“Those who vote on war should be the first to fight” -Unknown

  Rasmoth Arilon

  Rasmoth sat at his council of nobles. His headache grew in size with every one of the greedy men who spoke.

  “He should give his token to a house worthy of it! My son is almost halfway through the second grade and could benefit from the chance!”

  “Arnold, your son is a lazy brat who was led through dungeons to get his levels. One of the Karvum's stars will kill him in the event. The token should go to my daughter!”

  “Both of you are idiots! The token should go to my house! My son can beat both of yours in a dual together. “

  Rasmoth felt his head pound, and he'd finally had enough. He'd figured out what he would be doing long before this meeting, not that it'd appease any of the nobles. “Enough! This is a farce. I have thought about what is best for this kingdom, and as such, there will be a decree announced this afternoon that anyone with a token for the upcoming realm event can report to the castle for training with a knight or mage free of cost. If the holder of the token wishes to part with it, there will be an auction held for the rights to dual for said token. Seeing as the token must be obtained in a fair duel, if the challenger loses, they lose rights to the token and money. There will be no questions on this topic, and if there is any evidence that comes to light of an arilon or elf being hassled or blackmailed for the token by a noble house, there will be problems.”

  Silence stretched in the room, and looking to his right, he almost smiled, seeing the slight smirk on Cassin’s face. The leader of the flight was enjoying the silent but angry faces of the nobles, it seemed. Rasmoth almost shook his head. He had found a handful of token holders, but there wasn't anything that gave a clue as to how the token was rewarded. Some come from dungeons, some loot abilities, and even some of the people claimed they'd woken up with them. Each of the token holders was a value Arilon couldn't lose. Killing them, not something Rasmoth would ever do, wasn't possible, as the token just disappeared. That was proven by an arrogant brat who'd thought his name meant something when the law was concerned. Sadly, it had. Instead of death, he'd spend the better part of a decade in a cell. As the meeting finally changed topics, Rasmoth wondered how many lives would be lost even before the event started.

  Roslin

  Roslin watched as the sun dipped into the clouds and behind the mountain where it would set. The falling snow partly covered her vision, but she enjoyed the view from the back of Silt. After having to leave the new bonded pair and coming back to find them gone, she'd been surprised but couldn't blame them. Getting attacked multiple times wasn't a good look on the kingdom, and she rather started to enjoy the child. She'd heard that the mother of wolves didn't take fault with them, but still, it worried her.

  But that wasn't her job anymore. Now she had token bearers to find. There were dozens of villages and towns she'd been sent to so she could deliver the king's decree and take those willing back to the capital for proper training. There wasn't much time left, and if Arilon was to gain any worth, they needed to work fast. This was her third trip, and she'd found a total of five willing. As Silt started her descent to the next village, she wondered just how many wouldn't come back home. If she went by pure statistics of the last event, then around seventy percent, but that information was so old she had no clue how much of it was accurate.

  Sighing, she stood balancing on her bonds back, getting a look at the small town of less than three thousand. It was near the back of Arilon, away from the border and near the Elves' territory and the coast. It had farms and a copper mine with a small dungeon, but its profits were enough to keep the area on a trade route. It was peaceful, though as she moved closer to the border, she knew the stress of the kingdom would start to show.

  Emperor Karvum

  Wallace Karvum studied the map as he listened to his generals around the table speak. The map displayed the various outposts and border forts, as well as the training camps.

  “The younger generation will act as the first spark in this war. There will be grievances from those who send their kids in and don't have them come out. They will look for blood and violence.” Wallace sighed at his Commander of Training words.

  The tokens' appearance was as much a fortune as they were a warning. He'd quickly put a stop to any improper fighting and killing over them and had set up proper channels to challenge those who held them with the caveat of a single duel a week. Those who showed their tokens could request what they wanted in exchange for the duel but would have to fight at least once a week to keep their token. The limit on grades was an issue and a blessing; those above the second grade couldn't earn or gain a token, and those under it would get a warning if they tried to advance before the event.

  Wallace pointed at the figure in the corner of the map, a number that listed the amount of token holders they had. “We will wait to see what happens after the event. What waits inside will be nothing short of just as world-changing as the last event, I'm sure. Until then, we will work to prepare our armies. Depending on what happens, we will call on the dwarves and their creations, but for now, we grow our strength and improve our chances in the event.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  That was only part of the story. The other was the rebellion his son was trying to brew. He didn't blame him just as he did not blame his daughter for seeking out a place to learn or his other son for wanting to fight on the front lines. He had enough spies watching them that he even knew about the girl, her dragon, and his daughter's token. That had been a surprise when he read the report, and it gave him ideas, but even more so, the assassins sent to kill his daughter were a problem. The fact that he still hasn't found the culprit angered him.

  Turning his attention to the map and its red dots, he frowned.

  Renald would lose the fight before it started. Wallace would bring him in after the event started and find a way to use that anger the boy had built, shape it in a way that could avoid getting thousands killed and pitting brother against brother. Until then, he'd let his son root out all of the troublemakers.

  Aster

  Every time I used my meditation skills, I felt lucky I had taken the class with Trekum. The skill proved more and more valuable with each problem that appeared, and it would be no different now. Silently, I sat up from where I'd been sleeping next to Umbra, doing my best not to move. While I could tell the day had exhausted her, I was still full of energy, and the vision from Alteration’s Legacy was still fresh in my mind.

  Crossing my legs, I closed my eyes, going over the steps that I’d need to manage. I didn’t want to start spinning my core for the same reason that Alten did. That had been a different time that required it. Since then, the system had reached a point between his life and mine that allowed the imbuing of mana without skills. It didn't seem the exact same as it had in the vision, but I didn't care about it, not now, at least. My goal was to feel the mana in my body and to figure out how to fix my mana-greedy skill. The first step was finding where my mana gathered. It would be where my core was. Pulling in ambient mana had been how Alten managed to do it, and I happened to be in a Dungeon, one of the highest mana areas I could remember. So, I would do the same.

  Closing my eyes and taking a breath to steady my thoughts and make sure meditation was active, I felt for the mana. It was a feeling everyone I’d met seemed to possess. An unlisted skill that gave the ability to sense and feel mana in the air. It was how people could tell a skill was being used, that there was a dungeon nearby, and even how strong someone was without identity. There were tools and skills that existed for hiding or making it easier to sense, but most mana wasn’t visible; only liquid mana and mana in tight groups appeared to the eyes, but it could be felt and, in a sense, watched. It was hard to describe precisely, but as I stretched out my focus, I could see it.

  Around my body, almost like a fine mist on my skin, I could feel the mana of the dungeon. It was a light touch like all ambient mana not being used in a skill, but unlike mana outside of the dungeon, there was a fine control it held, a uniformity that made me watch it in wonder as it shifted in one direction, then another. The pattern was random, like it was caught in a wind only mana could feel. Most things didnt seem to block the path of the mana; not even the ground got in its way, but there were a few things that did. I, for one, was like a wall in its path, and it bounced off or flowed around me as it shifted.

  Umbra acted in a similar way, but not exactly the same, and as I focused on the mana that rubbed against her, I felt surprised. As mana connected with her scales, instead of flowing off or bouncing, it acted as if it was grabbed, shifting its course to drift along her body before, after a moment, it was caught in the larger current of mana around her. It must have been her core, I realized in slight awe, remembering what Alten’s master had said about creatures. Umbra was spinning her core without even thinking about it, and it was grabbing the mana around her.

  Returning my senses to the place around me, I watched every speck of mana I could as it drifted around my body. The vision hadn't shown the exact details of Alten finding his core, but I had a faint idea, and I waited, watching every speck I could. I waited for minutes, or maybe hours, for what I knew would happen eventually. It was quick when it finally happened, a single fleck of mana that didnt bounce off or flow around; instead, it stuck. Faster than I could keep track of the mana absorbed by my body, and almost like it was disintegrating, it passed into me, and I felt it.

  The lightest touch that I would have never noticed without watching. I watched as it drifted inside of my body in a way that I didn’t understand. It wasn’t my physical body the mana entered; it was something else entirely. As it moved deeper into my body, the mana changed, the feel of it growing fainter, and at the same time, it grew closer. It didn’t feel like it didn’t belong anymore. The mana’s affinity was changing as it traveled, and like a drop of clean water falling into a pond, I lost track of it, my focus only leaving it for a moment as I looked around what had to be my body but wasn’t. Losing the mana didn't disappoint me. It did the opposite. It excited me. The entire exercise proved I was on the right track, and all I had to do was keep my attention on the mana. This was the starting point I needed and craved. My inner focus on my body was a blur of all of my mana, the pathways like roots and weaving in every direction impossible to follow without a guide. Pulling my attention back out of my body, I looked at the mana around me again before resuming my vigilance of watching the mana as it bounced off my body.

  It was a lot harder than I thought to keep focus. What felt like hours stretched between the mana that was absorbed into my body, and when it was, I had to keep focus on it as it moved through the endless web of my body, with it getting harder and harder to follow each moment. I got further and further every time, but I also lost it each time. Letting out a huff, I shook myself and rubbed my face, blinking in surprise to see Umbra up and flying above, not far away. I'd been so focused I hadn't even noticed her move. I wanted to tell her what I saw earlier. That could wait until later, as could another attempt at finding my core. There was a hope that I could find my core in a day, but that wasn't the case. It only meant I'd try again tomorrow morning, but for now, there was other training that needed to be done.

  Kulni, Mother of Wolves

  Kulni watched the new litter of pups Emmeris had given birth to just a month ago explore the clearing outside the cave. She was in her wolf form at the moment, enjoying the sun as it warmed her back.

  She felt her paws tingling, urging her on another hunt, but that could wait. As of now, the tiger, the boar, and even the fox would be approaching soon. As a grand beast and the only one in this realm, they had all been warned, like the dungeons, that the integration of the realm would be happening soon. It didn't mean much for her in terms of work, but they had all agreed on a meeting. The newly risen grand beast of a tree in the elves' territory would have to be brought up to speed, but she believed the elves could manage that. As for the meeting, it was to discuss what the plans were for them.

  As grand beasts, they were powerhouses whose grades didn't accurately portray, but that didn't mean they could just go back to their old territories or stay in their current ones. The weak monsters and low mana of the realm had slowed the growth, and the time dilation had further separated it. The realm they would be going back to would be nothing like the one they had left. As much as it irked her to admit it, she had made mistakes that she couldn't repeat when it came to her responsibilities. The fox had warned her, but she hadn't listened. The tiger had taken precautions, and as of now, from what she knew, his charges were in a much better state and had subspecies, but even then, they were in a bad spot. The boar didn't have to worry as much as he lacked any true kin to watch over. They all had work to do when they returned.