Aravos, a man of wicked taste, sat inside the Melbourne tavern in a sour mood. The dim candles cast a dim glow on his black-scaled clothes. Outside, the sun was rising, yet, at his oppressive command, the windows remained shut.

  The air was thick with tension, almost as if each breath he took was another moment he let the people around him keep their lives.

  “Damned apostle!” he clicked his tongue, downing yet another goblet of ale. “Tch! This ale tastes foul. Don’t you have something better back there?”

  The bartender, a large man of strong build, bowed his head in respect, “I’ve given you the best my establishment has to offer. I can show you to storage if you’d like.”

  Avaros stared at the man a while longer, wondering what it was that made all the damned merchants in this town confident. It was rarefor him to be addressed with some form of decorum this many times in one city.

  Where he was from, order didn’t necessarily work around the powerful.

  Here though, the people valued business more than strength and it turned his stomach. Money could buy bodyguards and security… but this town seemed to have it backwards.

  Money and a shrewd mind were about the only ways one could earn the respect of the people of Melbourne… much like the Matriarch.

  ‘I ought to teach these people a lesson,’ he thought to himself, ‘They’ve lived too long untouched by reality… by the true laws of this continent. The weak bow to the strong.’

  Before he could move on to his next strategy, the tavern doors burst open to reveal a dishevelled pair of soldiers. Both dressed in the vermilion colours of the Emperor’s Army, they came rushing towards him.

  One of them was a man with dark hair and a short temper. He also possessed a certain level of cunning and lethality that Avaros found charming. The other one with silver hair, whilst still cunning, turned his stomach. He couldn’t put his finger on it… but something about him screamed foul.

  Yusa, a man with grey hair and the emotional intelligence of an ant. Avaros wasn’t a fan of smiling but this man didn’t show fear either. It was absolutely unnerving.

  Even now, he panted with no expression. There was no sign of him giving in to the exhaustion that no doubt racked his body. Instead, the stalwart soldier bowed his head and said, “We have news about the boy, Alistair.”

  Avaros racked his brain for a bit, then frowned, “Is he the One we are looking for?”

  “No… but he is the one that fits the description closest?”

  “I find it hard to believe anyone can come close to ‘Being loved by the world’ without being the boy we are looking for,” Avaros argued.

  “You should meet the boy before dismissing him,” Roan pitched in with a light chuckle, “After all, he is the one who survived the demon attack. I heard he fought off the demons while helping a red-haired girl run for her life.”

  Avaros’ eyes went wide with intrigue, “Oh? Is he of the Stone Rank, perhaps?”

  “No. He’s of the Wood Temper Rank. Level Two even,” Yusa was quick to comment.

  “A Level Two Wood Rank made it through a forest of demons. I find that hard to believe… unless he had a powerful guardian on his side,” the man tried.

  “The guild reports that Alistair’s guardian is… non-combative,” Roan replied with a smirk.

  Avaros went quiet for a bit before throwing his head back with raucous laughter. He slammed the table amidst his fit of laughter, sounding more like someone who had just heard the stupidest joke in history.

  “A Wood Rank with no guardian made it through a stampede of demons? You expect me to believe that to be true? He’d have to be the greatest Martial Artist to ever live,” the man laughed.

  “That’s not all. It’s said that the pair also defeated a Three-Cut Bone Tiger. The more we watch this boy, the more we’re convinced that he might just be the one we are looking for,” Roan added.

  Avaros nodded, “I still have my doubts… but I’ll admit, I’m interested in meeting this kid. Where is he?”

  “That’s what we came to tell you. He left this morning,” Yusa answered.

  Avaros lost all hints of mirth, and the tavern turned deadly cold, “Where’s he headed?”

  “We don’t know. That’s why we came as fast as we could. He couldn’t have gotten far. If we pursue him now, we might just…”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Avaros replied with a sigh, “I’ll handle this myself. Besides, I doubt he has left. Ah, I remember now! You speak of the boy your lot was obsessed with during last night’s meeting. Couldn’t you lead with his fascinating accomplishments?”

  The pair remained silent, waiting for him to proceed. Avaros sighed, “Chances are that he’s taken on a quest. Return to your patrols. After all, we haven’t confirmed that he’s the one. I’ll pay the Guild Hall a visit.”

  “About the Guild Hall. They seem reluctant to reveal information of the boy’s quest. They wanted fifteen gold just to tell us about it,” Yusa added.

  “Ah, right! Information has value… especially the closer you get to the Tower of Seekers. Anything the Tower is not offer you will end up costing you quite a bit. But don’t worry about that. I can be a bit more… persuasive. Let me handle the Guild.”

  “Yes, sir!” and just like that, Yusa and Roan were dismissed. Yusa was more than curious as to how Avaros was going to ‘solve’ their problem.

  Alas, he wasn’t daring enough to risk his life snooping around the Dark Mage. That was a well-known recipe for death.

  …………………..

  The bumping of the carriage against the stones of the uneven road, the cold dry air descending from the Barren Mountains, always in sight, and the sounds and scents of the wild mixed and melded together to form a messed-up kind of noise that worked to muffle Alaric’s senses.

  Despite that, Alaric remained unbothered. Before climbing up to the Wood Temper Rank, he’d learnt to filter out noises. Now that his senses were even keener, he just needed to relearn how to filter those sounds again, and he was making a lot of progress.

  Unfortunately, these sounds weren’t the only reason he was so tense. Alaric felt a tight knot in his chest… and he only ever felt this way when there was danger around. The kind of danger that wouldn’t let him enjoy the mild comfort of travelling with comrades—well, Byron didn’t count but he wasn’t enough to bother Alaric.

  Alaric’s vines kept up with the speed of the carriage, flowers blooming on top of vines that grew where they shouldn’t. The effects could be seen more than a kilometre ahead of the carriage while kilometres behind, these same flowers withered.

  Together, the woods created a circle about two kilometers in radius, feeding Alaric with more information than the human brain was capable of processing. Before his Tempering Ritual, this information would have overwhelmed him, making it next to impossible for his human body. He’d have to merge with the woods to try and keep his sanity.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Is no one curious about Alistair, the boy who showed up and defeated a whole pack of MudHounds?” Byron was the first to speak.

  “You heard about that?” Bumi asked.

  “You cannot keep anything from the Matriarch. We even know about the Bone Tiger. Where is the tail?” Byron replied, swaying to the rhythm of the vibrating carriage.

  Alaric, who had been focusing his mind on their surroundings, simply answered in an unbothered tone, “Scarlett was a big help in both those occasions.”

  “Yes, I helped but I think this is as good a time as any to clarify that Alistair can use magic. I’m not sure if he’s better with a sword but he can use magic,” Scarlett added.

  Sariah and Leon were the only two who didn’t react to this information. If anything, they only paid attention to see where this conversation was headed.

  Lucy was curious as well. Her voice, surprisingly crisp, cut through the air filled with curiosity, “What kind of magic?”

  Alaric stared at the girl when really he was consulting his guardian, [ Alia, what do I say? I don’t know how much I can tell them. ]

  [ Listen to your gut. ] The guardian replied.

  ‘Ugh! There it was again. How was his gut supposed to talk?’ he mentally cried.

  “Magic… right! I can use basic spells of most of the thirteen constellations,” Alaric explained as vaguely as he could.

  Lucy’s eyes widened, “Most of them? Which ones can’t you use?”

  “I haven’t kept score. I know I can’t use spells of the Constellation of Balance. The rest, I’m not so sure,” Alaric responded with a shrug, “It’s all just basic spells.”

  “Of course you can’t use that magic. You have to be born with it. The Constellation Libra is too powerful to have her Holy Magic manifest in anyone who willed it,” the girl observed… or at least, tried to make sense of the boy.

  Alaric shrugged and turned his attention away from her and to his unimpressive bracelet as well as the woods they rode through. He knew of the facts surrounding the Constellation of Balance well.

  What he hadn’t told them was that he could basic spells of all the other twelve constellations and that Libra was the only Constellation he could not invoke.

  She was responsible for the delicate balance of the world and the only Constellation that was never granted a month on the Calendar. Instead, the Constellation of Balance was given a single day during which she was honoured and respected.

  The Day of Balance.

  That day, special as it was, was also feared, as it was the same day fifteen years ago that came to be known as the Day of the Black Sun.

  “The Black Generation really is something,” Byron’s voice reverberated, echoing Alaric’s thoughts. I heard that a boy of the Bronze rank went out into the Purified Zone alone and returned with the hide of an Armour-dillo.”

  “Bah! I don’t believe that hogwash for a second. How would a rookie even be able to skin that thing? It took me three months just to learn which parts to cut for it to come loose not to mention it tends to die balled up so tight only Stone ranks can crack it,” Bumi yelled back.

  “It took me a long time, too,” Sariah added.

  Alaric was only slightly curious as to how skinning an animal required that much practice.

  { Topic: Skinning.

  Sub-topic: Armour-dillo.

  Found in areas with hard ground like the Barren Mountains, the Armour-dillo has a nearly impenetrable hide. This makes it hard for adventurers to retrieve the valuable Aether Core it seems to protect even in death.

  }

  Alaric blinked. Looking around, he noticed no one had heard the voice of the device feeding him information… just like it had done that time with the Guards.

  Maple shook her head, “I’m less interested in all that and more worried about the Emperor’s men and what they’re doing in Melbourne. It’s been a few days and everyone’s starting to fear. How much longer will they be in town, Byron? What’s the Matriarch doing about this?”

  “The Matriarch’s hands are tied for now. Apparently, they are looking for a boy who fled the Tower of Seekers… or something like that. Unlike you, Maple, I’m not interested in what those meddling Red-Cloaks are after. They bring disaster everywhere they go. In any case, from what I could gather, it might be related to the attack on the Tower three days ago,” Byron replied indifferently.

  “The Tower of Seekers?”

  “The very one,” Byron confirmed.

  There was a short period of silence before Sariah spoke up, “Why the Tower though? It’s always been neutral even to matters concerning the Emperor. Why would his army be getting involved in a matter of the Tower?”

  “I don’t know… and frankly, I don’t want to get tangled up. Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, I say. One wrong move and you just might find yourself answering to one of the Six,” Byron warned.

  “The Six?” Alaric perked up.

  “You haven’t heard of the Six?” Bumi pitched in, shocked, “My! You’re a sheltered one. The Six are right-hand men to the Duke of the East. Speaking to them is like speaking to the Duke… and well, speaking to the Duke is like speaking to the Emperor himself. I suggest you behave yourself around those Red Cloaks.”

  “Behave myself! I saw them trampling over an old woman’s groceries the other day. No one did a thing to help her. They just looked at her and stayed away. Is that the sort of thing the Emperor would be happy with coming from his own men?” Alaric asked with a balled fist.

  The carriage went silent for a bit, everyone looking away from the boy as though they didn’t know what to say to him. The tension was palpable and the emotion flying around the most was perhaps… guilt.

  Eventually, the coach driver burst out laughing at the top of his voice. He was a man with a full red beard and a voice that easily boomed—deep and boisterous, “That boy sounds like a hero. No regard for their lives, whatsoever. The righteousness of the ignorant youth, my wife calls it! It’s refreshing.”

  “From where I’m standing, he sounds like he has a death wish instead,” Bumi sighed, leaning back against the wall of the open carriage, “Listen well, Alistair. The Emperor might not be in support of what his men do… but you see, he’s all the way in Central Valeria. By the time someone even makes it half that distance, they are as good as dead.”

  Bumi’s words had some logic to them. Perhaps the darkest logic Alaric had heard in a while. To kill for the sole purpose of hiding one’s crimes…

  ‘Despicable.’

  Still, the man was right. The Emperor’s Soldiers misbehaved because there was no one with the power to stop them. And if someone stepped up and someone managed to escape them, the soldiers had enough influence to have them put down before they got too far.

  And yet, with all this cold logic going around, Alaric was sure of one thing in his gut: He didn’t like this.

  “They’re despicable!” he sighed, then stood up from his spot in the carriage.

  “Alistair, what do you think you’re doing?” Sariah suddenly called out to him. To everyone’s surprise, Alaric walked just fine in the bumpy carriage. The shaking of the wagon was not enough to make him lose his balance. If anything, he bounced along with it as though he were a part of it—a perk he’d inherited from SwiftWind’s power.

  By simply tapping into a bit of it, his balance became impeccable.

  More importantly, Alaric’s vines had caught on something. Something so deadly that he wasn’t about to stay seated. Instinctively, he pulled his sword from his copper Storage bracelet and looked around.

  Scarlett caught on and stood, turning her attention outward, “Seen something, Alistair?”

  “Yes…” Alaric’s eyes surveyed the passing trees and yet, he didn’t look like he was using his eyes to stare outward. The horses pulling the carriage began to behave erratically, pulling the carriage a lot faster and neighing uncontrollably even under the strict guidance of the coachmaster.

  “Bah! Blast it! I knew we’d run into trouble. I should have asked for triple my fee,” the coachman yelled.

  “Demons…” Alaric’s voice was calm, yet it was carried into the ears of each adventurer, rousing their instincts to stand and fight.

  Maple was the next to stand only to stumble back into her seat. She gave Alaric and Scarlett a complicated gaze before lifting a staff up into the air and casting a spell.

  Alaric passively observed the spell as it formed an Ice frame in the shape of a hexagonal snowflake filled with mirror-like water.

  Water droplets shot off from the woman’s palm, flying outward into the woods. After a few seconds of silence, images filled the mirror-like surface of water.

  What they saw, however, made everyone’s blood go cold. Covering every inch of the reflective surface was black—Black fur, black scales, black skin, black chitin… all running, galloping, slithering and leaping forward along with their carriage.

  “Sariah!” Bumi called out.

  “Ranged attacks. Maple, Lucy and Alistair, give them everything you have,” the woman called out.

  “Lucy will do no such thing,” Byron’s voice broke the tension.

  “Come again,” Sariah growled.

  “She’s your most powerful weapon against those abominations. She’ll conserve her energy for when things get truly out of hand. At most, you could ask her to coat your weapons with Holy Magic,” Byron kept the same indifferent tone as he spoke, making Alaric feel like punching his face in.

  The man turned to Sariah for a brief moment, “I’m only brushing up on your rough strategy. I’m sure you’re smart enough to see this as the best move.”

  Maple wasted no time listening to the annoying man rant on. Her staff moved, and with it, the air cooled. She chanted a few words in the Ancient tongue, which Alaric found impressive.

  Basic as her words were, each was worded perfectly and with enough fluency to limit the spell’s Aether consumption. He did notice, however, that there was too much rigidity in her speech… like she’d mastered these words without knowing their meanings or how they could be altered to serve different purposes.

  Spears of Ice filled the air, floating above the carriage as they sped across the dirt road. Alaric stood beside the Mage and looked out behind them.

  It wasn’t long before the wave of darkness covered the woods and the first of the grotesque beasts leapt out.

  Their dark eyes pooled with nothing but madness. Feral growls filled the air with dread and all the happiness seemed to vanish from the world.

  ‘I invoke the Constellations of Wind and Water: Aero… Liquidum,’ Alaric chanted in his mind, allowing his mind to take on the work of creativity.

  ‘I learnt this one from a Fragile Rose. Prickly as she was beautiful. Let’s see how deep her thorns could pierce.’

  “Ice Wind Canon.”