon made rapid progress in both his cultivation and martial ability. Eron officially partied with Braiten after his first day of mentorship. With that, a load of burden was taken off his shoulders as he could just focus on the role that he was given for the task. Braiten never did interfere with his role and seemed to trust his judgement fully when he gave his opinions as whatever role he had, allowing Eron to properly learn the different skills of an adventurer. Dashurie focused on correcting Eron¡¯s mistakes and at the end of the day, he had learned a lot. Braiten would also approach him and discuss how to apply what he had learned to his martial arts. Then, when night came on the day they partied, Braiten voiced out his opinion about the embarrassing yet fatal flaw that martial artists had. Eron could only sheepishly admit that it was only the great elders that were capable of using martial skills without shamelessly announcing them. Braiten suggested announcing his attacks once, and then feeling the flow of qi and then trying to replicate the feat. This was a shot in the dark, but maybe it just might work. That attempt turned out to be total failure. Eron said that he could mimic the flow of qi as he utilized his martial skill, but the resulting effects were that the qi dissipated upon reaching the end instead of exploding out as it should have. However, thinking about the close relation of announcing the attacks while carrying out the techniques, Eron attempted to say the names of the techniques in his mind as he followed the flow of qi that the martial skill required. That turned out to be a success. However, the speed was still not satisfactory to the duo. The two experimented for a few days and finally managed to find out that they just needed a concrete image of the technique at the last moment just before the technique was actually performed while circulating qi in the technique¡¯s pattern to pull it off without announcing its name. Eron excitedly began to fix his habits and ended up being able to use his martial skills without announcing them at a moment¡¯s notice. All of his training was seen by Isolda from afar, and soon, she started wanting to join Eron with his training as an adventurer. ¡°Braiten, those words are taboo. It just does not cheer anyone up at all,¡± Dashurie said as she unashamedly reached out to brush against Isolda¡¯s inner thighs. Isolda blushed and pouted as she turned her head to face away from the three of them. ¡°Jokes aside, let¡¯s review how you three performed for this task. Firstly, movement in the night was surprisingly good. Braiten led well and kept the three of you over relatively even ground. However, Braiten, you were not aware that there were 4 other groups of beasts that were stalking you even though there were clear signs. I will give you a lecture on what those signs are later. Secondly, the three of you are completely oblivious to whatever is above you in the forest. You must remember that enemies don¡¯t come at you only from the front and below. They may come from above as well. The two black mambears had long since been observing your movements before you reached the clearing with the moonchild flower. Thirdly, Isolda and Eron¡¯s sense of danger is still lacking. Were it not for Braiten¡¯s quick actions, you two would be beast food by now. Fourthly, Braiten and Eron, you had good movements throughout the fight. Keep up with the decisive blows and continue taking advantage of the moments of weakness that your enemies have. Lastly, Isolda, you should not have used carelessly flung flames in a forest. You could very well burn your surroundings and trap your allies in the aftermath. What you could have done to be more effective in the fight was use the flames as a source of light for your allies to see better. At least they would not have been so handicapped by sight throughout the fight when facing the black mambears which have better night vision. Reflect on these points. Braiten, we¡¯re going to have that lecture now,¡± Dashurie said in a professional, serious tone. Braiten¡¯s lecture went for slightly over an hour, with Dashurie explaining the various signs of each type of beast and monster in the region when they hunted you down. She made sure not to gloss over any information and Braiten listened to all of it seriously as he absorbed the information like a sponge. In the meantime, Eron was reflecting over what he could have done in the fight to quickly finish off his foes like Braiten as there would be less chances of mistakes occurring. Isolda was reflecting over her mental state after being unnerved by the ambush. If she was in the right mind, she would have been able to support her teammates better instead of rashly flinging balls of fire that could potentially harm those around her. She would not have needed to declare her intents to attack as well. Isolda resolved to keep a cool head as much as possible from then on. Unknowingly, the reflections and resolves of these two would give them the nicknames ¡°Stronghold¡± and ¡°Frostflame Prison¡± in the near future. === Author¡¯s notes: Trying a slightly different ending for the chapter. Also trying to set future involvement of Eron and Isolda with the main char. Please tell me whenever I do get carried away and end up making a someone act out of character. I just hope that I have enough room to show different facets of the current cast that we have. Also, more time skips will be used. Time skips are important. Time skips are life. They also provide a way to expand various characters¡¯ developments indirectly through summaries of events happening in time skips. I know that character development is better if you go in detail, but I wanted to use a different way of setting the initial character personalities. I hope that you readers would be able to appreciate it. Chapter 7 - A lost cause Two weeks passed since Isolda had joined the party. Coordination grew as individual ability rose through tackling missions that were challenging for beginners out in the field. The trio grew much closer together after each life and death struggle through the difficult tasks. They also rose a rank from E ranked adventurers to D ranked adventurers. The speed in which they rose a rank was about a week faster than those who requested mentors which was naturally months ahead those that refused the mentorship. Braiten maintained a near perfect streak in terms of individual ability, steadily improving in areas that could only be gained through experience. However, it was not he who made the greatest improvements in these two weeks. Eron had gotten more used to using martial skills without announcing them, and became more imaginative in his imagery. , the skill he had used to kill the black mambear, had become more versatile in its angles of attack. From just a thrust and piercing motion, Eron had adapted it into a whip like blow, enabling him to use the explosion of qi to force an opponent that tried to go through his defense to attack the party members behind him. The flexibility of his moves enabled him to attack enemies with more ferocity as he found more openings to attack from with his newfound variations. His defense grew tighter and more overbearing as well. Isolda made even more improvements than Eron. She had advanced from the hundredth rank of beginner cultivation and stepped into intermediate cultivation. Surprisingly, she gained a second elemental affinity, which was ice. She knew she was a talent due to her obtaining her first affinity early, somewhere within the eighties of basic cultivation, but it was extremely uncommon for someone to gain a second affinity so soon after their first and at a low cultivation to boot. Isolda met up with Dashurie¡¯s third girlfriend who turned out to be an ex-member of the same martial sect that Eron and Isolda belonged to. She shared an ice martial skill with her that was gained from the sect and was able to do so without violating any sect rules as they had the same root. Isolda learned how to adapt adventurer field skills into her martial arts with Eron¡¯s guidance as well, allowing her to quickly become an asset to the party. The positive results fueled Isolda¡¯s motivation and made her work much harder which increased her rate of improvement. Dashurie and the trio were about to head back to the town gates from their latest task when they heard horns blaring from the town. Dashurie¡¯s face immediately turned extremely serious as she hurried the trio towards the gates of Aermagh. ¡°Quickly, now. Get to the town. Monsters would soon surround and attack Aermagh. I¡¯m not sure if you three are ready to handle those monsters yet, but the safest place is within town walls. You can pitch in, but make sure to keep your distance,¡± Dashurie informed and advised them as she led them straight to the gates. *** Fifteen minutes later, the four adventurers reached an extremely crowded guild building. A stoic middle-aged man stood on top of a receptionist desk and was speaking to the crowd. He was halfway through a morale boosting speech that was directed towards the veteran adventurers and mercenaries in charge of defending the town so Dashurie was the only one who was listening seriously. However, Dashurie suddenly clasped Braiten¡¯s shoulder which made him pay serious attention to what was being said as the crowd became abuzz. ¡°I repeat myself, the leaders of the monster invasion are a nest of harpies. The monsters and lesser monsters that joined them are ogres, orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins. They total up to slightly above a thousand. Considering the monster army¡¯s orderly formations, there is at least one elder harpy of great intelligence leading them. The army alone isn¡¯t enough to wipe out Aermagh, but the harpies are a cause for worry. Mercenaries, I trust that you will spread the word to quickly evacuate the town as soon as possible. The circumstances are dire, and the only thing we can do now is to make sure that as many people survive as possible,¡± the middle-aged man said as stared hard into the crowd. Harpies were extremely dangerous creatures. They were almost as intelligent as humans, and had physical strength, endurance and defense that was several times that of a qi-clad low level advanced cultivator. They had human-like torsos and limbs. Their head looked like that of a bird, and their arms were winged as you would imagine. However, both their hands and feet were bird claws. This enabled the harpies to fight extremely ferociously both on land and in the air. Braiten¡¯s parents had told him of the creatures and mentioned that he should never ever face a harpy let alone a nest of them, which meant that there were five in this fight. An elder harpy was the evolved form of a harpy. It was bigger, stronger, faster, smarter and can easily match up against high leveled advanced cultivators. The only flaw that came with its strength and intelligence was its arrogance. They never initiated a fight on their own and prefer leading battles from the backline instead of lifting a claw to help out. This did not bode well for the adventurers because it meant that there were layers upon layers of defense in front of the elder harpy. They could not finish off the leader and scatter the leaderless monster invasion army as they did in past monster invasions. Wiatt, who stood behind the receptionist counter that the middle-aged man was standing on, reached over and pulled on the shoulder of the middle-aged man. This made the middle-aged man bend a little so that Wiatt could whisper in his ears. The middle-aged man nodded after hearing what Wiatt had to say and announced, ¡°The following adventurers and mercenaries are to escort the citizens to safety. Branch transfer papers will be given to these people and these people are¡­¡± A short list of names was announced. Braiten¡¯s name was included in that list but Eron¡¯s and Isolda¡¯s were not. It was a shock to the trio as they had clearly registered as one party. Braiten thought through it and cursed as he realized that his performance was way too outstanding compared to the two even though they were definitely talented adventurers. He guessed that the reason that the two were kept behind was so that their possible deaths could be reported to the martial sect they belonged to in hope that the martial sects would avenge their dead members and clear out the monsters that invaded this town. The management clearly wanted to keep Braiten alive as he had much more potential than the other adventurers around him. Braiten turned to look at Dashurie who was absolutely fuming. She was staring hard at the middle-aged man and Wiatt. Her fists were clenched and it looked like she was doing her all not to make a big fuss right there and then. She had grown close to the party throughout their mentorship. Closer than any other adventurers she ever mentored. However, Dashurie did not have the position or power to change a thing and she also knew that every bit of manpower counts in this do or die situation. Inferring that Dashurie could not do a thing, Braiten looked helplessly at his two party members. For a moment, the disbelief remained in their eyes. This was followed quickly by anger, envy and finally, fear. Eron and Isolda were young, but they were not stupid. They were well-versed in the ways of politics and management due to their origin from the ruthless martial society. They were much too aware of the guild¡¯s actions and hidden agendas. The two martial artists swallowed their emotions and reached forward to pull Braiten in a group hug. Braiten stiffened for a moment before a pained expression filled his normally calm face and let himself be pulled. The three stood there in a tight hug. Tears flowing freely from their eyes as each of them had different thoughts running through their heads. Braiten felt the most pain from this sudden would-be separation. For the past hundred years and throughout his previous life, he had always been a bystander. Ever watching, and never committing himself to any relationships as he wandered around. The pain from his loving parents¡¯ parting existed strongly in his mind as he walked from city to city, from country to country, and from wilderness to wilderness. He got over the pain after a few years but ended up remaining that same faithful observer. However, meeting these two martial artists and interacting with them forged a bond that was almost familial. It had filled the gaps that his parents had long left. He felt like he had almost gained a younger brother and sister. He had even made the effort to try to integrate into the community of Aermagh as he wanted it to be his new home. All of this was about to be lost as circumstances threatened to sever the bonds once again. Eron felt deeply indebted to Braiten. He had been picked up by Braiten when he felt most down. The competition back in his martial sect became the last thing on his mind when he was in this party. All that remained was the joy of improving and of discovery together with this extremely bright and unorthodox individual. He knew that Braiten was also the same bright light that shone upon the community in Aermagh. When he was not with Eron, Isolda or Dashurie, Eron found out that Braiten wandered the streets, chatting with various individuals and keeping them company. He always left them feeling happy and contented no matter how down they looked initially. Eron absolutely wanted to stay by Braiten¡¯s side. He had wanted to return and ask to leave the sect before the competition started. No benefits attained from winning the competition could compare to being in the company of this once in a lifetime friend. Isolda, too, felt deeply indebted to Braiten. She had been extremely headstrong at first, but Braiten¡¯s patience won out as he took the time to teach Isolda the ropes of an adventurer. He slowly incorporated the concepts of everyday life into Isolda¡¯s martial arts, steadily improving her martial prowess. He had also taken the time to hear out her thoughts and troubles, greatly soothing out her past issues. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Isolda was an orphan. She grew up in the slums and accidentally stumbled and touched an appraisal orb carried at the waist of an elder of her current martial sect. Finding that she had excellent talent, she was swept away into the Skyward Sect. When she reached the eighty-second level of basic cultivation, she had attained her first elemental affinity. This drew a lot of attention from those around her. Even the elder that picked her up, who seemed to be her mother figure, started fawning over her in expectation of benefitting from her fame and progress. This caused Isolda to be extremely disgusted by those around her and she put up an impertinent attitude as a front. The only person who treated her normally back then was Eron, who was really timid back when he was in the Skyward Sect. When Braiten entered her life, she had thought that he would become the same parasitic beings that existed in the sect. Instead, he completely blew her expectations away as he did not waver in the slightest when interacting with her even when she unlocked her ice-attributed elemental qi. Soon, she found herself relying on him as he taught her and spent time with her. In her heart, she felt that if she had a father, this was what he would be like. Dashurie¡¯s anger-clouded mind smoothed over after a brief period. She faced the trio only to find them tightly embracing each other. Her heart broke at that moment and her eyes misted over as she walked over to them. She embraced the trio and a big hug. However, she also knew that the situation was dire and things needed to be done. Dashurie released the three from her embrace and tugged them lightly to pull the three apart. With tear-streaked faces, the two martial artists seemed to come to terms with the separation and they turned around to walk towards the group of guild members preparing for the town¡¯s defense. They never looked back. Dashurie patted Braiten¡¯s shoulder comfortingly before she joined the two martial artists. Alone, Braiten could only grit his teeth as he took his transfer papers and made his way out of the guild building to join the mercenaries that were warning the townspeople of Aermagh of the impending danger looming over the town. *** It took an hour for the citizens to gather their valuables, find their family members and congregate at the western exit of Aermagh. The civilians were arranged such that those that had carriages or transport were in front. A myriad of tamed beasts pulled those carriages. Most of which were beasts that could be found in the vicinity of Aermagh. Black circles with hidden inscriptions, infused with qi from their owners, could be seen around the necks of the tamed beasts as if they were collars. Those without their own means of transport were positioned in the back and were to walk on foot. The escorting guild members were split with five in charge of the carriages and twelve in charge of those walking on foot. These were too few for escorting an entire town, but these numbers were the maximum number of combat guild members that could be separated from the eventual conflict. Braiten was an escort for the civilians who were on foot. He had also been delegated to be the lookout at the rear of the group. Positioning himself in the rear, Braiten casted a spell that detected hostility directed at the mass of people. Not wasting time, the whole group set off at a steady, but hurried pace when the carriages cleared off from the town gates. As soon as they left the gates, they could see the monstrous army. Many civilians gasped in astonishment as they saw the mass of ferocious monsters marching in an orderly fashion towards the town. However, they were still in the distance, so the civilians should be in the clear by the time the battle started. Braiten formed two runes in the air which then flew into his eyes. This was a spell he used to see far into the distance ever since he came to this world. It was nowhere near as powerful as the scrying spells he was able to use in his life as it only granted telescopic vision. In addition, scrying spells produced the images in front of Braiten. This would have been extremely eye-catching to others. Braiten examined the formations of the monster army. They seem to have been split into four groups, each led by a harpy. The goblins had obviously been made into cannon fodder to absorb the first clash when the battle started as they made up the first few lines of each formation. Orcs made up the next few lines and ogres were placed in between every few orcs. These were clearly the main force. Strangely, there was no sign of any hobgoblins. In order to search for the said hobgoblins, Braiten looked at the surroundings of the army and noticed a flash of black scales in the trees every now and then. It was then that Braiten saw where the hobgoblins were located. He saw many black mambears with several hobgoblins mounted on them. They were most likely going to be a sort of guerilla troop in this battle. Braiten felt that something was very wrong. Harpies were smart and elder harpies were even smarter. However, these were not tactics that could be thought up from the wilderness where strength was still the be all end all instead of intelligence to use the masses. Braiten desperately looked for the elder harpy that was assumed to be among the monster invasion. There was absolutely no sign of it. Nothing in the sky, nothing on the ground. Perhaps hiding amongst the forest, but that was highly unlikely as it was supposed to be arrogant. After a long fruitless search, his focus returned to the harpies. He felt that something was slightly off about the harpies. They were docile. Too docile for the aggressive beings that they were made out to be. Then, he saw it. A thin black line circling their necks. These were the very same lines that he had seen on the tamed beasts that led the carriages out in front. A person who could tame a harpy¡­ a whole nest of harpies was definitely not weak. This revelation made Braiten feel like rushing back to warn the three that were left behind. However, he could not neglect his duty of protecting the residents of Aermagh. He also spent quite some time looking for the supposedly present elder harpy. By now, the whole group was a distance away from the town. With the speed of the approaching monster army, even a speed-enchanted Braiten would be hard-pressed to reach the town in time before the battle started. Feeling utterly helpless, Braiten could only clench his fists and try to focus on protecting the group he was tasked with. This was difficult to do as Braiten¡¯s mind and emotions were whirling from the concern over the safety of his friends. Braiten could only the detection spell to overlook the group for him as he gazed at the town and his emotions rampaged through his mind. With an unknown expert hiding in the midst of battle, he knew that this fight would be a lost cause. === Author¡¯s notes: I decided to split chapter 7 into parts because it would be too long otherwise. It¡¯s also hard to convey everything in one chapter. Braiten is a very emotional person for someone who always stayed on the sidelines and lived for so long. However, this only applies when he commits himself to a specific community/person. This has already been shown when he was ready to sacrifice himself for the pope in his previous life. I hope you guys accept this different facet of him. Also, a flawed character makes for more flexibility in future events.
Author¡¯s Announcement: This is going to seem to sound bad, but I¡¯m slowing down releases for this fiction to three or four times a week. With the way things were going and trying to attempt daily releases, this fiction was going to crash and burn. The quality of the fiction was dropping and I needed to change my method of approach ASAP. Originally, I was going to go with the mainstream trope of mc dominating a losing battle and gaining prestige and all that. HOWEVER, I did not want Braiten to be OP. I just wanted him to be strong. I decided to take a different approach to this. I am separating him from the town, guild and his new party members otherwise he¡¯d be so busy babysitting everyone around him that he ends up having no room to get stronger. Furthermore, I want to give him a feeling of helplessness to give him the motivation to grow stronger. He will reunite with Isolda and Eron, hopefully not in a way that is too clich¨¦ or not in a way that you guys will easily think of. I have thought long and hard over what I wanted to write for future events when I had my few hours of writer¡¯s block trying to write chapter 7. Once I get through this event, I am going to slow the pace down to a day by day kind of thing after one last time skip. I hope to maintain quality for this fiction so that you guys can enjoy the read. I know that it is when I put my best foot forward in trying to craft this story that you guys will enjoy as you guys enjoyed the first few chapters. I hope the community of readers will understand this. *bow* P.S. Whoever was the 5th person to give me that review of 3 stars, please take the time to type a proper review with the 3 stars instead of randomly giving it out. I would like to know where I have gone wrong and such so that I can improve the story. Please provide proper advice as well instead of the usual ¡°this sucks¡±. Chapter 8 - Surrounded The sounds of clashes between weapon and tough hide filled the whole battlefield. A group of humans and a group of monsters desperately fought each other for survival. Hacked, smashed and bisected bodies of goblins littered the floor and many of them were perforated with arrows or crossbow bolts. There were also a few corpses that lay about, though the number was only a handful. Blood of both monsters and humans alike spread across the battlefield. Qi armor of different colors and thickness surrounded almost every human and pulsed whenever a monster managed to land a blow. A middle-aged man oversaw the battle with caution in his eyes. He initially wanted groups of two advanced cultivators to tie up the harpies while he went about assisting in dealing with them one by one, but his plans were dashed. Scouts reported that the harpies had taming collars around their necks which brought the unpleasant information of a hidden expert possibly lying in wait. Furthermore, there was a fifth harpy that was missing from the monster army. It had been together with the monster army until the time when the civilians were ready to depart from Aermagh. It was then that it separated and hid in the cover of the nearby forest. This unknown factor placed a great pressure on the middle-aged man and to win this battle, nothing should be overlooked. The rest of the strategy had been going well, however. Many of the initial wave of goblins were killed from afar and many more injured before the two armies clashed. The ogres and orcs were unfortunately not affected by the ranged weapons. Their thick hides easily repelling the force behind the arrows. When the two armies clashed, the goblins were easily taken out of the battle by the guild and there were no deaths. However, several inexperienced guild members were scratched and bitten, incurring several minor injuries that would affect their fighting capability a little. When the orcs and ogres reached the frontline, some of them took out a few unfortunate weaker guild members, who were either killed immediately or blown back. Those that were blown back were more fortunate but had sustained severe injuries. Guild members who were prepped and ready for the fight but had not entered combat immediately took the places of the fallen ones. Parties with fallen members were also pulled back so as not to interfere in the coordination of the replacement guild members. Among the weaker guild members, there were a particular duo that were outstanding. This party of two were paired with a party that only had females. Naturally, this was Eron and Isolda acting in concert with Dashurie¡¯s party. Eron had taken on the front line with his overbearing fighting style. He kept a score of orcs and an ogre in check even though they were much larger and stronger than him. He skillfully parried each blow and his actions almost effortlessly flowed from defense to offense and back to defense again. This scary combination ignited admiration among the guild members who were fighting nearby and those in the back. The number of monsters he was preventing from breaking through was easily equivalent to someone of a high level in the intermediate cultivation tier. The image of him utilizing a martial skill that blasted any that tried to break past him back seamlessly with a strong defense reminded the onlookers of a stronghold. A stronghold that rebuffed all enemy attacks and weathered many a storm. In the backline, Isolda stood with one of Dashurie¡¯s girlfriends. Both were using long range martial skills to support the frontline. Isolda commanded fire while Dashurie¡¯s girlfriend was using ice to tie up the enemies. However, Isolda¡¯s flames were different from the normal scarlet ones. There were white streaks that ran through and flickered with the flames. Before the battle started, Isolda had been extremely pressured by Braiten¡¯s separation and the oncoming monster invasion. Seeing the monsters approach as she was placed among the first squad to absorb the initial clash, something broke in her and she remembered Braiten mentioning how fire and ice were two sides of the same coin. Both commanded heat, but is the result of raising it and the other of cooling. They naturally suppressed each other, but could be used in unison for devastating attacks along with equally devastating effects. The memories flooded her mind and a burst of inspiration arose in her heart. Isolda summoned flames from her qi using and she felt that it was incomplete. Flowing qi along the complementary pathways with the ice martial skill that she learnt from Dashurie¡¯s girlfriend, the flames grew hotter as several pockets of air amongst the flames grew colder and colder. Eventually, white streaks of ice forming and melting into clouds of water appeared within the flames. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Isolda found out that heat from the cold pockets of air was transferring over to the flames, making them ever stronger. With this strange flame, she dominated control over the enemies she directed her wrath at. The monsters that touched the flame were burned initially, before ice started forming outside and freezing the area that had been hit. With the inside burning and the outside frozen, many monsters were screaming in pain and struggling to no avail. This mystical sight caused many onlookers to remember legends of a grand white flame that was of absolute heat and coldness. All of them decided to dub Isolda and this mystical martial skill as ¡°Frostflame Prison¡±. Dashurie and her other girlfriend were in the frontline, but behind Eron. Whenever they got the chance to, they would dash out and kill monsters with one strike before dashing back behind Eron. They also made sure that Eron did not handle more than he could chew and teamed up to quickly eliminate any extra monsters that Eron was unable to lock down. Just as the battle had gone on for ten minutes, a bright flash originated from the forest. A glowing, green formation with an arrow in the middle appeared in the sky and a huge figure the size of a harpy flew in the arrow¡¯s direction. Shortly after, the harpies that were fighting the advanced cultivation tier guild members broke off from the battle and swiftly flew towards their comrade. On top of the leading harpy, there was a man clad in light, scaled armor. He wore a helmet adorned with two horns on his head and held a long staff in both hands. The guild branch leader looked in the direction of the arrow and immediately paled. The direction led right towards the escaping civilians! *** The detection rune that could only be seen by Braiten lit up and broke up into six pieces. Each of them flew around Braiten in a circle once and then stopped in the direction of Aermagh. Braiten became extremely alarmed at that point and saw five figures in the distance rapidly becoming bigger as they came closer. A strong sense of danger washed over Braiten and he quickly gathered up mana from the earth. Manipulating it to form several runes in front of him, Braiten stomped his foot loudly onto the earth to draw attention in his direction. As he did so, a thick and large wall of earth materialized in front of him from the ground. Braiten prepared his strongest defensive enchants and was about to imbue the earth wall with it when he felt a disturbance in the mana on the other side of the wall. Braiten immediately imbued the enchant on himself as the wall broke apart and a harpy swiped him to the side. Braiten had defenses that were much stronger than an ordinary advanced cultivator, he could block the strike outright. However, in order to hide his prowess, he let himself relax. Feeling the flow of the forces, he moved like water and firmly redirected the harpy¡¯s swipe with a circular motion. The man riding the harpy was shocked by the turn of events. Clearly, Braiten was releasing an aura that indicated that he was only in the early levels of the advanced cultivation tier. The fact that he could easily parry this tamed harpy¡¯s attack was testament to extremely high martial prowess. The shock only lasted for a brief moment, however. The man quickly released his full power, suppressing Braiten and forcing him to kneel on the spot. Braiten was effectively pinned down just from the aura of the man. The guild members surrounding the civilians finally regained their wits only after Braiten had been immobilized. Their reactions were too late as four harpies landed around the group of civilians, sealing off any room for escape. They were completely surrounded. === Author¡¯s notes: A fresh new start with a fresh chapter and a short one for easier reading. This event will continue over one more chapter. I didn¡¯t want to leave this chapter as a cliffhanger, but what can I do. I wanted to continue the chapter titles as ¡°a something something¡±, but I couldn¡¯t think of a good title. This fiction has a slower beginning, but quicker pace in setting the foundation of the character, so I hope you guys would bear with me. (And no, it¡¯s not bare with me. ¡°Bare with me¡± means to get naked with me, so no to that.) Chapter 9 - Similarities and Motivation Braiten prepared an array of spells to use as he was immobilized. However, he felt a strange inkling that he would be killed the moment the spells activated. Instead, he let the spells remained prepped as the runes circled around him. Braiten stared at the man in front of him with curious eyes. He felt that the man¡¯s characteristics seemed similar to a certain race in his previous world. A race that many people initially misunderstood and were highly discriminated against. Without being as close as Braiten, no one would have known that the horns that seemed to be on the man¡¯s helmet was actually a part of the man¡¯s head. There was a small space that circled the helmet, indicating that the horns originate from below the helmet. Ornaments would not be so loosely attached. The second characteristic was the man¡¯s belt. It seemed to be a scaled belt that was loosely hung around the man¡¯s waist, but was in fact the man¡¯s tail. That particular race back in Braiten¡¯s previous world used their tail in a similar way. Wearing scaled armor, their tails were disguised as a belt and allowed for devastating surprise attacks when needed. The tail could also be used nimbly as a flexible shield or as a weapon to make sweeping or stabbing attacks. Seeing the similar dressing, Braiten felt hope ignited within his heart. If this race was as similar to his previous world as it seems, perhaps this group of Aermagh citizens may live to see another day. Just as Braiten had finished his conclusions, the man disappeared from his sight as he dashed into the crowd of people. He grabbed someone roughly and dragged him out from the group. At that moment, qi ignited from the man who was dragged out. It was clear to anyone that he was among the high levels of the advanced cultivation tier. However, none of the civilians were encouraged by the aura of the person who was dragged out. Knowing that this horned man could easily manhandle someone that was so strong meant that none of them had any hope of fighting back. ¡°L-let go of me! D-do you have any idea of who you are messing with? I am the next heir of the Dark Hands Sect! If you kill me, the sect will hunt you and family until they are all wiped out!¡± The man screamed in a high pitched voice as he struggled desperately. The horned man tightened his grip around the struggling man¡¯s neck in reply. A cold glint shone in his eyes. ¡°Fool who makes empty threats. I will take back what your kind has stolen. Both lives and the object that belongs to my people.¡± Talking in a deep voice, the horned man circulated his qi around the martial artist. Soon, there was a glow from the martial artist¡¯s pockets. The horned man took the contents as he tore a hole in the martial artist¡¯s clothing. Then, he broke the martial artist¡¯s neck and tossed the body to the side. The cold glint was still present in the man¡¯s gaze as he turned to face Braiten and the civilians. Immediately, Braiten started to get worried. Threatening the family of the horned man was equivalent to threatening that entire race. Having lives reaped also meant that he may take it personally as a racial war even if it only concerned the Dark Hands Sect. He had to do something in order not to get killed. Braiten enchanted himself with strength, multiplying it several times over and was finally able to move. He stood up under the shocked gaze of the horned man. Braiten changed his posture such that he looked like a soldier standing at attention. He balled his left fist and touched the base knuckle of the thumb to his chest. This was a typical salute to the strong among the Daemon race. ¡°On the honor of my people and my own, I, Braiten, make an oath upon the Heavenly Way that the deceased has no connection to the innocents gathered here. In fact, he has broken our people¡¯s law of involving said innocents. In recognition of this honor, I challenge you, noble Daemon, to a First Blood Duel. Upon recognition of my strength, I plead that you spare these innocents and direct your ire at your true enemy, the Dark Hands Sect,¡± Braiten solemnly directed his words at the Daemon. The Daemon¡¯s eyes widened in shock. Obviously unprepared for someone of a different race to be so familiar with his customs and principles. Daemons respected three principles: honor, integrity and strength. By making an oath to the Heavenly Way with the honor of his people and his own, Braiten is showing honor and integrity. However, Daemons despised those who only used the first two principles because of the dog-eat-dog world that they lived in. Words without power to enforce it is meaningless. Therefore, Braiten included the duel in hopes of having the Daemon recognize his strength despite clearly being weaker. When the Daemon¡¯s calm returned, he replied, ¡°I accept your oath and duel. Upon my honor, I, Aethelbeorn, make an oath upon the Heavenly Way to uphold your request if I recognize your strength. I¡¯d like to hear how you know of my people¡¯s customs.¡± With that, Aethelbeorn took a decent sized stone and spoke again, ¡°We will start when the stone reaches the floor.¡± Aethelbeorn threw the stone up and took a stance. The atmosphere turned tense as Braiten did the same. His previously prepared runes had already changed into something that was meant to incapacitate the opponent rather than kill him. Braiten enchanted his body to improve his speed and defenses. Strength was not an issue as Braiten merely needed to parry and wait for an opportunity to strike with his magic. A short moment later, the stone fell onto the ground between Aethelbeorn and Braiten with a thud. Aethelbeorn dashed at Braiten, as Braiten followed the laws of cycles and flows which he had gained insights into when he had observed the water and air magic runes. Using circular movements to redirect the attacks by Aethelbeorn, Braiten parried each of the blows and circled around Aethelbeorn in an attempt to keep moving into blind spots. Aethelbeorn had initially thought to hold back when he first struck out, but seeing the skillful manner in which Braiten had parried his blows and winked in and out of his blindspots, his fighting spirit was ignited. Aethelbeorn struck out faster and faster, and his strikes grew more ferocious. Of course, Aethelbeorn still kept a cool head. This was only a First Blood Duel, which implied that killing was prohibited and the loser is the one who has his blood drawn first. The law of cycles was unique and provided a very strange fighting style that Braiten had taken a liking to during his hundred years of wandering. Understanding just a part of it allowed Braiten grow a level in cultivation ever since his cultivation of <> slowed down. The concept behind the law of cycles is cycles have no beginnings and therefore have no end. Incorporating it into fights, Braiten has achieved seamless offense and defense as he cycled through his repertoire of basic attacks and defensive movements. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Many blows were exchanged as the fight dragged on for minutes. Braiten¡¯s stamina was still far from hitting rock bottom, but the concentration needed to defend himself and counterattack at every opening that he could was taxing on his mind. The fight felt like hours to him. Seeing Braiten hang on for so long, Aethelbeorn was delighted. However, he also knew that Braiten was probably at his limits. Braiten was attacking less and less as Aethelbeorn sped up bit by bit. Deciding to end the duel, Aethelbeorn wound up for an attack that he judged strong enough to break Braiten¡¯s defenses and score first blood. As Braiten saw Aethelbeorn wind up, he knew that his chance had come. Able to utilized the prepared magic runes at last, he immediately squatted down and slammed his palm against the ground. Those moves were not just theatrics, but also served to distract Aethelbeorn momentarily. When Aethelbeorn saw Braiten squat and slap his palm on the ground, he hesitated. Suddenly, walls of earth surrounded him. Roots of surrounding plants thickened, extended and grabbed onto his legs with surprising force. Electricity flowed through the ground and further immobilized his legs by numbing them. It was then that a cloud of water appeared above Aethelbeorn and lighting struck out from it. The civilians watching the entire duel were mesmerized by the fight between true experts despite the fear of death hanging above them. When they saw Braiten lift the earth, and heard and felt the rumble of thunder, they felt puzzled as to what was happening within. Ten seconds had passed and they thought that everything was over. Just as the civilians were about to sigh with relief, a fearsome aura of qi burst out from the earth walls. Cracks began to appear on the walls of earth and a thickly qi clad Aethelbeorn burst out from his earthen confines. Aethelbeorn, once again, dashed towards Braiten who had taken his distance the moment cracks had appeared. However, contrary to everyone¡¯s expectations, Aethelbeorn did not attack Braiten. Instead, he slapped Braiten¡¯s shoulder and burst out laughing. ¡°Brilliant! Such unique skills and martial ability! I recognize your strength, youngling. Not only did you manage to force me to use my qi to its utmost to defend myself, you even managed to injure me slightly,¡± Aethelbeorn bellowed out as he laughed heartily. ¡°There¡¯s no need to explain yourself about knowing my people¡¯s culture. You have shown it through your actions in the fight. That final strike of yours was carefully controlled to only produce enough power to lock my muscles up and cause pain. It didn¡¯t possess the power to cause serious harm or to kill. Carrying yourself well, fighting with dignity and not losing yourself to battle lust, you are definitely a friend of my people,¡± Aethelbeorn added as he calmed down. With that done, he gave patted Braiten on the shoulder once more, and jumped onto one of his harpies. Then, he commanded it to fly off in search of the Dark Hands Sect. It was only until the harpies disappeared into the distance that the citizens of Aermagh finally breathe a sigh of relief. The few minutes that the fight lasted left them on tenterhooks. Now that both monster and horned man was gone, they could finally relax. All of a sudden, the group of people heard a thud happen next to them. It was Braiten. He had gone past the limits of his mental state to pull off that final attack. With everything over, he had finally let himself conk out on the spot. The citizens of Aermagh would definitely bring him to safety. Unconsciously, Braiten¡¯s breathing followed the method of <>. A trace amount of qi and mana gathered around his body and was slowly absorbed, nourishing Braiten in his exhausted state. In the distance, a desperate group of guild members rushed up to the civilians from the direction of Aermagh. Seeing the residents of Aermagh safe, apart from a fainted Braiten and a dead member of the Dark Hands Sect, they felt alleviated from all their worries. Aermagh¡¯s citizens gave a quick recount of what had happened, which shocked the guild members entirely. The leader of the party of guild members told the citizens not to speak a word of this to anyone and brought the citizens back to Aermagh, as the battle was over. *** The next day, Braiten awoke. He sat up and saw some basic nursing tools next to the bed he was on. Knowing that he was safe and sound, he began to reflect. If his guess were wrong¡­ If he did not have insights into some heavenly laws¡­ If he had not attained finer control over his magic¡­ Many if¡¯s circled around Braiten¡¯s mind. Memories of his past life also flitted through his mind. All of this pointed to one conclusion for him: he needed to be stronger. Much, much stronger. === Author¡¯s notes: Final part of this event! It¡¯s finally the end of the beginning. That¡¯s what I meant by the beginning was slow, but the foundational pace was fast. The next chapter will be detailing an interesting event. Braiten thought that being a minor power allowed him to establish a good foundation and follow through with his goals. This was a painful lesson for him. He used his smarts and a great deal of luck more so than his strength to handle this situation. Two more reviews have been submitted that are 2.5 stars and 3 stars each. None of the reviews have mentioned anything about what went wrong with the fiction. Those who like this fiction, if you would kindly leave a positive review when you think this fiction has progressed enough, it would be much appreciated. I now see why many new authors complain about jealous authors and trolls over on this site. I think I should also put a counter here for reviews/ratings just for you readers to see for fun. Reviews as of this chapter: 8. Rating as of this chapter: 4.19. Latest review stars: 3 and 2.5. You guys can¡¯t believe the angst I am feeling when I keep asking myself, ¡°where did I go wrong?¡± Side Chapter 1 - His circumstances and her circumstances Braiten sat on his bed. Many if¡¯s whirled about in his mind. Memories of the past flitted through his mind¡­ *** Spring had come. The air was slightly chilly, but was warm enough to be considered refreshingly cooling. Thick layers of snow had already melted and revealed the vibrant grass beneath. Beside a brook, a young lad of twelve sat on a decent sized rock. In between his legs, he had a long fishing rod. The young lad chewed on a piece of herbal grass as he patiently waited for a catch. All of a sudden, a young girl of the same age dashed out from the bushes behind the boy and latched onto his arm. ¡°Gwydion!¡± The young girl called out joyously. ¡°Hey now, Ilasha, you¡¯re going to scare the fish,¡± Gwydion said as he tried futilely to extricate himself from the arms of his childhood friend. ¡°Mm¡­¡± Ilasha mumbled something incomprehensible as she buried her face into Gwydion¡¯s shoulder. Right at that moment, a chorus of screams were heard in the direction of their village. With a panicked expression, Gwydion and Ilasha quickly got up and ran towards their home. Anxiety and worry filled their minds as they thought about the safety of their parents. *** As the two reached their village, what they saw was absolute carnage. A wyvern swooped down, grabbed a villager and ripped him apart in the air. Blood sprayed from the severed body and rained on the already bloodied village. Pools of blood were everywhere as various monsters, ranging from sabre-tooth gorillas to dragon-kin, roamed about and feasted on the multitude of corpses. The hundred or so villagers had already been reduced to over twenty. The remaining villagers were either in hiding or trying to find an opening to run out of the village. Feeling slightly nauseous, Gwydion and Ilasha hid within the protective underbrush that surrounded the village. They snuck around the outskirts as they tried to find their families. Halfway through their search, Ilasha saw her sister. She was nothing but a half-eaten corpse. Her bloodied head only contained an expression of pure terror. Ilasha nearly screamed but Gwydion had clasped his hands over her mouth, gathering her wits and reminding her to be quiet. The two proceeded on with much more urgency. They surveyed the town desperately. Hoping that somehow, their parents may still yet live. However, their hopes were dashed as they spotted their parents¡¯ bodies that lay together in their family fields. However, the bodies were not in one piece. The dismembered body parts were strewn all over the farm fields. Two pitchforks were on the ground, hands still clasped around their handles. Obviously, their fathers had attempted to fight back but failed and met a miserable end. Gwydion¡¯s body was tense and had stiffened up. His muscles were all taut and his hands were clenched so hard that his nails drew blood from his fists. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he gritted his teeth hard. Ilasha was no different, except that she hugged Gwydion¡¯s arm tightly and cried silently into his shoulder. When the two had gradually calmed down, battle horns could be heard in the distance. Help had finally arrived for the village. A courier pigeon was sent for help the moment the monsters had invaded. Help had arrived in the form of an army via a teleport spell. The first to arrive was the church¡¯s forces. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The enraged monsters that were interrupted from their mayhem and charged at the nearing army. Soon, there was an intense battle and it slowly progressed. All the while, Gwydion and Ilasha stood by. As Gwydion observed the battle, something in his mind clicked and he felt as if he was seeing through new eyes. He had unlocked the ability to sense mana. Gwydion did not know at that moment, however, as he was entranced by the battle. All that went through his mind was the sight of the villagers being killed. Their corpses desecrated. When the fight concluded, the thoughts that ran through Gwydion¡¯s head was that he needed to be much stronger. Much, much stronger. The church then moved closer to the village to give the dead a proper send off and they helped the ten or so survivors with their injuries. The church also offered them help in the form of coming back with them to work for the church. Gwydion and Ilasha were among them. However, Gwydion felt that working for the church would not give him the power he wanted. The power he needed to protect any and all that he loved. Turning to Ilasha, he asked, ¡°Ilasha, I won¡¯t follow the church. I¡¯m going on a journey to become stronger. Much stronger. Will you come with me?¡± Reluctance filled Ilasha¡¯s face as she pondered over the words. However, no matter how much she wanted to go with Gwydion, something in her heart told her that she would be able to do much more if she helped others through the church. With a painstaking expression on her face, she replied, ¡°I-I think I will stay with the church.¡± *** This was the beginning of the greatest magus, Gwydion and the most benevolent leader of the church, the future Pope Ilasha. This was also the day when the first immortals stepped foot onto their lands. It was the day known as the start of closed beta for the first virtual reality game. === Author¡¯s notes: This is just a small side chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it. I was contemplating on whether to wait a few days to upload this, but I think the timing''s just right with the close release of the previous chapter. Calculating review stats is strangely relieving. It really is cathartic. Reviews as of this chapter: 16. Rating as of this chapter: 4.31. Latest ratings: 4.5 x2, 5 x5, 0.5(oh my shit, where did I seriously go wrong for this to come up). As of this edit - Reviews: 17. Rating: 4.18. Latest rating: 2. He had even added his own review, upvoted it and downvoted someone else. Looks like I have to look at the first 4 chapters again according to his review. I guess this writing style is not for everyone. I wanted to go for a style where the world is built as we go along and not just built all in one shot and have info dumped on you all in one sitting. It makes for a boring chapter. That''s also why I started out with the world only being as small as one continent at the start and so many unknowns left about. It makes for a more flexible future events. Chapter 10 - Parting, a fresh start As Braiten came to the conclusion of the absolute necessity of strength for his goals, the door to his room opened. Immediately, the person who walked in dropped the basin and towel that was in her hands and rushed towards Braiten. Arms hugged tightly onto Braiten¡¯s head as he felt hot tears falling onto him. ¡°You¡¯re okay! You¡¯re okay!¡± Isolda said over and over as she tightened her grip on Braiten¡¯s head. Hearing the commotion from inside the room, Eron anxiously rushed into the room. Seeing Braiten awake with his own eyes, he broke into a wide smile and went up toward Braiten to clasp a hand on Braiten¡¯s shoulder. It had been three days since the invasion. Braiten was unconscious the whole time that the town came back to life, and slowly resumed its daily comings and goings. The guild auxiliary members, who were pharmacists, that checked up on Braiten said that he was merely exhausted from the battle that he had with the horned man called Aethelbeorn. They had mentioned that Braiten should wake up in a day. Therefore, the two had been sitting around twiddling their thumbs in worry of Braiten¡¯s health when more than a day had passed. Braiten was slightly touched by his friends¡¯ worries, but felt guilt well up inside of him. He knew that he could not continue to babysit them here or bring them to dangerous places beyond their ability. Staying here would also prevent him from understanding nature¡¯s laws quickly as well. There was just not enough harmony between the laws in Human civilizations for him to understand the breadth and depth in which the laws may reach. Braiten let the atmosphere of the reunion soak in, enjoying the peace that had settle in between him and his friends. He chose not to break the news of his eventual parting yet. Isolda calmed down, and blushed at the thought of having jumped on Braiten as she did. She thought that she could have kept her calm better. Eron, on the other hand, although outwardly calm, felt his worry-clenched heart ease up and a great weight lift off his back when the situation had fully registered in his disordered mind. He was truly relieved that his friend was finally up and about. The trio then chatted about what had happened over the past few days when Braiten was unconscious. Apparently, there was a lot of commotion when it was revealed that Braiten was an advanced cultivator. Information could not be kept under wraps due to the many witnesses, and several martial sects had sent important elders to meet with the ¡°young¡± genius. The guild did their best to rebuff the elders and it was fortunate that Braiten was unconscious, which had helped with delaying the elders. The guild had sent news over to the main branch at another frontier town, and had sent three journeymen to protect this talent and prevent the martial sects from getting too underhanded should they be unable to get their way. Eron and Isolda also mentioned that they had been getting attention from the guild members who participated in the battle. While Braiten¡¯s fame lay with the citizens and outsiders, the adventurers and mercenaries were interested in the two. There were many parties that offered to take them under their wing once Eron and Isolda¡¯s mentorship had ended. The duo felt uncomfortable about the attention, and often came to seek refuge in Braiten¡¯s room. Dashurie was busy with the guild¡¯s management. As trio¡¯s mentor, she was absolutely furious with Wiatt. With the support of her party members, she actually hung the muscular man on top of the gates and spun him around over, and over, and over. Wiatt was so dizzy that he had puked many times. He had even developed a slight acrophobia. Of course, Dashurie¡¯s actions led to punishment. However, she argued that parties should never be separated forcefully without consent. Privy to the conversations of the new adventurers, she also mentioned that the management¡¯s decision also had made many new guild members question the ethics of the guild¡¯s higher ups. Loyalty was something that any organization needed. Therefore, Wiatt had been made into a scapegoat with Dashurie¡¯s actions as his punishment and Dashurie¡¯s had only consisted of running odd jobs for the auxiliary members for a few days. Dashurie¡¯s punishment had given Eron and Isolda some time for things to cool down and a much deserved few days of break. They had been told that the rate that they had completed their tasks was actually quite intense, to have condensed four weeks of tasks into three weeks with only a couple of rest days in total throughout the three weeks. As they ran out of things to say about the past three days, the conversation naturally turned to what had happened to Braiten when the harpies charged towards the group of fleeing civilians. Braiten gave a detailed account to the sparkling-eyed duo, omitting the use of magic and mentioned that he had used several natural laws to cover up. He did not tell of his past life, but glossed over the information by saying that he was friends with other races beyond Humans and therefore knew what to do. The two martial artists listened attentively, they were immersed in Braiten¡¯s telling of the experience first-hand. By the end of it, they had gasped a few times, and were breathless from the tale of the fight and at the newfound information of other races despite the lack of embellishments when told by Braiten. To think that Humans were not the only ones that inhabited this continent and that the other races may be many times stronger. Eron and Isolda also seriously considered what Braiten had mentioned as comprehending the natural laws and incorporating them in your martial arts as he did in his fight. They felt like Braiten had touched on something very important. Whenever Braiten mentioned such strange things, they thought that the Martial Way that they have been taught in the sect was very primitive. All they were taught was that the Martial Way was against the heavens. Natural laws that were in harmony with the way of heavens were naturally not connected to the Martial Way, or so they were taught. The history that the duo was taught about the Martial Way was that in the history of humankind, there were fantastical creatures that roamed the earth. There were even sentient humanoids that had scales for skin, and breathed fire along with other mystical humanoid races. Martial skills that absolutely shook the land and pierced the skies existed aplenty back then. Presently, all the cultivation methods and martial skills were but remnants of that past. Progress was made throughout the many years that had passed since then, but due to the secretive and selfish natures of martial artists, advancement in the Martial Way was stagnant. Only those who were truly strong are privy to some of the secrets of the past and the current development of martial arts. When their thoughts concluded, Eron and Isolda had a strange light in their eyes. It was as if they had suddenly seen the light regarding something. In their hearts, they firmly decided to leave the martial sect. They felt that the Martial Way was more restricted within the sect, where you could not truly focus on it and had to constantly watch your back. They remembered when Braiten had said that martial arts was found in everyday life, but with the revelation that nature could complement it, their vision grew wider regarding their cultivation. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Eventually, the day grew darker. The sky had streaks of red as the sun was setting. Chatting happily with friends and enjoying the reunion that they had, time had passed relatively quickly. Dashurie had bounced in on them as she took a break between odd jobs. She merely looked relieved, chatted for a bit and soon had to leave once again to finish the last of her ¡°punishment¡±. All in all, Braiten had decided to notify his party members and Dashurie of his leaving when the mentorship has ended. It was a much better time to say it when Eron and Isolda had to leave for their sect. *** Four more days had passed quickly. Dashurie and her party, along with Eron and Isolda spent time with Braiten doing more leisurely things, knowing that they had to separate soon. Things did not go according to Braiten¡¯s plans and he had to reveal that he needed to part with them to grow stronger. This had happened when Eron and Isolda approached him to say that they wanted to leave the sect and live the adventurer¡¯s life with Braiten. Filled with guilt, Braiten had divulged his plans to leave this place for a while to grow stronger. At that time, he said that he was not sure how long he would be away. Being understanding people, Eron and Isolda told Braiten that they will wait here for him until that day comes. Dashurie was also informed of the trio¡¯s plans. She promised Braiten that she would look after the two martial artists until the day they reunited. Right now, the six were arranged in a circle in a group hug. Instead of the painful parting that happened before the monster invasion, the six were at peace and had smiles on their faces. With closed eyes, Braiten was enjoying the companionship around him when he spoke, ¡°Ten years¡­¡± At that, the five people looked at him. ¡°I will be back in ten years. Eron, Isolda, you should be able to catch up to my cultivation by then. With your eyes open to the nature, I know that your cultivation speed has improved by leaps and bounds. Who¡¯s to say that you won¡¯t reach advanced cultivation in ten years? My cultivation method is very slow, so don¡¯t worry about the possibility that I may far outstrip you then. Dashurie, thank you for imparting as much knowledge as an adventurer as you could. The time spent with you and your girlfriends was enjoyable. I¡¯ve thought long and hard for how long this parting should be. I think that ten years would be just right,¡± Braiten added. The five nodded their heads in agreement. Then, the six of them closed their eyes once again to revel in the companionship before saying their goodbyes. *** Braiten has travelled deep in Aermagh¡¯s forest for a month. Aermagh¡¯s inner forest was considered one of the danger zones on the continent. Braiten merely used the hostility detection magic while releasing his qi aura to deter weaker beasts and monsters as he travelled. Stronger beasts and monsters still attacked, but Braiten relished the fact that he could freely wield his magic out of the sights of others. As Braiten had no need for food, so he did not see the need to kill beasts. Monsters were vengeful by nature, and needed to be killed before they could gather allies and hunt you down. Therefore, the only beings that Braiten attacked without restraint were monsters. Braiten had also approached various intelligent beasts with a variety of customs that the nature-friendly races had back in his previous world. So far, the intelligent beasts had been pretty receptive towards the Faerie, Elf and Therianthropic races¡¯ customs. This has led to a troupe of beasts which followed behind Braiten and kept him much needed company that he missed from his parting at Aermagh. Without the suggestive magic that diverted other beings, Braiten had also found out that there were pockets of sanctuaries within the forest that he could not have noticed before. In these sanctuaries, beasts gathered in droves. Be it carnivores, omnivores or herbivores, they gathered together in harmony. They lay lazily together and predators even frolicked with the young of their prey. The harmony in these sanctuaries caused many a wonder to surge through Braiten. He had felt that he touched on something important each time he stumbled upon one of them. However, it had always felt like it was avoiding his grasp every single time. Helpless regarding that issue, Braiten could only rest in the sanctuaries and observe the miniature paradise that was present before his eyes. Staying within the latest sanctuary he had come across, Braiten closed his eyes as he rested his slightly fatigued mind from his travels. He leaned back on a black mambear which curled up next to him. The scales were slightly squishy and comfortable. Braiten let his mind drift as the first thought that came to him was, ¡®This truly will be a fresh start.¡¯ === Author¡¯s notes: Well now, I¡¯m wondering if I should keep the martyr jburge1¡¯s poll post on this fiction¡¯s chapter list. All in all, it seems he was just being a 10 year-old trying to make an ¡°honest¡± review and poorly phrasing it to be insulting instead. It was clearly a ¡°this sucks¡± review masked in pretty words to seem like it had actual full critique. My reaction was over the top and I should have been more mature about that issue, but it helped me clear up a lot of doubts I had over writing style. It also allowed me to see what kind of reader base I had. Archetypenecro didn¡¯t give any answer to the long, long, long, long reply that I gave to his comment over plot holes, so I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s just an effort to be different(trolling) or true lack of interpretation on his part. At least reply in affirmation that you understand or don¡¯t understand it, so I can move on to revising my future writing to be more descriptive or not. Sometimes, I wonder why I entertain my reader¡¯s questions. Like, should I just be on a high pedestal looking down as a douchebag writer, or should I take the time to look at the posts and reply as promptly as possible? Hmm. On another note, I think I will be focusing more on the feedback in the threads than the review section. You guys are more active over in the threads and it will allow for more two-way feedback. If poorly worded feedback is given, I¡¯ll do my best to be a more mature person and probe you for more details along with asking for advice instead of taking angsty actions. Not much has changed so far, I¡¯m still contemplating on how to improve the writing. Other fictions are more dialogue-heavy. I¡¯m thinking about how to implement that in my fiction so as to liven up the story a bit. Thank you all, for supporting this fiction. (Note to self: USE FREAKING DIALOGUE) Chapter 11 - A hint of the future, and of the past Braiten let his thoughts drift, but was soon interrupted by the feeling of being observed. Just as he was about to open his eyes, he felt two pairs of extremely tiny feet land on his left thigh, and another two pairs landing on each of his shoulders. Then, one of the beings spoke with a voice that tinkled like a bell, ¡°This Human¡¯s aura is so pretty.¡± ¡°Shhh! Quiet, or you¡¯ll wake him up!¡± A slightly deeper, but masculine sounding voice sounded out, as he felt one of pair of legs shift towards the other on his left thigh. ¡°Why do we have to be so sneaky? This Human seems to be quite harmonious with the beasts of the forest.¡± A lilting voice questioned and commented beside Braiten¡¯s left ear. A tiny foot stamped on Braiten¡¯s thigh, and the same deeper voice scolded, ¡°Hibiscus, you can¡¯t be trusting Humans! They have betrayed both our kind and their benefactors in the past, and deserve to be treated with constant suspicion!¡± While all this was happening, the being on Braiten¡¯s right shoulder was constantly poking his right cheek. Curiosity beamed from that very being¡¯s beautiful sapphire eyes. Braiten did not want to disturb the curious individuals, seeing as they did not mean any harm. If they belonged to the race that he thought they were, it was better to let them get accustomed to his presence and let them initiate conversation instead of being the one to initiate it. Of course, if he has other connections to these people, he can take the initiative instead. It seems they also followed some customs from his previous world by being named after flowers that only immortals knew. After more poking, prodding, curious eyes and one of them impatient tapping its toe, the deeper sounding individual muttered, ¡°Seriously, how can this be? His qi aura is so pure. His features also match that family¡­ It¡¯s been millennia since the Celestine family has disappeared due to those traitors¡­¡± At that mutter, Braiten was so surprised that he let out an involuntary jerk, which startled the small beings and caused them to flee and hide. Braiten quickly stood up, sensed their location with mana and turned towards them. Surprisingly, out of the four presences, one of them blended in with the natural mana very well. If it were not for Braiten¡¯s precise mana perception, he would never have found the minute differences between the presence and the mana in the air. In accordance to the Faerie customs that he had learnt in his previous world, he touched his middle three fingers of his right hand to his lower belly, closed his eyes and bowed in their direction and spoke, ¡°Excuse me, I am Braiten Celestine, son of Ingram and Amellia Celestine. May I know who you are, friends?¡± The four creatures¡¯ eyes widened at Braiten¡¯s words. They came out of hiding and started circling around Braiten before the most senior one among the rest stopped in front of Braiten¡¯s face. The being with the deeper voice sounded out, ¡°Brat of the Celestine brats. You seem to know our old customs. However, you¡¯re supposed to touch your left hand to your upper belly now, not your right and not the lower belly. Your grandparents probably taught you all of that, right? Did they tell you of their close relationship with the forest people? Uh¡­ never mind that, open your eyes and let me show you how our greeting is done.¡± Braiten opened his eyes to see a tiny person in front of him. That person looked like a battle-hardened warrior with greyish-blue skin. He had two bat-like wings flapping behind him to keep him afloat and had two tiny horns on his head. This man was of the Imp denomination of the Faerie race. More mischievous than harmful, they are often mistaken for little wicked beings by other races. However, they were one of the protectors of the Faerie race. They often used strategic pranks to wreck their enemy¡¯s logistics and morale. Despite their size, they were fast and could carry out their covert attacks over such a wide distance that a small platoon of imps could completely sever a whole country¡¯s supply system. Making sure that Braiten had his eyes on him, the Imp sharply placed his left hand on his upper abdomen, slightly below his heart and bowed extremely gracefully, which contrasted with that intimidating look of his. Braiten imitated the Imp as he observed his surroundings. Circling around him were three beautiful miniature female figures. One was an Imp, while the other two were similarly small, but had small bird-like wings behind them and no horns. These two are of the rare denominations of the Faerie race. They were Peri. Peri served as royal messengers amongst the Faeries. They were much, much faster and agile than imps but possessed a very kind disposition. Back in Braiten¡¯s old world, they doubled as highly skilled scouts in wars. They could easily cover long distances, ahead of time and act as a cartographer to observe the lay of land and provide an advantage for the faeries. It was amazing how the many different denominations of Faeries all worked together without discrimination. They were very aware of their varying traits, but embraced the differences instead of rejecting the variety like other races. In fact, the Faeries highly respected what other denominations were able to do when their own could not. Therefore, the Faeries back in Braiten¡¯s old world were never to be trifled with. The male Imp gave a snort of approval, as he looked at Braiten¡¯s changed posture. He flew closer towards Braiten and started studying him from different angles. ¡°Shimmering blue hair. Clear, sky blue eyes. Delicate features as which runs in the of all Celestine¡¯s. Frail looking body, but that¡¯s because your cultivation is too weak to learn your family martial arts. Hmm¡­ oh! Where are my manners when I was just preaching about customs? Lift your head, brat,¡± the male Imp gathered himself and gave a Faerie greeting of his own. The male Imp introduced himself as Gladiolus. Then, he introduced the other Faeries one by one. First up was Wisteria, the female Imp. The two Peri were named Hibiscus and Daisy. Wisteria looked like an elegant, calm beauty. She had a rather expressionless face, but her eyes held a steadfast look. Hibiscus, befitting of her name, looked like a delicate beauty. While Daisy constantly cast curious, innocent gazes everywhere, as if there was always something new to look at. After the introduction was made, Braiten could not hold back his curiosity and asked about his family circumstances, starting with who his grandparents were. However, when the question came out, Gladiolus had a hesitant look on his face. Braiten could feel Gladiolus probing his cultivation level again and had seemed as if he was deciding whether to divulge some sort of secret. With a minute of deliberation, Gladiolus shook his head. ¡°Brat, I can¡¯t help you there. Your cultivation is still too low to know of your family history. I am guessing that is also the reason why your parents kept your family history a secret from you. Know that the Celestine family is known as the greatest enemy of the entire Human race that was said to have perished in the great war several millennia ago. This history is lost to your race, but is passed down in other races as a huge lesson. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Outside of the Celestine family, no other Human is to be trusted. Your lineage was responsible for the rise of the entire Human race. They created so many cultivation methods and dispersed it among your people. They created powerful martial arts and spread it so as to allow your race to gain the power to protect themselves. However, these same people were the ones who took those weapons and pointed it back at the Celestine family in greed and envy. This is all I can tell you of your family at the moment. Seeing as you don¡¯t know of your grandparents, your family must be in dire straits,¡± Gladiolus solemnly answered Braiten. Disgruntled by this reply, but undaunted, Braiten questioned further, ¡°how much stronger do I need to be to become worthy of the information?¡± However, Gladiolus could on shrug. He mentioned that <> would be the key to that knowledge. Once cultivation deviation has occurred, that is when Braiten is worthy of knowing. All that Gladiolus knew beyond Braiten¡¯s knowledge of <> was that it followed a different path than his did at some point. Then, Gladiolus went over the cultivation levels of stronger cultivation methods. There was beginner, then intermediate, followed by advanced, which Braiten already knew. The expert cultivation tier comes after advanced cultivation. After that, there is the flesh, mind and spirit cultivation tiers. Gladiolus was of the hundredth level of spirit cultivation but he did not know of what tier comes after that. After all of the explanations, the conversation steered onto a lighter note. Braiten spoke of his experiences of his family, their parting, and his eventual journey throughout this continent. The four Faeries listened attentively. The three females paid more attention to Braiten¡¯s recent adventures in Aermagh which was notably more exciting than his hundred years of wandering. However, Gladiolus nodded several times at Braiten¡¯s prudence in those hundred years. The sudden separation would have made anyone foolish with grief, and may let the Celestine family name slip. That could lead to that person being hunted down by the hidden ancient elders of the Human race. However, Braiten managed to keep a relatively cool head and chose to quietly look for clues to his family by himself while observing the type of society that existed around him. Of course, Gladiolus did not say a thing as it was still too early for Braiten to know of this. Braiten was also very lucky that the Human race was unable to sense other people¡¯s cultivations from a distance. They were one of the few races that had a horrible qi-sensing capability. If they wanted to accurately probe for another human¡¯s cultivation or qi quality, they had to have direct contact with the individual. Therefore, Braiten was able to mingle among the Humans for so long without being discovered by any enemies. The conversation between Braiten and the Faeries eventually moved on from his experiences to the forest and its beings. Braiten wanted to make his way deeper until he reaches the outskirts of the inner forest danger zone. Going there partially blind to the creatures that existed there was nothing short of foolish, and the knowledge would definitely save him from more than a few troubles. From there, the conversation then steered to a wide variety of topics. There was a bit of Faerie history, which for some reason, gave Braiten a familiar feeling. There was a bit of Faerie culture and its changes throughout the years, and there was much lighter conversation about Gladiolus and his mischievous youth. The other three Faeries were not poor conversational partners either. They shared a bit of their circumstances as well. They were actually Gladiolus¡¯ trainees, charged with looking after this sanctuary, as other Faeries looked after other pockets of peace. It turned out that the Faeries took turns to ensure that the beasts of the forest always had a place to go to for relaxation without the stresses of wild life. Each race may have their specialty, but they still worked together for shared duties such as these. The Faeries were tasked with preventing Humans from entering or finding these sanctuaries. They were the culprits of the ¡°spirited away¡± phenomenon that happened in the forests. Faeries were quite hostile towards Humans due to history. However, so far, Braiten has been an exception because of his friendly attitude towards the beasts, and the fact that his qi aura was so pure and harmonious with the heavens itself. Word had quickly spread amongst the Faeries when Braiten had stepped into his first sanctuary. That a Human had such a unique aura and gentle attitude towards the beasts was something that made many Faeries curious. Eventually, twilight faded to dusk and then night. The four Faeries were totally exhausted from the lengthy conversation, but seemed satisfied. On the other hand, Braiten¡¯s initial mental exhaustion before the Faeries disturbed him was completely blown away. His mind was sharp from organizing the new information that he had obtained. Talkative company had done a lot to alleviate the stress from the parting a month ago. Braiten let the Faeries rest in silence, as he practiced <>. As he did so, he manipulated mana into the basic runes of each element and gathered them in front of him. He did this so that he could study the way each element interacted with each other in much greater detail than he has already known. He had found that this was the most effective way to speed up his cultivation right now. The runes quickly formed and gathered in front of him. When he was about to start his observations, he heard a gasp from beside him and a tiny but firm hand gripped his shoulder. === Author¡¯s notes and replies: Thank you guys for your continued support of this fiction and the positive comments. I wanted to introduce a new concept here, but the chapter was becoming too much information heavy. There is, however, a hint to that new concept in this chapter. I wonder if you guys can see it. *wink wink* I¡¯m glad you replied, archetypenecro. I did not need to go through the extra mile in this chapter because of that. I had actually had a rough idea of how to craft this chapter should you not have understood my explanations, though it would take a longer time to craft this chappie should it have been done in that way. Ashurh, dialogue doesn¡¯t help too much in world-building, but it sure does liven up a story and helps greatly with developing characters (: . The ten-year time skip did not occur as you expected, but there¡¯s going to be some important things that will be happening during the upcoming ten years of Braiten¡¯s journey. Scotlandforscythe, this will not take 50 chapters to complete the 10 years. I promise not to drag the upcoming arc for too long. Braiten will be learning a lot and will be polishing his covert magic fighting style in his journey. Chapter 12 - Implications ''H-how could this be? The ancient rulers'' origin of power?'' Wisteria''s mind was a total mess. Wisteria was a direct descendant of one of the Titania, a title given to Faerie queens. However, Wisteria''s family has not been of pure Faerie blood. Wisteria was descended from the child that Titania had with a Human through a peace treaty long ago. Therefore, as a changeling, her family has long been separated from the royal line due to the Oberon''s - Titania''s husband''s desire to raise the child as a henchman instead of allowing him to live in peace as a citizen of Faerie lands. After a series of dramatic ploys, the two rulers came to an agreement. The changeling child was to be granted the powers of transformation that royalty had. This allowed the changeling child to wield the strengths of any Faerie denomination that they transform into. They were to change into any Faerie race to blend amongst the people and only be called when situations were at their direst. When the changeling made a family with one of Oberon''s illegitimate children, Titania and Oberon gave the changeling''s family a scroll of their history so as to remind them of their royal ancestry and duty. Furthermore, the scroll had a binding that forced the changeling''s family to only have offspring through inbreeding. The scroll was enchanted with very similar runes to the ones that floated in front of Braiten. They reacted with each other in such a way that the scroll was in harmony with its surroundings constantly, preventing the scroll from perishing by any means. Wisteria had gone over the scroll over and over multiple times due to her fascination with Faerie history and her lineage. She enjoyed the radiation of power that came from the scroll. It was deep, strong, calming and primal. Over time, the royal line had long forgotten about Wisteria''s lineage and family, but the scroll had Wisteria''s family constantly on their toes in case they were ever called upon. The royal family did not just forget about Wisteria''s family, however. They had also forgotten about their origin of power. Wisteria had openly taken out the scroll to scan through in front of a passing royal in the Faerie capital''s great library. However, the royal member did not seem to feel any of the power that was emitted from the scroll to Wisteria''s dismay. Wisteria organized her mind and regained her wits as she noticed the runes fading before her eyes. She suddenly had a resolute gaze and leaned closer to Braiten''s ear. "Changeling..." She whispered as she places her hand on Braiten''s shoulder. Although slight, she could feel Braiten stiffen. Then, she turned around to face her brethren. "I''m sorry, I was just so fascinated when I saw the beauty of <> firsthand that my body moved on its own," Wisteria quipped expressionlessly, but had a tinge of excitement and embarrassment in her voice. Knowing that Wisteria was an avid reader and the fact that no Non-Human could practice <>, the other three Faeries did not question her sudden, strange behavior. However, Braiten was staring hard at Wisteria''s back. What seemed like a million thoughts circulated in his head. As Braiten was trying to sort out is emotions and thoughts, memories flashed through his mind. A single tear flowed down his cheek. Without noticing anything going on with Braiten, Wisteria flew back towards her colleagues and began discussing something. The three Faeries had a strange look on their faces. Daisy and Hibiscus were trying to appeal to Wisteria while Gladiolus lost himself in thought. When Braiten came back from his stupor, he saw that the four Faeries had come to some sort of agreement and had settled down. The four Faeries, satisfied, flew to a nearby tree and got ready to sleep. Braiten had many things to question Wisteria about, but held himself back. The fact that Wisteria whispered in his ear meant that it was a secret meant for the two of them. He could not think of a way to separate Wisteria from the other three as well. Helpless to his predicament, Braiten had no choice but to resume his cultivation and continue studying the mana runes. There was no need to conceal the mana runes from Wisteria as she had already found out. Furthermore, she clearly did not tell the other thee Faeries since they did not question Braiten. As Braiten cultivated, he could not help but think of the time when he sensed the four Faeries'' presences. Wisteria''s was the faintest out of the four. Braiten thought that most likely, Wiseria was a changeling. Therefore, she had greater subconscious control over surrounding mana. However, with the Faeries unable to sense mana, how could Wisteria see the runes? Clearly, the famed Faerie''s mana sight was not present in this qi-filled world. *** Night passed quickly and dawn came. Out of the four Faeries, it was apparent that only Wisteria did not have a restful sleep. She flew slightly sluggishly and had slightly tired, red eyes. However, her normally expressionless face had one that was of excitement and eagerness. Braiten had long since concluded his cultivation. He was immersing himself in the peace of the sanctuary. Something that he always did after cultivating in each sanctuary. His slightly disordered mind had already calmed down. Seeing the four Faeries approach him, he got from his place and went over. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Morning greetings were exchanged and the matter quickly moved on to what the Faeries had talked about last night. Apparently, before the Faeries slept, they had a discussion about Wisteria wanting to follow Braiten on his travels. Wisteria made the excuse of seeing the outside world for herself as books could only tell her so much. It was followed by another excuse of aiding a Celestine, adhering to a duty of repaying the Celestine ancestors for helping the Faeries in the past. Wisteria also constantly promoted herself to be the one to follow Braiten. The zeal in which she showed cowed the other three Faeries. With the whole situation concluded without Braiten''s consent, Wisteria landed on his shoulder and tucked herself beside his neck. All Braiten could conclude about this sudden turn of events was that he was glad that he would have the chance to talk to Wisteria. *** Braiten spent a couple more days in the sanctuary to cultivate and allow Wisteria to spend time with her brethren before the departure. He was much more at ease knowing that his questions may be answered in the upcoming trip. On the night before the departure, Braiten contemplated over the runes in front of him. Combined with the atmosphere of the sanctuary, he felt that he was on the verge of knowing something important. He observed the mana interacting with one another. How they were attracted, how they were repelled. Attract. Repel. Attract... Repel... Suddenly, it was as if a dam broke in his head. Braiten looked around at the sanctuary. Everything within was in harmony, but what about outside of it? There was a fine line between the forces inside and outside the sanctuary. They were constantly clashing. The brutal, wild nature of forces outside was constantly pressing in on the unified forces within the sanctuary. The unified forces constantly repelled the forces trying to break them apart and spread its unity. Both forces tried to outdo each other, yet existed together in balance. Harmony and disharmony existed in balance with each other in the same space. This was what Braiten had been noticing subconsciously. With the sudden realization, Braiten delved in the newfound insights. Soon, as Braiten began to understand more, his cultivation surged. His cultivation rose from the first level and quickly entered the second. Braiten began making use of the enlightenment to try to connect it to what he had previously learned. As he did so, his cultivation speed increased even more. Soon, Braiten was at the twelfth level of advanced cultivation and his cultivation slowed once again. Braiten sighed as he finished up this cultivation session. He was only able to make a few connections. Having only known harmony and complementary natures of the laws along with the elemements that naturally consumed one another, this state of harmony and disharmony was still nee to him. He needed more time to ponder over this. The Faeries did not wake up in the midst of his breakthroughs. A trait that <> had was that although qi gathered around the cultivator as if he was about to breakthrough, it does not fluctuate during a breakthrough. *** The sky brightened as the sun slowly rose. Braiten and Wisteria waves in farewell to the three Faeries at the sanctuary. There was some hubbub when the Faeries awoke and found Braiten eleven levels higher, but that had passed with some explanations. After that, the Human-Faerie duo were on their way. After an hour of travel, Braiten looked towards Wisteria. He asked a strange question, "do you believe in reincarnation?" Wisteria had been anticipating questions but was caught off-guard by this unrelated question. "I don''t know what you''re trying to get at..." She replied confusedly. "I believe that reincarnation exists. In my past life, I had a child with Titania Chrysanthemum. My name in that past life... was Gwydion," Braiten said softly, so softly that Wisteria could just barely catch all that. Wisteria''s face turned to astonishment as she heard that. She stared hard at Braiten before she transformed into her original form. Wisteria grew from her extremely small height to slightly shorter than Braiten. This time, it was Braiten''s turn to be stunned. Wisteria was extremely beautiful. As a changeling, she did not possess any wings in her original form. However, she radiated an aura befitting one of royal Faerie blood. Wisteria''s hair was a gleaming silver. A trait that was dominant in Gwydion''s family... === Author''s notes: Well guys, I lied. My internet''s still down, but i pitied you guys for leaving a cliffhanger for the previous ending. So, I''m presenting to you a new cliffha- *cough cough* chapter. I stayed up to 2:45am to transfer all this. I hope you''re happy. Again, thanks for all the support you guys have shown. I greatly appreciate it. This time, I really will wait for my internet to come back up. My poor thumbs... *sniff sniff* Side Chapter 2 - Master and disciple, a forbidden love As Braiten was trying to sort out his emotions and thoughts, memories flashed through his mind. A single tear flowed down the side of his face¡­ *** In the dead of the night, a battered, young Gwydion stumbled into a glade. He had been pursued by various powerful monsters due to his wanton killing of their kind. The beasts naturally sensed the killing intent that clad the youth and thus, avoided him. They were smart enough not to want any bloodshed especially from a being that disregarded his own life when he was thrust into battle. The stronger beasts were avoided due to Gwydion¡¯s uncanny ability to sense their mana presences way before they had approached. Ever since his village had been destroyed by the monsters, Gwydion had gained the ability to sense these presences and their strengths even though he did not know what ability this was yet. Therefore, Gwydion had been able to make it this far despite having almost no knowledge of fighting when he first started setting out to grow stronger. The atmosphere in the glade was peaceful. For some reason, Gwydion felt a sense of security in this place. With that feeling, his knees buckled as he collapsed on the spot. As he did so, a beautiful female figure appeared in front of him and caught him in her embrace. *** Two figures huddled closely together in a glade. One male, one female. The male youth, Gwydion, had his head placed on the female¡¯s lap as she gently placed her fingertips on his head. Gwydion¡¯s body twitched, tensed and relaxed at random times. His sleep was fitful. It was clear that he was having a nightmare. Glowing runes floated around the gentle fingertips and Gwydion¡¯s youthful face. Illusions of peace and security passed through the borders of Gwydion¡¯s mind as he began to gain better control over his nightmare. Feeling comfort, courage, confidence and security welling up inside him, Gwydion faced the monsters that were tearing his village apart. He could hear the cries and screams of his loved ones nearby. He immediately rushed towards them. As he did so, a strange power welled up inside of him. He stretched out his arm. The strange power used his body as a conduit and gathered at his hand. Glowing lines started to form in front of it. The lines formed a rune that he directed at the monsters attempting to break through Ilasha and his fathers¡¯ protection to get at their family. Just as Gwydion was about to unleash the power of the rune in front of him, he woke up. He was greeted by a strange feeling of power coursing through his arm that gathered at his outstretched hand, and a beautiful visage with a stupefied expression. *** ¡°Oh fierce and turbulent waters, hear my command and turn your wrath upon my foes. [Water Blade]!¡± Gwydion chanted and casted his first magic spell. A thin blade made of water appeared and sliced the empty ground in front of him. It left a deep mark upon the ground. Only a month had passed since Gwydion met his master and started learning magic. His talent allowed him to quickly gather mana and move it at will in that month. A feat that only apprentice mages would have been able to pull off at two years. Chrysanthemum had a pleasant expression on her face as she observed the results of her apprentice¡¯s spell. He was talented enough to rival even her own and she had the advantage of being born with mana sight as a Faerie. For his first spell to contain such destruction despite being an elementary one is testament to his potential and talents. However, Gwydion soon turned red and stomped his feet as he turned to his master. ¡°Master Chrys! This is too embarrassing! Do I really need to chant a spell to unleash it? I don¡¯t see you having to chant when you use magic. In battle, this takes too long and it¡¯s way too obvious,¡± a blushing and frowning Gwydion faced his master as he began to rant. ¡°Now, now, Gwydion. Calm down a little. We¡¯re just proceeding step by step. You will eventually get to voiceless incantations. As to the way I cast magic, who knows if you are able to pull it off. The first time I saw you use it was merely subconscious. It could have just been a miraculous coincidence,¡± Chrysanthemum lightly placated Gwydion. Chrysanthemum looked at the sky, judging the time that had passed. It took Gwydion an hour to formulate, visualize and cast his first spell. That hour was the only one that she could spare for Gwydion today. ¡°Gwydion, I have to go now. I have matters that I have to attend to for today. Practice the new spell and make sure that you can prepare to cast it as fast as you can. Needing nearly an hour to visualize the spell is just unpractical,¡± Chrysanthemum lightly said as she shimmered and disappeared where she stood. Gwydion sighed. He did not continue his practice immediately. Instead, he sat at a nearby tree and closed his eyes. He reminisced over the events that happened over the past month. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Over the first few days after having met Chrysanthemum, his nightmares gradually diminished. Each time he slept, he could feel that tranquil sense of security wrap about him. He knew that it was Chrysanthemum expending some effort with magic to calm him down after she had explained the strange power that coursed through him when they formally met. It was also in that first few days that she was his bedrock. He told her of the events that transpired in his teenage years that led to his wandering and sought comfort in her presence. After having gotten over his trauma and accepting the past which he had struggled to overcome for so long, Gwydion began to ask for Chrysanthemum¡¯s teachings in magic. She agreed upon seeing that the ghosts of Gwydion¡¯s past had lifted. Using magic, she also gleaned that Gwydion was not hell-benton revenge, but merely wanted the strength to protect those he loved. Soon, the two had a fast growing master-apprentice relationship and their friendship bloomed as well. Gwydion finished reminiscing over the past. Instead, he began to think of his master. That beautiful figure with gorgeous butterfly wings that was attached to her back. She had luscious and silky, but uncommon black hair. Her rare black eyes shone with a luster that brought shame to the most lustrous of black pearls. Her features were a mix of elegance, allure and dignity. Chrysanthemum wielded a power that was way beyond Gwydion despite being only three years his senior. Gwydion felt a small flame of passionate but calm desire pulse through his very being. *** Five years passed quickly. Gwydion, with his superb talent and potential, had long since learned voiceless incantations. He was trying to learn rune magic but was having trouble formulating the runes as he could only try to feel for the runes and could not see it like Chrysanthemum could. The relationship between Gwydion and Chrysanthemum also grew more intense. They were way beyond friendship, but not quite that of lovers that entrusted their very being to each other. The extent of their intimacy only extended to laying in each other¡¯s arms in companionship. They never crossed the boundaries of a kiss on the lips or more intimate desires that filled their hearts. However, this relationship of theirs was fated to collapse. One day, Chrysanthemum burst into the glade with tears streaming down her cheeks. Worried for her well being, Gwydion immediately calmed her down until she was ready to voice out what had happened. Chrysanthemum then revealed that she was the heir to the Titania position within the Faeries. She also mentioned that on that day, she was engaged to the future Oberon of the Faeries. This was not something that she could overturn due to her duty to her race. However, Chrysanthemum did not want to entrust her body to a man she did not love. On the other hand, Gwydion was shocked. He did not know how to take it all in. His mind was a mess until he felt Chrysanthemum press her body onto him. A tentative kiss on the lips made Gwydion¡¯s frozen body melt as he began to reciprocate her actions. Sharing that moment felt like an eternity. The two remained in each other¡¯s embrace. Emotions connected and coursed through them. Regaining their bearing, the two stared hard into each other¡¯s eyes. ¡°Dion¡­ love¡­ I want you to be my soul¡¯s partner. I want your child so that the future Oberon won¡¯t touch me. Please¡­¡± Chrysanthemum pleaded. Gwydion could only nod upon seeing and feeling her desperation. ¡°Please do as I do,¡± Chrysanthemum murmured as she led Gwydion through a soul binding ceremony that Faeries go through upon marriage. Two souls intertwined. Two bodies embraced tightly. The night was still young¡­ === Author¡¯s notes: Looks like the scroll that Wisteria held was not telling the whole truth! That changelings came into being due to a love between the two, not a treaty. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I had a hard time trying to add a slight romantic element because I am forever single T^T . The next chapter will come out over the weekend. Oh, and an FYI kind of thing: Magic, when chanted, consists of a long incantation. The longer the incantation, the higher the spell''s rank will be. So elementary spells consist of only one line, a rank above that is two lines, and so on. Therefore, higher level chanted magic results in super long cast times. Formulating is easier when magic is chanted because magic is formed through the incantation. As for rune magic, it requires the user to formulate using rune formulas. It is therefore more flexible than the incantations but harder to use. The good point of runes is that it is much faster to use when you are used to the rune formulas and symbols. Chapter 13 - Reunion and learning Wisteria¡¯s eyes misted over as she heard the original circumstances between Gwydion and Titania Chrysanthemum. The look on her face turned from one of sadness to one of disgust as she threw the scroll that she had hard against the ground. To think that she had looked up to the royal family in the past. Her family was actually not blood-bound by the royals during the first generation¡¯s time. They then used the Oberon¡¯s illegitimate children to tie the families together after a generation. Braiten had explained that a few days after impregnating and binding his soul to the future Faerie queen, he was chased away by the angry soon-to-be Oberon. Then, the future Oberon tried to force Chrysanthemum into giving up the baby. Even if he could not undo the soul bind, he wanted to at least sever whatever past relations that ¡°his¡± Titania had with Gwydion. However, the soul binding ceremony¡¯s after effects had made Chrysanthemum too strong. Not only did their souls mingle, merge and then separate into their own bodies, there were other effects as well. Titania had gained Gwydion¡¯s gleaming silver hair, and her potential in magic had combined with Gwydion¡¯s. It turned out that Gwydion¡¯s talent in magic far surpassed Chrysanthemum¡¯s own. Her understanding of runes and her perception of mana increased by more than three-fold. With her already towering talent over her future husband growing further, the few days before she was found to already be soul-bound and pregnant was all it took for her slightly weaker powers to grow much stronger than her Faerie husband, who was ten years older than her. The jump in potential and talent of the Faeries¡¯ new Titania was all that needed for the Faerie elders to change their mind about forcing Chrysanthemum to abort the baby. They began to plot on how to use the baby for the good of the Faerie race instead. Helpless against too many powers against him, the new Oberon could only give up. Braiten squatted down and picked up the scroll that Wisteria had thrown. He brushed the dirt off the scroll lightly with loving hands. Although the scroll contained false knowledge, it was still personally given by Titania Chrysanthemum. Just as he used several magic spells to clean the scroll, the object lit up. Several runes interacted with the runes that Braiten was using. The words on the scroll started to change. It read, ¡°My dear, sweet Dion, If this scroll ever falls into your hands by some god-sent chance, know that our family is safe. I have done all I can to keep them from harm by having them train for only the direst of situations. They are only to be mobilized when the Faeries are on the brink of despair. However, if this scroll falls into your hands, it also means that I am unable to be with you in reunion with our family. The Oberon does not dare touch me easily. I am much stronger than him with both of our talents. It is also against Faerie laws to make a move against someone else¡¯s soulmate. Did you know? After we bound both in body and spirit, my race had changed. I was no longer a high Faerie. I became a Leanan Sidhe. This is a legendary race among my people that comes about from the coupling of an extremely magically superior Human and a magically superior high Faerie through genuine love. In one view, I seemed to have gained more than I lost. However, to me, my greatest loss can never be recovered. I wish that I could spend more time with you as a wife with our family. Day after monotonous day passes and I miss you dearly. The whole world seemed to have stilled after seeing you chased away. Every night, I dream sweet dreams of the two of us together. With you and your fascinating ideas towards magic, and me accompanying you all the way to the peak. I dream of the passionate night that we had shared and the possibility of raising our family together. I dream of your voice¡­ resounding throughout my very soul, stealing my breath away and making me weak in your arms. I miss you dearly, my Dion. Yours and only yours, Chrys¡± Tears fell upon the scroll as Braiten read through. The mana signature-recognizing rune seemed to have registered that Braiten had finished the letter. The scroll reverted back to the history of the changeling Faerie denomination. However, this time, the history was written in its entire truth. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Wisteria noticed the difference as she was reading over Braiten¡¯s shoulder. Tears fell from her eyes too, but only in sympathy of the couple, so she was able to keep her wits as she glanced over the scroll¡¯s history once more. Gently taking the scroll out of Braiten¡¯s hands, Wisteria embraced Braiten and lent him a crying shoulder. Instinctively, Wisteria began to sing. It was a traditional song full of love, popularized by Titania Chrysanthemum as she often sang it when she thought she was alone. Upon hearing the song, Braiten cried even harder. It was the very song that Chrys had sung to him over and over during the few days before their parting. It was a song that Chrys used to profess her love to Braiten, carrying all the emotions that she could bare before him. By the time the song had finished, Braiten¡¯s crying had reduced to sobs. He gradually regained his composure and a resolute look filled his tear-stained face. He silently determined in his heart that he would look after Wisteria the same way he would look after his own child. He wanted to make up for all the lost time that he could have had with his family after he had gained the necessary strength to return but did not do so in fear of disrupting the Faeries¡¯ peace. *** After that episode, Braiten and Wisteria travelled in silence. Braiten did not bring up the past anymore and Wisteria was busy reading what Titania Chrysanthemum had left behind for her family. The duo headed not towards the inner forest, but headed to the nearby Ravines beside the deep regions of the outer forest. As the danger levels there were higher than the outer forest but lower than the inner forest, Braiten wanted to head there to temper himself. Wisteria had also revealed to Braiten that her cultivation was in the late levels of the advanced cultivation tier as Braiten spoke of his plans before telling of his past. Therefore, Wisteria was actually able to deal with the monsters at the periphery of the inner forest. However, she would not be able to handle those that were deeper within. Heading to the ravines to train would help her temper her battle prowess and make the future journey smoother. When the two neared the entrance to the ravines, Braiten suddenly stopped and frowned. His mana perception indicated that there was something heading towards them at high speed. Wisteria stopped and turned as well. However, she seemed to have been expecting this unexpected visitor and had her guard down. With the rustling of foliage, a peri flew out in front of the two. He had features that were similar to Wisteria¡¯s but seemed more regal-looking at the same time. The Faerie in question, seeing Wisteria in her changeling form, transformed into his original changeling form as well. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Cal, I was waiting for you,¡± Wisteria whispered lovingly which contrasted greatly with her emotionless face as she reached out to embrace the silver-haired man. ¡°I came as soon as I could after Hibiscus passed on your message,¡± the man replied as he cupped Wisteria¡¯s cheek and gave her a peck on the lips. ¡°Ah, Cal, let me introduce you. Braiten, this is Calla, my fianc¨¦ and brother. Inbreeding seems to be considered as taboo amongst other races but due to the royal oath, we think it¡¯s normal within our family. I hope you understand that,¡± Wisteria faced Braiten as she introduced the man beside her and glued herself to Calla¡¯s side. Wisteria continued her introduction with a hint of mirth in her voice, ¡°Cal, this here is Braiten. Successor to the Celestine family and also the reincarnation of our foremost ancestor, Gwydion.¡± Calla¡¯s eyes bulged as he heard the last sentence of Braiten¡¯s introduction. He knew the man was a Celestine, but finding out that he was an ancestor from the serious-about-family-history Wisteria shocked him to the core. His mouth opened and closed seemingly wanting to say something but continuously stopping himself short. Wisteria slowly took the family scroll out of her belongings with a mischievous light in her eyes. She opened it out in front of Calla. ¡°T-this¡­¡± Calla managed as he read through the scroll and heard Wisteria whisper something softly in his ear. He started looking at the scroll with brows furrowed and kept gazing back and forth between Braiten and the scroll. The family scroll radiated even more of its familiar power than it did before, confirming its authenticity. What threw Calla for a loop was that Wisteria had whispered into his ears that this was the true history of their family and Braiten was the one who unlocked it due to his use of the ancient rulers¡¯ origin of power ¨C mana runes, as Braiten called it. When Calla regained his composure, he turned his full attention to Braiten. ¡°M-may I see it? The ancie-¡­ the mana runes¡­?¡± Calla voiced out nervously unsure of whether to be polite upon seeing an ancestor or informal because Braiten looked younger than the two. Braiten merely chuckled and nodded. Basic mana runes of the four basic elements, fire, water, air, and earth formed and floated in front of Calla. The runes also activated, causing each element to circle around their respective runes. Wisps of flame circled the fire rune. Thin streams of water flowed around the water rune. Although invisible, air swirled around the air rune causing wind to buffet against Calla and Wisteria. Small clumps of earth spun around the earth rune. Calla and Wisteria were entranced by the spectacle before their very eyes. ¡°Calla, you can talk to me informally if you wish. After all, we are family in a sense,¡± Braiten said which shook Calla from his trance from staring hard at the runes and their effects in front of him. Along with that, Braiten¡¯s next words stumped the couple. ¡°Would the two of you like to learn how to do this?¡± Braiten voiced out offhandedly. *** The trio set up camp at the entrance of the ravines. They wanted to be fully rested before going into it. Braiten had said that he was going to use several attention-diverting mind manipulation magic to keep them safe so that they could rest without worrying about night watch. Following that, Braiten sat down in front of the two and began his lecture on magic. ¡°Magic is the untapped potential that all living beings are capable of accessing. While talent and potential may differ, hard work over a long period of time might just overcome any lack of the former attribute. Potential is much more important to people who wield magic. Talent comes from how fast you can learn magic. Potential comes in two different forms. During my time as Gwydion, potential referred to the amount of mana you can amass per strength and endurance of your body. The more mana you have, the greater the amount of spells that you can cast without having to wait for it to replenish. It also means that you have the necessary amount of mana to cast stronger spells. Presently, after practicing magic in this life, I think that potential has a second form. Due to the limits of amassing mana in this new world due to cultivation constraints, potential can also be seen as your creativity with your spells. Even weak magic, when used at the most opportune of moments, would command devastating results when compared to strong magic used inappropriately. Furthermore, being creative with your spells also means that you learn how to conserve the mana you use per spell use. This would also increase the number of spells that you can cast without having wait for mana to recover. However, this cannot extend to magic that are beyond your mana capacity. You can¡¯t cast what is beyond your reach, and you can¡¯t modify it because you are unable to do it in the first place.¡± Following the explanation, Braiten outlined what the two needed to learn step by step to learn magic. Starting from perceiving mana with mana sense and not mana sight, they were then to proceed onto controlling it. Control was followed by saturation and increasing mana capacity. Then spell formulation, visualization and its incantations. Voiceless incantations came after that, and lastly rune formulas and rune casting. With that, Braiten had the two start learning to perceive mana as they meditated with their martial cultivation method. Qi and mana seemed to come together, but are absorbed differently, so the increased mana density in the air should help the two learn how perceive mana after a few days. The night deepened as the trio immersed themselves in their training. Soon, the two Faeries grew tired and fell asleep, leaving a meditating Braiten who had just finished connecting more laws to what he had learned in the last sanctuary he went to. === Author¡¯s notes: A new character, more world building and the likes. Introduced Wisteria¡¯s betrothed. I¡¯m wondering if you guys want an info compilation chapter. It will contain things like character description up to this point, or additional character descriptions. However, it will not contain spoilers. I told my friend about this fiction. She thinks I am a goody two shoes and some of the things in this fiction are not exactly morally right/not something an ¡°innocent¡± person would write, so¡­ I am sweating buckets over here if she decides to read it. On another note, thank you guys for the continued support. The pace for this fiction is finally slowing down (I hope). Hopefully, I would get in more details and be able to fully flesh out the world and the characters in future chapters. Information Compilation 1 Please note that the info compilation is incomplete. To satisfy both groups of the 50/50 split of the polls, I have decided to update this info compilation in between chapters. Please note that char bios are all only on information up to this point plus the added description for physical characteristics. Seriously, you guys must hate me for the cliffhangers to have that full on 50/50 split before the poll closed. Characters This section contains basic character bios up to this point. The only minor spoilers are the physical characteristics of each character. If you prefer to wait for the characteristics to be revealed throughout the story, feel free to skip to the next section, Cultivation methods.
NameGwydionBraiten Celestine
Name meaningMagicianFirst name: Unique one Family name: Heavenly
RaceHuman
Hair ColorSilverShimmering blue
Facial FeaturesChiseled Handsome ScholarlyAverage Delicate Scholarly
Eye ColorVioletAzure
Body FeaturesBroad Slightly muscularSlim Toned
HeightTallAverage
Relations (Family/Close)Ilasha (childhood friend) Chrysanthemum (soulmate) Wisteria (descendant) Calla (descendant)Ingram Celestine (father) Amellia Celestine (mother) Eron Aylward (close friend) Isolda Fiammetta (close friend)
NameIlasha
Name meaningGentle Kind Loving
RaceHuman
Hair ColorPurple with white streaks
Facial FeaturesBeautiful Delicate Innocent
Eye ColorGreen
Body FeaturesSvelte
HeightTall
Relations (Family/Close)Gwydion (childhood friend)
NameChrysanthemum
Flower meaningBronze: excitement White: truth Red: sharing Yellow: secret admirer
RaceLeanan Sidhe
Hair ColorBlack (original) Silver (present)
Facial FeaturesAlluring Elegant Dignified
Eye ColorBlack
Body FeaturesCurvy Slim Toned
HeightAverage
Relations (Family/Close)Gwydion (soulmate)
NameIngram Celestine
Name meaningAngel Messenger of heaven
RaceHuman
Hair ColorShimmering blue
Facial FeaturesDelicate
Eye ColorAzure
Body FeaturesSlim Muscular
HeightAverage
Relations (Family/Close)Amellia Celestine (wife, branch family - distant cousin) Braiten Celestine (son)
NameAmellia Celestine
Name meaningWisdom and knowledge A name from Heaven to be a gift to humans
RaceHuman
Hair ColorShimmering blue
Facial FeaturesDelicate Cute Charming
Eye ColorAzure
Body FeaturesSlender Toned
HeightPetite
Relations (Family/Close)Ingram Celestine (husband, branch family - distant cousin) Braiten Celestine (son)
NameWiatt
Name meaningGuide
RaceHuman
Hair ColorReddish brown
Facial FeaturesScarred Intimidating Chiseled
Eye ColorChocolate brown
Body FeaturesBroad Very muscular
HeightVery tall
Relations (Family/Close)
NameDashurie
Name meaningIntimate
RaceHuman
Hair ColorLight red
Facial FeaturesBeautiful Seductive
Eye ColorGreen
Body FeaturesSexy Svelte Tone
HeightPetite
Relations (Family/Close)2 Unnamed girlfriends (lovers)
NameEron Aylward
Name meaningFirst name: Peace, enlightened Family name: Noble guard, noble protector
RaceHuman
Hair ColorOlive green
Facial FeaturesFresh-faced Sculpted
Eye ColorIndigo
Body FeaturesMuscular Hardy
HeightTall
Relations (Family/Close)Braiten Celestine (close friend) Isolda Fiammetta (close friend)
NameIsolda Fiammetta
Name meaningFirst name: Ice, beautiful, fair Family name: Fire
RaceHuman
Hair ColorFiery red
Facial FeaturesPretty Graceful
Eye ColorMagenta
Body FeaturesSlender
HeightAverage
Relations This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.(Family/Close)Braiten Celestine (close friend) Eron Aylward (close friend)
NameAethelbeorn
Name meaningNoble warrior
RaceDaemon
Hair ColorRoyal purple
Facial FeaturesChiseled Stern
Eye ColorGray
Body FeaturesMuscular Thick
HeightShort
Relations (Family/Close)
NameGladiolus
Flower meaningStrength of character
RaceImp
Hair ColorWhite
Facial FeaturesCraggy
Eye ColorOrange
Body FeaturesExtremely muscular
HeightTiny
Relations (Family/Close)Celestine family Daisy (trainee) Hibiscus (trainee) Wisteria (trainee)
NameDaisy
Flower meaningInnocence
RacePeri
Hair ColorBlonde
Facial FeaturesFine
Eye ColorGreen
Body FeaturesSlim
HeightTiny
Relations (Family/Close)Celestine family Gladiolus (mentor) Hibiscus (close friend) Wisteria (close friend)
NameHibiscus
Flower meaningDelicate Beauty
RacePeri
Hair ColorBlonde
Facial FeaturesDelicate Beautiful
Eye ColorPurple
Body FeaturesSlender
HeightTiny
Relations (Family/Close)Celestine family Gladiolus (mentor) Daisy (close friend) Wisteria (close friend)
NameWisteria
Flower meaningSteadfast
RaceChangeling (Faerie)
Hair ColorSilver
Facial FeaturesAlluring Dignified Elegant
Eye ColorBlack Sapphire (Imp form)
Body FeaturesSvelte
HeightPetite
Relations (Family/Close)Gwydion (ancestor) Chrysanthemum (ancestor) Calla (brother, fianc¨¦) Gladiolus (mentor) Daisy (close friend) Hibiscus(close friend)
NameCalla
Flower meaningRegal
RaceChangeling
Hair ColorSilver
Facial FeaturesDignified Elegant Regal
Eye ColorBlack
Body FeaturesSlim Wiry
HeightAverage
Relations (Family/Close)Gwydion (ancestor) Chrysanthemum (ancestor) Wisteria (sister, fianc¨¦e) Gladiolus (mentor) Daisy (close friend) Hibiscus(close friend)
Cultivation Methods Cultivation methods allows practitioners to become more powerful. Typical cultivation methods consist of: posture, qi circulation, and breathing method. Practitioners need to be in a meditative state to cultivate. Evil cultivation methods exist in the world. They often attempt to steal other people''s talents and potentials (some can even steal cultivation). This is at the cost of losing their own to the victim. When using an evil cultivation to steal from another, there is at most a 60% chance of success when trying to steal from someone of the same cultivation level and tier (depends on method quality). Method quality is determined by the speed of cultivation and the maximum cultivation an individual can reach using that method. They are also determined by the characteristics of the cultivation method, which are the pros and cons.
Cultivation MethodHeaven''s Awakening
Maximum Cultivation?
Cultivation SpeedSlow (slowest in existence)
Racial RestrictionsHumans only
Martial Art?
CharacteristicsCultivation deviation. Benefits gained per level = 10 levels of the same tier of other methods. Additional benefits to increase longevity of practitioner to make up for slow cultivation speed. Can be practiced concurrently with any other method to breakthrough higher levels and tiers. Speed is based on understanding laws of the heavens. Breathing method + meditative state only.
Cultivation MethodSkyward Cultivation Method
Maximum CultivationSpirit Tier, Lv. 100
Cultivation SpeedMedium-fast
Racial RestrictionsNot Applicable
Martial ArtSkystrike Fist
CharacteristicsSpeed of cultivation increases as practitioner tries to reach for the skies in any endeavor. Speed of cultivation increases as cultivation level increases. Gives practitioner the ability to fly upon reaching flesh cultivation tier.
Oh, and if you guys have any other questions about the fiction, feel free to ask them here. Chapter 14 - Welcome Dawn broke over the forest of Aermagh. As the sun slowly rose, the light broke through the foliage and awakened the creatures within to a new day. Calla and Wisteria woke up that morning to find Braiten still cultivating. Braiten had connected a few laws the previous night, and he began to focus on trying to connect more. He knew that as long as he understood the connections, his future speed would rise until he hit a cultivation level that required more comprehension. Throughout the night, Braiten¡¯s cultivation level had increased by two, bringing up his cultivation to the fourteenth level of the advanced cultivation tier. Braiten was so caught up in his observations, study and thoughts that he completely lost any sense of time. Braiten was brought back to the world when noon hit. He saw the Changelings happily chatting away under a nearby tree while eating some fruits. Finally noticing the time, Braiten approached the couple and apologized. From there, they began to prepare to move off into the ravines. *** A short time after entering the ravines, the three companions were beset by a pack of fifteen dire wolves. It seems like they were on the hunt as they prowled the outer regions of the ravines for easy prey despite belonging to the middle areas. A single dire wolf was equivalent to an advanced cultivator of the hundredth level. Together as a pack, they were much stronger than a single expert cultivator. Seeing that the entire group was surrounded, the trio did not act carelessly and fell back into a defensive position. Braiten began calculating how to limit some of his magic. If he was alone, he could have prepared several spells to wipe out at least half of the wolves instantaneously and injure the rest, but for fear of friendly-fire, he could not use such wide-ranged magic. Just as Braiten was about to form his spells, Calla moved closer towards Braiten while still on guard and whispered, ¡°Let Wisteria and me take care of these beasts. Then you can think about how best to adapt to fighting as a group later on. Just watch our backs.¡± With that, Calla moved towards Wisteria and clasped one of her hands and moved it to an outstretched position. He placed his other hand on her waist while Wisteria moved her free hand to his shoulder. Their poise would be perfect at a ball. With this pose, the couple swayed to a tempo that only they could hear and rapidly approached one side of the beasts. With that, the dire wolves began to charge at the separated team, with the majority focusing on the couple. Braiten erected a fortified pillar of earth below him, causing those that were targeting him to smash into it and fall into a daze. Following that, blades of wind and water sliced down from above, instantly beheading the three dire wolves that targeted Braiten. Meanwhile, the Changeling couple danced between the battle wolves. Their movements sharp but graceful. The qi that radiated from the couple melded together and it seemed like they were one entity. As they slowly became the center of the battle, Calla twirled Wisteria and their qi formed the shape of a vortex for an instant. That vortex took the shape of a thin whip, slicing across the wolves that surrounded them. That move maimed four surrounding beasts. Following that, Calla and Wisteria joined their arms together in their starting stance and stabbed their clasped hands towards one of the dire wolves. This time, a spear appeared and killed the wolf that they aimed at. The other wounded animals fell back and four more took their place in surrounding the duo. This time, before the couple could attack, the wolves charged in a coordinated manner. The wolf in front of the couple pounced from above while two attacked from the sides. The last wolf got ready to lunge as soon as the one in the air landed. However, this coordinated attack was not in the least effective. Calla dipped his partner while facing the three attacking wolves, and Wisteria¡¯s leg stretched out. A shield that covered all three angles of attack was erected from the combined qi. This was followed by a sword that extended from Wisteria¡¯s leg that sliced the remaining wolf. Soon after taking care of the wolf, the couple felt like they had enough of feeling for their opponents¡¯ strength. They kicked up the tempo and flitted through the battlefield. Every twirl, every leg sweep and every arm extension was followed by a weapon forming and killing or maiming a wolf. The remaining ten wolves were quickly taken out one by one. By the end of it all, the couple was left in their starting pose. Their breathing slightly quickened, but they showed no signs of any fatigue. Braiten floated down from his observation platform and approached the Changelings. However, before Braiten or the couple could say anything, a nest of harpies swooped down from above and attacked them. The harpies strangely did not radiate any killing intent but exuded fighting spirit instead. The attacks aimed at the trio were not aimed to kill, but seemed to test how they would react. Braiten dashed forth and parried three harpies. As he did so, he saw a black ring around their necks. Braiten¡¯s eyes flashed in recognition as he stomped on the ground, causing a spike of earth to emerge from under his foot. Braiten used the force of the spike¡¯s emergence to launch himself towards the Changelings. As he neared the Changelings and saw them striking out with killing blows, he shouted out, ¡°don¡¯t aim to kill! Defend yourself seriously but strike as if you were challenged to a friendly duel. These harpies are controlled by a friend.¡± The couple was surprised for a moment, but changed their attacks. Most of the weapons that they formed with their qi were blunt weapons and the strikes aimed to either incapacitate or to cause the harpies to falter. However, the aerial maneuverability of the two harpies striking at the couple was giving them a little bit of trouble. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. After a few exchanges, the Changelings transformed as they fought. They began to take the appearance of imps but kept their human size. The couple then took to the air and began fighting the harpies separately. They still fought like they were dancing, but this time, they tackled the harpies one on one. Braiten nodded upon seeing Wisteria and Calla¡¯s killing intent fade away, replaced with a competitive spirit instead. Braiten then focused on the three harpies that were targeting him. They had patiently waited for him to confirm his friends¡¯ actions before he shifted their focus back to them. Following that, the three harpies attacked Braiten in unison. Two attacked occasionally from above, while one of them tried to distract him from the ground. Sensing that there was a group of Daemons watching the battle, Braiten habitually fell back into his fighting style that hid his magic. Braiten encased his arms in water and he increased his defense and speed with enchants. Braiten was parrying the harpy on the ground when one of the aerial harpies struck out. Braiten quickly parried the blow, but instead of withdrawing his arm after parrying, he grabbed the harpy¡¯s claw. Water flowed across the harpy¡¯s leg and formed a shackle. Braiten then clasped the leg with his other hand with a sweeping motion. As he did so, a chain shot out of the ground and merged with the shackle. Braiten quickly enchanted both the shackle and chain¡¯s durability before pulling the harpy towards the ground with a touch of gravity magic. With the harpy on the ground, Braiten quickly shot out and knocked the harpy out. As soon as he did that, there was a sound of applause coming from the group of observing Daemon. The four other harpies stopped fighting upon hearing the clapping sounds. Three of them flew towards the Daemons while the one who was fighting Braiten on the ground grabbed the unconscious harpy before following the three. Aethelbeorn emerged from the group of Daemons. He grinned and waved as he approached Braiten and the two Faeries. ¡°Sorry about the rough welcome. My subordinates did not believe when I said that there was a Human at the low cultivation tier that could fight a harpy and make me recognize his strength. I figured that this would be the best time to do it. To think that you would head here so soon after our parting!¡± Aethelbeorn said as he laughed boisterously and slapped Braiten¡¯s shoulder a few times. ¡°Introduce me to these two fine warriors as well, Braiten. I see that they are not Humans but are some strange denomination of the Faerie race,¡± Aethelbeorn directed a respectful gaze at the two Changelings. Braiten smiled slightly and spoke while gesturing to Wisteria and then Calla, ¡°Aethelbeorn, these are Wisteria and Calla. They are part of the Faerie race. Forgive me for not disclosing their denomination because it is supposed to be a secret even among the Faerie race.¡± Turning to face the Changeling couple, Braiten gestured towards Aethelbeorn, ¡°this is Aethelbeorn. One of the noble warriors of the Daemon race. I hope you guys would get along well.¡± Wisteria and Calla nodded their heads and smiled. They shook hands with Aethelbeorn and said a few greetings to each other. Afterwards, the four of them were led towards the squad of Daemons. The Daemons welcomed Braiten¡¯s group with open arms. The males were as boisterous as Aethelbeorn while the females maintained a stoic attitude. They said several things that Braiten was curious about, one of which was of him wielding such a weird martial art and how the Faeries¡¯ ¡¾Dance of Armaments¡¿ martial art was fascinating. Soon, however, the three of them were whisked off towards the Daemons¡¯ dwelling. The trio was brought deeper into the ravines. They were escorted and protected by the Daemon troop. With the troop radiating their qi aura at the expert cultivation, monsters and beasts did not dare to approach. In an extremely deep part of the ravines, the trio was brought to a cave in one of the ravine cliffs. They were then taken along a winding path through the maze of tunnels within. After some time, the group reached the Daemon hometown. Upon reaching the Daemons¡¯ hometown, Aethelbeorn announced in a booming voice, ¡°welcome, friends, to Zrerton. Home to us, Daemons, and a safe haven away from the monsters and beasts of the ravine.¡± === Author¡¯s notes: A short chapter this time around. The next chapter will be somewhat information and possibly dialogue heavy. I hope that the dialogue won¡¯t be too much, though. I just realized that I made a huge mistake in the past chapters. I should be typing the races with a capital letter in front, such as Daemon, Faerie, Imp, Peri, Changeling and Human. It is only when human is used in a non-racial context that it would be a small ¡®h¡¯. I will go back through the previous chapters to change it. By the way, can you guys guess where I took the Changeling¡¯s fighting style from? I¡¯m sure all of you avid manga readers definitely know what I¡¯m talking about. Guhehehe. To those who tried guessing what the new concept was in chapter 11, the concept should be more obvious now. Update to info compilation 1: Added the martial cultivation section and will be adding some more info tomorrow. Chapter 15 - Progress Festivities were held by the Daemons that day. Although they were wary of Humans, Aethelbeorn vouched for Braiten¡¯s sincerity and the fact that he was friends with Faeries also showed goodwill unto non-humans. Aethelbeorn and the squad of protectors for the Daemon race boasted about Braiten¡¯s martial prowess when he had fought the harpies. This prompted several reserve members in challenging Braiten to a friendly spar. There was no need for anything serious like a First Blood duel or the likes, so they only requested for a friendly bout at Zrerton¡¯s arena. Braiten consented as a friendly gesture and was challenged by a Daemon who was somewhere in the peak of the advanced tier. The two got ready and one of the citizens of Zrerton sounded a loud gong to start the spar. The Daemon dashed towards Braiten and did a flashy flying kick. Perhaps he was too overconfident in his cultivation, being much higher than Braiten and didn¡¯t believe the tales that Aermagh and company had told. Therefore, the Daemon made a fatal mistake of attacking in such an overly careless manner. Flowing along the incoming kick, Braiten parried the kick with a circular sweeping motion from below with an arm. He lifted the leg up and put the Daemon off balance. Braiten then followed up by spinning his body below his opponent, reaching the back. This was followed by a pull to pin the Daemon to the ground with Braiten¡¯s fist striking at the neck. Stopping just short of hitting his opponent¡¯s neck, it was announced that Braiten was the winner. The Daemon sheepishly got up to his feet and gave an embarrassed smile towards Braiten. He apologized for not going all out and trying to do things in a flashy manner, but Braiten did not mind. He just thanked the Daemon for the match and admitted that he was slightly surprised by the kick. He then suggested that such a kick could be made closer. It would decrease the force behind it a lot, but it would make for a good sneak attack. Hearing what Braiten had said, the Daemon thought for a moment and grinned at him. The Daemon felt gratitude that Braiten did not carry any grudge for the disrespect and also felt that Braiten was extremely honorable for trying to dampen the offense for the Daemon¡¯s dignity. Braiten¡¯s martial prowess had put him on the level of Expert cultivators and therefore the successive spars were with Daemons that had at least that much of a cultivation. Braiten¡¯s actual physical prowess was only slightly inferior to a level thirty Flesh cultivator. However, he hid his strength and used technique to face these opponents. As Braiten faced these strong opponents, his new fighting style to hide magic solidified even more. He tried out different variations and used the elements in non-lethal ways to prevent any injuries. Eventually, due to Braiten¡¯s stellar performances against Expert cultivators, Aethelbeorn joined in on the fun and utterly broke apart Braiten¡¯s technique several times. However, Braiten had earned the admiration for being able to stand more than a few of Aethelbeorn¡¯s blows despite being an Advanced cultivator. Calla and Wisteria were also challenged and they had managed to put up several good fights and showed off the prowess of their martial arts very well. They too earned the respect and friendship from the colony of Daemons. Time went by quickly and the battle festivities were over. A feast was held in celebration of three new friends. The feast was enjoyable and the food was delicious. Several female Daemons showed off with a battle dance and were quickly joined by their partners. The performance was brilliant. Each move was sharp and purposeful. It was more like a mock choreographed battle, and lacked the elegance of the dance that the Faeries¡¯ martial arts portrayed, but it was excellent all the same. Soon, the special torches that lit the Daemons¡¯ hometown had changed from a white flame to a blue one. This indicated that night had fully fallen. The festivities broke up and everyone retired for the night. Aethelbeorn guided the three outsiders to a nice cozy hut near the entrance of Zrerton. The hut had three rooms in addition to a dining area. The trio had to use the public facilities to clean up or answer nature¡¯s call, but they did not mind it. *** Some time passed and a freshened up trio of one Human and two Faeries met up in that cozy hut again. Braiten turned to the Faeries to ask, ¡°hey, what did they mean by unique martial art and ¡¾Dance of Armaments¡¿ martial art this afternoon?¡± The two Changelings looked slack jawed at Braiten as if they could not believe he had even asked such a question. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± Braiten asked confusedly. ¡°Uh¡­¡± Calla began and started to collect his thoughts. However, Wisteria used that brief pause to interject and explain instead, ¡°a martial art is different from a martial skill. A martial skill is a fragment of a martial art. You could say that a martial art is a whole sequence of martial skills chained together. It is connected to your cultivation method and can enhance the speed at which you cultivate when you gain insights into its essence. There is no need to shout out names as Humans do with the martial art, and it¡¯s much more flexible. With the movement of qi within the body in mind and an image of the sequence of movements in your head, martial skills can be used without shouting out anything.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Braiten was stunned by this new concept. This may just possibly help his cultivation move faster. It was just a pity he did not know the martial art to <>. Braiten did remember, however, that Gladiolus said that his cultivation was too low to practice it. Perhaps the cultivation will reveal it to him in future once he reached the required level. Thinking about the new concept, Braiten also came to terms with the theory he had come up with along Eron and Isolda, surprised that they had touched on a very important secret in the Human martial arts society. He missed the two individuals, and thought that maybe it was time to let go of his previous prejudices over martial artists being silly and fully integrating the use of martial arts into his fighting if he ever learnt the accompanying martial art for his cultivation method. *** In the blink of an eye, it was nearing the time in which Braiten had to reunite with Eron and Isolda. He was looking forward to it. During the nearly ten-year period, Braiten had grown much stronger. His martial ability seamlessly joined with his magic. Braiten had spent a lot of time in the ravines and the outer forest of Aermagh, near the inner forest. This helped him become more in tune with nature and somewhat understand the path of <>. Eventually, Braiten had reached the ninety-second level of Advanced cultivation. Soft, soothing whispers in his mind told him that by practicing <>, he was destined to become one with the heavens instead of going against heavens. He felt that his cultivation will deviate soon, but was not sure when that ¡°soon¡± will be. Braiten also secretly trained with the Changelings and thought up how to infuse qi with magic. The effect was immediate and devastating upon success. While flexibility and use became lowered, it was only limited to Braiten¡¯s imagination of his use of qi that prevented him from truly making the combination versatile. Braiten formed a core using qi and inserted a magic rune into it. This allowed the qi to take form of the element that it was infused with or display the effects of the enchantment that it was imbued with. Then, Braiten just needed to learn how to shape the qi into various weapons, inspired by the Faeries¡¯ ¡¾Dance of Armaments¡¿ martial art. Braiten could remotely shoot these weapons from afar despite qi¡¯s usual tendency of originating from the user before being launched at enemies. The Changeling couple had grown as well. They were no longer in the Advanced cultivation tier and had moved on to the middle levels of the Expert cultivation tier. Constant duels with the Daemons and adventures with Braiten had made them grow much stronger in terms of martial prowess. In a one-on-one duel, both are able to face Expert cultivators at the hundredth level. In a two-on-two battle, they were capable of just barely matching Aethelbeorn who had grown to the peak of Flesh cultivation over these years. Aethelbeorn was inspired by the trio¡¯s desire for strength. He felt a competitive spirit and managed to breakthrough from a high level Flesh cultivator and gradually grow into a peak level Flesh cultivator. Without the competitive spirit, he would never have broken through that fast due to the difficulty of growing in power at higher cultivation levels. Currently, Braiten and his party decided to stay for one more week before they set off to return to Aermagh, which would take a month of travel. Hopefully, Eron and Isolda would have caught up to Braiten by then, and they can begin to make their way into the inner Aermagh forest. === Author¡¯s notes: Another short chapter but no point dragging anything useless out as the real meat is in the future chapters. A minor spoiler I would like to give is that the Changelings, along with the two Human martial artists are not the end to Braiten¡¯s party. There¡¯s two more members that I have in mind, both non-humans. I¡¯m going to set up a poll to know what race the next party member you guys expect he/she would be. Thanks for reading and supporting this fiction, guys! Sorry that I kinda lost motivation for churning out this chapter, so the update was delayed and the chapter is shorter than I had initially planned. However, I got most of the important points down despite it being shorter. I also started a new fiction to channel my stress from thinking out how to formulate this whole fiction''s future progress. If you guys find it, I hope you can support it too. Info Compilation Update: Haven''t gotten around to updating it yet, but I will do so tonight. Chapter 16 - Draugr A month before Braiten leaves for Aermagh¡­ Two massive beings clashed deep within the inner forest. The sound of the impacts reverberated throughout the area, sending nearby beasts and monsters scurrying in fear and trepidation. On one side, the massive being was a long earthen-colored reptile. It had four sturdy legs, each with deadly claws attached to the ends. Razor sharp scales covered its entire body. The head of this reptile was draconic. This beast was an earth drake. Its tailed swung powerfully as its opponent tried to take the earth drake¡¯s back, slamming the gigantic body against the ruins in the deepest part of the inner forest. The other being shrugged off the impact and quickly got up in an upright position. Heavy wings made of stone-like material used for defense rather than flight encased the being, blocking the charge of the earth drake. The being dug its clawed hands into the ground to prevent itself from being blown backwards. A cruel, sinister smile distorted its already ugly, grey face. This being was a gargoyle. Both monster and beast fought intensely and smashed the ruins apart. Tiny humanoid creatures and floating entities scurried away from the increasingly violent battlefield. The floating entities flew through the flying debris without problem, but the explosions caused by demonic and bestial qi caused them their humanoid shapes to blur. It was as if they were as fragile as mist and could be blown away any second. Deep within the ruins, walls crumbled and ceilings fell. A particularly large rock smashed into a pedestal, breaking it apart. Within the pedestal lay a small casket. It was without any adornments and had a plain wooden exterior. It is unknown how long the casket lay within, but there were no signs of degradation of the material. The casket glowed with magical enchantments, making it sturdier than normal and allowing it to stand the test of time. Soon, the scuffle from above brought more debris from the upper levels. The buffeting bestial and demonic qi, combined with the rock fall, caused the enchantments to pulse each time. With each pulse, the enchantments started disappearing one by one. Half an hour later, the last enchantment winked out of existence. With it, a terrifying roar resounded from within the casket as it was blasted apart. A Human burst out from the interior of the casket. However, this was no regular Human. His eyes were pitch black. Souls of the dead whirled in the abyss of the man¡¯s eyes. A myriad of sorrowful, pained, desperate expressions were on those souls. The man closed his eyes while feeling triumphant from regaining his freedom. He did not know how long he had stayed trapped within his wooden confines, but it was not long enough to force him to give up trying to escape. Stretching his senses outwards, he felt the two strong life forces smashing into each other above. Frowning, the man felt that they were too strong for him to attempt draining into his body. Instead, the backlash of attempting to pull such strong lives would result in dispersing the souls within him. Instead of looking above, the man extended his senses below him and felt several familiar life forces. ¡°Daemons¡­¡± the man whispered to himself as a smile crept onto his face. A falling debris landed upon the man as he whispered. A large crack resounded in the room. Contrary to expectations, the man¡¯s head was not the one that was smashed. Instead, the rock that fell broke apart. The man smiled as he noted what had happened. The last thing he remembered before being sealed away was finishing up the ritual of changing from a Lich to a Draugr. The loss of magical ability was a small price to pay for immunity to any physical harm. Furthermore, he will still be able to maintain several supernatural elemental abilities. An insane expression filled the Draugr¡¯s countenance as he let some of a Draugr¡¯s instincts corrode his logical mind. The corrosion was accompanied by the understanding of a Draugr¡¯s natural abilities. The man looked downwards and whispered gently, ¡°here I come, my prey¡­¡± The Draugr dispersed into mist and that very mist seeped through the cracks into the ground. *** In the darkness of the caverns that held the many colonies of Daemons, the Draugr cautiously swept through the tunnels in its mist form. While he could not hear or see a thing in that form, his ability to sense life force was still strong. There were several strong life forces in front of him. Inwardly, the Draugr frowned. The Daemons had such strong life forces here. It was not so in the past. Compared to his outdated knowledge, the life force of the Daemons that he was used to seeing was but a drop in the ocean compared to the present. It had been several days since the Draugr had tried to make a decent meal out of the Daemons. However, to his dismay, there was nothing he could do. The only way for an undead to devour other life forces was to restrain them and drain it while they were at full strength. The shattering of their prey¡¯s souls would only occur should they weaken their prey too much. It was a natural defense mechanism that all beings possessed. ¡®Damn. I need to find food¡­ and fast,¡¯ the Draugr thought desperately as he caught himself starting to physically drift towards a lone Daemon. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. His natural instinct was slowly corroding his mind. As a Lich, he had studied the Draugr¡¯s natural disposition and when unchecked, a Draugr could go half-crazed from hunger. Furthermore, that half-crazed state would linger forever even after that hunger was sated. This was something this recently turned Draugr wanted to avoid at all costs. The remnants of the mindset of a knowledge-thirsty, logical Lich sent numerous warning bells throughout the Draugr¡¯s mind. He knew that his days would be numbered should succumb and go on a rampage. Just as the Draugr was about to float away in frustration, he sensed a weaker life force leaving two stronger ones. He began to actively track that single life force. Soon, the Draugr was elated at the isolation of this smaller life force. He would soon be able to feast. Sensing the area about him with his lesser elemental abilities, the Draugr carefully and silently dug a small alcove in the secluded area that the Daemon was in. The alcove was hidden and could easily fit the Draugr¡¯s physical form. The mist slowly gathered through the walls of the caverns in that alcove and the naked figure of a man formed. The man looked out from his hiding place to find a young Daemon boy who was playing around in what looked like a playground. However, the boy slipped from a higher platform and landed heavily on the ground. The boy felt a sharp pain and started crying. There were deep gashes on the boy¡¯s arms and legs from the impact on the rough floor. The faint scent of blood diffused throughout the room. It would have been normally undetectable. However, the Draugr¡¯s sharp sense of smell regarding that certain metallic scent picked it up. Almost immediately, the instinctual side of the Draugr roared within the man¡¯s mind. The Draugr poised to pounce out from the hidden alcove. Just as he was about to do so, however, the Draugr stiffened his body to prevent himself from jumping out. The sane portion of his mind forced his body to dissipate into mist as he desperately tried to regain his sanity and suppress the half-crazed side that a Draugr usually showed. Helpless to this situation, the Draugr could only flow back into the walls of the caverns while watching the life force of the Daemon boy slowly slip away. *** A week passed since the Draugr tried to feed on the little boy. The Draugr had not yet fed. He struggled desperately against his instinctual side. However, it just kept raging within him and trying to force him to materialize in his humanoid form to feast. The Draugr waited patiently within the outer walls of one of the Daemon colonies. Somehow, just as he finished fighting off his instincts, his mind suddenly became clear. There was a feeling from his depths that made him extend just a tiny wisp of himself into one of the Daemon houses. Presently, it was deep within the night. Apart from a few patrolling Daemons, the rest had fallen asleep. The Draugr let that faint wisp of mist travel towards one of the sleeping female Daemons and the mist entered the sleeping woman¡¯s body. The moment the mist entered the woman¡¯s body, the Draugr suddenly found himself with all of his senses. However, it was not reality that he found himself in. He was within the sleeping woman¡¯s dreams. Letting the clear instincts guide him, the Draugr possessed the male figure that the woman was flirting with. Soon, the male figure and the woman were having sweaty fun. Small traces of life force were drawn into the Draugr from the coupling, sating his needs. The amount was definitely pitiful compared to devouring a soul outright, but it was enough for the Draugr to regain the composure he had when he was a Lich. Regaining his composure allowed the Draugr to think with much more clarity than before. As the Draugr withdrew from the satisfied woman¡¯s mind, he began muttering to himself inwardly with some desperation as if he was an amnesiac who had suddenly regained his memories. ¡®I am Affiq. First disciple of Gwydion. Protector of the Elves. Keeper of their historical records and sacred ground. I vowed not to take lives of those who did no harm.¡¯ Affiq gathered himself into a secluded passage and returned to his humanoid form. A gentle smile appeared on his lips. He was glad that he was able to retain his sanity and had not broken his vow. As an afterthought, he was pleasantly surprised at the newfound joys of copulation, albeit one that was in the land of dreams. === Author¡¯s notes: I guess you guys could say that the Lich is pretty boned about not being able to understanding reproductive instinct in the past... No? Okay, I''ll hide away in my hobo corner. Managed to form this one before the end of the week. Took off the poll for the rewrite since it¡¯s over and at the suggestion of one of the readers. Will be getting round to adding the next chapter button at the top of the info compilation and working on the info compilation a bit. Going to move from my birth country to America soon, so it¡¯s back to being busy, busy, busy. Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. EDIT(June 17 2016): Indefinite Hiatus